Andy Gavin's Blog, page 34
June 6, 2023
Chifa Revisit
A detailed update following our second visit to LA’s best Chifa restaurant.
Special order Cowboy Lomo Saltado. Cowboy Tomahawk Ribeye steak, wood grilled and sautéed with cherry tomatoes and onions. This was an incredible steak with great smoky flavor that was really amped up by the veggies. The beef fat soaked fries were incredible too. A real meat and potato feast.
June 4, 2023
Wagyu House by The X Pot
Restaurant: Wagyu House by The X Pot
Location: 18558 Gale Ave Suite 122-128, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (866) 610-0609
Date: October 20, 2022
Cuisine: Chinese Hot Pot
Rating: A bit of style over substance, but solid
_This was actually just a “Lunch Quest” where we set out to the far SGV to check out this “fancy hot pot” I’d seen online. Turned out it was mobbed! Chinese food in the SGV is never crowded for weekday lunch!
We had to wait about 50 minutes. The wait was weird because the place is ...
June 2, 2023
Kato DTLA
Restaurant: Kato Restaurant [1, 2, 3, 4]
Location: 777 S Alameda St Building 1, Suite 114, Los Angeles, CA 90021. (213) 797-5770
Date: October 13, 2022
Cuisine: Omakase Asian
Rating: Even better, but too far
_In late 2021 Kato, a longstanding modern Asian omakase/kaiseki in Santa Monica shut up shop and moved downtown to a larger, far more glamorous space. Erick and I were bummed because there are so few unique places on the westside — and well the Row is FAR!
The nominal excuse for tonight’s d...
May 30, 2023
Back to the Borgese’s
Restaurant: Dinner at the Borgese’s [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
Location: Santa Monica
Date: October 11, 2022
Cuisine: Italian influenced gourmet home cooking
Rating: Awesome
_Dinner at the Borgese’s is a special house dinner in Santa Monica cooked by the stunning pro-level home chef Borgese couple. Tonight’s dinner follows hot on the heels of a Billecart dinner I did here a few weeks before. It’s so close that the Halloween decorations were even more opulent.
The Borgese’s LOVE Halloween and ...
May 28, 2023
Lunch Quest – Pizzeria Sei
Restaurant: Pizzeria Sei
Location: 8781 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035. (424) 279-9800
Date: October 10, 2022
Cuisine: Pizza
Rating: Very good, but very specific Neo-Neapolitan pizza
_There has been a lot of buzz about Pizzeria Sei. I’ll just quote from Michelin who wrong it up:
Thick or thin. Sauced or left bare. Traditional or irreverent. Pizza is the shape-shifter of the culinary world, with seemingly endless variations and an insatiable appetite for the newest iteration. Enter Pizzeria ...
May 26, 2023
Big at Bistro Na
Restaurant: Bistro Na’s [1, 2, 3]
Location: 9055 E Las Tunas Dr #105, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 286-1999
Date: October 9, 2022 and January 7, 2023
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: Upscale Chinese, solid kitchen
_Chinese Restaurants in the SGV are slowly going more upscale in a way that’s different than the Cantonese palaces of Monterey Park of yesterday. I’ve been here several times before, even celebrating a birthday, but Jeffrey wanted to go, and we figured we’d check it out post pandemic (10/9/22...
May 24, 2023
Quick Eats – Savida
Restaurant: Savida
Location: 1303 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403. (310) 310-3772
Date: October 8 and 15, 2022
Cuisine: Crudo
Rating: Hit and Miss
_This brand new place is close to our house and so we went two weeks in a row (and haven’t been back since actually). It was fast and fairly tasty, with a good selection of low carb options, but a tiny menu that changes constantly. This “crudo” concept is kinda in, perhaps because it works in a small place without a proper hood. I think you could...
May 22, 2023
RoboEats – Okumura
Restaurant: Okumura Restaurant
Location: 17302 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA 91316. (818) 986-9712
Date: October 3, 2022
Cuisine: Japanese Sushi
Rating: Fine
_Here I was just trying to find a reasonably priced but solid Sushi spot during one of my valley dinner “waits” (while my son was in robotics).
Nice enough interior.
Salad.
Albacore with crispy onions and ponzu.
Halibut and sweetened soy.
Hamachi Jalepeno.
Salmon and Hamachi sashimi.
Scallop and Mackerel Sashimi.
Toro, uni, and eel sush...
May 20, 2023
DimSumQuest – Blooming VIP
Restaurant: Blooming VIP Restaurant
Location: 8118 Garvey Ave A, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 280-2288
Date: October 7, 2022
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese Dim Sum
Rating: Solid
_This was sort of the first of a new series we called DimSumQuest, in which a bunch of us actively hit some of Southern California’s vast array of Dim Sum places in short order (1-2 a week over several months) in order to suss out their relative merits. Technically speaking, at the time of this visit we hadn’t yet conceived t...
May 18, 2023
Maude 3.0
Restaurant: Maude [1, 2, 3, 4]
Location: 212 South Beverly Drive. Beverly Hills, CA. (310) 859-3418
Date: October 6, 2022
Cuisine: French Californian
Rating: Great Theme
_When it opened several years ago, Maude was a big deal on the LA restaurant scene. For quite some time they had a unique “one ingredient, one month” theme. I had gone in late 2014. But that was back several chefs ago, and then they moved to a “season” (of 3 months I think) with a wine theme and food to match. After the pandemi...
