Andy Gavin's Blog, page 42
December 1, 2022
Lunch Quest – Da Long Yi
Restaurant: DaLongYi Hot Pot 大龙燚火锅
Location: 250 W Valley Blvd L, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 872-6690
Date: May 20, 2022
Cuisine: Chinese Szechuan Hot Pot
Rating: Very solid spicy hot pot place
_Da Long Yi Hot Pot is a relatively new spicy hot pot branch of some Chinese chain, in the Chongking style, but from Chengdu specifically.
It’s located located on the second floor of this classic mall right next door to Shanghai #1 Seafood Village.
The interior has a decent but modern industrial bui...
November 29, 2022
Ancient Baroli
Restaurant: Heroic Deli and Wine Bar [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
Location: 516 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 490-0202
Date: May 17, 2022
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Awesome wines and time
_In Spring of 2022 friend Jeffrey, owner of Heroic Italian, hosted a series of old wine dinners. This one is (mostly) old Barolo. These things are immortal and some of my favorite accessible old wines.
To complement Jeffrey prepared an almost ludicrously rich and copious amount of food. Pay careful a...
November 27, 2022
Sunny Sauvages
Restaurant: Chef James Lambrinos
Location: Pasadena
Date: May 13, 2022
Cuisine: Italian
_Today’s Sauvages lunch was graciously hosted by Tim at at his beautiful home in Pasadena. This event is held outdoors and features Cru Baroli, 2007 & Older. We enjoyed a Northern Italian inspired menu prepared by Chef James Lambrinos, of Bistro 45 in Pasadena.
It was a toasty 100+ day in this gorgeous ridge-top setting.
So we hid under the shade and cracked some champagne!
And a white burg.
Jose bro...
November 22, 2022
Slytherin Specialty
Restaurant: Toku Unagi & Sushi
Location: 1106 N La Cienega Blvd #201, West Hollywood, CA 90069. (310) 854-7285
Date: May 12, 2022
Cuisine: Japanese BBQ Eel
Rating: D-eel-ishish
_Our Foodie Club / Sushi Series group decided to hit up this Unagi (Japanese freshwater eel) speciality spot.
Unagi or Japanese freshwater eel, has been consumed in Japan for centuries. Unajyu and Ohitsu are couple of the staple dishes and the recipes for these ever-popular Japanese traditional foods is said to have bee...
November 20, 2022
Tuk Tuk Thai
Restaurant: Tuk Tuk Thai
Location: 1638 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 860-1872
Date: March 8, 2022 and various 2022 dates
Cuisine: Thai Street Food
Rating: Best Thai on the Westside
_I was excited to find that the abandoned Dahab space was replaced with a well rated Thai Street Food joint. They’ve been around for a little while and recently needed to move locations.
The interior is minimal, but cute.
The menu is more street food focused than the traditional big Thai menus.
Sou...
November 18, 2022
Gucci Gucci
Restaurant: Gucci Osteria
Location: 347 N Rodeo Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (424) 600-7490
Date: May 5, 2022
Cuisine: Modern Italian
Rating: Amazing — and foamy!
_Over a decade ago I had an amazing meal at Osteria Francescana in Modena, one of the most respected and highly rated restaurants in Italy. So, I was very excited, but cautious, to hear that Chef Massimo Bottura partnered with Gucci (of all things) to open a restaurant in Beverly Hills.
It has it’s own door right next to the store on...
November 16, 2022
Crustacean Again?
Restaurant: Crustacean Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Location: 468 N Bedford Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 205-8990
Date: April 26, 2022
Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion
Rating: Awesome as always
_Crustacean is one of our regular haunts and features a great patio in these “outside is better” days. Tonight’s meal was a Hedonist wine dinner, the second so far in 2022.
We’ve had a couple awesome meals here in the last couple of years.
For extra caution in these uncertain times we ate on one of th...
November 13, 2022
NC Peking Duck again
Update on this awesome place can be found here.
Ultimate Condiment Box. Tons of interesting things to put in the duck pancake, including sweet and spicy sauces, sugar, candied fruits, melon, etc.
November 11, 2022
Lawry’s Chateauneuf
Restaurant: Lawry’s The Prime Rib [1, 2]
Location: 100 La Cienega Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (310) 652-2827
Date: April 20, 2022
Cuisine: Steakhouse
Rating: Surprisingly excellent — great service too
_The blind tasting sub group of the hedonists, the Dirty Dozen, moves around. Tonight’s theme was Chateauneuf du Pape.
Lawry’s The Prime Rib. Look at this “they don’t make ’em like they used to” dining room. I hadn’t been to Lawry’s in at least 20+ years. I think it might even have been at thei...
November 9, 2022
Shanghai #1 2022
Restaurant: Shanghai #1 Seafood Village [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Location: 250 W Valley Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 282-1777
Date: April 17 & July 9, 2022
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: Very authentic Shanghai style
_The San Gabriel Valley is a veritable treasure trove of Asian dining, particularly regional Chinese. Shanghai #1 Seafood Village is the LA branch of a high end Shanghai chain specializing in banquet dining. Here in 2022 we returned for a pair of dinners to see how it was doing post pandemi...
