Monday, June 23, 2008

Joy Mart - Crazy Name, Great Sakes & Izakayas

137 Japanese Village…
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 680-9868

Joy Mart

Categories: Sushi Bars, Japanese
Neighborhood: Downtown

4 star rating
01/04/2008
We were waiting for a table at Komasa and while not waiting we walked around and found an empty sake bar called Joy Mart Sake Bar and while it looked scary empty we thought it to be a perfect place for some conversation without having to raise our voices. We ordered one Dragon roll and two orders of soft shelled crab and a simple order of spicy tuna roll for the six of us to keep our stomachs from growling while waiting for our table. The Dragon roll is fresh water eel and shrimp tempura roll and about 10 pieces or more per order which cost about $13. It was yummy as was the deep fried SS crab the spicy tuna while tasty was very plain as I usually like mine jazzed up with some smelt egg on the outside at the very least. They have various sake samplers and lots of beer and people ordered a sampler, plum wine and I ordered a few unfiltered Nigori cold sakes which cost $6.25 each 4 oz or a 750ml bottle is $30 which if we had planned to stay here the whole night, I would have ordered that. The food was surprisingly excellent and the drinks were too as well as the service. This place gets one more star over Komasa.

This place would make a good date place. We sat at the huge 8 seat table that is just massive and just inside the front doors After just reading the other reviews, I guess our experience was a bit nicer than average? The service was actually outstanding and they were very attentive. But it was pretty empty on a Thursday night. It is right across the way from the Shabu Shabu house that was completely packed. We spent a total of $100 for several sakes and our appetizers for the six of us. They validate parking, but we parked in the wrong lot, of course.

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