Ikiru Japanese Restaurant

Two friends who worked together in a sushi kitchen during college, owner CJ and chef John Hon opened Ikiru in Liberty Station's old Naval Training Center complex, past a pair of forest-green Spanish doors and into a small, two-toned dining room with a black granite sushi bar in back. Hon serves fresh-cut wasabi alongside rotating uncommon fish, among them golden-eye snapper, flying fish and red seabream, plus an NTC Roll named for the neighborhood's history, its salmon seared with a blow torch instead of an open flame. San Diego Reader has called it a hole-in-the-wall that stayed small while the rest of Liberty Station expanded around it.