Andy Gavin's Blog, page 68
July 15, 2019
Happy Table 2X
Restaurant: Happy Table [1, 2]
Location: 203 West Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA. (626) 872-6677
Date: June 8, 2019
Cuisine: Northern Chinese
Rating: Solid
_Four years ago I last went to Happy Table, where it had replaced New Bay and before it Sham Tsem. Usually I would merge the meals but this was significantly different, and a peculiar service experience, so I’m writing it up as its own meal.
Front looks the same, minus the new sign.
We had half the big private room, which was fine given our 1...
July 12, 2019
Chateau Hanare — Death Free
Restaurant: Chateau Hanare
Location: 8097 Selma Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046. (323) 963-5269
Date: June 4, 2019
Cuisine: Japanese
Rating: Interesting, tres LA
_I hadn’t even heard of Chateau Hanare until the day I went with the Foodie Club (regular member Larry arranged).
It’s “in collaboration with The Chateau Marmont Hotel & Bungalows” and located adjacent to the famed Chateau Marmont (final dying place of John Belushi & Chris Farley). It’s “fancy” Hollywood Japanese.
They have a a gorgeou...
July 10, 2019
Eating Jerusalem – Touro
Restaurant: Touro
Location: S.U Nachon St | Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem, Israel. +972 2-570-2189
Date: June 25, 2019
Cuisine: Israeli
Rating: Fabulous for kosher food
_After 25+ hours on the plane and in airports our first tired evening in the Holy Land leads us to:
Up to that is:
Climbing the steps of Jerusalem stone, just outside the old city.
We find this lovely windowed room.
And the view across the valley to the old city.
The menu. Touro is a modern Kosher Meat restaurant.
Br...
July 8, 2019
SGV Style – Deferred Maintenance
Restaurant: Shanghai #1 Seafood Village [1, 2, 3, 4]
Location: 250 W Valley Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 282-1777
Date: June 2, 2019
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.
The decor is Stark meets Chinatown. Interestingly, as cheesy as it is, it’s fairly authentic....
July 5, 2019
Quick Eats – Mogumogu
Restaurant: Mogumogu
Location: 11555 W Olympic Blvd Suite B, Los Angeles, CA 90064. (424) 371-5085
Date: May 30, 2019
Cuisine: “Soupless” Ramen
Rating: Good
_Mogumogu is a new “soupless” ramen joint near Sawtelle.
It’s located in the space of the former Ramen-ya, just to the west on Olympic.
The interior is… simple.
The menu.
“Umami” vinegar and sesame seeds.
Shishito. Flash fried Japanese peppers with salt and lemon. I’ve had better shishito — I’ve had worse.
Deluxe mazeman. Sliced p...
July 3, 2019
Awesome Auburn
Restaurant: Auburn
Location: 6703 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 486-6703
Date: May 29, 2019
Cuisine: Modern California
Rating: Really good fine dining
_Auburn is a much anticipated recent opening in LA’s often bankrupt fine dining space.
It occupies the space formerly belonging to the legendary Citrus, then Alex, then Hatfields (all of which I enjoyed).
They’ve partially roofed over, divided and modernized the space, removing the 80s-90s LA garden feel (which I kind of liked, b...
June 28, 2019
Carmel Birthday!
One of my best friends rented out a house in Carmel Valley California for his 40th birthday party and a bunch of us all drove up/down there.
We “suffered” this terrible view from the balcony of our rental getaway!
But this is the chronicle of the main birthday dinner as cooked by private chef Arielle Mckee (above).
Her loyal assistant, Bailey working the early 90s kitchen.
And so the meal begins:
Cocktail. French 75, Meyer lemon, gin, rose petal, keto simple syrup.
From my cellar: 2011 P...
June 26, 2019
Hayato Redux
Location: 1320 E 7th St #126, Los Angeles, CA 90021. (213) 395-0607
Date: May 17, 2019
Cuisine: Japanese Kaiseki
Rating: Amazing
_For the third of the three epic meals shoved into Fred’s 36 hour May LA visit we again traveled east to DTLA Japanese newcomer, Hayato.
It’s located in Downtown’s fancy new “ROW” complex — and quite hard to find (use the guide on the website).
This time we had all (7-8) seats in the place and we gathered outside for a few minutes before...
June 23, 2019
Thai Tour – Jitlada
Restaurant: Jitlada [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Location: 5233 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 663-3104
Date: May 23, 2019
Cuisine: Thai
Rating: Gut burning great
_Our final stop on the April/May 2019 Thai Tour is Hedonist regular joint, Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong.
You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce. The menu can be found here.
After a fe...
June 21, 2019
Marche Modern Madness
Restaurant: Marche Modern
Location: 7862 Pacific Coast Hwy, Newport Beach, CA 92657. (714) 434-7900
Date: May 16, 2019
Cuisine: Modern French
Rating: Great food and service
_This particular reunion of the Foodie Club: OC Edition has been in the making for months. Fred was buying up old Coche, Roulot, and Leroy for us in anticipation.
Due to group constraints, we had to meet deep in the OC at 6:15 — but before that, we caught a late, HUGE, amazing wine lunch at the LSXO — even my hollow leg...
