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. 4 - Another lunch

Another sit down lunch before heading out to Juneau, to see the Mendenhall Glacier and a salmon hatchery. This lunch with most of the family, so there was a variety of food stuff to take pictures of!

There were a few appetizers that I didn't take a picture of - I remember having buffalo wings (which were okay, but needed more kick and spice) and some salad (which had a lot of onion in it,and the usual dressing that all tasted the same). What followed were the main courses and dessert...

This is some sort of fish filet, with veggies and rice. I didn't try this, but it looked pretty good. And healthy.

This is what I ordered, a steak sandwich. This was a pretty decent sandwich, as they used a good piece of grilled steak, atop a roll that had garlic butter on it, with 2 raw onion rings, 1 tomato slice and fries. For what it was, it was a good sandwich! The fries were just okay. Nothing special there.

My cousin Derek's beef spatzle. As this was across the table, I didn't get to try any, but I've never had spatzle before anyways, so I wouldn't be a good judge as to whether or not it was any good. It looked ok though.

My brother's pork chop plate, with steamed veggies. He let me try some of the pork chop, cooked very well, nice and juicy and flavorful.

Owen got potato pancakes - latkes, which came with sour cream, applesauce, and randomly, 2 onion rings. He said these could have been vastly improved if they were on the skillet just a little longer, to get crisper. I hate latkes so I probably would have said they sucked either way.

What did NOT suck was this panna cotta, with caramel sauce. Great texture, light, and not too sweet. One of my favorite desserts of the whole cruise.

This is my cousin's fruit plate. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: fruit was, consistently, one of the best things on the cruise.

More dinners to come!

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.