Kanpai UPDATE - Los Angeles

Look no further for the best lunch in LA. 

Everything is fresh, the quality is fantastic, and they give you a dizzying quantity, especially at this price point. Even the simple set salad has a ginger dressing that is to die for, and their pickled cucumber is a dish you can't stop eating. 

The menu is long and overwhelming, but I don't know if any choice is wrong. The Fried Octopus app is already a favorite. The batter is perfect, the fry is crisp, and the tentacles are soft and chewy. 

Try the 3 Hand Roll set for starters. Go for the blue crab because they use the real stuff, but both the spicy tuna and spicy scallop also pull their weight.

Surprise me with a Sashimi Lunch; 12 pieces, 4 types, an assortment of salmon, tuna, and yellowtail that day. 

You can get a Mini Una Don as an add-on, one I highly recommend. It's a rather small rice bowl with general chunks of warm, tender eel, and many comfort-food chunks of sweet tamago. 

The Poke Don is a rich mix of assorted fish, and it looks like the same cuts as they use for sashimi. The special poke sauce is strongly sesame oil and soy, and it has a delightfully gooey give. 

There are heartier hot bowls if it's food coma that you seek. the Katsu Don is a crisp cutlet topped with spirals of egg. 

A Pork Cutlet Curry Lunch has pork and panko, topped with a rich, meat-broth slurry. 

I could go elsewhere to eat, but I never do. The deals are unbeatable, and the quality is unbelievable. Kanpai is only a short drive away now, and it's become my go-to for lunch, my happy place away from home. 

Cleaning My Plate at Kanpai – Los Angeles

The only thing better than a friend who's willing to give you a ride to the airport is a friend who's willing to try a new restaurant with you right before he drops you off.

And what better way to prepare for takeoff than with a belly full of sushi? So we jumped right in with the Spicy Tuna Roll, which was some of the freshest tuna I’ve ever had. We got through that one pretty quickly and moved on to the Creamy Blue Crab Roll, which, despite Japan’s abundance of avocado orchards, is about as authentic as a California roll. But it’s pretty hard to turn down mayo-loaded blue crab with ripe avocado and crunchy cucumber encased in delicate soy paper. If California rolls are the economy class of sushi, this roll was my upgrade to first.

The LMU Roll was packed tighter than my no-charge carry-on with all sorts of good stuff. The sweet, fresh eel sat on top of elbow-to-elbow sweet potato tempura, avocado, and cucumber, but it was honestly too much sweet stuff in one place. I like my sushi a little more savory, and trying to pick up one of those tightly packed rolls was like unzipping my suitcase – things just fly out left and right. Then again, eating that eel felt almost as amazing as getting to hang your garment bag in the first class closet.

The Lemon Salmon Collar had me crazier than a TSA agent looking for the 4-ounce bottle of lotion in the bottom of your bag, and every bite was almost as savory as the satisfaction I get from watching them try to cram everything back into my precisely-packed bag when they’ve found my deadly bottle of Bath and Body Works. The salmon itself is smoother than cream, a melt-in-your-mouth soft, especially the fattier parts at the head end of the collar. Every delectable bite made me want more, and I’ll be back for the red snapper and yellowtail collars before my next flight home.

Flying isn’t as easy as it used to be, but if it means I get to eat at places like Kanpai beforehand, the interminable security line seems more like a willing vacation. I’ve been craving Kanpai ever since I first boarded that flight, and now I may book another one just so I have a reason to return.