North Long Beach/Paramount border
3 Likes
Is it chocolate covered? Is it Ohtani-inspired?
two meals to post about, 1 amazing, 1 garbage.
restaurant milka x sons and daughters 4 hands dinner
Sprouted and toasted buckwheat with hen of the woods and broccoli rabe
Tomatoes with red berries and smoked cream
Variation of beetroots, bear fat, fig leaves oil and Oscietra caviar
honestly what a treat. the chef from milka had brought over a few delicacies, including bear fat (!!!) that was used in a sauce on the caviar dish. pickles 4 dayz. wine pairing was good, NA pairing was hit or miss. One of the NA drinks, the clarified buttermilk whey, was just bad. Instead of being a good pairing, it pretty much tasted exactly like one of the desserts. despite all that, it was an awesome meal.
iki omakase (palo alto)
I really wanted to try and like this place, but the fish were just so lacking in flavor that I thought I had COVID. No, really, that bad. way too many pieces torched. at one point he was torching directly in the serving bowl. the only saving grace was that the sake menu wasn’t too bad.
torched aged bluefin tuna
torched black cod (help)
7 Likes
How much was iki omakase ?
2 Likes
It is regular mochi with white chocolate ganache inside, pretty tasty with a more Western flavor.
4 Likes
Al pastor from Tacos Los Palomos (fantastic despite them forgetting the piña 
)
Pasadena Fish Market jerk chicken etc, the fried okra has been my fav here besides the catfish and red snapper 
Yui in Sierra Madre (my fav local susihya besides Kisen in arcadia) wagyu skewers and soft shell crab tempura.
10 Likes
Smack Burger - Los Angeles
Pretty damn good burger, I like how they don’t bomb it with too much sauce so you can taste the quality meat blend. This place smacks. Or slaps.
Jin Cook - Buena Park
Spicy galbi jjim 
Spicy pork hot stone with kimchi
Los Chingones - East LA
Green and red mixed chilaquiles carnitas mixto burrito
Westcoast Cheesesteaks - Glendora
Sonoratown - Mid City
Still don’t understand what the lure of this place is. Underwhelming again.
Little Belize - Inglewood
Oxtail mac and cheese
Tacos La Rueda - Bellflower
Sonoran white menudo
18 Likes
I had a lunch costilla burrito yesterday and felt exactly the same way. It is a fine flour tortilla, but the steak sucked - lots of gristly bits, minimal smoke. Salas were subpar. Dont get it.
3 Likes
If you think about the cut they’re using, which is rib meat, it explains why you might have some more “gristle” than a cut of skirt or flank steak. Rib meat will have more cartilage, so it adds some texture that a lot of people doesn’t seem to like.
The free salsas are not good. You gotta go with the chiltepin and avocado salsas.
3 Likes
I did a catering tray of chicken and steak on Sunday and it slapped but agreed the default salsas ain’t it
3 Likes
I had a very good caramello asada there last week at the og location. Smoky meat with a good tortilla and I thought the salsas were solid.
1 Like
The best costilla is still at Tacos Los Cholos, nice smokey flavor and they chop up the costilla finely.
5 Likes
Matsumoto is great. It fills an important role in the LA dining scene — high quality, a la carte sushi, in a central location, and where you don’t have to fight for a reservation or wait in a line. Along with Hama, it’s my favorite ALC sushi in LA.
And the Matsumoto omakase is pretty good too. For example, I recently went to sushi ginza onodera. I was so disappointed by the food and experience that, in an attempt to salvage my “sushi night,” I went right to Matsumoto. I’d take the Matsumoto omakase over sushi ginza onodera any day.
6 Likes
Agreed was very underwhelmed with Kaneyoshi, 715, and ginza onodera given the hype, stars, etc 
1 Like
I loved kaneyoshi. But I agree on 715 and sgo.
3 Likes