Nobu

There are few restaurant chains that span the globe, but Nobu has managed to do so at 5-star caliber. I had been to the Dallas location several years ago, but recently patronized the newest location on La Cienega. The interior space is pretty ultra-modern with red accents behind a wall of tiny wooden circles. The lighting looked like little peanuts hanging overhead. The waiter offered that we try all the dishes in omakase style, where chef Nobu, who was presiding over the kitchen in the flesh that night, would determine what the table would be eating for dinner. First up, the yellowtail sashimi with jalepeno in a yuzu soy sauce. This happens to be the only dish I remember ordering at Nobu Dallas, and it was as fresh, sweet, and spicy as I remembered. Our second course was a spread of three varieties of fish, all with a miso spice rub. Of the 3, I only tried the trout and the snapper (there wasn't enough for everyone at the table to try one of each). Both maintained the level of freshness set by the yellowtail. One of my co-workers thought the miso rub was a little overwhelming for the fish as it was piled on pretty high, but I found it to be pretty delectable. Now the order of the remaining dishes gets a little fuzzy, but I do recall having the toro tartare with caviar. It comes in an inner bowl surrounded by crushed ice in an outer bowl. I'm not sure that I'd ever had caviar before, and this was definitely the way to start. The toro was rich yet still subtle enough to finish the entire portion of about 2 oz. Hot rocks were served in traditional style with superb Wagyu beef. The dish that stuff with me the most was a serving of brussel sprouts cooked in truffle butter with tempura eel and shaved black truffle on top. Talk about rich, but I would never have a problem finishing my brussel sprouts if they were served like that. We wrapped up the sushi portion of the meal with a small spread of nigiri and an asparagus tuna roll. The roll was pretty underwhelming and I was glad chef Nobu had sent all of the other dishes out first. A couple of bottles of sake later, we pretty much forced ourselves to eat dessert, and peanut butter, chocolate, and jelly were in no short order. Beignets filled with what tasted like nutella and peanut butter were accompanied by peanut butter ice cream with plum jelly on top. Further down the dish were little dark and white chocolate eggrolls with a chocolate dipping sauce. Overall, the dinner was completely satisfying, and apparently the celebrities think so too. I don't see stars that often, but Ryan Seacrest and Brody Jenner sat around our table, not that really is any testament to the quality of the food, just an interesting tidbit.

http://www.noburestaurants.com/losangeles/index.html#501-625-943

Sushi Ozekii

In the little strip of San Vicente Blvd. between Beverly Hill's Restaurant Row and the Beverly Center is a small sushi joint called Sushi Ozekki. When we moved back over to this side of the hill, Chase and I wanted to find some additional backup sushi restaurants and this was one we came across with top marks on Citysearch. Now with Citysearch you have to be careful because you never know what's legit comments from consumers vs. what the restaurant owner/competitor has placed on there trying to come off as a consumer. We've been to Ozekki twice now and neither time had to wait for a table (even at 8:00 on Saturday once). For the purposes of this review, we'll take that as a good thing. There's really only about 45 seats in the house, so it is pretty small. So far we've tried the tropical salsa (tuna skewers with pineapple and tomatoes) and the ceviche hamachi appetizers. Both were good, but by no means would rank up in my favorites. Ozekii does have a large selection of rolls, most of which I've never seen anywhere else. We've tried the Red Blossom, which is spicy tuna on top of a spicy yellowtail roll (if memory serves correctly), and the albacore delight. Again, pretty good but not in my top 20, the specialty rolls are big though and worth the value of less than $12. The best thing here in my opinion are the hand rolls. Simple, but the freshness of the fish speaks for itself. I prefer the yellowtail hand roll, while Chase's favorite is the lobster. Both are around $6 I believe. I think I'd go back just for that. Two hand rolls and I full for less than $15. So while not my favorite sushi restaurant, I'd still have to recommend this place if you are looking for something different than your normal sushi spot offers. 

http://www.sporq.com/losangeles/sushiozekii/480ssanvicenteblvd

Kumo & Sweet Lady Jane

That's right ladies and gents, today is my 50th blog and Chase and I really went out in style last night in celebration. We first went to see Craig Robinson (Darrell from the office) at the Hollywood Improv (which was incredibly entertaining, I highly recommend going sometime), then we walked down Melrose, in the cold and rain mind you, to new-ish sushi restaurant Kumo. I'd read online about Kumo, not really any reviews, just about the restaurant itself. Kumo means cloud in Japanese, so the whole interior is white. I had read the menu online, which looked good, but mostly we went here out of convenience. Once we got there, a few of the things we had seen on the online menu weren't listed (i.e. tuna steak with caramelized miso glaze), so that was pretty disappointing. Chase was really wanting something cooked, but I was more interested in the sushi. We both tried ordering some of the things that we wanted, and everything I ordered was pretty tasty, but the things he ordered were not very good. We started with spicy tuna tacos, which I thought was the best dish of the night. It tasted somewhat similar to the crispy sesame tuna dish at Katsu-ya. Large hunks of spicy tuna were stuffed into a taco shell-shaped wonton with a thin slice of avocado, eel sauce, and creme fraiche on top. Next we had the lobster, blue crab, and black pepper roll. It was alright, but with most lobster dishes, it was a little fishy. Pepper on a sushi roll was a little different, but overall the roll was much better when dipped in soy sauce. Next we had the lobster miso soup, which Chase really didn't care for. I didn't much like it either. There wasn't actually any lobster meat in the soup, so I suppose the broth was just cooked with lobster and then it was removed? Or perhaps lobster stock, though I'm not sure there is such a thing? Following that, Chase also ordered a soft-shell crab tempura, which neither of us really liked. For a grand finale we had the Yellowtail Love Affair roll, which was thinly sliced yellowtail with tri-colored peppers. It was really fresh and delicious. For the way it tasted, everything was a was overpriced. The lobster roll was $25, the yellowtail roll was $20. The only thing that I really felt like we got what we paid for was the tuna tacos, at $14, though I believe there is a similar item on the menu at El Toro on Wilshire for much cheaper. We didn't really want to stay for dessert, so we grabbed a piece of boysenberry pie from Sweet Lady Jane next door. We've had a couple of things from Sweet Lady Jane that were really good before (the three-berry cake is amazing), but the pie from last night just wasn't really that good, primarily because it tasted like brandy. Still, SLJ's reputation precedes it and you should still go get a slice or something delectable, just steer clear of the boysenberry pie.

http://www.kumo-la.com/menus.html

http://www.sweetladyjane.com/

Tour De Austin

As I mentioned, I am on the plane, headed to Austin for my little brother’s graduation. I figured I would take this chance to cover some of my favorite places in A-town since I know many of us are from there/visit often.

Uchi – had to be top of the list. Not only one of my favorite restaurants in Austin, but one of my favorites of all time. Number one dish here for me has to be a toss up between the avo bake (baked avocado with creamy shredded crab and topped with a grilled shrimp) and the Uchiviche, their Japanese take on a traditionally Mexican dish, which means more tender fish and more delicate flavors. They used to have a chai tea crème brulee which was crème de la crème, but sadly, they discontinued it.

http://www.uchiaustin.com/

Eddie V’s – probably the most popular steakhouse in town. While the steaks are savory, the real reason to get here for me is the potato gruyere fritters, something I have never tried to make, but definitely should.

http://www.eddiev.com/

Las Manitas – Known for its Tex-Mex, Austin has so many options in this arena. Las Manitas is my favorite for a couple of reasons. Build your own breakfast tacos are always a great way to start your day, but the enchiladas verdes for lunch is hard to beat. Plus, how can you hate a place that supports local Mexican artists and is connected to one of the weirdest stores I have ever been in. If you need a Mexican wrestling mask, go here.

http://austin.citysearch.com/profile/10202499/

Fonda San Miguel – on the opposite side of the Mexican spectrum from Las Manitas is Fonda San Miguel. Offering more interior Mexican cuisine, their brunch is scrumptious and really has about every Mexican dish you could imagine. It ain’t cheap though, brunch runs at about $35 a person (I believe this includes unlimited alcoholic beverages, but I could be wrong on that one).

http://www.fondasanmiguel.com/

Chez Zee – Like an old timey neighborhood café, Chez Zee has the feel of a piano bar gone daytime. They also serve up a fun breakfast, but can be really hard to get into on the weekends. Luckily for you, that’s why they have board games like connect 4 in the outside waiting area.

http://www.chez-zee.com/

Kerby Lane – No matter how many times you’ve had it, you can still never get over the Kerby Queso. The best location by far is the one actually on Kerby Lane, but that one can also be the most crowded and difficult to get a table at. Breakfast all day and 24 hour service is always a good thing, right?

http://www.kerbeylanecafe.com/

With only a few days here and being in town during graduation and prom weekend, it will probably be pretty hard to get to any of these, but two things are for certain: I will be eating a breakfast taco (how I miss thee!) and I will be having some of the delicious fast food available, be it Whataburger, Taco Cabana, Fran’s, or Sandy’s. Any of them will be welcome in my belly.

Chaya Venice

Chaya has it's own small empire here in Los Angeles, with Chaya Venice, Chaya in Beverly Hills, and M de Chaya in Hollywood. I've tried two out of the three and it's unclear to me what the buzz about. If you observe a macrobiotic diet, I can understand the lure of M de Chaya, as I'm sure eating this way is pretty taxing to cook on your own or to find at many restaurants. The sushi here is pretty good, but there isn't much of a selection. Another problem here is parking. Located on the same corner of Melrose as Pink's and Pinkberry. Once you've found parking, actually eating here is a breeze. It's cafe style, so you can just go up and order and sit down and eat on your own time. Across town is somewhat uninspired Chaya Venice. I came here for a work dinner and the group of us started off with some run of the mill sushi (i.e. California roll, spicy tuna roll, shrimp tempura roll). All of it was sort of blah. I opted to forego an entree and get the goat cheese salad and the ceviche appetizer. The goat cheese salad was amazing. The fried goat cheese balls were perfectly warm and tender and blended well with the mixed greens and balsamic dressing. The ceviche was good, but different. It was pretty heavy on the red onion and had corn in it. The corn didn't really mesh very well with the citrus of the dish either and it could have been better if the corn was replaced by tomatoes, an ingredient normally found in ceviche. Everyone else in the group seemed to feel pretty unenthusiastic about their dinners. When the dessert menu came around, we ordered about one of everything: a butterscotch creme brulee, sorbet, chocolate croissant bread pudding, apple tatin, and the banana tart with banana ice cream topped with a chocolate covered banana (too much banana if you ask me!). I tried a little of each and have to say only a couple were pretty impressive. I don't care much for soggy bread, so usually bread pudding is out of the picture, but I guess since it was made with a crispy croissant it was exceptional. The butterscoth creme brulee was good, but not really that memorable. Everything else was fairly mediocre. I've also tried Chaya Venice for lunch and been more pleased with their bento box. If you have a hankering for a seafood or sushi dinner, though, I'd recommend finding another restaurant that would either be more affordable (entrees at Chaya are between $25-30) or at least if you are going to pay that much for a dinner, you are getting more bang for your buck.

http://www.thechaya.com/vindex.htm

Sake House

One of the hip little spots of mid-city is Sake House, though it's still fairly undiscovered. It's more unique than many of the sushi joints I've been to not because of their sushi menu, but because they offer what seems to be a random assortment of Japanese tapas (which somehow includes pizza?). It feels a bit like a hipster place when you walk in with the wooden booths and the retro accessories, but they have a decent beer price and the sushi isn't over-priced either. Granted, it's not the best sushi I've ever had, but for a $5 spicy tuna roll, it's really about the best you can get. I've never tried the specialty rolls here, but they sure are interesting. It's a good place for groups or couples where not everyone likes sushi because there are enough tapas options to suit anyone's desires. We tried the Nan-Pizza which is pretty much a flatbread pepperoni pizza, but it really is quite good. We also tried the Gyu-Tataki, the seared beef with ponzu (we love our ponzu). It was so good we ordered another! Other tapa highlights include the potato croquet, shishito peppers, dynamite, Karaage (Japanese fried chicken), and the Takoyaki (grilled octopus pancake with dried bonito) - though we haven't tried these, but they look interesting. Uni bowls in a few different varieties are another viable dinner option. Everything is pretty good, but it is disappointing that they charge an extra $0.50 for ponzu when most places offer it at no charge. Another great aspect of Sake House is the hours. They stay open until midnight M-Su and until 1:00 AM on Friday & Saturday, though they are closed on Sunday. If you are into Shabu-Shabu, Sake House owns Shabu Shabu Ya just a couple of doors down on La Brea. Unfortunately Sake House and Shabu Shabu Ya do not have valet, so finding street parking can be difficult, but it's usually manageable. I'd plan on spending about $15-25 a person here, more if you plan on binge eating or drinking.

http://www.sakehousemiro.com/home/top.html

Yoshi Sushi

After reading several positive reviews about Yoshi Sushi (and due to my affinity for the Nintendo character), Griffin and I tried the Japanese joint a couple of years back. Though we don't go there for sushi all the time, we are always pleased when we dine here. We've never sat at the sushi bar, so I'm not really sure what a different experience it is from the sushi bar to a table, but it at the very least seems brighter over the sushi bar. The tables in the back are where we prefer, where it's dimly lit, but you can still admire the bizarre fish paintings on the wall (think the crazy paintings in Royal Tenenbaums). There are two days we especially love to come here: Friday night for 1/2 price drinks all night and Saturday for sake bomb night (order a beer and get some warm, cheap sake free). On those nights, we always order a Sapporo to share upon sitting down. The hostess/owner (I think?) is always so nice and accommodating. Before you order the staff brings you thinly sliced cucumber in a sweet sauce with sesame seeds. I rarely care for cucumbers, but these are actually pretty good. Much preferred to edamame in fact. We definitely have our favorites here too, like at any good sushi place. The crispy rice, one of my favorite all time dishes, is pretty delicious here. The rice cake is denser and cooked longer than most other places and then topped with a mountain of spicy tuna and sesame seeds. The real pull to come here is the sushi bomb and the spicy California ball. First - the bomb. It's like a spicy tuna roll with a little bit of crunchy balled and wrapped in seaweed. For presentation they put tiny little wicks on foil and light it as they place it on your table. It doesn't take long for the spark to go out on its own, but if you can't wait, you can always just blow it out. The bomb is split into four medium size pieces (about the size of a piece of nigiri) and is really only enough to share with 2 people max. Similarly, the spicy California ball is sliced in quarters of the same size, though ingredients and presentation differ. The California ball is stuffed full of spicy crab meat on the inside and then layers of avocado are placed around it in a ball shape. Then the dish is drizzled with a creamy sauce. If you don't like a lot of rice with your sushi, this is your dish - there is none. The nigiri here is very fresh and fairly reasonably priced. We also really like the miso sea bass here. It's sweet and a little tangy but comes in portions that end up really only being about 8-10 bites. Like most places, Griffin and I can get out of here spending roughly $60 for the two of us. There is no valet and it's in a pretty busy part of West Hollywood (pretty much across from Marix and Basix) so street parking can sometimes be hard to find. On the bright side, if you live close enough, Yoshi does have a delivery service they use, but I'm not sure what extra cost is incurred by that. Overall, the people are always really friendly and the food is really great, so we'll continue to keep coming back.

Warning: This is not that great of a representation of their menu.
http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/41735803/

Katsu-ya

Being that this is my favorite restaurant in LA, it's a little surprising that I didn't blog on Katsu-ya first. In fact, I could probably keep an entire blog on Katsu-ya and their franchises with their magically delicious cuisine. With new Katsu-ya locations popping up everywhere, it's important to note their distinctions. The original Katsu-ya lives in a strip mall in Studio City and has a sister store down Ventura in Encino. Their red-headed step-sisters are the Brent Bolthouse owned, Philipe Starck designed locations in Brentwood and Hollywood (with more locations to come). The Michael Jackson of the group is Izakaya in mid-city. Why is Izakaya the best you ask, because it takes the ideas, philosophies, and menu from the original location in its entirety and adds on, without becoming pretentious, a la $15 valet at the Hollywood location. The Encino and Studio City locations are the most low-key with the Brentwood and Hollywood locations being really glitzy (think glam rock sushi) and Izakaya living somewhere in the middle. No matter which location you fancy, fan favorites span the franchise. First and foremost is the sushi crack, the crispy rice with spicy tuna. It's that little hashbrown looking thing that EVERYONE around you has ordered. And the crispy rice does taste a bit like a hashbrown, only with spicy tuna and jalapeno on top. There's no sauce, but it's a little greasy, so you don't really need any. Next up, cut baked crab roll. They offer this in a hand roll as well, but it's not nearly as good as the cut. This one is served warm (naturally because it's baked) with real shredded crab and rice wrapped in soy paper. This comes with no sauce on it, but it's good with just regular old soy sauce. Third, you've got to get the crispy sesame tuna, which somewhat resembles tuna tartare with avocado on a crispy chip all topped with a creamy sauce. Unfortunately there's only two to an order, but it's definitely worth everyone at the table getting at least one. Other popular favorites include the yuzu peppers (only about 1 in 10 is spicy), spicy albacore with crispy onions (seared albacore under fried onions with ponzu on top, what more can you ask for?), fried mozzarella tempura, creamy rock shrimp tempura (the last two are great for people who don't like sushi, and both are served hot). The traditional rolls are good too, but that's not why people come back in droves. If you have a hankering for a more traditional sushi experience, go for the yellowtail sashimi tasting, the red snapper sashimi with yuzu, the albacore sushi (melts in your mouth), and the Robert roll (tuna, crab, and shrimp roll - very popular, and delicious!). Katsu-ya is a great place to try to coax people who say they don't like sushi into liking it. Most items are cooked, so there's no being weirded out by raw fish. At the Hollywood and Brentwood locations the menu also includes a robata grill. Izakaya's menu boasts some unique extras like Katsu-ya fries served with 3 different kinds of ketchup and mayonnaise. If you don't have a reservation expect to wait at least 30 minutes at any location and don't plan on leaving without fishing out about $30 a person - AT LEAST. Proof that the great things in life aren't free. Valet is the best parking option for any location, and they all get their fair share of celebrities, if that kind of thing is important to you.

http://www.sushikatsu-ya.com/home.html