From The New Orleans Menu Daily By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published July 3, 2007 Little Tokyo 2$ Metairie: 1521 N. Causeway Blvd. 831-6788 Lunch and dinner continuously, seven days. AE DC DS MC V Japanese. Several restaurants bear the Little Tokyo name, now and in the past. Although they are associated in a loose way, they've always varied widely not only in their menus but in the quality of their food. I've had both the best and worst sushi I've ever experienced in New Orleans under the Little Tokyo name. The Little Tokyo on Causeway Boulevard in Metairie is the original, and one of the best. In business longer than any other sushi bar except Shogun, it attracts a large regular clientele that fills the parking lot at most open hours. One of the reasons for that popularity is that old come-on, quantity. Little Tokyo's most famous dish is the Love Boat, an eye-popping collection of tempura, teriyaki, sushi, and sashimi, brought out in an actual boat that fills not only the two customers it's designed to feed, but most of the area of the table as well. Although many Japanese restaurants now have something like this, the Little Tokyo was the first, and it made them many friends in the large quantity-is-everything demographic. Do not get the Love Boat. It's not bad, but it's highly generic, and more for visual interest and stomach-filling than for gustatory interest. Instead, focus on the sushi. They buy good fish here, and the almost ridiculously large staff of sushi chefs (it seems as if five or six of them are always back there, gossiping in Japanese with one another as they bang out the nigiri and rolls out with astonishing speed) are skillful as they are quick. There was a time when I would have placed this Little Tokyo's sushi bar among the top three or four in town. But in recent visits I find it less careful than I remember. I have a feeling that the opening of the newest Little Tokyo--in the former space of Chateaubriand Steakhouse in Mid-City--may have lessened the attention this one gets from management. However, there is no question that one can eat well here. A recent dinner started with some terrific, spicy gyoza. Then tuna tataki, sliced too thick and lacking the peppery crust that dish often has. Nigiri sushi of lemonfish, uni, and yellowtail were all fine in terms of flavor, freshness, moistness, and temperature--a shade less than magical. An order of asparagus sushi was made prettily and well with very small asparagus with a dollop of seasoned mayonnaise on top--a touch I've never seen before, and will ask them to leave off next time. (Entirely too much mayonnaise in sushi bars these days.) From the inevitable list of enormous, overcomplicated rolls, I chose the tuna and tuna roll--sliced ahi on top, spicy tuna in the middle, with avocado. This avoids the mishmash problem of most of these fancy rolls, in which each major ingredient fights with the others. Little Tokyo does get the prize for creative roll names, which include the FEMA roll and the Bye-Bye Katrina roll (neither of which I'd recommend). If you're not eating sushi, the pickings are routine. The service staff is a good deal less than attentive. And if you happen to sit at the bar with somebody who's eaten here three or four times a week for ten years, bury your nose in a magazine and try to avoid the conversation about what constitutes "authentic" Japanese food. This place could use a little renovation. And the boats need some time in the drydock. This was a restaurant in the 2007 Top Sixty Ethnic Restaurant Countdown. To view the entire list, click here. Click here for an index of all restaurant reviews. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com.