Tofu Villa

Owen and I went to an art show opening at GR2 a few weeks back - for an artist I really like (BoyGirlParty). So cute! I love her stuff. Anyways, afterwards, we wanted to get a quick bite to eat, around Sawtelle. A new place, called Tofu Villa, (which had taken the place of a boba shop that used to be there) had opened up near Beard Papa, so I decided to give it a shot. Owen was a bit skeptical, as he thought it was only going to be tofu, but I assured him it was not. We were quickly seated inside, made our decisions quickly and made our order, and instantly, this arrived at the table...

Amazing Korean Pancakes and a sort of salad with tasty dressing. I say amazing, because these pancakes were perfectly crispy but soft and gooey in the middle, and freshly served off the grill (they were pretty hot when they got to our table.) They were the right size, the big ones get a little too undercooked and flabby, whereas these had that extra crunch from being small enough to be cooked to a crisp exterior. Owen and I loved these, I could say that these are the best Korean pancakes I've had yet.

Tons of banchan arrived, enough to cover almost every bit of retail space we had on our small 2 person table. There's pleny to see here, but Owen especially seemed to like the black beans (not pictured), and the tofu spinach (upper left), I liked the japchae (middle), but really we liked everything and getting to try a variety of little dishes.

I got the Korean bbq rib bimibap, a simple platter with two pieces of Korean style rib meat, different kinds of chopped veggies, two pieces of tofu and a perfect sunny side up egg. I prefer the bimibap where it's mixed in a hot stone, so the rice gets a bit crispy, but this version wasn't bad either. I wish there had been more of the spicy red paste to mix everything together (I like my bimibap SPICY) but everything was fresh, so I couldn't complain too much.

Owen got a sizzling platter of bulgolgi. It was basically Korean style fajitas, and you can't go wrong with fajitas, heh. This also came with a small metal bowl of white rice. This was pretty tasty, as marinated meat goes, but not the best bulgolgi I've ever had. Still good though.

When we finished and asked for the check, we were each given one of these - a small looking, but deceptively large amount of frozen yogurt (pinkberry style, "natural" yogurt) in a sampler cup. I actually liked this yogurt better than pinkberry! The yogurt, when eaten, had the first taste of the sourish yogurt, but then sweetened to a honey aftertaste. Owen loved this, and I agreed, it was a very nice surprise ending to our meal.

The service was really good, but I wish they had refilled our waters at least once. They were attentive otherwise. I think we'll be back, as this is a much more convenient place to get our Korean food fix on, instead of Koreatown.

Tofu Villa
2130 Sawtelle Blvd
Ste 112A
Los Angeles, CA 90025

Fiore "Natural Italian Yogurt"
Little Tokyo, Downtown LA

Getting into the whole "natural yogurt" fad is Fiore, on the coattails of the success of Pinkberry (which I admit, still haven't been there!). A revolution in frozen yogurt? This I had to experience for myself. Stopping by the Japanese Plaza area I frequent fairly often, Fiore was quickly remodeled from a tacky souvenir shop that used to hock cheesy backpacks and California postcards (or is that the place next door?? Perhaps they combined to make UBER tacky shop with stuff for tourists.) I appreciated the redesign, as the space was suited to a more modern look - clean lines, candy colored chairs, mod couch.

I even like the signage.Note the minimalist wall decor.

This place was hopping with people, and a line that stretched to the door. Unfazed, we waited, and the line moved swiftly. Once reaching the front of the line, I saw all the delicious fruit that was laid out for possible toppings - all of them looked fresh. I quickly made my choice:

A small green tea yogurt with blueberries. These blueberries...were amazing. Not a sour berry in the bunch, bursting with that fresh fruit taste that you can only really get with good quality fruit. The yogurt, however, was in my opinion, lacking. It was refreshing enough with a sour tang- but as my friend Ryan stated, "It tastes exactly like guacamole." And it really did. Cold frozen guacamole. It wasn't exactly unpleasant but I will probably never choose to get this flavor again.
Ryan's guacamole, I mean green tea yogurt with white chocolate chips. I'm not a fan of white chocolate (too sweet, no chocolate meat!), but oddly enough, the white chocolate chips made this taste even more like avacado chunks. I highly disapprove unless you enjoy sweet things that are supposed to be flavored like things that go with tortilla chips.
Amber's smoothie was highly recommended by her - and since I don't drink smoothies (I know, a weird hangup...my explaination - I don't like drinking thick liquids. Do I have to use a spoon or a straw...why is it diffucult to use either while trying to consume this...yep. So I don't drink smoothies.) I think this smoothie contained some of the natural frozen yogurt, raspberries and strawberries.
Dean's frozen yogurt was by far the prettiest. The pleasing kiwi slices, bursting-with-freshness blueberries and the succulent raspberries gave a great color medley to look at before devouring it.

I haven't tried Pinkberry yet (I'm slow on the craze, I know!) but if natural yogurt is the "must try" new thing I think Fiore did a decent job. I love the fresh fruit, and wished they had the same quality standard at other frozen yogurt places. The yogurt itself was not something I crave - just a little too sour for my taste. If I had a choice of my favorite frozen yogurt from The Bigg Chill or these new fangled yogurts - I'd choose old faithful, Bigg Chill.