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JENNIFER MAHAL -- DINING REVIEW

I love sushi. I really do. Fat rolls of fish and rice wrapped in green

seaweed have been on my list of favorite foods ever since I had my first

California roll at age 9. Which is why the idea of reviewing I Love Sushi

restaurant in Costa Mesa appealed to me. And as sushi goes, theirs is

pretty good.

I Love Sushi, the brainchild of owner Wayne Chin, opened five and a

half years ago at its Harbor Boulevard location. From the outside, the

boxy building looks like it might be some sort of chain restaurant. But

inside is a clean, welcoming, red- and black-tiled oasis with red vinyl

booths and Formica tables.

The bar, where you can watch the sushi chefs prepare their wares,

hosted a fair number of business people. With its reasonable prices and

wide menu prepared by head chef Hideo Matsuda, the restaurant can get

very busy at the lunch hour.

The best bargain on the menu is the combination lunch ($6.50), which

comes with soup, rice and a choice between any two of 13 items like steak

teriyaki, California rolls, sesame chicken and deep-fried tofu. My friend

and I ordered the salmon teriyaki and for $3 extra got sashimi (raw fish)

for the second item.

The miso soup that accompanied the meal was a little too salty, but

had strips of seaweed in it that were yummy. An iceberg lettuce salad

slathered with a dressing that had hints of peanut, ginger and lemon also

came with the meal. If you don’t like tangy tastes, skip this or ask for

the dressing on the side. Fortunately, I do, so the dressing was a treat.

The sashimi came out first, six pieces of glistening fish -- two each

of salmon, yellowtail and ahi tuna. The ahi and the salmon were fresh and

had a nice texture. I’m not partial to yellowtail.

The salmon teriyaki, accompanied by a few slices of carrot and

broccoli covered with a plain white sauce, would have been more than

enough for a meal by itself. The veggies on the side were nothing

special, but with its lightly sweet sauce and its mouthwatering flavor,

the teriyaki was definitely the hit of the meal. Absolutely scrumptious.

Where’s the sushi, you ask? Don’t worry. We ordered a few different

kinds, including crunchy rolls ($6), fried shrimp rolled with avocado and

rice in seaweed. The portion -- one order equaled about five or six

pieces -- was good, but the shrimp wasn’t crunchy enough to justify the

dish’s name. It was still tasty though.

We also ordered a caterpillar roll ($7.50), eel with avocado on the

outside. This roll, which looks like a fat, green creepy-crawly, is one

of my absolute favorites. The I Love Sushi version fell a bit short of my

expectations by falling apart when we picked it up with our chopsticks. I

attribute this to too much rice.

Tamago, a roll with cooked egg on rice ($2.50), was nicely done, with

a good taste and texture to the egg.

We finished up our meal with tempura ice cream ($3.50), great globs of

creamy cold dessert in flavors like green tea and red bean fried in

tempura batter. Crisp, cool and heavenly.

I Love Sushi is a great place to go if you are in the mood for sushi,

but don’t want to spend your entire savings to satisfy your craving. The

service is good, the atmosphere congenial and the food above average. I

plan to go back. By my count there are at least 21 items on the menu I

have yet to try -- and that’s among the sushi alone.

* JENNIFER MAHAL is features editor for the Daily Pilot. Dining

reviewer KATHY MADER is on vacation and her biweekly columns will return

in April.

FYI

WHAT: I Love Sushi

WHERE: 2340 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa

HOURS: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday,

11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday

COST: Inexpensive

CALL: (714) 540-6195

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