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Quick Eats – Chiang Mai

Sep30

Location: 12510 Burbank Blvd, Valley Village, CA 91607. (818) 452-9891

Date: February 2, 2024

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Seemed just pretty good Northern Thai

I read somewhere that they had the best Khao-soi in town, so when I had a work recording session end nearby I had to try.

The menu.

Interior.

Sai Oua. Spicy ground pork sausage with thai herbs. Serverd with vegetables and Side Nam Prik Noom. Very good sausage. Chili paste was great also.

Chiang Mai Larb. Northern style larb, ground pork, pork organs, dried chili, mint leaves, green onion and garlic. A little dry, decently spicy, good flavor.

Beef Khao-soi. Beef was a little dry. Soup was good, but not incredible.

Condiments for the Kao-soi.

Overall, this place is quite similar to Khaosian — similar menu and about the same quality level. Maybe Khaosian is a little better. Definitely NOT the best Khao-soi I have had — although tasty enough.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: noodles, SFV, Thai cuisine

Shin Sushi

Aug28

Restaurant: Shin Sushi

Location: 16573 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA 91436. (818) 616-4148

Date: December 6, 2023

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Very solid high end sushi

I’ve been wanting to try Shin for some time.

Here is our extremely enthusiastic host!

Appetizer plate of river crab, seasonal mushrooms, house-made tofu, monkfish liver, conche etc.

Little snapper and adult snapper of the same fish breed.

Black snapper.

Hokkaido scallop with yuzu.

Blue fin tuna from Spain with 100 year soy sauce.

Torched Japanese Ocean Trout — one of my favorites.

Menagi baby chive sushi. really great actually.

Fish bone miso. Very rich and lovely.

Japanese sardine with Salt and vinegar.

Japanese seasonal whitefish in the snapper family (he likes snapper!)

Santa Barbara sweet shrimp.

Buri (yellowtail).

Otoro slightly seared with binchochan charcoal.

Hokkaido uni.

Tamago.

Ice cream with sweet sauce.

Coffee jelly and cream.

Got crabs? This was a really fun dinner with lots of great champ and whites (particularly my Lafon). The chef is very nice and extremely enthusiastic. He’s definately a highly skilled sushi chef and the food reflected that. My only issue is that the rice was very lightly vinegared and I like an assertive vinegar on my sushi rice as I’m an acid fiend.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: hedonists, Japanese cuisine, SFV, shin sushi

Robo Eats – Paradise Biryani Pointe

Dec03

Restaurant: Paradise Biryani Pointe

Location: 7231 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Canoga Park, CA 91303. (818) 348-4454

Date: April 4, 2023

Cuisine: Indian

Rating: decent, but not amazing

During my son’s robotics team meetings I have a chance to explore random spots in the Western San Fernando Valley, so I’m nicking naming this the “Robo Eats” series. This one a FB friend recommended.

This is located on Topanga a few miles north of Ventura in a fairly sketchy part of Canoga Park.

The interior is drop ceiling box meets old school Indian boothes and next to know “decor.”

Extensive menu.

Chili Fish. Boneless Fish sautéed red chili sauce and topped with spring onions. Kind of salty and spicy — but not that spicy. Probably a bit fried. Pretty tasty, but not great.

Chicken Tikka Masala. Boneless chicken pieces roasted in tandoor clay oven cooked with Indian spices in a creamy tomato sauce. This was a solid CTM. It’s NOWHERE near as good as Akbar’s, but it was one of the best I’ve had otherwise in LA. It was a bit sweet, and certainly tangy, but with mild curry flavor. The chicken was tender. it wasn’t spicy at all.

Bagara Baingan. Tandoor roasted eggplant blended with fresh tomatoes and onion followed with simmering with ground peanut paste and spices. I didn’t taste the peanuts but the eggplant was nicely cooked and this had a good, if mild, flavor. A touch smoky and quite salty.

Mutton Rogan Josh. kashmiri style curry brimming with flavors of fennel, ginger and marked by the striking red hue. The color wasn’t that striking, and the mutton was boney as hell with sharp shards breaking off in my mouth. I even swallowed one. Gulp. The flavor was mild but pretty good. You could taste the fennel and ginger.

Overall, this was the best Indian I’ve yet had in my Robo Eats explorations, but it wasn’t amazing and it’s still certainly no Akbar. Service was nice but a bit slow considering I was the ONLY dine in customer and there were just two others waiting for takeout. There appeared to be one front of house employee working the phones, take out packing, and the tables.

For more dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: curry, Indian cuisine, Paradise Biryani Pointe, Robo Eats, SFV

Robo Eats – Okumura

May22

Restaurant: Okumura Restaurant

Location: 17302 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA 91316. (818) 986-9712

Date: October 3, 2022

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Fine

Here I was just trying to find a reasonably priced but solid Sushi spot during one of my valley dinner “waits” (while my son was in robotics).

Nice enough interior.

Salad.

Albacore with crispy onions and ponzu.

Halibut and sweetened soy.

Hamachi Jalepeno.

Salmon and Hamachi sashimi.

Scallop and Mackerel Sashimi.

Toro, uni, and eel sushi.

Okumura was solid. They didn’t have much in the way of exotics on the menu, but what I had was good. It’s a dependable neighborhood sushi joint.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Okumura, RoboEats, SFV, Sushi

Robo Eats – Lucille’s

May08

Restaurant: Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que

Location: Westfield Topanga. 6220 CA-27 Suite 1480, Woodland Hills, CA 91367

Date: September 21, 2022

Cuisine: BBQ

Rating: Not bad for a giant chain

As I eat over in Woodland Hills fairly frequently (by myself) I was googling around for lower carb options and found this place. I actually had no idea it was a chain, or even worse, in a mall. I just picked it from Yelp because it was nearby and BBQ (which offers lots of meat).

I hate when restaurants are attached to mall complexes. I don’t shop retail — 95% online — so I find malls to be annoying, crowded, and vestigial remnants of the 20th century. Parking was a PITA.

Interior is large. The menu can be found here. I forgot to photo it but it was structurally very interesting as it’s kinda modular and you can expand, modify, or add on to the basic components. I actually really liked this as it suits my ordering style (different and large).

Smoked Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread. I couldn’t resist this carb.

This was a three meat “Build your own Bar-B-Que Combo,” including baby back ribs, pulled pork, and rib tips! Sides were Creamy Coleslaw and Southern Braised Greens. The BBQ was pretty good. Sauces were a touch sweet for my diet, very classic American BBQ, but pretty well cooked. At a lot of chain places it might have been dry. It wasn’t.

I was surprised that Lucille’s was decent (for a chain). As I mentioned, I hate chains and malls, and this was good enough that I would go back again — better off hours though when the mall parking isn’t so jammed up and one can actually park nearby.

For more Italian dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: bbq, chain, Lucille, Mall, Robo Eats, SFV

What’s All the Fuss About?

May06

Restaurant: Anajak Thai

Location: 14704 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403. (818) 501-4201

Date: September 22, 2022

Cuisine: Elevated American Thai

Rating: Tasty, but kinda boring

Anajak has a LOT of buzz about it. It’s a Thai place on Ventura in the valley and it’s one of the hardest reservations in the city to get — go figure. They offer “three modes” of dining. Normal, which I’m covering here, a weird Thai fusion taco Tuesday (haven’t tried) and a Thai Omakase (optional) on weekends that I want to try (but haven’t yet).

They are unusual as Thai places go in that they have a LOT of wine for sale. And a lot of it isn’t really a good Thai pairing either. It’s not fancy wine and it’s sitting out all over the restaurant. I’m sure this has added to their buzz.

We sat outside on the street/patio at two large tables. The menu isn’t huge by Thai standards and we ordered almost every dish.

Papaya Salad, thai chilies, peanuts, dried shrimp. Fine but not very exciting papaya salad. Not quite zingy or spicy enough. No detectable funk.

Crispy Garden Rolls. These were nice and crispy. Sauce was basically sweet with only a slight tang. But overall pretty tasty.

Laab Tot, northern-style pork meatballs. Basically fried larb balls. The sauce was sweet. These were the best of the apps. Quite yummy. Hard to go wrong with a fried meat ball though.

Chicken Satay. Pretty boring straight up chicken skewers. Well cooked and juicy, but not a ton of flavor on them. The sauce was overly sweet but certainly very peanuty. The little marinated salad was not nearly vinegary enough.

Southern-Thai Fried Chicken. This was a really good dish. Very juicy and crispy. Maybe slightly undersalted but extremely good.

Transparent Sea Shrimp, pong gari curry. The fry on these shrimp was that kind of rich egg yolk fry that has a slightly grainy texture. The sauce was an interesting curry with a slight liver vibe. Pretty good.

Pork ribs, pineapple-glaze. These were okay. A bit sweet, but actually slightly better than the version we had at Jitlada 2 days before (which was Jitlada’s worst dish).

BBQ Pork Collar, coriander molasses, soy, sesame. Not super strong flavored, but with a bit of grill or char. Pretty good.

Haw Mok, steamed fish curry custard. I loved the soft texture on this dish. It had some mystery vegetables inside and a mild but lovely curry flavor. Basically curry flan? I actually really enjoyed. Might even have been my favorite dish. Most other people found the texture weird but I love odd textures.

The fish curry/custard texture should be more apparent in this photo.

Green Curry, shrimp & eggplant. I’m not sure I found any eggplant. The shrimp were nice and plump. The green curry itself was tasty but extremely mild. There was almost no heat and very little fish sauce taste. Clean and smooth with not too much in it.

Panang Curry, chicken. There wasn’t much in this either, just some chicken and the red bell pepper garnishes. I did love the curry sauce itself. It had a great creamy coconut red curry flavor. Very smooth. Not spicy at all and not super complex, but almost what I was going for in my red coconut curry gelato.

Massaman Brisket Curry. Nice to have some real meat but the curry itself was basically satay peanut sauce. It was pleasant but so peanuty and sweet. A real Massaman curry is more a red curry / peanut blend and should have some heat. This was all sweet.

Prik King Green Beans. These were good, albiet not spicy at all.

Drunken Noodles with Shrimp. Not bad. The shrimp was nice and the noodle texture good. I would have liked a more pronounced Thai basil flavor — didn’t really get one.

Pad Siew with Chicken. Very similar to the drunken noodles. Not sure I could really tell the difference.

Spicy Fried Rice with Fried Egg. It wasn’t spicy but it was fried.

Mango Sticky Rice. Quite nice. Not as good as Jitlada’s as it didn’t have either the coconut flavored sweetened condensed milk or the coconut ice cream but the mango was nice and ripe and the sticky rice a great complement.

Overall, as someone who goes to a LOT of Thai, I don’t really get Anajak. I’d like to try the Omakase because that looks interesting and different, but the regular menu is like well done kinda boring Thai food. The ingredient quality is high and it’s very clean and neat — and very “smooth” (they blend it) but it’s just not all that balanced. The dishes are too sweet, there is virtually no heat (I like spicy), no funky fish sauce or shrimp paste taste, and basically none of the interesting Thai vegetables.

As far as I can tell it’s just a higher quality better version of your default “Thai American” place. Does that, the hipper setting, and the wine lying around make it more accessible to Valley goers and Thai food newbies? Yeah. But does it make it taste as good? No. Frankly most of the Thai Tour places are better and more interesting. And I’ve been to numerous Valley staple Thai places that I like better, even one like Lum Ka Naad. Yeah, they are a bit rougher around the edges, but again, more flavor.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Anajak Thai, curry, hedonists, SFV, Thai cuisine, Thai Tour, Wine

Robo Eats – Khaosan

Apr01

Restaurant: Khaosan Thai Street Food

Location: 19801 Ventura Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 91364. (818) 932-9845

Date: August 8, 2022 and many times after

Cuisine: Thai Street Food

Rating: Very good small dish Thai place

This was actually the first — and most frequent — restaurant I visited while waiting for my son at robotics in the valley.

It’s located right on Ventura in Tarzana / Woodland Hills. They have a mostly digital menu (which I’m not a fan of).

Fried fish balls with sweet sauce. Delicious.

Papaya Salad. Very good

Thom Yom. Nice version of the tangy soup. I almost always get this.

Khao Soi chicken. Excellent version. I really love the strong coconut curry flavor and the mixture of textures.

Stir fry curry with fish. Relatively light, but creamy. Nice.

Marinated Beef Salad. A bit salty but nice chili lime thing.

Beef Prik King.

Chicken Laarb. Solid.

Khaosan has a smallish menu and certainly isn’t up there with Jitlada, Pailin and the like, but what they do do, they do very well and it’s certainly great for a quick one person meal or takeout (if you like takeout, which I don’t). This is really way better than most of the Americanized Thais in the city. Lots of flavor and I’ve been here at least half a dozen times.

Service is very efficient and friendly. The space itself is small with only a couple of tables. Most of their business is takeout.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Khaosan, Robo Eats, SFV, Thai cuisine, Thai Street Food

Robo Eats – Anarbagh

Mar19

Restaurant: Anarbagh

Location: 22721 Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91364. (818) 224-3929

Date: September 20, 2022

Cuisine: Indian

Rating: Ok old fashioned Indian

During my son’s robotics team meetings I have a chance to explore random spots in the Western San Fernando Valley, so I’m nicking naming this the “Robo Eats” series.

Anarbagh is a well rated Indian with several branches.

Obviously this location was once some kind of mid century restaurant.

Inside it has that drop ceiling and booth “classic” Indian restaurant vibe. Part of the classic style has always seemed a near absence of customers. I guess most people order takeout.

Papadam and chutney’s to start.

Chicken Tikka Masala. A little heat, fairly sweet. Decent, but not savory enough. Nowhere near as good as at Akbar.

Lamb Korma. Decent, but still not enough flavor.

Shrimp Sag. Pretty good.

Eggplant Bharta. Also pretty good, but not the best I’ve had.

Free bit of Persian-style sweet.

Anarbagh is fine, but it’s that kind of old school Indian where all the curries are vaguely similar, vaguely sweet, and pretty thin. They don’t have a lot of personality. They are heavy, and it’s still enjoyable, but it’s so hard to find really good Indian restaurants in LA. Akbar is my favorite and a few others — like Mandovi — are at least much more interesting.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: curry, Indian cuisine, Robo Eats, SFV

Asanebo Evening

Sep28

Restaurant: Asanebo [1, 2]

Location: 11941 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604. (818) 760-3348

Date: January 27, 2022

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Very good creative Japanese

Asanebo has been a high end valley classic spot for a long time, so long that the last time I was here was before I started taking pictures of all my food (which was 2010).

Chef Tetsuya Nakao came to America in 1982. Him and his younger brother, Shunji, were the original chefs that helped start Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills. After establishing the restaurant as one of the best in Los Angeles, the Nakao brothers ventured out to start their own place. “Asanebo” opened in September 26, 1991. Over the years, “Asanebo” was recognized as one of the top Japanese restaurants from Zagat, LA Times, LA Weekly, and more.

“Asanebo” also accomplished one Michelin Stars in 2008 and the other in 2009. It is part of chef Tetsuya’s standards to provide the best quality fish, meat, vegetables, and other ingredients possible to his customers. Not only is the food so great, but it is his warm character that brings in new customers from all over the world.

Because of the pandemic they have this nice outside tend/patio in the parking lot.

The menu is big with a mix of traditional and that style of late 1990s and 00s LA Japanese that is heavily Matsuhisa influenced but not focused on the style over substance greatest hits (Katana and Sushi Roku I’m looking at you). It’s much closer in both period and style to Takao.

2000 Charles Heidsieck Champagne Brut Millésimé. JG 94. The 2000 Charles Heidsieck Brut Millésime is comprised of a blend of sixty percent pinot noir and forty percent chardonnay and spent more than ten years on the lees in the les Crayères cellars here prior to disgorgement and release. I had the good fortune to taste this beautiful vintage twice in preparation for this report, and it continues to deepen and add more complexity with the passing of time. The deep and very refined nose offers up a classy mélange of apple, pain grillé, peach, a marvelously complex signature of salty soil tones, orange zest and a dollop of summer truffle in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and shows off lovely tertiary layers of complexity, with a rock solid core, great focus and breed, refined mousse and a very long, pure and perfectly balanced finish. Stellar juice. (Drink between 2014-2030)

2004 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut. VM 97. The 2004 Cristal is superb today. Bright and focused, the 2004 shows all of the tension and energy that has always been one of its signatures. The first hints of aromatic maturity are starting to develop, but the 2004 remains quite young and full of energy. I have always admired the 2004 (along with the best wines of the vintage) for its focus. In this bottle, the interplay of freshness from the recent 2018 disgorgement and richness gained through added time on the lees (which also results in lower dosage of 7 grams per liter) opens another window into the personality of Cristal. In 2004, the Pinot Noir is 57%, or a bit lower than normal, while the Chardonnay at 43% is correspondingly a touch higher. (Drink between 2019-2039)

2008 Claude Cazals Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs extra Brut Cuvée Vive.

NV Jacques Selosse Champagne Exquise Sec. JG 94. I had never had the pleasure to taste this limited release bottling of Demi-Sec from Anselme Selosse, which he crafts with an eye to matching with dessert and which it paired beautifully with at the end of a vertical Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche dinner that I will be reporting on in the next issue. Monsieur Selosse only makes a thousand bottles of Exquise, with this particular iteration disgorged in May of 2015 and finished off with a dosage of around twenty-four grams per liter. This is the same base wine as his Brut Initial cuvée, which hails from the lower sections of the slope of his top vineyards in Avize, Oger and Cramant, and simply finished off with a more generous dosage. The current release of Exquise is really lovely, offering up a complex nose of pear, patissière, chalky minerality, custard and a pungent topnote of spring flowers. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and beautifully balanced, with and excellent spine of acidity to carry the additional sweetness, fine focus, refined mousse and a very long, crisp and moderately sweet finish. Just a lovely wine. (Drink between 2016-2030)

Chawanmushi. Santa Barbara uni. Wasabi. Ikura. Strong Dashi flavor. Lovely.

Baby Spinach Salad. Seared scallop, fried potato. Quite nice and fresh.

Seafood stick with homemade sweet salsa. Really great dish.

Dave and Annie enjoy their sticks.

2009 Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne. VM 96. High-pitched aromas of fresh peach, crushed stone, violet and lavender. Dense, sweet and rich, with very ripe pineapple fruit leavened by smoky minerality and given cut and focus by strong (4.5 g/l) acidity. Offers an uncanny combination of depth and high pitch for the vintage. The building, extremely long finish titillates the taste buds and leaves the mouth vibrating. Normally harvested on the late side, these vines were picked on September 5(!) in 2009, with potential alcohol of 12.9%.

From my cellar: 2012 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault Clos de la Baronne. PN 94 points. Showing very well, clean, mineral, straw basket, fine, articulated but not austere, nicely integrated, nice pear, apple, apple skin notes, long. In a great place right now and will hold 5-8 years.Asanebo w/Yarom and gang.

Amberjack. Sesame miso. Pink salt. Serrano. The fish was lovely, but the sesame paste clashes a bit.

Halibut. Italian Truffle. Sweet ponzu. Pickled cherry tomato. A bit too sweet and distracting.

Japanese wild yellowtail. Hawaiian lava salt. Spicy ponzu.

Grilled conch soup. Mushroom. Broth was great.

2012 Colgin Syrah IX Estate. PN 92. Big, bold, tons of blackberry and blueberry and some meatiness; a good dose of fine expensive oak in there, really nice with the A5 wagyu with onion and a sweet soy sauce sauce; silky, big, bold, and eventually pretty oaky. Turned more oaky as the night went on. I imagine if they halved the oak on these monsters they would have something pretty special. Asanebo w/Yarom and gang. Not exactly Japanese food friendly.

A5 wagyu with heirloom tomato. Very sweet classic Japanese flavor. Did pair nicely with the Colgin.

Small flight of sushi. Blue Fin, Chu-Toro, Snapper and another white fish.

Uni. Toro Takuan Roll (awesome) and crab hand roll.

Freshwater eel.

Asanebo has been around since 1991 and as he was an early chef at Matsuhisa (along with his brother Shunji) the food very much reflects that. Like Takao (also at Matsuhisa) it’s positioned somewhere between a classic broad menu 1980s style sushi place and the more Peruvian influence Nobu style. But it’s definitely got strong California influences from the 1990s in a way I never saw in Japan during that period. While the style here is a bit 1990s (unlike Shunji who has massively “updated” recently) the execution remains excellent. I myself do slightly prefer either the very updated traditional or modern styles at the top end right now but there is no question that Asanebo is a great place and thoroughly enjoyable. It’s also not as expensive as the painfully bleeding edge places at current like Kaneyoshi.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Asanebo, hedonists, Japanese cuisine, SFV, Sushi, Sushi Series

Quick Eats — Bill’s Burgers

Apr23

Restaurant: Bill’s Burgers

Location: 14742 Oxnard St, Van Nuys, CA 91411. (818) 785-4086

Date: September 9, 2021 (and several times since)

Cuisine: Burger Shack

Rating: Great “hand made” “Big Mac”

This is an unusual stop for me!

Bill’s is a total LA institution. It’s totally a burger shack. Don’t be fooled by the building behind, it’s just that tiny shack in the parking lot.

You can’t really read the menu here, but there are just a couple basic sandwich options.

The owner here, Bill Elwell is 94 or 95! He’s been making every burger here since 1965 — which is slightly longer than I’ve been alive. The place is only open when he feels like coming into work, which is surprisingly often given his advanced years. Hopefully he keeps slinging these for some time yet.

Double cheese burger. I had them leave off the tomatoes — because well I hate tomatoes on sandwiches. It’s a really simple burger, just two thin pure beef paddies, grilled, with chopped lettuce, a bit of onion, American cheese, and some kind of “burger sauce” (ketchup and mayo based). It’s very good. Basically it’s soft and beefy and very similar to the way one remembers a Big Mac. I’ve eaten two every time I go. They take a while to get (15-20 min) even if you are off hours and longer on. So if you are a pig like me, order 2 when you go up.

As a kid (or teenager), Big Macs were probably my favorite burger type, and since this is basically a better version — way better than a current Big Mac — I really enjoyed it. I don’t actually like a thick patty and I really like American cheese on burgers.

It was actually so tasty that I did some experimentation at home making smash burgers (Bill’s isn’t really a smash burger, but not too different either).

This is my homemade smash burger. Really it’s a Oklahoma Style Grilled Onion Smash Burger — USDA Prime Beef seasoned only with Salt & Pepper, smashed on a hot iron pan with thinly sliced Onions, Kraft Singles, house-made Burger Sauce, and a Brioche Bun — one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.