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Unfiltered Dassai 50 sake. Available only in the United States.

I love finding great hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and Sushi Central at the corner Palms Boulevard and Overland Avenue is just that: an under-the-radar sushi joint that serves good quality fish in a no-nonsense environment.

When I was invited by a sake sommelier Yuji Matsumoto to a sushi and sake pairing at a Palms sushi restaurant, I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially because I’m not normally a big fan of sake. But what we diners got was an epic meal with seven dishes and four sakes — a delicious and enlightening experience that has made me now like and appreciate sake.

Matsumoto, who also happens to be the beverage R&D manager for the Kabuki restaurants, teamed up with Sushi Central’s chef and owner Phillip Yi and Dassai sake representative Kazuhiro Sakurai (who came from Japan!) to give us a proper Japanese meal. We also learned a few things about sake, too. For example, when you see a number on a sake bottle, that’s the percent of the rice grain that’s left after it has been polished prior to brewing. The lower the number, the higher the quality.

Sake rice

Kazuhiro Sakurai

The nicest pairing for me was the yellowtail with the Dassai 23, which retails for $80 per bottle in the United States ($1,000 in Dubai!). The sake is fruity, with notes of apple, lychee and mango. The yellowtail sushi was great on its own, but the flavor completely changes and opens up when paired with the Dassai 23. It’s pretty amazing.

Yellowtail sushi

My favorite sushi of the night was the monkfish liver, which I thought was going to be really dense and heavy but was actually pretty light and airy. No, really. I’ve had livers I’ve liked (foie gras) and livers I haven’t (cow), so I was a little weary about this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. This was paired with the Dassai 23. (Fellow diner Esther of e*starLA missed this one, and I was sad for her!)

Monkfish liver sushi

We also had salmon belly, blue crab and spicy tuna sushi paired with Dassai 50 because these are fattier fish.

Salmon belly sushi

Blue crab roll

Spicy tuna roll

Dassai 50 sake

We also had a pairing of Japanese mackerel with Dassai 39. The mackerel is a stronger-tasting fish, but I still enjoyed it.

Japanese mackerel

We also had the ono, which Chef Yi calls his “crack” fish. I believe it was possibly lightly seared because it had a smoky flavor. It was pretty darn good.

Ono sushi

The omakase at Sushi Central ranges from about $55 to $125, and Yi says he always ends with uni. One caveat: Sushi Central doesn’t have a liquor license, so it’s BYOB all the way here. The restaurant holds sushi classes on Sundays and about every three months holds a seasonal food and sake pairing with Matsumoto.

Matsumoto (left), Yi (right)

This meal was hosted.