Restaurant: Yojie

Location: 501 W Olympic Blvd. Ste 102. Los Angeles, CA 90015. (213) 988-8808

Date: September 7, 2011

Cuisine: sukiyaki and shabu

Rating: Sleek and tasty

I often go to Shabu Shabu (review of one of my favorites here), but it’s been a long time since I had Sukiyaki (it’s sweeter eggier cousin).

Yojie is smack int he middle of downtown and is one of those new slicker more modernized ethnic places. I.e. there is decor.

They offer both Sukiyaki and Shabu Shabu, but I’ll concentrate on the former. Both are hotpot dishes, cooked table-side by the diners.

Here is the Sukiyaki page of the menu. It’s mostly about the beef. And mostly about the size. I went “sumo” — because I’m well a big eater (you never guessed!).

Here is the beef itself. A little thicker than Shabu Shabu. The rice and the all important raw egg.

And the veggie and noodle plate. Pretty similar to Shabu Shabu.

The difference here is that the “broth” is a sweet Teriyaki-like sauce. Things are cooked a bit more heavily. And then instead of the post cooking dipping sauces you put the hot items straight into the raw egg, which then very slightly cooks as it coats the meat — and certainly makes it richer.

The broth gets all hot and sticky like a yummy thick meaty sweet teriyaki soup.

If you cook a bunch of stuff on it and ladle onto the rice you can make your own Teriyaki bowl type thing. The waiter actually wasn’t paying much attention to our temperature control and let our pots get too hot (we filled the room with smoke).

But he made up for it by giving us free dessert. In this case milk chocolate fondue, which conveniently also uses the hotpot.

These various yummies are then dipped in the chocolate. Not too shabby.

Overall an enjoyable Japanese treat. At the perfectly right thick bubbly consistency (which is hard to maintain) the thick sauce is pretty spectacular with the beef noodle and egg combo.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

The Vengeful Polyglot prays to the hotpot gods.