Gurume Sushi
In Irvine, so-so sushi and other Japanese fare at sometimes premium, sometimes mainstream prices
Our list of Orange County (and nearby/related) Japanese restaurants is both long and full of happy memories, reflecting both our love of the cuisine and numerous good to great options throughout OC cities; we’re especially delighted to visit someplace new (to us) that makes us want to become regulars. Unfortunately, Gurume Sushi isn’t among them. Despite offering omakase-style sushi in the same pricing stratosphere as Irvine-based alternatives Izakaya Osen and Ootoro Sushi, Gurume lacked the artistry, flavors, and service to wow any of our group at those rivals’ levels.
Located in the same restaurant-rich Walnut Village Center as Dolan’s Uyghur Cuisine, Maji Curry, Omomo, Stacks, Trader Joe’s, and Wanderlust Creamery, Gurume occupies an attractively decorated corner spot with seating for perhaps 100 people across indoor and outdoor dining spaces. A glass-boxed sushi bar in the back and a small bar off to the left of the dining room are visual focal points for a handful of booths and a larger collection of freestanding tables, each given substantial ceramic plates and soy sauce bowls, one communal wasabi and ginger dish, and disposable wooden chopsticks.
Guests receive two menus at lunch and one for dinner: a laminated single-sided page of lunch specials, and a two-sided placemat-sized sheet of all-day/dinner options. One side of the sheet focuses on carpaccios and ceviches ($12/3 pieces), sashimi ($16 to $43 for smaller portions, plus deluxe $160 to $210 assortments), “signature” cut rolls ($19 to $26), hot pots and noodles ($20 to $31); the other on steamed, fried and grilled plates ($7 to $31), meal-sized teishoku sets ($28 to $42), soups ($3 to $11), and rice bowls ($31 to $52). An additional page of omakase options includes an elaborate 11-course ($120) option spanning multiple sushi, sashimi, and cooked dishes; 10-piece nigiri sushi ($53) and 18-piece sashimi ($73) omakases are also available, each including salad and miso soup. Single-piece sushi add-ons range from $10 to $18, becoming fancier in ingredients (wagyu, uni, and caviar) at the $18 mark. Seven desserts are also available ($6 to $11).
Unsure about whether to explore the omakase, we decided to order a la carte so we could explore a wider swath of the menu. Our favorite dishes were ones with somewhat memorable flavors or textures, starting with the agedashi tofu ($10), which attractively paired eight slices of crispy battered tofu with shredded nori, bonito fish flakes, scallions, grated radish, and a sliced cherry tomato. While this rendition of the classic Japanese dish wasn’t Kin Izakaya-class special, its batter absorbed enough of the soy sauce to properly balance salty, umami, creamy, and oily sensations. We also enjoyed the subtle flavors of Gurume’s Hokkaido scallop “carpaccio” – served in a soy-based sauce and topped with a nano-spoonful of caviar, but not as thin-sliced as its name would have suggested – and gurage sunomono, a small pile of chewy, clean-tasting jellyfish shreds served with sweet pickled cucumbers, vinegared seaweed, and radishes. None of these plates blew our minds, but they were all solid.
Salmon don – a $22 lunch special – was literally the biggest surprise of the bunch. We expected nothing more than a rice bowl topped with salmon sashimi, but wound up with a full meal including miso soup, a basic salad, small bowls of pickled lotus roots, cabbage, and hard-boiled egg, a plate of shrimp and vegetable tempura, and roughly 10 small sheets of nori paper. The quantity was the most impressive part, though: Gurume’s raw salmon, soup, and tempura were just pretty good, and once the large pieces of fish were gone, the rice was so strongly vinegared and bereft of other ingredients that the person who ordered it didn’t want to finish it, even with the nori paper.
Other items were more problematic. A soft shell crab appetizer ($14) included two nicely-sized crabs, a squeezable lemon, and some lettuce, but the breaded crabs were overcooked, with more burnt/oily flavors than tender, juicy crab. Two “ceviche” plates – amberjack miso and bluefin tuna ($12 each) – were basically three slices of sashimi-grade fish (the latter unexpectedly seared), sitting in a creamy, vaguely citric sauce underneath microgreens and matchstick fried onions; the flavors and prep weren’t recognizably ceviche by Mexican, South American, or other standards. And two sushi rolls, a crab/shrimp/tuna/yellowtail Marathon roll with orange slices and soy paper ($14) and a Cajun bluefin/spicy tuna roll ($19), were each large but off in taste, the latter drowned in crispy onions and mayo. The consistent thread across all of these dishes was that fresh fish, which should have been the star of their plates, was either smothered or muted by other flavors.
Thankfully, our meal ended on a strong note: Gurume’s most expensive dessert, the black sesame creme brulee ($11), was outstandingly strong in black sesame flavor, with a nice caramelized sugar top and a just-right custardy texture inside. It was the only true “no notes” item in the bunch, and also the only thing we’d miss if we didn’t visit again. On that note, we’re not planning another visit at this point: Our view is that this is a competent restaurant serving fine-to-good dishes, with plenty of similarly priced but better local competitors. Having walked in hoping to become regulars, we walked out feeling like we’d simply checked it off a list, and unless something changes, won’t feel the need to come back for more.
Stats
Price: $$-$$$
Service: Table
Open Since: December 2021
Address
14429 Culver Dr.
Irvine, CA 92604
949.932.0678
Instagram: @gurume_irvine