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Living Large with Lamb

Nov15

Restaurant: Dolan’s Uyghur Cuisine [1, 2]

Location: 742 W Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91803. (626) 782-7555

Date: April 14, 2024

Cuisine: Uyghur Chinese

Rating: Excellent execution, and closer to Afghan than Chinese

It took Yarom and I about 4-5 years to manage to come back here for dinner with a large enough group to order the whole roast lamb!

Dolan’s, which is a new Uyghur place celebrating the cuisine of Western China — the part above Tibet known as Jing Jiang. Perfect for lunch to as they are Halal and don’t allow alcohol.

The interior has a distinctly “western” style — and considerably more style than most Chinese places. While the building was probably some mid-century family restaurant they have added the Islamic style “windows” and tile.

Copper tea pots.

A big menu featuring lamb, lamb, and more lamb! Good thing we love lamb!

Naan stir-fried with Beef. Mostly fried bread. What beef there was had a lovely cumin flavor.

Garlic cucumbers. Nice and tangy.

Salad. Strong tangy dressing.

Beef Pie.

The shell was kinda greasy but addictive.

Another salad, mostly onions, peppers, and tomatoes. But the tart and quick spicy sauce was amazing.

Another stuffed pastry. I liked this one better and it had a strong beef and onions flavor.

Flakey pastry with beef. Very nice texture. Kind of Samosa-like.

Eggs and Tomatoes. Yarom can never resist ordering this one.

The whole lamb.

Revealed.

Super rich, tender, and delicious. Tremendous flavor.

We polished off that baby!

Big Plate Chicken with Wide Noodles. Star anise flavor.

Beef with the special round noodles. These were better noodles.

Lemon Cookie Gelato.

They fight over the leftovers.

Overall, not only was Dolan’s super interesting, but they were delicious as well. It’s related most closely to Western Chinese, but not totally Chinese in style (food-wise, decor isn’t Chinese at all). The kitchen was excellent though, and everything was extremely tasty — you better like lamb though!

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Dolan's Uyghur Cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, lamb, whole lamb, Wine

SGV Sunday – Yang’s Kitchen

Nov03

Restaurant: Yang’s Kitchen

Location: 112 W Main St, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 281-1035

Date: March 31, 2024

Cuisine: Chinese Fusion

Rating: Tasty, but pricey

The press has been talking about Yang’s for some time as one of the new style SGV Chinese places — so had to try it.

The main street frontage.

The menu.

Very casual interior. Service was excellent, however, with an extremely knowledgable Somm.

Pickles. Nice and crunchy.

Cucumbers. Fabulous cucumbers with a bit of spicy.

Raw Oysters of the Day.

Chilled Tofu w/ Avocado & Roe. Soft and mellow.

Prawn ‘Ceviche’. Great texture.

Dungeness Crab Cold Noodle. Delicious with nice bit and cool crab.

Smoked Fish Dip. White fish salad!

Chicken Liver Mousse. Another “jewish” dish.

Yang’s Fried Chicken Wings. Lots of flavor.

Grilled Cabbage w/ Bagna Cauda.

Smoked Pork Jowl Cha Siu. Jiggly!

Grilled Dry-aged Fish Collars.

Red Wine Beef Cheek Stew.

‘Dan Dan’ Campanelle. Some numbing quality. This was probably my favorite dish. Really delicious.

Braised Duck Leg with Taro.

New York Steak & Crispy Potatoes or Chicken Fat Rice.

‘Hainan’ Fish Rice.

Dessert menu.

Black Sesame Cake.

Custard.

Tiramisu Gelato.

Pistachio Gelato.

Overall, some very delicious food. It’s very much fusion with a sort of 70/30 mix of Western and Chinese but a great kitchen. Price is fairly steep for “cafe ambiance.”

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Fusion, Gelato, SGV, Yang's kitchen

Shin Sen Gumi Skewer Night

Oct28

Restaurant: Shin-Sen-Gumi Yakitori & Chanko Gardena

Location: 18517 S Western Ave, Gardena, CA 90248. (310) 715-1588

Date: March 17, 2024

Cuisine: Japanese Yakitori & Chanko

Rating: Surprisingly excellent

Joe wanted to “derail” Chinese Sunday with some Japanese, so we headed down to this Gardena Shin-Set-Gumi which is Yakitori instead of ramen.

This is the “chanko” room of the shin sen gumi yakitori where you can actually make a reservation.

Wines.

Cheese “eggrolls” — ok.

Mushroom salad. Just ok too.

Fried oysters. Pretty good.

Agadashi tofu. I always enjoy this dish.

Chicken hearts. yum.

Pork with shiso. Shiso always makes everything great.

Chicken meat balls.

Bacon asparagus and bacon-wrapped scallops. Crispy and delicious.

Beef and some bacon-wrapped something.

Crispy chicken bits.

Delicious tongue.

Another chicken something.

Okra.

Scallops.

More bacon wrapped scallops.

Beef and bacon wrapped tomatoes.

BBQ chicken.

Crispy chicken tails — awesome!

Another chicken bit.

Wings!

More bacon wrapped scallops.

Garlic.

Delicious sausage and mustard. One of my favorites.

This was our “chanko” which in this case was steamed pork and other stuff. Quite delicious with sauce.

Steamed up.

Here is the other stuff.

Steamy!

Coconut Lime Rum Sorbet.

A deal!

A very fun evening with surprisingly delicious yakitori — since we ordered things extra crispy. Apps aren’t that great but the skewers are.

Shunji in the house!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chanko, Foodie Club, Gardena, Gelato, Shin Sen Gumi, Wine, Yakitori

Bistro Na avec Duck

Oct24

Restaurant: Bistro Na’s [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 9055 E Las Tunas Dr #105, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 286-1999

Date: March 24 and September 15, 2024

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Upscale Chinese, really improved

Chinese Restaurants in the SGV are slowly going more upscale in a way that’s different than the Cantonese palaces of Monterey Park of yesterday. I’ve been here several times before, even celebrating a birthday, but Jeffrey wanted to go, and we figured we’d check it out post pandemic (10/9/22) and then not long after Arnie wanted to try it too, so we went back (1/7/23).

And one of the latest is Bistro Na’s located on Las Tunas near this cool:

Teapot fountain!

The interior is very elegant Chinese, almost traditional but in a new way typical in China today. Ornate wood carvings, lanterns and antique music instruments abound. Technically it bills itself as “Imperial Cuisine”. Maybe there is some of that, but it’s also a bit of Chinese greatest hits. Still, it’s a different cuisine than nearly every other place in the SGV with more ornate plating.

The menu is a hardcover thick paged photo tome!

Various banchan like apps.

Pickled peppers and pepper sauce.

Bovon brought a mess of caviar!

Beef tripe and aorta in chili sauce. Sounds scarey but was lovely. Nice crunchy / chewy texture.

Pig’s Foot Jelly. These were the best I’ve had. Nicely porcine and delicious.

Na’s Spicy Chicken. The classic Sichuan cold dish. Super tasty with a nice balance of salt, tang, and heat. Some numbing as well. Very tender chicken.

Jellyfish Salad. Not bad, although not much jellyfish — and it replaces the now discontinued Jellyfish with Cucumbers that was amazing. Poor direction to go in.

Organic Cordyceps Flower & Celery Salad. Organic Cordyceps Flower, Celery, Fungus, Mixed Vegetables.

Old Beijing Smoked Duck Breast. Duck breast, strawberry sauce, endive lettuce.

Na’s secret tofu. Not that secret. Great teture. Slightly bland. Joe dish.

Scallion Pancake. Another Joe dish, but an excellent version.

Egg and chive “pockets.” The shells weren’t as crisp as I might have liked but there were lots of fresh chives.

They have Peking duck now (well at least they did in the spring), carved table-side. We ordered 2!

Extensive condiments for the duck.

Really nice thin spring pancakes.

Table-side!

The breast and skin, served by itself with sugar. Really crispy and nice.

Sugar for the skin. And great hoisin.

The main meat. The duck was great. 2nd best duck I’ve had in Southern California. All the elements were really good.

The bones return salt and pepper. Heads split in half. A bit too much of the bone and head thing but tasty.

Stew Crab Meat & Fish Maw. Fish Maw, Crab Meat, Pea Sprout. This was an insanely great dish. Very savory and umami and even better with a bit of caviar.

Dry Braised Black Cod Fish with Chili Sauce. Black Cod, Pork, Bamboo Shoots, Ginger, Garlic, Scallions, Spicy Chili Sauce.

Lobster with ginger and scallions. Supposed 5lb lobster. Not the best best version of this dish.

Lobster Roe noodles — these were the bomb!

Braised Sea Cucumber and Beef Tendons. Sea Cucumber, Beef Tendons, Scallion, Onion Sauce. Nice and chewy.

Crispy Salt and Pepper Scallops. Actually pretty spicy!

Spicy Tofu with Cod. Basically MaPo tofu with bits of cod. This added a delectable umami note.

Crispy Shrimp. This is Na’s signature dish and for a reason. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and the shells completely candied and edible. Delicious, if a touch sweet. They remind me somehow of cicadas escaping their shells.

Seafood crispy rice.

Here is the crispy rice and the hot seafood was poured over it — basically like those old “war bar” dishes at 1970s Chinese Resteraunts.

Seafood Crispy Rice. Really fabulous. Lovely mellow yellow curry sauce, with sea cucumber and other goodles. So good over the rice.

Simple fish. Too boring for my taste.

Drunken Chicken. Very nice flavor, but not zingy enough for me.

Chili Pork with Bamboo Shoots. Kurobuta Pork, Bamboo Shoots, Jalapeno, Black Fungus, Garlic. Yum. I loved this dish.

Shredded Pork with Sweet Bean Sauce. Matsutake Pork, Shredded Green Onion, Crispy Noodles, Cucumber. Served with Spring Pancakes. Great version of this Beijing dish.

Stir Fried Cabbage with Dried Shrimp. (March 2024) The dried shrimp give this version of the dish a quite significant pungency. They sliced it up this time which I don’t like as much as the larger homestyle cabbage peices.

Cabbage with Dried Shrimp. (Sep 2024) They went back to the proper torn texture.

Stir Fried Angus Beef with Garlic. Really interesting. The beef itself was tender and good, even if the peice size felt a little bit thick, but the real killer was the crispy candied chilies. These were incredible! Actually fairly spicy.

Braised Abalone & Pork Belly with Chinese Puffy Pie — very Chinese fancy. Great version of this classic Shanghai dish — plus abalone. The pork was super succulent and the sweet brown sauce had a nice depth of star anise.

The “Puffy Pie” (aka sesame bun).

Fried Mixed Mushrooms with Rice Cracker Bites. OMG these were like potato-stick crack. They felt “hollow”, crispy, and coated in an almost candied shell. So good!

Crispy Lamb Belly. Great dish, but I was getting full.

Mountain Yam in brown sauce. My least favorite dish — just because it was starchy.

Shrimp and Dried Seafood Fried Rice. Oh so good.

With a bit of tofu on it.

Pan Fried Beef Buns. Very nicely flavored beef and chive filling. Pretty temperature hot at the start and could have used a little vinegar/dumpling sauce to balance the hot fat.

Pecan Praline Gelato.

Mint Oreo and Chocolate Orange Gelato.

Coconut Mango Cake.

Crepe Cake — delicious.

Fruit.

Chocolate Potato Chips.

The works.
March 2024 wines.

The Sep 2024 wines were great.

March crew.

Sep crew.

Both of these 2024 meals were hands down the best Na meals yet. The duck was great, almost certainly the second best duck in SoCal, very close to the one at Chang’ans — but sadly, in September they didn’t have it, despite several of us trying. They claimed they were having a difficult time sourcing.

Overall, a complicated place (for the SGV) to review.

While a bit pricey for the SGV, the atmosphere is lovely and the plating much more elegant. In the private room, with slightly careful ordering, this can be some of the best food in the SGV. Some dishes were excellent, some just pretty good, and some outright bland. I’m not really sure what regionality of Chinese it is. Sort of Beijing/Shanghai maybe? They say “Imperial.” It does feel very contemporary Chinese and is certainly not aimed at white folk. I’ve had a general problem in the past with their “under-seasoning.” A lot of dishes just seem too sweet or too bland. But in 2024 they seem to have punched it up a bit and it’s not much of an issue.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bistro Na, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, Peking Duck, SGV

Yuan’s Hot Pot

Oct22

Restaurant: Yuan’s Hot Pot

Location: 8752 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 703-4458

Date: March 10 and October 5, 2024

Cuisine: Chinese Hot Pot

Rating: Probably the best Hot Pot in the main SGV

This high end hot pot place has a whole floor of nice private rooms.

The whole second floor is dedicated to private rooms.

This one was technically for 10, but really much better with 8. Had two pots. On another occasion I ate in a smaller room with one pot that sat 6-8 perfectly.

There is a very neat upstairs (VIP) sauce bar.

It didn’t have a huge number of items, but the ones it had were really good and really fresh.

Apps were like banchan. They were really good, particularly the two types of mushrooms.

Crispy pork. VERY fried.

Squid.

Shrimp.

Fish roe “dumplings.” Chewy and delicious.

Very nice boneless fish.

Another fish. There was a third which was very boney and not very good.

Tofu wrapped shrimp.

Shrimp or fish balls.

Meat balls and various mushrooms.

meatballs.

Quail eggs.

Tofu.

A5 Wagyu. Not sure it was really A5 but it was the best meat we had.

Smoking!

American or similar wagyu.

More beefs.

More beef.

More beef.

Lamb shoulder.

Bacon!

Spam. Always a favorite of mine.

Snausages.

Lotus.

Fresh bamboo.

Napa cabbage.

A lot of greens.

Sesame balls on the house.

Saffron Pistachio Gelato.

Yuan’s was one of the best classic but elevated spicy hot pot places. It had a broad menu with most everything, awesome private rooms, nice banchan, and a first rate sauce bar. The ingredient quality was also top notch. It doesn’t have some of the weirder broths (although they had spicy + about 4 non-spicy). The private room + high quality makes it pretty killer in my book. Some of the more crowded booth places just aren’t good for more than 4-5 people. Great place and stands out above a lot of the just “good” hot pots. The only one also in this league is Wagyu X.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hot pot, SGV, Wine, Yuan's Hot Pot

White Burg Crustacean

Oct14

Restaurant: Crustacean Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

Location: 468 N Bedford Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 205-8990

Date: February 18, 2024

Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion

Rating: Awesome as always

Crustacean is one of our regular haunts and one of the few places with the stems, food, and service to handle a serious wine dinner. This was a return to Hedonist form with a White Burgundy Dirty Dozen of all new traditional Vietnamese food inspired Crustacean creations.

Back in our “usual” private dining room and patio.

The menu.

Smaller group.

Asparagus Flower Soup with Quail Egg. Tastes like a lot of Chinese “white” soups — lovely.

Crispy Langoustine & Caviar Roll. 1/3oz Royal Kaluga Caviar, Winter Citrus Sweet Chili. Like fancy cocktail party spring rolls — down to the sweet chili sauce.

Melting Wagyu Puffs. Whipped Potatoes, Cognac, Black Truffle.

Kohlrabi Caesar. Furikak, Vietnamese Black Pepper, Parmesan Snow. Very cool and crunchy.

An’s Famous Garlic Noodles with Dungeness Crab. Roasted Garlic & An’s Secret Sauce. Classic!

Had to get the extra noodles, of course.

Whole Turmeric Dover Sole. Broken Noodle Skins, Bean Thread Noodles, Caviar Nage. Very moist and delicious.

Almond Apple Tart — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Base crafted from Galbani Whole Milk Ricotta and Sicilian Toasted Noto Romano Almond Paste layered with house-made Cinnamon Bourbon Apple Pie Filling! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #ricotta #almond #RicottaCheese #cheese #applepie #apple #cinnamon

Coconut Tapioca ‘Che’. Vegan Coconut Sorbet, Lychee, Exotic Fruits, Tapioca Pearls.

The gang.

The wines.

The scores.

And sheet.

Discussing the food analytically. Very good, and most dishes varied from good to great. The Vietnamese influence is far more subtle, less heavy handed, then at most newer fusion places like Little Sister / LXSO or the more contemporary small plates style Khong Ten. Definitely more roughly 2000 in formal fine dining style — which I don’t mind at all. In some ways it feels like a millennium event fine dining place with Vietnamese — and to a lesser extent Thai and Chinese — notes. It’s a pretty fancy place, and priced accordingly — but particularly during these last two dinners have really knocked it out of the park.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills, BYOG, Crustacean, Dirty Dozen, French Vietnamese, Gelato, hedionists, Vietnamese cuisine

Second New Year

Oct10

Restaurant: Sea Harbor Seafood Restaurant [1, 2]

Location: 3939 Rosemead Blvd. Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 288-3939

Date: February 12, 2024

Cuisine: Cantonese

Rating: Good, but very expensive

After many many dim sum visits to this SGV Cantonese classic I finally make it for dinner banquet — and this time on Chinese New Year.

I think Sea Harbor has been around for a long time and is one of the mainstays.

The interior is pretty typical.

The private room at Sea Harbor. I have been here countless times for dim sum but not for dinner in a long time.

Eve brought a huge amount of caviar — salt all night!

Peanuts.

Celery or asparagus with truffle. A bit truffle oily but the vegies had a nice crunch.

Fried squid. Salty and good.

Fried tofu with chilies.

Pig Trotter “Salad.” Nice flavor actually. Lots of ginger.

Geoduck (I think) salad. Great crunchy and strong (onion) flavor. I had a couple helpings of this as it seemed very fresh.

Fried Geoduck. Excellent fry. Super crunchy and chewy with a lovely flavor. Very salty.

Roast quail/pigeon. Very good version of this dish.

Shiitake and abalone in brown sauce. I’m not sure I prefer those so “straight up.”

Soup. One of those “all ingredients” brown soups.

Steamed crab. Good, but I prefer it with the garlic.

Typhoon style crab body. Very tasty fry.

Crab custard.

Fish head.

He’s looking at you!

Greens. Straight up.

Fish meat. Tasty and not too many bones.

Almond cookies for New Year.

Sweet soup.

Eve brought Basque Cheesecake.

Then covered it in caviar.

And lime zest.

It was really quite good this way. The zest really kicked it up.

Strawberry Jam Gelato.

Awesome wines.

This was a super fun dinner. Wines and company were amazing. Food was very good, if just a hair “staid” in certain ways. Mostly it was just that the price ($470 all in) was pretty outrageous. Sure it had a lot of luxury ingredients but it should have been more like $300.

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese New Year, Eve, Gelato, Sea Harbor, SGV, Wine

Endless New Year

Oct08

Restaurant: Indian, The Tavern [1, 2]

Location: 633 S San Gabriel Blvd #105, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 287-0688

Date: February 10, 2024

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Longest Chinese meal ever!

It’s hard to describe this particular SGV restaurant. But Andrea organized this special Chinese New Year’s banquet.

From the outside it looks like most of them.

But then inside it has this weird western saloon theme. Presumably it was some kind of “Indian bar” back in the 50s. The decor has partially stuck, but the menu is almost all Chinese.

We had this rustic table in the “party room.”

Not so PC!

We had the whole room.

Fried Stinky Tofu. Smelled bad, tasted like baby poop!

Crunchy spicy cabbage — good for removing the poop taste.

發財好市 Prosperous Market. Oysters with Black Moss, pork, and cabbage.

Incredibly interesting textures and great flavor — although not a looker in this format.

黃金仙子 Golden Fairies. Whole U-10 Scallops with Egg White Sauce and Fish Roe.

Very tasty.

海皇豆腐羹 Health and Longevity. Assorted Seafood and Bean Curd Soup. This was so good I had 3 bowls. Awesome!

年年有餘 More Than Enough Year After Year. Steamed Whole Live Fish.

Very tasty but a lot of bones.

Signature Prawns and Corn Kernels with Preserved Duck Egg Yolks. The crunchy corn was awesome.

Paul rapped — quite excellently.

包羅萬有 Ocean Treasures Discovered. Braised Gourmet Seafood (Abalone, Sea Cucumber, Fish Maw, Sundried Scallops…)

Icky looking again, but great flavors and textures.

飛龍在天 Dragon Above the Cloud. Lobster and Yee-Fu Noodles with Ginger and Scallions.

Delicious and tender.

金雞報喜 Chicken Bringing Good News. Authentic Fried Chicken. Very juicy and delicious.

Traditional Tea Smoked Duck. Smoky.

寶盆生花 Pearls in Treasure Pot. Mini Stuffed Gluten Balls in Light Peanut Paste (Desert).

Probably the best Chinese dessert soup I’ve had — actually quite delicious — like liquid peanut butter.

Lovechild, Pecan Praline, and Cremino Siciliano.

Crepe cakes!

The wines.

Overall, the place was surprisingly excellent. And they did these really interesting dishes. However, the timing was glacial to say the least. This meal was OVER 7 HOURS LONG! And Chinese food is usually super fast. There were two different 60-90 minute gaps between dishes. Twice I just went over to an empty booth, lay down and took an hour long nap!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese New Year, Foodie Club, Gelato, Indian Tavern, Lunar New Year, SGV, Wine

Sáu Can Fail

Sep24

Restaurant: Sáu Can Tho Vietnamese Kitchen [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Location: 8450 Garvey Ave #103, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 307-8868

Date: January 21, 2024

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Rating: Excellent (and so full)!

Every November/December my Hedonist club goes to this awesome SGV Vietnamese place — which used to be named Phong Dinh and is now Sáu Can Tho. Many previous meals have been “helluva epic” but not so much this time.

The new logo.

Shrimp chicken salad. decent.

Catfish. Less dry than usual because they were a bit smaller.

Condiments for the fish.

Boar ribs — tasty but INCREDIBLY tough.

Coconut snails. Great as usual.

Mushy disgusting half gold garlic shrimp. Tasted like they were cooked dead.

Cold bbq quail. Not very good.

Murky duck soup. Hmm. not really my taste. Yarom shot the duck.

Goat curry. Great!

Bread.

Mushy garlic rack of lamb. Taste was decent. Texture sucked.

Pandan jelly. I really enjoy these.

Pistachio and Choco-mole gelato.

Worst dinner we have ever had here. Many fewer dishes and half of them were blah.
I don’t know what happened. Normally this place is great. Part of it is scaled back and haphazard ordering. Part of it was just kitchen laziness or something as it seemed like everything had been cooked hours before and re-heated. One of the worst Sunday/SGV dinners I’ve done in a long time. Still a few good dishes, however (like the fish and snails).

More crazy Hedonist adventures or
LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Gelato, hedonists, Sau can tho, SGV, vietnamese

Bovon Holbox v1

Sep22

Restaurant: Holbox [1, 2]

Location: 3655 S Grand Ave c9, Los Angeles, CA 90007. (213) 986-9972

Date: January 20, 2024

Cuisine: Mexican Seafood

Rating: Private room shenagigans

I’ve been meaning to try Holbox for a while — years even. Recently (summer 2024) they earning a Michelin Star!

One of just eight restaurants inside Historic South Central L.A.’s Mercado La Paloma, Holbox (from the Mayan-named island of Holbox – pronounced “hole-bosh” – off Mexico’s northern Yucatán Peninsula) is a Mexican seafood restaurant that focuses on fresh local ingredients, vibrant flavors, and unpretentious presentation. The menu features specialties from coastal regions of Mexico, seen through the lens of its southern California and Baja California ingredients. We offer a casual order-at-the-counter service in a food hall setting and also host weekly 8-course tasting menu dinners on Thursdays and Fridays.

Holbox emerged from the Mercado, where Chef Gilbert Cetina cooked alongside his father at the still vibrant neighboring stall, Chichen Itza. Holbox opened in 2017 and has continued to garner awards and recognition, including 1-Star Michelin 2024, Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2019, 2021, and 2022, LA Times Restaurant of the Year 2023, and ranked #5 on the 2023 LA Times 101 Best Restaurant list. Chef Cetina was a 2023 James Beard Finalist for Best Chef California.

Food court!

The actual space.

Typical line just about all the time.

Bovon setup this special dinner in their large but unglamorous “private room.”

Tonight’s menu.

All you can eat oysters.

And scallops.

These were served with a variety of toppings — hot sauce and vinegar.

Sea Urchin & Halibut. Live Santa Barbara Sea Urchin and local halibut ceviche.

Scallop Aguachile.

Bluefin Tuna Tostada. Baja bluefin tuna, avocado puree, arbol-peanut sauce.

Wagyu Taco. Miyazaki wagyu striploin, guacamole, handmade tortia, pico de gallo. Very tender.

Tomahawk. Grilled prime Tomahawk steak, roasted fingerling potatoes. This is not on their normal menu.

Rice and beans

Kanpachi al Carbon. Omega Azul Baja kanpachi cooked whole over mesquite, handmade tortillas, pico de gallo, avocado.

Tortillas.

Grilled lemons.

Cheesecake.

Almond Ricotta and Orange Old Fashioned Gelato.

The wines.

Very fun night. Food was good, although in some ways similar to Bea’s Tacos. The zesty seafood was better than the meats, as the steak was a bit overcooked. It’s not one of their normal things, only being available at this special private dinner.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Gelato, Holbox, Jeff Bovon, Mexican, Seafood, Steak, Wine

Rayas Roccos

Sep07

Restaurant: Dinner at the Borgese’s [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]

Location: Santa Monica

Date: December 20, 2023

Cuisine: Italian influenced gourmet home cooking

Rating: Awesome

Dinner at the Borgese’s is a special house dinner in Santa Monica cooked by the stunning pro-level home chef Borgese couple. Tonight’s dinner was another Hedonist dinner but this time with a Chateau Rayas wine theme.

Lovely night out on the patio.

The menu.

Bistecca chilling out.

Rocco in the kitchen.

Marinating quail.

Lamb chops.

The wines.

Tonight’s menu.

Carpaccio di Tonno Pinna Blu. Blue fin tuna carpaccio. Salt forward and lovely.

Risotto all’aragosta della California. California Spiny Lobster Risotto.

Grilled Quail. This Rocco classic was a sort of supplement.

Pasta Fatta in Casa al Tartufo Bianco. Homeade Pasta with White Truffle.

Costolette di agnello doppie del Neiman Ranch. Neiman Ranch Double Lamb Chops. The double is always better!

Awesome polenta.

Porterhouse di Creekstone. Creekstone Porterhouse.

Verdure cotte a legna. Wood fired vegetables. Potatoes.

Carrots with a sweet glaze.

Abstract art edition of — Cherry Bakewell Tart Gelato — While watching every episode of the Great British Baking Show I was introduced to the Bakewell Tart, which I liked it enough to make a gelato — Sicilian Noto Romano Almond Ricotta Base is layered with house-made Honey Almond Graham Crackers and Cherry Preserves. For extra fun I made an Almond Icing and glazed the Grahams with it in the traditional pattern — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Sicily #Almond #Cherry #GrahamCracker #BakewellTart #tart #bakewell #jam #icing

Orange Old Fashioned Sorbetto — Cold Pressed Orange Juice, Knob Creek Bourbon and Angostura Bitters! Topped with cherries — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Really tastes like an Old Fashioned –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #orange #tangerine #bourbon #KnobCreek #bitters #Angostura

Very fun night with an awesome (and typical) crew and great great wines. Food was really fabulous as always, and there was tons, although I’ve had Rocco’s meals where I liked the mains more. Tonight’s standout was the quail (always is).

First of all, the Borgese hospitality was awesome, the house lovely, and the food absolutely incredible. One of the best “home cooked” meals I’ve had. Maybe ever if you restrict it to chefs cooking in their own home kitchen. Just amazing. Every dish was great. Rustic but extremely delicious style. Superb homemade pastas.

Service was handled by the youngest Borgese (teen daughter) and was better than most restaurant staff. Super friendly and you can tell they do this a lot.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chateauneuf du Pape, Gelato, hedonists, rayas, Rocco Borgese, Santa Monica

Specials at Sands

Sep05

Restaurant: Sands Chinese Restaurant 金沙中餐館

Location: 15706 Arrow Hwy, Irwindale, CA 91706. (626) 338-6686

Date: December 30, 2023

Cuisine: Southern Chinese

Rating: Very good and lots of interesting dishes

Sands is a a newish Hong Kong / Cantonese place that Keong and Sklar really enjoy. Keong setup a very extensive custom banquet here on the second to last day of the year. Only problem is that it’s so far east — but at least there wasn’t much traffic.

This is a smallish mom & pop place, but they do have “fancier” food available for advanced order. The owner was the chef at some famous restaurant in Macau.

Double Boiled Winter Melon Soup. Interesting textures. A touch sweet and bland for me, but with some white pepper was quite pleasant. Had a lot of the tasteless but vaguely sweet melon. Some fish maw, mushrooms, and shrimp.

Lobster Salad. I’ve had this at least 2 times before. It’s like ambroisa salad, the Chinese lobster edition. Not to my taste as it’s sweet and the mayo and sweet fruit overwealm what was a very nicely cooked lobster.

Lotus Leaf Rice. Over-steamed, bland and heavy. This was my least favorite dish of the night and the most carbacious.

Steamed Cod. Lovely delicate cod. Hard to pick up with chopsticks as it was so delicate, but great taste and texture.

Sichuan Cold Chicken. Yarom ordered this because he didn’t want the rice. Turned out to be quite good. The sauce was full of “flavor” and delicious. Chicken was juicy.

Mushrooms with Shrimp Paste and “Lobster Sauce.” A delicious silky bite. The broccoli, as we shall see, was a stable for the night.

Crispy Fried Chicken. Great crispy fried chicken as described. They also debuted what was to be one of many little figurines made out of pressed flour and/or sugar or something.

Pipa Tofu. More broccoli and these “oyster-like” tofu fried balls. Delicious actually. Better than the real oysters (a few dishes later).

Sweet and sour sauce for the fried stuff.

Steamed Tofu with Minced Shrimp. Silky and delicious.

Deep Fried Oysters. The real oysters which were a touch heavy and fried — but I never love fried oysters. Did have a cool dragon head.

A5 Beef. Very soft.

Braised Stuffed Duck. Interesting duck. Very rich and quite delicious. It was stuffed with a LOT of stuff, known as the 8 treasures. List comming up.

The 8 treasures!

Beef Cube with Sichuan Sause (spelling intentional). Felt a little pork-like and was in one of those Panda Express type sweet and sour sauses (hehe).

Braised Pork Belly. Very decadent.

Oatmeal Shrimp. Never had this before. Actually pretty good!

Lettuce with Fermented Bean Curd. I prefer with cabbage, but this was pleasant too.

Chicken Skin Spread with Shrimp Paste. Another crispy chicken, this time sort of a version of 100 flower chicken. Hot and delicious.

Deep Fried Taro Tossed with Sugar. These actually weren’t bad for a weird Chinese dessert.

And it included yet another cute figurine.

Yar! Ghostly skeletal praline pirates are marauding — Pecan Pirate Praline Gelato — An eggy ultra-smooth Texas Pecan base layered with my creepy skull-shaped New Orleans style Vanilla Bourbon Pecan Pralines — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #vanilla #bourbon #pecan #praline #candy #halloween #spooky

Overall, a great and very interesting meal. There were lots of new dishes here, which I love, and lots of great ones. Interesting Southern Chinese style, simutaneously fancy and home style. Lots of fry. Not every dish was sucessful. Despite my comments, they mostly worked. The Lotus Leaf Rice was the only true dud. I just have issues with the sweetness of some of the others. But I absolutely love trying new things and this was chock ful of them. The staff were incredibly nice and really cared. As of 12/30/23 they were still applying for their Liquor Liscense.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, hedonists, SGV

Emperor Yamamoto

Aug30

Restaurant: 鮨やまもと / Sushi Yamamoto

Location: N Rodeo Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

Date: December 14, 2023

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: One of the best meals of the year

And so we come to the Foodie Club’s epic End of Year Blowout!

At one of LA’s most elite sushi spots, up stairs on Rodeo in the old Ginza Sushiko spot.

The sushi bar

Our special menu.

Ginger. I had about 10 of these.

Kichiji-rock fish in dashi. Mild and delicious. Super soft and tender.

Astrea caviar of course.

Kyoto fresh bean curd with caviar. Very grassy soy flavor. Texture like very fresh burrata.

Kinmedai-goldeneye snapper sashimi. The peppery yuzu-kosho was awesome.

Tri of tunas.

Taka’s chu-toro.

Taka’s o-otoro.

Taka’s maguro in a tiny handroll.

Benny’s shrimp.

Buri (wild yellow tail).

Saba (mackerel).

Hokkigai (surf clam)

Sekogani (female snow crab) with crab sauce. Super succulent with that deep crab flavor and lots of roe. The soft silky sauce really took it up a level too.

Hokkaido uni (sea urchin).

Astrea Caviar Toro roll.

House-made buckwheat soba noodles.

Shrimp soba (hot). Perfect soba with that awesome slightly soggy perfect tempura shrimp.

Cold soba with caviar. Also great, but I preferred the hot.

Unagi (fresh water eel). Super soft.

Tamago (sweet egg).

A tro of birthday cakes!

Satsuma Tangerine Ice Cream. Very mild.

A tro of Sweet Milk Gelato (Choco-mole, Orange Old Fashioned, and Bakewell Tart).

Basque Cheesecake with Caviar and Stawberry Cake.

Tea.

Uh. Wow! Pretty incredible evening, although I got home at 1am!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Beverly Hills, BYOG, Caviar, crab, Eve, Foodie Club, Fu, Gelato, Japanese Sushi, Sushi, Wine, Yamamoto

An Array of Goodness

Aug24

Restaurant: Array36 – 36宴

Location: 5449 Rosemead Blvd, Temple City, CA 91776. (626) 866-0623

Date: December 2, 2023 and May 5 & July 21, 2024

Cuisine: Shanghai Chinese

Rating: Great new “high end” Chinese

I was eager to find out about Array 36, another new “high end” Chinese resteraunt in the SGV — most similar to Orange County’s Chang’an.

We booked a private room for 14 and pre-ordered a number of dishes. I did the menu planning.

The service was very nice, although they did make us wait about 30 minutes while the previous occupants of our room finished up.

Pressed Japanese yuzu-infused jellyfish head. Very tasty with nice texture. Of course the jellyfish itself has next to no flavor, but the slightly sweet sauce was great.

roasted chili sauce century egg with avocado. Very nice, if unconventional, century egg dish. I do love century egg.

Century Egg with Sea Cucumber. Very interesting blend of the soft and bitey and the chewy textures. A bit of kick and tons of umami. Really quite good. They changed this up as it used to have avocado. This was arguably better.

sichuan style spicy and numbing chicken. A very solid version of this with one of those addictive spicy sauces. Chicken itself was nice and juicy.

36 feast smoked pine pork. These tiny morsels tasted like Shanghai smoked fish, just pork.

Pork Neck with Japanese Yam. Kind of like spam with pineapple!

Bovon brought another tin of caviar!

hand-made crab golden noodles. I love crab roe and I love noodles so I had to try these.

They were actually very pleasant but a little bland — nothing a huge dollop of caviar didn’t fix!

House special shrimp. They were out of scallops so we got these sweet crispy shrimp.

I “fish egged” mine up but it was very nice. Extremly crispy and mildly sweet.

Shanghai crab stewed with its roe and tofu in a clay pot. I love this dish and it didn’t dissapoint. Super soft. I ate a mess. With caviar too.

Typhoon style lobster. The lobster itself was very well cooked. The garlic had a bit too much bread crumbs in it, but was still delicious.

6lb lobster with ginger and scallions. Excellent version of the wet lobster prep.

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall Soup. Several people insisted on this dish and it was incredible! This was the abalone version and was full of so many weird seafoods cooked down into a super intense seafood demiglace. It had incredible silky texture and density. Marvelous.

The version in 2024 was like a consommé. It had all the chewy seafood bits, but not the unctuous thick demiglace texture that it had in Dec 2023.

Braised cold abalone. Chewy!

Shanghai smoked fish. Very nice crispy version of the fish.

Grouper steamed with soy sauce and ginger. Very nice fish. Lots of bones. Great sauce flavor. Some people LOVE this dish. I like the flavor, but the bone factor always leaves me a bit disintered in engaging with it fully.

Pickled chilis and spicy bean sauce.

Shanghainese sautéed eel. I really loved these garlicky sweet rich eels.

northeastern-style marinated beef. Very tender and a bit sweet.

Grandmother’s pork belly. Extremely fatty and juicy. Great version of this Shanghai dish.

Super rich Shanghai Pork with Quail Eggs. Great version of this very fatty dish.

Finally, about an hour late, our Peking duck arrived. They do it like Chang’an.

Lighting it on fire with Baiju.

Then carved tableside.

Just the skin. It was good, but not quite as crispy as it should have been.

Meat itself was delicious and juicy.

Some of the meat was smoked.

This added more (smoky) flavor, of course.

Super thin pancakes, but they had a little clumping issue.

Oodles of caviar for the duck.

The condiments were solid. But overall the Peking Duck was a bit of a disappointment. It was good in the way that any real Peking duck is, but the skin could have been crispier. Part of the problem was also that both ducks came WAY at the end of the meal. We didn’t want them instantly at the start, but I had asked for them at 8pm and they came at more like 9:20 — and we were very full.

The May 2024 version of the duck was excellent, first rate really. Moist with crispy skin.

hand pulled cabbage. Delicious dish as always.

Seared string beans. Very nice sear and good flavor.

Garlic greens. Very well done, but a little on the “boring” side. Always good to have some greens but I like the cabbage.

Stone pot fried rice.

yangzhou egg fried rice. Very nice fried rice.

shanghai shepherd’s purse and pork dumplings. These XLB were super juicy, delicious, and had some kind of seafood, maybe even more crab roe.

Spicy XLB. Shells were ok and these were juicy, but they had quite a better — numbing and white — kick. I kind of liked them but many didn’t.

shanghai pan-fried buns. They looked a bit soggy but the pork was great.

The pan fried pork dumplings were better in May 2024, this time with a great pork filling.

Duck #2. We asked for it crispier. They flammed it longer, but it just ended up tasting a bit more “burnt.”

We also asked for the bones and got tons of meaty bones.

Baked papaya dessert. Sweet and kind of tasteless.

Variant on — Sultan’s Delight — Iranian Saffron and Sicilian Pistachio Base, with Rose-Water Turkish Delight — Saffron from the Istanbul Spice Bazaar — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #saffron #pistachio #TurkishDelight #Türkiye

Baileys Irish Gream Gelato — Stabilized 13% Bailys Irish Cream recipe, with a touch of seasonal coloring! — I have trouble resisting these once a year flavors — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #expresso #whiskey #baileys #StPatricksDay #cream #green

St Agur, Fig, Walnut Gelato.

Awesome Armenian pistachio cake.

Dec 2024: This was an awesome meal. Array 36 is one of the best Chinese “fancy” places I’ve been to in California. It’s not quite as polished as Chang’an, but it does have a varried menu. The general style leans toward the Shanghai region, although they have some other dishes. Chang’an is a little Xi’an inflenced and has a few more spicy dishes. Many dishes here were excellent, but fell slightly short of Shanghai Tang level execution. But there were lots of interesting and delicious dishes.
May 2024: Really great night. First rate in every way. The food at Array has stepped up, particularly the duck. The Buddha soup went from best to one of the worst dishes but everything else really improved. Service was great and the room cosy but prefect. They did rush the food a bit. Not that the overall length of the meal was too fast, but too many things came at once in a number of waves. But it’s really hard not to have that happen at Chinese unless you also want to gamble that you won’t have long waits. And we had A LOT of food. Jeff really helped set things up nicely. I would have ordered a couple more interesting things and left off the regular greens, shrimp, and the fish. But others LOVED the fish so they were crowd pleasers. Overall, a totally banger night.

July 2024: Another great night. Private room again and a slightly smaller (in terms of food) dinner with very successful but tighter ordering. Again the duck was fabulous. They also finally had the awesome river shrimp in stock. Even the pig’s ear was great.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Array 36, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Foodie Club, Gelato, SGV

Harlan part 2

Aug22

Restaurant: Cut [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 9500 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 276-8500

Date: November 28, 2023

Cuisine: Modern Steakhouse

Rating: Amazing special meal

Michael Palmer arranged this incredible Harlan tasting dinner in two parts. Not only did he procure the wines, but he organized with Piero Selvaggio our total takeover of the Cut lounge and a custom menu.

Classic Spago Tuna cones with that crispy/sweet shell.

Wagyu beef rolls.

Uni yuzu toast. The ingredients were great but I didn’t think the yuzu worked well with the rich uni.

For the second night (odd vintages) of our 2 part Harlan tasting we returned to Cut. This time they put us in the private room instead of the bar. Nice and quiet, but very bright and didn’t have quite the ambiance.

Tonight’s menu was again a completely custom awesome menu by the very talented team at Cut.

Comte Cheese Custard. Dungeness crab, red wine shallot chutney, black truffle.

With the truffles. This was an awesome dish, rich, creamy, with a hint of red wine sweetness and surprisingly, for a crab dish, and excellent pairing with the big cabs.

The Spago bread selection

Red Wine Poached Maine Lobster. Japanese potato, bacon lardons, beurre rouge. Again you wouldn’t think that lobster went with big cab, but between the bacon flavor and the rich red wine butter sauce it totally did.

Wolfgang just straight up joined us for the dinner.

Cauliflower Mushroom Risotto. 36 month aged parmigiano reggiano, red wine essence. An absolutely first class risotto, very creamy and cheesy, with a perfect mancurata.

Roasted Loan of Venison. Sautéed Brussel sprouts, red wine poached pears, cipollini onion jus. First of two red meats!

Australian Wagyu New York. Cream of sunchoke, ricotta gnocchi, whole grain mustard jus. This one was even better.

He brought out this incredible Italian cheese.

Briacacio Cheese. Grilled fruit & nut bread, cream of shallot, market blackberry jam. Really just an awesome blu cheese. Like a super gorgonzola.

My son’s favorite — Quad Chocolate Cloud Gelato – The base is made this time with Valrhona 70% Guanaja Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache, Nestle Buncha Crunch, and chopped Oreos! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #oreos #ganache #icing #nestle #crunch

This was another incredible meal. Everything was perfect. Wines were interesting and the food was amazing. Company was the best of all. Thank you Michael and Pierro for organizing!

The chef and team.

The gang.

Puck is very full.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cut, Gelato, harlan, Piero Selvaggio, Wine, Wolfgang Puck

Drive for AnQi Bistro

Aug04

Restaurant: AnQi Bistro

Location: 3333 Bristol St, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. (714) 557-5679

Date: November 19, 2023

Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion

Rating: Really great, but really far

Because we are good friends with the An family we hauled down all the way to South Coast Plaza for a special meal at their OC bastion, AnQi.

Located in the South Coast Plaza mall by the Bloomingdales and the Paradise Dynasty.

AnQi.

We had this gorgeous private room.

Welcome cocktail of Grapefruit Martini.

With a Grapefruit bubble!

Tonight’s special menu.

Passing Amuse of Pork and Beef Meatball with a bit of fish sauce.

And Mini Tuna Tacos.

Our host tonight!

Amuse Bouche. Asian Shrimp Ceviche. Mint, kaffir lime leaves, sesame rice cracker.

Intro. Kaluga caviar, salt cream, fresh baked Japanese cheesecake. Really lovely soft fluffy mild sweet cheesecake with that bit of caviar. Quite nice.

Aburi Blue Fin Toro Tasting. Akami, Chutoro, Otoro. Torched. I should have just had them not torch mine. They were cute and I could tell the fish was excellent but…

The cooking made them all taste the same.

Anqi Signature Dim Sum Flight. Shrimp & lobster, filet mignon, chives. I loved the two outer ones. The seafood one in the center was a touch too sweet (it was in the sauce).

Special Foie Gras Nigiri.

Famous Garlic Chicken Wings. Thai chili, ginger, thai basil. These were plump, so juicy, so sweat and tangy. Really great.

An’s Famous Roasted Crab & An’s Famous Garlic Noodles. Roasted garlic and An’s Secret Sauce. This shell-less version is fabulous.

Had to get some extra garlic noodles.

Lemon Truffle Snapper En Papillote. Cooked en papillote, shiitake mushroom, leeks, kaffir lime, mint scallion sauce. Super moist and tender white fish.

Inside.

Anqi Ultimate Wagyu Tasting. Japanese kagawa A5 olive fed ribeye (right), Japense miyazaki A5 NY (left), and Australian sher wagyu NY (center). The miyazaki was the best by far — but all great!

Hot salt rock to cook stuff on.

Like these too-die-for garlic mashed potatoes.

Chinese-style greens.

Chef Dessert Plater — pretty over the top!

Hojicha Latte NSA Gelato – Ceremonial Hojicha Roasted Green Tea base with No Sugar Added (Allulose) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #matcha #Hojicha #GreenTea #Allulose #NSA

Some really awesome food and a great night. They treated us like pharohs. Long drive though!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: An Family, Anqi, BYOG, Crustacean, French Vietnamese, Gelato, hedonists, Wine

OOtoro 2023 part deux

Jul31

Restaurant: OOToro [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]

Location: 1569 Fairway Dr, Walnut, CA 91789. (909) 598-8299

Date: November 4, 2023

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi (with slight nod to China)

Rating: Ends of the earth, but very good

Chef Kaz of Totoraku, an occasional hedonist, sent us far east to this Sushi restaurant in 2016 and it was such a fun time that we had to return again for a sixth visit — it’s now become a twice a year thing.

And by far east I mean REALLY REALLY far east — to Walnut California. 40+ miles from my house. 20 miles past Alhambra (which most people consider to far to drive for food). It took an hour and twenty minutes on a Saturday night!

Look how clear it is after the rains (and snows).

The slick looking location is in the heart of the affluent Chinese American San Gabriel Valley. But yes, it’s Japan, if perhaps catering to Chinese taste. This photo was shot at about 10pm after everyone else had left.

Here is the private room — the only way to go.

They put up this weird curtain recently.

Uni, crab, caviar and some kind of ponzu jelly. Nice chunky crab but that cheap non-sturgeon caviar.

The yellow stick was a bit of crunchy fish roe, then proceeding right we have tender Abalone, Shirako (cod sperm sacks and always a favorite of mine) and some kind of fish tempura.

Zoom.

Wagyu tartar, fried seaweed, uni, truffle, and avocado. A great tartar bite with nice textural contrasts.

Tri of oysters: Caviar, uni, and Ikura (salmon roe). All great.

Hokkaido live scallops with caviar (more real this time) and Hokaido uni. A bit of fresh yuzu juice really “juiced” this up.

Sashimi plate of Shima Aji, Blue fin tuna, and Otoro with two slices of Monkfish liver.

Spanish Mackerel. Oily and delicious.

Golden Eye Snapper nigiri.

Skipjack Tuna with a bit of spicy ponzu.

Kama Toro. The always butter-like richest bit of tuna!

Seared Ruby Snapper Nigiri with some sweet miso. They called this the Queen of the Whitefish.

Charcoal grilled crab leg.

The awesome “BBQ Kama Toro” plate. It’s like ducky tuna and fishy smoked duck and is incredibly rich and delicious. Great with that special soy too.

Flaming sea snail with mushrooms. Chewy.

A5 Wagyu Tataki. Seared with a bit of pepper. Supper rich and fatty and melt in your mouth.

Clam Miso. Awesome clammy flavor.

Cheesecake with strawberries.

Strawberry Jam Gelato — an awesome daily Strawberry base swirled with Strawberry Jam — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — sugar time! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #strawberry #jam

Perfect pairing!

Another great meal at ootoro. A bit of an overlap with last time but every dish was great.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Champagne, Gelato, Hacienda Heights, Japanese cuisine, ootoro, Sushi, Wine

Tata’s Two

Jul26

Restaurant: Tata’s Cafe [1, 2]

Location: 12627 Hawthorne Blvd, Hawthorne, CA 90250. (424) 675-4168

Date: October 20, 2022

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Great ingredients and a lot of fun

My good friend Jeff Bovon owns and operates this unusual restaurant in Hawthorne. He’s part chef, part food importer and supplier, being a purveyor of super high quality seafood and meats and he basically took over this little cafe and turned it into a very unusual destination. Chevy setup a big custom group dinner.

The interior is basically a little Hawthorne cafe that’s been mildly scaled up.

60 day dry aged Tomohawk — too old — but ambitious.

Giant lobsters

Cold Seafood plater. Very nice. The red sauce on the scallop (a sweet chili sauce) was pretty good too.

Steamed Littleneck Clams. With a mild curry flavor.

Seared Branzino. The fish was nice, but the green spicy tomatillo sauce was amazing!

Leering at us.

Seared A5 Wagyu. Super tender and probably the best “main.”

60 day dry aged Tomohawk. I actually didn’t like it at all, too “cheesy” and funky.

Baked Lobster Tails. These, however, were awesome. I think I had three.

Creamed spinach — rich but great.

Sautéed mushrooms. Nice.

Brussels. Also good.

My personal plate.

Cheese plate.

Dessert plate.

Pure and Concentrated Evil — Kentucky Mud Pie Gelato — Expresso Knob Creek Bourbon Custard Gelato base with layers of house-made Crushed Oreo Valrhona Fudge Ganache, and house-made Vanilla Coconut Cream Cheese Icing — The Plaid Mode of Gelati and includes a hefty Caffeine kick — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #coconut #valrhona #chocolate #ganache #expresso #bourbon #custard #oreos #icing

Summertime calls for — Yuzu Meyer Lemon Sorbetto — Japanese Yuzu Juice, Fresh Meyer Lemon Juice — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #yuzu #meyer #lemon

We had a very fun time. Big group and diverse wines with a LOT of food. I mean a LOT of food, even by our standards!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: A5, BYOG, fish, Foie gras, Gelato, Jeff Bovon, Seafood, Steak, Tata's Cafe, Wagyū

No Balcony, but Excellent

Jul22

Restaurant: Juliet

Location: 8888 Washington Blvd Suite 102, Culver City, CA 90232. (310) 643-5853

Date: October 17, 2023

Cuisine: French

Rating: Very good modern French Bistro

Walker invited me to a Champagne themed dinner, so of course I had to go.

Juliet is a new restaurant in the heart of Los Angeles, serving bright, thoughtfully composed dishes with a seafood focus.

An ode to the way Parisians are dining now, We applY classic French techniques and global influences to west coast seafood and seasonal produce.

We take A lot of pride in our wine program, showcasing hundreds of hand-selected wines from regions across France. we also offer cocktails and select wines by the half glass.

Located near Platform.

Le menu.

Huîtres / daily oysters / cucumber / trout roe. Bright flavors.

Poisson Cru / sliced amberjack / meyer lemon ponzu / serrano oil. Very strong zingy taste with a bit of heat and nice firm but soft texture.

Tartare et Caviar / sea bream tartare / kaluga caviar / herb crème fraiche. Quite excellent with a bit of smokiness.

Mousse au Foie de Volaille / chicken liver tartlet / apple gelée. Delicious and rich.

Carpaccio de Thon / bluefin tuna / preserved pepper / mustard seed. Also bright.

Courgettes / summer squash / labneh / chimichurri / hazelnuts. I don’t even like squash and this was pretty good.

Risotto au Mais / corn / sungold tomato / sage. First rate rissoto texture with a delicious bit of sweetness from the corn balanced with a bit of acidity from the tomatoes.

Coquilles Saint-Jacques / seared scallops / meyer lemon butter / trout roe. Very lovely with a great caviar beurre-blanc.

Cigares de Confit de Canard / duck confit “cigars” / sauce valois. Super crispy with a deep “fried” flavor. Awesome creamy sauce.

Côtes d’Agneau / lamb rib chops / chickpea puree / olive tapenade. Straight up but excellent.

Assiette de Fromage. Cheese plate / honeycomb / sourdough bread.

Pineapple Ginger Sorbetto — Fresh Pineapple infused with Fresh Ginger — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — nice little ginger ale like kick — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pineapple #ginger #GingerBeer #sorbetto

Eclairs Maison. dark chocolate / sea salt. Nice.

Gâteau au Fromage. crème fraîche cheesecake / passion fruit gelée. Lovely.

Madeleines au Beurre Noisette. Brown butter madeleines / salted honey chantilly. Extremely soft. Not the most typical Madeleines but absolutely delicious. No hint of citrus.

Overall, the food was really good bright modern French “Paris cafe” food. Quite excellent.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Champagne, French Cuisine, Gelato, Hoffmans, Julient, Walker, Wine

El Patio at Taito

Jul16

Restaurant: Tiato Kitchen + Garden

Location: 2700 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90404. (310) 866-5228

Date: Oct 4, 2023

Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion

Rating: Great food, funny location

The An family — of Crustacean fame — has this unusual spot in Santa Monica, right down the street from Naughty Dog’s office.

It’s a weird office park location with a pretty courtyard.

Mostly the food is fairly casual, but we had a custom menu.

Tuna “tacos.” With that classic Vietnamese sweet chili sauce.

Goat Cheese and Walnut puffs.

Chicken liver on toast with berry sauce. A bit livery for my taste — like shades of Rosh H.

Black Truffle & Parmesan Tapioca with toasted bread crumbs, uni & toasted butter bread roll. Very creamy, rich, and airy. It had a mild and pleasant flavor. Not strongly uni with a foamy and crunchy texture. Interesting and I really enjoyed the texture.

The roll was pretty awesome.

Coconut Shrimp Roll with red lettuce, fresh herbs, toasted coconut & peanut crumble. Very fresh and pretty awesome. A super fresh/Californian take on the Vietnamese spring roll (the fresh, not fried, style).

Jidori Chicken Dumpling with porcini mushroom broth. The dumplings were awesome, like a great tortelini, and the mushroom broth was first rate.

Filet of Sole with a white wine saffron sauce, heirloom tomato & roasted corn. Very nice with bright acidic flavors.

Wagyu Steak & Potatoes with fermented creama & smoked habanero salmon roe. This was the worst dish by far. Weirdly sweet and tangy at the same time. Just not that savory. The potato balls didn’t have much flavor either.

Sesame Crusted Lamb Roulade with a white peppered yogurt and fresh carrots. Stuning! This was kinda spicy actually, with very strong flavors reminiscent of the Western Chinese style of roasted chili lamb. I really enjoyed it and much to my surprise it actually went with SQN.

Awesome house-made cookies.

Matcha Almond Latte Gelato – Ceremonial Matcha Green Tea and Sicilian Noto Romano Almond gelato base — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #almond #matcha #GreenTea #Sicily

Overall, this was a super fun night. I very much enjoyed the wines because there were a mix of styles. I didn’t actually drink much of the post-Burgundy reds. Just a bit of the Euro ones. And I did have some SQN with lamb. I didn’t even try the QC or the Ridge — not my thing. Food was great (except for the beef which was just fine) but all the other dishes were really excellent. And the atmosphere, service, and setting were A++. The location (7 min from my office) was A+++.