Fish

Sawara Nigiri

Introducing Our Sawara Nigiri

By Phil Hamlett October 9, 2025 Fish / Los Angeles / SUGARFISH

This mild-flavored mackerel, found on our limited availability menu, is specially sourced from Japan and served with ponzu, a touch of garlic & ginger, and fresh chives. Unlike the more intense Saba or even to some degree Aji, Sawara eats more like Albacore. After spending nearly a year building a direct source of Sawara from Japan that is consistently up to our quality standards we are excited for you to try it! The English name for Sawara can be a […]

Continue reading
seafood labeling

Sushi Nozawa Group x The LA Seafood Monitoring Project

By Phil Hamlett October 9, 2025 Fish / Los Angeles / SUGARFISH

At Sugarfish, KazuNori and Nozawa Bar we are fanatical about the ingredients we serve and work relentlessly to uphold our quality standards. Seafood mislabeling gets quite a bit of press attention from time to time and it turns out this issue is a lot more complex than people think. Sushi Nozawa Group has taken a leading role with Loyola Marymount University in the LA Seafood Monitoring Project, which aims to significantly reduce the incidence of confusion, mislabeling — and at […]

Continue reading
Plate with single piece of SUGARFISH abalone nigiri

Food Spotlight: Abalone

By Clement Mok September 19, 2019 Fish / Food Spotlight

At Nozawa Bar and the Sushi Nozawa Group, we painstakingly plan how we serve every dish in order to highlight the flavors and textures of each main ingredient. But we also take very seriously the question of what we choose to serve with respect to sustainability, opting to either stop serving certain species or sourcing the same species from a more sustainable source — but only if the fish meets our quality standards. Abalone is a good example. Considered a […]

Continue reading
Illustration of tuna with various hangtag paper labels

Seafood Monitoring Project

By Clement Mok September 2, 2017 Featured / Fish / SUGARFISH

Fish labeling can be more complicated than it seems. For instance, per the FDA, “Amberjack” is the only acceptable market name for five of six Seriola species despite variation in both price and taste. More confusing still is the fact that these species are traditionally sold under separate names in Japan (names like Kanpachi and Hamachi, which are different fish, and names like Hamachi or Buri, which are the same fish but at different ages.) Cras ultrices iaculis Fusce ultricies dolor a eros dignissim at […]

Continue reading
KazuNori SUGARFISH Nozawa Bar