RFK Cuisine · Sushi · Los Angeles
Best Sushi Restaurants in Los Angeles 2026
Sushi · Los Angeles · 6 counters ranked · Updated June 2026
Reviewed by Daniel Whitford · Visited Q2 2026 · Senior Editor, Restaurants for Kings
Los Angeles has more great sushi than any city outside Japan, and it has had it longer than anywhere else in America. Nobu Matsuhisa opened the room that became a global empire here in 1987; a generation of chefs followed, importing fish from Toyosu twice a week and building counters from downtown lofts to Valley strip malls. The city's apex today is an eight-seat Arts District counter with two Michelin stars, but the real story is the depth behind it — a Tokyo-trained Edomae bar downtown, a no-photos cult counter on the Sunset Strip, a Valley sashimi institution running since 1991. This is the field at the top, ranked on the fish, the hands and the price, with how to get in at each.
1.Hayato
The hardest, finest Japanese seat in the city; book Brandon Go's eight-seat two-star counter once, for a serious seafood tasting.
Hayato, an eight-seat counter inside the Row DTLA in the Arts District, is Brandon Hayato Go's two-Michelin-star room and the apex of Japanese dining in Los Angeles. It is kaiseki rather than a straight sushi bar, but the cooking is built on Edomae technique and pristine seafood flown from Japan, run as a single seating of a rigorous seasonal progression for around $450. Go cooks alone in front of his guests, and the precision — the rice, the cured fish, the seasonal restraint — is on another level from anything else in the city. Choose it for the single best Japanese meal in Los Angeles when you can plan around it. The eight seats and one nightly seating make it the hardest reservation in town; book the instant the window opens.
Book the moment the window opens; the full kaiseki tasting, no substitutions, one unrepeatable seating.
2.Q Sushi
The city's purest Edomae sushi bar; book downtown for Hiroyuki Naruke's twenty-course nigiri omakase, traditional to the bone.
Q Sushi, on West 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles, is chef Hiroyuki Naruke's Edomae counter and the purest strict-tradition sushi experience in the city. It held a Michelin star from 2019 until 2024 and remains a Michelin-listed counter; the cooking has not slipped with the rating. Naruke prepares and serves every piece himself across an omakase of roughly twenty courses for about $300 — sashimi and nigiri built on aged fish, hand-pressed warm rice and house-cured garnishes, with none of the cooked-roll theatre. The room is quiet and reverent, the focus entirely on the counter. Choose it when you want classical Edomae sushi rather than a kaiseki tasting or a flashy fusion menu. Book a couple of weeks ahead on Tock; the counter is small and the chef sets the pace.
Book ~2 weeks out on Tock; the full omakase, and let Naruke run the nigiri without substitutions.
3.Nozawa Bar
The warm-rice omakase from the Nozawa lineage; book Beverly Hills for a twenty-course nigiri run at the gentlest one-star price.
Nozawa Bar, a hidden counter tucked behind Sugarfish at 212 North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, holds one Michelin star for its omakase in the lineage of Kazunori Nozawa, the chef who built the city's warm-rice, fish-first style. The roughly twenty-course menu is primarily nigiri, plus sashimi and handrolls, leaning into the more adventurous cuts dedicated sushi eaters want, run as two fixed seatings a night at around $250. It is the most accessible of the city's starred sushi bars on both price and booking. Choose it for serious Edomae nigiri without Hayato's wait or Q Sushi's austerity. Book on Tock for the 6:00 or 8:30 seating a week or two ahead.
Book a 6:00 or 8:30 seating on Tock; the full nigiri omakase, with the warm rice as the tell.
4.Sushi Park
The no-photos strip-mall counter chefs swear by; go to the Sunset Strip for imported fish and nothing else, and pay for it.
Sushi Park, on the second floor of an unremarkable strip mall at 8539 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, is the cult sushi counter that chefs and serious eaters name when no one is selling anything. There is no trendy sushi, no California roll, no tempura — just imported Japanese fish, served straight, under a strict no-photography policy that tells you exactly how the room feels about the spectacle elsewhere. It is uncompromising and roughly $250 a head, with the fish doing all the talking. Choose it when you care only about the quality of the cut and want none of the show. Call ahead — it is famously hard to get into and does not bend its rules; skip the cooked menu entirely.
Call ahead and put your phone away; trust the counter on the imported fish, and order no rolls.
5.Matsuhisa
Where the global Nobu empire began in 1987; book Beverly Hills for the black cod and yellowtail-jalapeño that everyone has copied since.
Matsuhisa, at 129 North La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, is Nobu Matsuhisa's original restaurant — the 1987 room that launched the worldwide Nobu and Matsuhisa empire and rewrote what sushi-adjacent Japanese cooking could be. It is not a pure Edomae bar but the home of the signatures the world now imitates: black cod with miso, yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño, tiradito and new-style sashimi seared with hot oil, alongside a proper sushi counter. The room is older and warmer than the temple counters, the menu broad. Choose it for the canonical Japanese-Peruvian dishes at their source, or a group that wants range beyond nigiri. Book a few days to a week ahead; the sushi bar takes some walk-ins off-peak.
Book a few days out; the black cod with miso and the yellowtail with jalapeño, plus a few nigiri.
6.Asanebo
The San Fernando Valley's definitive sushi-and-sashimi room; cross the hill to Ventura Boulevard for the toro with caviar.
Asanebo, at 11941 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, opened in 1991 by two brother-chefs who had helped launch Matsuhisa, and it remains the San Fernando Valley's definitive Japanese counter. The strength is sashimi as much as sushi — delicate cuts dressed with caviar, truffle, yuzu and warm oil — alongside a serious nigiri program, in a low-key room that the Valley's Japanese-food community treats as home base. It is more flexible and less ceremonial than the temple counters, and you can eat as deep or as light as you like. Choose it for top-tier sashimi over the hill without the downtown wait or price. Book a few days ahead; the omakase rewards trusting the chef on the specials.
Book a few days out; the toro with caviar, the sashimi specials, and an omakase if you have the time.
How Los Angeles does sushi
Los Angeles eats sushi with more range than almost anywhere because it has had the fish and the chefs longest. Nobu Matsuhisa's 1987 room made the city a Japanese-dining capital, and the warm-rice, fish-first style spread from there — through the Nozawa lineage and the strip-mall masters of the Valley and the Westside. The current peak is split: Hayato's two-star kaiseki is the apex of refinement, while Q Sushi and Nozawa Bar hold the line on pure Edomae sushi, and Sushi Park keeps the fundamentalist flame for the cut above all.
Practically, this is a counter city, so the move is almost always omakase — let the chef lead — and the best seats sell on Tock or by phone, not by walking in. Toyosu fish arrives midweek, so Wednesday-through-Saturday is prime. For the wider city, the Los Angeles dining guide maps every neighborhood, and our best sushi in Kyoto shows the tradition at source.
Where not to look for it
Skip these when you want serious sushi
The all-you-can-eat and roll-focused rooms that sell sushi by the volume. Los Angeles is full of cheap, cream-cheese-and-eel-sauce sushi that has its place but is not what makes the city great. Every counter on this list is fish-first and omakase-led; if the menu leads with specialty rolls and a happy-hour deal, it is not in this conversation.
Hayato or Q Sushi if you want a casual, flexible dinner. These are set, chef-led experiences at set prices with little room to improvise — extraordinary for an occasion, wrong for a spontaneous weeknight. For that, the sushi bar at Matsuhisa or a seat at Asanebo gives you the range and the latitude to order as you go.
Frequently asked
What is the best sushi in Los Angeles?
Hayato is the apex. Brandon Hayato Go's eight-seat Arts District counter holds two Michelin stars for an Edomae-rooted seasonal tasting, the highest accolade any Japanese restaurant in the city carries, at $450 a head. For pure sushi rather than kaiseki, Nozawa Bar in Beverly Hills is the one-star omakase peak and Q Sushi downtown is the city's most classical Edomae counter, which held a Michelin star until 2024. The honest answer is that Hayato wins for the full Japanese tasting experience, while Q Sushi is the purest strict-Edomae sushi bar — pick by whether you want courses or strictly nigiri.
How much does omakase cost in Los Angeles?
The top counters run from about $250 to $450 a head before drinks. Hayato is the high end at $450 for its kaiseki tasting; Q Sushi is around $300 for roughly twenty Edomae courses; Nozawa Bar and Sushi Park sit near $250 for a full omakase of nigiri and sashimi. Matsuhisa varies widely because you can order à la carte or omakase, from roughly $100 to well over $200. Asanebo is the most flexible, where a sashimi-led meal can land anywhere from $90 upward depending on how deep you go.
Which Los Angeles sushi restaurants have Michelin stars?
Two on this list carry current stars. Hayato holds two Michelin stars for its Edomae-rooted kaiseki, the only Japanese restaurant in the city at that level. Nozawa Bar holds one star for its Edomae omakase, while Q Sushi held a star from 2019 until 2024 and remains a Michelin-listed counter. Sushi Park, Matsuhisa and Asanebo are not currently starred but are essential in their own right — Sushi Park as a cult fish-first counter, Matsuhisa as the restaurant that launched the global Nobu empire in 1987, and Asanebo as the Valley's old-guard sashimi specialist.
How far ahead should you book sushi in Los Angeles?
Plan two to four weeks for the starred counters. Hayato's eight seats and single nightly seating make it the hardest table in the city — book the moment its window opens. Q Sushi and Nozawa Bar sell omakase seats on Tock and book a couple of weeks out, with Nozawa running two fixed seatings a night. Sushi Park is famously hard and does not take photos or shortcuts; call ahead. Matsuhisa and Asanebo are the easiest, often available within the week, especially for the sushi bar at off-peak times.
What should you order at a Los Angeles sushi restaurant?
At the omakase counters, let the chef lead — that is the whole point. At Hayato take the full kaiseki; at Q Sushi and Nozawa Bar the omakase of nigiri and handrolls. At Sushi Park, trust the counter and skip the cooked-roll menu entirely; the imported fish is the reason to be there. Matsuhisa is the exception, where you should order the signatures — black cod with miso, yellowtail with jalapeño — that Nobu Matsuhisa invented. At Asanebo, the toro with caviar and the sashimi specials.
More sushi & omakase, by city
More from RFK
Browse the full Los Angeles dining guide, compare the global picks in the best sushi worldwide, see the tradition at source in the best sushi in Kyoto, cross to the best omakase in Chicago, plan a special-occasion dinner at Hayato, or open the full RFK cuisine index.
Restaurants for Kings is reader-supported. Some reservation links are affiliate links with Resy, Tock or OpenTable; we earn a small commission at no cost to you, and a link never buys a place on a ranking. Editorial scores and ranking order are independent of any commercial relationship. See our ranking methodology.