it’s good for what it is, meaning lower/middle tier player with a heavy focus on “melt in your mouth” + sauces + rolls. I usually spend $60pp there and leave stuffed. You’re pretty much a baller if you spend > $50pp here.
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Good to know. We usually go to Katsu-ya. Will have to check this place out. DH’s not big on rolls and fusion stuff so hopefully their sushi and sashimi is good.
I only been to Bills and Brents.
Both were a great experience!
Bill was kinda cranky that day. Some dude on the other counter asked about “fries” and the customer next to him quickly told him the deal before Bill noticed. Would have love to see Bills response. I like the cheeseburgers, too. I find myself preferring a simple cheeseburger these days. Can’t beat that experience sitting on a counter outdoors. Marty’s on the Westside is also a lot of fun and has that outdoor counter as well. The guys there are funny and they serve Orange Bang!
Brents is great. You walk in and your transported to another place and time. Even better is hearing those wonderful NYC accents. That Black Pastrami Reuben ain’t no joke. Very tasty. My heart is still with Langers. Don’t forget to order a egg cream! You can get that at Langers too.
Also went to Wat Thai on a weekend if that counts.
Would love to see a light rail on Ventura and the Orange Line Bus into rail.
Got Joe’s bookmarked in my head if I go to Universal, although I love the falafel at Kareems in Little Arabia Anaheim.
Hope to see and eat more.
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The best thing @ Joes are the wraps with fresh laffa bread, not the falafel IMO. You also need to remember to ask for their crack hot sauce.
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When did Wat Thai LA reopen?
My report in Feb.
Not sure if anyone else can confirm since
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Cicek’s Chicken, Devonshire / Mason
Pretty damn good! Very tender chicken, white meat actually tasted magnificent. Drawback is skin not quite as crispy as I’d like, but a few minutes under the toaster made the situation better.
$12 for a whole chicken + garlic sauce + pita. They got the good thin pita too.
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Been there a couple times since it changed from Sevan to Cicek. It’s OK. We don’t care for the soggy skin either, but once we ate in, and once we took it to go to my parent’s house, so we weren’t able to crisp the skin up. The second time, the chicken was extra salty too, which was annoying.
Anyone else in the area playing that rotisserie game you’d recommend?
Given your experience, Ciceks appears to prioritize tenderness over crispy skin as standard operating procedure.
Not really, at least in this area. We usually grab a Costco rotisserie chicken. We also grab a tub of the Sabra hummus from there. Trader Joe’s has a Garlic Spread/Dip that is amazing, along with pita or their middle eastern flatbread. I usually throw together a cucumber tomato feta salad, or something along those lines, and sometimes I make tzatziki if I’m in the mood.
That’s dinner one night, and leftovers for 4 lunches the next day.
California Chicken Cafe on Reseda/Nordhoff does rotisserie chicken. It’s decent. I prefer their salads to their plates though.
Saj bakery and Italia are always decent for a sandwich or two.
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Ehhh for all that work I’d rather just go to Cicek’s lol
Haha – I don’t run around for all this right before dinner! I shop at TJs regularly, so we almost always have the garlic spread on hand. Same with the salad stuff and pita/flatbread.
I plan our meals around my shopping trips, so a meal like this would happen the same day or the day after I make a Costco run. I don’t have time to run around assembling ingredients for a meal at the last minute. I plan ahead so I have everything I need on hand. 
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To get this back on track: We went to JOEY at The Village Woodland Hills this past weekend. Decent food. In a weird unplanned twist, we were there for dinner and drinks on Friday night with a group, and then drinks and appetizers with another couple on Saturday night. Tried the curry dip with naan and papadum, which was ok, but we’re Indian and have high curry standards. Paella had a good amount of shrimp in it. Wish the portion was a little bigger though. Hubby got the Filet, which he liked. Drinks were good – generous pours.
Saturday night, we tried the tempura calamari (good, but small portion), the gyoza (ok, probably won’t order again), the tuna tacos (ended up ordering another plate of these) and the Korean cauliflower (way too sweet with a thick sauce – didn’t even finish this one). We sat in the indoor bar area on Saturday and the service was super slow. Our server seemed a bit out of it. Not sure if she was new or just didn’t give a shit.
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ok back on track:
EMC Woodland Hills is amazing. That happy hour is 10/10.
We almost went there Saturday night but it was a 40 minute wait at 9:30pm and we were hungry. That’s how we ended up at JOEY again. Any EMC recommendations?
- dollar fifty oysters
- fries
- crispy garlic brussels sprouts
- salt pepper fried fish
- spicy albacore crisps
- albacore sashimi
- salmon carpaccio
– I would classify their raw fish offerings as satisfying and not serious.
off their regular menu
- clam chowder was better than average
- octopus carpaccio
- shrimp garlic noodles are pretty good
- I have not yet had it, but eyefucked the $29 lobster 1 table over which seemed reasonably priced for what you got.
The only losers for me thus far have been the fried clam strips, lemongrass mussels, and crab cake sliders.
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Is this a happy hour deal?
Ever tried their poke?
yes, they’re almost $3/ea non-happy hour. I have not seen poke on the woodland hills menu.