RESTAUARANT REVIEW:

When my friend and I walked into Hana No Ki, I knew two things were going to happen.

The first thing was the food was going to be fantastic and secondly, it was going to take forever to get it. I was correct on both counts.

Which was fine with me because I knew the food would be worth the delay. My lunch was planned to be long and I just felt fortunate to get one of the coveted seats that are usually taken at lunch. We walked in at 12:20 p.m. and there was one table left. We quickly grabbed it.

There are eight tables and 10 spots at the sushi bar. Although the room is small, there is no feeling of being cramped. There are dividers between tables and the chef is nearby, but you don’t feel like you are on top of him.

In addition to the chef, there is a woman who splits her time between the kitchen and helping out the waitresses.

Language was a bit of a barrier, but not too bad and they were so attentive despite being booked for lunch. We were greeted with free green iced tea that was constantly being refilled.

This place attracts Japanese business people and my friend and I were the only non-Asians in the restaurant. I knew that was a good sign. The waitress was smiling when she approached us and even though she wasn’t fluent in English, we managed nicely.

We ordered quickly and were told that with several orders of sushi before us, it was going to take a while before we got ours. No problem, we thought, we’ll order a lunch and by the time we are done the sushi would be ready.

The only problem was that the chef making the sushi was also making lunches, so we waited about 25 minutes for our food to arrive.

It was worth the wait. My dish was the fried Spanish mackerel and it came bento box style, served with miso soup, Japanese pickles, salad and white rice.

The mackerel was three medium-size pieces and lightly deep fried, but looked more baked and tasted like it spent time in an oven, rather than a fryer. That was good; it was light and you could taste the fish, which was fresh and worked well with the accompanying oyster sauce.

My friend had the katsu don, a pork cutlet that was cooked with egg, onion and seaweed. A choice of udon wheat noodle or soba buck wheat noodle come with the dish along with a salad.

The pork was quite tender and you could barely taste the egg, which was fine with me. The fewer distractions I have with the meat, the better.

While the lunch menu is limited, at least the English portion of it, the sushi menu is pretty varied. There are a decent amount of sushi and rolls.

The biggest surprise was the quality. It was incredible. The tuna and yellowtail was some of the best I have had in Orange County and very reasonably priced for the amount.

The crunch roll we had was good, as well. The shrimp was firm and the roll was not slathered in crunch sprinkles.

As good as my meal was, I felt like I was missing out on something. I would have liked to have known what the specials were, but wasn’t privy to them since I don’t speak or read Japanese. Some of the dishes that were coming out of the kitchen looked amazing.

But for now, if I want quality sushi, I will definitely be back.

HANA NO KI

ADDRESS: 891 Baker St., Costa Mesa

PHONE: (714) 557-8715

CUISINE: Japanese

SPECIALTY DISH: daily fish specials

ALCOHOL SERVED: Beer, wine and sake

ENTRÉE PRICE RANGE: $7.50 to $9.50

FAMILY FRIENDLY: Not so much

CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED: American Express, MasterCard, Visa

Rating: ***

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