Mandeville’s first sushi bar is still its best. A franchise of the original Little Tokyo on the south end of the Causeway, this is a tiny restaurant crammed into a cottage on the old highway that used to be US 190 (at the corner of Sharp Road). It is so popular that, even with the advent of other sushi bars in the area, you can’t always be assured of immediate seating. With good reason. The sushi bar here is staffed by a chummy (and occasionally hilarious) bunch of chefs. The fish is vividly fresh, served at the perfect temperature, and presented simply but with expertise. The Mandeville Little Tokyo has been ahead of the current game of inventing new, offbeat rolls, and although I think most of the new combinations here and elsewhere are more showy than good, they have been able to surprise me with some new deliciousness on my every visit. I’ve reached the point where almost nothing in my orders is on the official sushi sheet. The menu here is a bit different from those of the other Little Tokyos. The selection of elaborate non-sushi dishes is minimal, although if you come here with a hunger for teriyakis, tempuras, or noodle dishes, you’ll leave satisfied.
For a long time, Little Tokyo was the only sushi bar in Mandeville (or Covington, too, for that matter). Having a lock on the market didn't prevent it from becoming one of the best places for sushi and Japanese basics in the entire metro area. Now, even with much more competition, Little Tokyo remains very busy, for the best of reasons: it's still excellent.
This is a franchise of the Little Tokyo in Metairie, opened in 1997. It began with the style and standards of the original place, but over the years has added to it, so that it's now may be the best of the restaurants under the Little Tokyo banner.
The sushi bar and dining room are crammed into a converted residential cottage. It doesn't look at all like a sushi bar, inside or out. At standard dining times, it's always a full house, and the brisk take-out business makes the area around the front door sometimes logjammed. The restaurant is a little hard to find. The best instruction is that it's about two blocks behind the K-Mart on the old US 190, at the only traffic signal along that road.
Strike up a light, smiling conversation with the sushi chefs. Avoid most of the noon hour and early dinner, when the place is busiest.
| Attitude | 2 |
|---|---|
| Environment | 0 |
| Hipness | 1 |
| Local Color | 1 |
| Service | 1 |
| Value | 2 |
| Wine | 0 |
