Chaya Venice - DINELA lunch

Finally, catching up to some old posts - a little late for posts on DINE LA, but wanted to share anyways. I wanted to really try some new restaurants, with a discounted price tag, and I had heard good things about Chaya Venice - well, the place looks dang nice from the outside, in any case.

Service was brisk and pleasant. I think I stuck with water but Owen got some iced tea.

Bread basket landed first to the table. A good crusty white bread, and oddly enough, a raisin bread. These were both amazing in their olive oil/finely minced olive dip. The raisins really shone through!

Owen kicked my ass in the healthy department that day, he ordered the
Wakame Seaweed and Organic Green Salad with Ginger Vinaigrette as his starter. I didn't think there was anything particularly special about this salad, honestly, I can eat this at home from a bag of organic salad from Trader Joe's. Owen's not really a fan of seaweed in this fashion so I took advantage of that by sneaking as much as I could on my plate, heh.


So of course, I order the most unhealthiest thing you can order from the appetizer list, the Fried Calamari with Cajun Spice and Spicy Marinara, with Curry dipping sauce. The batter was nice and light, very Japanese tempura style. The squid was nice and supple, not overcooked, this is actually one of the best preparations of calamari I can remember in recent days. The curry dipping sauce is what catapulted this to another level - a bit of a kick, and a different flavor that I'm used to having with calamari. I really enjoyed the combination.

Owen's main course was the Spicy Lobster Roll - Lobster, Shrimp, Smelt Egg, Cucumber, Avocado, which came with more of that salad. If he had known, he would have gotten the soup of the day for an appetizer instead! On to the rolls themselves...

...here's a blurry closeup. I tried one, and I didn't think it was any kind of special at all. I didn't really taste anything that resembled lobster, the roll was pretty dry and uninspired. I doubt I would ever get sushi here if I came back.

However, my meal was much more to my liking - a Kobe Beef Burger - Grilled Kobe Beef with Lettuce, Tomato, Grilled Onion, Aged White Cheddar, Mango Chutney, Spicy Mayonnaise and served with Beer Battered French Fries. This is serious stuff. First off, LOVED the fries. Why aren't all fries beer battered ones? The crispy flavorful texture on the outside, and the warm soft potatoey insides. The person manning the fryer here is a masterful one.


Here's a close up on that burger. It's a decent one, the meat was great quality (although, was it really Kobe? Will I really know?) It was a lot more done than I had asked for (medium), but it didn't detract from the juiciness and the overall satisfuying experience of the burger as a whole. The bun held up well against all the burger ingredients. A solid, filling burger, I only ate half and let Owen eat the rest of it later, which he throughly enjoyed.

Dessert! Owen's favorite part of the meal, he ordered the Profiteroles with Candied Pecan Ice Cream and Hot Fudge. He absolutely loved this. The creamy ice cream was distinctly pecan flavored, but had a subtle burnt sugar taste in the background. The hot fudge was just the right amount, and aided in the melting of the ice cream, which brought it to just the right temperature, soft enough to cut through with a spoon but still frozen enough to let you know it's still ice cream. I think Owen would order this again, definitely.

I decided to get SOME sort of healthy nutrition in me, so I opted for the Fresh Fruit with Green Tea Ice Cream. Nothing special, some of the fruit was off season and tongue punishingly tart, but the green tea ice cream healed all wounds. A welcome light finish to a heavy meal.

I would definitely come here again, even without the special DineLA menu, but I think it's best to stay away from the sushi here. This might be an asian food inspired place but it's no sushi bar.

Chaya Venice
110 Navy St
Venice, CA 90291
thechaya.com

Alaska Cruise: Pt. 3 - Not surprising, more sitdown meals

Our lunch, before heading out to Victoria, British Colombia Canada. We managed to get to the dining room for lunch before our excursion to Butchart Gardens (which was very beautiful, and we had perfect weather!) Pretty nice meal, considering...

A plate of calamari. Not the best calamari I've had, but it was pretty decent, as it was crispy enough and each piece battered well, if a bit too salty - one less pinch of salt, and it would have been perfect. The tomato dipping sauce was pretty bland but I used it anyway, to nullify some of the saltiness of the batter.

Owen's matzo ball soup, a comfort food for him. The taste I had of it was pretty solid, the matzo was yielding and soaked up the flavors of the broth.

Hello, salmon! This smoked salmon plate is amazing, imagine this being placed in front of you. Mmmm. This smoked salmon rolled "rose" of sorts was completely ALL SALMON. Not rolled around anything but ITSELF. The generous helping of cold smoked salmon was heaven. Seriously good. The cream cheese balls, onion and capers, all added to the taste of the salmon - a bite of this combo on a bagel was great. This is where Princess truly excelled at their meals - their quality and quantity of their smoked salmon was the best thing on this cruise.

Owen's Shepherd's Pie was very delicious too, bits of fresh ground lamb, carrot, onion and peas, with a whipped mashed potato topping, and then baked. Very British. The taste that I had of this was very good.

For dessert (yes! a lunch dessert!), Owen got a chocolate pudding pie. He liked it a lot, and finished the whole piece. The chocolate shavings on top were a nice touch.

I got their frozen yogurt selection of the day, some tamarind flavored frozen yogurt. It was just bleh. Again with the half melted textures! Ah well.

Not even halfway through the Alaska stuff yet, sorry if anyone's bored, but I went on a picture taking frenzy during this time, so bear with me...

The Del

In the interest of wanting to try a new place, I had heard that The Del, a bar type restaurant in Playa del Rey, was worth checking out. I made reservations on Opentable.com (One of the handiest sites I've ever used) about an hour before we left, and it was not a problem. The place was really close to The Shack, a burger place we used to frequent during school. The nice ocean breeze welcomed us as we left our parked car.

The place was pretty bustling, even though it was pretty small. The decor was kind of - weird. Almost...off. It seemed like we were on a movie set, of what a movie director thinks a bar should look like. The walls were black, with accents of gothic type wallpaper. Flatscreens were everywhere. There was a pool table and an extensive bar area. We were seated in a booth with spotlights on us. It was a little...uncomfortable. I felt like any minute, a director would come in and tell us that we were eating incorrectly. Kind of weird.

But, we were here for the food, so here it goes...

Pat of butter, with black salt sprinkled on top. Nice little touch, the salt was very flavorful and crunchy. This was spread upon...

One lone piece of bread each. A bit frugal to me, but it's better that I not fill myself up on bread.

My sparkling water - I dunno, something special and expensive. It was okay. Probably could have been more fizzy, I prefer that.

A plate of calamari. Pretty well done, a bit greasy but not too bad, but a little more salty than I usually prefer. I liked the squiddy parts more than just the rings. The bit of salad was a nice touch, but it got all oily from touching the calamari pieces. The dipping sauce was nothing to write home about - no distinct flavor detected.

Owen's slab of New York Steak, upon two, count em, two colors of string beans, on an island of mashed potatoes, in a sea of au jus. Owen absolutely loved this. The taste I got was really tasty. It was perfectly cooked, pink in the middle, seasoned well, with a good crust on the outside. These people know how to cook meats.

I got a burger, which was cooked perfectly as well - pink in the middle, burger juices running into the bun (okay this will sounds gross, but I took a bite of this burger, and there were so many juices that I literally got a mouthful of juice that squirted down my throat. Yeah. Get your mind out of the gutters now. Focus on the food. Okay.) The fries were nice, good amount of seaasoning. The bun to this burger was a great cradle to the meat patty. Condiments were thinly sliced, everything was playing to the strength of the burger patty.

It was a nice dinner, but Owen really doesn't want to come back here again because of the ambience and decor. I could hardly hear myself talk, everything was so loud. It's a shame, because the cook here really knows his way around meats (you are welcome to think whatever dirty thoughts you want with that comment. You're welcome.)

thedelrestaurant.com
119 Culver Blvd
Playa Del Rey, CA 90293
(310) 823-6800