Kanpai Sushi #2 (LAX/Westchester)

Kanpai Sushi

LAX / Westchester

Menu at Kanpai.

The other page of the day's specials.

Spicy tuna roll. Serviceable.

Salmon skin salad was a huge portion.

Japanese uni was pretty good.

Rest was less impressive. Toro, whitefish, sake, king mackerel, Spanish mackerel.

King mackerel, Spanish mackerel, Japanese mackerel, buri (winter yellowtail).

Buri, like most fish, was just passable.

Rather worn and a bit crowded.

Typical snacks at the United Club.

Looks like a lot of calories...

Second visit to the Kanpai Sushi chain, first visit to this location. Honestly it felt a lot like the first visit to the Santa Monica one: kind of worn interior, a fish selection that aims to be broad and high-end but falls short on quality, and pricing that ends up being just pricey enough to feel like a terrible value.

I supposed if this is the very first place you've visited that had three kinds of mackerel (sanma/Japanese mackerel, aji/Spanish mackerel, sawara/king mackerel)on the menu, or nodoguro (black throat sea perch), you might be impressed-- and indeed that is a good selection, a cut above the typical corner sushi place-- but the quality, as noted, does not hold up. The fact that the mundane items like the spicy tuna are merely serviceable only reinforces this impression.

Handful of photos from the United Club at LAX afterwards; where did those mini cupcake calorie bombs come from? And why are they branded Polaris?