Closing down....

I have moved to Denver and started a new site for my new place. http://denverrestaurantreviews.blogspot.com/

Sushi King

Who would dare go to a sushi place that sounds like a burger joint? Well, I did, at the recommendation of a very trustworthy source. I still almost walked out after walking in--the place was hot and smelled like fish. And, lest you forget, the name is sushi king.

But, forging ahead, confident in my source and hungry for sushi, I waited for about 20 minutes just to get a seat at the sushi bar. All of this was well worth it. The yellowtail was amazing (fancily cut with a long thin piece dangling off the rice). Melt-in-your-mouth toro. Good albacore. Another treat of the evening was the spicy yellowtail roll with mayo. I think I may have special ordered something because I watched as he choppped the yellowtail and mixed it in with the spice and mayo right in front of me. You can't get a much fresher roll than that--and with a phenomenal result.

So, brave the name, brave the eye-raising and snickers from your friends. Go to Sushi King. Just remember to dress in layers.

Q's

Out skankified in the later parts of the evening only by neighboring Cabo's, this is fun place to grab a bite for lunch or an early happy hour. The menu has a significant amount of choices and everything I've had is good. Calamari (fairly lightly fried). Cobb salad--with real baconand fresh toppings. Santa Fe salald--hint try their cilantro (yes, green) salad dressing. Potato skins. Nachos (in piles). A ton of sandwiches that I've never gotten to but look good on other people's plates. Interesting daily specials like egg salad and other random things. The waiters and waitresses are nice to the eyes--though unfortunately for us chicks the girls far outnumber the few token males they put behind the bar.

Better yet, before 7 p.m. pool is free. $3 draft beers (with a large selection of imports) from 4-7. Beats 2-4-1 Coronas anyday. If you're not playing pool, head upstairs to find a comfy gathering spot. Upstairs is also the home of a bonafide shuffle board and air hockey.

Barney's Beanery

If you are bearing the promenade anyways, this is a great place to grab a casual bite to eat. The menu is huge and presented like a newspaper. There are about 20 different types of potato skins alone! 20 different burgers and as many different sandwiches. We went for a specialty pizza--don't remember the name, but it had chicken, peppers, full-flavored mozzarella, tomatoes, red onions, and cilantro (yes, I hadn't been to Wahoo's yet this week and was lacking in the green sauce category).

At least, yes, 20 beers on tap. I chose the Barney-made brew--an amber ale. Pretty good, but nothing special. What's cool about the beer list is that it's sorted by country and state--even non-eventful beers like Miller's are sorted under Milwaukee.

A heated patio and comfy decor make this a great little place to get OUT of the way of all the people meandering around and relax.

Boa

So much for no pretentious places. But first date with a guy that seems to have some potential...how do you get out of going some place you know you'll likely feel uncomfortable? Very typical combination of delightfully thoughtful details and excessively trying-to-look cool but very uncomfortable details. For example, the beer glass (yes, I ordered beer--Fat Tire to be specific) fit perfectly into your hand. It was curved in such as way that your fingers comfortably wrapped around it. Counter example, one side of the table at the bar had a very low bench seat that put the person sitting in it a foot below the person sitting on the other side. Outcome, we sat on the same side of the table which was actually quite a nice change of pace. But if you were with 4 people you'd be screwed.

The food? Delicious. I ordered the petite filet mignon with horseradish sauce (an extra sauce costs an extra $7--couldn't they just give you 2 to try, it would've been so fun!). The steak melted in your mouth and you didn't really need any sauces at all (still--it's about the fun of trying them, not needing them!). We split a large side of mushrooms--mix of all kinds cooked perfectly. The steak was served with an entire head of roasted garlice. I wasn't quite sure if you were supposed to eat it, but small bites complimented the steak well.

Overall? A little awkward with the prices being so high and everything being ala carte. Check it out for some special occasion when you can afford to do it up right. The steaks were that good.

Jaxx

Second dates always have the potential to become predicaments, but this was a great place to get our bearings. The best way I can think of to describe this place is a deli with beer. Not that it's really a deli, as the menu has sandwiches, salads, burgers and pizzas (including one called Yada Yada Yada) but there is a counter and it sort of has that feel.

Above all, Jaxx serves a beer called Doggie Style (which is a soft amber ale and very good and fun to order). The waiter gave us Road Dogg first by mistake, so we ended up with a table full of plastic mugs (two beers each, two waters, and an ice tea). We both ordered the chicken club which somehow became a chicken sandwich with melt-in-your-mouth smoked apple bacon. We never really figured out if it was us or the waiter that screwed the order up. It really didn't matter.

Jaxx has a neat little upstairs (which, at the time of my arrival was undergoing remodeling) with velvet booths and artwork adorning bright colored walls. For being in an area of L.A. which appears on the surface to be anything but touchy-feely, this place has a truly personal feel. Not that I'm an expert on Hollywood, but potentially a place to escape from the madness and dig into some good grub.

Joy Mart

Holding my breath....east of the 405....holding my breath....we're still going....holding my breath....we're off the freeway and things in L.A. are strangely reminiscent of Detroit....holding my breathe and we arrive at a quaint little village in the midst nothing and freeways and chaos. This was my first trip to Little Tokyo and we went to Joy Mart for dinner. Reservations turned out to be unnecessary as we were, for a blissful hour, the only customers in the place.

This place has rolls that can only be described as kick-ass. We started out with a shrimp tempura roll that wasw wrapped with carpaccio (slightly seared, thinly cut beef). there were so many flavors going on with each piece that you felt you needed to turn it around in your mouth over and over again to take it all in. The spicy scallop dynamite was next. This literally melted--there was no way not to break into a smile while putting one of these in your mouth. The Ahi Tuna sashimi was crusted with cracked pepper and sesame seeds. This was the one thing that looked better on the menu than it tasted in reality. Not bad, just not blowing your expectations out of the water either. Finally, a spicy yellowtail maki roll to which we added avocado. Ten pieces served spaced like seedlings on a long, thin sushi dish. The presentation of this was the coolest part. Very good, but so, so full.

For dessert, blue potato ice cream. This was more like a purple color and served with whip cream and a surprise treat of cornflakes at the bottom. Strangely enough, the combination went really well together. Despite my general protest against dessert, the ice cream helped smooth out all the flavors gobbling together in my tummy. The accompanying paper umbrella may prove useful in a collage someday as well.

Hakata

Bland and boring, this sushi place on Wilshire (somewhere in between 14th and 26th) has new owners with an old look. OK--I have been to places with worse decor but better sushi but this place is as strange as they come. Nice, "Denny's"style booths (not really that unlike Isshin which is one of my favorite places) were strangely complimented by sports and beer paraphernalia all over the walls. The bar had 4 TVs all with different sports games on -- very well set-up. The tables had white table clothes covered with glass counter tops and pink napkins. The walls were blue. The bar stools has bright purple cushins. I'm not seeing any sort of theme.

But the food! I ordered seared albacore, which was a little dry though the ponzu sauce was very good. The salmon was a little tough and I made a mess trying to bite off half of it. Cucumbers made their way into my yellowtail scallion roll which was otherwise very tasty. A 12 oz Sapporo was a little expensive at $5. After I ordered, I noticed some specials hanging on the wall over the sushi bar -- I could have gotten fresh albacore or tried some more toro.

The treat of the evening was a complimentary Sojourn (from the "new owners" who were conspicuously absent or hiding among the waitstaff). Nice after dinner drink to sip on. I wish I had taken a little more time sipping. I somehow confused the place by choosing the pay for my drinks and food with the same credit card. Between getting my food bill from the waiter and getting things racked up on my credit card I had an eternity to ponder the meal and notice more and more oddities about my surroundings, such as a Christmas-tree looking aloe plant included--three feet of perfectly placed aloe stems with a bow on top. It was one of those times when you expect you could write a detailed second-by-second recollection of what happened that would somehow manage to be amusing when the 10 minutes that passed seemed like an hour. Those moments included the waiter breezing by which stacks of food and other people's bills, the bartender trying to figure out how to pour saki from one of those large containers, a seemingly non-sushi couple sitting down, knowing the bartender, and asking the difference between the $9 and $15 bottles of saki, as if they were used cars, the sound of a manual calculator going to add up orders, a sushi chef paging through a magazine, and the bustle of 3 people looking at my bill as if to figure the whole thing out--geez it was only $20!

The Shack

Yes, I've been here before, but this time I had company which made it more entertaining. This place really has the feel of a shack. There always seem to be kids running around and scratching up the pool tables. I've never been there for a Philadelphia game, but I'm sure this is THE place to be in L.A. to see the Eagles.

Reasonably priced beer is paired with a decent menu. I was stuck between a Philly Cheese Steak (come on!) and a turkey sandwich--available with smoked gouda and mayo and tomato and on sourdough bread. I was a little disappointed that the cheese was not all nice and melted, but the sandwich was soft and flavorful anyway.

Great place for an after-beach snack. They also have an outdoor patio in the back--overlooking the parking lot, but hey, outdoor seating (especially offstreet) is kind of difficult to find in L.A.

Mio Babbo's

A nice little mom and pop shop on Gayley in Westwood Village, this Italian restaurant made way for our 16-person L.A. Link Up group. The dinner was awkward, but hey, very few people knew each other. I had the mixed blessing of sitting across from both the strangest and cutest guys at the table. Lucky for me they were two different people. Unlucky for me, the cutest appeared to be half attached to an industry chick (OK, she was nice, but talked way too much about movies and tv and scripts and talent and everything else I hate about this damn place), but he was also not too into movies, so you never know what the next link-up event might bring. ;-)

The service was slow, but it was such a large group. Still there were moments when you were like, couldn't you please take our order or bring us our bill like 5 minutes ago? Still, they took special reqests, giving me my shrimp and scallop pasta with linguine instead of penne. The sauce was a little heavy with the spinach flavor (as opposed to the creamy vodka flavor I was expecting) and the scallops were a little dry (ahh!), but the portabello mushrooms were savory enough to make up for all of these downfalls. The caesar salad lacked great croutons and was small, but the dressing was a delight. Complimentary pesto/cheese/pepper on toasted crackers was a nice treat. House wine was good but a little pricey. Fresh roses on the table and in a dish on the bathroom was a rare, luxurious-feeling treat.

All in all, a nice little find for a quiet dinner if you don't run into a big random group like us. I probably could have ordered a little better. The ravioli looked amazing and there was actually enough to make it look like a real meal.

Asuka

You can't get better service than someone staking out a parking spot right in front of the door and feigning a knee injury to keep other would-be parkers away. But then again, this guy did not work for the restaurant, but he make a good choice in picking it.

Asuka is on Westwood, just south of Wilshire. Friendly sushi bar. We had all kinds of different rolls -- spicy tuna with avocado, spicy crunchy albacore, and (my first time) torro with scallions. I had no idea sushi could feel so decadent. Torro (fatty tuna) is like getting that really juicy piece of the filet of a steak, but it's tuna! Ah!

For true sushi, we had Spanish mackerel--another first for me. The seared albacore could not rival that of En or California Roll, but the young yellowtail was phenomenal. Skip the endame here. Choose beer over wine (like anyone else but me drinks wine at a sushi bar anyway). Complimentary oranges for dessert.

The lowdown: Good place to try some different, yet authentic feeling dishes without breaking the bank.

Sasaya "happy happy home"

Lured in by a promotion (99 cent Sapporo), I entered Sasaya with high hopes. After all, I frequent every sushi bar on the block at least once per month and this place has been open for at least two.

The menu was difficult to read, Japanese overwhelmed the brief English descriptions. Luckily, the bartendar was happy enough to help me through the menu.

I started with yellowtail sashimi (normal enough) and tried to order the wasabi-marinated octopus. The bartendar sort of started and was like"are you sure?" -- so cute -- he said it was normal for him but not someone like me. nice. I got a free sample for my daring. It was good but too chewy to enjoy a large amount. The sashimi was beautiful, like everything presented at this place.

Before I go on, I must say that the bartender was extremely helpful and willing to answer any question I asked. The service was excellent, gracious, ....

Back to food: moved on to a calamari crepe. Gorgeous, but with a few to many of the chewy pieces. So unnecessary. But the crepe was excellent and the two sauces dazzled over it mixed swimmingly. Then salmon sushi in a special style (don't remember). I was warned that it was pressed, but not that it was smoked. Smoked sushi, some sort of egg over it (tried one, didn't like it) -- and WAY more rice than salmon. Probably the equivalent of one piece of sushi smushed over 4 rice pieces. To no avail, I was full, and couldn't even pretend to enjoy it.

Overall, I was much more happy than this review would leave you to believe. I learned a lot. I tried new things. I enjoyed some of them. After all, you can't expect to love everything you randomly pick off a menu you don't understand.

Velocity Cafe

Located on Lincoln, just south of Pico, this is a great little cafe with atmosphere. Eclectic furniture and artwork are littered everywhere. I must admit that I was a little spooked out by the giant lion and horse statues sitting in between the tables (especially since from my chair it appeared that the lion was getting ready to chomp at the horse's you know what).

Great selection of sandwiches and breakfasts with the option to create your own. I decided on the California Cabrese sandwich -- mozzarella, tomatoes, red onion, spinach, and (of course), avocado on a panini. Comes with a balsamic dipping sauce. All very, very good.

Cabo Cantina starts a liquid Friday

Let's get this straight. I would never go to this place if it was not so close to work. After being open for a measly few months, it already has the smell of a 20-year-old fraternity house. But, given the fact that there are only three bars within easy walking distance and one of them is the pretentious Bandera that attracts an older, but much more desperate crowd, I end up at Cabo a few times per month. Often I brave the young, scantily dressed crowd, end up holding two beers at a time, and laugh as my male co-workers' eyes wander. Yesterday I even ate there. I was in a mood for a risk.

The lowdown: It's just cheap Mexican without the quality that you can get so many other places in L.A. Nothing was bad, but nothing was tremendously good. I split the steak fajitas. The salads are huge and look good as well. If it's not 2-4-1 happy hour, the beers are a little expensive: $5 for a Corona Light. The best part is that you get to sit outside under a decor that at least let's you pretend you're in the tropics instead of a 2-minute walk from your next meeting. This, of course, is with the caveat that you see your co-workers walk by as they go much more innocent places for lunch.

Cabo is on Wilshire, just west of Barrington. At night you'll see the nuttiness from blocks away. And, yes, you can valet park your limo (and people do).

Duke's

I never go into this place without having some sort of experience. Last time it was meeting an older man who kept insisting that I should let him buy me a friendly dinner and that I should go hang out in Pasadena to meet a man -- after all that's where all the cute, non-pretentious guys who run after normal gals like me hang out in L.A., right? I wouldn't know. I've still only been there once and I was running a 5K around the Rose Bowl. It was hot at 8 a.m.

Back to Duke's. This is a great place to go if you're sunburnt and still want to be by the ocean, if you want to meet someone interesting, or if you just want that tiki bar feel. The outdoor bar is "barefoot"--your toes are in the sand--but I hear that the views aren't that great. If you sit inside at the bar the windows are usually open and you get a higher up view of the horizon and the monstrous waves that crash in on this part of the Pacific Coast Highway. Definitely parent-friendly.

This particular time I sat down next to a pair that I thought were dating but turned out to be friends. They were fun. The guy had chest hair like Austin Powers and was for whatever reason showing it off with an unbuttoned shirt. He later tried to bite my shoulder; I think he was just testing his boundaries and found them.

Dukes has a great Heffeweissen on tap and I've heard people rave about their girly drinks. They sure do look pretty. Even some guys drink them in front of the always attractive waitresses in white tank tops (ladies, there's so much to look at, they're easy to ignore). It's a bit of a drive home for me so I always stick to beer. I've had the salad with shrimp and crab. Huge and wonderful. This time I had an interesting albacore tuna appetizer. It was positioned around a small bed of rice and glazed with a rich sauce. I think I've found my perfect Duke's snack.

The lowdown: It doesn't get better than beer, the ocean, and not-overly priced meals. If you're really hungry, order the nachos and plan to split them with at least one other person (two or three if you want the waitress to clear an empty plate).

Terried

I've been to this place at Federal and Santa Monica many times before. So good. So fun. So interesting. If you're not at the sushi bar and are not a party of 8, you'll likely be sharing a table with others. I must admit, the place doesn't look all that nice, but just look at the people waiting inside the door and understand that following their lead is probably a good idea.

Tonight I tried to sauteed mushrooms. Very fresh. This place has great cooked dishes--one of my favorites is the sauteed squid -- a whole new way to experience calamari.

But onto the real stuff: Halibut sushi -- why did I think this was a good idea? A little tough. Albacore w/ garlic sauce melted in my mouth--the garlic sauce had just the right touch (though nothing matches that delicate albacore from En). Yellowtail sushi OK. Scallop roll had just the right amount of mayo and I really did enjoy it.

All in all, great place. Go here for intersting cooked dishes with sushi on the side (I always make the mistake of over-ordering sushi!). Overall, very full and happy for $30.

Chin Chin

Located in fabulous Brentwood with second-story outdoor seating (i.e. away from traffic), this is a wonderful Friday getaway.

The last time this group went, we got a bunch of different appetizers -- almost all were good. This time I got a chicken salad -- great ginger dressing and just enough of the fried tortillas (I'm sure this is not the appropriate thing to call them) to make the salad engage your naughtier side.

The chop sticks are strange and plastic and difficult to use. The crab wontons lack the goo-iness that typically make them so good. The atmosphere is perfect for lounging, but be prepared to lounge. Service on the patio can be a little slow. Remember to order chocolate-covered fortune cookies for desert.

FYI -- it also looks like they have a decent 4-7 happy hour.

Wahoo's

This review is long overdue. I go to this place at least twice per week for lunch. I am boring and always get the same thing: one enchilada with green sauce and extra green sauce, white beans. The fillings I mix up a bit, but it's mostly fish. This from someone who declined to go into this place for 6 months because she couldn't imagine eating a fish taco from Taco Bell! The green sauce is great and keeps me going back. I still haven't been asked to get a put a polaroid picture on the wall...if I wasn't an addict to that darn green sauce I might stop going back out of spite! Well, they also have Mountain Dew, which lately I've been needing more than I should.

The service is also great. Even though it's like fast food, someone brings your food to the table and will bring you anything else you want. Everyone is so pleasant for such a basic place like this.

If you're going for lunch on a weekday, get there before 12:15 or be ready to wait in a long line.

There are a ton of other tings to order here. My meal of choice is huge and cheap. I hear the burritos are good. I had one bowl and it was mostly rice, but I don't think I had quite understood how to order so maybe I missed an option. This place just gets better with time. Go and experiment often. They take special orders. Yes--get the green sauce on ANYTHING!

Chez Jay

I was introduced to this place during a party after the party after a sales meeting. The sales people loved it, but our group was rather large and for whatever reason we didn't end up staying. Keep reading and you'll begin to understand why.

So this afternoon, as I was driving from the beach toward Main Street just hoping to find a parking spot, I passed Chez Jay and decided Main Street could wait. An easy parking spot made this an easy decision.

My first thought when I walked in was that this was a place for regulars. I didn't know how right I was! This place turned out to be THE *dive* bar for Santa Monicans and, so I was told, various actors and other *important* people. I was passed over for a drink once and then the sweet, cute, but married (sigh) bartender asked me what I would have to drink "my love"--yes, "my love", said not once, but several times in all sorts of odd ways: how's the scampi, my love; would you like another drink, my love; here you go , my love; my love, how are you doing?; thank you very much, my love. This pervasive over-endearment was followed up by a little too much gratitude at a 20% tip, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I messed around with the menu for awhile while sipping my Hefewiessen. A little more high-end than I expected given the atmosphere. I decided on the shrimp scampi at the recommendation of the older gentlemen to my right. It must have been my lucky day: he gave me the inside scoop on this place, mistook me for a tourist who was being mistreated, mistook me for a Londoner, grabbed me a second beer when the bartender made a mistake, and had that comfortable grand-father feeling about him. For whatever reason, he took it as his duty to make me feel comfortable and should be given many free drinks for the positive nature of this review (then again, Chez Jay does not seem to be a place that necessarily wants nice reviews). He sat eating free peanuts--yes free peanuts with shells on the floor at a place where you can order shrimp scampi and filet mignon and no burgers. Back to the scampi--wonderful shrimp though slightly overdone. So-so vegetables and what seemed to be instant rice. The clam chowder was good.

A bonus: I was given a taste of red-headed slut (a drink with Jag in it). Strangely enough, this was given to me after the bartender said "who's all in here" to himself while deciding how much extra to mix together. This was one of those events you could analzye for hours and not have a satisfactory answer. I've given up. Maybe I'll go back again and try to figure it out.

My recommendation: No one who lives near Santa Monica should die without checking this place out. But don't come here on a first date and don't come with high expectations. If you're set on eating, make a reservation. Be ready to be treated like shit if it's at all busy. Every person that came in was asked if they had a reservation (I overheard that there was only ONE reservation for the evening). Everyone was made to feel guilty that they hadn't made one. All four booths were marked reserved. You will not be seated until you're entire party arrives and the bar is a little small, so you can't be guaranteed a spot. You will not be allowed to have drinks at a table. Even one person who dropped a name was treated the same. This was my experience--well, not so much experience as what I witnessed. Maybe the lone waiter and bartender have a way of sniffing out something I'm not aware of. Maybe I passed. I was treated well myself. And, out of fairness, I should point out that their wesbite claims equal treatment for all.

Dolores

This greasy breakfast place / family diner is like a home away from home in L.A. It's on Santa Monica, just West of the 405.

I went there with a friend. Hungover from a night of poker and still half in the clothes I had slept in the night before. The most wonderful thing about this place was that the waitress was so nice! "How can I help you darlin'?". "More coffee?" "How's the food?" And all of this not in some "You're-hung-over-and-I'm-not" attitude (which, for some reason, I was expecting), but with at least faked sincerity. We were given a booth big enough for 5 and our coffee cups were always full.

The food? OK. Good eggs. Decent bacon. Definitely not the best has browns (more potato-y than fried). You could get a bagel instead of toast (my, my!). The omeletes looked great, but I had a need for plain old eggs. Of course, in perfect California style, avacados could be added to any dish of your choosing.