Andy Gavin's Blog, page 5
August 14, 2025
Hmmm Cipppriani
Restaurant: Cipriani Beverly Hills
Location: 362 N Camden Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 424-4247
Date: March 31, 2025
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Weirdly old school
_Cipriani Beverly Hills, which welcomed its first guests in late 2023, is the West Coast flagship of the storied Cipriani family, custodians of Venetian hospitality since Giuseppe Cipriani Sr. opened Harry’s Bar on the Grand Canal in 1931. Still family-owned and steered today by fourth-generation brothers Ignazio and Maggio Cipria...
August 12, 2025
Tony Lau at World Seafood
Restaurant: World Seafood Restaurant [1, 2, 3, 4]
Location: 1412 S Garfield Ave, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 300-9898
Date: April 6, 2025
Cuisine: Chinese seafood
Rating: Awesome Cantonese
_I haven’t been here since 2020, but Tony Lau dinners always provide a great excuse for Cantonese. Hey, Sunday is a great excuse for Cantonese.
World Seafood Restaurant opened its doors in 2014, taking over a cavernous former banquet space on South Garfield Avenue and quickly asserting itself as one of the San ...
August 10, 2025
Marea Beverly Hills
Restaurant: Marea
Location: 430 N Camden Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. *unknown*
Date: March 6 & May 12, 2025
Cuisine: Coastal Italian
Chef: Sofia Morales
Rating: Fabulous
_Marea opened its doors on North Camden Drive in the summer of 2022, the brainchild of Milan-born restaurateur Luca D’Ambrosi and executive chef Sofia Morales, who met while staging on the Ligurian coast. Determined to translate the pleasure of an unhurried seaside lunch into an urban California setting, the partners took over...
August 8, 2025
Late-night Baroo
Restaurant: Baroo
Location: 905 E 2nd St #110, Los Angeles, CA 90012. (213) 221-7299
Date: March 4, 2025
Cuisine: Modern Korean
Chef: Kwang Uh
Rating: Very unique and tasty
_Baroo first appeared in 2015 as a minuscule, almost monastic strip-mall café in East Hollywood, where Korean-born, Noma-trained chef Kwang Uh mesmerized diners with grain bowls, house-cultured vinegars, and kimchi that tasted like nothing else in Los Angeles. When that original location closed in 2018, its cult following ne...
August 6, 2025
Kato 2025 part 1
Restaurant: Kato [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Location: 777 S Alameda St #114, Los Angeles, CA 90021. (424) 535-3041
Date: February 27, 2025
Cuisine: Taiwanese
Chef: Jonathan Yao
Rating: Amazing, although pricey
_Kato opened in 2016 as a tiny, 26-seat spot hidden in a Sawtelle strip mall, the passion project of Taiwanese-American chef Jonathan Yao, who was just 25 at the time. Working with virtually no décor budget and a two-person kitchen crew, Yao spun memories of his mother’s cooking and stages at Benu ...
August 4, 2025
Hengzhou (Hunan) Chilli King
Restaurant: Hunan Chilli King [1, 2]
Location: 500 E Valley Blvd A132, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 570-8188
Date: February 23, 2025
Cuisine: Chinese
Chef: Li ‘Peter’ Zhang
Rating: Great heat
_Hunan Chilli King slipped into the sprawling San Gabriel Square plaza in 2009, staking out a modest two-room suite with nothing more than a red-and-yellow sign and the promise of serious heat. The restaurant is family-owned; chef-patriarch Li “Peter” Zhang, a native of Hengyang, brought decades of wok exp...
August 1, 2025
Fine Fitoor
Restaurant: Fitoor
Location: 115 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 829-7200
Date: February 7 & March 27, 2025
Cuisine: Indian
Chef: Pawan Mahendro
Rating: Very tasty and bold
_Fitoor opened on the western edge of downtown Santa Monica in late 2023 as the follow-up project from chef-patriarch Pawan Mahendro and his sons Nakul and Arjun, the family behind L.A.’s cult Indian gastropub Badmaash. After a decade of hearing Westsiders ask when they would bring their cooking closer to th...
July 30, 2025
Dong Bei BBQ
Restaurant: Dongbei Bbq
Location: 639 W Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 280-1718
Date: February 2, 2025
Cuisine: Chinese
Chef: Leo Zhao
Rating: Tasty but empty
_This new Chinese BBQ place takes over for the more ambitious “silk worm” place. They may be from similar regions.
It did get a bit of a decor upgrade.
Peanuts.
Century egg and tofu. Pretty delicious. The century egg, with its glossy, dark jade exterior, offers a rich, umami flavor that beautifully contrasts with the silky...
July 28, 2025
Getting Steamy
Restaurant: Youpeng Seafood
Location: 18558 Gale Ave Ste 186, City of Industry, CA 91748. *unknown*
Date: January 25, 2025
Cuisine: Chinese
Chef: Wang Qiang
Rating: Interesting, but a touch “boring”
_Youpeng Seafood opened its doors in 2017, tucked into the corner of Pacific Plaza on Gale Avenue—an unassuming strip-mall location that belies its ambitious scope. The restaurant is the personal project of Tianjin-born chef-owner Wang Qiang, who spent years cooking for the historic Gou-Bu-Li dumpli...
July 26, 2025
More Electric Playground
Here is another blast from the past with an episode of Electric Playground I and the Naughty Dog team filmed back in 2001!
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