"Back up in the Valley, co-critic Patricia Escárcega reviews Sushi Bar, the offbeat, mostly hidden seafood spot in the center (quite literally) of Phillip Frankland Lee and Margarita Kallas-Lee’s Encino restaurant empire. The nearly two-year-old Sushi Bar has similarly spawned its own follow-up, this one in Montecito just south of Santa Barbara, but for Escárcega’s review purposes she’s focused on the one near the 405. There the critic finds the $125 omakase experience to be “fresh and uncomplicated,” even if it lacks some of the purity of other high-end sushi houses: Escárcega does quibble at the occasional speed of service, and the overall theatricality of the place, saying simply: Still, the food is satisfying and intriguing and worthy of a visit, though the review is short on details about who is doing the actual cooking when Lee is out of town at one of his many other ventures. There’s no question about the simple dessert from Kallas-Lee, though (“a sweet frozen lozenge of lime ice cream and black sesame shortbread encased in a green tea chocolate shell”); it is simply marvelous." - Farley Elliott
