Tokyo Delves Sushi Bar
5239 Lankershim Blvd
North Hollywood, CA 91601
Last night I had the pleasure of going to Tokyo Delves Sushi Bar and Restaurant in North Hollywood, California. I was celebrating a friend’s birthday and successfully graduating from Pharmacy School. The sushi bar experience was extensive and it began outside waiting in line.
As I approached the exterior of the Tokyo Delves Sushi Bar, I saw a brightly lit neon façade of multiple colors. The sign made the sushi bar easy to find from the street in my car. I was able to park on the other side of Lankershim in a metered parking spot. But since it was after 6PM I didn’t have to feed the meter.
I talked with the bouncers who said that I needed to wait for my party to arrive. So I waited behind the red fabric tape. It reminded me of waiting to get inside a club. This was curious because when I talked with my friend I had the impression that the Tokyo Delves was just a restaurant, boy was I in for a surprise!
Everyone around me got carded except me, I guess my beard gave me away that I was over 21. The bouncer said, “You’re all good. We only card if you look under 25.” That made me feel good because usually I get carded all the time. After all my friends got to there one friend said that he and his girlfriend might not get let in because they were wearing sandal flip flops. So let that be a lesson that Tokyo Delves Sushi Bar may enforce a footwear dress code.
As we entered the Sushi Bar we were greeted by the staff that was cheering and yelling and giving everyone high fives as we entered. I knew I was in for a wild night. We were seated at a table for 14 and the waiter was wearing a bandanna and a long metal chain around his neck. He looked cool. To the table behind us, there was a waitress who was dancing with her hands up in the air and getting freaky trying to pump up the energy of the patrons. It worked. The people at the table started screaming riotously.
The waiter then encouraged everyone to take sake bombs. I don’t drink but I know how they work. The beer was in little mini wooden kegs (well, they were plastic, but they looked like wood). First, you take a mug and fill it half way with Japanese beer. Then you take two chopsticks and put them about an inch apart on top of your mug. Next you take a shot of sake and put it on top. At this point your sake bomb should look like the picture. Finally, the waiter saw that I wasn’t setting up my sake bomb and he asked, “What’s up?” I told him that I didn’t drink and he said, “Ok, I’ll get you a coke. But when I yell ‘sake’ you still have to yell ‘bomb’ got it?” I agreed and we all chanted along with the waiter as we slammed on the table and the hot sake fell into the mug. Everyone drank up and beer and sake got everywhere. But that was ok, because Tokyo Delves supplied us with blue towels to wipe up the table.
The sushi menu was pretty good. There was a small selection of nigiri (single slices of fish on top of white rice) sushi. But there were 4 different types of sushi family style platters of rolls to choose from. This made the ordering process go faster. None of us tried the cooked meat dishes like teriyaki chicken but they had that available for order.
In between ordering and getting our food. There was a lot of music and dancing. Girls from other tables danced with me and that was fun. Our birthday girl was encouraged to stand on her chair and have a dance-off contest to see if she could win a Sapporo T-Shirt. She didn’t win the shirt be she made it to the finals for the dance contest and that made my friend happy. The bartender did a great version of N-Sync lip singing and the rest of the staff kept the energy and fun up the entire night.
When we got our food it tasted good. I was surprised because I expected the sushi to taste like trash because of how the restaurant focused so much on entertainment. But I was surprised. The slices of fish were generously sized and my only complaint was that they only included a tiny bit of wasabi (wasabi is a Japanese style horseradish that is quite spicy).
After dinner there was a big performance of the waiters and bartenders doing songs and rocking out to the music. Everything was USA stars and strips inspired so the music and dress had a very patriotic theme. There was even a Jimi Hendrix impersonation with guitar playing on an inflatable toy. Overall the experience was very entertaining, and the price for my dinner was $30 since I didn’t drink and $50 per person for the people who did. The dinner and entertainment was about 2 hours and everyone seemed to have a good time. I would recommend Tokyo Delves Sushi Bar for anyone who wanted to party it up BIGTIME while having their sushi. If you are looking for a relaxing place to have sushi with your parents, this place isn’t for you. But if you want to drink and celebrate and dance on your chair, Tokyo Delves provides to perfect atmosphere for unbridled fun.