Andy Gavin's Blog, page 60
January 15, 2020
White Elephant is Pretty White
Restaurant: White Elephant
Location: 759 Huntingdon Pike, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006. (215) 663-1495
Date: November 26, 2019
Cuisine: Thai
Rating: Fine, but “Americanized” Thai
_This year for ThanksGavin 2019 we arrived a day early in Philadelphia and so went out locally with my parents and Aunt & Uncle to:
White Elephant, a nearby strip mall Thai.
They have nicely decorated the fairly boring space. No Thai (language) on the menu!
Some kind of lobster roll.
Crispy Roll. Filled with...
January 13, 2020
Dirty Dozen at Capital Seafood
Restaurant: Capital Seafood Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3]
Location: 50 N La Cienega Blvd #130, Beverly Hills, CA 90211.(310) 855-1234
Date: November 25, 2019
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Good for this far west
_For the second time in a single weekend, I return to the only really good Cantonese west of the SGV.
Capital is the latest SGV place to move west, occupying the Newport Seafood Beverly Hills location that failed to work out. Not that I love even the original Newport, but Capital is...
January 10, 2020
Capital Sauvages
Restaurant: Capital Seafood Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3]
Location: 50 N La Cienega Blvd #130, Beverly Hills, CA 90211.(310) 855-1234
Date: November 22, 2019
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Good for this far west
_Finding great Chinese west of the SGV has long been a problem, but the “great wall” between east and west has been cracking with lots and lots of new openings closer to (my) home. Today I visit with the Sauvages Friday lunch group for another one of our epic lunches — guaranteed to...
January 8, 2020
Loosen at Spago
Restaurant: Spago[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
Location:176 N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210.(310) 385-0880
Date: November 20, 2019
Cuisine: New American
Rating:Still great
_As you can see from the links above I’ve done a lot of wine dinners at Spago — and for good reason because with the right person planning they do a spectacular job. Tonight’s was organized and hosted by Liz Lee of Sage Society and she is the best wine dinner organizer in the city. It features wines by Dr Loosen and the Dr...
January 6, 2020
Hard to Find – Inn Ann
Restaurant: Inn Ann
Location: 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 677-5557 (inside Hollywood & Highland)
Date: November 19, 2019
Cuisine: Japanese Sushi
Rating: Great sushi, hard to find
_We Foodie Club guys always like to try great sushi, so when we heard that Mori — founder of Mori Sushi — had taken up in Hollywood, off we went (took a bit of rescheduling too).
Translating to “hidden retreat,” INN ANN offers a high-end, seasonal Japanese tasting menu dining experience within...
January 3, 2020
Posh Taverna – Avra
Restaurant: Avra Beverly Hills Estiatorio
Location: 233 N Beverly Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 734-0841
Date: November 18, 2019
Cuisine: Greek
Rating: Pricey, but the quality is excellent
_New York City’s famed, authentic Greekrestaurant Avra Madison Estiatorio has opened its firstwest coast outpost, appropriately namedAVRA Beverly Hills. Locatedin the “Golden Triangle” of Beverly Hills, AVRA Beverly Hills is designed byaward-winning architecture and design firm Rockwell Group. The...
January 2, 2020
Chef Yu Bo & LQ Foodings
Restaurant:Laurent Quenioux / Yu Bo [1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
Location: Korea Town
Date: November 15, 2019
Cuisine: Modern French & Modern Szechuan Chinese!
Rating: Maybe the best LQ yet!
_Six and a half years agoFoodie Clubco-organizer Erick and I put together one of our more legendary dinners, theBistro LQ Trufflumpagus. Ever since then we periodically trek out to visit our friend Chef Laurent for some kind of extravaganza — and tonight he’s hosting a special two chef dinner in Korea Town...
December 30, 2019
Expedition Nozomi
Restaurant: Nozomi
Location: 1757 W Carson St # L, Torrance, CA 90501. (310) 320-5511
Date: November 13, 2019
Cuisine: Sushi
Rating: Great value, really good sushi
_My friend Steven came recently to one of our Chinese dinners and wanted to “return the favor” by showing us one of his favorite sushi spots in Torrance.
Nozomi is in the heart of the vastness of little Japan that is Torrance.
This is a real deal sort of Japanese place with the tatami rooms, etc.
The menu.
Yarom brought this...
December 26, 2019
The Witcher (TV) Season 1
Show: The Witcher
Genre: High Fantasy
Watched: Season 1 – December 23-25, 2019
Summary: Loved it, but I was prepared
_It’s been a while since I wrote a TV review, but after binge watching the show, and given my love of Fantasy, The Witcher (both novels and games), and the general process of adaption, I pretty much had no choice.
This is a show written for fans and perhaps not for the uninitiated. It’s unabashedly High Fantasy and is (mostly) extremely faithful to both the source novels for...
December 25, 2019
Ancient Italian (wine) at Sixth & Mill
Restaurant: Sixth & Mill
Location: 1335 E 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90021. (213) 629-3000
Date: November 11, 2019
Cuisine: Italian Pizza
Rating: Super Tasty Pizza, but far (for me)
_This post documents an interesting combo event. My friend Walker, member of the Foodie Club, put together this event at his friend, Chef Angelo Auriana’s new pizza place downtown (located next to his other restaurant, Berea).
Chef Angelo’s pizza is his very own version of the pizza Napoletana, which was initially...
