Andy Gavin's Blog, page 134
October 13, 2014
From Noodles to Fish
Restaurant: SushiTsujita
Location:2006 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025.310.231.1177
Date: October9, 2014
Cuisine:Japanese Sushi
Rating:Classic Fish
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One of the busiest and yummiest spots on the busy Sawtelle Blvd is Tsujita Artisan Noodles (and annex), which serve up an insanely rich and delicious porky ramen. The owner,Takehiro Tsujita, was cooked up a third place just down the street — well actually cooked isn’t the right word since this is a high end, omakase focused, traditional sushi joi...
October 10, 2014
Even more Shanghai Dimsum
I went back again to Shanghai #1 for dimsum and have chronicled even more delectables…
October 8, 2014
Via Veneto
Restaurant: Via Veneto
Location:3009 Main St.Santa Monica, CA 90405.(310) 399-1843
Date: April 13, 2014
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Excellent contemporary Italian
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LA is overflowing with Italian restaurants, but there is tremendous range in quality (and price). From old fashioned “red sauce” places to modernist takes like Il Grano. Via Veneto is in that high middle ground were it serves Italian (not exactly Italian American) up with panache.
2011 Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis. 89 points.White peach, whit...
October 6, 2014
Diablo 3 – from Good to Great
Diablo 3 was very good out of the gate. I played extensively andfarmed the endgame for 2-3 months during the sumer of 2012 — even clearing Inferno before it was nerfed.But my interest dropped off around the time the Monster Power patch releasedand I stopped playing until Reaper of Souls (the expansion). Now I’ve been addicted ever since. Blizzard is the only “big” game company I know that really continues to “fix” a big gamelong after release (fully online games tune over time as well). Diabl...
October 3, 2014
Steak in the Blind
Restaurant: Taylor’s Steakhouse
Location:3361 West 8th St.,Los Angeles, CA 90005.(213) 382-8449
Date: October1, 2014
Cuisine:Steakhouse
Rating:OldSchool
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About a month agomy Hedonist group started up a new concept, a sort of club within a club of high end blind tasting diners. The deal is everyone brings a bottle (and backups) blind. We eat drink and try to guess at what they are. The group is know as the “Dirty Dozen” (for being 12).
Tonight is actually the second “meeting”, but I couldn’t make th...
October 1, 2014
Cantonese Pig Out!
Restaurant: Capital Seafood
Location:755 W Garvey Ave.Monterey Park, CA 91754.(626) 282-3318
Date: September28, 2014
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating:Great Banquet
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The Cantonese banquet is a long standing tradition, and manyof the big San Gabriel Valley Cantonese places do both a dimsum brunch and ornate banquet services.
Capital Seafood is no exception, hailing from the glory days of cheesy 80sMonterey Park build outs. Look at the faux Louis XVI decor!
Tonightour little private banquet was locate...
September 29, 2014
In the Magic Garden
Hedonists know how to do house parties right.
Tonight’s affair is creol food at Lana’s house, which has been host to a number of events in the past. She has a magical garden full on Beverly Hills style that makes for a peerless setting. The chef was Guy DuPlantier III of Crazy Creole Catering.
And, the human pigs are supervised by the Cinghiale.
NOTE: I’m just going to break the wines down into white (with appetizers), red (with mains) and dessert. The format was free-for-all.
1999 Nicolas Feuill...
September 26, 2014
Century City Heat
Restaurant: Meizhou Dongpo
Location:Century City Mall Dining Deck.(310) 788-0120
Date: September9 & 18, 2014
Cuisine:Schezuan Chinese
Rating:Good to have it on the westside
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My faithful readers know I frequently venture out to the SGV for great Chinese, but I’m always looking for a fix closer to him. So when I heard there was an actual Schezuan place in the Century City mall I went right on over.
Yeah, it’s a big premium American mall!
Meizhou Donpo (sure doesn’t roll off the Western tongue). I’ve b...
September 24, 2014
Pate de Bourgogne
The best Hedonist dinnersare the ones like this.The crew: small. The theme: world class Burgundy. The food: superb. The setting: magicial.
The setting was a lovely Hancock Park home and garden.
This particular dinner was hosted by Hedonist, and restauranteur Adam Fleischman. Adam needs no introduction and as the mastermind behind Umami Burger, Smoke Oil Salt, 800 degrees, and a ton of other concepts he is a man with endless energy, ideas, and a talent for doing it right.
Our table.
And my artsy “...
September 22, 2014
Heavy Noodling at JTYH
Restaurant: JTYHHeavy Noodle II
Location:9425 Valley Blvd.Rosemead, CA 91770.(626) 442-8999
Date: September17, 2014
Cuisine:Chinese
Rating:Tasty
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The SGV has every kind of Chinese food. JTYH specializes in homemade noodles and dumplings. For those of you not in the “noodle know” knife cut noodles are made by shaving a block of raw dough directly into boiling water with a sharp knife.
Heavy Noodle, lol. The sequel to Heavy Metal the Movie?
The decorrivals Crustacean and The Bazaar. Not. But the food...
