Wow, absolutely amazing. I never would have thought that one of the most exquisite Japanese restaurant’s I’ve been to in the US would be in my old hometown of Orange. Run by a friendly husband and wife team, Ohshima provides a refreshingly eclectic and delicious take on the traditional Japanese small plate dinner with global combinations and exciting textural juxtapositions.

After wetting our appetite with a beer and a junmai-shu sake recommended by the chef, we started with little bitter melon ringlets stuffed with ground beef and lightly fried in tempura batter. The sharpness of the vegetable cut the richness of the beef with the tempura batter providing a perfectly light, non-oily coating. We also had broiled black cod in a yuzu (Japanese lime) based marinade- a nice departure from the usually sweet miso marinated version. Then came a green papaya salad with dried little fish and Japanese rice crackers – a crunchy twist on a Thai classic- followed by a custard soup with bbq eel. The custard soup was an absolute revelation, lighter than any version I’ve ever had with a deliciously perfumed broth surrounding a plump piece of eel.

And if this weren’t enough, there was the sushi. I don’t know much about sushi, but there were over 20 different varieties flown in from Japan, many of which I hadn’t seen since living in the mother land. I had scallop, amberjack, black snapper, gizzard shad, needle fish, mackerel, yellowjack, and some unknown shellfish. Every fish was wonderfully fresh and the chef presented a variety of textures and flavors ranging from the delicate, creamily soft scallop to the tender and richly oceanic yellowjack. Each piece came pre-seasoned and sauced, leaving the diner only with the task of consumption.

And it didn’t stop there! On the house, the chef provided us with a seaweed salad with bits of raw tuna in a miso based dressing. It was an awesome textural composition with the crunchy seaweed and the tender tuna all lightly veiled in a subtlety sweet dressing.

We concluded the meal with green tea and azuki bean ice cream. A perfect ending to an already perfect meal.