Chiba Japanese Restaurant in North Hollywood

My dear friends Rick and Hiromi have been talking up this sushi place to me for several months maybe even almost a year. They would say that there's this guy who inherited this sushi place that's in an odd industrial-like area in North Hollywood but it's very popular and the quality of sushi is excellent. So finally, we made a date to go. I met them there. So I over shot the cross street and had to come the back way going south and as i got close to Saticoy, I started to remember. Have I been here before? I parked and walked up to the shop, which was in a mini-mall. Chiba is located at 11713 Saticoy St North Hollywood CA 91605. I walk in and there are two sushi bar areas. One had several sushi chefs and was packed with a party. The other was practically empty and had one sushi chef. Later I find out that this was extremely unusual because this was Shigs sushi bar, the owner and there's usually a line to sit there. I got to sit right in front of Shig and we started to talk before Rick and Hiromi arrived. Turns out we are about the same age. Shig talked about his father who recently passed away. I talk about my dad, who passed away at 49. I mention he had two restaurants and all of a sudden we realize that our families know each other and that he totally remembers me coming in with my Dad, brother and good friend Kio Griffith. This would be around 1986. How could he remember this? He described us down to details. It was amazing. The sushi was excellent and at times incredible and two orders where exceptional. The Tai Soup was completely off the chart. The uni was fresh, sweet and lush. Shig was awesome. He showed us a picture of him with Master Sushi Chef Jiro. That was quite magical, as was the entire experience at Chiba.