Only here this weekend. The blueberry glazed donuts at Krispy Kreme are delicious.
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The shawarma plate must be preferable to the wrap version I got recently, because Mima’s suffers from what ails so many of its peers: mediocre pita. It’s hard to fully appreciate the meat when it’s in that too-tough casing. I do like their foul quite a bit and need to try their kebabs. Sultan is still my fave in the area… for now!
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le dräQ
outta this world Weiser Melon Salad. No clue if there’s some ambrosia-adjacent accent but definitely tasted like nectar
Pimento cheese stuffed squash blossoms and an aggressive English pea agnalotti. Cannonballs of heat and cream
Also the soft burnt cheese, finished in Orsa’s pizza oven. And some Chilean skin contact - ‘Carrizal’
Pipeno Blanco, blend of Muscat, Chasselas, Sémillon, Torontel
Weiser Melon Salad - mint, feta, urfa, cacao
Pimento Cheese Stuffed Squash Blossoms - pickles, smoked paprika, saffron honey
English Pea Agnolotti - pea tendrils, parmesan, morita Chile oil
Soft Burnt Cheese - pistachio, saffron honey, whipped créme fraîche
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How was the mango this year?
Outstanding. Just the right balance of creamy texture, sweetness, fragrance, very very mild tartness, and not overly rich…
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Garlic High (Yorba Linda)
Had dinner with a chowpup here tonight.
The shop really is run by one person. So we browsed the Tokyo Central for a bit after ordering. Really, we grabbed drinks that aren’t offered at Garlic High…their drink selection is probably limited because they are located in the market.
This bowl of ramen is significant. The noodles are so good! Thick-cut, really nice chew, and unevenly cut so you know it’s house made. I loved the umami-rich Jiro broth with the garlic. The fresh veg adds a fresh crunch, and then there’s the very generous pork chasu. Unctuous, griddled to render the fat…it feels super luxurious.
The chowpup had a bowl of tonkotsu which was very good, but so much lighter than the Jiro bowl. He said he loved the noodles and charsu the most.
We’d be happy to return.
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Damn when tonkotsu is so much lighter lol
The Jiro was a flavor, umami, garlic, rich bomb. It’s one of the best bowls I’ve had since Japan. I was really happy.
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Wow high praise will have to check it out
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Yes! But he’s super sweet and the bowl you get doesn’t seem rushed. Those noodles are just PERFECT. Glad you guys enjoyed it!!!
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Delivery pizza from Ozzy’s, normal pies were pretty decent and would potentially order again (depending on what else is in radius).
But avoid the Mega Powers, listed on the menu as “Fresh California tomatoes & olive oil, basil, chopped garlic, pecorino, and mozzarella Miss Elizabeth would swooooon.” Few meager watery sliced roma tomatoes with a tiny bit of basil and some garlic. I thought it sounded like a bruschetta situation, or something farmers market-y but alas.
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that looks worse than a frozen pizza.
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Asadero Los Angeles - They’ve really blown up in the last several weeks. They’re as good as before, but wow, the lines on weekends are insane! Good for them, bad for me…
Tacos Royale - After all the write-ups, some even saying this place beats Asadero, I had to check it out. I was coming from dinner, so I only got 1 taco. Great meat quality, deliberately underseasoned so you can salt and dress yourself, which I appreciated. Super generous salsa/veggie bar, including really nicely pickled onions. Easy parking to boot.
That said, the meat wasn’t very smoky, less than Asadero and Tire Shop. The construction also didn’t really work for me. It’s a generous helping of asada (pic below), but honestly, it’s too much for the 5-inch tortilla. The tortilla turned mushy under the meat juice and beans. They should either serve a bigger tortilla (e.g. Loqui size) - or serve less meat and charge less, maybe 1/3 less.
I’ll definitely try again, though, maybe it was an off-night for smokiness.
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Playing catch-up for July:
Breakfast at Sun Nong Dan Sawtelle. I just missed the cutoff for the special morning price. They were doing way more business than I expected for breakfast. Place was probably two-thirds full on a weekday before 11AM.
A bowl of sullungtang and more pickles than I could finish; I think it was $26 after tax & tip. Not my most economical breakfast, but it held me down for most of the day.
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Burger from Trophies on Fairfax. I went back after eating here to search FTC and a few folks had mentioned it. I enjoyed the burger and (very good) curly fries. It almost had that backyard-burger flavor that Yuca’s on Hillhurst does really well. My SO said they were reminded of the old Fat Burger before the quality took a dip. If I weren’t closer to the Win~Dow at the Grove, I’d probably eat here a fair bit. But, for the PQR, Win~Dow comes out ahead every time.
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Dinner for 4.5 at Borit Gogae. Been on the radar for a long time. Incredible meal. Nothing over-the-top memorable or mind-blowing. Just a huge range of very high quality dishes. The volume of food is overwhelming. We were dealing with spatial issues due to a very grabby 9 month old, so table space was sort of abbreviated. Even at a six-top turned five-top, we couldn’t figure out how to choreograph everything.
I think the sea snails (upper right, next to the galbi) were my favorite bite – like eating a little bouncy aquatic gumball covered in a bright spicy sauce and buried in garlic scapes (I think). Everything else was great: fresh kimchi, perilla soup (the baby lost their damn mind over it), the mung bean-kimchi pancake… it’s hard to pick a second favorite, everything was so good. Service was great. We got in for a 6pm seating and there were probably fifteen or twenty people waiting by the time we left at 800pm. Friends picked up the bill, but I think the set menu + galbi for 4 people, 2 cass and 2 soju, it was close to $250 before tip and we had leftovers.
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Cold chlorella noodles at MDK. Maybe a little sweet for me, but very refreshing when it’s 85f by noon. Also had some dumplings and a kimchi pancake, but I didn’t snap a pic.
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July travels (Quick observations: I’m not in the food business and never have been so maybe I’m totally off base but I found restaurants in Other countries so much more affordable than the USA, even surprisingly France. I think somewhere in the food chain we in the USA are getting taken advantage of, similar to the premiums we pay on prescription medications.)
Monterrey, Mexico
Tacos
Mochomos, Monterrey, MX
Jabalina, Monterrey, MX
Paris, France
La Taverne de Zhao (family’s favorite meal of the trip)
LULU creperie (thought this would be instagram nonsense but was surprisingly tasty)
Lille, France ($17, I thought the portions were supposed to be small in Europe)
Ensenada, MX
Pre bang El Guerro food cart (now with fish and shrimp tacos)
Muelle 3 (one of our favorite restaurants anywhere in the world)
Poway, CA (San Diego), (Orange county’s Ma’s house in SD and the sesame green onion bread is still great)
Tijuanero (San Diego), (TJs Tijuanazo comes to SD (LA also I think) as Tijuanero—good tacos,American prices).
San Diego fair (now or soon to be in LA), (rotating Al pastor spit over mesquite and funnel cake)
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Just a guess but most likely we have more middle men than any place else. Each time something changes hands someone has to take profit
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How did you like Monterrey? We’ve been thinking about going. The hiking around there seems pretty cool. And the food.
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Liu’s Cafe (Westwood)
I loved absolutely everything about it. Sleek interior, cozy counter seating, open kitchen, delicious food, friendly staff, quick service.
I hadn’t heard of the place until an hour ago, but I’m sure many of you already know it - a quick search shows it’s a Bib Gourmand.
We all know how brutal it is to operate a restaurant in LA. Everything about Liu’s Cafe appears to be a response to the many challenges. Small, focused menu brings down food costs. No servers brings down labor costs. Elegant but sparse buildout brings down construction costs and time (and thus more cost). Rapid service (I was in and out in 20 minutes) means higher turns. It feels so unlike most LA restaurants, an antidote to the Cheesesteak Factory and CPK and Bacari and Granville and Urth Caffés that plague our city with never ending menus consistent only in their mediocrity.
I wish LA had more places like this. Small, focused, confident, delicious. And reasonably priced!
Spicy Wontons
Didn’t seem that spicy as I was eating it, but 15 minutes later my nose won’t stop running.
Beef Noodle Soup
Medium bodied, hearty broth. Good quality beef. A nice, balanced soup.
I’m so glad I found this place as I was very close to walking into Sweetslops or Tender Slops or Tacos 198slop for what would have surely been a frustratingly disappointing meal.
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We enjoyed it, especially the food. Easy and inexpensive to travel to and from. We went in late June/early July and it was pretty hot so I’d recommend a different time of year, especially if you’re planning on hiking around. Also, if you are vegetarian, Monterrey seemed meat-centric, just FYI.
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