Japanese Restaurant Near Me in West LA: Hamasaku's Weekday Sushi Lunch

Hamasaku's weekday lunch is the cheapest way into a West LA sushi room that usually books up for dinner: a Sushi Moriawase of eight nigiri and a spicy toro roll, with house salad and miso soup, costs $41 from Tuesday to Friday between noon and 2 pm. The restaurant is at 11043 Santa Monica Boulevard, and for a japanese restaurant near me between Westwood and Sawtelle, that lunch window is the one to plan around.

The restaurant sits on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Los Angeles, ZIP code 90025, and Resy lists its cross streets as Camden Avenue and South Bentley Avenue. The restaurant asks parties of seven or more to contact it directly rather than book online, so a birthday table needs a phone call.

The menu headline is modern sushi that captures the flavors of the season, and Hiyoshi Kumeta is credited on it as executive chef and also as pastry chef, which is why the dessert list is more ambitious than at most neighborhood sushi bars. Cards accepted are American Express, Visa and Mastercard, and the visit page states a corkage fee of $30 per bottle if you bring your own wine.

Lunch entrees all include the house salad and miso soup. The Sashimi Moriawase, chef's choice of eight pieces, is $38. The Sushi Moriawase gives you two pieces each of albacore, salmon and yellowtail, one tuna, one white fish and a spicy toro roll for $41. The Deluxe Sushi Moriawase, eight chef's-choice nigiri plus the spicy toro roll, is $54, and the chirashi of seasonal sashimi over rice is $40.

Our honest pick for a first lunch is the $41 Sushi Moriawase rather than the $54 deluxe. The standard set already shows you the house rice and the knife work on the core fish, and the savings pay for a second small plate. Save the deluxe for a dinner visit, when you can order seasonal pieces such as Japanese freshwater eel at $10 a nigiri alongside it.

Two hot dishes justify ordering beyond sushi. The black cod marinated in saikyo miso costs $30 and arrives with the caramelized edges miso glaze should have. The hamachi kama, grilled yellowtail collar with yuzu kosho and lemon, is $22 and is the best value on the page for two people sharing. Chicken kara age with a rice cracker crust and yuzu aioli is $13, as are both kinds of gyoza.

From the crispy section, the spicy tuna crispy rice with avocado and sweet soy is $7.50, and the Charlize Tacos, spicy tuna on fried wonton skin with creamy wasabi, carry the same $7.50 price. The tacos are one of several dishes named after people, a running habit at Hamasaku that continues across the roll list with names like the Rick, the Blondie and the Rick Castle.

Lighter plates fill the gaps. Edamame comes two ways, with sea salt for $7 or a garlic soy reduction for $9, and the blistered shishito peppers with lemon garlic emulsion and bonito flakes are $13. The yuzu tostada of diced yellowtail, jalapeno and coconut milk on wonton chips is $25, with uni available for $5 more. The matcha soba salad with salmon sashimi and edamame, at $20, works as a lunch on its own if you are skipping rice.

Signature rolls run from $18 for the Green Dragon of spicy tuna and avocado to $38 for the Wagyu Maki with seared A5 wagyu and sukiyaki soy. The NFL roll swaps rice for a cucumber wrap around spicy tuna, salmon and avocado for $22. For straight nigiri, the menu labels its core fish as sustainable sushi: salmon, albacore or yellowtail at $5 a piece, bluefin tuna at $6 and bluefin toro at $10.

If you want to hand control to the kitchen, the Hamasaku Omakase is $135 and includes a crab sunomono salad, six pieces of sashimi, eleven pieces of seasonal sushi, a toro hand roll, asari miso soup and dessert. It is available until one hour before closing, and the menu states plainly that modifications, including for allergies, are politely declined, so anyone with a shellfish allergy should order a la carte instead.

Dessert is where the pastry credit shows. The matcha budino with white chocolate and whipped cream, the yuzu cheesecake with berries and the frozen Catalana cream brulee are each $10. Tokyo Banana, a banana pudding with sponge cake and yuzu caramel, costs $14, and mochi come in flavors such as salted caramel, matcha, passion fruit and lychee at $3.50 a piece, a cheap way to end a lunch.

Book on Resy. A sample search for Friday, October 23, 2026, showed two-person lunch tables every fifteen minutes from noon. Dinner runs 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm Monday to Thursday and Sunday, and until 10 pm on Friday and Saturday, with final seating thirty minutes before close. That means a 9 pm walk-in on a Tuesday is already the last seat of the night.

If Hamasaku is full, continue west to Sawtelle Japantown and try Chinchikurin at 2119 Sawtelle Boulevard, the first US branch of a Hiroshima okonomiyaki chain, where you can sit at the teppan counter and watch layered pancakes built in front of you. It is walk-in, so it works as a same-night switch when Resy shows nothing left on the Santa Monica Boulevard side.

Address: 11043 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90025. Lunch: Tuesday to Friday, 12 pm to 2 pm. Dinner: Monday to Thursday and Sunday 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm, Friday and Saturday 5:30 pm to 10 pm. Corkage: $30. Lunch sets: $38 to $54 with salad and miso soup. Omakase: $135, no modifications. Groups of seven or more should call.