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

Cube

Cube, a cheese specialty Italian space on La Brea is somewhere I've wanted to go for some time now. Finally last night we made it over there, and boy I wish I had done it sooner. We tried making a reservation the day of, but they only had room for us at the cheese bar. When we got there we were able to sweet talk the hostess into letting us take an outside table as long as we promised to finish up by 9:00 (which I felt was kind of unprofessional, but worth it). They don't have a wine menu, but there is a small or no corkage fee. When you sit, you are brought a small serving of the daily cheese on a graphite cheese block with the name written in chalk. Beyond that we ordered a couple of cheeses recommended by our waitress. One was a fabulously rich goat cheese from France, the other was a hard cheese also from France. The goat cheese was so good that the second cheese didn't have a chance. As an appetizer we got crispy calamari with lemon and salsa verde. The calamari was probably the smallest I've ever seen, but it was oh so delicious! The salsa verde was a flavorful alternative to the usual tartar sauce as it was a little bit sweet as verde sauce tends to be. Second up was the gazpacho. I'm still on the search for the gazpacho that takes me back to Spain, but unfortunately we still didn't get there, though this one was good. It was really chunky, however, which made it taste a little bit like eating salsa. Following the gazpacho was the best mac & cheese ever. It was a four cheese man & cheese with truffle oil baked in a skillet with bread crumbs on top. So rich and creamy! For the entree we indulged in a seared tuna loin with pesto on top of creamy risotto and heirloom tomatoes. The waitress was really pleased that we picked this dish and was right saying that all of the flavors really play well with each other. The pesto was a little strong at times I think, but overall, outstanding. To finish it off, we grabbed a risotto cheese cake with red currant to go. The red currant wasn't quite sweet enough for me, but the cake was really light and fluffy. We really had such a hard time deciding what to get because everything looked so great, which means we'll definitely have to come back.  At the end of the meal, we were out $85, which is kind of high when you consider that we brought our own alcohol, but I still feel the meal was well worth it. The food was so good and the night was so pleasant that you almost forgot you were sitting on one of the biggest streets in LA. And they do have a $5 valet, but we were able to find street parking not too far away. Can't wait to go back!

http://losangeles.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?restaurantid=31082

Astro Burger

I know it's a little out of the ordinary for me to review a fast food restaurant, but I thought there are probably several people that have never been to Astro Burger. Let's start with the bad and work our way up to the good. Astro Burger is cash only, though they do have an ATM so as not to inconvenience you too much, but you're still going to be charged an ATM fee and depending on where you bank, your bank may charge you for using their ATM too. Second bad thing: while the miniature jukeboxes at each table are cute, they don't work so please don't waste your precious quarters in them, but save them for parking or laundry. Depending on what time you come, it can be difficult to find parking or a seat once you are inside. If you don't feel like getting out of your car, there is unfortunately no drive-thru. On the bright side, the food is delicious and fairly priced. I most recently tried the turkey burger trying to go for the healthy alternative, but it really looked and tasted more like a chicken sandwich. On the same trip Chase got the bacon avocado burger which was probably about 100 times better than mine. We shared an order of fries and I have to say that their fries could use some improvement through one of the following: add salt, add seasoned salt, make smaller, crispier fries, combination of the above. If you don't eat meat or just aren't in the mood for it Astro Burger serves Garden Burgers and really good grilled cheese sandwiches. I don't live close enough to do this, but I have heard that Astro Burger really hits the spot after a night of drinking and they stay open late on the weekends to accommodate this crowd. Astro Burger also serves breakfast, but again, I've never tried it. There is a second location on Melrose at Gower, which I think has additional items within Mexican and Greek cuisines.

http://www.astroburger.com/

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/

Zeke's Smokehouse

This Texas girl felt right at home at Zeke's Smokehouse in the Target shopping center on La Brea and Santa Monica, though that may of had something to do with the pictures of Texas hung on the wall. The interior is spacious and clean (it's very clean and white for a bbq shop!) and you seat yourself anywhere you like, or march up to the counter for to go orders. Everything looked great to me and Griffin, but we ended up ordering a mixed rib plate to share with mac n' cheese and potato salad. We were a little worried about sharing the plate, but it was more than enough and we could hardly finish it all. It came with 3 varieties of ribs, the Longhorn beef ribs, and 2 types of pork ribs. The Longhorn ribs were huge, each about the size of a grown man's forearm. They were all really good, but I thought one of the pork ribs were a little dry. I don't know that much about bbq, but I believe those were the Kansas City ribs and they are supposed to be served that way (crazy Kansasites). We tried a bit of all three of Zeke's bbq sauces and the mild and sweet one was by far superior to the smokey and spicy sauces. The potato salad was pretty delightful, despite the small amount of mustard in it and the side of mac n' cheese was definitely worth the $0.96 extra. The mac n' cheese is really on the menu as a house specialty for almost $10, an insane price to pay for mac n' cheese, but they'll give you a little as a side if you ask. Our plate came with Texas toast, which was quite a bit crispier than what Texas toast is supposed to be. Anyone from Texas knows that Texas toast is thick, soft bread a little toasted on the top and smothered in butter. I really wanted to try the hushpuppies with honey butter, even though the price seems a little steep at $6, but we'll have to try it next time. On a separate occasion Griffin and I had Zeke's bbq brisket for sandwiches and it was really tasty! If you choose wisely, you can eat here for $10 a person. It's also notable that they serve beer and even have a couple kinds on tap. Their dessert menu looked a little disappointing and I couldn't believe they didn't have cobbler, so we didn't indulge in any sweets here. If you can eat in under an hour you get free parking!

http://www.zekessmokehouse.com/

As a side note, we totally saw Mr. Rooney's secretary from Ferris Beuhler here. She was rad.

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/

Cafe Verona

I had debated going to Cafe Verona for a couple of months now because while it looked so cute and charming, it got several less than stellar reviews on the web. At last this weekend though, Griffin and I gave it a shot. The atmosphere feels very much like being at an actual Italian cafe with virtually all of the tables on one of two patios and ivy covering the entire thing. Each table is adorned with a singular sunflower, which brought a bit of sunshine to us over the cloudy weekend. As far as the food goes, we were pretty impressed. Griffin ordered the French Toast Al'Italia, which was really not much like French toast at all, but uber-delicious nonetheless! The plate came with two good size portions of a soft brioche with bananas, strawberries, and cream cheese near the center and then topped with more strawberries and Trader Joes maple syrup. Truly one of the best breakfast dishes I think I have ever had. It tasted like banana bread with cream cheese and strawberries, yum! For my dish, I ordered the Frittata Aphrodisiaca, or the potato and truffle oil omelet in laymans' terms. The first one I had to unfortunately send back due to the glaring short, black hair laying on one of the potatoes, but the kitchen staff didn't complain about having to remake it and sent another one out promptly. This is different than a typical omelet, and even from many frittatas I have had in that there was a thin egg omelet on the bottom, topped by long, slender potato slices and then drizzled with truffle oil. It was really great, but extremely rich, as most truffle dishes are. My breakfast came with a dollop of sweet potato smash and all breakfasts come with a huge slice of melon. The sweet potatoes were just right for me, though Griffin didn't care for them. As we were technically there during brunch time, I almost ordered a panini and have to say that many of them sounded great. They also offer pastas and a few bigger entrees for lunch and the largest bagels I have ever seen for breakfast. Cafe Verona is only open through lunch, but the serve their breakfast menu until they close. Menu prices are pretty standard for LA at about $15 a person, but unlike so many places in the area, Cafe Verona does have a free parking lot in the back that it shares with its neighbor, EZ Lube. Despite the hair on my dish (which still makes me nauseated to think about), I'd still go back, especially on a sunny day when you could really appreciate the out-of-doors surroundings.

http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/63920/
Sorry, no online menu!