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Located on the ground floor of a magnificently designed new building on Melrose Avenue, Umeda Restaurant opened its doors earlier this year. Across the street from Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza and Chi Spacca, Umeda is on the north side of Melrose, on the corner of Citrus, just west of Highland. Omeda quietly opened with little fanfare but luckily some friends told me about it. Umeda Restaurant is named after its chef, Takuya Umeda. Takuya Umeda began his career in Sapporo, Japan and worked with chef Nobu Matsuhisa at Nobu London between 1997 to 2003. Umeda then came to work at Nobu's Matsuhisa in Bevelry Hills until 2017, when he opened his own restaurant. In the front of the house is the friendly and charming Joseph Mansour who also worked at Matsuhisa for almost a decade. 
Amidst the steakhouses and Italian restaurants that line Canon Drive in Beverly Hills is the Japanese restaurant Shiki. Actually it is in the former location of Enoteca Drago, across the street from Wally's and Wolfgang's Steakhouse. Shiki is owned by Zen Noh, Japan's National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, the largest agricultural cooperative in Japan. Zen Noh was started in 1972 to support small farmers. They opened Shiki in Beverly Hills in order to showcase and increase awareness of local specialty products, such as Wagyu beef and Japanese rice, amoung other products. shiki-beverly-hills-2 Chef Shigenori (Shige) Fujimoto is from the Gifu Prefecture in Japan. He trained in tradiitonal washoku as well as sushi and worked in Japan before coming to Los Angeles in the early 1990s. He worked at Matsuhisa Restaurant in Beverly Hills from 1993 to 2004 and then at the former Shige in Santa Monica, Irori in Marina del Rey and Asanebo in Studio City, which received a Michelin Star. In 2013, Fujimoto began working at Shiki. Chef Shigenori (Shige) Fujimoto
We approached Osawa just before they opened at 5pm and there was already a line at the door. Despite the rain, these people wanted to be the first in the door. Osawa Osawa is a Japanese restaurant located in Old Town Pasadena. Owned by Sayuri Tachibe and her husband Chef Shigefumi Tachibe (former corporate executive chef of the Chaya Restaurant Group), Osawa offers something for everyone. There is sushi, shabu shabu, sakana (or otsumami), udon and sukiyaki. Owners Executive Chef Shigefumi Tachibe and Sayuri Techie You can sit at tables, at the sushi bar or at the shabu shabu bar. Of course you can order anything from the menu from any seat, except shabu shabu. If that is what you want, you will want to be sure to sit in the section with the heated plates.
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