Restaurant: Ozumo Location: 395 Santa Monica Place Santa Monica, CA 90401 T: 424.214.5130 Date: July 15, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Japanese / Sushi Rating: Good ANY CHARACTER HERE I’ve been slowly working my way through the new Santa Monica Place Mall dining scene. Which…
Restaurant: Trés [1, 2] Location: 465 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048. 310.246.5555 Date: July 31, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Brunch Rating: Fantastique ANY CHARACTER HERE I follow José Andrés on twitter, and I was reading (and crying) about the final meal at…
Restaurant: Vu [1, 2] Location: 14160 Palaway Way, Marina del Rey, CA 90292 310.439.3033 Date: July 28 & 30, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Rating: Interesting, but a little all over the place ANY CHARACTER HERE My brother and I were out for our weekly lunch adventure…
Restaurant: Kiriko Sushi [1, 2] Location: 11301 Olympic Blvd #102, West Los Angeles, CA 90064. TELL (310) 478-7769 Date: July 8 & 21, Sept 21, 2011 Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi Rating: Very nice! ANY CHARACTER HERE At our giant Go Sushi love-fest one of…
Restaurant: Moko Location: 9540 Culver Blvd. Culver City, Ca. (310) 838-3131 Date: July 9, 2011 Cuisine: Modernized Korean Rating: Very tasty — Spicy! ANY CHARACTER HERE Moko is a newly opened Korean bar/restaurant serving very modernized variants using a Korean palette of flavors. This…
Restaurant: Continental Airlines Location: Somewhere above the Atlantic Date: June 30, 2011 Cuisine: Inedible Rating: Barftastic ANY CHARACTER HERE So after an epic four weeks of eating in Italy — where the worst meal was merely mediocre — we boarded…
Restaurant: Pizzeria Santa Lucia Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 29, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian / Pizza Rating: Good pizza ANY CHARACTER HERE On our last night in Italy (/cry) we wanted an early and quick meal prior to getting up…
Restaurant: Trattoria dei Pescatori Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 29, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Solid lunch ANY CHARACTER HERE On this particular morning we had actually visited the nearby town of Camogli and wanted to eat lunch there but…
Restaurant: Da Michele Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 28, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Solid ANY CHARACTER HERE Another evening pick in central Santa Margherita, just a block away from the previous night’s Antonios. Right in the main drag. The…
Restaurant: Antonios Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 27, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Best we had in Liguria ANY CHARACTER HERE I did my best at internet research to pick this restaurant in the heart of “downtown” Santa Margherita. It was #2…
Restaurant: N/Naka [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] Location: 3455 S. Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034. 310.836.6252 Date: July 22, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Kaiseki Rating: Awesome _ N/Naka opened only three months ago. It’s the brainchild of chef/owner Niki Nakayama and is…
Restaurant: Gianni Franzi Location: Vernazza, Italy Date: June 27, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Solid local lunch ANY CHARACTER HERE We took a little train ride down to Cinque Terre, a very pretty region of five small towns clustered by the…
Restaurant: La Paranza Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 26, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Straightforward ANY CHARACTER HERE This restaurant was around the corner from the hotel, had a typical menu, and appeared very crowded at lunch. So we gave it a…
Restaurant: Grand Hotel Miramare (Breakfast) Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 26-29, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Mid level Italian breakfast ANY CHARACTER HERE As I’ve written about earlier, almost all hotels in Italy include buffet breakfast. The Grand Hotel Miramare…
Restaurant: Grand Hotel Miramare (Dinner) Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 25, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Old school ANY CHARACTER HERE Finally, we enter the final phase of our epic trip: Liguria. This is another seafood area, but quite different…
Restaurant: Il Castello Certaldo Location: Celtaldo, Italy Date: June 24, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Nice view, ok food ANY CHARACTER HERE Ah, the last meal in Tuscany! (except for breakfast) We took a couple hours to visit the cute little…
Restaurant: Pizzeria Pretorio Location: San Donato, Italy Date: June 22, 2011 Cuisine: Pizza Rating: Best pizza we had on the trip ANY CHARACTER HERE The wine guide who took us to Montacino seemed to have very good taste in food,…
Restaurant: Gelateria Santa Trinita Location: Florence, Italy Date: June 21, 2011 Cuisine: Gelato Rating: Awesome! ANY CHARACTER HERE On our first day in Florence we had walked by this Gelateria with huge lines (not far from Nove IX). And then…
Restaurant: Caffe Pitti Location: Florence, Italy Date: June 21, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Touristy location, very good food ANY CHARACTER HERE On our second day in Florence we came out of the Pitti Palace starved and thirsty. One of our…
Restaurant: Ristorante Le Potazzine Location: Montalcino, Italy Date: June 20, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Tasty traditional ANY CHARACTER HERE We took a most excellent wine tasting tour of Montalcino (the home of the one and only Brunello). This was led by a…
