I don’t want this to seem like a bad review of chef LQ’s food, but there were definitely some operational errors that could have been handled differently. Outside of the terrible uni and overcooked lobster, all the other ingredients were really good. I just never had a cold seafood tower as a complete meal and didn’t translate too well for me. It’s always usually eaten as an appetizer before moving on to something else. Got kind of redundant if that makes sense.
Were there a la carte options available? I agree with you about needing something of substance and something hot afterwards. At LQ we would follow with something from the kitchen.
Told you guys to go the day before so they wouldn’t run out of the good stuff 
The langoustines and spot prawns are so good I usually double up on those a la carte.
yes you could order a la carte but pretty much all the same stuff. Only hot items were the fried spot prawn heads and the tiniest cup of clam chowder, which was delicious.
you were totally right about going on Saturday but I was already committed to something else on that night.
Available again this weekend in Pasadena.
They have Gambas!
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Thanks @Porthos. For those that have tried the seafood tower, looking at their Tiers… it seems some of the quantities makes it hard / awkward to share?
For example, Tier 1 has 1 Langoustine, and only 1 Spot Prawn (and 1 Gambas). But most other items are 2 of everything. I guess you just cut those singular items in half?
And Tier 2 if it was for 3 or 4 people… you still end up with only 2 Little Neck Clams for 3 or 4 people? (and 2 Spot Prawns for… 3 or 4 people to share, etc.).
I guess you just add on a la carte to let everyone sample, or manually cut into some of the items (or some people just skip out on some of the items) perhaps.
He just added mantis prawns to this weekend. Whaaaat?!?
These keep up much better in transport.
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My wife and I really enjoyed our meal there last night. Crazy good deal, and the cheese cart is amazing. Highly recommended.
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Just had it this weekend. The wild squid was the star of the night. He said he only has 3 more weeks of the pop up.
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My buddy thought the Mantis prawn and the squid with polenta were the stars.
Mantis prawns sold out quickly obviously.
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today I learned: Mantis Prawns are alpha dogs.
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Many familiar with these bugs consider them to be the nastiest most fearsome ocean creatures ounce for ounce.
At Shunji the other night, they were prepping a whole tray of mantis shrimp–it looked very labor intensive, snipping off bits of the shell with shears to get at the meat hidden inside.
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