RESTAURANT REVIEW:

The last time I was in Gen Kai, I don’t recall it, but it wasn’t really my fault.

Ha Ha (he swears that is his name. I wasn’t that impaired) poured me and my friend Andre some Soju Kuro Uma Gold, a Japanese sake made with a select grain of barley and aged for three years. After the third shot of the most mellow sake I have ever tasted, the evening seems like a blur, though my lone recollection was the food.

We ordered way too much food, though it seemed like a really good idea at the time. By the end of the evening the Soju Kuro Uma had worked its magic and we were ordering a cab.

I decided we needed to go back to the scene of the crime. I had heard enough good things about the Japanese restaurant, which was why we were there in the first place.

Ha Ha was there, but didn’t remember us at first. We started to realize we probably weren’t the first inebriated customers he had put over the edge with this premium sake.

While we pieced together the evening we told him of the drink he had plied us with, we thought it was Japanese tequila, but really there is no such alcohol, just a purer sake.

As we described it to him, he went to the back and grabbed a bottle and put it in front of us. Like vampires that recoil in sunlight, we pointed out the offender and confirmed our guilt.

This time we had diet Cokes, but Ha Ha kept the bottle in front of us at the sushi bar.

We ate salted edamame and pickled cucumber salad while we waited for our first order, spicy tuna with cucumber. It came with spicy mayo and red chili sauce on the side and was the perfect dip for the fresh tuna.

A crunch roll came next, the shrimp tempura was mixed with cucumber, crunchy tempura and smelt roe on top. There were nice chunks of crunchy, but not dried out shrimp. Again, another dip, a sweet mayonnaise and hoisin combination was perfect.

Hamachi, or yellowtail, was next. The sushi came in two pieces, thick, precision cut pieces of the fish on a small thumb-sized rectangle of rice. The yellowtail was so fresh it almost had a creamy texture and the flavor seemed to pop once in my mouth.

Ha Ha kept visiting with a new dish we ordered, each time asking us whether we were sure we didn’t want some of the sake, laughing each time he asked us. We laughed along with him, though I think Andre and I are both plotting how we are going to come back and conquer the sake and have the last laugh.

It was a quiet topic of discussion as the tuna tataki appeared. The tuna tataki was one of three specials the restaurant had on the board and it looked the most interesting. It is strips of tuna built like a tower around a base and drizzled with a sauce of onions, garlic, soy sauce and sake.

Trying the lobster rolls is also highly recommended. The creamy bits of lobster with asparagus and avocado slices come wrapped in soy paper or seaweed paper. I prefer the soy paper, which is easier to eat.

The last item we got was the pizza roll. This intrigued us from the moment we saw it and the name kind of put us off, but we couldn’t take the suspense of not knowing what it was, so we caved in and ordered it. The cube of tempura roll is baked salmon and crab with a sauce of mayonnaise, eel sauce and sake. It sits on lemon slices and could have been the best thing we had.

The sauce makes the roll as the combination of mayonnaise, eel sauce and sake gives it a creamy and tangy kick.

By now the food had worn us out and a nap seemed in order, unfortunately we both had to return to work. Ha Ha had won again, and he hadn’t even poured a drop of sake.

ADDRESS: 3344 E. Coast Hwy., Corona del Mar

PHONE: (949) 675-0771

CUISINE: Japanese

SPECIALTY DISH: One of 11 rolls

ALCOHOL SERVED: beer, wine, sake

DRESS: Casual

FAMILY FRIENDLY: If they like sushi

CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED: American Express, Visa and MasterCard

RATING: ***

JOHN REGER is the Pilot’s restaurant critic. His reviews run Thursdays.