Sunday, December 28, 2008

Akasha Appetite Stimulus lunch

Once I heard about this Appetite Stimulus promotion that Open Table was offering, I was determined to take advantage of it by going to a few restaurants that I've been dying to go to for ages. Akasha was on that list, because I had seen it go from abandoned boarded up retail space for sale to a modern classy looking restaurant. Amber insisted it was some good eats so I was definitely IN, and convinced her to join me for lunch. Good company always makes lunch better!

Once we got there, there was a major line to get seated - the restaurant had enough spaces, but the hostess was lagging. Isn't she supposed to stay there, and someone else leads patrons to their tables so the front is never abandoned? I thought that was a bit odd. We finally got led to our seats, and was presented with the Appetite Stimulus lunch menu.
Three courses, 24 dollars total. Seems like a pretty good deal, considering their regular menu is quite expensive! For instance...

...We each got an arnold palmer, which was quite expensive for its' own good, but still very tasty. I think they used some special iced tea or something, however, I don't think it constitutes such a high price for one glass, no refills. Ah well.

Akasha
Amber and I both chose the canneleni bean hummus, truffle salt, flatbread and carmelized onions. Embedded in the hummus, was some really flavorful olives, however, the hummus had a huge deficiency in salt. It REALLY needed more salt, it was quite bland. The flatbread and carmelized onions were excellent, I really enjoyed those. Amber had quite a time trying to pick off all the onions though (she dislikes onions - yes, she's nuts :)) but I think they were great. I was actually pretty full after eating this (all those beans.)
Akasha
Amber chose the grilled shrimp salad - local greens, pistachios, yogurt chutney dressing. Amber asked for them to hold off on the pickled onions that would have come with the salad. The shrimp was quite tasty, and what made this dish was the smattering of pistachios in the salad. The dressing was very good, not too heavy even though it was creamy (I attribute this to the yogurt). Amber admitted it was quite filling, and she was surprised she finished all of it.
Akasha
I chose the grilled steak salad - bibb lettuce, pickled red onions, gorgonzola, tarragon mustard vinagrette. The grilled steak deliciously tasted like a Hong Kong style beef jerky! I know that can be construed as an insult, but believe me, it's not at all. The marinade they used was quite sweet, the taste was a great combo of savory and sweet. The salad itself was studded with gorgonzola bits, which I loved, and everything was quite enjoyable all together. I was quite satisfied with the size of the salad and maybe I should give it another shot as a regular thing I should order at restaurants...well, maybe.
Akasha
Dessert time! Amber got a slice of apple pie. The bite I sneaked was very tasty, and I almost wished I had gotten the apple pie instead, if solely for the virtue of having some vanilla ice cream, which looked very appealing to me at the time. Instead, I had gotten...
Akasha
...the pumpkin pie slice, with a dollop of freshly whipped cream. This was pretty good in its' own right though, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. The fresh whipped cream was a nice touch, the spices very spot on, the crust was really good. I saved exactly half of this pie for Owen who majorly appreciated it.

I think I'll be back here to try their burger, and also to maybe try some of their other appetizers. I like the interiors of this place a lot, but I think some of their service issues were a bit odd, as this place has been open for awhile, and their drinks a bit overpriced for what you get. I am still willing to overlook that for the superior quality of their food.

Akasha Restaurant
www.akasharestaurant.com
9543 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 845-1700

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Take a Bao

I had heard there was a bit of a buzz around the new food court restaurant in the Century City Westfield mall, Take a Bao, mostly good but some not so good. I was super skeptical because most fusion asian food places just disappoint me, and taste like Panda Express lite. Hey, I know everyone breaks down and gets a Panda craving every so often, but it's a case of lowered expectations - I walk through the doors of a Panda Express (not recently, believe me), and I already know I'm dooming myself to a rock in my stomach and a frown on my face...anyway, that's not THIS review, maybe another time when I want to torture myself!

So Take a Bao! It had been under construction for ages, and I admit it looks like they did a good job. Everything is nice, clean and new, the kitchen is exposed and the cooks were quickly cooking up orders as they were being taken. We placed our orders, I remember Owen getting a really tasty iced tea (I think their coffee and tea supply were from LAMILL, one day I will head there, I have been hearing some really great stuff about that place), and their buzzer that indicated that our food was ready had a really cute slogan on it - "Take a seat"...I think it said. It buzzed and we balanced the trays to our table. Maybe I should have gotten the baos, the namesake of the restaurant, but baos hold a special place in my heart, and I decided to go with...
Take a Bao
...here's the Chinese Chicken Salad. This was surprisingly really tasty. The thing that made it was the light dressing, which wasn't too sweet and gave the right amount of tang to the greenery. The chicken was a bit bland, but with a bit of the dressing, it was miraculously saved. Magical dressing, perhaps?! Iceberg is something I avoid usually, but is perfect for Chinese Chicken salad. I kept catching myself picking up more and more of the salad. I'd get this again if I was feeling in a salad-y mood (a rare occurence, but sometimes it happens!)
Take a Bao
I had a weird craving for some chicken noodles, so that's what I ordered. What a mistake. The taste was so bland and the sauce here was the exact opposite of the Chinese chicken salad - it was thick, weird tasting and didn't really add the necessary flavor to the dish. The noodles were a lo mein type noodle, okay but again blander than heck. I know it was part of the presentation, but to have to mix the noodles myself were a bit tasking - the noodles were long and the sauce (the only source of unappealing flavor) was sitting on top of the noodles but below the toppings, so it was hard to coat everything. I would definitely not order this again.

Next time, I will muster up enough indifference to get the baos. Maybe I can get over my extreme caution and finally take the dang bao.

Take a Bao
10250 Santa Monica Blvd Los Angeles ca 90067
phone 310 551 1100
http://www.takeabao.com/



Saturday, December 06, 2008

Oyako Japanese Restaurant

I met up with Owen for lunch not too long ago near his workplace in Venice. He had mentioned a Japanese place where he enjoyed a lunch bento box, so we headed there. It ended up being a place called Oyako. The interior was pretty cute, the seats were little cubed ottomans (although, a few of them were a bit stained, which was a bit...gross...) and had a laid back vibe (as most places seem to have in Venice.) On to the food!
An arnold palmer, my usual drink of choice. They used a different kind of tea, one with more flowery notes in it, so the taste was really nice and refreshing.

Oyako
Miso soup, it was okay, nothing special but I don't remember too much tofu in it, which was unfortunate. I prefer more tofu and seaweed, personally, but I think as long as the miso isn't too salty, it's passable.
Oyako
The main event - the lunch bento box - I chose teriyaki salmon. It came with a choice of 2 pieces of california rolls or 2 pieces of spicy tuna rolls (I chose spicy tuna), shrimp and vegetable tempura, salad and rice. The salmon was good, the teriyaki was rich and sticky, but tasted right. The tempura was freshly fried, but I've had better tempura battered things. The shrimp in particular was a bit weird, it was only half a piece of shrimp instead of what I'm usually used to, which is the whole shrimp fried with the tail. I think mine was just a fluke though, as Owen had a proper full shrimp piece. The spicy tuna was good. This didn't seem like a lot of food but in the end, I was really full.

The place is pretty good, nice for a little lunch spot but I admit I've had better and more satisfying lunch bentos, not to mention cheaper, but I am paying for the ambience and location. I'd go back to try their sushi rolls, but I wouldn't necessarily make a trip out to Venice/Santa Monica just for this place.

Oyako
2915 Main St
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 581-3525

Monday, December 01, 2008

Sushi King

A couple weeks back, Daphne wanted to show me the awesomeness which was Sushi King (she has had nothing but good things to say about this place), and so Owen and I met up with her there. The place is small, bustling, darkly lit and busy, but I suspected it would be on a Friday night. We managed to get a very squished table for three (more like for 2, but we squeezed in.) A quick glance at the menu, and with a few suggestions from Daph, food started to arrive at the table...
Sushi King
Sea Bass Misoyaki, one of the house specials that Daphne ordered. This is one of her favorites. I tried a bite and it really was good, the sauce was really tasty and it was not overcooked. I think it's a bit pricey for the amount you get but it might still be worth it for the flavor and preparation.
Sushi King
Owen and I ordered 2 sushis to start - salmon and I think, albacore. I'm not exactly sure that was albacore. Both were excellent though. Soft, tasty and creamy.
Sushi King
Another starter - spicy tuna tempura. It was basically a flat pressed amount of spicy tuna, run through batter and quickly fried. Almost anything fried is delicious, so this was no exception. I don't know that I would necessarily order this again (as there were many other things on the menu that were intriguing to me) but it was a solid starter.
Sushi King
Owen and I shared an order of a sushi set - from the top clockwise: tuna, whitefish, salmon, yellowtail, cut rolls were cucumber and tuna, makarel, shrimp, octopus and tamago. Everything was pretty tasty - we shared each piece, and it really was good, each piece was solid. (sorry about the bluriness of the photo, it was dark and I didn't want to bother any of the other diners with the flash of the camera).
Sushi King
We also ordered a rainbow roll, which was really good, great to try all the different kinds of fish. The California roll that all the fresh fish sat upon was fresh, and the crab inside was tasty. We made quick work of this roll.
Sushi King
Daph suggested for us to try the yellowtail, so we asked for 3 more, one for each of us. It really was amazing, a big succulent bite of fish. Melted in your mouth, just something special.

I think that Sushi King was a good middle of the road place that has really good quality fish. I know there are better places around, but in this price range (about 40 each, and we were stuffed) it was one of the better sit down Japanese restaurants I've been to in awhile.

Sushi King
1330 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403-5411
Phone: (310) 395-0120

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Empress Pavillion

One of my relatives was in town, so I took her and her daughter (well, she's about one year old, so I mean she was taken out but didn't really eat very much) out for Dim Sum, and the most convenient place I know of is always Empress Pavilion, mainly for their easy parking situation (Empress is located in Bamboo Plaza, and has tons of parking in their structure.) I know that I have to get there super early (usually, I leave my place around 9am to get there by 10am, around 11:30am it's completely packed and the wait time swells to around 30-40 minutes). This place is popular! Mainly I think it's because they stop dim sum service around 1pm so it's always a rush to get there on time.

This is a traditional dim sum place, ladies with huge dangerous steaming carts, showing their wares as they wheel on by. I usually get a few staples that I must get when I go to dim sum...
Empress Pavillion Dim Sum
Hargao, or shrimp crystal dumplings, are the number one thing I always look for when going to dimsum. My grandpa judges these by the thickness of their skin (the more see through and thin the skin is, the better the dumpling), and these are pretty decent. I love dipping these in hot mustard before biting them in half. They're definitely best when they're fresh (most things are, aren't they?)
Empress Pavillion Dim Sum
Next up, in the foreground, fung gyiao (phoenix legs, or better known as chicken feet), and in the background, siu mai dumplings. I don't always get chicken feet but they're alright, the chewing around the bones is almost fun. The sauce is pretty good this dish, although one of the pieces that I had, still had a claw they hadn't clipped off yet. Kinda..ew. Siu mai awas good, as usual, meaty and succulent. Again, they're really good after a dip in some hot mustard.
Empress Pavillion Dim Sum
Last up, some dessert - egg tarts, which are usually my favorite, and cha-siu bao,(pork buns) the steamed kind. These egg tarts were way lame - the egg mixture had been way too overcooked, so the texture wasn't right. And it tasted just...off. Plus, as a super special surprise, as I lifted my egg tart to my mouth, I noticed there was a huge gnarly hair sitting underneat my tart. Awesome! Ah, well, such is restaurant eating. The Pork buns were ordered mostly for my little cousin, who ate little bits of it dipped in the chicken feet sauce (she loved it!)

I usually head here for dim sum but I admit this was one of the less awesome trips I've had. I was completely stuffed afterwards though, it was mostly just to two of us eating so we didn't get as many dishes as I'd get if we had more people with us. However, it was relaxing and we weren't rushed or anything, so that was nice.

By the way, Happy thanksgiving! I know this is a very un-Thanksgivingish post, but there you have it :)

Empress Pavilion
988 N Hill St (in Bamboo Plaza)
Ste 201
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 617-9898
http://www.empresspavilion.com/

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Kabuki Japanese Restaurant

Julian and I met up for a lunch, because we both had the day off (me for an indefinite amount of time, him for just the day). We met up at Howard Hughes Center, so we could catch a movie afterwards (RocknRolla - you've seen one Guy Ritchie movie, you've seen 'em all). We love sushi so we went to Kabuki, the only place at Howard Hughes Center that has it. More sushi posts, I know! I think I need a sushi line directly IVed into my bloodstream...

Kabuki Sushi Restaurant
I started off with an arnold palmer, with green tea instead of regular tea. This was pretty tasty and was refilled once, so I was happy. Love the color on green tea...so pleasant!
Kabuki Sushi Restaurant
Complimentary edaname was brought to the table, also with an extra bowl so we could discard the edaname shells. It's edaname..hard to mess up.
Kabuki Sushi Restaurant
We each got a bowl of miso soup to start, nice and warm, and not too salty. Fresh green onion and tofu and seaweed permeated this soup. One of the better miso soups I've had recently.
Kabuki Sushi Restaurant
Now to the main event. We ordered a number of rolls to share - from the closest roll to the end - BCD Roll, Baked Scallop Roll, and Spicy Tuna roll. All of these were quite tasty and very fresh. The BCD roll had a mixture of veggies like shredded carrots and crabmeat, it was good but probably my least favorite of the bunch. The Baked Scallop roll was basically a California Roll, but had scallops on top. The scallops were a bit addicting - they weren't overcooked and had a good bite. Even the California rolls they were atop of were solid, with real crabmeat, or at least a close proximity to that. The spicy tuna was great, really tasty.
Kabuki Sushi Restaurant
This is an order of the Kabuki Omakase Deluxe lunch. There were more cut spicy tuna rolls, and from the left - shrimp, albacore, tuna belly (?), salmon and tuna. Again, spicy tuna was solid, and I remember having the tuna and shrimp. They were okay, not melt in your mouth, but decent quality.
Kabuki Sushi Restaurant
We wanted to try out one more cut roll, so we ordered the tempura roll, which was basically a california roll dipped in tempura batter and then deep fried. I was disappointed with this one, as it was a bit cold, and obviously deep fried earlier in the day, so the fried bits were not fresh. What's the point of deep frying a california roll if it isn't even fresh??

Overall, the lunch was pleasant and good company always makes food better. Kabuki is not my favorite sushi place, but service was quick and the sushi was overall good. I'll probably be back here again.

Kabuki Japanese Restaurant
6081 Center Dr
Ste 203
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310) 641-5524

Monday, November 17, 2008

Bobbi's Coffee Shop

Back in San Jose for Judy's wedding, and stopped off for breakfast at Bobbi's Coffee shop with a few friends before heading back. Brian had never been here before! I couldn't believe it. This place has quite a soft spot in my heart, sometimes we'd come here before late date days at school. It was worth getting up early for this.

The place is pretty small, and you seat yourself. The booths are covered in old pleather (real? I dunno), the chairs are those old chairs that you see in old bingo halls. The menus are laminated, and the prices are super reasonable. A waitress asks who wants coffee...I opted out that morning, but a few of us wanted it. I chose orange juice. We made our orders and the food started piling in...
Bobbi's Coffee Shop
Owen got a pancake combo, that came with 2 pancakes, 1 egg over easy, 2 sausages and that's pretty much it. It doesn't seem like much but it was pretty filling - pancakes expand in your tummy! He liked these a lot.
Bobbi's Coffee Shop
Jay ordered a linguica special - 3 halves of linguica sausage, criss-cross cut and grilled, with 2 eggs over easy, hash browns and wheat toast. A moment to chat about the hash browns - these are the hash browns of my dreams. Every hash brown I have had, or ever had, must be compared to these hash browns from Bobbi's. They are seriously good, crunchy, crispy, potato-y, with a shot of ketchup these are a piece of heaven.
Bobbi's Coffee Shop
This is my plate of corned beef hash - corned beef hash, hash browns, poached eggs, rye bread toast. Kind of a carb fest, but I so rarely get to come here, so I went all out. This is like the perfect breakfast. Perfectly poached eggs, nice and runny, superb hash browns of course, corned beef hash that wasn't too salty, and rye bread, already buttered. I can think of nothing better.
Bobbi's Coffee Shop
Brian got something different than he usually gets "just for fun" (Brian's catchphrase when he orders something different) - biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and fruit instead of hash browns. The gravy is a sausage gravy, and it's not too salty either. This seems like a small amount of food, but once you started eating it, it was so rich and filling. Brian only ate most of one of the biscuits, and kept encouraging the rest of us to eat it. (he always does this - his enemy is carbs!) It was pretty tasty but I don't think I would order this myself. I only like biscuits and gravy a small percentage of how much I like corned beef hash.

Bobbi's is an institution to me. I hope it never closes.

Bobbi's Coffee Shop
1361 S De Anza Blvd
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 257-4040

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Orange Sponge!

Okay, this only slightly has to do with food, but I could not resist...check out how cute this sponge is...
Cute Orange Sponge
It's an ORANGE SPONGE. Orange. As a sponge. Happy and smiling. I am doing my best to not use it and gunk it up with food bits and stuff, but it IS still a sponge. It still makes me smile though...how could you not??
This was spotted, and immediately bought, at the Bargain store on Sawtelle - I don't know what it's called but it's next to Volcano Tea on Sawtelle and Olympic.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Ma Dang Gook Soo

We had lunchtime adventure in Koreatown the other day, and I got to try Sul Lung Tang for the first time. Kurt wasn't feeling so well, and sul lung tang is his version of chicken noodle soup. Ma Dang Gook Soo doesn't have any english signs in the front - is that a good sign?

Ordering was a bit difficult, I didn't really know what to order, so I just got the most popular thing according to Ray and Kurt. This is the stuff sitting at the table...
Solungtong - New Moon
Spicy paste, a huge bowl of salt, spicy seasonings, and special pink salt from Australia. I think they expect you to use a bunch of salt here.
Solungtong - New Moon
A pitcher of barley tea was set down for the table, and poured into these cool metal cups. I like that the pitcher had a faded picture of Snoopy on it - Snoopy rules! This tea was nice and refreshing.
Solungtong - New Moon
Now here's my bowl of sul lung tang. The flavor was very light, it actually tastes a lot like many other Chinese soups I've had in the past. Adding salt was definitely necessary. Rice noodles floated around the soup, which were light and slurpable. I added a ton of...
Solungtong - New Moon
...green onion to the soup as well. It added a nice texture and flavor to the mild soup.
Solungtong - New Moon
Here's a close up of the huge bowl of salt, and in the backgroun, kimchi of two kinds - cabbage style and radish style. Both were good and had that nice tingle when it hit the tongue, from fermentation. We got refills of this...I think twice.
Solungtong - New Moon
Kurt got the hotter kimichi style of noodles. This stuff was super spicy, I tried a small taste and my whole mouth was on fire. He finished this and was whole face was sweating. I think this would burn a whole in my stomach, and even I have a pretty big tolerance to spicy!

All in all, cute place that has a very mom and pop type feeling to it. Not my favorite kind of Korean food but maybe I'll have it again when I'm feeling under the weather.

Ma Dang Gook Soo
869 S Western Ave
Ste 1
Los Angeles, CA 90005
(213) 487-6008

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Din Tai Fung - Post 2, another visit

I think one of my favorite comfort foods is dumplings. They're just so perfect - the right amount of wrapper and meat filling, steamed, boiled and in soup, panfried, fried, just so many ways to enjoy a dumpling. And so many kinds! Different fillings, different ways to enjoy them. There's no limits to where you can take a dumpling. One evening, I was craving them bad, as were some of my (ex)coworkers, Ray and Kurt. So we took the trek to enjoy them at the mecca of soup dumpling establishments, Din Tai Fung.

I've been here before (post is here) but hadn't enjoyed this place in awhile, and thought it deserved another post. This time around, I noticed that Din Tai Fung had renovated a bit and had a little more room - I guess they had taken over the space next door, so there were fresh new booths in the back and a surprisingly nice and modern bathroom.

There was a crowd outside the door, as always, when we arrived. I was expecting a gnarly wait time (30 minutes and above, my guesstimation) but the hostess said we would have a ZERO wait time if we decided to share a table with another group. Heck yeah! We were seated immediately at a big table, already being half occupied by 3 other diners. Admittedly, this is not the optimal dining experience, as we don't know these other diners yet are in this small space with them, but for a zero wait time, we were all willing to compromise.

The menu is also the tally for which the wait staff tear off a copy, and use to keep track of what to bring to the table. We made a bunch of choices and soon food started arriving at the table...
Din Tai Fung
The traditional xiao long bao - pork soup dumplings. I noticed one of them had already burst, spilling out its' precious guts all over itself. Sad! But it was still tasty! Ha! You know the drill - carefully lift dumpling into soup spoon, dress it up with some soy sauce, vinegar and thinly sliced ginger threads, bite at the top, slurp out the soup, then devour whole dumpling. The process of eating is even fun, and the taste is just killer - savory, thin skins, porky innard goodness.
Din Tai Fung
One does not live on dumplings alone (although I probably could!) We also ordered some noodles, I think they were with pork pieces. The noodles themselves were pretty good, I don't usually prefer this noodles style (lo mein) but at a place that makes their own dumpling skins, I guess it was good to take a chance on these. The veggies that accompanied the noodles balanced out the soy sauce flavor. Kurt really liked these noodles a lot.
Din Tai Fung
We gotta have some veggies too, right? Ray suggested we get some veggies, and we had a choice of spinach or chinese broccoli. Ray chose spinach, and I commend him, it was a great pick. The veggies had a great flavor to them - lots of garlic - just really tasty.
Din Tai Fung
More dumplings! These were crab and pork, I think. Solid and good as the other dumplings, though I prefer the ones with with soup in them, from here.
Din Tai Fung
To round out our carbs, we got pork chop fried rice. The pork chop was a little dried out, but I thought it was still edible. The rice was nice and fluffy. This was really good with the aforementioned cooked spinach.

This place is always hopping, but I'm glad we got to skip the wait time this time around. I will be back, I'm sure.

Sushi Kushi Imai

More sushi posts? I guess I've been on a sushi kick recently, or have been just really lazy about getting around to posting about sushi joints. Seriously though, if someone told me I had to choose one food type to have for the rest of my life - I think I would choose sushi (before dying of sweet sweet mercury overdose.) Sushi Kushi Imai was within walking distance of my former company (weird to say that, I got laid off recently so it is now my "former" company instead of my "current place of employment"...but I digress), so we would frequent there because of their decent sushi and lunch specials.

The place is usually always hopping with people during lunch, and sometimes the service can get a little slow (especially when the check is supposed to come.) But it didn't deter me too much, again, their specials were hard to beat.
Sushi Kushi Imai
Every lunch special comes with miso soup, every time I went there it was always too salty but I always gulped it down without too much complaint.
Sushi Kushi Imai
A bowl of rice is set down before actually getting your combo plate, for some reason. I am always tempted, at this point, to start eating the rice out of hunger. But I do my best to hold myself back because I know what's coming...
Sushi Kushi Imai
...the combo lunch. My choice that day was kushi and sushi, just like the name of the restaurant, conveniently. The kushi (skewers) are chef's choice, that day was fish, okra and chicken. Pretty tasty, especially if you dip it in a special kushi sauce they have - a mayo based sauce. For the sushi, I got spicy tuna roll. Solid showing of spicy tuna. A mixed green salad comes with the lunch, as does some steamed veggies in ponzu sauce. It's a lot of food, and there's plenty of choices to tailor it to your liking - there's teriyaki of all kinds, handrolls, sashimi, tempura - you choose 2 for the lunch combination.
Sushi Kushi Imai
On another visit to Sushi Kushi, Stacey got the salmon bowl - the special of the month. It was coho salmon sashimi from Alaska, atop sushi rice. They were quite generous with the salmon sashimi so that was much appreciated, I'm sure.

Sushi Kushi Imai
This is a thing of beauty to look upon - this is the chirashi set, which also comes with the salad and miso soup. Generous cuts of sashimi, including tuna, salmon, albacore, a mound of spicy tuna, whitefish - all attractively displayed in a box, the bottom filled with sushi rice. This is a SERIOUS amount of fish, and the quality is pretty good too (I mean, yeah it's not like, Sushi Sasabune or anything, but for $11.80 for all this fish,it's way worth it!) Looking at it again makes me want to go tomorrow...

I've never gone for dinner, so I can't vouch for the prices then, but there's a happy hour from 5:30 pm to 7:30pm. Sounds good to me...!

Sushi Kushi Imai
8300 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
tel: 323.655.2253

http://www.sushiandkushiimai.com/


Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Sushi Kaiten Daichan

Whenever we're craving sushi, at a reasonable price, we usually end up going to Kaiten Sushi Daichan. We've yet to find another place that's as quick, decent quality and with as friendly service as Kaiten! Kaiten means conveyor belt sushi, so this is what you usually see when you're seated at the counter...
Kaiten Sushi Daichan
Different sushi and cut rolls go by in front of you, and each plate is a different color, indicating how much it costs. The more pricier rolls are usually the more elaborate plates, or you can order directly from the sushi chef (usually, Chef Bruce! He's way cool and nice!) Anyways, these are a few cut rolls that we grabbed this one time we went...
Kaiten Sushi Daichan
Spicy tuna roll, delicious and fresh. The yellow plate indicates it's the cheapest price point plate, I forgot how much it is exactly but it's not too bad.
Kaiten Sushi Daichan
And California Rolls, just for the heck of it too.
Kaiten Sushi Daichan
Iced tea, I usually get green but this time I got regular. I love their big ice cubes, shaped like top hats. The waitstaff is always very quick with the refills.
Kaiten Sushi Daichan
Albacore sushi, always a treat.
Kaiten Sushi Daichan
These little fried seafood balls are always tasty. They're filled with mostly fish, and topped with a bit of roe and chopped green onion. Watch for these right as they go on the conveyor belt, they're great when they're super fresh.
Kaiten Sushi Daichan
Salmon sushi is always welcome in my book. Whenever Chef Bruce sets a few of these down, they're always gone in a flash.
Kaiten Sushi Daichan
I felt like getting some Tamago sushi, but Owen wasn't in the mood to have any so I got to have both! Yum.
Kaiten Sushi Daichan
We ordered this special roll directly from Chef Bruce. It's called a "Tuna Meet Ball" and it's one of Owen's favorites. A salad with tasty dressing is in the middle, and surrounding it, is a few cut roll pieces, the filling is fresh ripe avocado. Perched on top of each avocado roll is a "ball" of spicy tuna. The creaminess of the avocado is really rich but not overpowering, and the generous portion of spicy tuna is a kick in the mouth. This is delicious and we've ordered this a number of times already. A few other rolls we might get on other visits are the (unpictured) "My Roll", or "Your Roll"...funny names, great sushi.
Kaiten Sushi Daichan
When you're ready to go, Chef Bruce presents his "dessert" - some sort of cut fruit. This time it was plum, I've had orange and white peach other times. It depends on what season it is! This is seriously some good plum, very sweet. Chef Bruce knows how to pick them!

Again, it's so nice that we have a place to go to whenever we're craving sushi, and we can really go all out without worrying too much about how much the bill will end up being (if we go sparingly, we usually end up spending, oh, 20 dollars each maybe, but if we "go all out", it's never more than 30 dollars each). Hooray for Kaiten!

Kaiten Sushi Daichan
11301 Olympic Blvd
Ste 203
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 914-5028