Brown rice and fresh fish at this hidden sushi shop
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 11/12/2005
Rating: 9
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Thanks to Agent William for submitting this fine jewel, Homma's Brown Rice Sushi. There is no way we would have found this restaurant. It's hidden in an alleyway just like Lucy's Teahouse. Look for the pink building in the alley or follow the tiny sushi signs. The restaurant is super small so I'm assuming this place gets packed during lunch. I'd suggest calling before hand to pick up your food since the the service is slllloooow. He might be slow but his delicate cuts show in the sushi.
Homma's Brown Rice Sushi is very small with indoor seating capacity at about 15 seats and 2 tables outside. Order at the counter and they'll bring the food to you. There's nothing fancy about this place, except it feels like you are eating in a sushi chef's kitchen and they serve up brown rice in their sushi.
Prices are very reasonable and for a small place like this, they have an impressive vegetarian sushi selection. For today's order, got the Nigiri Deluxe (chef's choice) and mixed rolls.
mixed rolls - the california rolls were excellent. I can eat 100 of these, it's that good. Tuna rolls were great with a hidden dab of wasabi. Cucumber rolls were surprising good. Tastes like they remove the skin and it was a juicy maki roll. Mixed rolls is a good appetizer to order.
nigiri deluxe - 8 different pieces of which I got to try 3 of them. I had the hamachi, sake, and ebi. Hamachi was like butter, melted like a toro, look at the striping (image 7). Sake was also excellent and ebi was sweet. I would highly recommend ordering this if you are on your 1st visit.
Hidden restaurant...check. Fresh fish....check. Good cuts....check. Cheap prices...check. Brown rice...what? This is my 1st time having brown rice in sushi and the rice isn't as bland, grains are a bit fuller. Some sushi purists might think any flavor that distracts from the fish is a bad thing, I think otherwise. I like trying new things and open to new flavors. Brown rice is one of them and can only say don't miss out on Homma's Brown Rice Sushi. It's one of my favorite places to visit this year.
Reviewer: Dan
Total Reviews: 84
Reviewed: 5/18/2007
Rating: 7.5
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I tried Hommas a few years back and remember going away a bit underwhelmed, but I couldn't remember why. I paid this little place another visit for lunch today since I was picking up my camera from the repair shop nearby.
Hommas is in a squat, pink, cubicle building facing an alley and tucked behind a dry cleaner. The decor is pretty spare and feels a bit like a small cafeteria. Tables are linoleum and the chairs are plastic (outdoor stacking kind). I was a little confused about the ordering scheme but grabbed a menu by the cashier and sat down at a table to study. I wasn’t sure why no one was taking my order. Then several regulars came in and lined up at the register. Oh I get it. I guess I should have read the sign that says “Order Here.” At least the cashier insisted on taking my order first since I had been sitting there 5 minutes. I ordered 1 cal roll, 1 unagi/avocado roll and some yellowtail nigiri. Total was about $12. Not bad. I asked for hot tea and 5 minutes later was brought a hot water in a Styrofoam cup and a tea bag. Huh? Uh OK. That works I guess, though how about a real cup and or something recyclable? Another 5 minutes and I got my sushi, and was taken aback by the tiny plate of food in front of me. I would say the scale is about 3/4 of average sushi I am used to. I knew I was gonna need more than this, so I ordered another roll and shelled out another 4 bucks. Total with tip was about $18
That said, my sushi was excellent. The brown rice was tender, flavorful and perfectly cooked. The fish was high quality and all was prepared with great care. One thing I noticed was the seaweed was bit chewier and harder to break up than normal. Not sure why this was, but it wasn't a big deal. My hamachi (yellowtail) was outstanding and had some delicate spring onions sliced on top. Very nice and super tasty. A lovely, melt-in-your-mouth package.
After finishing my meal, I tried to focus on rating. The whole slightly divey cafeteria theme, combined with the cold breeze blowing through the open door, was bit of a downer for me. But the food was good, though it ended up costing more than I had planned. The question was: would I rather go to some other good sushi spots I know with nicer settings and equivalent sushi quality? And get the standard freshly brewed green tea? Yeah, in most cases. Was the brown rice worth it? Maybe half worth it, for the uniqueness. I may come back here sometime and order the nigiri deluxe combo if I'm in the neighborhood.
Dropped by for dinner last night. We arrived to an empty restaurant, however hungry and feeling like sushi we went in. We were met with the chef and I believe his son, the place is bare and minimal - green tea served as hot water in a styrofoam cup and yoyomamayoyo green tea packet on the side. They also charge for everything - green tea, to miso soup, everything is modular, and accordingly priced. a small miso tea looked like a small styrofoam cup and a large miso the same size as my green tea.
We settled on a variety of sushi - maguro, hamachi, ume, sake-yu, and something-cu along with a order of chirashi.
The chirashi arrived first and it's quite interesting, the fish slices were not as large as I had hoped for and the whole thing looked like it came out of a fusion restaurant then the almost make shift work area that it was prepped. sprouts, shizo leaves, and seaweed bits finished off the chirashi. It tasted fine, pretty good actually...however I did not expect the squid.
The sushi was interesting, the crunch of the brown rice takes a little to adjust to but we left stuffed, and feeling somewhat healthy. fish quality is not bad, and over all we'd go again. the dining room was full when we left.
“Great quality ingredients. Place can be a little hard to find. All my friends like their sushi and go back frequently. Check it out. You won't be sorry.”
