Andy Gavin's Blog, page 77
December 1, 2018
Szechuan Impression West
Restaurant: Sichuan Impression
Location: 11057 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 444-7171
Date: October 10 and November 6 & 30th, 2018
Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese
Rating: SGV on the Westside
_I’ve been waiting all summer for Sichuan Impression — one of my favorite SGV haunts — westside branch to open up and so it was that Yarom, Keong, and I descended on them at 11am opening day! Plus returned twice a month later for more updates.
They took up residence in the old Jin Jiang whic...
November 30, 2018
Krug Providence
Restaurant: Providence [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Location: 5955 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 460-4170
Date: October 4, 2018
Cuisine: Cal French
Rating: Awesome food & Amazing Champ
_Providence is always good but it’s especially good when it’s a Sage Society arranged (and free!) Krug dinner. I love Krug. Anyone who doesn’t is fairly suspect :-).
While the colors are different, Providence still looks a lot like Patina to me — as the layout is basically the same.
The bar has this blue a...
November 28, 2018
It’s not really Silverlake Ramen
Restaurant: Silverlake Ramen
Location: 1319 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (424) 330-0125
Date: October 4, 2018
Cuisine: Ramen
Rating: Solid
_Silverlake Ramen’s original shop (located in Silverlake) is one of LA’s better small ramen shops.
Recently they moved onto Santa Monica Promenade (my old hood) as well as some other Ca locations, so I guess it’s not exactly Silverlake Ramen anymore.
The small menu — smaller I think than at the original.
Karaage (Japanese fried chicken...
November 26, 2018
More Monty with the Mouse
Location: 1313 Disneyland Dr, Anaheim, CA 92802 (714) 635-2300
Date: October 3, 2018
Cuisine: Californian
Rating: Unimaginative but solid
_After our last visit here in August, we discovered all sorts of under market goodies on the extensive wine list and so the same gang returned for more Montrachet and other greats. Plus some stuff we brought.
The “iconic” flagship restaurant of the Disney empire set in the Grand Californian.
They have a lot of wine.
And an e...
November 25, 2018
Blue Ribbon Sushi
Restaurant: Blue Ribbon Sushi
Location: 1079-1001 Monument St, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. (310) 907-9899
Date: October 2, 2018
Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi
Rating: Solid but a bit boring sushi
_Blue Ribbon Sushi is the only “exotic” place (and not really that exotic) in the new Palisades Village Complex.
The space is small but very cute with a big patio facing on the green.
The menu looks pretty decent.
Tiger Shrimp. Wasabi Mayo. Good, but a touch over fried and quite salty.
Hamachi Uzuu...
November 20, 2018
Derek moved to China Red
Restaurant: China Red
Location: 855 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 445-3700
Date: September 30, 2018
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: Very good Cantonese, has some DM though
_Another Sunday, another Chinese. In this case we came to China Red because our friend Derek, former manager of Elite and World Seafood has moved here.
For some reason I’ve been on a run of places on the slightly more “Eastern” half of the main SGV. Slightly more annoying drive too as it’s 10-15 minutes further.
The i...
November 17, 2018
Sotto Rossoblu Mashup
Restaurant: Sotto [1, 2, 3, 4]
Location: 9575 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035 310.277.0210
Date: September 27, 2018
Cuisine: Sicilian and Sardinian Italian
Rating: Bold flavors, off to a great start!
_This was a peculiar lunch, the annual Chevalier’s “Grand Cru” lunch which was supposed to be at Rossoblu — but they had a kitchen fire and so it was relocated to their sister restaurant Sotto.
Sotto has a nice location on Pico underneath Beverly Hills.
I’ve never been here in the day and...
November 14, 2018
Driving to Daw Yee
Restaurant: Daw Yee Myanmar Corner
Location: 2837 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026. (213) 413-0568
Date: September 26, 2018
Cuisine: Myanmar Cuisine
Rating: a touch bland and hence disappointing
_I braved the deadly rush hour traffic to the ass’s end of LA (from a Westsider’s perspective) — Silverlake!
Mostly because I wasn’t sure if I’d ever had genuine Myanmar food before. This is a relatively new branch of an SGV place. It’s located right next to Silverlake Ramen, Pho Cafe, and down th...
November 12, 2018
No Drama at Dama
Restaurant: Dama Fashion District
Location: 612 E 11th St, Los Angeles, CA 90015. (213) 741-0612
Date: September 24, 2018
Cuisine: Spanish / Mexican — aka “Latin Inspired”
Rating: Super tasty
_This slog through traffic to Downtown LA (which actually wasn’t too bad due to a late hour and it being a Monday) was to visit trendy new Dama which serves up some “Latin Inspired” food in a lounge-like setting in the Fashion District.
This is an attractive building in the middle of the big space that...
November 9, 2018
Quick Eats – Porta Via
Restaurant: Porta Via
Location: 63 N Swarthmore Ave, Pacific Palisades, CA 9027. (310) 499-2989
Date: September 24, 2018
Cuisine: Hint of Italian
Rating: New, nice ambiance, and solidly mediocre food
_Rich Caruso, billionaire developer, has recently redeveloped the Palisades Village area just 2 minutes from my house. After years of no restaurants at all we were excited to get a raft of new ones and so I have been systematically trying them. Do bear in mind that this place was about 3 days o...
