It started with a list. My five picks for the Top L.A. Japanese restaurants appeared on NBC’s bygone Feast website in March, 2011, and included places like Urasawa, Torihei and Otafuku. Tokyo-born Tomo Kurokawa e-mailed, implying that it was time to dig deeper. And dig we did, along with fellow friend Bill Esparza. Our initial meal was at Kiriko, a sushi-focused restaurant that Tokyo-born chef Ken Namba opened to end the 20th Century. After moving to L.A., Tomo started taking bi-monthly trips to Kiriko, a small establishment on the Sawtelle side of the Olympic Collection.

Tomo said that the name Kiriko refers to the style of decorative etchings on sake glasses. We sat at the pine bar, lit by mismatched lanterns, and enjoyed a good meal (and of course sake).

Tomo brought back prized ingredients from her travels home, including sea cucumber ovaries, which arrived in a packet, formed into a red triangle. Chef Namba toasted them over an open flame until they became charred, chewy, and jerky like. This could become a bar snack. Well, maybe not.

Mullet roe was Tomo’s other mystery item.

Chef Namba combined the crumbly mullet roe with jicama to form a salad.

Even better was his sliced roe with chunks of firm, earthy taro, showered with grated roe.

Sea snails seasoned with subtly sweet mix of sake, sugar and mirin posed a fun challenge, as we had to use toothpicks to groove long and winding snails from their houses.

Tiny mushrooms appeared with okra and fresh shaved wasabi, which isn’t as spicy as the standard horseradish substitute. Tomo said they like to layer slimy on slimy in Japan, and this was a good example.

Hakkasan junmai daiginjo, a food friendly sake from northeastern Japan, arrived in a bamboo vessel. Daiginjo means that they polish up to 50% of the contributing rice grains, resulting in a smooth sip.

Of course the sipping didn’t stop with sake. We also ordered malty Yebisu beer.

Creamy slabs of monkfish liver appeared with cool ponzu gelee. Thick savory Smucker’s.

We continued with a small Kusshi oyster from British Columbia, served au natural, and Hama Hama from Washington, dressed with gelee-free ponzu, scallions and chile’d mashed daikon.

They presented fried gobo root ($5.50) like fibrous Lincoln logs, but my logs never sported chile-flecked panko or blistered shishito peppers growing up. This was a serious improvement.

Japanese Mackerel Sushi had silver skin, rich natural oils and concentrated ocean flavor.

One of my favorite courses featured salmon two ways. Silky, buttery salmon ($6) appeared with a dab of wasabi and received a quick dip in soy. Cherry wood smoked salmon ($7), smoked the day before, had more sweetness, and of course a hint of smoke.

Ken Namba previewed our sashimi course, presenting massive sea scallops. He prefers to source the shellfish from Baja, and has taken multiple trips to Mexico’s Northwestern-most state to enjoy seafood.

Our deluxe sashimi platter included unadorned pink snapper, snapper with sea salt, seared Japanese bonito with garlic ponzu sauce, assorted radishes and ginger.

Chef Namba slid a thin layer of crisp, salty nori between slices of sweet, silky sea scallop.

Unadorned pink snapper was relatively mild, with a rosy hue and gorgeous skin.

Snapper received a hit of sea salt, which accentuated the fish’s natural flavor.

Seared Japanese bonito with garlic ponzu sauce had a nice savory flavor and crisp accompaniments.

Live Sweet Shrimp Sushi (M.P. = $14) was one of our splurges, and totally worth it.

The sweet shrimp featured a beautiful rosy hue, and a pleasantly fibrous texture. The shrimp must not have had time to go through rigor mortis, and we benefited from their freshness.

The head was available deep fried or in soup. The fried head still had sweet meat attached, not incinerated like some versions. It ended up taking a feelers-first bath in scallion-flecked ponzu dipping sauce.

Timber. My uni toppled. Good thing it didn’t affect the taste. The Sea Urchin Sushi ($10) sported a spicy dab of wasabi and tasted creamy up front, with an oceanic hit in back.

Chef Namba prefers “small” 300-pound bluefin from the Atlantic coast of Africa, as opposed to 500-pound behemoths that are tough closer to the head and tail. He torched the toro and combined with soy, dabs of yuzu and shaved jalapeno to form a fatty, rich and indulgent treat.

He also dressed uncooked toro sushi (M.P.) with soy sauce, which practically melted.

It isn’t normally my style to post menus, but Kiriko’s dessert menu was especially cool.

We finished with trio of house made ice creams, including mildly sweet honey vanilla with earthy red bean and Okinawa black sugar syrup ($4.50).

Gritty black sesame honey combined to form a toasty sweetness.

Kiriko staffers flecked brown sugar ice cream with spicy-sweet candied ginger.

We had a very good meal at Kiriko, but clearly have plenty of other culinary treasures to explore, as evidenced by the basket of fried fish chips on the counter. It was tempting to stuff my pockets with crispy fins and abscond to the parking lot, but instead, we’ll just have to return to Sawtelle.