Went last night - ended up using Resy Notify and got a spot. Place was packed and got a ton of food! Highly recommend! Favorites were the hay smoked sawara, the cabbage in clam dashi, japanese sweet potato, and the pickle plate, but honestly everything was pretty great! Only thing I would skip were the roasted radishes which were just alright.
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Travis sure does know how to cook good food. The sweet potato and fuyu persimmon dishes were my favorites of the night. The pickle plate, maitake, duck rice, duck meatballs, and mazemen were so good. It was a hectic private event so we didn’t have soy sauce or yuzu kosho for most of the handrolls, but they were still delicious. Can’t wait to go back to try more stuff.
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That cabbage with the clam dashi 
W: I didn’t much like it. Most dishes didn’t taste good to me. Many dishes were over seasoned, over salted, too tangy, over watery, over sauced, and not at all Japanese. The only dishes that tasted right to me were a natto hand roll and the gelato. Peony liked it a little more.
P: RVR is a good neighborhood restaurant with some dishes I enjoy. However, I much prefer the food at Gjelina. I’ve traveled to the west side several times just to dine at Gjelina, but I don’t plan to return to RVR unless it’s in my neighborhood
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ordered almost ooe so hit to miss ratio was lower, main issue was salt.
review forthcoming @CiaoBob @hungryhungryhippos @LouisianaMouth @boourns @bluebarb
highlights
- persimmon salad
- sashimi
- pork collar tonkatsu
- hand rolls
- black cod
- japanese sweet potato
- carrot cake
misses
- ramen (salty)
- squid (salty)
- skewers
- maitake mushroom (salty)
- salad (salty)
fuyu persimmon, purple daikon, myoga, soba furikake & shiso
santa barbara uni, shiso, cucumber & half moon bay wasabi
wild kanpachi sashimi, daikon & mandarin kosho
roasted citrus-shoyu santa barbara black cod
grilled japanese sweet potato, miso butter, scallion & katsuobushi
lone mountain wagyu rib steak, nori butter, lemon & black pepper
warm carrot & buckwheat cake with miso caramel & butter pecan gelato
passion fruit & coconut swirl sorbet
black sesame & matcha-stracciatella gelatos
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Talk about a latergram lol
I will be the first to say that I did not really enjoy rvr, company excluded.
Loved the salads, sashimi, and potato.
Otherwise most of the other stuff bordered from unmemorable to bad. Specifically bad were the ramen and gyozas. It’s probably some of the worst of either category that I’ve had.
Very disappointing since I love gjelina and gjusta so much.
But had a great time with the crew!
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+1 on the good dishes. Salt levels uneven, example: the salad was well seasoned in some parts and too salty in others. Maybe it was an off night, because that aspect was so inconsistent between dishes. The ramen noodle texture was unconventional and not to my taste, I’m no expert, but it felt like the noodles were missing the bouncy chew you’d normally see with ramen noodles. Seemed closer to a conventional pasta and perhaps without the same usage of alkalinity?
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Another great meal. Couple of daiquiris, Hitachino yuzu lager, Shrimp gyoza, fennel salad, maitake, hand rolls: rock cod tempura/tuna/kanpachi, sweet potato, chicken thigh & lamb shoulder skewers, buckwheat carrot cake with miso caramel & butter pecan ice cream.
The two dishes I didn’t love were the fennel salad and chicken thigh skewer. The salad didn’t pop like the persimmon salad, which we sorely missed and the chicken thigh was just not tasty. The anchovy miso butter sauce on the Miatake was plate-licking good. Lamb shoulder was excellent. After half a dozen meals here, I’ve yet to encounter issues with seasoning. The gyoza are good but not great, though I do like the crispy veil. I love the energy, music, service. Something just clicks for me. Chef delivered a few dishes to us and asked how we liked the food.
1 Like
Had a very good and fun dinner here, but the pricing felt obscene. We had two drinks each and ended up spending $360 for two. Handrolls were very good. Japanese sweet potatoes were literally perfect–could not be better. Other things were more hit or miss–toro sashimi was a swing and a miss, as was the miso cauliflower, which was way too salty and unbalanced. Drinks were great.
I feel bad complaining about price. Restaurants are in an impossible position right now. To survive and provide a living wage, they must charge more. But very few people can afford to eat at this price point regularly. Hard to know how to solve for this.
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hip and cool spot - the food was good not omg good. i’d come back for cocktails and house pickled veggies and mochi beignets with orange miso syrup (big fan of these bad boys) on a weekend brunch or pork collar tonkatsu, some duck meatballs, and some beers later in the evening. i liked the beverage program here.
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Good meal last night - much better than the first one in Jan/Feb.
LOVED squid and tomato dish with a great tart vinegary dressing
Many other tasty dishes
Never had this delicious Rice Beer
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RVR is my favorite restaurant in LA at the moment. I go at least monthly. The vegetable dishes are incredible imo. The energy is like no other restaurant I’ve been to. Great bev program, only wish corkage was cheaper.
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Only adding highlights on the picture because we had mountain of foods.
Great time, great place.
I like the fact that it’s westernized izakaya (food flavor etc)
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Just left brunch here. Almost the same as dinner menu with a few additions.
Highlights
Tamago Ommelette
Black Sesame pancake
Peaches w / daikon and ginger
Duck rice w mustards
A riff on patatas bravas with sweet potato and tomato dashi sauce.
Boston mackerel with jimmy nardellos
The good
Mochi beignets could’ve been more mochi y.
Handrolls great but not what I went there for so could do without.
Gyoza tasty!
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gjot @CiaoBob’fluenced. really enjoyed the summer menu vs the winter menu. seasoning is consistent now and not all over like my previous visit.
review forthcoming @hatchetchief?
gjreat
boston squid, tomato, ginger & thai basil & rayu oil
highlight of the night, tender charred squid with peak season tomatoes.
peeled tomatoes, purple sweet potato vinegar, olive oil & myoga
this made me miss leopardo, i’m all for peeled tomatoes.
coconut vanilla sorbet with mango lime granita
tasted like something out of awan, creamy and refreshing.
gjood
tempura rockfish, tartar sauce & kaiware
santa barbara uni, shiso, cucumber & ginger
crispy aji sando, morita aioli, salted lemon & shiso verde
i this could be gjreat if served raw or lightly cured, still solid.
roasted citrus-shoyu santa barbara black cod & swiss chard
boston mackerel, jimmy nardelo, imai onion & ponzu
tempura yellow bean & dashi aioli
duck meatball tsukune & hot mustard
gjfine
peach, purple daikon, pickled fresno daikon, pickled fresno, marcona almond, tosazu & ginger
would be gjreat if the peach was riper.
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I’m gjoing to have to gjet myself over there. 
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