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I don’t think that word means what you think it means

Aug06

Restaurant: Blooming VIP Restaurant [ 1, 2]

Location: 8118 Garvey Ave A, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 280-2288

Date: January 8, 2023

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: There are better

The latest Dirty Dozen white overlaps with Sunday Chinese. Truth is, I prefer just straight Sunday Chinese, but having a wine theme is ok. It was Champagne again this time.

We went out to relative newcomer Blooming VIP — which has pretty decent dim sum – and a very over the top decor.

This time around we needed white wine to begin, as Champ was the main event.

Peanuts Yarom brought in from Sichuan Delicious. They were pretty good, nice bit of spice and Chinese flavor.

Smashed Cucumbers. Very solid classic smashed cucumbers with garlic. Not spicy but nice crunch.

Chicken Feet. Bleh. Only Yarom ate these as usual.

Geoduck Sashimi. It looked good, but these were tasted like a bait and tackle shop. Not even close to the quality of Longo. I actually had a hard time finishing what I took. It didn’t taste unfresh, and this should have a briney quality, but this was too strong.

Close up.

Fried Geoduck. The neck fried salt and pepper style. Edible, but not really good, particularly in comparison to Longo (whose version of this dish is awesome).

Walnut Shrimp. Excellent version of the gweillo classic. Large shrimp, lightly fried with the sweet mayo. Guilty pleasure.

Ginger Scallion Lobster with Noodles. The lobster was tiny, very little meat, but it was juicy. Ginger balance was way too strong here. I also don’t love this kind of sloppy noodle, but it is typical.

White Pepper Jellyfish. Someone in the kitchen accidently dropped an entire cannister of white pepper into the dish. It was disgusting and I like white pepper. Almost sneeze inducing and none of the vinegar thing that this dish should have.

More wine (getting lazy).

Roast Chicken. A very solid roast chicken. Not the best I’ve ever had, but nice and juicy. It was served with an odd “jus” gravy.

Roast Quail or Pigeon. Solid 7/10 version of this classic dish and certainly enjoyable.

Pseudo Peking Duck with buns. Thin Cantonese hoison and spring onions (no cucumbers, no pancakes). The duck itself was pretty tasty although this was like 1/2 a duck as it was on top of a huge pile of shrimp chips to make it look bigger. To find out more about Peking Duck, consult my Ultimate Peking Duck Guide.

Thin Cantonese hoison.

Yarom brought these carb free egg-white pancakes which actually served quite well as duck pancakes.

Duck Lettuce Cups. Fine.

The lettuce itself.

Tofu with Mushrooms. I added to the order because we had nothing from the wok — Yarom has a thing for straight meat dishes. This tofu had that lovely soft egg custard texture. The mushrooms were nice but covered with a slightly sweet cornstarch sauce. There were not actually very many mushrooms however, and they were bulked up with a bunch of soggy iceberg lettuce underneath.

Clay pot with satay beef and vermicelli. More vermicelli than beef. The satay sauce was decent and the beef was nice and tender.

Roast Suckling Pig. Excellent 10/10 Chinese style crispy roast pig. Best dish for sure with awesome crispy skin and nice slightly porky flavor.

Cremino al Siciliana Gelato — The base made with Galbani Whole Milk Ricotta and Sicilian Acacia Honey laced with house-made Bronte Pistacchio DOCG “Fudge” — 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 #ricotta #honey #pistachio #pistacchio #fudge

The scores.

Overall, it was a fun evening, but the food was really hit or miss. Blooming is good at roast birds and pig, but all the seafood was really meh, almost bad. Not “really bad”, still better than a westside Chinese, but not up there with the good Cantonese seafood places. The wok dishes were decent but not outstanding. But again, the birds and pig were excellent. So they know how to BBQ. Service was great and we had a nice private room.

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: Blooming VIP, BYOG, Cantonese, Chinese Food, Dirty Dozen, Gelato, hedonists

Niku X – Hits the Spot

Aug03

Restaurant: Niku X

Location: 900 Wilshire Blvd Ste 212, Los Angeles, CA 90017. (323) 920-0302

Date: January 2, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese-owned Japanese Korean BBQ (cultural A for the win!)

Rating: Excellent neighborhood Italian

Every New Year demands a big celebration!

Niku X is Yakiniku (Japanese Korean BBQ), but it’s Chinese owned and operated which means it has a certain extra blind factor — at the expense of Japanese obsession with quality and detail. They describe themselves as:

JAPANESE TRADITION MEETS GLOBAL INFLUENCE
Located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles at The Wilshire Grand Center, NIKU X offers modern
contemporary Japanese cuisine with global influences. NIKU X incorporates the classic yakiniku style
of cooking, a traditional Japanese technique utilized to grill meats. Michelin-starred chef, Shin
Thompson, offers an extraordinary culinary experience characterized by the use of artisanal
produce and “ranch-to-table” ingredients, including certified Japanese A5 Wagyu, in a harmonious
fusion using global techniques.

The space is HUGE and elaborately built out.

This is our “private” room.

Meat hook!

The menu.

From my cellar: 2011 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. 92 points.

Crudo. A5 Toriyama Ribcap Wagyu. Spanish Bluefin Tuna. 7 Days Dry Aged Panama Kanpachi. Tamago. Fresh Wasabi, sudachi jelly, sweet shoyu creme fraiche. This was one of the weaker dishes. The beef was meh. The sweet jelly made an odd and not particularly effective contrast. I did like the sweet shoyu sauce, which tasted like maple cream. Overall it needed acidity instead of sweet.

More white.

Lobster Sashimi. Lobster Tail, black vinegar ponzu, wasabi root. They topped it with some uni and caviar and it was quite lovely.

From my cellar: NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Réserve. JG 92. This particular bottle of Brut Réserve had been in my cellar since 2008, and it has aged beautifully and was drinking very well when opened this past spring. The excellent nose wafts from the glass in a mélange of apple, peach, warm bread, a touch of ginger, a lovely base of soil and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bdoied, complex and still rock solid at the core, with fine mousse, bright acids and lovely length and grip on the wide open, complex and classy finish. This particular release of Brut Réserve had been particularly steely out of the blocks, which is why I tucked some away to see how it evolved with bottle age. Yet again, a pretty strong argument for treating non-vintage Brut bottlings like other fine wines and cellar them for some time before starting to drink them! (Drink between 2014-2025)

Uni and caviar ready to mix up.

Caviar. Astrea Oscietra Caviar, Hokkaido Uni, Stone Axe Wagyu Tarare, Senbei, Nori. The whole of this is mixed up and then served on a choice of crackers or nori. Quite nice and the nori was dry and crispy.

Crackers and nori to eat it with.

From my cellar: 2016 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Saint-Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly Cuvée Nicholas et Mathis.

12 Days Dry Aged Tyee Ora King Salmon. Sekokani Salt. Smoked.

Raw.

On the grill.

12 Days Dry Aged Tyee Ora King Salmon. Sekokani Salt. Smoked. The salmon was seared and topped with a bit of Teriyaki-like sauce. Quite nice.

Radish and lettuce salad with passionfruit dressing.

Live Boston Hotate (Scallop) with Hokkaido Uni Butter. I didn’t love the scallop, not sure why.

Tilting fast into red Burgundy.

Port Wine Yakiniku Tare, Jidori egg yolk.

The show begins.

Tomohawk, already cooked.

Salty base.

Seared over fire.

After searing it’s sliced.

Then out comes the truffle!

Full Blood Dry Aged Wagyu Tomahawk Steak with Piedmontese White Alba Truffle. The “lighter fluid” they used to flame the steak could still be lightly tasted and I found that midly offputting.

Bordeaux time.

Wagyu Oxtail Pot Stickers. Masami Ranch, Orange, Tokyo Negi. Very nice delicate bite, more like an XLB than a potsticker — and better for it.

And more.

The meat IS nicely presented.

Masami Ranch Wagyu Beef Tongue. Mushroom Duxelles, Japanese Black Vinegar, Tokyo Negi.

Stone Axe Misuji (top blade). Chrysanthemum.

Stone Axe Ichibo (top sirloin).

Masami Ranch 45 Days Dry Aged Striploin.

Masami Ranch Shortrib. Umeboshi Salted Plum Chimichurri.

A5 Miyazaki Tenderloin. Served on the toast below.

Before cooking.

Tomahawk Tallow Fried Parmentier Potatoes. Masami Ranch Wagyu Butter, Valery Potatoes. These were great.

On the grill. They cook it for you.

Some of the cuts on the plate.

And more wine.

This was my favorite one.

Miyazaki A5 Ribeye & Wagyu Rice Donabe. Hijiki Salt, fresh wasabi Covered with Piedmontese White Alba Truffle. Pretty yummy.

More meat.

Miyazaki A5 Ribeye & Wagyu Rice Donabe. Hijiki Salt, fresh wasabi Covered with Umbrian Black Winter Truffle. Pretty yummy.

Mixed up.

The bone.

Standing ovation.

And more meat.

Ick!

A5 Miyazaki Tenderloin. Ginza Nishikawa Milk Bread, foie gras, blueberry gastrique. This was rich and delicious. The sweetness of the gastrique paired nicely.

The meat keeps on coming.

The wine keeps on flowing.

The raw A5 before grilling.

On the grill.

Fried rice at the ready.

A5 Miyazaki thin cut, with Wagyu Rice and Port Wine Yakiniku Tare, Jidori egg yolk. Really yummy with that slightly sweet tare.

Japanese Pickles. Nice and crunchy but didn’t have that sweet vinegar thing I really like about Japanese pickles.

Macha Mochi with fruit. The macha was way too strong here.

I love this flavor — Peppermint Bark Gelato — Base is pure peppermint milk (subbed the sugar with crushed peppermint candies) and it’s laced with house-made double-sided peppermint bark, Valrhona Dark Chocolate and Ivoire White! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — The Peppermint Bark recipe was developed by a famous pastry chef and author, the mum of a Naughty Dog Alum @nancy_baggett — this year I added the two layer thing which is awesome — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peppermint #bark #Valrhona #chocolate

Meat larder.

Overall, this was an incredibly fun night. However, it looks slightly better than it tasted. I mean it tasted good. And we had a blast, but being Chinese they rushed the service. They were super nice and super well intentioned, but they favor theatrics and they basically deluge you with food and theatrics AT THE SAME TIME. Several of the major events like the Wagyu reveal and the Tomahawk flaming were literally happening simultaneously. It should totally be sequential, but Chinese favor fast service. There is also that “fancy but cheap” Chinese build out. Ingredients are good, but they don’t quite have the flavors in perfect balance in the same way that a fully Japanese place would. But then again, given all the high end ingredients the value proposition is actually quite high. It’s just a little different than you might expect if you are used to high end Japanese dining.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese Japanese, DTLA, Foodie Club, Gelato, Japanese BBQ, Niku X, Wagyū, Wine, Yakiniku

DimSumQuest – Bistro 1968

Aug01

Restaurant: Bistro 1968

Location: 402 S San Gabriel Blvd Ste A, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 766-1968

Date: December 30, 2022 & January 4, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: One of the current best

Bistro 1968 opened with considerable fanfare (for the SGV) at the tail end of 2022. It serves up a large but focused menu of Cantonese dim sum and unusually is not two restaurants in one like most of the Cantonese places. Instead they have the same (dim sum focused) menu for both lunch and dinner.

The underground parking lot here sucks. Upper level was full and the lower level had this mechanical gated “resident only tow zone” that was poorly labeled and easy to get trapped in.

Escaping the parking lot involved this endless corridor.

Brand new!

Double-sided order sheet

The long form menu.

The main dining room. Several private rooms spawn off the sides.

At first we were in this claustraphobic interior room, but then we moved.

Into this much nicer (and larger) room. It had a window!

Holds a good sized group.

Jasmine Tea.

Basic sauces. They put several on the table, plus some chili oil.

Black and Red Vinegar.

XO Sauce was an extra $4, but totally worth it.

Chili oil is always better than paste.

Bean Curd Skin Roll in Soup. Great texture but very mild in flavor.

Shrimp Har-Gow. Fairly perfect textbook har-gow. Shrimp was delicious and skin was light.

Golden Har-Gow. I think these had a little bit of truffle inside plus the dark (squid ink?) skin. Normally I don’t like these “amplified” classics but these were excellent.

Pork Siu-Mai. Awesome version. Light, meaty, tasty. We had 5-6 orders.

Abalone Tart. A “lard short crust” pastry with shredded pork and abalone. Gorgeous. The tart was very crumbly. The pork itself was sweet and very nice, the abalone was great, not at all chewy — well it was abalone but it wasn’t too chewy.

Pumkpin Dumplings. Seasonal. Very mild and pleasant.

Leeks and Shrimp Dumpling. I really liked these. I’m not sure the wrapper tasted different, but the interior had a nice leek and shrimp (big surprise) vibe.

Shanghai XLB. Usually at dimsum houses the XLB are heavy and just “kinda nice.” These were delicate with fabulous pork soup flavor inside, arguably better than at specialty places like DTF. Really great.

Spicy Minced Pork Dumpling. Chewy and a bit sweet with that sweet porky filling. I’m not sure what was spicy about it but it was good. Sometimes this dumpling type, which is normally light brown, is underfilled. These were generous.

Stuffed Morchella Elata Fungus. They spelled it Fungas. Lol. This was one of the best dishes. It was a nice shrimp paste ball with a “fungas” wrapper” and a sweet soy sauce. Delicious.

Shrimp Noodle. The shrimp were large and succulent and the chow fun texture was excellent. The sauce could have used slightly more punch.

Wagyu Beef Noodle. I’ve never had chow fun with wagyu. It was silky soft, a touch sweet, and did pack quite a bit of flavor.

BBQ Pork & Mixed Fungus Noodle. Again they spelled it “Fungas.” Lol again. These were actually some great Chow Fun with nice Sweet BBQ Porky filling and a hint of mushroom.

House Special Seafood Congee. I didn’t try because of the carb factor — hey it’s all carbs — but some of my friends complained that it wasn’t jammed with enough goodies.

Close up.

Sticky Rice Wrap. This is the usual lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice. It was fabulous though with all sorts of flavor goodness and perfectly sticky rice.

Sticky Rice. These were mild, a bit sweet, and filled with Chinese sausage, ginkos, egg yolks, etc. Not nearly as good as the lotus leaf sticky rice.

Pan-fried Turnip Cake. I didn’t try because of the carbs.

Crabmeat Egg-Roll. I didn’t try but everyone else toasted them in two seconds.

Seaweed and Shrimp paste cake. Nice firm shrimp cake with an interesting spongy texture and a bit of crispiness from the seaweed. The mayo complemented.

House Special Crispy Lobster Roll. Very fluffy and crunchy texture stuffed with noodles and tiny bits of lobster. Interesting.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bao. The bun was a bit soggy and the filling overly sweet.

Snow Capped BBQ Pork Bun. This version was leagues better than the steamed version. Great slightly cirspy donut style bun with nice pork filling.

Deep Fried Taro Puff. Pretty but carb on carb — plus I hate taro. Anyway there were some little bits of pork in there too.

Supreme Beef Balls. Great spongy texture. I ate a ton of these.

Ground Minced Pork. Not a very descriptive label but these were delicious pan-fried pork patties. Nice and greasy.

Wonton w/ Chili Oil Sauce. This was one of the weakest dishes. The wrapper was soft and pillowy, but the chili sauce was weak, and the filling was shrimp (would have been better as pork). Mostly it just didn’t have the chili oil punch this dish deserves.

Lobster with Ginger and Scallions. Pretty nice lobster in the “wet” style.

Soy Sauce Chicken. A bit sweet, but very aromatic and juicy so a lovely chicken.

Hongkong Style Roast Duck. This was probably the best Hongkong style roast duck I’ve had. It was extremely juicy with fabulous skin and lots of great flavor.

Smaller sized portion of the same dish.

Slightly Sweet Sauce for the duck.

Sichuan Sauce Hen Chicken. Cold chopped Hainan Chicken style chicken with nice numbing sauce. Really good.

Sauce for that.

Barbecued Iberian Pork w/ Honey. Classic sweet red Chinese BBQ pork. Very sweet sauce but pretty damn tasty!

Deep Fried Quail with Spicy Salt. Yummy, but extremly salty and mostly bones with little bits of meat on them.

Roasted Squab. Leave it to Yarom to order every bird on the menu. These were solid, but not in the top tier.

Crispy German Pork Knuckle. Very piggy, nice crispy skin, succulent meat. I enjoyed these.

Oxtail Stew with Wine Sauce Clay Pot. There was the oxtail bone factor, but this did taste great. Moderate amounts of tasty meat clung to the tail bones and the whole thing was drowned in some sort of gravy.

Poached Watercress w/ Fish Ball. Basically a nice light broth with lots of greens and fish/shrimp balls. I actually really liked this dish, particularly given the nasty rainy weather. It was very soothing and provided needed carbs.

Creamy Egg-Yolk Bao. Tasty and the yolk inside almost exploded out. I just nibbled for dietary reasons.

Macau Egg Tart. A classic. Nice and eggy.

I love this flavor — Peppermint Bark Gelato — Base is pure peppermint milk (subbed the sugar with crushed peppermint candies) and it’s laced with house-made double-sided peppermint bark, Valrhona Dark Chocolate and Ivoire White! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — The Peppermint Bark recipe was developed by a famous pastry chef and author, the mum of a Naughty Dog Alum @nancy_baggett — this year I added the two layer thing which is awesome — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peppermint #bark #Valrhona #chocolate

The wines.

Yarom and the owner and the manager.

The whole gang.

They collect all the steamer trays in rolling huskee’s!

Overall, I thought Bistro 1968 is currently one of the best dim sum places in the SGV — and therefore in SoCal. Not every dish is perfect but they have a big menu, many interesting dishes, and an overall standard of execution that is just higher than most of the older places. Sure, there are a lot of good (and even great) options in the SGV but you totally can’t go wrong with this one!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bistro 1968, BYOG, Cantonese, Cantonese Chinese, Chinese cuisine, dimsum, DimSumQuest, dumplings, Gelato, SGV

Orange Opulence – Chang’an

Jul24

Restaurant: Chang’an

Location: 13051 Newport Ave, Tustin, CA 92780. (949) 324-5558

Date: December 10, 2022 and February 23, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Best Chinese in the Southland

Among my friends Chang’an is a highly controversial Chinese restaurant. Personally, I think it has hands down the highest quality Chinese food in California, really the best I’ve had outside of China. But it’s high end, and in Tustin, and very expensive. There is a certain contingent who likes their Chinese grungier and at a better QPR feeling this is “more authentic.” The reality is that both are different aspects of modern China. Chang’an is extremely “authentic,” just to the style of recent high end eatery cropping up in China’s major cities. A good example would be Shanghai Tang.

They are also known for their elaborate table-side Peking Duck and are the winner of my in depth Ultimate LA Peking Duck Guide.

It’s located in this “French Chateau” like structure way down in Tustin. The drive is a real pain.

The decor is at a different level.

Details.

The have a dedicated peking duck oven!

One of their several bars.

The menu.

For our first meal we ate out on the “floor” near the giant screen (oddly playing Christmas videos). For the second, we had the awesome private room.

Gotta have champagne for:

Bovon brought 16oz of caviar!

Fist bump time!
And in a new first new BYOU (bring your own uni) — two trays of fresh Santa Barbara Uni!

They serve a Shaanxi bread and this spicy bean sauce.

Some Dec 22 wine.

Out comes the “main event” – LA’s best Peking duck.

Close up.

The table-side Peking Duck Show really gets underway!

The duck was covered in Baijiu and lit on fire to crisp (and flavor) the skin.

Carved table-side.

Skin was thin and mildly crispy, aged ducky flavor, served with traditional brown sugar. But still this way of doing the duck, better for the meat, compromises the skin ever-so-slightly = 6.

Natural cane sugar for dipping the skin into.

Pancake was thin and translucent and there were plenty of them = 10.

Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual plus pear = 9. Hoisin was good to great. Slightly thin maybe, sweet and savory, quite pungent = 8.

Meat was served 2 ways, both with some skin on the white meat, straight up = 10 where it was really juicy and full of flavor.

The burrito/bing together was a 7/10 or perhaps 8/10 as I didn’t pack it right. I should have made a second but I didn’t want the extra carbs.

The smoke machine was used to smoke this second batch of duck meat.

Watch it in action.

A second half of the meat was served smoked which was very different, a bit more like ham, and quite lovely = 9.

Dec 22 wine. It takes something racy like this to pair with numbing clam.

Spicy Arctic Surf Clam with Green Sichuan pepper 青花椒炝北极贝. Fabulous dish with chewy clam and pungent citrus-tinged peppercorns and a slightly sweet soy base. Underneath were unwraveled green onions. We ordered two of these they were so good.

And Bovon just had to “do his thing” to the dish for the photo. The combo certainly didn’t clash with the clam and even the peppercorn, but it did mute the peppercorn, which to me was a slight distraction.

Crispy Beef Tongue 脆皮牛舌. Fried, rich, but very delicious. The center was dense and chewy and the fry nice and light. The sweet and “spicy” sauce livened it up a bit.

A touch thin and oxidative.

Tons of lovely chevy minerality.

Lovely.

Cold Crispy Jellyfish With Hot and Sour Sauce 浆水海蜇. Incredible texture and a refreshing taste. Great jellyfish. The jellyfish itself was exceedingly firm with a great bite.

Taking it up to the next level we “decorated” with uni and caviar! Actually the caviar really helped the dish.

Tossed Cilantro, Scallion & Red Peanut Salad sweet & sour vinaigrette 陕西大拌菜. Extremely elegant salad. I could have eaten 2 all by myself. Very tangy with great texture, crunch, and tangy flavor.

Cucumber & Cold Noodles in chili sesame or hot and sour sauce 老陕凉皮 (麻酱/ 酸辣). There were two variants here, the spicy bean sprout noodles and a less spicy sesame cold noodles. They were fairly good, and better than last time as they started the meal. Texture was great on both. I particularly liked adding some of the even spicer “bread sauce” to the spicy noodles.

48-Hour Braised Sea Cucumber (per person) twenty-two different herbs and spices 招牌葱烧海参佐黑松露饭(每位). Wow! This was hands down the best sea cucumber I’ve had. They make a supreme stock and then slowly rehydrate the dried sea cucumber in it so that it absorbs the lovely and complex flavor. The rice is special Japanese snow rice with a very aromatic sauce. Really special.

Stir- Fired Lychee Prawns with Sweet Sour and Spicy Sauce 贵妃荔枝虾球. Very sweet. The cashews were candied. The sauce was sweet. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and quite nice. The fried balls were lychee deep deep fried covered in caramelized sugar.

Snow Crab with Egg pancake 风花雪蟹配鸡蛋煎饼. Eggy versions of the spring pancake with a very salty and delicious crab and seafood mix. Almost like a dry XO sauce it had little dried shrimps and scallops in there. Insanely savory.

The ultimate umami salt pancake with the crab mix and a huge blob of caviar!

Dec 22 wine.

Live Fish (Seasonal/Reserve only) Market Price 时价. In this particular case Turbot. Steamed with scallion and soy. I usually find this a bland dish but the succulent quality of this lovely fish and the perfect sauce made this dish insanely good. It was even better topped with lots of caviar!

Turbot in action.

On our second visit we decided to prep the Turbo a different way: Live Turbot Soup. I’m not sure what this was called, but this soup prep of the Turbot was incredible. The broth was mixed fish and chicken and seasoned liberally with white pepper. It was stunning. The chunks of fish were melt in your mouth and filled with that gelatinous softness that great turbot has. Amazing!

Out comes our friend, the soon to be dinner, his highness, King Crab.

Live King Crab “ginger and scallion.” I’ve never had this particular variant on the ginger and scallion. Instead of being a wet wok version, this was deep fried and then stir-fried with ginger and scallions in a spectacularly effective manner than leant it amazing Wok Xi (aka char flavor). Really delicious.

Live King Crab legs steamed with garlic and vermicelli. Perfect light and sweet version of the leg meat.

Jeff just had to Uni and Caviar this up too!

The crab shell returned with steamed “tofu egg.” Very loose light version of this dish. It was good but I actually prefer it as a more “solid” mass of custard.

Very nice, bright and deep. Not showing at that amazing level though.

Dusty at first, but it blew off. More berries than the 2001 and also not amazing.

Chang’an Squab 长安乳鸽脆皮/椒麻两种口味 Crispy/Peppercorn chili. Very nice classic Cantonese squab. Maybe a touch drier than the best ever, but really still quite lovely and amoung the better ones I’ve had.

Spicy Stir-Fried Wild Mushroom Morels with Shanghai Bok-Choy 辣炒羊肚菌配小棠菜. Delightful veggies. I just love morels.

Cucumber & Cold Noodles in chili sesame or hot and sour sauce 老陕凉皮 (麻酱/ 酸辣). I didn’t see any cucumber. These noodles were just spicy. They were fairly good, but the monotone of flavor made them one of the “worst” dishes of the night (given that every thing was great).

For his birthday Erick was given a special Xi’an style soup with long knife cut noodles (for long life) and a fried egg (for good fortune).

Sautéed Pea-Tips with Garlic 蒜蓉豆苗. Excellent version. Very delicate.

Dec 22 wine.

Extremely clean and concentrated.

Qin Style Roast Lamb Leg 秦味烤羊腿. This dish was insane. I didn’t deal with the buns but the lamb was super hot and intensely flavorful. It just melted off the bone and had this sizzling fat and intense smoked and crunchy chili flavor. Insane!

Close up of this perfect spicy meat.

Buns for the lamb.

Bovon caviared the buns!

Braised Abalone and Pork Belly with hand made steambuns 一品鲍鱼红烧肉. Not the strongest dish. The pork was very good with that braised star anise flavor and tons of fat.

Peppercorn Ice Cream 花椒冰淇淋 (每位). Very mild peppercorn flavors and very cold (and hard). But still good.

Tangerine Ice cream was hard but had a delightful flavor.

Strawbaccio Gelato — an awesome dairly Strawberry base with house-made Bronte Pistacchio DOCG “Fudge” — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — whacky combo day — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #strawberry #pistachio #pistacchio #fudge

Dec 2022 wine.

Feb 2023 Wines (up a notch!)
In one of the main dining rooms.

Private room gang.

Overall, I think this is some insanely good Chinese food. It’s not just great for Chinese, it’s really up there in terms of meals available in Southern California. The downside is the distance — easily over 2 hours in traffic — and the price (can be several hundred $$ a person if you are getting King Crab, etc.). I feel it’s worth it, and so do all the people I went with, but some of my other friends do not like the QPR. It’s definitely not a “value.”

Decor is great too. The atmosphere is “interesting.” Service is earnest and quite excellent for Chinese but still fighting its own instincts. They want to serve in Chinese order and they want to serve FAST! (almost everything at the same time). We have our own preferences for order, designed to match the wines. Many items here are pre-order only, like the duck and crab. The duck in particular is a bit odd. The very strangely limit you to one a table. Really two would be good with a large party. And they have an extremely specific pre-arranged time where they are GOING to serve the duck. By default this is the minute of your reservation — like start milling around the table discussing seating and here comes the duck! So it’s very important to arrange this specific time some distance (perhaps at least 30 minutes) AFTER your reservation time. And it’s then difficult to arrange for it to be after all the seafood (because you don’t know how long that will take). But these little idiosyncrasies are well worth putting up with (IMHO).

Chang’an also blends a number of Chinese regional styles. It’s nominally celebrating the city of Xi’an and so has significant Shaanxi influence, but certainly isn’t a classic Shaanxi place. It has Beijing dishes (like Peking duck) and some somewhat Cantonese dishes. All are filtered through both a higher end and slightly western Chinese lens.

Highly, highly recommended — but know what you are getting into.

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: BYOC, BYOG, BYOU, Caviar, Chang'An, Chinese cuisine, Fancy Chinese, Gelato, Orange County, Peking Duck, Shaanxi, Tustin, Uni, Wine, Xi'an

Arcadian Pastures

Jul18

Restaurant: Meizhou Dongpo

Location: 400 S Baldwin Ave #2045, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 538-4136

Date: December 4, 2022

Cuisine: Beijing/Szechuan Chinese

Rating: A bit better than its Century City brother

I’ve been to the Century City Meizhou many times, and I’ve even been to this Arcadia branch (which oddly opened LATER) for lunch, but I was always skeptical of going out here for dinner as there are so many other places in the SGV (and after all, we have one close by).

But off I went anyway.

They do have EPIC private rooms. This one is huge, decorated, and has a nice “sitting area.”

Sichuan Dumplings. Pork dumplings with chili oil. Pretty nice version with soft skins, good filling, and a tangy/spicy sauce.

Spicy cucumber salad. Very solid version. A touch spicy, nice sweet and tangy sauce.

Dongpo sausage. Two types. Actually a touch spicy/sweet. The light colored one was incredibly delicious in a sweet pork sort of way.

Cold mung bean noodles with chili. This was a spectacular version of this Chengdu street dish. Tons of flavor and a hot of heat.

Cold noodles with chicken and spicy sauce (not pictured). You mix it up and douse in the sauce. Quite nice cold noodle dish with good texture and flavor.

Sole Filet with green onions. Very lovely as well with nice thick filets. Super silky texture.

Lobster with Ginger and Scallions. The meat was tender and the sauce flavor was great.

Meizhou Special Fried Rice.

Condiments for the peking duck.

Out comes the peking duck!

For more detail on the whole duck thing in LA, check out my Ultimate Peking Duck Guide.
The do it table side, which is sadly rare here.

MDP skin was very thin and crispy but there was less of it because of the split skin cut = 6

Carving away.

The meat is served with legs in a separate dish. Each duck turns into two of these plates. We had three whole ducks this time around!

Meat was super juicy, even a touch pink, with real jus. Excellent. Some was served with the skin on = 9

Great thin pancakes. Pancake was thin and resilient = 9

The condiments. They include sugar for dipping the skin.

Hoisin was very good, but a touch savory = 7

Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual, but extra point for sugar = 8

The “burrito/bing” together was a 7/10 because the pancake/hoisin is the most important component of that.

Cumin Duck Bones. A bit boney and dry, but great flavor.

Duck Soup. They gave us this for free. Actually very pleasant, with a flavor like a great chicken soup.

Eggplant in chili garlic sauce. Nice but a little sweet. Texture was very good though. Very temperature hot as is typical with this dish.

Wok-Fried String Beans. Nice version of the dish.

Beef Filet with Black Pepper. A bit boring, but nice enough.

Steamed lobster with garlic and vermicelli. As good as the first lobster was (we actually had two of each!) this one was even better. Super moist and tender, just great lobster meat with garlic flavor!

Braised pork hock with special sauce. Super delicious umami/msg/savory sauce. Rocked.

Kung Pao Shrimp. It’s supposed to be a touch spicy — it wasn’t — it was sweet with nice crunchy peanuts. Despite the sweetness, it was delicious and addictive. Maybe a little too addictive. Texture was great.

Chocolate Butterfinger Crunch Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Peanutbutter Cream Cheese Ganache and chopped Butterfingers! — 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 #creamcheese #ganache #icing #peanut #butterfinger

A rarity with our Asian dinners, people under 30! (some adult children of some of the other guests).

The wine lineup.

Overall this was actually an excellent Chinese meal. Not only do they have the great private rooms (which really elevate Chinese dinners and make them a lot more fun) but MDP Arcadia is a touch more precise than the Century City version. Service is good at both, and the menus are almost the same, but there seems to be an extra level of consistency here that takes it up a notch.

I just wish they would balance a little bit less “sweet” and a little bit more sour/spicy. That would take it up from an 8 to a 10!

For more LA Chinese reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Arcadia, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, Lobster, Meizhou Dongpo, Peking Duck, SGV, Wine

Kinn Again

Jun28

Restaurant: Kinn [1, 2]

Location: 3905 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020. (213) 291-0888

Date: November 15, 2022

Cuisine: Korean Fusion

Rating: Really tasty & a great deal

After Erick and I had such a great “Round 1” of our double dinner at Kinn a few months back we decided to return with the whole gang for a “real” Foodie Club dinner.

It was way more crowded this time around.

We had a mega table which took up about 1/3 of the restaurant.

Our special expanded menu. The normal menu is about half this size.

NV Jacques Selosse Initial. 95 points.

Steamed Abalone. Potatoes, squid ink. You slurp the contents out of the shell. Essentially it’s like a “abalone chowder.” Quite nice if a bit potato focused.

Bluefin Tuna Collar Tartare. These seaweed cigars were very crispy and filled with an unctuous tuna filling.

Caviar, Squash Ice Cream, and Chungju. The caviar is astrea which Eve brought. I wasn’t that big a fan of the squash ice cream, but it was mild and creamy and so went well enough with the caviar. Still, caviar this good is best by itself. The white creamy stuff must be the Chungju, which is a sake-like rice wine (in this case I guess whipped?).

2007 Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Luchets. VM 90. Ripe but reduced aromas of vineyard peach and spices. Ripe but quite dry and stony, with orange and mineral flavors dominating. I find this a bit less vibrant than the Meix Chavaux.

2010 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Poruzots. VM 92. The 2010 Meursault Porusot shows the distinctive richness of the vintage. Juicy yellow stone fruits, flowers and mint flesh out in this radiant, expressive Meursault. Although quite extroverted, there is a centeredness and poise to the Porusot that is striking. (Drink starting 2014)

2017 Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Vireuils. BH 90-92. Notes of matchstick, petrol, white flower and discreet citrus zest nuances comprise the cool and restrained nose. As is usually the case, the medium-bodied flavors are not as rich as those of the straight Meursault but there is noticeably more minerality and cut and particularly so on the sappy, long and bone dry finish. This offers excellent quality for a villages level wine. (Drink starting 2025)

Truffled Egg. These were excellent white truffles with a very lovely eggy base beneath.

Steamed Shirako. The cod sperm sakes were perfectly delicate and coated in a butter caviar sauce with parsnips. Great butter sauce and shirako texture, but there was a slight bitter tone.

Non shirako fish substitute. Someone couldn’t “handle the cream.”

Spanish-Style Crispy Octopus. The sauce is a creamy aioli with Korean Chili Paste. Perfectly cooked octopus with a crispy outside and tender inside, I was able to cut it easily with a spoon. The aioli, basically a Korean inspired take on Bravos Sauce, was very thick and “creamy” with an egg, oil emulsion. Lovely take on this classic Spanish dish.

2001 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Bonnes Mares. VM 94. The 2001 De Vogüé Bonnes Mares exhibited uncommon depth and richness in the luxuriousness of its vibrant fruit, with a personality that was delicate yet powerful. Still very much an infant, it was a privilege to catch this gorgeous wine in its youth.

2002 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Bonnes Mares. VM 93. Bright medium red. Explosive aromas of cherry and iron lifted by high-toned exotic spices. Hugely rich and fleshy, plush and full, with the powerful spice character following through on the palate. Finishes with terrific breadth and substantial dusty tannins. Millet finds the 2002s less subtle than the 2014s. The wines are a bit sweeter as well as higher in alcohol, he added. I should note that this sample came from a 375-milliliter bottle, so the same wine in a 750 almost certainly has a lot more life ahead of it. (Drink between 2016-2025)

Dry aged duck.

The chef reveal.

Dry aged duck. Awesome chewy rare duck with a rich buttery sauce and a meaty reduction. Delicious.

Crispy Tilefish with a Fish Broth. The Crispy Topped fish was perfectly cooked, served with a Fennel Salad, and underlayed with a delicious Korean Fish Bone Broth spiked with Serrano Chili and Tarragon Oil. Really lovely.

1998 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Landonne. VM 97+. Full dark ruby. Sauvage, multidimensional aromas of dark berries, leather, meat, pepper, gunflint, fresh blood and brown spices, along with torrefaction notes of mocha and smoke. Hugely rich, dense and sweet; a wine of great volume and suavity. Finishes with big, ripe tannins and great persistence. Even the empty glass boasted extraordinary aromatic complexity.

Colorado Lamb Chop. Very nice rare chop with another delicious reduction and delicious onion.

Blackthroat seaperch rice. Very lovely Japanese/Korean style fish on rice.

Lime to squeeze on the fish.

Truffle Ice Cream with Chocolate Cake. Great truffles but this only confirms my longheld belief that truffles do not belong in dessert.

An old Ramen Roll classic — Matcha White Gelato – Ceremonial Matcha Green Tea base mixed with White Chocolate Chunks — 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 #WhiteChocolate #matcha #GreenTea

Chocolate Raspberry Pie Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Raspberry Jam, Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Raspberry Squares, and house-made Gluten Free Graham Cracker “crust” — 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 #raspberry #Ghirardelli #GrahamCracker #GF

The lineup.

Kinn was awesome. Not only was it intimate and the chef extremely friendly and interesting, but these were big bold flavors and quite novel. The cooking techniques are heavily “modern French” or “modern European” (some dishes like the Octopus are pretty Spanish) but a lot of Korean ingredients and flavors have been melded in. It’s simultaneously comforting and novel.

This larger dinner was more “filling” and we certainly didn’t need second dinner. Great stuff and great wines. I did miss the shiso sorbetto though — loved that the first time.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Foodie Club, Gelato, Kinn, Korean Fusion, Wine

Sauvages Bordeaux

Jun24

Restaurant: Private Chef, David Slatkin

Location: Pasadena

Date: November 11, 2022

Cuisine: American

This particular entry in my series of Friday afternoon wine themed Sauvages lunches was set at a member’s lovely Pasadena house with a Bordeaux wine theme. Food was by frequent Sauvages chef David Slatkin.

Champagnes at the ready.

Tuna Salad on Wonton Crisps. Lots of mayo.

Pigs in a Preztel Blanket.

Korean Short Rib Mini Tacos. Sweet and salty.

Table A.

Table B. I’m not a fan of the two (guys) table setup, actually. It’s just not as fun as a single table.

The Lady’s Table.

Because of the double table thing and the confusion and too many bottles I’m not going to write up the wines, just picture them. I can’t keep this kind of two table thing straight. I think this lineup of wines were ours at Table B.

Wines on the sideboard.

Brioche French Toast with Pan Seared Foie Gras and Sweet Apple Sauce. Pretty darn sweet!

What’s left after I ate just the foie.

Cavatelli with Meat Ragu and Ricotta Stuffed Squash Blossom. I have to say, putting a fried item on pasta is an interesting twist.

Stuffed Quail on Mashed Parsnip with Crispy Sweet Breads. Very nice dish. Quail was juciy and the parsnips (tasted a little) were delicious.

New York Steak with Crispy Cauliflower and Mashed Potatoes. The cauliflower was very good. The steak was medium well and a bit chewy.

Cheese Plate with pan baked buns.

For some reason I make this flavor in October — Key Lime Pie Gelato — base is a key lime egg custard, layered with house-made Graham Cracker and covered with house-made Torched Meringue — 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 #KeyLime #lime #custard #meringue #GrahamCracker #cookie

Citron au Courant Sorbetto – Fresh squeezed Lemons blended with French Currants (Cassis) — 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 #lemon #cassis #currents #lemonade #citron

Chocolate Souffle with Whipped Cream and Berries. The cream was not sweetened (good) and the souffle had a great texture but was only mildly chocolately.

Chocolate Chip Cookies. Fresh baked and very soft.

Party gifts. This were fabulous for packaged cookies.

The table split.

My notes.

Lineup.

Debauchery.

And more.

The sane table.

Overall, this was a fun lunch, but the two (three with the ladies) format kinda bites. It’s way too confusing, too competitive, less social, and generally less fun than a bigger single table. You can’t try all the wines either. I find this true at lunch or dinner, regardless of the group. So I think Sauvages needs to be capped at about 16 and even then only when the table and wine service supports such a careful pour.

Food was some of the best we’ve had from Slatkin, if a touch on the heavy side. He paired it extremely well with the wines — which given the Bordeaux thing worked.

The setting was lovely.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Lots more wines. Probably a mess of duplicate photos.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bordeaux, BYOG, David Slatkin, Gelato, lunch, Sauvages

Petrified Peppone

Jun22

Restaurant: Peppone Restaurant

Location: 11628 Barrington Ct, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 476-7379

Date: November 11, 2022

Cuisine: 1970s Italian American

Rating: Saucy!

Jeffrey was clamoring for months to visit Peppone in Brentwood for Old School Italian eats.

I, myself, hadn’t been in 15 or 20 years!

Not that the interior changed. It hasn’t changed since disco was king! This place opened in around 1971 and looks it. All the hot girls were there too (later) — just the girls who were hot in the 70s!

At the bar.

The petrified menu.

From my cellar: 2012 Borgo del Tiglio (Nicola Manferrari) Collio Studio di Bianco. 95 points. Borgo del Tiglio’s flagship 2012 Studio di Bianco is the most precise, sculpted wine in the range. Lemon peel, white flowers and crushed rocks are some of the nuances that take shape in a wine that deftly balances the richness and tension. As is often the case, I expect the Studio will need a few years in bottle to truly open up and show the full breadth of its personality. (Drink between 2017-2027)

Cheesy Garlic Bread with Marinara Sauce. I didn’t try these (avoiding the carbs) but people said they were pretty good. But they do start off tonight’s “sauce” theme, even if it’s a dipping sauce in that EVERY dish served was covered in a sauce.

From my cellar: 2018 Azienda Agricola Valentini Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo. VM 92. Bright pink. Minerals, fava beans, pomegranate and violet on the bright nose. Then very harmonious in its acid-fruit-tannin profile, with lively balanced acidity nicely extending the flavors similar to the aromas on the long back end. Strikes me as a rather refined, sneakily concentrated Cerasuolo. (Drink between 2019-2025)

Jumbo Artichokes Venetian. Not only is this pretty hideous (and decidedly messy) but it was probably the worst artichoke I remember having. The sauce was just vaguely salty and the artichoke itself was very thick and heavy and it was difficult to scrape any meat off of the leaves. This is an easy dish and can be delicious steamed with butter, garlic, and a bit of salt — don’t complicate it.

Baked Zucchini Blossoms. Ugly as hell, but actually fairly tasty. The overall texture was much like an omelet as the blossoms were smashed flat and slightly soggy. A fairly tasty brown sauce of some sort was sort of drizzled over it.

Escargots. Another looker! Passible, but these shelled snails were drowned in this mysterious brown sauce. Straight French-style garlic butter escargot are much better.

Scampi Vesuvio. Nicely cooked shelled shrimp were soaked in the vesuvio sauce which seams to be butter, lemon juice, and some seafood “juice.”

From my cellar: 1965 Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva. VM 97. Garnet-tinged red. Aromas of raspberry, red cherry, dried flowers, licorice and smoky spices complicated by white pepper and herbs. Suave on entry, then sweet but gripping in the middle, with harmonious acidity giving terrific definition and lift to the multifaceted flavors of red berries, minerals, iron and spices. A wonderfully creamy, almost fleshy Chianti with utterly silky tannins. Offers amazing vibrancy while saturating the entire palate without conveying any impression of weight on the extremely long finish. A great wine from a vintage that received mixed reviews at the time, with some producers liking it a lot, and others much less so. The general consensus, though is that it was inferior to both 1964 and 1966.

Would have been home on the original opening list!

Pasta Trio with Rigatoni with Italian Sausage, Fettuccine Alfredo, and Lobster Ravioli. Three “classic” pastas. The good one was the Rigatoni which was quite al dente and had a nice Italian American Sausage sauce. The Fettuccine was mushy and just tasted like cream. The Ravioli sauce tasted mostly like salt with almost no lobster shell (aka bisque) taste.

From my cellar: 2002 Romano Dal Forno Valpolicella Superiore Vigneto di Monte Lodoletta. VM 94. Dal Forno’s 2002 Valpolicella is a massively endowed effort revealing backward dark fruit, new leather, spices, herbs, roasted coffee beans and toasted oak on an imposing, tannic frame. Made in a super-concentrated style – even by Dal Forno’s standards – it will require several years of cellaring for the tannins to soften somewhat, although it is hard to imagine that will ever completely happen. Beginning with the 2002 vintage Dal Forno’s Valpolicella is made from 100% dried fruit, whereas in previous vintages the wine had been made only partially with dried fruit. (Drink between 2013-2017)

Sweetbreads Pompei, Sandabs in Padella, and Chicken Livers Flambee. These were all actually pretty good. The Sandabs were fabulous, albiet coated in another of those salty old fashioned sauces, but they were very delicate and moist (drowned). The Sweetbreads were also good, but hard to tell under the sauce. The Liver was my least favorite but it was still solid for liver of this sort as it was soft and not chewy or heavy.

From the ancient list: 1989 Gaja Barbaresco Costa Russi. VM 97. The 1989 Barbaresco Costa Russi is a thrilling wine that literally takes my breath away – and that comes from someone who usually isn’t the hugest fan of this particular wine. In 1989 the Costa Russi offers a touch more roundness and spiciness than the Barbaresco. The fruit here is super-luxurious and silky, while the tannins possess remarkable polish. The finish remains firm and full of life. Even 20 years ago Angelo Gaja and Guido Rivella were making wines most producers would kill for today. Simply put this is a magical bottle; I only wish I owned it. Wow. (Drink between 2013-2030)

Sausages Pizzaiola. This seemed more like sausages and peppers. But regardless the sausage itself was great, classic Italian America with a nice bit of fennel. Sauce worked well making it like a good street Sausage and Peppers. The old fashioned veggies lol. Steamed with maybe a bit of butter. Drowned in the sauce they were actually fine as they were still reasonably crunchy — but so old fashioned!

Vitello Saltimbocca. Hard to find the veal under all that sauce, and it was salty, but it was also tender and pretty delicious.

Lamb Osso Buco with Gnocchi. I usually expect Osso Buco to be vertical with more fat and collogen and this is more reminiscient as a cut to a Middle Eastern lamb shank, but the meat was delicious. The Gnocchi were a bit chewy, not the light fluffy ones that are best.

Sautéed Mushrooms. Ugly delicious for sure! Looks like a bowl of dog food, but these mushrooms, nearly invisible under the thick salty brown sauce were quite delicious. Certainly it was all about the salty mushroom (and maybe beef) sauce.

Yar! Ghostly skeletal praline pirates are marauding — Pecan Pirate Praline Gelato — An eggy Texas Pecan base layered with my creepy skull-shaped New Orleans style Vanilla Bourbon Pecan Pralines and Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Pumpkins — 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

We were joined tonight by the lovely and vivacious Lisa of LisaEatsLA. Plus her boyfriend.

Overall, the room at Peppone is gorgeous. The clientele consists of 1968 California Girls dolled up and ready to party — in 2022. The waiters have all probably worked here for decades and they were great. Very nice, very knowledgeable, efficient. Our meal did take mysteriously long. They kinda did that thing where they ignored us a bit until the bulk of the crowd (which had seated before us, even though we at at 7pm) thinned out.
Food was better than I thought, but OMG the hideous plating and all that sauce. Literally every single dish is drowned in a barely identifiable heavy sauce. The driest dish was the Garlic Bread (which also included a sauce). And it’s just poured over. And it’s all so 1970s. I love sauce but this was a bit much. And we aren’t talking a precise french Beurre Blanc or even a peerless Marinara but these heavy sloppy butter based “brownish” sauces. Plus the antiquated veggies. However, must dishes were pretty tasty in a salty buttery way. Pastas were weak. We didn’t try dessert.

They do have a pretty well priced big wine list. It’s poorly spelled and only sometimes includes vintages but we did manage to find a fantastic 1989 Gaja Russi for $349 (which is probably about retail).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Brentwood, BYOG, Foodie Club, Gelato, Italian cuisine, Lisa Eats, Peppone, Sauce, Wine

Aussie at Locanda Veneta

Jun12

Restaurant: Locanda Veneta [1, 2, 3]

Location: 8638 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048. (310) 274-1893

Date: November 3, 2022

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: fun night w/ retro 90s Italian

I’m not historically a big fan of Locanda Veneta. It’s okay, and the owner is super nice, and execution on the food quite good, but the meal is always the same (maybe that’s Yarom’s ordering) and it’s very 90’s. I like a more modern style of Italian, frankly. This feels similar to Toscana or other good but slightly dated places. And we always end up eating steak — which just doesn’t feel that Italian — although actually it is in Tuscany — but I hate that kind of steak.

Anyway, I decided after many years of rejection to try it out again. This is also right at the start of my new low carb diet but they did very graciously offer substitutes for the pasta.

The location is Los Angeles classic, Locanda Veneta, a Beverly Hills Italian with several decades of history. Above, Chef Andre in the kitchen.

Our big outside table — which is great in nice weather.

From my cellar: 2011 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. 94 points.

2006 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 98. We started with the 2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne, which is every bit as racy and seductive as it has always been. It’s a great, great vintage for Comtes. (Drink between 2022-2046)

2008 Drappier Champagne Grande Sendrée Submarine Edition. 96 points.

The menu.

Ron bonus: 2018 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Côte Bouguerots. VM 94. The 2018 Chablis Bougros Côte de Bouguerots Grand Cru is well-defined on the nose. Quite stony and terse at first, it opens with orange rind and crushed pebble scents. The palate is well balanced with fine acidity, tight and energetic with a zesty, minerally finish. This meliorates in the glass, ending up quite nuanced and tensile. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2018 white tasting. (Drink between 2024-2040)

Bread with a “pesto” of parsley, olive oil, lemon juice etc.

Insalata San Remo. Mixed Greens served with Avocados, Tomatoes, Hearts of Palm, Zucchini, and Pine-Nuts tossed in our House Vinaigrette. Not a bad salad but certainly not great with wine either.

Penne Pomodoro.

From my cellar, and WOTN (haha but true): 2011 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 95. As was the case from a bottle in 750 ml tasted in 2019 (see herein), a still strikingly fresh, elegant, airy and cool nose features aromas of wisps of acacia blossom, lemon rind, mineral reduction, green apple and a lingering hint of wood influence. The sleek, pure and stony medium weight flavors exude palpable underlying tension before culminating in a vibrant, driving, intense and impeccably well-balanced finish that goes on and on. This is textbook Perrières that for my taste is still on the way up, and particularly so in magnum format, and I would suggest allowing it another 5 to 8 years of cellar time. With that said, it wouldn’t be a crime to open one now – just be sure to allow for some air time. Impressive. (Drink starting 2028)

“Beluga” Sturgeon Caviar (1lb.) Sturgeon Roe (Imported Real Fine Black Caviar) served with Fresh Made Blini, Chopped Egg Yolks, Spanish Red Onion and Crème Fraiche.

Fresh Made Blini, Chopped Egg Yolks, Spanish Red Onion and Crème Fraiche.

A slight odd course, but delicious (and salty). Always a little amusing when there are 2 white courses (salad and caviar) and a whole lotta giant red.

2001 Penfolds Grange. VM 94. Inky violet with a bright rim. Explosive and utterly captivating on the nose, offering a range of aromas that encompasses red and darker berries, flowers, cigar box, minerals and sexy oak spices. Quite broad on the palate, and packing a real punch to its flavors of cassis, boysenberry, candied plum, bitter chocolate and fruitcake. Serious, harmonious tannins give plenty of structural support. This expands and grows even sweeter with aeration, finishing with outstanding persistence. Oak spices add sex appeal. A superb Grange.

1999 Penfolds Grange. VM 91+. Full ruby-red. Sexy aromas of raspberry, cola, root beer and coconut. Thick, dense and concentrated, with exotic, slightly candied dark fruit, caramel, toasted coconut and mineral flavors nicely shaped by firm acids. Shows strong fruit and a major dose of oak on the powerful, backward finish. This can’t quite match the 1998 for sheer depth of fruit, but it’s built to age.

1993 Penfolds Grange. 93 points. Slightly chemical nose, then herbs, anis. With time better and purerx On the palate much better, high toned red fruit, lots of ripe dark fruit, minerality, herbs, minty notes, again anis and spices. Very complex and layered. Highly precise. No faulty notes. Round but still very powerful but so round and sexy.

1990 Penfolds Grange. 94 points. Excellent 33-year old Grange – mid-neck level and perfect cork. The nose was fantastic and very complex with aromas of cedar, exotic wood, incense, dark cherries, leather and another “je-ne-sais-quoi”. The palate was excellent, but not as impressive. Balanced and very long. Still has the tannic structure and the stuffing to last 5-10 years, but will it improve? I don’t think so. Enjoy now.

Risotto al Tartufo Nero or Blanco. Carnaroli” Rice simmered with a Shaved “Alba’s” Fresh Black Winter or White Truffles. Very tasty and rich.

Antelope Carpaccio with arugula and truffles. The less carby variant.

2000 Chris Ringland Shiraz Dry Grown Barossa Ranges.

2003 Chris Ringland Shiraz Dry Grown Barossa Ranges.

1989 Henschke Shiraz Hill of Grace.

1991 Henschke Shiraz Hill of Grace.

“Tomahawk” di Manzo. USDA Prime Beef “Tomahawk” charbroiled to perfection, rubbed with Kosher Sea Salt, Black Pepper and our Secret Fresh Spices. We had several of these steaks at various levels of doneness (rare to well done). LOTS of beef. It was quite salted but the ones on the more rare side were delicious.

Roasted Rosemary Garlic New Potatoes. Great potatoes but I only had one because of carb avoidance.

Sautéed Baby Asparagus. Solid.

Sautéed Baby Carrots.

Branzino with “no fry” Eggplant Parmigiana. This was an unusual branzino, not quite as light as the classic greak/italian prep, but very tasty. The eggplant was fabulous and tomato sauce forward.

1986 Penfolds Grange. 95 points.

1982 Penfolds Grange. JG 95. The 1982 Penfolds Grange Hermitage has always been an impressive bottle, and since its debut in the second half of the 1980s, this has been a head-turner of a vintage for this great wine. Despite its fairly early appeal (where there was more than enough beautiful fruit that one had no trouble drinking it with great pleasure and just ignoring its fair chassis of tannin), this was always a wine meant to age gracefully and it has done so in no uncertain terms. Today, the bouquet is deep and complex, offering up a moderately jammy blend of cassis, black raspberries, coffee, meaty tones, menthol, dried berries, a touch of leather, new oak and a good base of soil. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with fine focus and grip, a plush core of fruit and impressive length and grip on the meltingly tannic and well-balanced finish. This is a classic vintage of Grange and has decades of life still ahead of it, but is fully into its apogee. (Drink between 2017-2050)

1981 Penfolds Grange. 93 points.

“New York” Steak di Manzo. USDA Prime Beef “Tomahawk” charbroiled to perfection, rubbed with Kosher Sea Salt, Black Pepper and our Secret Fresh Spices. There were a lot of these steaks too — just tons of meat.

Almond Amaretto Fudge Gelato — Amaretto Zabaglione (egg yolk, amaretto, and sugar custard) Sicilian Almond gelato base with a swirl of house-made Valrhona Cream Cheese Fudge Icing — 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 #almond #amaretto #icing #chocolate

Apple Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream and Caramel. Delicious.

Panna Cotta. Italian vanilla custard served on a strawberry coulis. Lovely and soft.

Wines tonight.

The gang.

The kitchen.

Overall this was a fun evening. I’ll bring apart commentary into different areas.

Service: The restaurant did a great job managing a group of our size. They were on top of things for the most part and extremely nice and accommodating. Whoever helped pick the menu for white wines did a good job pairing out all those red tomato sauce dishes.

Food: The food was good. Some dishes were excellent like pastas. Some were just nice. It all feels a little 90s Italian-American (which it is), but isn’t fully contemporary or fully Italian. But it’s good. Plating is very 90s.

Wine: Grange is always good, but I always feel weird not drinking Italian at Italian restaurants. These wines are monsters, BTW, even at 30-40 years of age. No point in cracking them at <25 years.

Anyway though, a very fun evening.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Gelato, hedonists, Locanda Veneta, Steak, Wine

Sauvages Crustacean

Jun08

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

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

Date: October 28, 2022

Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion

Rating: Awesome as always

Crustacean is one of our regular haunts and features a great patio in these “outside is better” days. Tonight’s meal was a Sauvages wine lunch, with a Red Burgundy theme.

We’ve had a couple awesome meals here in the last couple of years.

Lots of champagne to start.

We are situated in their patio room as usual.

The ladies have a spot nearby.

Cocktail “hour.”

Our menu.

And wine list. Look how organized they are!

2005 Domaine Ponsot Griotte-Chambertin. VM 92-95. Good ruby-red. Sappy, liqueur-like aromas of griotte cherry and black raspberry. Wonderfully intense and concentrated, with a nearly confectionery sweetness to its explosive fruit flavors. Like the Cuvee des Alouettes, this comes across as a bit high-toned and will require careful attention during its final months of elevage But offers great potential.

2005 Camille Giroud Latricières-Chambertin. VM 92-95. A subtle dash of oak influence highlights the equally dense dark berry fruit nose of surpassing elegance and refinement that complements perfectly the texture and very Gevrey medium full flavors that in contrast to the nose seem less refined than usual. Indeed, this is a powerful Latricières that at present anyway seems to under emphasize the underlying minerality so typical of this cru though the finish is long, velvety and mouth coating. A qualitative choice though the respective characters are very different. (Drink starting 2018)

2007 Joseph Drouhin Griotte-Chambertin. VM 92. Medium red with a palish rim. Enticing aromas of crushed red fruits perked up by pepper, spices and herbs; more evidence of stems here. Then densely packed and juicy, with a suave, smooth texture and enticing inner-mouth perfume. A peppery note adds to the vibrancy of this sappy grand cru. Finishes with fine-grained tannins and considerable class.

2003 Domaine Maume Mazis-Chambertin. BH 93. An absolutely gorgeous nose of black fruit, anise, violet and cassis coupled with a smoked meat and wild herb notes introduce big, intense and explosive flavors that are sappy and seductive. There is a deeply buried but steely tannic spine that will take its time resolving but I’d like to see this wine at age 15 or so. This is really a stunner as it’s very fresh for the vintage and absolutely one to buy. (Drink starting 2011)

Tuna Cigars. Instant Smoke, Feuille de Brick, Avocado Silk, Vidalia Onion, Tobiko Caviar. Lovely little “cigar.” It actually tastes somewhat cigar-like with the “smoke” and after that fades out is more reminiscient of the Spago tuna cone. The tobiko is more textural and doesn’t have the richness of a real (sturgeon) caviar.

2003 Dominique Laurent Charmes-Chambertin. VM 91-94. Deep red. Floral aromas of red cherry, red licorice, spices, mocha and iron. Sweet on entry, then precise, perfumed and sharply delineated in the mid-palate, with juicy, harmonious acidity. Lifted by violet and rose notes. Finishes very pure and long, with nicely integrated, rather gentle tannins. Classic Charmes. (A separate cuvee of Mazoyeres seemed very ripe and was in an oxidative phase.)

2001 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vieilles Vignes. BH 96. One of the finest wines of the vintage, this is simply a spectacular effort that has captured every bit of the potential it originally displayed in cask. Restrained and backward nose of a fantastically complex mix of blackberries, spice, cedar, soy, anise and dried herbs followed by full-bodied, multi-layered flavors of amazing length. Opulent and lavish yet all remains exquisitely balanced and this is astonishingly precise. A real stunner of a wine that is as classy and graceful as they come. As good and classy as the ’02 if not quite as structured. (Drink starting 2016)

1999 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays. BH 94. I was quite surprised to find just how open for business this was in magnum format as I expected something far more reserved but such was not the case. A beautiful and highly expressive nose of ripe black cherry, earth and the hallmark red pinot fruit is followed by medium weight yet concentrated flavors of bacon, smoke and sappy pinot extract that are given lift and verve by the intense minerality and outstanding length. This has added a good deal of weight and seems more powerful than before yet it remains very stylish and classy with excellent potential though like the same wine in 750 ml (see herein), this is so well balanced and harmonious that it could easily be drunk now with pleasure. That said, unless you are lucky enough to have this in quantity, I would counsel cellaring it for another 5 to 10 years. In a word, terrific. (Drink starting 2014)

2002 Louis Jadot Bonnes Mares. VM 95. Ruby-red. Flamboyantly rich aromas of blackberry, minerals and chocolate. Fat, rich and powerful; compellingly sweet and dense but with terrific thrust as well. Superripe flavors of chocolate and black plum. Finishes very long and powerful, with big but thoroughly ripe tannins. Offers great potential.

Kagoshima A5 Wagyu Tartare. Rau Rum Chimichurri, Quail Egg, L’Amuse Golda, Sesame Rice Cracker. Great beef tartare. Tons of flavor, umami from the cheese, and the rice cracker was nice and light.

Roasted Bone Marrow. Escargot Brunois, Garlic Baguette, Rau Ram. This is the best bone marrow I’ve had. There was a lot more of the actual “meat” (aka fat) and it was bulked up with the far tastier garlic snail mixture. Normal bone marrow is just a scraping of tasteless fat but by pair that with the savory escargot and balanced with a bit of lime it was just way better.

1998 Joseph Drouhin Grands-Echezeaux. VM 91. Deep red. Wild aromas of medicinal cherry, mint and coffee; subtle and fine. Full, sweet and silky but very unevolved and dominated today by its structure. A moderately ripe wine that’s not especially sweet or expressive but shows excellent backbone and freshness. Finishes with slightly tough tannins. But very backward and hard to judge today.

1999 Remoissenet Père et Fils Grands-Echezeaux. 98 points. Wow! An extraordinary wine! Gorgeous lush fruit, just the right amount of barnyard, complex notes of earth, leather, and ripe fruits. Perfectly balanced, a BIG wine with loads of structure and a finish that just won’t quit. If you can find this wine, mortgage the house and buy it! It’s drinking incredibly well now, but still has years of life in it.

1989 Mongeard-Mugneret Echezeaux.

1999 Château Latour Grand Vin. VM 92. The 1999 Latour is a vintage that I have not encountered for four or five years. It has a pH of 3.80 and a yield of 38hl/ha, representing 58% of the total crop. Interestingly, this includes 14% vin de presse compared to the 9 to 10% used nowadays. It has a classic Latour bouquet of blackberry, pencil box and undergrowth aromas, quite strict and conservative in style, and fairly intense but not firing on all cylinders; orange zest aromas evolve gradually. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and nicely detailed, offering blackberry, black truffle, pencil shavings and a touch of spice toward the finish, which shows more grip and density than the 1989 Latour tasted alongside, probably because of that pressed wine. This is beginning to reach its drinking plateau, although judging by this showing it will give another two decades of drinking pleasure. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the estate. (Drink between 2019-2039)

Pork Belly Salad. Black Mission Fig, Lemongrass, Yuzu Vinaigrette, Butter Lettuce, Point Reyes Blue Cheese Snow, Hazelnut. Some people didn’t like this salad but I did. It was very light and bright, a bit like a punchier version of a lardon and frissee salad. The pork belly was bacon smokey and nicely pervaded the dish.

Mongolian Lamb. Char-Grilled, Market Vegetables, Twice Cooked Potatoes. Very tender, sweet, and tasty. Still basically a lamb chop.

1996 Louis Jadot Chambertin. VM 92-95. Rather delicate aromas of crystallized berries, smoke and sandalwood. Velvety and very sweet in the mouth, with pungent oak spice and a firm mineral underpinning. Ripe acids are in harmony with the wine. Great concentration. No hard edges.

1996 Louis Jadot Chapelle-Chambertin. VM 93+. Saturated red-ruby. Fabulously complex, thoroughly ripe aromas of black raspberry, animal fur, mocha and chocolate, plus a distinct hint of surmaturite. Thick, creamy and very concentrated on the palate, and already quite expressive. Has a complicating herbal note that complements the wine sweetness. Finishes very long, with silky tannins and a hint of marzipan.

1995 Claude Dugat Griotte-Chambertin. VM 96. Deep ruby. Fabulously complex but extremely primary aromas of black raspberry, orange zest, smoke and black pepper; even higher-pitched and finer than the Charmes. This and the Charmes offer just the slightest hint of the animal complexity to come with development in bottle. Dense and pristine in the mouth; conveys a black peppery note of sheer extract. At least as long as the Charmes but suaver, finer. Amazing juice.

1996 Domaine Perrot-Minot Mazoyères-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes. VM 92+. Excellent red-ruby color. Knockout aromas of smoky black raspberry, black cherry, coffee and roasted oak. Thick, sappy and sweet, with powerful cherry and raspberry fruit. Dense but given shape by strong acidity. Long, firm, sweetly tannic finish.

AN’s Famous Garlic Roasted Dungeness Crab with AN’s Famous Garlic Noodles. This was a special personal version of the crab and noodles. I remember when I first came here that you had to pay an extra few dollars for them to crack it! But now that’s included if you like. We didn’t have to crack it at all. The meat was delicious and so were the noodles.

Himalayan Saltblock Steak. Prime all-Natural Rib Eye, Horseradish Crema. Meat.

Bloody Apple Pie Gelato — A Tahitian Vanilla Custard base layered with my house-made cinnamon bourbon apple pie filling, house-made Vanilla Caramel Blood, and house-made Grave Soil Charcoal Graham Crackers (GF) — 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 #applepie #apple #cinnamon #caramel #GrahamCracker #halloween

Yar! Ghostly skeletal praline pirates are marauding — Pecan Pirate Praline Gelato — An eggy Texas Pecan base layered with my creepy skull-shaped New Orleans style Vanilla Bourbon Pecan Pralines and Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Pumpkins — 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

Vino.

The ladies table in full swing.

Us gents.

Overall, this was an awesome lunch. Boy did the Ans treat us right and we had an incredible menu, amazing service, and great wines. They turned out to be home run unique dishes that really knocked it out of the park.

Wines were great too.

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.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: An Family, BYOG, Crustacean, Gelato, Red Burgundy, Sauvages, Vietnamese cuisine, Vietnamese Fusion, Wine

Kato DTLA

Jun02

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

Location: 777 S Alameda St Building 1, Suite 114, Los Angeles, CA 90021. (213) 797-5770

Date: October 13, 2022

Cuisine: Omakase Asian

Rating: Even better, but too far

In late 2021 Kato, a longstanding modern Asian omakase/kaiseki in Santa Monica shut up shop and moved downtown to a larger, far more glamorous space. Erick and I were bummed because there are so few unique places on the westside — and well the Row is FAR!

The nominal excuse for tonight’s dinner was the rare appearance of Reisa back in LA, so Eve organized this dinner. She’s an investor (and caviar supplier) for Kato.

Kato is right around the corner from Hayato.

The interior is sleek.

We had this nice large sized table.

Most of the gang.

The minimalist menu (not much in the way of descriptors).

I think we bought this off the list. Despite Eve being very tight with Kato, no one senior was in and she had forgotten to arrange something with regard to the corkage — and they have that idiotic 2 bottle limit. What sense does it make that a 2 person table and an 8 person table can open the same number of wines? The Kato list is decent, but it’s young, small, and pretty marked up. Plus we just have way too much wine to be buying off LA lists. After a while they forgot about us and our wine hijinks and we manged well enough.
Chicken Liver, genmaicha, date. Super yummy “liver macaron” style bite.

Sweet Shrimp, seaweed, shaoxing wine. Very interesting blend of flavors being part Japanese and part Chinese. The Shaoxing wine is very distinct.

Scallop, soy preserves, doubanjiang. Yummy little scallop tart with nice textures and a bit of heat to finish.

More champgane.

Sea urchin, Iberico ham, brown butter. Basically a puff pastry/donut hole stuffed with uni and wrapped in ham.

2017 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs. Probably. Loosen has so many cuvees it was hard to tell which dry Ürziger Würzgarten this was. I picked it off the list.

Black throat sea perch, Tomato and tomato water jelly, shiso. Awesome dish with very pleasant tomato flavors and a bright acidity. I don’t even like (raw) tomatoes and I loved it.

Caviar, dungeness crab, garlic. This is more or less a Kato classic and I’ve had it a bunch of times but it’s still creamy and delicious.

Milk bread. Awesome sweet and fluffy bread. Addictive in fact.

Normandy style butter. Bread was even better with this nice butter.

From my cellar: 2009 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. BH 93. Subtle wood sets off aromas of flowers, oyster shell and tidal pool that complement perfectly the racy, pure and strikingly well-detailed medium plus weight flavors that brim with minerality on the delicious, mouth coating and impressively long finish. This beautifully vibrant and concentrated effort should drink well young and age well too plus it’s more classic in style than many wines from this vintage. (Drink starting 2016)

Tilefish, fish fragrant sauce, Szechuan peppercorn. This is like that French seabass dish with the crispy scales but with a sticky numbing sauce!

1985 Faiveley Latricières-Chambertin. BH 92. Some bricking. The nose is a complex mixture of Gevrey earth, spice, game, underbrush and an evident nose of minerality followed by powerful, intense and still moderately structured flavors with plenty of punch and length. The finish is still firm though by no means hard and while this is certainly approachable now, I would give it 45 minutes or so of air. Note: another recent bottle was similar in character but did not possess the same degree of freshness and in particular, the finish seemed somewhat light and diffuse.

Duck, menegi, duck sausage. Great duck. Super tender, a bit sweet and delicious. The spring rolls off to the side with the sausage were even better.

1999 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. VM 96. Good dark red. Seriously rich, deep aromas of black cherry, currant, tobacco, chocolate and sexy soil tones, plus a whiff of leather that adds complexity. Wonderfully rich, deep, tactile Volnay with a remarkably chewy texture and outstanding dimension to its flavors of strawberry, redcurrant, mocha, tobacco and cocoa powder. The salty, monumental finish features huge, mouthcoating tannins and outstanding rising length. This very complete wine boasts uncanny depth of flavor, particularly in light of the vintage’s healthy yields. By far the best bottle of this wine that I have tasted to date. (13.45% alcohol; September 24 harvest; 41 h/h; 3.37 pH) (Drink between 2019-2039)

A5 Wagyu, beef tendon, sour Chinese mustard. Super tender and rich. Quite nice.

2011 Jean-Claude Boisset Echezeaux. BH91. A ripe, spicy and violet-inflected nose of primarily plum and cassis gives way to opulent, rich and pliant medium-bodied flavors that possess very good depth on the attractively well-balanced finish where a touch of wood can be discerned. In much the same fashion as several other wines in the range this isn’t a great 2011 but it manages to avoid any shortcomings of the vintage and indeed about the only nit is a slight touch of warmth. Note that this could easily be enjoyed now if desired though it should also be capable of rewarding up to a decade of cellar time. (Drink starting 2018)
Freshwater eel, rice, cucumber. More or less like a Japanese rice, but without that Japanese flavor.

Cucumber with a bit of Szechuan peppercorn. I really liked the pickles and was munching them for a while.

Off the list grappa.

Passionfruit, buttermilk, guava. I love passionfruit and I love custard, so this “pot ‘o creme” with passionfruit was an easy sell.

Creme Puff, salted egg. Fine.

Hazelnut, caramelized white chocolate. Like a sweet spaghetti with a white chocolate meatball hiding inside.

Double Mint Oreo — Base made with Fresh Spring Mint infused milk and then laced with Crushed Mint Oreo Thins and Chopped Valrhona 70% Chocolate! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — lovely strong mint flavor and color is all natural — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #mint #valrhona #chocolate #oreo ///// Triple Chocolate Cruch Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache and chopped Nestlé Crunch! — 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 #creamcheese #ganache #icing #NestléCrunch

Eve brought several tubs of bonus Astrea Caviar! Yummy!

Take home gift.

Almond sesame “cookies.”

Emotional damage!

The wine lineup.

Food at Kato is better than ever. It’s just as cryptic, but there are perhaps slightly more courses and a few of them are slightly larger. The net effect is that it’s not completely necessary anymore to go for second dinner. Back in Santa Monica, even with all the supplements, it always required something else. Now it’s a full meal, and surprising and delicious at that. But it’s also a trek to downtown. And that whole wine thing dragged out what was like a 8:30pm start into a 9:30pm start and we got home at about 2am.

Still, awesome and unique food, and highly worth checking out if you haven’t been.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Astrea Caviar, BYOG, Eve, Foodie Club, Gelato, Kato, Reisa, Taiwanese Cuisine, Wine

Back to the Borgese’s

May30

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

Location: Santa Monica

Date: October 11, 2022

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 follows hot on the heels of a Billecart dinner I did here a few weeks before. It’s so close that the Halloween decorations were even more opulent.

The Borgese’s LOVE Halloween and so their house was already decorated for the spook season in epic style!

The dynamic Borgese team consists of Rocco, his lovely wife (and the main kitchen chef), and his daughter (helping out with service).

Plus all this incredible wood fired oven set up.The wine lineup. Not too shabby.

NV Moussé Fils Champagne l’Or d’Eugène Blanc de Noirs Brut.

Tonight’s menu.

From my cellar: 2005 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. JG 95+. The 2005 Comtes de Champagne is a stunning young wine. The bouquet is deep, pure and youthfully complex, as it offers up a very classy blend of pear, delicious apple, fresh almond, incipient notes of crème patissière, chalky minerality, brioche and just a whisper of vanillin oak in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and rock solid at the core, with exquisite balance, refined mousse, crisp acids and simply superb length and grip on the seamless, youthful and oh, so promising finish. The style of the 2005 vintage gives this some early accessibility that was not evident with the more tightly-knit 2004 out of the blocks, but this wine has the structure to also age long and very, very gracefully. It has been a year since I last tasted this wine and it has started to show more precision to go along with its early generosity and is a classic in the making. My gut feeling today is that it will be superior to the 1989 version, to which I compared it to a year ago. Brilliant wine. (Drink between 2015-2045)

Ricciola Sashimi Cucchiai. Yellowtail Sashimi Spoons.

2018 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Côte Bouguerots. VM 94. The 2018 Chablis Bougros Côte de Bouguerots Grand Cru is well-defined on the nose. Quite stony and terse at first, it opens with orange rind and crushed pebble scents. The palate is well balanced with fine acidity, tight and energetic with a zesty, minerally finish. This meliorates in the glass, ending up quite nuanced and tensile. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2018 white tasting. (Drink between 2024-2040)

From my cellar: 2005 Mongeard-Mugneret Grands-Echezeaux. JG 96+. The 2005 Grands Echézeaux from Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret is going to be a great, great wine, but it is still a puppy and needs at least another decade in the cellar. The bouquet is young, but stunning, as it soars from the glass in a blaze of red plums, red and black cherries, a hint of blood orange, a gorgeously complex base of soil, cocoa powder, gamebirds, woodsmoke and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and still quite primary , with great depth of sappy fruit at the core, seamless, ripe tannins, outstanding soil signature and a very, very long, tangy and laser-like finish. This is an utterly brilliant bottle in the making. (Drink between 2025-2100)

Cozze con Guanciale. Mussels with Pork Cheek. The sauce on this mussel dish was essentially like a all’amatriciana except that it was also saturated with mussel-juice. Pretty awesome actually, particularly the crispy little guanciale chunks.

1989 Château Latour Grand Vin. JG 95. The 1989 vintage of Château Latour was not considered a great year for this superb property, which was purported to have started a mini-slump after the release of the brilliant 1982 vintage at the estate. However, though I did not buy this wine on release (believing the critics of the time and their assessment of its relative inferiority), on the couple of occasions where I have been lucky enough to drink it again in recent times, it has been clear that this wine was underrated at the outset and really is an excellent vintage of Latour. The most recent bottle was getting close to full bloom, but not quite there yet, offering up a deep and complex bouquet of cassis, sweet dark berries, cigar ash, Latour’s classic gravelly, dark soil signature, cedary oak and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and plenty deep at the core, with firm, well-integrated tannins, excellent mineral drive, very good acids for the vintage and a very long, balanced and complex finish. This is getting close to really drinking well as it closes in on its thirtieth birthday, but it is an old school Latour and will still be an even better drink at age forty than it is today. (Drink between 2018-2085)

1990 Château Latour Grand Vin. VM 98. Tasting the 1990 Latour is like running into a long-lost friend. Still dark, deep and spectacularly flamboyant, the 1990 possesses remarkable textural richness from the very first taste. Time in the glass brings out a whole range of pencil shaving, dark fruit, chocolate, licorice and spice flavors, but more than anything else, the 1990 is a wine of pure and total voluptuousness. While I never think of wine as a competition, the 1990 is quite a bit more complex, layered and intriguing than the 1982 served alongside it at the same charity dinner. Its longevity will ultimately be determined by the quality of the cork and storage conditions, as the wine has several decades of truly exceptional drinking still to offer. In a word: magnificent! (Drink between 2019-2039)

1995 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque. VM 96. Griotte and kirsch complicated by roast coffee, smoke, mocha and a whiff of game; complex and ineffable. Lush, sweet and very intensely flavored; sappy cherry flavor complicated by a peppery quality. Seems a bit higher in acidity than Guigal’s ’95 La Mouline, and the tannins are distinctly firmer. Again, quite explosive on the aftertaste.

Pasta Fresca di Tonna. A fresh spaghetti with tuna and olives. This lent it a slightly “Spaghetti alla puttanesca” vibe, although not as pungent as that dish. Quite delicious and perfectly textured.

1996 Château Haut-Brion. JG 94. The 1996 Haut Brion is less hermetically sealed than the 1998, and is beginning to hint a bit at its secondary layers of aromatic complexity, though it still remains a very young wine. The bouquet is deep and classic, as it jumps from the glass in a mélange of black cherries, dark berries, Cuban tobacco, incipient notes of the black truffles to come, and a fine base of Graves earth. I assume that the 1996 saw the same amount of new oak as the 1998, but there is little sign of the wood at the present time. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, deep and very intense, with a quite powerful profile for Haut Brion. The wine is rock solid at the core and very tannic, though the tannins are ripe and well-integrated into the wine. The finish is very, very long and soil-driven, and this will clearly be one of the most powerful vintages of Haut Brion to emerge since the 1959. It will be superb, but one will require plenty of patience. (Drink between 2025-2075)

1996 Château Latour Grand Vin. VM 94. The 1996 Latour is a wine that I often find overrated and did not achieve everything that might have been possible in this favourable growing season. That said, this might well be the best of around two dozen bottles I have encountered over the years. As usual, the 1996 is decidedly austere at first, standoffish, looks down its nose at you. Yet it coalesces with time and develops engaging cedar-scented black fruit tinged with pencil box and a touch of iris with time. The palate (again) is a little muted at first but it soon found its voice and evolved very fine tannin allied with a crisp line of acidity. It is not quite as demonstrative as it was even just a couple of years ago, gained some detail and perhaps it will continue to meliorate. Very fine, very fine indeed – but not a patch of say, the Château Margaux or perhaps even Léoville Las Cases. Tasted at the International Business & Wine Latour dinner at Ten Trinity. (Drink between 2018-2040)

1997 Château Mouton Rothschild. VM 90-91. Very good red-ruby color. Currant, cassis, roasted nuts, gunsmoke, chocolate and a note of surmaturite Fat, sweet and expansive, but with sound underlying structure. Lowish acids and a confit note (due at least partly to passerillage, or drying of the grapes by the wind and sun) contribute to the wine almost voluptuous texture.

Quaglie Ripiene. Stuffed Quail. Stuffed with sausage (and some veggies) on a bed of polenta. We’ve had this several times before and it’s a fabulous dish.

1998 Penfolds Grange. VM 97. Very deep red-ruby. Smoky, deeply concentrated fruit bomb of a nose: blackberry, dark plum, cassis; creamy vanilla and lightly toasty coconutty oak; and ethereal background notes of white pepper, smoked meats, musky spices, tar and licorice. Profoundly concentrated but velvety-smooth and seamless; impressively muscular and thickly coated with oak, and bound by drying, astringent tannins. Without question the most concentrated Grange of all time, utterly steeped in blackberry flavors; a real show pony. It’s also the most alcoholic Grange ever made, and at a declared 14.5% does taste warm and spirity – the first Grange to do so. It also ventures to some degree into the realm of currant and prune. No doubt a brilliant wine, but only time will tell if, with its elevated alcohol and its superripe flavors, this 1998 version ranks with the very best Grange vintages.

1999 Penfolds Grange. VM 91+. Full ruby-red. Sexy aromas of raspberry, cola, root beer and coconut. Thick, dense and concentrated, with exotic, slightly candied dark fruit, caramel, toasted coconut and mineral flavors nicely shaped by firm acids. Shows strong fruit and a major dose of oak on the powerful, backward finish. This can’t quite match the 1998 for sheer depth of fruit, but it’s built to age.

2003 Penfolds Grange. VM 93. Inky purple. Seductively perfumed nose offers cassis, blueberry, cherry-cola, violet and dried fig scents, with a suave undercurrent of smoky minerals. Deep, finely etched cherry and dark berry flavors are complicated by mocha and candied licorice, becoming riper with air. Cured meat and black cardamom notes arrive with air, adding further interest. Full, fleshy and sweet on the impressively long finish, which is nicely braced by dusty tannins. This is more energetic than most wines from this vintage.

Risotto a Costine. Short Rib Risotto. Chef Jen made a 2 day short rib ragu and then it was integrated into this fresh risotto. Yum, now that’s my kind of risotto! Actually I love most good risottos but this one is particularly great.

2005 Sine Qua Non Grenache Atlantis Fe2O3~2a, b & c. VM 100. The 2005 Grenache Atlantis Fe203-2a has been absolutely thrilling both times I have tasted it within the last year. A huge, vertical wine, Atlantis graces the palate with deep, voluptuous red fruit, crushed rocks, smoke, tobacco and mint. Even with all of its intensity and explosiveness, the wine remains light on its feet, with great balance and class to burn. The inclusion of whole clusters adds gorgeous lift and perfume, especially on the finish. At nearly ten years of age, the 2005 Grenache Atlantis is in a perfect spot right now and should continue to drink well for another 5-10 years, perhaps longer. (Drink between 2014-2024)

2013 Sine Qua Non Grenache Jusqu’à l’os Eleven Confessions Vineyard. VM 96+. A darker, more potent side of Grenache comes through in the 2013 Grenache Jusqu’a’ l’Os. This powerhouse wine is nowhere near ready to drink. Swaths of tannin enshroud a core of plum, dark fruit in this muscular, brooding Grenache from Sine Qua Non. Readers will have to be patient. The 2013 is 79% Grenache, 18% Syrah and 3% Petite Sirah, all from Eleven Confessions, done with 89% whole clusters. (Drink between 2023-2033)

Braciola di Vitella Ripiena. Stuffed Veal Chop. Perfectly cooked and super juicy. The white meat was similar to a great pork chop, but milder. It was stuffed with provolone, prosciutto, and tomatoe.

With veggies.

You can see the stuffing here.

Funghi. Wood fire grilled 3 mushroom medley.

Melanzane. Grilled eggplant.

The return of the polenta, this time with the shortrib ragu on top — insanely good.

Hazelnut Hojicha Gelato – Nocciola (hazelnut) base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste and infused with Ceremonial Hojicha Roasted Green Tea — 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 #hazelnut #Piedmont

Chocolate Nutter Butter Gelato – a base made from 100% Valrhona Chocolate and South American Peanuts layered with chopped “Nutter-Butter” cookies — 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 #chocolate #valrhona #peanuts #PeanutButter #reeses #NutterButter #cookies

The wine lineup.

The gang.

The lovely ladies of the house.

Overall, this was another amazing dinner, and the Borgese’s just keep amping up the quality.

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.

Wines have crept up in “biggness” here — and I don’t mean their caliber (which is fine) but too many big reds. This food has a bit of a ramp and there were two seafood dishes and then a quail, so we could have ramped through Champs, 2 flights of whites, and then red Burgundy before getting to a few bigger wines. Not everything needs to be gigantic — or SQN (at least there were only 2).

This meal was a slew of Rocco staples, like the quail, but it also featured the unique veal chop.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: bbq, Bordeaux, BYOG, Dinner at the Borgese's, Gelato, Grange, Grill, Italian Cusine, Lala, Wine

Big at Bistro Na

May26

Restaurant: Bistro Na’s [1, 2, 3]

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

Date: October 9, 2022 and January 7, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Upscale Chinese, solid kitchen

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!

We reserved the private room again. You basically HAVE to do this at Na if you want a great experience. The regular area is just too cramped and restrictive. Food somehow seems better in here too. But they have annoying policies with the regular room. It has a minimum, which isn’t THAT high, so it’s okay, EXCEPT for the fact that you can only reserve at either 5 or 7:30pm and you only get 2 hours. So if you want a different time, say 6:30pm, you need to PAY for both blocks!

In contrast on 1/7/23 about 10 of us were smushed into this booth out in the main dining room as that was the largest table they had. Yarom hovered as usual.
The menu. A lot of dishes at Na are bland so Jeffrey and I spent hours in advance plotting the best things to order.

Chili Tofu Skin Salad (10/9/22). Very nice texture and a little bit of heat.

Na’s Spicy Chicken (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). The classic Sichuan cold dish. Super tasty with a nice balance of salt, tang, and heat. Some numbing as well. Very tender chicken.

Celtuce Jellyfish Salad (10/9/22). A combo dish of smashed cucumbers and jellyfish. Now while it’s expensive ($42!) it was a fabulous jellyfish (and cucumber) dish with a great tangy/sweet soy.

Jellyfish Salad (1/7/23). Not bad, although not much jellyfish — and it replaces the now discountined Jellyfish with Cucumbers (above) that was amazing. Poor direction to go in.

Chef Su’s Pork Feet Jelly (1/7/23). Kind of bland, although the pork meat part was okay.

Smoked Pork Ribs (1/7/23). Bleh. Kind of like lame ribs at a lamb American BBQ joint.

Beijing Zhajian Noodles (10/9/22). They are served all mixed up. It’s very mild but plesant. The meat and mushrooms add some heartiness. The bean sauce is subdued.

Mixed up.

Alaskan King Crab Typhoon Style (10/9/22). Spectacular version using the crab body. Shell was cooked down to be very tender and the crispy garlic was awesome.

Alaskan King Crab Legs, Steamed. Simple but delicious.

Alaskan King Crab Egg Custard. Pleasant texture and mild flavor.

Crispy Shrimp (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). 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.

3-4 lb Lobster “Typhoon Style” (1/7/23). Lobster itself was a little over cooked and the Typhoon was oddly soggy without the crisp and stong garlic flavor. A bit meh.

2.5lb Turbo steamed with Ginger and Soy (1/7/23). Okay but a bit bland. Nowhere near as good as the Chang’An version.

Braised Abalone and Sea Cucumber (10/9/21). Pleasant brown sauce. This dish is all about the texture. The Sea Cucumber had a nice mouth feel.

Black Pepper Lamb Chops (1/7/23). We asked for rare and got medium plus. Okay, but a bit too overcooked. These also replace the crispy lamb which was great.

Na’s Braised Pork Belly (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). Great version of this classic Shanghai dish. The pork was super succulent and the sweet brown sauce had a nice depth of star anise.

Crispy Pigeon (10/9/22). Fine, but actually one of the weaker dishes tonight as these were slightly dry.

Stir Fried Angus Beef with Garlic (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). Really interesting. The beef itself was tender and good, even if the piece size felt a little bit thick, but the real killer was the crispy candied chilies. These were incredible! Actually fairly spicy.

Braised Brisket with Quail Egg (1/7/23). Kind of sweet and savory, more or less a beef stew. Not bad though.

Stir Fried Pea Sprouts with Mushrooms (1/7/23). Excellently cooked. Could have used a touch more salt (or “flavor”) but otherwise nice.

Chili Pork with Cauliflower (10/9/22). Very tasty vegetable with nice crunch and a good porky flavor.

Stir Fried Cabbage with Dried Shrimp (10/9/22). The dried shrimp give this version of the dish a quite significant pungency. Weirdly they removed it from the menu by our return in January!

Fried Mixed Mushrooms with Rice Cracker Bites (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). OMG these were like potato-stick crack. They felt “hollow”, crispy, and coated in an almost candied shell. So good!

Shrimp Fried Rice with Bonito (10/9/22). Nice complex fried rice with a distinct bonito flake flavor.

Pan Fried Beef Buns (10/9/22). 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.

Fruit (10/9/22). I guess you only get this in the private room!

Key Lime Pie Gelato — base is a key lime egg custard, layered with house-made Graham Cracker and covered with house-made Torched Meringue — 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 #KeyLime #lime #custard #meringue #GrahamCracker #cookie

The emotional damage!

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

Service on 10/9/22 was good, better than before. They brought us wine glasses (not great ones, but they have them). We handled the wine service. There was a good amount of plate changing. Took a while to get going even though we had the pre-ordered menu. They seat all the private rooms in two seatings at 5pm and 7:30pm so all 5 of them were sitting at once (not to mention the limited time thing and the minimums). That doesn’t make it easy on the server. All in all it’s excellent service for SGV Chinese.

On 1/7/23 service was fine, but a bit different as we were smushed in outside. I was also annoyed with them because they had removed several of their best dishes from the menu and replaced them with even blander alternatives.

Food is interesting. Beautiful plating. Not the most flavor forward of the Chinese cuisines. Pretty good if you order very very carefully, but also expensive in a relative fashion. Ended up over $200 a person all in with a good tip because of the King Crab. If you go to a Top Island or the like you can get that much cheaper too. Still a novel and fun experience. Gorgeous room.

While a bit pricey for the SGV, the atmosphere is lovely and the plating much more elegant. 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 have a general problem here with their “under-seasoning.” A lot of dishes just seem too sweet or too bland. On Oct 9, 2022 meal we ordered really carefully and leaned toward their more spicy (not actually spicy) dishes. This helped a great deal. On 1/7/23 the meal was considerably inferior. We weren’t in the private room and the “crowd” I was with wanted to order some of their meatier dishes that just fall a bit flat.

Hangry Rider made this excellent video summary of our 10/9/22 meal.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bistro Na, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Foodie Club, Gelato, hedonists, Private Room, SGV, Wine

This Location Again?

May16

Restaurant: Lady Yan’s

Location: 203 W Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 872-6677

Date: October 2, 2022

Cuisine: (Mostly) Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Medium level Szechuan

I’ve eaten at this location as at least 5 restaurants.

It’s the familiar spot that once housed Sham Tsem (Alahambra), New Bay, and Happy Table, and GV Yummy. That’s a lot of restaurant churn — probably the most different restaurants I’ve eaten at in a single location in the SGV. The current name seems to be Lady Yan’s, but the old signs are still up there. New Qing Dao seemed to have been the same as GV Yummy. Not totally sure. It was very confusing.

The menu. This time around I think it’s Szechuan, more or less.

Cucumber Salad. The typical smashed cucumber dish, but an excellent version being smashed, very garlic forward, and well sauced.

Jelly in spicy savory sauce. The Chengdu street mung bean jelly. Not a bad version at all. I would have preferred a slight extra bit of tanginess in the sauce, but it was good.

Sliced beef and ox tongue in chili sauce. Nice version of this dish with the appropriate cilatro and peanut vibe. Regular meat and what is probably tripe or lung. Not as good as at GuYi, but very good.

Spicy wonton “soup.” Nice, although as usual for this dish the wonton’s seemed a bit under-seasoned (maybe just overwhelmed by the chili) and the “soup” is slightly watery.

Our one claw 4lb live lobster.

Lobster with ginger scallion. This was by accident as it was supposed to by Tyhoon style. I think the chef just didn’t want to. The lobster meat itself was fine but the prep was meh. Heavy. One of the worst Chinese lobsters I’ve had in a while.

Live fish kung fu style. Very nice fish with plenty of meat, chilis, veggies, tofu, potato etc. Overall lovely.

Tea Smoked Duck. Excellent pastrami duck. Very juice and delicious.

Sichuan spicy chicken nuggets. Very nice salty/numbing version of this iconic dish. Quite enjoyable.

Double cooked pork belly. Twice cooked pork. Awesome version with a really nice smoke and black bean flavor.

Sichuan signature mixed meats in chili sauce. Pretty much the same chili “broth” as the fish etc. Included all sorts of weird parts. The spam and liver/blood type stuff was good. There was also the chewy tripe.

BBQ Lamb Ribs. Served piping hot. Very fatty and full of sizzling flavor. Nice. The sauces didn’t totally work.

Eggplant with spicy garlic sauce. A 7/10 version of this dish. Pretty nice.

Green beans with garlic. Fine but nothing special.

Shredded cabbage. This had the obligatory pork belly and was generally fairly delicious.

Dan dan mein. Pretty typical Chengdu version. No peanut or sesame but a fairly addictive flavor all the same.

Seasoned peanuts. Nice, although not like the crack peanuts at Haige Star.

MaPo Tofu. Surprisingly delicious. Solid 8/10 version of this dish.

Chengdu style fried rice. Not exactly sure what was in here (other than the obvious peas) but it was very tasty.

Free totally weird Chinese dessert. Pretty terrible.

Overall, this place was solid, but slightly “uninspired” SGV Chinese. Now for outside the SGV it would be excellent, as it’s way better than somewhere like Szechuan Place. Lady Yan’s has a wide range of dishes and they do “pretty well” with most of them, very good with a few. The service was nice and MUCH better than at Happy Table or GV Yummy. The build out was identical. It’s fairly low rent and not super crowded. The space must be cursed. There are better Szechuan places, several, but I’d go back to Lady Yans happily enough. And they do have some lingering dishes from other regions (like the BBQ lamb ribs).

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, fish, Gelato, offal, SGV, spicy, Szechuan, Szechuan Chinese

Borgese’s go Bille Boo

May14

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

Location: Santa Monica

Date: September 30, 2022

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 is a “Double Team” as it’s not only at Rocco’s, but is a Billecart-Salmon winemaker dinner hosted by Liz Lee of Sage Society. This is actually the second Billecart dinner I’ve been to, the previous being at Republique some years back.

Billecart-Salmon is a highly respected Champagne house that was founded in 1818 in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, France, by Nicolas François Billecart and his wife Elisabeth Salmon. Over the course of two centuries, the family-owned and managed company has stayed true to its roots, maintaining its dedication to quality and tradition. Billecart-Salmon is famous for its refined and elegant style, characterized by its finesse, complexity, and consistency. The house has achieved worldwide acclaim for its remarkable Brut Rosé, but also produces a variety of other styles, including Brut Reserve, Brut Sous Bois, and various vintage and cuvée champagnes. Through its commitment to excellence, Billecart-Salmon has secured its reputation as one of the most prestigious brands in the Champagne region.

The Borgese’s LOVE Halloween and so their house was already decorated for the spook season in epic style!

The dynamic Borgese team consists of Rocco, his lovely wife (and the main kitchen chef), and his daughter (helping out with service).

Plus all this incredible wood fired oven set up.The wine lineup. Not too shabby.

Our lovely patio table.

Tonight’s menu and wine list.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Réserve. JG 92. Drinking very well when opened this past spring. The excellent nose wafts from the glass in a mélange of apple, peach, warm bread, a touch of ginger, a lovely base of soil and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bdoied, complex and still rock solid at the core, with fine mousse, bright acids and lovely length and grip on the wide open, complex and classy finish.

Fresh Oysters with Caviar.

Caviar on Toasted Brioche with Bordier Butter. You can really taste the great and distinctive butter.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Nature. 90 points. Rich for the style. Lemon tinges, biscuit, mild but not without intensity .

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs. JG 92+. The non-vintage Blanc de Blancs is not a large production item for Billecart-Salmon, and one does not cross paths with it regularly. The current release is all 2007 vintage and was aged nearly five years on the lees prior to disgorgement. Billecart produces their Blanc de Blancs bottlings from fruit sourced in only three villages in the Côte des Blancs- Chouilly, Mesnil-sur-Oger and Cramant. The new release offers up a deep and lovely aromatic blend of pear, apple, stony minerality, bread dough, a hint of the pastry cream to come with bottle age and orange zest. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and very elegant, with a lovely core of fruit, refined mousse and excellent length and grip on the well-balanced, youthful and classy finish. This is a very fine bottle of Blanc de Blancs that will only improve as it blossoms a bit more structurally with further bottle age. (Drink between 2013-2025)

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Sous Bois. VM 92. Bright yellow. Pungent orchard fruit and lemon curd scents are complemented by suggestions of vanilla, anise and smoky minerals. Toasty and silky in texture, offering juicy pear and tangerine flavors plus a deeper suggestion of candied fig on the back half. Closes sappy, focused and long, with repeating smokiness and strong mineral cut.

Hokaido Scallops with Caviar. Maybe could have used a bit of lemon/lime/yuzu juice.

2009 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Millésimé. VM 93. The 2009 Vintage is another stellar wine in this range from Billecart-Salmon. This is the first time the Vintage includes Meunier in the blend. That approach has worked out so well here. Resonant and generous, the 2009 is so expressive today. The low dosage of two grams per liter is expertly judged. The 2009 is rich, but not heavy, while offering all of the natural generosity of the year. (Originally published in May 2021) (Drink between 2022-2034)

2008 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Louis Salmon Brut Blanc de Blancs. VM 95. The 2008 Brut Blanc de Blancs Louis Salmon (formerly the vintage Blanc de Blancs) and named after the maison’s first cellar master, is fabulous. Rich and ample, the 2008 is beautifully resonant in the glass. It offers up an enticing mélange of lemon confit, marzipan, dried flowers and spice. It’s a terrific 2008, especially for readers looking for a relatively affordable option to some of the super high-flyers in this celebrated vintage. The blend is 40% Chouilly, 33% Cramant, 20% Mesnil and 7% Avize, done 1/3rd in oak and 2/3rds in steel. Dosage is 7 grams per liter. Disgorged: October, 2020. (Drink between 2024-2038)

Grilled Spot Prawns with Caviar. Great dish. Chewed it up at the expense of my flesh like Daryl Hannah in Splash. With the caviar two kinds of eggs! Nice char flavor.

2007 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François. VM 97. The 2007 Brut Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart is positively stellar. Elegant, polished and sophisticated, the 2007 dazzles with effusive aromatics and gorgeous balance. It”s not an obvious wine, though, but rather a Champagne built for long, patient cellaring. The 2007 is 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay taken from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Ambonnay, Verzenay and Verzy for the Pinots and Chouilly, Avize, Cramant and Mesnil for the Chardonnays. In other words, as good as it gets for villages. The wine was done mostly in tank with about 15% of the lots vinified in oak. Dosage is 6 grams per liter. (Originally published in May 2021) (Drink between 2027-2047)

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 96. The 2002 Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart is outrageously beautiful. The ripeness of the Chardonnay is front and center in a Champagne that delivers the goods, big-time. An infusion of apricot, orange peel, crème brûlée, chamomile, hazelnut and honey give the 2002 its racy, exotic personality. I enjoy it most with bottle age, but the 2002 is undeniably beautiful right now. The 2002 is a stunning NFB. The blend is 60% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne and 40% Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs, done partially in oak (20%). Dosage is 4 grams per liter. (Drink between 2020-2030)

1996 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 96. Fabulous nose combines lemon, orange zest, quinine and steely minerality with suggestions of toffee and brown spices. Wonderfully precise and vivid on the palate, delivering an impression of outstanding concentration and grip with a light touch. Extremely fine-grained Champagne with strong but integrated acidity. As young as this is, it’s harmonious from the outset. The building finish is pristine, chewy and extremely long. (Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York NY

Crab and Caviar Linguine. Very light and salty (and delicious) pasta.

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 92. We started with a demi-bouteille of Billecart-Salmon Rosé: a safe option, but it does the job, even though I would say that a full bottle is better. (Drink between 2018-2025)

2008 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon. VM 97+. The 2008 Brut Rosé Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon explodes from the glass with a mesmerizing array of aromas, flavors and textures. Blood orange, cinnamon, mint and dried flowers. The 2008 is incredibly young, but it is also incredibly tempting. Patience will be rewarded. In the meantime, readers might enjoy adding a few bottles of the stellar 2007 to their cellars, as the nervy, taut 2008 needs time. The 2008 is 55% Pinot Noir (from Aÿ, Verzy, Verzenay and Mareuil) and 45% Chardonnay (from Chouilly, Avize and Cramant), with 9% still wine from Mareuil. It is the first vintage that includes a portion of wines (17%) done in barrel and the first vintage in which the magnums were aged on the cork rather than on crown seal. Dosage is 7 grams per liter. (Originally published in May 2021) (Drink between 2028-2043)

Branzino and Clams. Perfectly cooked juicy branzino and lovely clam flavor. The broth was fabulous (could have used some bread for it) and there was a distinct parsely flavor.

2006 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Les Clos Saint-Hilaire. VM 98. The 2006 Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is fabulous. In this radiant year, the Clos Saint-Hilaire has a touch more mid-palate sweetness and generosity, but that’s a good thing, as it balances some of the more austere leanings that can make young vintages hard to appreciate upon release. Apricot, lemon confit, ginger, graphite, spice and crushed rocks are strands in a gorgeous, captivating tapestry that dazzles right out of the gate. The precision here is just mind-blowing. Billecart’s 2006 Clos Saint-Hilaire is a very special Champagne, that much is very clear. (Drink between 2024-2036)

Fried Rosemary Quail. Perfect “fried chicken”. Super savory and delicious with a great crispy texture.

Roast carrots.

Roast eggplant.

Cheeses (all Italian). The truffle one was particularly tangy and delicious.

Truffle cheese.

The wine lineup.

Overall, this was an amazing dinner, and the Borgese’s just keep amping up the quality.

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.

Wines were, as you can, pretty darn impressive! Billecart is a fabulous champagne house with both great whites and reds. I buy a range of their wines all the time as they have both reasonable NVs and fabulous Tete de Cuvees — in both colors.

This meal has a different skew, being customized for Champagne, so there was more seafood and no big steaks — this is fine with me, I’ve had plenty of steaks. They did a wonderful job with the grilled prawns too. The quail is a classic of theirs but never grows old.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Billecart-Salmon, BYOG, Gelato, hedonists, Italian Cusine, Liz Lee, Rocco Borgese, Sage Society, Santa Monica, Steak, Tomohawk, Wine

Fallen (Haige) Star

Apr29

Restaurant: Haige Star / Tianfu Cuisine [ CLOSED ]

Location: 18438 Colima Rd Unit 105, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 820-9638

Date: September 18, 2022

Cuisine: Sichuan Chinese

Rating: Awesome

This amazing (and now sadly closed) Sichuan joint in Rowland Heights has an amusing tale.

So, sometime in the spring of 2022, Jeffrey and Yarom went here went I was out of town. Of course this annoyed me to no end because so many times I’m dragged to repeat Cantonese or Hong Kong places and certain parties complain about the difficulty of recruiting for spicy Chinese (my favorite obviously) — and then they go on one of the rare weekends when I have a conflict. Anyway, it was “clearly” labeled “Haige Star Boulevard” at this time, and while the hardcore crew loved it, many of the newbies that Yarom unwisely dragged here wouldn’t touch anything. With this description in mind I was eager to go again, and so was Jeffrey.

Now this time, 9/18/22 when I returned it had a different name. On Yelp it seemed like it had a skewer hot pot phase at some point, which wasn’t the case tonight. Jeffrey’s memory is so bad he couldn’t remember if it was exactly the same either. It was certainly Sichuan and certainly great. Unfortunately when we tried to return on 1/22/23 for a third visit they were totally boarded up and closed. We heard through the rumor mill that the owner had passed away, which is very sad for his family and a great loss for us lovers of Sichuan cuisine.

The interior is basic.

We had the place mostly to ourselves and this great table in the back.

Oh boy. I hope you read Chinese because none of us did. The staff didn’t speak any English either. None. Basically zero. Fortunately between google translate and my knowledge of Sichuan dishes I was able to order successfully.

Smashed Cucumbers. Very good version. Nicely smashed, lots of garlic, and a tasty “flavor” sauce.

Been Jelly Noodles. Nice version too. Not super spicy, but some good mala and an interesting smokey quality. Very good “noodle” texture.

Century Egg with Chilies. I haven’t had this exact century egg variation (aka without tofu) but these were really good with a great savory flavor without being mega-salty.

Cured Sausage. Very fatty, dry, and with a great slightly funky flavor.

Cold Dry Spicy Beef. Beef jerky like texture with a fabulous deep layered spicy sauce. The sauce was incredible with the sausage as well.

Couples sliced Beef/Offal. Dry pastrami like poached beef with chili sauce, Chinese celery, and peanuts. Lovely, although not quite as good as Gu Yi’s.

Tea Smoked Duck. Moist and juicy with a ton of smokey flavor. Fabulous duck.

Boiled “Meats” in Chili Oil. Includes liver (very mild and succulent), spam (delicious), tripe, and pig intenstine (funky). Good spicy/mala sauce.

Spicy Bamboo Shoots with Peanuts and Cilantro. Spectactular texture and flavor.

Twice Cooked Pork. Nice version of this dish. Not obscenely salty.

Dan Dan Mein.

Mixed up. This was enjoyable, but wasn’t very hot or nutty. It was more a broth with a bit of chili and some meat. It was helped by adding a bit of the crack peanuts.

Crack Peanuts. A bit sweet and salty with some kind of “spice” flavorant. Totally addictive.

Double Mint Oreo — Base made with Fresh Spring Mint infused milk and then laced with Crushed Mint Oreo Thins and Chopped Valrhona 70% Chocolate! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — lovely strong mint flavor and color is all natural — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #mint #valrhona #chocolate #oreo

Chocolate Butterfinger Crunch Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Peanutbutter Cream Cheese Ganache and chopped Butterfingers! — 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 #creamcheese #ganache #icing #peanut #butterfinger

Overall, the experience here was super fun. Our ordering was helped about 2/3 through by a nice couple where the guy spoke both English and the Chengdu dialect of Chinese. He recommended a few dishes — but I’m proud that I picked 75% of these out with my “skillz.”

It was incredibly delicious, some of the best Sichuan I’ve had in America and actually on par with places I visited in Chengdu. This place is/was fairly rustic, but the balance of the dishes was spectacular. Just the right combinations of textures and different flavors (aka spice, sour, salty etc). This type of food is actually all about balance. Jeffrey and I went into mourning when we found out they closed because we had been plotting a return here for months. Sigh.

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, Gelato, Haige Star, Rowland Heights, SGV, Sichuan Cuisine, spicy, Tianfu Cuisine, Wine

Indian, The Tavern – Confusion

Apr22

Restaurant: Indian, The Tavern

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

Date: September 11, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Solid, if odd

It’s hard to describe this particular SGV restaurant.

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!

Shrimp Egg Roll. Very hot and crispy, moist interior. The sweet sauce was also a bit spicy which was kinda nice.

Grilled Taiwanese Sausage. Sweet and salty sausage, always great.

Scallop in “lobster sauce” (egg white). Surprisingly good.

Sliced pork belly w/ minced Garlic. Dark garlic sauce on the side. Not bad but not the best dish of the night.

Salty dark garlic sauce.

French Steak medium rare on rare side. Best “Chinese” steak I’ve had. Pretty much a regular steak, medium rare with black pepper.

Tea Smoked Duck. Very nice. Smokey and pretty moist.

Preserved pork belly w/ garlic sprouts. Great dish. Smokey pork with leaks and garlic coated in all that smokey pork fat.

Lobster with XO sauce. Weakest dish of the night perhaps? Slightly over-cooked but still enjoyable.

Smashed Cucumbers. Out of order but a great version of this dish. Lots of garlic flavor.

Fish filet in green vine pepper soup. A bit of numbing flavor but not that hot or numbing. I’ve had better versions of this dish but it was still decent.

Stir Fried Double Fried Eggs W. Napa Cabbage. Excellent cabbage with that awesome greasy/salty flavor.

Tofu with house sauce. Very nice tofu with a lovely deep ginger flavored brown sauce.

Shrimp and Taiwanese Sausage Fried Rice. Excellent fried rice.

Vanilla White Gelato — a very simple and elegant Tahitian Vanilla Bean White Base (no egg) — 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

Cinnamon Caramel Sauce.

Overall, the place was surprisingly excellent. There were long gaps between dishes (particularly at the beginning) and the order was kind of Chinese random, but the dish quality was very good. There were some slightly weird dishes too, but they tasted good, so nothing to complain about. I’m not exactly sure what region of China the kitchen represents. And then there is the unique and peculiar “decor.” Certainly interesting.

Jennifer had a bit of an accident during her recent trip to tour the Chernobyl basement.

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, Gelato, Indian Tavern, SGV, Wine

Throwback Sauvages

Apr20

Restaurant: Kali / Kevin Meehan

Location: Bel Air

Date: September 9, 2022

Cuisine: Modern Californian

Rating: Great as always

Sauvages has been doing more “house party” lunches since the pandemic and so this week’s lunch was hosted by John G in his lovely backyard.

Our table was situated in the succulent garden, poolside.

At the ready.

Food today was provided by Kevin Meehan of Kali. He’s been cooking for Sauvages since before he even opened Kali (now on about 7 years)!

2006 Champagne Millesime Rare.

NV Henriot Champagne Brut Souverain.

2014 Pierre Gimonnet & Fils Champagne Premier Cru Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs Oenophile Non-Dosé. VM 93. The 2014 Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs Cuvée Oenophile is all energy, tension and cut. White flowers, mint, crushed rocks pear and lemon confit race across the palate. Readers who enjoy taut, linear Champagnes will adore the 2014. Bright saline notes infuse the finish with tons of character. This is classic 2014, with the non-dosé style further accentuating the wine’s stark lines. Disgorged: December, 2020. (Drink between 2023-2034)

2008 Veuve Clicquot Champagne Brut Vintage. JG94+. The 2008 Veuve Clicquot Brut Millésime is the first bottling here to include five percent barrel-fermented vins clairs since the estate transitioned away from foudres for stainless steel tanks all the way back in the 1960s. The blend on the ’08 is sixty-one percent pinot noir, thirty-four percent chardonnay and five percent pinot meunier. The wine is pure, youthful and stunningly precise on the nose, offering up scents of tart apple, bread dough, complex minerality, gentle smokiness and a lovely saline element in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and very racy, with a great core, zesty acids, refined mousse and outstanding length and grip on the very long and still quite youthful finish. This is approachable today, but will be even better with five or six years in the cellar. This is Chef de Cave Dominique Demarville’s first vintage bottling since his arrival here in 2006. Impressive! (Drink between 2016-2040)

Trout Roe and Sourdough Blini. The blini was too dense and strong flavored. After 2 I took to sucking off the toppings which were good.

Beef Tartar Cigar with Aoili. Nice texture and great flavor.

Morro Bay Oyster on the Half Shell. Both briny and tangy.

Our special menu today.

2007 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. VM 92. Light, bright gold. Ripe pear and white peach aromas are complemented by marzipan, honey and dried flowers. Sappy pit fruit flavors stain the palate and are firmed by juicy minerals, picking up subtle herbal and mineral notes on the back end. Finishes with excellent clarity and cling, the honey note repeating. This could handle the richest fish preparations.

2006 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. VM 91. ale yellow. Ripe peach and yellow plum on the nose, with sexy floral and honey character building with air. Taut citrus and orchard fruit flavors are refreshingly bitter, gaining depth on the close. Leaves a trail of stony white fruit flavors on the long, sappy finish.

From my cellar: 2011 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Roussanne Vieilles Vignes. 95 points.

2005 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Roussanne Vieilles Vignes. VM 95. Yellow-gold. Intensely floral aromas of jasmine, beeswax and coconut-accented orange and pear. Lush and weighty, with powerful pear, tangerine and nougat flavors accompanied by exotic oak notes. This reminds me of high-end white Bordeaux. Tightens up on the back, where bright mineral and citrus pith notes give shape and grip to the intensely sweet fruit. The finish of this wine is endless.

Local Yellow Tail. Melon, Tomato Gel, Avocado. This was a lovely crudo.

2001 Domaine de la Solitude (Lançon Père et Fils) Châteauneuf-du-Pape Réserve Secrète. 92 points. Pale-rusty color w/dark core; spices, some animale, very hot, glycerin smooth from alcohol, a bit burned/roasted aspect with some complexity.

Henri Bonneau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Réserve des Célestins. Can’t remember the vintage.

1998 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 90. Saturated ruby-red. Superripe but reticent, grenache-dominated aromas of roasted plum, cherry jam, tar and humus. Fat, lush and stuffed with fruit; almost heavy today compared to the ’99. But this is utterly silky and its firm underlying structure is buried by fruit and baby fat. Intriguing meat and licorice notes. A wine of superb finesse and superfine tannins.

Black Barley Risotto. Fiscalini Cheddar, Koji Butter, Black Garlic. The base is a bit bland by itself and needs the cheesy/garlic “crisp” on top. This is a Kevin classic and we’ve all had it a lot of times.

2004 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 94. Dark violet with a bright rim. Powerful, intensely floral aromas of kirsch, candied licorice and rose oil, plus a sweet damp earth quality that reminded me of a great young vintage port. But this is by no means porty in the mouth, as the vivid strawberry and raspberry flavors are streamlined and nervy, showing excellent lift. Finishes with fine, dusty tannins, very firm structure and outstanding length.

2005 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 94. Deep ruby. Intense dark berry scents expand and deepen with air, picking up dusky espresso and licorice tones. Lush, powerful and sweet, with impressively concentrated, pure dark berry flavors and supple, finely integrated tannins. There’s a great fruit/tannin balance here, and the supple finish boasts impressively concentrated and remarkably persistent cherry and blackberry fruit.

2003 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau. VM 89. Dark red. Understated aromas of dried strawberry, redcurrant and garrigue complicated by a whiff of black tea. A fairly restrained midweight, atypical in this vintage, with dried red berry and mocha flavors. Finishes focused and taut, with dusty tannins and hints of red plum and licorice. Those who fear the 2003 bogeyman can safely give this one a try. (Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, CA)

Braised Short Ribs. This was the better of the beefs and was quite nice.

2007 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 95+. Foudre #12: Smoky, wild and meaty, with powerful raspberry and licorice qualities. Tannin-free, sweet and long. Foudre #9: Deep, inky dark fruit aromas, with hints of licorice and smoky minerals. Pliant blackberry and kirsch on the palate, with dusty tannins adding grip. Foudre #8: Intense mineral and cherry aromas, with a subtle note of cola. Rich, sappy and gently sweet, with powerful red berry and cherry flavors. Really long. Foudre #7: Deep cherry and blackcurrant on the nose. Spicy red berry flavors gain weight with air, taking a turn to cassis and bitter cherry. Foudre #2, all grenache: Fresh red berries and garrigue on the nose. Fresh, sharply defined raspberry and cherry flavors, with silky tannins and great mineral snap. Foudre #30: Explosively perfumed red fruit aromas with strong incense and floral qualities. Very sweet, palate-staining raspberry and cassis flavors. Exceptionally long. Foudre #25: Vibrant strawberry and raspberry aromas, with hits of anise and potpourri. Pliant and sweet, with palate-staining red fruit and candied floral flavors. This is all finesse. An approximation of the final blend: Bright ruby-red. Strongly perfumed bouquet of spicy red and dark berries, licorice, pungent herbs and graphite. Saturates the palate with deep, sweet black raspberry, cherry and blackcurrant flavors. Turns spicier on the back end, finishing with outstanding clarity, lift and persistence.

2007 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau. VM 93. Saturated ruby. Youthfully brooding nose displays dark berries, tobacco and licorice, plus an undercurrent of smoky minerals. More powerful than what I expect from this estate, boasting deep, chewy cassis and bitter cherry flavors and a late note of bitter chocolate. Impressive for its richness and size, but will it gain the finesse that I associate with this domain?

2007 Cuvée du Vatican Châteauneuf-du-Pape Réserve Sixtine. VM 92. Inky ruby. Vibrant red berry and floral scents. Tightly focused red fruit flavors are deepened by anise and brown spice qualities, picking up a tangy blood orange note with air. All red berry preserves on the smooth, strikingly long finish.

2006 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 95. Bright red. Intense strawberry and raspberry on the nose, with subtle garrigue and minerals adding complexity. Silky red fruit flavors show seductive spice and floral pastille qualities. Finishes with great persistence. Foudre #2 (“the tannic one”): Ruby-red. Bright red fruit aromas, with a deep undercurrent of licorice adding seriousness. The palate shows very spicy bitter cherry and dark berry liqueur flavors, chewy tannic grip and a long, vibrant finish. If this is Avril’s idea of tannic in 2006, the final wine should be a supple beauty. Foudre #3 (“the concentrated one,” from 80-year-old vines cropped at15 hl/ha): Inky ruby. Rich cherry and cassis aromas, with a deep tapenade quality adding complexity. Sappy, sweet and packing major dark berry punch, this clocks in at 16.5% alcohol, but there’s no obvious heat. An approximate blend: “I hate doing this, but why not,” said Avril, who doesn’t believe that on-the-spot blends are accurate reflections of what winds up in the bottle. But this was his idea, not mine! Dark ruby. Powerful kirsch and blackcurrant aromas, with exotic licorice and fresh floral character expanding with air. Pliant dark berry and bitter cherry flavors carry through the long, sappy finish. A balanced, sweet powerhouse from this vantage point, with the concentration to age for at least a decade or two.

Dry Aged Ribeye. Potato Pave, Black Garlic Jam, Mushrooms. Very dry aged so the meat was a touch gamey and cured. Potatoes were great.

1990 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 93. The 1990 Châteauneuf-du-Pape has a compelling bouquet of plump red fruit, oxtail, leather and morels, all well defined and full of chutzpah. The palate is smooth in texture and, at 29 years old, has certainly mellowed. There is a core of sweet fruit here, but it has softened with age and delivers a smorgasbord of second flavors: meat juices, clove and touches of fennel. It does not possess the audacity of the Hommage à Jacques Perrin, yet it has retained effortless charm. (Drink between 2019-2036)

Whipped Goat Cheese. Peach Compote, Drake Farms. The cheesy tube was a bit like a Canonoli and was delicious.

2007 Von Hövel Scharzhofberger Riesling Auslese.

Oaxacan Choco-Mole Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 100% Cacao and intense Oaxacan Mole Negro from Guelaguetza restaurant — 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 #cocao #oaxaca #mole #molenegro

Vanilla White Gelato — a very simple and elegant Tahitian Vanilla Bean White Base (no egg) — 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

Plus some of my house made cinnamon caramel.

My bad notes.

Some bonus wines.

Overall, this lunch was a whole lotta fun. We had the usual great food — even if I’ve had that barely risotto many times before — and an awesome array of CDP. Plus the awesome company.

For more Italian dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: backyard, Bel Air, BYOG, Château de Beaucastel, Chateauneuf du Pape, Gelato, John Gordon, Kali, Kevin Meehan, Sauvages

Boston Lobster New Digs

Apr09

Restaurant: Boston Lobster Seafood Restaurant

Location: 4501 Rosemead Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 288-4388

Date: September 4, 2022

Cuisine: Cambodian Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Huge, Great Deal, Solid

This Sunday’s Chinese is a return to Boston Lobster. It’s been awhile, like 7 years. They have new digs, having moved from a small shop on Valley Blvd to this huge location on Rosemead.

The new spot must have been some kind of “Seafood House” in the kitchy 50s style and it even includes an old (WWII?) antiaircraft gun.

The place is enormous with multiple wings and a very current (if a little cheesy by western standards) Chinese build out inside.

Lobster tanks.

And a big menu of southern Chinese and Cantonese Chinese dishes.

We had a jumbo — and I do mean jumbo — private room where our table took up just a corner.

Boston House Special Lobster with Garlic Noodles. We actually had two of these huge plates for our table of 14. Lobster itself was excellent. Not the best “house special lobster” I’ve ever had, and I didn’t see any roe (which I like), but good. And pretty well cooked and tender. Noodles were a touch bland.

Geoduck Clam Sashimi Style. Served with soy sauce and wasabi. Decent, but chewier and fishier than at Longo, and not in that same delicate awesome way.

Geoduck Clam Neck Fried Salt and Pepper Style. Tasty with a nice chew but not as awesome as at Longo.

Clam with Basil Sauce. Tender clams but the basil sauce (as usual) gives an interesting medicinal note to the dish.

Shrimp with Walnut. Middling version of the classic.

Steamed Whole Fish. This was basically soy sauce fish with scallions. Nicely cooked and tender, but not super exciting.

Kung Pao Pork Chop. I’m not sure I’ve had this (Cantonese) cut of meat as Kung Pao. It was a very Southern Kung Pao with no spice, no Szechuan Broad Bean Chili Paste. More a salty sour brown sauce, but pretty tasty regardless.

Special Off Menu Smoked Duck. Very interesting flavor and super tender. This was one of the best dishes.

It was served with a soy gravy.

And a And a sweet and sour sauce (which was better than the gravy). (which was better than the gravy).

Sliced Beef with Pea Sprouts. Beef was super tender and soft and packed with “flavor” (MSG). The pea sprouts were great too with that salt and garlic yum factor. I actually liked this dish a lot.

Chicken with Curry Sauce. Not very Chinese, but kinda delicious. Very tender and “flavorful” with a nice mild yellow curry.

One of the standard Chinese greens with garlic. Not bad at all.

Oyster on Hot Sizzling Plate. Very “fried” (not deep fried but cooked) oysters. Pretty good flavor but I don’t love my oysters cooked.

Yang Chow Fried Rice. Classic.

Oranges.

Double Mint Oreo — Base made with Fresh Spring Mint infused milk and then laced with Crushed Mint Oreo Thins and Chopped Valrhona 70% Chocolate! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — lovely strong mint flavor and color is all natural — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #mint #valrhona #chocolate #oreo

The gang.

Overall, Boston Lobster was good but not great. It’s huge. And it’s well priced. And the lobster is good. Dishes are fairly typical for Southern/Cantonese Chinese. I actually think it’s quite a bit better than the way over-rated Newport Seafood. But there are plenty of “meh” dishes (still tasty, don’t get me wrong, this is solid Chinese) that aren’t nearly as good as at a better Cantonese restaurant. For example, Longo and Monterey Palace Geoduck is WAY better. But if you have a big party and/or want this kind of Chinese on a bit of a budget than there is certainly not much to complain about with Boston Lobster. It’s just not best in class.

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: Boston Lobster, BYOG, Cambodian Cuisine, Cantonese Chinese, Gelato, geoduck, Lobster, Seafood

Fred loves N/Naka

Mar16

Restaurant: N/Naka [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Location: 3455 S. Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034. 310.836.6252

Date: August 12, 2022

Cuisine: Modern Kaiseki

Rating: Awesome

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The Foodie Club returned to N/Naka (again) with the (brief) return of remote member Fred. This meal is part 1 of a 3 big wine meals in 24 hour extravaganza. Woah!

The busy street corner on National.

The empty interior.
Our table — before we got to it.

Tonight’s menu.

Welcome drink. Sake mixed with juices.

Sakizuke. Hokkaido Scallop, oyster aioli, fermented asparagus gelee, scallop roe “dust”, beets, carrots, caviar, sunchoke chips.

The sunchoke chip is presented a minute after. I accidentally stuck it on “backward” so as to not maximize the sunflower and leaf motif they intended.

Zensai.

Tomato Okra Salad.

Abalone, uni, tosazu gelee, shiso.

Unagi, duck liver terrine. This had that PB&J quality that certain foie terrine creations do.

Watermelon lime “mojito”.

Shisito, minced wagyu. Very savory.

Corn, squash, yuzu ponzu, thai basil.

Homemade tofu, edamame, ginger soy. Very mild.

Modern Zukuri. Summer Tuna, pickled fennel, yamaimo, uni shoyu.

Uni shoyu for dipping. The instructions were to take some fish, a bit of pickled fennel and dip it. This was quite good. The Yamaimo yam was a bit slimy.

Owan. Shiromi, eggplant, junsai, hasu imo, ume. Very mild dashi-type soup.

Otsukuri. Traditional Sashimi. Ocean trout (looks like salmon), toro, and a white fish.

Yakimono. Binchotan Roasted Unagi, sudachi butter vinaigrette, yuzu pepper, lotus root “kabayaki.” This was actually quite “spicy” with the hefty amount of yuzu-combined pepper. This gave it an almost green coconut curry-like vibe.

Mushimono. Kegani, California Box Crab, egg (tamago), sakura mochi rice, dashi ankake.

Shiizakana. Spaghetti, abalone, pickled cod rod, truffles. The classic N/Naka pasta, double size. Awesome as always, but still small (even doubled).

Niku. A5 Miyazaki Wagyu Beef, arugula, baby corn, roasted peach, citrus fern, onion crumble. Very melt in your mouth beef.

Sunomono. Cucumber, grapes, tomato, shiso cucumber ice. Shot of yuzu juice.

While it tasted like sunomono, the ice gave it a very interesting texture and temperature factor.

Shokuji. Traditional Sushi.

Miso soup.

Blue Crab Handroll (as bonus to “fill us up”).

Mizumono. Watermelon Lime Sorbet, compressed watermelon. Very watermelony.

Peach Panna Cotta, peach sorbet, nata de coco, red beans, shiratama, anmitsu. Had that mild, soft, and sweet thing like a Filipino dessert.

Hojicha Latte Gelato – Ceremonial Hojicha Roasted Green Tea base, topped with 70% Valrhona and house-made Hazelnut Brittle — 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

Matcha.

Passionfruit yellow bean paste “candy“.

Take home blueberry muffin and tea. Muffin was very gooey and mild — not my taste.

Old Grand Cuvee.

2000 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Caillerets. BH 93. Awesome and bright. This has now peaked and is drinking beautifully with a fully mature nose of honeysuckle, peach, apricot and very subtle spice notes that can also be found on the enveloping flavors that possess a wonderfully seductive mouth feel and ample dry extract that both completely buffers the still firm acid spine and coats the palate on the long, lingering and strikingly perfumed if ever-so-slightly warm finish. One character that Coche seems to consistently be able to achieve is how his wines are at once generous yet retain a fine sense of focus and precision and this wine certainly displays this. Lovely stuff that is perfect now. Tasted thrice with consistent notes. (Drink starting 2016)

agavin: Nice nose even.

From my cellar: 2001 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Caillerets. VM 90. High-pitched, high-toned aromas of peach and minerals. Quite dry following the Rougeots, with less texture and pliancy. This is very closed today (my sample from barrel a year ago was far more accessible and giving), but does not seem to have the depth of the Rougeots. Perhaps a bit rigid. This needs at least a few years in the bottle.

A touch closed and “bitter” at first, but opened up to become lovely.

1990 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 93. An utterly beguiling nose of smoke, minerals and crushed herbs leads to big, muscular, rich and gorgeously nuanced palate staining flavors that offer huge length and real power plus class and breed to burn. I have had wonderful luck with this wine and while it is now fully mature and, it must be said, no longer what it used to be, it should still continue to drink well for another 5 to 10 years, perhaps even a bit longer.

Amazing!

1992 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 98. The 1992 Meursault Les Perrières 1er Cru from Coche-Dury is a brilliant wine – period. It has a refulgent silvery hue that belies its age. The aromatics are perhaps more Puligny-like than Meursault in style: taut at first with subtle melted butter and yellow flower aromas. It is blessed with astonishing delineation and returning to my glass after 90 minutes…wow…popcorn, roasted almond, beeswax, linseed, certainly more Meursault-like in character. The palate is crisp, fresh and tensile at first, with wonderful salinity. This just gets the taste-buds going and there is tangible mineralité. Like the aromatics, it becomes more Meursault-like with aeration, gaining complexity with rondeur, hazelnut and smoke towards the mercurial finish. This is utterly sublime. Two bottles tasted at Tour d’Argent with consistent notes. (Drink between 2018-2035)

Also very fresh and nice.

2000 Domaine G. Roumier / Christophe Roumier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses. VM 90+. Good medium red. Complex, very floral aromas of strawberry, cinnamon and rose petal. Sweet but also juicy and precise, with the strong floral character following through on the palate. A precise, perfumed wine with lovely cut but no shortage of texture. Stylish, flavorful and quite long.

Some great juice tonight!

Chef Niki comes out to say hi.

Fred and his lovely fiancé (now wife) Maria.

The setting is elegant, minimalist, and very Japanese. N/Naka really is a very special place. All the meals I had here were spectacular. Plus we even did an amazing all foie gras meal here once. The place keeps getting better and better. This is thrice wonderful because often one finds a slight bloom to come off a place on repeat meals. At N/Naka everything is seasonal and constantly rotating.

Coming back to N/Naka after the pandemic I thought they were really firing on all cylinders. This was the best meal I’ve had there since the incredible Foie meal. I think her sushi has gone from “okay” to “great” and with regard to other dishes she has toned down a bit of the “theatrics” slightly but really upped the flavor balance and intensity. There weren’t some of the more interactive dishes of years past, like cooking your own item on hot stones, but the cooking was even more on point.

Service is also spectacular, highlighted all the more by the extremely low understaffed standard currently found in LA.

Click here to other LA Japanese restaurants.

Or other Foodie Club extravaganzas.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, coche, Foodie Club, Fred, Gelato, N/Naka, Niki Nakayama, White Burgundy, Wine

Programmed by Andy Gavin