Andy Gavin's Blog, page 28
October 29, 2023
Cheval Crustacean
Restaurant: Crustacean Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
Location: 468 N Bedford Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 205-8990
Date: March 15, 2023
Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion
Rating: Awesome as always
_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. For this particular night some of my friends organized an epic Cheval Blanc tasting covering many of the most iconic vintages of the last 40 years.
We’ve had a cou...
October 27, 2023
Tony Teleferic
Restaurant: Teleferic Barcelona Los Angeles
Location: 11930 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (424) 832-7595
Date: March 14, April 8, & June 4, 2023
Cuisine: Spanish
Rating: Tasty contemporary Tapas
_Good Spanish in Brentwood — woot!
Teleferic is located in the old Vincenti space. The shape is essentially the same but they’ve given it a nice modern makeover.
The interior.
The menu.
Albarinos.
Amuse of some kind of cheese and mushroom tart. This was very well baked, but oddly use...
October 25, 2023
Super Sauvages
Restaurant: Laurent Quenioux at the Villamalka for Sauvages
Location: The Villamalka
Date: March 10, 2023
Cuisine: Contemporary French Californian
Rating: Awesome
_I’ve been wanting to host a Sauvages lunch for awhile, and finally did in Spring of 2023. For the chef, I again tapped Laurent Quenioux, one of my favorite LA private chefs.
It was pouring outside so we set the table inside. Pushing the limit of pour size, we had 17 gentleman at a single table with 8 stems each (for 5 flights).
Our...
October 23, 2023
DimSumQuest – Colette
Restaurant: Colette
Location: 975 N Michillinda Ave, Pasadena, CA 91107. (626) 510-6286
Date: March 8, 2023
Cuisine: Contemporary Chinese
Rating: Solid, slightly experimental dim sum
_There is a lot of buzz about Colette, which is part of the “next generation” of LA Chinese restaurants. They opened in a cafe-like space and are serving both Cantonese-esqe and dim sum. From their website:
Colette is a Cantonese-based creative Asian restaurant that welcomes people from all walks of life for all o...
October 21, 2023
Dumplings at You Kitchen
Restaurant: You Kitchen
Location: 1402 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 977-8088
Date: March 7, 2023
Cuisine: Cuisine dumplings
Rating: top notch dumplings
_When my High School friend Mike comes to town (from Hawaii) we love to hit up new SGV Chinese places.
This dumpling specialist doesn’t even have a liquor license, so we went dry, but the dumplings were worth it — and the carb coma.
Short but sweet menu.
And some specials.
Still tasted awesome!
Very minimal interior, classic old...
October 19, 2023
More Monterey Palace
Restaurant: Monterey Palace [1, 2, 3]
Location: 1001 E Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91755. (626) 571-0888
Date: March 5, 2023
Cuisine: Cantonese Banquet
Rating: Great dinner!
_The DimSumQuest continues with Monterey Park classic Monterey Palace.
It’s right there on Garvey with that classic 90s look.
And the classic Monterey Park dining room.
Hanging roast meats.
Our private room.
Peanuts. Super salty but actually some of the best salted peanuts I can remember.
Suckling Pig. Perfec...
October 17, 2023
Rolling into Issan Station
Restaurant: Issan Station
Location: 125 N Western Ave unit 111, Los Angeles, CA 90004. (323) 380-5126
Date: March 3, 2023
Cuisine: Thai street food
Rating: Really bright and tasty
_Bovon and Jeffrey sussed out this new KTown casual Thai place.
Semi-industrial strip front frontage.
The menu. Pretty lunch oriented.
Cute decor.
Thai Iced Tea.
Isaan Sausage. Deep-fried sausages of fermented pork and glutinous rice. Very nice “gamey” and slightly sour sausages.
Glutinous rice.
Crying T...
October 15, 2023
Inside Asanebo
Location: 11941 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604. (818) 760-3348
Date: March 1, 2023
Cuisine: Japanese
Rating: Very good creative Japanese
_Asanebo has been a high end valley classic spot for a long time and we come periodically to enjoy the omakase. The previous meal is detailed here.
Chef Tetsuya Nakao came to America in 1982. Him and his younger brother, Shunji, were the original chefs that helped start Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills. After establishing the restaura...
October 12, 2023
In the Mood for Moodaepo?
Restaurant: Moodaepo
Location: 3014 7th St, Los Angeles, CA. (213) 381-9990
Date: February 28, 2023
Cuisine: Korean BBQ
Rating: Actual place is just a AYCE joint
_Okay — this was a strange dinner. Originally, Jeffrey, Erick, and I were supposed to go to Teleferic — but in classic Jeffrey fashion he jumped the gun, went a few days earlier, then wanted to do a big gang bang instead in order to make a show for his Instagram buddy — so we ended up going with Bovon to Moodaepo.
Now, normally, Mooda...
