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Archive for Sawtelle Blvd

Quick Eats – Flaming Pot

Jan15

Restaurant: Flaming Pot

Location: 2222 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064

Date: December 1, 2017

Cuisine: Taiwanese Hot Pot

Rating: Simple

_

In the SGV both “medium end” and cheap hot pots are plentiful and mobbed. My favorite of the higher end ones in Hai di Lao, and it and similar level are cheap enough that I never have seen fit to go to Boiling Pot or the other super crowded cheap ones.

But a Taiwanese variant has opened on Sawtelle right next to Popcorn Chicken (same owners).

The interior is about $20k above nothing much.

Extremely minimalist space, and I don’t even think they have a hood.

The menu is simple. A few fixed hot pots with some minimal options.

Ice tea. Seems to default sweetened. Ick.

Spicy Flaming Pot. Packaged noodles, beef, fish balls, tofu, pig intestine. Doesn’t look that spicy either. Unlike the more elaborate hot pot where you cook yourself this is just a pot you heat up and heat. It’s actually easier, but takes a bit of the fun out of it.

Curry Pot. Pork, veggies, corn, imitation crab, fish balls, mushrooms. The curry flavor was very mild. Just some curry powder really. It didn’t taste bad.

Boiled lamb slices. They did add some flavor and protein to the pot. But aren’t exactly high quality.

Rice.
 Rice noodles. Turn into super thin glass noodles.

Overall, very mediocre. I might come back if desperate. It’s not bad. And it’s fairly cheap (although mysteriously more than ramen). Service was TERRIBLE. They were very confused young Chinese kids. Nice enough. Unless you love hot pot and are really don’t want to drive, not too much reason to frequent.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Quick Eats – Popcorn Chicken
  2. Quick Eats: Chan Dara
  3. Quick Eats – Sushi Burrito
  4. Quick Eats – Venice Ramen
  5. Quick Eats: Tofu Ya
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: China Cuisine, Flaming Pot, hot pot, Sawtelle Blvd, Sawtelle Little Tokyo

Kula Revolving Sushi Bar

Oct20

Restaurant: Kula

Location: 2130 Sawtelle Blvd #111, Los Angeles, CA 90025.  (310) 597-4490

Date: September 7, 2017

Cuisine: Revolving Sushi

Rating: Great deal

_

This revolving sushi place over in the older, taller mini-mall on Sawtelle has long been on my list to try — despite being a sushi snob — just because it’s so popular.

I went this time because it was 11:30 and figured there wouldn’t be much of a line, but it had already filled up!

They have most of the regular sushi items.

For those of you not familiar with “revolving sushi” much of the food floats around the restaurant on a conveyor belt. You can pull a plate out from any of those domes at any time.

Or also browse through the entire menu on your own personal ipad and order ala carte — it will be made rapidly and scooted too you on a separate semi-automated conveyor deck!

All the plates are a staggeringly low $2.50 (yeah and for 2 sushi pieces!) They don’t even have to count them because each seat has its own individual plate “disposal” slot that counts for you.

Salmon sushi.
 Seared salmon sushi with Japanese mayo.

Albacore sushi.

Mackerel.

Red Snapper with yuzu pepper.

Toro. This one comes with only one piece, but it’s still just $2.50. Down the street at Tsujita Sushi, they are $15 each!

Garlic tuna steak.

Tuna Yukhoe. Battleship tuna with egg. Never actually had this before — at least in this format. Maybe I’ve had it with raw egg.

Negitoro (chopped toro).

Eel.

Scallop.

Salmon belly.

Spicy scallop handroll. Special order. Didn’t like the sauce at all.

Sweet shrimp. This was one of the few that just wasn’t good. It was way too fishy and I only ate half of one piece.

Tamago (egg omelet). Boring packed tamago, but certainly edible.

My over the top one person lunch count.

Still, even going nuts the bill didn’t exactly break the bank for sushi!

 Special orders come on the upper conveyor. It’s very cool to watch.

This wasn’t good sushi. Just a bit better than supermarket — although at least it’s been made in the last few minutes and not sitting for hours. Plus, if you want you could order everything ala cart and it would be fresh made. That’s not to say the fish would be super fresh. It’s fine, but a bit fishy and so best to stay away from aggressive items like sweet shrimp. Still, some of it wasn’t too bad and at $1.25 a piece ($2.50 for every plate) it’s staggeringly cheap.

Plus the format was very interesting with the individual ipads, the conveyor delivery, the plate counter and all that. Don’t try to come here with a bunch of people though because it’s super crowded.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

More LA sushi reviews here.

Related posts:

  1. Sushi Sushi – Small Omakase
  2. Food as Art – Sushi Sushi
  3. Sushi Zo
  4. Sushi Sushi = Yummy Yummy
  5. Sushi Sushi Sushi
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Kula, Revolving Sushi, Sawtelle Blvd, Sushi

Foodies at Tsujita Sushi

Oct16

Restaurant: Sushi Tsujita [1, 2]

Location: 2006 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. 310.231.1177

Date: August 30, 2017

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Classic Fish

_

A couple core members of my Foodie Club who all like White Burgundy and Champagne enjoy periodically doing great sushi with the aforementioned wines. This time Tsujita Sushi came up as it’s great and easy to book (I think it’s secretly a loss leader for their noodle chain).


Sushi Tsujita specializes in traditional sushi preparations that involve a lot of subtle salting, curing, and marinating.

The interior has been jazzed up since its previous engagement as Orris.

This is just a small event with Foodie co-chair Erick and regular Fred. But we brought good stuff, just opened it all, shared with the chef, and chowed down.

Fred brought: NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée Edition 164eme. JG 95. The 164th Edition of Krug “Grande Cuvée is absolutely brilliant and one of the best iterations of this iconic wine that I have ever had the pleasure to taste. This is not surprising, as it is from the base year of 2008, though the team at Krug utilized reserve wines all the way back to 1990 in this version. The final cépages is forty-eight percent pinot noir, thirty-five percent chardonnay and seventeen percent pinot meunier, with the wine spending eight years in the Krug cellars sur latte. The beautiful bouquet wafts from the glass in a blend of apple, white peach, fresh-baked bread, very complex soil tones, white flowers, incipient smokiness and just a hint of the caraway seed to come with bottle age. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and seamlessly balanced, with a great core, utterly refined mousse, superb focus and grip and a very, very long, complex and zesty finish. The vibrancy of the exceptional base year of 2008 is very much in evidence here and this is destined to be one of the all-time great Grande Cuvées.

From my cellar: NV Drappier Champagne Brut Rosé. JG 90+.  As I noted in the past, the Drappier Brut Rosé is one hundred percent pinot noir from the estate’s own Aube vineyards and is produced by the saignée method, so that its lovely cherry color is from skin contact, rather than by adding a bit of still red wine to the blend. The cuvée is aged two and a half years sur latte prior to disgorgement and has a dosage of 7.5 grams per liter. The current release in the market is really pretty and stylish on the nose, offering up a vibrantly complex mix of strawberries, a touch of blood orange, chalky soil tones, rye toast, woodsmoke and a hint of clove in the upper register. On the palate the wine is brisk, full-bodied and focused, with a good core, frothy mousse, lovely minerality and a long, nascently complex and still quite tightly-knit and youthful finish. I was surprised how youthful the structure still was here, given how open the nose is at the present time, but it is certainly approachable today and should really blossom with a year or two in the cellar.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 95. Even though the 2001 Chevalier-Montrachet is five years younger than the 1996, it comes across as a bit more forward, evolved and open-knit, but that is not at all a bad thing, as the 2001 is more enjoyable to drink now. Layers of creamy, tropical-inflected fruit flesh out effortlessly in the glass. Scents of marzipan, chamomile, apricot, lemon oil and light, floral-infused honey all add further shades of nuance. Wonderfully complete and seductive, the 2001 Chevalier is a great choice for drinking today, although I would not push my luck too far beyond another handful of years at most.

Fred brought: 2004 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Chevalier-Montrachet. BH 94. As one would reasonably expect, this is more elegant with a stunningly pure nose of white flower, citrus, orange peel, acacia blossom and the barest hint of wood spice that seamlessly introduces refined, complex and beautifully defined flavors that are tightly wound and impressively vibrant, particularly on the powerfully long and chiseled finish that cuts like a knife. This will be a long distance runner and will require plenty of patience.

Erick generously brought: 1996 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Auxey-Duresses Les Boutonniers. 96 points. Amazing! Fred writes: Well hot damn if this didn’t run circles around the 01 Levlaive Chevalier Montrachet and 04 PYCM Chevalier Montrachet tonight. This was in impeccable balance between the acid and fruit. A much more precise wine than either Chevy tonight. My WOTN easily.

For food, we ordered the larger omakase (with more cooked dishes) and then added on pretty much every nigiri we didn’t get in the omakase.

House made tofu, vegetables, and truffle.

Smoked duck noodle soup.

With the light, delicious, dashi-based broth.

Super smoked toro.

Reveal the fish and bathe in the sumptuous smokey smell.

Really tasty bit of fish. Intense fat and smokiness.

Sashimi plate.

Ebi with truffle, some delicious tuna, and some other white fishes.

Toro tartar with caviar. The Matsuhisa classic.

Cool containers.

Eggy tofu ball?

Seared garlic wagyu — more or less tepenyaki.

I eat about 4 bowls of ginger.

Special Japanese snapper with yuzu.

Golden eye snapper.

Blue fin tuna.

Santa Barbara sweet ebi (shrimp).

The head, including roe, fried up.

Ikura (salmon eggs) and uni (sea urchin).

Squid with a bit of char taste and yuzu.

Ocean perch.

Black throat sea perch.

Amberjack yellowtail.

House smoked copper river king salmon.

O-Toro (super fatty tuna belly).

Seared scallop “roll”.
 Miso soup.

Tamago (egg) with sea eel.

Marinated big eye tuna.

Sardine. I like the marinated ones.

Yellowtail belly.

Shiro ebi icy shrimp.

Toro tartar.

And a peach sorbet.

Plus a cleanser of sweetened yuzu juice.

Not only is Tsujita pretty spectacular, but for high end sushi the price isn’t too bad — i.e. it’s expensive but you get a lot relatively. I enjoyed the variety of fish and particularly the highly marinated ones. The cooked apps are very good too with a lot of flavor without heaviness. They emphasize fish and other proteins too avoiding that “veggie + dashi” thing you sometimes get with Kaiseki dishes.

Also, it should be noted that they have great lunch bowls — I go all the time.

For more LA sushi reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Sushi Sushi – Small Omakase
  2. Artsy Toppings – Sushi of Gari
  3. Food as Art – Sushi Sushi
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  5. Sushi Sushi Sushi
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Burgundy, Foodie Club, Sawtelle Blvd, Sushi, Sushi Tsujita, Wine

Quick Eats – Popcorn Chicken

Jul21

Restaurant: Popcorn Chicken

Location: 2224 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064. (424) 832-3076

Date: June 21, 2017

Cuisine: Taiwanese

Rating: Taiwanese fast casual

_

More Chinese on Sawtelle – yay!

It’s in the row of fast casual joints by Daikokuya.

And it’s sort of a hybrid boba tea shop fast casual Taiwanese place.


  Pictures on the menu.
 Passionfruit green tea with boba. There is the usual vast array of such drinks.
 Grapefruit green tea with boba.

Popcorn chicken. Tasty. Very fried.

Fried squid balls. Yep. If you’ve got the balls, eat ’em.

“lunch’s” come with this microscopic egg drop soup. It wasn’t bad.

Szechuan fish filet noodle soup. The fish itself wasn’t the most amazing and it wasn’t seething in peppers like at a real Szechuan place but it had some mala (numb taste) and a whole bunch of noodles. Not bad.

Scrambled eggs with shrimp over rice. Weird as these egg, sauce, rice dishes are — I kinda love them.

House fried rice. Always tasty.

Sesame Balls. 2 balls in one day! Filled with red bean paste.

Popcorn Chicken is sort of like a low end version of Little Fatty. Or Little Fatty is like a high end artsy Popcorn Chicken. Nothing wrong with that. Good extra option to have on Sawtelle.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Quick Eats – Halal Guys
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  4. Quick Eats – Da Jeong
  5. Quick Eats: Tofu Ya
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Popcorn Chicken, Sawtelle Blvd, Taiwanese Cuisine

Chicken or Egg? – Tentenyu Ramen

Aug31

Restaurant: Tentenyu Ramen

Location: 2012 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025.

Date: August 9 & 23, 2016

Cuisine: Japanese Ramen

Rating: Rich!

_

Sawtelle seems to know no bounds with regard to Ramen! Already there is Tsujita, Tatsu, Daikokuya, and Shin Sen Gumi.

And now there is Kyoto chain Tentenyu! They have a nice patio very close to Tsujita Sushi and Miso 2012.

Tentenyu specializes in super thick chicken ramen. They don’t have a big menu, but offer up the basic version in both thin noodle classic ramen format and Tsukemen (which is my favorite at Tsujita).

There are even instructions on how to eat your Tsukemen (like at Tsujita).

The interior.

The small but steaming kitchen. Notice those crazy pressure cookers to the left for the broth.

Here is the fully loaded (with pork slices) version of the Tsukemen. Note too that this isn’t the super dense pork version at Tsujita, but a (mostly) chicken Tsukemen.

But it’s plenty dense. In fact, somehow, it might even be richer than the Tsujita pork version. The broth, like the densest chicken soup you never even thought existed also felt like about 8 egg yolks had been cracked into this tiny bowl.

The noodles too were thick, with a nice bite, and very very eggy. Good thing the meat wasn’t too fatty because the overall combination was insanely heavy. It did taste great though. Different than the pork type, but really quite good.


The “straight up” noodles in the broth (smaller noodles) version. Same basic chicken broth, same meat. Pickled vegetables on top.

Extra green onions.
There weren’t a lot of condiment options — like none, but there was the usual red pickles I love. And ramen sauce.

Overall I’ve only had these two very similar dishes — but they were good — Just so rich. Not a very big menu either. So I’ll have to come back occasionally. Too much good ramen to try!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Ramen is all the Rage
  2. Jinya Ramen Bar
  3. Tatsu – Ramen with a Soul
  4. Far Eastern Ramen
  5. Tsujita LA – Artisan Noodles
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Japanese cuisine, ramen, Sawtelle Blvd, Tentenyu Ramen

Shin Sen Gumi – Ramen Revolution

May08

Restaurant: Shin Sen Gumi

Location: 1601 Sawtelle Blvd. #101 Los Angeles, CA 90025 Tel:424-208-3293

Date: March 6, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese Ramen

Rating: Solid Hakata Ramen w/ lots of options

_

Ramen is just taking over in east Santa Monica (now officially Sawtelle Japantown). There are 6-9 places within a mile, the majority of which even specialize in Hakata ramen (the porky southern variety).



Shin Sen Gumi has an unassuming front.


But a busy and decent sized interior with both tables and counter.




Half order of Gyoza. These are the smallest potstickers I’ve ever seen. You can’t tell from the photo, but they are about 1.5 inches long! Get a full order. They were fairly tasty though.


Fried squid. Quiet good leg calamari.


Garlic Shrimp. Also very good. Pretty much like the Spanish Gambas pil pil.


Full Hakata Ramen. This own was “strong”.


A few additions for the ramen. From the upper left, clockwise, curry paste, garlic chips, cloud ear mushrooms, poached egg.


Pig ear on the left and more pork belly slices on the right.


My ramen after additions.

Overall, this was solid ramen, and there were a lot of options both as tapas, some other entrees, and tons of possible condiments. I dumped that curry ball in and after mixing it made the whole thing taste like Singapore curry noodles.

Still, I like the slightly modern flavor of Tatsu better and the pork in a bowl of Tsujita.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Ramen is all the Rage
  2. Tatsu – Ramen with a Soul
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  5. Shin Beijing Again
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Hakata Ramen, Japanese cuisine, Sawtelle Blvd, Shin Sen Gumi

Ramen is all the Rage

Oct21

Restaurant: Daikokuya Santa Monica

Location: 2208 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064. (310) 575-4999

Date: October 13, 2014

Cuisine: Japanese Ramen

Rating: First rate noodles

_

In LA (and possibly elsewhere), ramen has just exploded. It’s gone from this obscure specialty and grad student food to multiple streets with multiple ramen joints each with hour long lines!


Sawtelle is the undisputed Asian lunch spot on the Westside and Daikokuya, despite being “below Olympic,” slumming with the likes of Starbucks and Panda Express, always has a long line.


Inside it’s Tokyo kitch, but cute for sure. The menu is simple, with just 3 main ramen types (normal, spicy miso, and dipping noodle) and a bunch of bowls.


The table has the usual accents: pickled ginger, garlic, ground pepper.


Cabbage salad. This will set you back $1. Tasty enough, but needed more dressing.


Gyoza. The classic pork and cabbage dumpling, pan fried. Seriously fried in this case. Plenty of green onion. These were good. Quite good.

Daikoku Ramen. The classic pork broth Hakataka ramen. Fatty pork. Bamboo shoots. Bean sprouts. Green onion.


You can see all the usual ingredients. Egg. I added garlic and pickled red ginger. A nicely done classic ramen. Not quite as flavorful as the spicy miso below, but with good salty yum.


Spicy miso ramen. This variant on the straight up classic has all the works inside, the green onion, the bork belly cuts, the sprouts, the special egg, etc. The sauce is like miso soup with a bit of kick. It’s not super spicy, but just about right. The heat, salt, and spice add up and do clear the sinuses.


The noodles are thin and nicely al dente. I jazzed it up with ginger and garlic. A lot of garlic.


The broth is pretty delicious. Rich, but not mega rich like Tsujita (more on that later). I really wanted to keep drinking after I picked out all the bits, but I knew that if I did, the salt (and perhaps garlic) factor would really hit me later. As it was I developed a fairly serious case of heartburn (not unexpected, but worth it).

Overall, this was some solid and traditional ramen. Very good. I need to try the regular one and the dipping noodles. I doubt the latter is as good as at Tsujita, it would be hard to remember, but the regular and miso ramen are different beasts, not neccesarily better or worse, just a bit different.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

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By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Daikokuya, Japanese cuisine, Los Angeles, ramen, Sawtelle Blvd

From Noodles to Fish

Oct13

Restaurant: Sushi Tsujita

Location: 2006 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. 310.231.1177

Date: October 9, 2014

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Classic Fish

_

One of the busiest and yummiest spots on the busy Sawtelle Blvd is Tsujita Artisan Noodles (and annex), which  serve up an insanely rich and delicious porky ramen. The owner, Takehiro Tsujita, was cooked up a third place just down the street — well actually cooked isn’t the right word since this is a high end, omakase focused, traditional sushi joint helmed by chef Shigeru Kato.


Sushi Tsujita specializes in traditional sushi preparations that involve a lot of subtle salting, curing, and marinating.


The interior has been jazzed up since its previous engagement as Orris.


2000 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte. Burghound 95. While discreet, there is a trace of wood that sits atop the ever-so-mildly exotic fruit and wonderfully layered aromas that are still admirably fresh even though they now display some mature notes. The exceptionally rich and overtly muscular flavors are quite forward though powerful as a still firm and prominent acid spine keeps everything in perfect balance on the magnificently persistent finish. This is classy juice that is knocking on the door of its prime drinkability.

agavin: our bottle was unfortunately badly premoxed


Stewed motomara tomato.


A bit of everything. Persimmon with tofu (back in the sub-dish). Sea pike cooked with sake, soy sauce, & ginger (back left). Shrimp cooked with sake and black cod roe (front left). Oyster & baby abalone (front). Ginko nuts. Crispy rice (center back).


Steamed Abalone with mizuna mustard greens. Marinated with bonito broth.


Dobin-mushi. Matsutake mushroom, sea eel, chicken, mitsuba, ginko nuts, sudachi.

Very Japanese, this soup is in a little teapot with the cup (and yuzu) on top.


First one pours out and drinks the light dashi broth.


Then one can pick out the eel, shrimp, chicken and the like.


Sashimi. Nodo kuro (black sea perch), blue fin tuna, tai.


Snapper (tai).


Kinmedai (golden eye snapper).


Grouper (hata).


Scallop with truffle.

1995 Robert Ampeau & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. 92 points. Tis is medium gold. Nose is very ripe fruit and honey, but not boytritis. Sweet and satiny and weighty, acid is failing. Finishes with baked apples and pastry.


Steamed golden snapper head. With silky tofu. This was rather delicious, and was dipped in a light sauce zested with green onion and daikon.


Ginger. Chunks of very strong and tasty ginger.


Egg with eggplant caviar. Gooey!


Sea robin. (Hobo).


Sea pike? (sanma). It can be hard to remember which fish is which.


Chu-toro.


O-Toro. Awesome.


Kanpachi (amberjack).


Waygu beef. Delicious and melt in the mouth.


Halibut.


A pretty double course.


King crab (kani).


Salmon roe (ikura) and sea urchin (uni). Fabulous.


Sweet shrimp (ebi). The heads were still moving.


But not after being turned into shrimp head miso!


Mackerel (saba).


Sea bass (suzuki). Marinated in kelp.


Egg (tamago).


Melon for dessert.


And roasted tea.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Tsujita, but the meal proved to be quite interesting. Absolutely first rate sushi, and of a somewhat different ilk than most of the less cured or particularly heavy vinegar style places (like Sushi Zo). It wasn’t cheap, offering omakase in the $120, $150, and $180 ranges (above is more or less a $180), but this is pretty comparable to other top sushi houses in LA. It’s also on my favorite lunch street, giving Kiriko some competition in the serious sushi world.

For more LA sushi reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Tsujita LA – Artisan Noodles
  2. Takao Two
  3. Food as Art: Sasabune
  4. Takao Top Omakase
  5. Shunji Sushi – Nonstop Nigiri
By: agavin
Comments (8)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Japanese cuisine, Sawtelle Blvd, Sawtelle Boulevard, Sushi, Sushi Tsujita, West Los Angeles
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