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Archive for Sawtelle

Lunch Quest – Tsujita Annex

May01

Restaurant: Tsujita LA Artisan Noodle Annex

Location: 2050 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 231-0222

Date: September 19, 2022

Cuisine: Japanese Ramen

Rating: Oh so good

The morning after our Haige Star bonanza Jeffrey and I (with Hangry Rider joining us as a bonus) set out on a new Lunch Quest.

We were supposed to try this — supposedly — awesome fried chicken place tucked into the weird Colony in Santa Monica. It was closed for some reason (this happens a lot with Lunch Quest) and so we moved on after a bit of discussion.

The concept for this Colony place is that it’s a commercial kitchen that shares various facilities including a common sales counter. Basically the places here are takeout food. You can pick it up at the counter and eat in the adjacent alley. This isn’t my kind of thing as I hate disposable plates and utensils and really casual dining in general. I don’t mind an utter lake of decor, but I don’t like takeout.

The dining area doesn’t look half bad if you can stomach take out.

So after much debate we moved on to Tsujita Annex for some really excellent Ramen. I’ve been here before of course.

Jeffrey wanted to test out (and video about) this ghost pepper powder his friend Mark Wiens is promoting.

Dry ramen (no soup).

Two variants of their classic ramen.

Another different dry ramen.

The noodles and meat for their Tsukemen, which is when the noodles are served cold and on the side, and you dip them.

The broth for the Tsukemen — so thick!

Condiments.

I always forget how delicious Tsujita is. The annex version is a bit different than the main branch. It’s thicker and maybe more chunky, with a slightly more acidic balance to the broth (post tare). Both are awesome bowls of ramen. I think I still like the Tsukemen at regular Tsujita across the street a touch better but the classic ramen may be better here. And of course Killer Noodle is really my favorite of the trio.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Japanese cuisine, Lunch Quest, ramen, Sawtelle, Tsujita Annex

Tuk Tuk Thai

Nov20

Restaurant: Tuk Tuk Thai

Location: 1638 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 860-1872

Date: March 8, 2022 and various 2022 dates

Cuisine: Thai Street Food

Rating: Best Thai on the Westside

I was excited to find that the abandoned Dahab space was replaced with a well rated Thai Street Food joint. They’ve been around for a little while and recently needed to move locations.

The interior is minimal, but cute.

The menu is more street food focused than the traditional big Thai menus.

Sour Sausage. Sai Krok Isan. House-made fermented pork sausage with lemongrass, garlic, sticky rice, coriander root, and white pepper. Flavorful little sausage nubs.

Thai Wontons. Giew Tod. Hand-folded wontons filled with chicken and sweet chili sauce. Crunchy goodness.

Curry Dumpling. Shrimp and scallop in spicy green curry sauce. These were super delicious with a nice light creamy (coconut milk creamy) green curry sauce.

Steak Salad. Yum Nuea. Marinated grilled steak tossed in chili lime with cucumber, grape tomatoes, shallots, mint, green onion, and cilantro. Zesty and fresh.

Khoi Soi Beef Shank. A mix of crispy egg noodles and blanched egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, shallots, lime, ground chilies, fried in oil in a homemade curry coconut broth. The curry was very red here not the rich orange one I’m used to. I need to try this a second time to get a handle on it.

Khao Soi Chicken. This is the chicken version. Curry was about the same. I think I prefer the more classic flavor.

Prik King Pork Belly. Prik Khing Moo Grob. Green beans and pork belly cooked with a fiery red curry paste and kaffir lime leaves. Super crunchy, sweet, spicy, delicious. I love this dish.

Green Curry with Beef. Tropical spicy curry with a touch of sweetness, full of Thai peppers, kaffir lime, coconut milk, maboo shoots, Thai eggplant, and sweet basil. Beef was a bit chewy.

Tom Yum Noodles. Rich and creamy spicy tom yum soup with egg noodles, shrimp, homemade chicken dumplings, tomatoes, and mushrooms in aromatic chili jam broth with hard-boiled egg. Yummy!

Tuk Tuk is a great addition to the neighborhood and it’s nice to have a really good more “modern” Thai place nearby. I go regularly but need to keep returning and try new things. Hard as I love some of the ones I have had!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Sawtelle, Street Food, Thai cuisine, Tuk Tuk Thai

Quick Eats – Menya Tigre

Dec14

Restaurant: Menya Tigre

Location: 2012 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025

Date: July 13 (and others), 2021

Cuisine: Japanese Curry & Ramen

Rating: narrow but pretty good curry ramen

The not-terribly-great chicken only ramen place on Sawtelle closed a long time ago and was replaced at some point by this curry based ramen joint.

The small menu.

The interior — although I’ve never actually eaten inside as they have a nice patio.

Tasty Japanese salad with the zingy ginger dressing.

Takoyaki. Fried octopus balls with mayo and okonomiyaki sauce. These were actually the first kind of food I had on my first trip to Japan 30 years ago!

Curry Tsukemen. Chicken curry broth with noodles and chashu. This is the ramen variant where the noodles are served on the side (cold) and dipped into the broth.

Zoom of the parts.

Curry Ramen. Chicken and curry broth ramen with pork and egg. It’s pretty good, but not as thick and unctuous as I might like.

Keema Bowl. Side bowl of ground meat curry on top of rice.

Chashu Bowl. A similar bowl of marinated chashu pork on rice.

Karaage Curry. Karaage fried chicken with curry and rice.

Surf & Turf. Karaage chicken and fried shrimp with curry and rice. This was solid curry rice, but it isn’t nearly as good as the late (and missed by me) Kimukatsu.

Overall, Menya Tigre is ok. I like curry and I particularly like curry rice. I’m actually very sad that Kimukatsu closed as that was the best Sawtelle curry rice. This is a passable substitute, but just not as good. The ramen is ok too, but not as good as Killer Noodle — which is by far my favorite except for its not-so-subtle GI consequences.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: curry, Menya Tigre, noodles, ramen, Sawtelle

Quick Eats – Mogumogu

Jul05

Restaurant: Mogumogu

Location: 11555 W Olympic Blvd Suite B, Los Angeles, CA 90064. (424) 371-5085

Date: May 30, 2019

Cuisine: “Soupless” Ramen

Rating: Good

Mogumogu is a new “soupless” ramen joint near Sawtelle.

It’s located in the space of the former Ramen-ya, just to the west on Olympic.

The interior is… simple.

The menu.

“Umami” vinegar and sesame seeds.

Shishito. Flash fried Japanese peppers with salt and lemon. I’ve had better shishito — I’ve had worse.

Deluxe mazeman. Sliced pork chashu, spicy minced pork, poached egg, chives, minced garlic, fish powder, seaweed, soft boiled egg, seaweed flakes scallion.

To which I added some wild ear mushroom. The “sauce” is kinda at the bottom.

You mix it up and eat. It was pretty tasty. More like a ramen pasta. Left one feeling the carb coma, but not the epic salt and fat coma of a regular ramen. Kinda enjoyable. I will have to repeat to get a better feel for this new style of ramen. I love that the noodles are thick and al dente.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Japanese cuisine, Mogu Mogu, noodles, ramen, Sawtelle, Sawtelle Japantown

Seoul Sausage Kingdom

Sep16

Restaurant: Seoul Sausage Co.

Location: 11313 Mississippi Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 477-7739

Date: September 20, 2013

Cuisine: Korean… sorta

Rating: Tasty!

LA is a funny kind of foodie town, being divided into both wildly experimental cuisine, classic ethnic, and a not-so-in-the-closet love affair with fast food. And let’s not forget Asian fusion. One of the current trends seems to be updating classic American fast foods with crazy cross-cultural insertions. This is nowhere more obvious than in the rash of new gourmet food trucks that offer things like “kalbi tacos” and “Thai shrimp burgers.”

Seoul Sausage Co. has a storefront, but it’s very much in this vein, offering up a tiny menu of fat and flavor driven Korean/American hybrid dishes.

This is a tiny place affording only counter service.

The short little menu.

Some of the rice balls waiting to be re-heated.

The sandwich makes for easy take-away.

Kalbi Sausage. Handmade Korean BBQ beef sausage w/ garpic jalapeno aioli and kimchi relish. This was a pretty delicious “hot dog.” The sausage was succulent and flavorful and the aioli added a nice brightness.

A pair of balls and their sauce. These balls are like vaguely Asian Arincini (a similar Italian food consisting of deep fried rice balls — it may even date from the Roman Empire!).

On the left, the Lil’ Osaka Ball. Japanese curry rice ball w/ ground kalbi and potatoes served w/ shoga siracha mayo.

On the right, Flaming Ball. Cheesy kimchi fried rice w/ spicy pork served w/ DMZ sauce (garlic jalepeno kimchi siracha aioli).

Neither was actually hot (by my standards). Both were tasty, a bit mild, and I liked the Osaka Ball better (it tasted like Japanese brown curry).

Next door is Blockheads, a shaved ice joint.

I experimented with this classic sweet ice (shaved frozen sweetened condensed milk) and chocolate, almonds, and brownies. I should have gone with Mango or some other fruit version.

Sawtelle has morphed in recent years into a rather excellent lunch destination, offering up a bevy of yummy (and quick) eats. There is a lot of traditional Japanese and Korean, plus these newer more experimental places.

For more LA dining reviews click here.