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And in more happy hour news…

I’m a sucker for good, inexpensive food and drink. Cheap eats, as it were. And you can always find deals during happy hour, right? (Sometimes, if I can muster the appetite that early, I’ll make happy hour my dinner. But I digress.)

So e*starla and I went to check out the happy hour at Hokusai, a Japanese restaurant near the intersection of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards in the space that used to house Continental. It’s pretty darn close to where we live, and just across the street from e*starla’s place of business. (This was a while ago, but you know you still want to hear about it — because it’s happy hour!)

From 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. weekdays, the Japanese restaurant offers well-endowed bar bites for between $1.99 to $4.99 each, including hand rolls ($1.99) to fried calamari ($4.99). There are also drinks specials that include beer and sake $3 or $6 depending on size, glasses of wine for $7, and well drinks and house martinis for $5.

I liked the food better than the drinks we had here. We tried the lychee, fuji apple and guava sunrise martinis. They were too sweet for my taste. But in terms of the food, everything we had was pretty good.

California and spicy scallop handrolls

Assorted sushi

We tried the seafood cigars, stuffed with shellfish and fried like eggrolls. They were decent, but a little over fried. Better were the crispy rice tacos, which basically resembled a California roll in taco form. Since I like California rolls, this was really appealing to me, and it didn’t disappoint. I appreciated the whole slices of avocado; no skimping! The rock shrimp tempura was tasty in a spicy sauce and came on a bed of greens, like a salad. The handrolls and sushi were tasty, too.

Seafood cigars

Crispy rice tacos

Rock shrimp tempura

So while Hokusai might be an overlooked happy hour destination, stop by if you’re in the Mid-City West/Beverly Hills neighborhood. Good food at good prices.