Andy Gavin's Blog, page 76
December 24, 2018
So Many Palaces, So Few Sundays
Restaurant: Monterey Palace Restaurant
Location: 1001 E Garvey Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91755. Phone number (626) 571-0888
Date: November 11, 2018
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Tony always gets great stuff out of the kitchen
_Tony Lau’s Cantonese dinners are some of the best Chinese dinners of the year. He always manages to get the best out of these old school Cantonese kitchens.
Monterey Palace is definitely one of these old school 80s Cantonese Palaces on Garvey.
The interior is the u...
December 21, 2018
Florida Beach Mega Sushi Buffet
Restaurant: Santo’s Modern American Buffet & Sushi
Location: 3400 N. Federal Hwy, Original location in Coral Springs, FL, Boca Raton, FL 33431. +1 561-923-9378
Date: November 2, 2018
Cuisine:Modern American Buffet & Sushi
Rating: Excellent neighborhood Italian
_Recently I went to Del Rey Beach Florida for the wedding of my oldest friend, Brent — which was awesome.
As part of the Florida fun we went to this interesting AYCE (All You Can Eat) sushi buffet. Since it’s so “different” than the u...
December 19, 2018
Hank’s Palisades
Restaurant: Hank’s Pacific Palisades
Location: 1033 N Swarthmore Ave, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. (310) 427-3077
Date: November 3, 2018
Cuisine: Burger joint
Rating: Good burger, but narrow menu and expensive
_I’m slowly working through all the places in the new Palisades Village.
Hank’s is right on Swarthmore, just a bit down from where the old Mort’s Deli (much missed) was. They have a nice patio.
The build out is a bit pubby.
The menu. Sadly it’s pretty much all burgers / sandwiches....
December 17, 2018
Sauvages 71Above
Restaurant: 71Above [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
Location: 633 W 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Date: October 26, 2018
Cuisine: New American
Rating: Awesome in all ways
_71Above is one of my favorite LA restaurants and I’ve been many times. Today the location plays host to a special aged Cabernet Sauvignon lunch with our Sauvages group with a special menu prepared by chef Vartan Abgaryan and a number of guest chefs.
Besides being located on the 71st floor (950 feet up!) of the US Bank building,...
December 14, 2018
Hayato Highs
Restaurant: Hayato
Location: 1320 E 7th St #126, Los Angeles, CA 90021. (213) 395-0607
Date: October 23, 2018
Cuisine: Japanese Kaiseki
Rating: Amazing
_For Fred’s final diner 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).
It’s tiny, only 8 seats, and helmed entirely by chef Brandon Go. As he says, Hayato is the culmination of a twenty year journey he has taken as an Amer...
December 12, 2018
Quick Eats – Tratto
Restaurant: Tratto
Location: 15306 Sunset Blvd, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. (424) 581-4000
Date: October 21, 2018
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Good for the palisades
_The Village development isn’t the only thing opening recent in Pacific Palisades, we have a new Italian — in a town that is over-swamped (percentage wise) with (mediocre) Italian offerings.
It’s located in the old Tivioli space right across from the village.
Has a large outside patio.
The menu has lots of tasty sounding options...
December 10, 2018
Chong Qing Special Noodles
Restaurant: Chong Qing Special Noodles
Location: 708 E Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 374-1849
Date: October 20, 2018
Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese
Rating: Good Chong Qing style casual place
_I’ll take any excuse to head out to the SGV — and next to no excuse to head out to the SGV for Szechuan.
Most of the Szechuan places I go to have their culinary roots in Chengdu, but a few, like this one, in Szechuan’s larger, less iconic city: Chongqing.
Clearly this used to be a KBBQ or som...
December 7, 2018
Dirty Dozen Grand
Restaurant: Grand Harbor [1, 2, 3]
Location: 5733 Rosemead Blvd, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 280-2998
Date: October 14, 2018
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Very good Cantonese
_It has become traditional for the Dirty Dozen (our blind tasting group within a group) to do white wine lunches over dim sum — but this time we mixed it up slightly and combined with Sunday night dinner into a Cantonese banquet Dirty Dozen White dinner. I think this was originally white Burgundy themed, then open...
December 5, 2018
Piedmont at Maude
Location: 212 South Beverly Drive. Beverly Hills, CA. (310) 859-3418
Date: October 10, 2018
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 4 years ago in late 2014. But that was back several chefs ago, and now-a-days they have a “season” (of 3 months I think) with a wine theme and food to match. Re...
December 3, 2018
Capital Dim Sum
Restaurant: Capital Seafood Beverly Hills
Location: 50 N La Cienega Blvd #130, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (310) 855-1234
Date: October 10, 2018
Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum
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.
Capital is the latest SGV place to move west, occupying the Newport Seafood Beverly Hills location that failed to wo...
