Andy Gavin's Blog, page 25

Northern Cafe Temple City

Restaurant: Northern Cafe

Location: 9608 Las Tunas Dr, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 286-5288

Date: May 5 & July 23, 2023

Cuisine: Northern Chinese

Rating: Great private room experience

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Normal Northern Cafe is a solid but casual fast casual spot but…

Northern Cafe in Temple City sure is a bit different than the ones in Century City or West LA as we shall see in this special dinner organized by Eve and another I put together myself.

The normal dining room is fairly normal NC.

But they have 5 ...

Bar Monette

Restaurant: Bar Monette

Location: 109 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 310-8575

Date: April 27, 2023

Cuisine: Pizza

Rating: Great pizza

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New “tapas” (not really) Pizza Bar in Downtown Santa Monica.

Now that I’m working here, too bad they aren’t open for lunch.

Cute and crowded inside.

The short menu.


Aunty Wendy’s Trevis. Passion fruit, basil. Basically a passionfruit pesto, this dressing was a surprising and wonderful counterpoint to the bitter raddiccio. Nice little (and ...

Lunch Quest – Yigah

Restaurant: Yigah Restaurant

Location: 8562 Garden Grove Blvd Garden Grove, CA 92844. (657) 233-5502

Date: April 26, 2023

Cuisine: Korean

Rating: Tasty, but there is similar far closer

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After at least 6 months, maybe of year of pestering, I finally agreed to drive down to Garden Grove with Yarom for some Korean spicy beef ribs.

I’m not quite sure why he was so obsessed about going to this particular Korean joint about an hour away (with no traffic). But eventually I relented.


Decent enough b...

Spring Crustacean

Restaurant: Crustacean Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Location: 468 N Bedford Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 205-8990

Date: April 4, 2023

Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion

Rating: Awesome as always

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Crustacean is one of our regular haunts and one of the few places with the stems, food, and service to handle a serious wine dinner. This was a return to Hedonist form with a mixed dinner of all new traditional Vietnamese food inspired Crustacean creations.

Back in our “usual” private dining r...

China Islamic

Restaurant: China Islamic

Location: 7727 Garvey Ave, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 288-4246

Date: April 23, 2023

Cuisine: Western Islamic Chinese

Rating: Very tasty — although no wine due to halal

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China Islamic is a Halal (hence no wine) Chinese place right there on garvey. Yarom has been coming here for over 30 years.


Interior is pretty much as you’d expect. They are on the 3rd or 4th owner, currently named Omar. That guy behind the counter did all the front of house work and after dark it got ...

Lunch Quest – Medan Kitchen

Restaurant: Medan Kitchen

Location: 8518 Valley Blvd STE 102, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 693-6231

Date: April 21, 2023

Cuisine: Indonesian Market

Rating: Tasty

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Another haul out east to try this interesting Indonesian market.

Medan replaces New Century Lobster, that mediocre South Chinese Place.


Some menu on the board outside.

But inside the format is more supermarket than restaurant. Basically all the food has been prepared and placed in take out containers. It’s cold or “cooling” and you j...

A Spice Affair

Restaurant: Spice Affair

Location: 50 N La Cienega Blvd #120, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (310) 400-6800

Date: April 20, 2023

Cuisine: Upscale Indian

Rating: Cream de la Cream

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Our friend George organized this visit to A Spice Affair, which being on La Cienaga’s “Restaurant Row” has that fancy vibe, prices, and slightly old school formality that makes it a sort of “Indian Mr. Chows.”


He arranged this private dining area and a sort of “all you can eat” prearranged meal where we could just order a...

Thai Tour – Lacha Somtum

Restaurant: Lacha Somtum

Location: 5171 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 486-7380

Date: April 18, 2023

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: great

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Another run of great Thai places.

On the side of Hollywood Blvd near Sapp Coffee Shop.

Big counter and specials board.

The cute interior.











Huge menu as usual. There was even a separate hot pot menu that I forgot to photo.


My ordering notes.

We haven’t seen Bob in a while :-(.

Pork Jerky. Marinated pork, deep fried; served with homemade ...

The Melting Pot

Restaurant: The Melting Pot

Location: 3685 E Thousand Oaks Blvd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91362. (805) 370-8802

Date: April 16, 2023

Cuisine: Fondue

Rating: Interesting

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A small group of Hedonists trekked out to Thousand Oaks for this weird 80s or 90s fondue.

I decided last minute to join this unusual (or perhaps throwback) place. Normally Sunday night is for Chinese, but it was hijaacked tonight for this. Fondue in Thousand Oaks!

The build out is very… well Thousand Oaks. It’s actually been here a ...

Sauvages Rhone

Restaurant: Jonathan Club

Location: 850 Palisades Beach Rd, Santa Monica, CA 90403. (310) 393-9245

Date: April 14, 2023

Cuisine: French Bistro

Rating: Surprisingly good for a club

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Fellow Sauvages have been swearing that the DTLA Jonathan Club isn’t serving up that boring club food — and in the interest of full disclosure, I usually loath club food.

The Jonathan Club maintains a very high standard of build out.



The restaurant dining room.

We have this awesome private wine cellar room all t...