Murasaki Japanese Restaurant

This restaurant is in Aroma Center in Wilshire, not Korea Town Plaza. Anyway, we came here for my cousin’s birthday… & none of us had a pleasant experience. The restaurant got a «B» and their environment kind of lives up to that. We ordered some rolls and 3 bowls of Udon noodles. They wouldn’t let us order more than 3 Udons, for some odd reason. Anyway, the noodles were gross… $ 9 a bowl (over $ 10 with tax/​tip) and it lacked flavor. It tasted almost like flavorless noodles in a bowl of lukewarm water. RIP-​OFF! Quality of foods are horrible. Please don’t fall for the 50% off Roll special. I can go to my local supermarket and purchase fresher, more tastier rolls. Can I comment on the rolls? It tasted stale… almost like they had it preserved for a few months. Anyway, we were all discouraged. Won’t be going back.

I went there 3 times and I had to strike them out mainly due to poor business ethics.
I gave two stars mainly for descent tasting food. The owner lady there should be replaced with more business like-​minded manager to run there.

The closest Japanese place to me in K-​town. This is located on the top floor of the Korean Plaza. If you come here during your lunch break, let me warn you that it is s-​l-​o-​w. Lunch will easily run you over an hour. You have to be somewhat aggressive to ask for your bill and refills on tea. The rolls are pretty good and one order will fill you up.
I usually get the $ 9.99, 2 combo bento box, with chicken teriyaki and sashimi. This comes with 2 korean mini side dishes, miso soup and salad. I’ve tried the tempura, salmon teriyaki, beef teriyaki and they were dry.

I decided to take my friends here tonight for dinner after reading the other reviews. It sounded right up my alley. I“m not a sushi snob, I like big rolls and the freebies sounded nice. So imagine my disappointment when none of the aforementioned freebies appeared for my party (a large one at that, for which the management should have been thrilled considering we were one of maybe two other tables in the whole place on a Saturday night), and the fact that I had to get up out of my chair not once but twice to go find our server to ask her to clear the dirty dishes off of our table. She had disappeared and not checked on us for easily twenty minutes, all the while waiting on another table full of what looked like fat cat businessman types. I guess they get all the love here. I don’t recommend this place for all of that, and also my friends said that their halibut sashimi took five minutes to chew, it was so rubbery. no. big no.

Japanese food, Korean style
Came here for a biz dinner one night. This joint has a course menu that basically serves food in a very Korean way. (Like the Japanese restaurants you’d find in Korea. It’s called il-​shik-​jip) Walked in on a empty stomach, but left with stomach so full it stated to hurt like hell and by the time I got home I could not breathe.
You get so much variety of seafood, sushi, sashimi, (including special sashimi that’s been flown in directly from Korea) tempura, and the meal ends with Al-​bab (fish egg rice) and fish casserole. You will have to be really adventurous and open minded to truly appreciate the value of the food they serve there. The quality of the seafood there is just fantstic. Personally I am into hot sake, especially hire sake (sake with a burnt blowfish tail) and this was the first and only place I found that sells that particular kind of sake.
The course menu seemed pretty pricey, but well worth it. I am going to come here again when I am superdiduper hungry.

Came here for lunch with Jules Y., so I could run some errands — buy some Pro V1s for tomorrow’s golf tournament. Haha!
The prices for lunch are very reasonable. The food was good for Korean owned sushi. Sushi and sashimi was alright. My guess is that rolls are probably better here for lunch. I got to choose three items for $ 12.99. Jules Y. had two items for $ 9.99. They offer free miso soup, hot tea and dessert. I would come back for lunch when I need to get more golf equipment, especially since you get three hours free validated parking in the structure.
I have tried this place for dinner in the past and thought it was good. Korean sashimi is good because of all the free service items they provide. Last time, Austin C. and I ordered the sashimi special ($ 60 per person) and got a lot of food. Speaking of which, I think Austin C. owes me a sashimi dinner.

This place in all honesty is a 3 star joint, but I would like to prove why I gave it 4 stars. I probably would have never known this place existed if it wasn’t from my buddy that insisted we try this place. Murasaki is actually extremely easy to find– It’s located in the Aroma Sports complex on the 2^nd floor and for all you golf lovers, you know exactly where this place is. This random Japanese place was deserted on a Saturday night which made me nervous at first. There were 2 VIP tables that overlook Wilshire Blvd and I thought that was kinda ghetto fabulous. When you are presented your ghetto fabulous paper menus that can also be taken as a souvenir, you are gonna see the same 15 rolls that all Korean owned Sushi joints have. To my surprise however, this was one of the best experiences I have ever had at a Korean sushi joint…
First off, who knew Sushi could turn into a 6 course meal! First off, they served us Ice Green Tea… which I thought was a nice touch Then, a random serving of this potato/​rice porridge. Next came edamame and a wide assortment of Japanese and Korean pickles. It looked like panchan city at a sushi place. Then came the salad, then came miso soup. (this is all before the actual meal!)
Finally we get to the main courses. We had 2 rolls which were very standard. You know, the usual Spicy Tuna with crap on top and the California Roll with crap on top, however the roll portions were HUGE. Rolls range from $ 9 – 12. We also got Udon soup which was enough for 2 people to share. $ 9.
When you finally think you are done, they say, NO WAIT. MORE. Yes, you also get a scoop of red bean ice cream with your meal!!! Totally impressed with all the free extra food.
I’m sad that the location of this place is so crappy– but I am thinking perhaps they are more busy during lunch since its in a pretty traffic heavy area during the days.
I’m giving Murasaki some Unilocal love in efforts to support the friendly owner and the fact that I made out like a bandit with all the free food they include with their rolls! Eat here!