Monday, February 27, 2006

Do Your Plates Come In "Shrink To Fit"?: Musha, Santa Monica



There's a reason they call small plates "small plates" and that's because they're, well, small.

Or so you'd think.

Because before we our food came to the table at Musha in Santa Monica, we thought our plates would take up as much space as "normal" izayaka restaurants. Read on...

My eyes lit up when Sarah from
The Delicious Life announced that the theme for this month's Dine & Dish would be "Amazing Graze," a.k.a. a small plates free-for-all, because I love small plates meals. No matter what I choose, whether it be Spanish tapas, Chinese dim sum or Japanese izakaya, amongst others, I'm able to try a wealth of flavors and textures--usually for the price of what I'd normally pay for a couple of normal sized plates!

I'd always heard good things about the more modern and innovative, somewhat fusiony izakaya at Musha, so we decided to give it a whirl. The restaurant, located on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, was small and packed on a Saturday night. Fortunately, we had reservations so we were seated pretty much right away at a small table for two.

As with most small plates restaurants, Musha's menu gave me a headache because of all its choices. There is alot to read in Musha's menu as they give detailed descriptions of each dish so we undoubtedly took longer than usual to make our choices. There was a specials page written in Japanese calligraphy, a cold kitchen and hot kitchen section, a "tofu world" section, a salad section, grill sections, a starch page with rice and noodles...our heads were spinning.


I've got a menu, and it's got Excedrin written all over it

Now the dish sizes at other izakaya joints, say
Haru Ulala or Furaibo, average about 5"x7" or maybe 6-8" diameter and flat for the most part. I already said that Musha distinguishes itself from the others by its "izakaya with a fusiony twist," but what also sets Musha apart from the others, at least in our book, was the fact that we couldn't cram what we thought would be small plates onto our small table. Had we known the dishes would arrive almost at the same time, we would have ordered one by one.

The first dish to arrive was our sashimi combination or albacore, maguro tuna and salmon which sat on a 9" square platter. Including the 2.5 inch soy sauce dipping plates into which we dipped the surprisingly fresh and buttery soft fish, plus the pot of tea, bottle of Kirin and glasses we had on the table, we were still safe but knew we had to be wise with our space.


Our first space hog

Up next, a 10" diameter glass bowl of sesame green bean salad containing crisp green beans tossed with a creamy sesame dressing and bacon bits and dressed up with shredded radish and pea shoots all in a giant fried wonton shell. This larger-than-expected salad was delicious, crisp and cool while being rich and luscious at the same time. Ain't no way we were going to finish that one all at once. It was so good we had to make it last. But I think we were heading into the trouble zone by doing so.


They gave us enough, but we couldn't get enough

Because not two minutes later, our waitress pushed a metal cart up next to our table and unloaded a flaming hot charcoal grill and a plate of raw beef tongue on to it.

The shichirin grill, which was approximately an 8" cube, was a cute little clay contraption inscribed with Japanese characters and topped with a grill grate. We could see the charcoal, which according to the menu is bincho charcoal, a "non-odor charcoal," glowing through small holes on the side of the grill. We used it to grill the tanshio, or thin slices of seasoned beef tongue which, when done, were squirted with lemon and swished in a sesame oil based sauce. While the taste was good, the texture was better--meaty yet having that slightly spongy quality that only tongue can have. And because we had to grill a couple of pieces at a time, we were at this point pretty much out of table space. I don't know why we didn't tell them to slow down; I think we were just speechless from the good food!


We had to start building upwards due to over population

As if they couldn't fit any more stuff on our table, a 12" oblong plate of negitoro croquettes arrived next. I think they had taken away the plate on which the sashimi sat by this time, but with a firey grill and all the other stuff that was on our table, we still felt cramped. And this time, I actually opened my mouth and said something. "OK, no more food!" I giggled to our waitress, who giggled back with a nod. I loved this dish of breaded and deep fried minced tuna, green onion, garlic, pepper, and hijiki seaweed. The tuna mixture was downright tasty and despite its ground texture, held together really well inside its perfectly crisp panko shell. Each bite was made even better by the addictive daikon mayo dipping sauce on the side. This sauce, cool and creamy while enhanced by that funky salty daikon flavor, was so good that when we finished the croquettes, I kept the sauce so that I could dip pieces of the fried shell from our green bean salad into it. And how big was that cup of sauce? Like an inch and a half diameter, I think. Obviously we were getting nowhere with this space clearing thing.


They sat on the edge and took us over the edge

Fortunately, we managed to finish off the tanshio so away went the grill and the plate on which the beef tongue came, freeing up about a foot and a half of space. We still had one dish left to go so this was a good thing. A few minutes later the cart pulled up alongside us once again, this time holding a big hollowed-out round of parmesan cheese and a small pot of Musha's signature risotto. Our waitress emptied the risotto into the block of cheese and started tossing it as if it were a salad. She then scooped the creamy rice onto a plate and left the plate and not the huge block of cheese with us. (Imagine that!) The risotto showed off Musha's fusiony side--it was Japanese in the use of Japanese brown rice and soy milk, and was Italian in cooking method as well as in the use of proscuitto bits and parmesan cheese. It's flavors worked really well together, but it was a little on the heavy side, especially as a final dish.


Oh please don't put that on the table too


*Whew* just the plate, thank goodness

Finally we were done and able to comfortably stretch our arms out on the table. Despite the lack of foresight on Musha's part to pace our dishes so as to not cramp our table, we had an excellent experience here. We will definitely return to test out some of their other specialties like the spicy tuna dip or cheese tofu or kabocha pumpkin croquette. I guess you could consider Musha's style "izakaya on light steroids" as they serve slightly pumped up flavors and portions. The only delicate thing we got that evening? The cute little bag of Japanese candy they hand their patrons as they walk out. Our damage was $75 with drinks, tax and tip--not bad considering our table was always filled to the rim.

Musha
424 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 576-6330
(additional location in Torrance)

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

i looooove musha!!!

i actually just went there a few weeks ago again. loved it, as usual. i am interested in trying out the south bay location. a friend of mine says it's better. i dont know how its better since its the same restaurant, and torrance is MUCH further away, but i think it's that he gets free drinks. LOL!

excellent write up!

Christine D. said...

i can just dig my teeth into that parmesan bowl and i'd be a happy camper!

Wonder if there's a place like this in orange county? :/

Ron Oda said...

thanks pam, if you're impressed then, its def on the "to visit" list..

sorry you didn't get punked.. lol

susan said...

i recently went to the originial one in torrance and everything we orded was so good! the sm location looks way more dressed up. i love those charcoal grills but i hear they are pretty pricey. the thing about small plates is that i think i can keep eating them, and proceed to get way too full.

Anonymous said...

Hi Pam - If table space was the biggest worry, then it must have been a good meal! Looks and sounds great. I had been wondering about the Torrance location - looks like I'll be giving it a try when I'm back in LA!!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry Pam - That Anon is me....

Daily Gluttony said...

Sarah,

Yes, this place was gooood! I have a feeling I'm going to get FOCD (food obsessive compulsive disorder) w/ this place! I'm going to have to try the Torrance location to compare.

Christine,

Can you imagine if they gave you the cheese bowl too?

DCCF,

Hey this'll be another place we can go to w/ the Gardena gang. Funny enough, it's G.O. that I got Punk'd with at Dolce!

Cobalt,

Thanks so much for the compliment! I think they keep scooping out the cheese until it gets used up. Otherwise I'd be like, hey gimmee the cheese too! LOL!

Yoony,

I know, it is easy to get carried away at small plates places...everything always sounds so good!

Kirk,

Yeah, you were trying to be one of those sneaky anonymous people, huh? Ha ha! Yes, you and the Missus should definitely give this palce a try!

BoLA said...

Oh man! I LOVE MUSHA'S!!! :) This is where my b/f took me on our first date and where we celebrated on Valentine's Day. :) I also like the Torrance location too. Absolutely delish! btw...when's the next outing? Let's chow soon!!!

Daily Gluttony said...

Kristy,

I think I remember you mentioning Musha as you and your BF's 1st date restaurant...that's awesome!

Anytime's good for me to get some chow!!! Just name the place & time!

Anonymous said...

I love Musha. I am generally impressed by their food, and enjoy eating there more than at FuRaiBo. I haven't had such good luck with Musha's sashimi though--it's been a bit tough, a notch below what I'm used to spoiling myself with. By the way, great interior photo--it really captures the warmth of the restaurant. Someone (maybe Sarah's friend) also left a comment on my post about Musha saying that the Torrance location was better.

Daily Gluttony said...

Foodie Universe,

Thanks re: the interior photo! Yes, it looks like Musha's a keeper, though I'd like to try the Torrance location before I go back to the SM one!

e d b m said...

This place rocks. I think i went there TWICE in the last TWO weeks. guess what? i may go tonight to eat there, so good.

Loved the beef tongue, the okonomiyaki/soba dish, octopus salad, the waitresses...

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Musha's easily in my top 5 restaurants. If you're looking for an izayaka in Orange County, there's a great place called Ikko in Costa Mesa, on Baker near Bristol (very close to South Coast Plaza). I think it's a bit more adventurous than Musha, too.