I tend to trust my instincts when it comes to restaurants, and my innate feeling was that Suki 7 would be all style but no substance. However, I had a slight hunch that this new Westlake Village sushi-ya would prove me wrong, and so I took advantage of a Calabasas appointment to swing by for dinner, just to eliminate the doubt once and for all. And wouldn't you know it, with each successive artisanally prepared plate arriving for my omakase order, I came to realize that Suki 7 suki-ceeded in inviting the imagination, but couldn't quite please my palate.

Don't get me wrong, it was still far more style than the substance warranted, but then this is Westlake Village we're talking about here. Suki 7 wants to be Geisha House in the suburbs, and there's nothing wrong with that plan, but let's call it what it is. With that out of the way, I had some marvelous looking sushi. My first course was a serving of mackerel and halibut sashimi, with some uni in an orange wedge just for decoration.

Floating on a bowl of ice, this plating would be sure to send the squeamish off, um, squeaming. The whole underside and head were kept as decoration, giving the illusion of a whole fish. Pea shoots and assorted other veggies decorated the plate. Like I said, it was a stunning presentation, but when I started eating, only the halibut really made me smile. Mackerel is one of my favorite sushi items, but because of its small size and slices in the bowl, it was hard to bring out the oilyness that I like. The uni was a little off, too, but it didn't show up on the final bill so I didn't mind.

Dish two was a combo of fish with pickles. On one side was salmon wrapped in daikon, scene kind-of in the mid ground of the headlining picture. On the other side was toro and pickled yellow radish.

Again, the plate was stylishly crafted, but the strong taste from the pickled radish completely decimated the flavor of the toro. The fattiness didn't come through at all as I was negotiating the sour crunch in my mouth.

On the other hand, the salmon and daikon worked well. The strong salmon flavor was able to penetrate the delicate daikon, and so here was an example of where substance finally was able to shine through.

The final dish was my favorite, a broiled whole sweet shrimp. The entire shrimp was available, including the brains, which allowed me to harken back to my afternoon assaulting crab at The Hungry Cat. The presentation was striking but simple. But even here, the shrimp was overdone, rendering the sweetness non-existent and creating simply, rubbery cooked shrimp. I've had raw lobster in the shell before, so I know how wonderful it can be, but this was just another miss.

For all of Suki 7's strengths, it's hard to overlook all the glaring misfires. The portioning wasn't what I wanted for the price, and it seemed I was paying more for the art, the clientele, and the rent. Perhaps omakase is not the specialty of this space, and I should have trusted my judgment in that regard. The previous tenant of this space had to vacate due to fire, and I left Suki 7 thinking that the styling was too hot for its own good.