This weekend, my sister and I decided to go to Gatten Sushi in Monterey Park. While the first time I left quite unimpressed, I decided to give it another chance since my sister was craving their oyster shooters (more on that later). To start, Gatten Sushi is actually a sushi train restaurant. But contrary to the popularity with sushi trains, I actually don't particularly prefer it over regular sushi restaurants because the fish is almost always warm and not chilled, and also constant attention is centered on getting food. I feel like that just distracts from keeping up a conversation.
For those of you unfamiliar, a sushi train is where a conveyor belt circulates around the sushi bar carrying small plates of sushi. Usually the plates carry two to four pieces of sushi and are priced about $1 to $5 depending on where and what you get.
Anyway, the atmosphere of Gatten Sushi was nice. When we went, there was an abundant amount of waiters and everything seemed very lively with the waiters greeting every customer when they walked in and out. Because my sister and I ordered a lot, I will not attempt to cover everything we ate, but I'll run down a few special ones that we don't usually order.
One of my favorites of the night was the Bonito Katsuo sushi. I liked that the fish was nicely coupled with the onions on top. However, my sister said she actually liked it better without the onions. But regardless, the sushi chefs seemed pretty generous with the fish, and we got thick, fresh, smooth slices.
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| Bonito Katsuo from Gatten Sushi. |
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| Kobe Beef sushi from Gatten Sushi. |
We also got a plate of the Sea Bass sushi which was the special of the night. It is seasoned with bell peppers and fruit on top. Both my sister and I cringed at the taste of bell peppers on top, and in my opinion, it ruined the taste of the sushi. I would much rather prefer the fish on its own. The taste of the bell peppers on top completely took away and distracted me from how the fish tasted (maybe that was their intention??).
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| Sea Bass sushi from Gatten Sushi. |
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| Tako Sansai from Gatten Sushi. |
But enough of these comments on mediocre food. The highlight of my night was definitely the oyster shooter. And I'm not even that big of a fan of oysters. The drink was a little sour which was perfect to balance out the fishy taste of the oyster, and I liked that there was a raw quail egg in there as well. But oh my gosh, it was SO GOOD. Please don't go to Gatten Sushi without trying it :)
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| Oyster shooter (left) and oyster (right) from Gatten Sushi. |
After we had stacked a tall tower of empty plates, we decided to order some desserts. The first time I came here I tried their tempura ice cream and was severely disappointed. It tasted like they just dumped some iced mochi (like the kind from the supermarkets) into batter and oil and put it out for customers. It was overly sweet and the stickiness from the mochi skin made it frustrating to cut apart. The dish was also incredibly small, but maybe that was a good thing considering it was a disappointing dessert.
But this time we were more optimistic. My sister ordered the almond tofu. It was a good thing that we were optimistic, because the dish was worthy to be placed in my list of top ten desserts of all time. No joke. The texture although seems firm at first, is melt-in-your-mouth goodness. The almond flavor is subtle yet noticeable. I'm so ordering this again.
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| Almond Tofu from Gatten Sushi. |
I myself ordered the green tea cheesecake, because I know you can't go wrong with that, and I ended up correct--very good. However, my sister actually didn't like it too much; she thought it tasted too much like regular cheesecake and too little like green tea.
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| Green Tea Cheesecake from Gatten Sushi |
Gatten Sushi as a whole is kind of a hit or miss type of restaurant. On the one hand, they churn out amazing things like their Almond Tofu and Oyster Shooters, but on the other hand they also serve things that should not be served (Sea Bass sushi, Tempura ice cream...). I don't think I'd ever recommend it to anyone if I were to show them a good time in LA County, but I'll probably come again when I can't think of any places to go for food.
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