Before one of the country's most famous sushi omakases opens in Los Angeles, diners can try it out through a new affordable delivery operation.
Sushi Nakazawa chef Daisuke Nakazawa, a former apprentice of famed sushi chef Jiro Ono, had always planned to open something more casual than his eponymous 20-course, Michelin-starred omakase restaurant. Ahead of its debut at the end of May, Hello. Dozo, which means “Hello, here you go,” was about two years in the making and offers a glimpse of what Los Angeles can expect when it gets its own Sushi Nakazawa in Beverly Grove later this year.
Sushi Nakazawa opened its first location in New York City in 2013 and then expanded to Washington, DC, five years later. Each currently has a one-Michelin star rating, with the global guide calling the omakase “a truly memorable sushi adventure” with “consistently excellent results.” When the Los Angeles outpost's opening stalled, eponymous chef and Sushi Nakazawa owner and founder Alessandro Borgognone decided to launch Hi. Dozo first. The delivery experience serves some of the restaurant's full ingredients, but in a more casual format and at a much lower price.
At the Nakazawa Sushi counter, the chef wants guests to eat each dish immediately. When it came to delivery, it was a completely new experience for Nakazawa. While many of the ingredients remain the same, Hello. The Dozo product, he said, is “completely different sushi.”
The menu is a mix of signature Sushi Nakazawa omakase items, such as scallop, along with more popular delivery sushi items, such as tuna, served in various ways. Four box sets mix and match nigiri, maki and sashimi, from the $34 Delights box to the Deep Dive, which doubles the amount of nigiri, at $54. A fifth set, the DIY, includes sashimi, rice, and ikura with nori sheets for temaki that you can assemble yourself, for $29. A full menu of a la carte nigiri, sashimi, maki and sides like edamame round out the offering, starting at $6 per nigiri.
Nakazawa and Borgognone prefer to source their seafood as locally as possible, but import multiple ingredients, such as tuna and ikura, from Japan, New Zealand and beyond. Many components of Hello. Dozo boxes, from Tamanishiki rice to ikura, are the same products served in the omakases of full restaurants. In New York, the omakase experience ranges from $160 to $190.
“Not everyone can eat at Sushi Nakazawa, especially price-wise, so what we wanted to do is offer a very accurate product at a reasonable price with the same skills and the same quality,” Borgognone said. “We thought Hello. Dozo was going to be a perfect fit for us.”
The DIY, a temaki kit from Hi. Dozo, presents bull, horse mackerel, salmon and ikura with rice, nori, edamame and seaweed salad.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Hello. Dozo currently serves North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, Burbank, Sherman Oaks and Hollywood Hills; If it proves popular, the team hopes to expand the delivery radius to more Los Angeles neighborhoods and possibly even open a brick-and-mortar location. For now Hello. Dozo is available to order Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 9 p.m. on DoorDash.
Nakazawa and Borgognone studied the market compulsively. Their tests were methodical, almost to the point of compulsion: perfecting rice that could withstand the delivery process—to avoid soggy or mushy rice, or rice that crumbles when pinched with fingers or chopsticks—required precision. At Sushi Nakazawa, the chef says he cooks it “hard” so guests can feel every grain, but for takeout, he cooks the rice with a little more moisture so it doesn't dry out on the way or become too soft or wet. “With rice vinegar, sometimes we add[ed] 20% more, 5% more,” Nakazawa said. “We try everything.”
The fish cuts are a little larger at Hi. Dozo boxes, since there are fewer pieces than omakase, and the team hoped to add value. Even the packaging and branding took months to finalize.
“At the end of the day, it's all a science,” Borgognone said. “It has to be the best product we can offer, from the packaging to the piece of tuna we buy in Japan and the ikura we serve. …Even though it’s not Sushi Nakazawa, you know it’s Sushi Nakazawa.”
Permitting and construction delays prompted the opening of the full restaurant, but Nakazawa and Borgognone plan to open Sushi Nakazawa in Beverly Grove by the end of the year.
Borgognone oversaw the design of the entire restaurant and believes the Los Angeles location is his most beautiful space yet. It will feature an 18-seat bar, plus approximately 10 dining tables to seat 40 more guests. It also involves an open kitchen, Sushi Nakazawa's first full kitchen yet, which will result in new hot dishes.
“Our biggest concern is making sure that the product we're launching is really spectacular and is an experience, because what's the point of having another Japanese restaurant?” Borgognone said. “You guys have a lot of good ones and there's tremendous competition, and Los Angeles is Los Angeles, and that's why we chose Los Angeles.”
