Sugarfish Opens a Sleek New Sushi Bungalow in Manhattan Beach

Sugarfish, which now has numerous locations across Southern California but sorely lacked one in the South Bay, now has a restaurant just steps from Manhattan Beach’s gorgeous shoreline. Opened yesterday in a dark, but Japanese minimalist-designed space by Marmol Radziner along 12th Street, the standalone bungalow features 40 seats. Kazunori Nozawa, who founded the iconic Sushi Nozawa in the Valley and ran the restaurant from 1987 to 2012, opened Sugarfish eleven years ago as a way to bring his style of sushi to more diners.

The menu has a reasonably priced “Trust Me Lite” that always starts with the restaurant’s tuna sashimi with ponzu, a few nigiri pieces, and a hand roll (note that prices differ between lunch and dinner). Hungrier diners should opt for the Nozawa, which has ten pieces of nigiri sushi and two hand rolls, plus that sashimi starter. The top level “Don’t Think, Just Eat” menu goes beyond even that and costs $52. Like its other outlets, Sugarfish offers daily specials for regular customers who want to try something new, like albacore belly, uni, and toro. Sugarfish does not allow tipping and simply charges a 16% fee on the bill (which is taxable).

South Bay residents will also be pretty happy about the new delivery zone that comes from this Manhattan Beach outlet. Postmates will deliver any order of Sugarfish within a solid radius of the Manhattan Beach location. The restaurant doesn’t take reservations but will serve daily from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on most days of the week, and from noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays. The Sugarfish group also operates Kazunori, a collection of sushi hand roll restaurants, as well as the newly Michelin-starred omakase counter Nozawa Bar in Beverly Hills.

Sugarfish. 304 12th Street, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266.

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Manolo Langis