AIKAN SUSHI & RAMEN
ADDRESS: 735 E Green Street, Pasadena, CA 91101
WEBSITE: https://www.aikanpayce.com/
Aikan Sushi & Ramen popped onto my radar when my friend Mario recommended the place to me after one of his recent visits to the LA area. It’s been a little while since I had been to an all-you-can-eat sushi spot; after taking a look at the menu options, that alone was already enough to draw me in. I was reading across the different sushi roll options and kept saying “that sounds good” over and over again, so that was definitely a good sign. To help with sampling a good variety of items off the menu, I recruited my friends Frank and Erik to the cause to take a food excursion down to Pasadena this past weekend to check it out.
If there is already a line at the place to get in before they even open, that’s probably a good sign to how good it might be. We arrived there right before they opened for lunch service and there were already about 20 people in line ahead of us. I was able to later see that the restaurant staff was staggering when they sat the tables down, in order to help establish a rhythm for both the kitchen staff and sushi chefs to get food out to customers. (I equated it to kind of like how the interstates will have the metering system during rush hour for cars entering.) I thought it was a smart way to make sure the staff didn’t get overwhelmed with orders right from the start.
The menu indicated that each sushi roll order came with four to six pieces, and we were pretty ambitious to start things off with seven different rolls along with four different kitchen food plates. For our second round, we ended up getting another seven rolls, along with three more kitchen food plates (two of them repeat orders). I went solo on a third round to pick up another two rolls to finish the meal off. If you’re keeping score at home, that was a total of 16 different rolls, 66 individual pieces, and 7 different kitchen food plates. I’m still pretty impressed that we were able to pack that much food in.
Given just the volume of different food that we ordered, it might be best to summarize thoughts on each one of them in list form. To get a description of what is in each roll, please refer to the Dish Spotlight near the end of the post.
Sushi:
- Rainbow Roll — nice mix between the salmon, tuna, and shrimp. The imitation crab in the middle gave each bite a bit of a sweet aftertaste.
- Malibu Roll — really enjoyed the combo of the spicy tuna and spicy mayo, along with the crunch from the shrimp tempura and asparagus.
- Salmon Pleasure Roll — had a bit of a sweet and spicy flavor to it, with the spicy imitation crab along with spicy mayo. The avocado helped to provide a nice, smooth texture while eating each piece.
- Salmon Crunch Roll — enjoyed the crunch provided by both the onion straws as well as the shrimp tempura. Balanced well with the spicy tuna and avocado on the inside of the roll.
- Yeagar Roll — overall, a very clean flavor combination for the roll. The albacore paired well with the spicy imitation crab, avocado, shrimp tempura, and spicy mayo.
- Scream Roll — spicy on spicy with this ingredient stack-up of spicy imitation crab, spicy mayo, and jalapeño popper on top.
- Vegas Roll — the fried eel on top of the spicy tuna helped make this one a solid roll choice. The spicy mayo with tobiko helped to provide a nice flavor combination of savory, spicy, and sweet.
- Fuego Roll — don’t sleep on that pickled jalapeño in this roll. That comes at you with a bit of a slow burn, but a focused acidity flavor as well. Combines well with the other ingredients too, notably the spicy tuna and spicy mayo to have your mouth tingling.
- Aikan Special Roll — a nice medley of different seafood packed into this roll, with the shrimp, shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, and tuna. I liked the tobiko and scallion garnish as well.
- Angrytail Roll — the slice of raw jalapeño on each piece definitely kicked up the heat a bit, along with the dab of hot sauce on top and spicy tuna inside the roll, too.
- Tiger Roll — the salmon and eel helped to provide good umami flavors to balance with the sweetness of the imitation crab.
- Rattle Snake Roll — the eel is definitely the dominant flavor in this one, and also pairs well with the spicy imitation crab.
- Gump Roll — the shrimp flavors in this one were suppressed a bit from the mayo-based Japanese yum yum sauce, but each bite was still good nonetheless.
- Laguna Roll — solid ingredient combinations with the albacore and spicy tuna, along with a nice texture contrast added by the shrimp tempura and asparagus.
- Lion King Roll — primarily only got the shrimp tempura and imitation crab flavors. The other ingredients didn’t come on as strongly in this one.
- Rose Crunch Roll — I was expecting more from the spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, and pickled jalapeño combo. But this roll just ate a bit dry overall.
Kitchen Food Plates:
- Spicy Tuna on Crispy Rice — probably my favorite of all the kitchen plates we ordered. The crunchiness from the rice paired great with the spicy tuna, along with the temperature contrast between the two ingredients.
- Gyoza — pork gyoza was fried well, with the crispy wrapper on the outside.
- Karaage Fried Chicken — the chicken was nice and crispy on the outside, while still juicy on the inside. The spicy mayo dipping sauce paired with it was great as well.
- Shishito Peppers — this one surprised me with how good it turned out being. The peppers were blistered well, lightly tossed in some garlic soy sauce mixture, and then garnished with some shredded Parmesan cheese.
- Garlic Chili Edamame — tossed in a garlic soy sauce mixture, the edamame was definitely packing an umami punch.
Was the ~ 30 minute wait for us to get seated worth it? Absolutely. Did I think that we got our value out of the $37 price tag for the AYCE weekend lunch? Definitely. There are so many different options on the menu that even on a return visit, I could presumably not eat anything that we tried during this visit and still probably have a great experience. But given how good some of those rolls we tried were, those would definitely be making an encore on subsequent visits. If you show up to this place and you see a line to get in, don’t be deterred. Your patience will be well rewarded.
Let’s now take a look at the Aikan Sushi & Ramen Restaurant Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
(Pictured from left to right)
** Rainbow Roll **
Tuna, shrimp, and salmon on the outside, imitation crab, cucumber, and avocado on the inside.
** Malibu Roll **
Salmon, spicy tuna, and shrimp on the outside, shrimp tempura, asparagus, and avocado on the inside, topped with spicy mayo and scallions.
** Salmon Pleasure Roll **
Salmon and avocado on the outside, shrimp tempura, spicy imitation crab, cucumber, and avocado on the inside. Topped with spicy mayo and garlic chips.
** Salmon Crunch Roll **
Salmon on the outside, shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, cucumber, and avocado on the inside. Topped with onion straws.
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** Vegas Roll **
Fried eel and spicy tuna on the outside, imitation crab, cucumber, and avocado on the inside. Topped with spicy mayo, tobiko, and scallions.
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(Pictured from left to right)
** Yeagar Roll **
Albacore on the outside, shrimp tempura, spicy imitation crab, cucumber, and avocado on the inside. Topped with spicy mayo and garlic chips.
** Scream Roll **
Shrimp tempura, spicy imitation crab, spicy tuna, cucumber, and avocado on the inside, jalapeño popper on the outside. Topped with spicy mayo, tobiko, and scallions.
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(Pictured from left to right)
** Fuego Roll **
Albacore on top, with spicy tuna, avocado, and pickled jalapeño on the inside. Topped with spicy mayo and garlic chips.
** Aikan Special Roll **
Shrimp and tuna on the outside, shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, asparagus, and avocado on the inside. Garnished with spicy mayo, tobiko, and scallions.
** Angrytail Roll **
Yellowtail topped with a jalapeño slice and dab of hot sauce on each piece, with spicy tuna and cucumber on the inside.
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(Pictured from left to right)
** Tiger Roll **
Salmon and eel on top, imitation crab, cucumber, and avocado on the inside. Topped with spicy mayo and scallions.
** Rattle Snake Roll **
Grilled eel on top, spicy imitation crab, cucumber, and gobo on the inside.
** Gump Roll **
Shrimp and avocado on the outside, with shrimp tempura, spicy imitation crab, cucumber, and avocado on the inside. Topped with imitation crab and yum yum sauce.
** Laguna Roll **
Albacore, spicy tuna, and avocado on the outside, shrimp tempura, asparagus, and avocado on the inside. Topped with spicy mayo, tobiko, and scallions.
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(Pictured from left to right)
Lion King Roll
Salmon and avocado on the outside, shrimp tempura, spicy imitation crab, cucumber, and smelt egg on the inside. Topped with imitation crab.
Rose Crunch Roll
Shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, avocado, and pickled jalapeño on the inside.
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** Spicy Tuna on Crispy Rice **
Fried bed of crispy rice topped with spicy tuna, garnished with spicy mayo and scallions.
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** Karaage Fried Chicken **
Breaded fried chicken thighs, served with a spicy mayo dipping sauce.
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** Gyoza **
Pork gyoza, fried to a golden brown.
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** Shishito Peppers **
Blistered shishito peppers, tossed in a garlic soy sauce and garnished with Parmesan cheese.
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** Garlic Chili Edamame **
Edamame tossed in a garlic soy sauce, garnished with dried chiles and garlic chips.
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And finally, here are my rankings for Aikan Sushi & Ramen:
Food: 5 / 5
There’s not much more that I could say about how much I enjoyed both the quantity of different options available to choose from as well as the quality of the food that we got. The roll presentation was also really nice as well, with a number of them really popping visually the moment they got set down in front of us.
Atmosphere: 4.25 / 5
The main dining area is really nice, with a good view of the large sushi bar that consists of one entire side of the room. We ended up sitting in one of the side dining areas, close to where the waitstaff would congregate to access the point-of-sale system. But I didn’t think that really affected our overall experience too much.
Service: 4 / 5
Our waiter, Paolo, seemed like he was still in the midst of getting trained, so I do want to give him some benefit of the doubt. It took a bit for our waters to get refilled and the empty plates on our table to get cleared out, but once a senior member of the waitstaff pointed it out, he was much more attentive about those items for the rest of the meal.
Price: 5 / 5
You absolutely get your money’s worth in both the quantity of different options as well as the quality of both the sushi and the kitchen offerings as well. It’s a price that I would gladly pay for again.
Overall:
18.25 / 20
(91%)
Categories: California, Restaurants
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