I was a little weary about accepting an invitation to a hosted dinner at Kabuki, the small West Coast Japanese restaurant chain, because, you know, it’s a chain. But I said to myself, “Self, don’t be so critical. Have an open mind.” Since I had been to a Kabuki only once years ago, I decided to give it a chance. And I was pleasantly surprised by some of the dishes, and not surprised by others.

Let me explain. Kabuki is not a straightforward Japanese restaurant; it’s a fusion place, with menu influences from all over, including Mexican and Italian. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make you expect (and not expect) certain things. That said, Kabuki offers a lot of traditional Japanese food, such as sushi, sashimi and ramen, as well as beef carpaccio and shrimp risotto.

So I went to the Kabuki in Hollywood to give it a whirl. It turns out that this location will be introducing some new appetizers later this month, so we (Esther of e*starLA, Cathy of Gastronomy Blog, Javier of Teenage Gluster, Pat of Eating L.A. and Fiona of Gourmet Pigs) had first crack at trying these new items, all of which will be most likely priced for less than $10.

First up was Ahi poke tuna with avocado, seaweed, daikon, ponzu sauce and sesame seeds. This was one of the dishes that pleasantly surprised me. The flavors are well-balanced, and the daikon is a nice touch, too.

Ahi poke tuna

Next was yellowtail carpaccio with a spicy ponzu sauce and jalapeno slices. This was also pretty good, though it didn’t have as much flavor as the poke dish.

Yellowtail carpaccio

There were also three new rolls, including my favorite the Baja roll. It’s essentially a California roll made with spicy mayo mixed with the crab inside and topped with more crab, pico de gallo, and served with more spicy mayo on the side. The pico de gallo complemented the roll well.

Baja roll

The last two new rolls, the Vegas roll and the Lasagna roll, I wasn’t that impressed with. The Vegas roll, much like a Philly roll, is made with salmon, cream cheese, crab, cucumber and deep fried like tempura, didn’t taste bad, but I found the cream cheese off-putting (which is why I never order Philly rolls, either). It was also gargantuan, relatively speaking.

Vegas roll

Talking about cheese, the Lasagna roll was covered in it — literally. It’s a California roll topped with cream cheese, mozzarella and parmesan, melted under the broiler. In the name of science or whatever, I tried a piece, and my ideas about sushi and cheese were not altered. That is, sushi and cheese should not mix. Kabuki gets point for trying, but this missed the mark for me.

Lasagna roll

On the other hand, I tried a few other things that I did enjoy, including the cured salmon appetizer with kiwi, orange, olive oil and radish.

Cured salmon

I also liked the soy ramen with Napa cabbage, bean sprouts, onions and asparagus. Maybe I liked this so much because it was a cold, rainy night, but I think this was a pretty decent bowl of ramen, even if it was meatless.

Soy ramen

The Lobster Dynamite made with lobster tail, soy sauce, sake, avocado and dynamite sauce (more mayo). Even though dynamite dishes are drenched in mayo and I don’t usually like mayo, this was a tasty dish. So creamy.

Lobster Dynamite

I also tried the Lotus on Fire roll, which is a California roll topped with spicy tuna, lotus root chips and jalapeno, served with spicy mayo and spicy tempura crumbles on the side. I’m a sucker for the spicy tuna-jalapeno combination, but this one was just OK. There was too much spicy tuna on top of the actual roll, and it overwhelmed the dish. I’ll stick with the Fire de Kaz at Boss Sushi for this one.

Lotus on Fire roll

A piece of Lotus on Fire roll

For dessert we tried a bunch of sweets, mostly chocolate-based, but my favorite was the Freddo, which is pretty much Korean shaved ice. It’s made with shaved ice topped with ice cream, condensed sweetened milk, fruit and chocolate sauce. We chose red bean ice cream, but it tasted more like strawberry because it was so sweet.

Freddo

There were some hits and some misses, but overall, I enjoyed the meal more than I thought I would. Just stay away from the cheese.

Thanks to Marni of Happy Go Marni, who lives just up the street from me, for turning me on to Boss Sushi, a gem of a sushi place hidden in plain sight on the stretch of La Cienega Boulevard between Olympic and Wilshire boulevards. You may, or may not have, noticed it: just up the street from La Cienega Park, Boss Sushi has a largely unadorned exterior that could pass for any number of hole-in-the-wall, strip-mall sushi joints (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, by the way).

But inside is a pretty nice-looking space that includes a long sushi bar, where you can order up some pretty cool rolls. [Note: I'm not a sushi purist, though I do appreciate a quality piece of fish. I gravitate toward rolls versus the pieces; just sayin'.] We — Marni, Lindsay of LAist and I — started off with the Fire de Kaz roll ($13): spicy tuna, avocado, fried garlic and spicy mayo inside, with more spicy tuna, jalapeno and a spicy sesame sauce on top. Sounds like it would be insanely spicy with all that “spicy” in the description, but it wasn’t. The spiciness was well-balanced, and the fried garlic gave it just the right amount of crunchy texture to make it really interesting. Delicious. (Thanks, Marni, for the recommendation!)

Fire de Kaz roll

Next, we had a Hamataku ($12), a rice-less roll made with chopped yellow tail, avocado, scallions and smelt eggs rolled up in pickled radish, and topped with a ginger sauce. It was a little hard to eat because it falls apart easily, but once you’re able to get it in your mouth, it’s a refreshing bite because there is no rice. This one was actually spicier than the Fire de Kaz, somehow.

Hamataku

This was a late dinner, so we made it a light one. The last roll we had was a simple salmon, avocado and cucumber roll, which was also satisfying. There’s a cocktail menu, too, but I didn’t really take a look at it, so I can’t comment on that. What I can say is I’m glad I finally tried this place after passing by it so many times. The presentation of the food is pretty, and while the prices aren’t inexpensive, they’re not through-the-roof, either. The most expensive roll on the menu is $14, but the rolls are large. It’s a good value. So don’t be turned off by the nondescript exterior; take a chance on Boss because you won’t regret it.