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  1. 9021Pho

    September 9, 2012 by editor

    9021Pho has a super corny name. And oddly enough it only has three stars on Yelp. I was a bit hesitant to go in there because of the three stars but there’s a total desert of good Vietnamese food in the Westlake Village area so I decided to give it a shot. We went there today for lunch and luckily, we were extremely surprised.

    9021Pho
    30990 Russell Ranch Road
    Westlake Village, CA 91362
    Phone: (818) 597-1902

    I will start off with the one negative is that it was a little more expensive than I would have liked to have paid for lunch with tip it came to $50 for two people for two light entrees and a dessert and each of us had a drink. I did order two Thai iced teas which might have knocked it up a couple of bucks.

    On to the food – the important part. The first thing we got was their salmon with star anise and other flavorings in it.  Star anise is one of my absolute favorite flavors and I’m constantly surprised that it’s not used more in cooking.  I saw it pop up in Peru once and I know it is tucked away in Chinese food as a little hidden scent, but rarely do people use it as a really strong taste.

    My favorite place that comes up oddly enough is chicken feet at Red Ace Hotel in Las Vegas. The salmon was absolutely wonderful. I asked them to make it really rare, and it came out just great we both love it. The other food we got was their sweet and sour pho which had shrimp and some kind of a fish in it and I believe it was sole. It was extremely, extremely good one of the things I love they had is the typical  Vietnamese sauces they had laid out, but this time it was much higher quality. Usually they’re in old dirty bottles or old dirty canisters that looks like a hundred people touched them.

    At this place, everything was scrupulously clean and sanitary. Their hoisin sauce was wonderful.  I used lots of it.  Their chili sauce was great too. Everything about the food was absolutely wonderful. I can’t imagine why people gave them three stars other than the fact that it is a little more pricey than what you would normally pay for lunch. On the flip side, the decor was great. The place was scrupulously clean and the food was absolutely wonderful.

    The waiters also did a great job and the Maître d or whoever he was did come around to check on us a few times also. So as far as service went, they did a great job too.

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  2. Review: Umi Sushi

    July 19, 2012 by editor

    Umi Sushi
    30819 E Thousand Oaks Blvd
    Westlake Village, CA 91362
    Ph: (818) 706-7772

    So, I went to Umi sushi yesterday. This place was very highly rated on Yelp.  It was the typical sushi spot that when you pull up and see the strip mall it doesn’t looks like you’re gonna be expecting much.

    When we went inside it turns out, although it looks like it’s been there a while, that the sushi owner took over the restaurant about a year ago.  He obviously was very experienced and has been in the business a long time.  It must be really tough to get super great sushi in that part of the world because it isn’t close to any of the ports.  But he did a really, really fantastic job.

    The two highlights of the meal that we had, one was the seaweed salad with octopus.  Octopus is a tricky animal in the fact that when you eat it if it is not done perfectly it is horribly chewy and I can’t even get through it and the same thing goes for seaweed itself, but in this case they did a fantastic job.  There is a little bit of vinegar to the dressing, but it wasn’t overpowering.  And the mixture of the seaweed and the octopus was fantastic. A seaweed and octopus salad could also be really dense to the point where you really only want a very small amount for a whole meal because it is just so much work to eat.  He did a wonderful job balancing this while you still look like you have something on the plate by putting it over with appeared to be some type of a very, very light fried noodle.  The kind that are white-white and fall apart when you touch them.  It was possibly the best thing he had on the menu.  It is one of the best seaweed salads I have ever had.

    Seaweed/Octopus Salad

    The other items that really struck me was what he called the starfish roll.  I can’t remember the exact ingredients but I believe it was spicy crab on the inside on the outside it was wrapped with yellowtail and tuna.  For myself, if you’re gonna go to the trouble of having a roll, it is nice to have multiple ingredients in it like this so you get something that tastes really different from normal sushi.

    Starfish Roll

    Another item that we had that was pretty good was one that he had where instead of putting the fish directly over rice he actually put the fish directly over a rice block that I believe had been dipped into tempura batter and fried or fried with something else on top. It wasn’t my favorite thing that he served, but it was still quite good and was very different than anything I had before.


    Overall the prices were moderate.  We paid about $84.  I would go back there again.


    One other interesting feature was that next door was a little retro candy/soda pop store that the girlfriend took me into.  I’ve never seen anything like it, but what they specialize in are old brands of sodas and candy.  So, I’m not sure if these companies have just been making these candies and soda all along or if they’re part of a retro come back of sodas and candies from the 50s onward. One that I found really interesting was a very interesting soda that I believe was made in Britain.  No matter where I looked on it I couldn’t find ingredients which I didn’t think was legal to sell in the U.S.  So, it is clear that this place has some really unique things you wouldn’t normally find anywhere else.

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  3. Review: Chocolatine

    June 24, 2012 by editor

    We had brunch at Chocolatine last Sunday.

    Chocolatine
    2955 East Thousand Oaks Blvd.
    Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
    Phone: (805) 557-0561


    They made a really delightful cornflake and cocoa chocolate dessert.  Before that we had a quiche that was done with salmon.  I am not usually a big cooked salmon fan, but it was quite good.

    Before that we ate a Croque Monsieur, which is basically a grilled cheese sandwich, very buttery, with a bit of ham in it.  That was my favorite part of our meal.

    Croque Monsieur

    To start off with we split their Nana Chocolate, which is a hot chocolate with an enormous amount of spices and chili in it.  It was extremely good and possibly the richest thing I ate.  We both agreed it was like eating hot chocolate pudding, which is in no way derogatory to it.  It was extremely good.  Their pastry selection looked amazing.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to try any of those, but the croissants are good enough looking to get one to-go.

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  4. Review: Bollywood Indian Restaurant

    June 5, 2012 by editor

    Saturday was a really exciting day.

    I got to take out the girlfriend’s sister to have lunch and we wanted to try somewhere new.  So, we ended up going to Bollywood Indian restaurant.  It was freakin’ phenomenal.

    Bollywood Indian Restaurant
    860 Hampshire Rd., Ste. Z
    Westlake Village, CA 91361
    Phone: (805) 777-7100

    I divide Indian food into two types – greasy and non-greasy Indian food.  The non-greasy Indian food, in my opinion, tends to be more watery.  The more greasy stuff is made with more butter and oil and tends to have a real rich, gravy-ish, kind of a dairy taste that I absolutely love.  They usually have the same dishes and it must be two different reasons but I am not sure what it is that determines them.  This is definitely one that had more dairy and oil in it and it was absolutely fantastic.

    We got the chicken tikka masala.  I explained to them how because so many Indian people moved to Britain that chicken tikka masala has become the national dish of Britain, which is really funny because British dishes are normally so horrible.

    We also got the regulars such as the papadam and garlic naan.   We got some Raita, which is this great yogurt sauce and the great British traditional Indian food of mango chutney, which adds a sweetness to everything and, of course, basmati rice.

    Onion Pakora

    Every single thing was great.  You could tell the little salsas they bring you at the beginning, which was the mint and tamarind ones, hadn’t had any particular care put into them.  They were quite average, but the chicken tikka masala was absolutely fantastic.  We also got the saag paneer, which is the creamed spinach with cubes of cheese.  Anything that says saag in it has creamed spinach, which was just wonderful.  Super healthy food.  Super good food.  Cost us $38 to feed 3 people.  Can’t recommend this place more highly.

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  5. Review: Xiomara on Melrose

    May 19, 2012 by editor

    Took the girlfriend and the girlfriend’s daughter to a phenomenal dinner at Xiomara.

    Xiomara on Melrose
    6101 Melrose Avenue
    Los Angeles, CA 90038
    Phone: 323.461.0601
    Fax: 323.461.0131

    It is a Spanish influenced place.  As you drive up on Melrose it still has that old dumpy Melrose feel, but once you actually got into the restaurant it was beautiful and the view out the window was beautiful as well.  They picked a particularly nice spot on the drive to put the restaurant.

    They gave us some bread, which was very decent, and then we got the first dish, which was their ceviche.  I ate a lot of ceviche and I’m a real picky ceviche eater.  The ceviche was quite good.  It had lots of good scallops and shrimp in it.  And they didn’t just put cooked shrimp in it.  It was actually raw shrimp that was “ceviched“ as well as the scallops.  It wasn’t too spicy; even the girlfriend’s daughter liked it.

    Ceviche

    They got a tomato soup, which was a drop spicy.  It was made with tomatillos and was extremely good.

     

    Tomatillo Soup

    For our main entree we got a seafood paella.  It was only the 2nd paella I’d ever had.  And it was the girlfriend’s 2nd paella as well.  It was absolutely to die for, super, super buttery.   The mussels were really plump and just fell apart in your mouth when you ate them.  The calamari fell apart when you ate it also.  There was some type of fish inside that was so good I could barely stand it.  It was light on the tomato sauce, which was really good.  You could really taste the fish.  The fish taste really came through well.  We both enjoyed it tremendously.

    Seafood Paella

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  6. Review: Leila’s Restaurant & Bar

    April 23, 2012 by editor

    Leila’s Restaurant & Bar
    706 Lindero Canyon Road #752
    Oak Park, CA 91377
    Phone: (818) 707-6939

    Tonight we had dinner at Leila’s.  It was a favorite spot of the new girlfriend’s.  She has been eating there for many years.  She used to work real close to there in her early 20s.  Even though she still looks like she is in her early 20s especially with the ponytail she had on tonight.

    Leila's

    Like I often do we just ordered off of the tapas part of the menu because as you will hear me say most restaurants put all their time and attention into the flavor of the appetizers much more so than they do in their entrées.  Entrées are all about volume where the appetizers are all about quality and taste.  We had a slew of appetizers.

    Appetizer (tapas) Menu

    One of the appetizers we had was their heirloom tomato stack, which had heirloom tomatoes, bleu cheese, sweet corn, and bacon.  It was just a fantastic concoction.  I am a huge tomato fan and it was one of my favorite things that they had there.

    Heirloom Tomato Stack

    Another appetizer that I thought was just amazing was their oysters on the half shell.  They gave us 4 good size oysters. They did something I have been dreaming of for years.  Normally when I order oysters I am disappointed because everyone does them the same way with the same vinegary sauce on top and maybe if the restaurant gets really wild a little horseradish.  In this case, they put together some type of a citrus sauce, which I think had tangerines in it.  When you drizzled it over your raw oysters it made it absolutely to die for.

    Chilled Oysters on the Half Shell

    We got the crispy lobster tempura, which was really well done, a bit on the heavy side.  What is funny is that every time I order lobster I am surprised that lobster is so chewy.  It wasn’t anything that the restaurant did it is just the way that lobster is.  I always enjoy shrimp and crab so much better than I do lobster.

    Crispy Lobster Tempura

    We got the girlfriend’s favorite which is the sautéed mushrooms and polenta which was super, super creamy and super flavorful.  It tasted like very fall-like and warm and cozy and very satisfying.

    Sauteed Wild Mushrooms

    They didn’t bring bread out initially, but when the waitress asked if we wanted some we said yes.  The bread has this wonderful garlic-y dipping sauce.  Just make sure you get your date to eat it too.

    We also got the slow roasted beet salad.

    Slow Roasted Beet Salad

    The only downside was we got there half an hour late and they had already reserved the table for somebody else.

    All in all with the tip the dinner was just under $100.

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  7. After Moving Food, Chin’s Szechwan

    April 22, 2012 by editor

    Chin’s Szechwan
    9355 Kearny Mesa Rd.
    San Diego, CA 92160
    Phone: (858) 536-2300

    This is the 3rd time I have eaten at Chin’s.  After we were done with the move I took the movers and one of my staff to dinner and it was awesome.  The décor always reminds me on an 1980’s coffee shop, which isn’t my absolute most thrilling Chinese food environment, but the food is quite good.

    We have a neighbor who was I believe is from Hong Kong that had recommended the place to me.  Although I had stopped in there for soup myself, in the past I had thought the food I got there was a little on the bland side.  The dinner we had tonight was absolutely fabulous.  I highly recommend the items we got.  We got their black pepper chicken, which had a really good kind of gravy sauce to it and really good strong mushrooms.  We also go an order of the sizzling chicken a la mandarin which was also quite good although I didn’t eat much of it.

    Sizzling Chicken A La Mandarin on a hot skillet

     

    Right: Sizzling Chicken A La Mandarin Left: Black Pepper Chicken

    We also got an order of spicy honey shrimp which tasted a lot like the one at PF Changs except maybe not quite so syrupy and sticky as the one at PF Changs.  I do love the one at PF changes as well.

    Spicy Honey Shrimp

    We also got tea and white rice.  Those three orders fed 3 big guys and 1 starving girl and it was enough food for all of us with enough food left over that we could have fed someone else.  If you order family style as is customary in Chinese restaurants I would suggest ordering 2 of the entrées split for 4 people.  If you are hungry, order another dish.  3 entrées for 4 people is more than enough.

    The total including tip came to just over $50 bucks which I thought was quite reasonable off of a dinner menu for a restaurant attached to a hotel.

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  8. Review: Sabertooth Grill at the San Diego Zoo

    April 15, 2012 by editor

    Sabertooth Grill
    Located near Elephant Odyssey at the San Diego Zoo
    2920 Zoo Drive in Balboa Park
    San Diego, CA 92101

    I went with the girlfriend and the kids to the San Diego Zoo today.  It’s obviously one of the best places in San Diego to take kids.  I’ve been going there my whole life.  It’s been there for decades, longer than I’ve been on the planet and they keep making it better and better.  It is truly a world-class zoo, if not one of the most spectacular zoos in the world.

    Traditionally, zoo food has been the worst. I remember, as a kid, eating sandwiches out of vending machines and ice cream bars out of vending machines, and waiting in lines for over priced terrible tasting corn dogs and hot dogs and dried out hamburgers.

    The Sabertooth Grill must have opened just in the last few years because I’ve never seen it before.  It had a really gorgeous architecture.  It was inviting, looked upscale, and talked about California cuisine.

    The menu was very inviting as well with items such as bacon cheeseburgers, nachos, teriyaki chicken and rice, and a variety of salads.  The actual quality of the food was not quite as spectacular as the presentation of the environment. We got the nachos with chili and unfortunately, the cheese appeared to be a combination of sprinkled on cheese as well as processed cheese stuff.  It’s possible that it wasn’t processed cheese stuff but it tasted like it instead of just being real cheese.  The chili that came with it was very average.  It also came with sour cream, guacamole, and hot chiles, all of which were okay.

    We also got a cobb salad.  The cobb salad was quite good and much better than one would expect at the zoo.

    The prices were ten dollars for a medium size cobb salad, ten dollars for a medium sized nachos.  The two items were enough to just barely feed the four of us but we all thought we could have eaten a little bit more food.  The chips that they chose for the nachos were not super fresh.  Wonderful chips, but more like the kind of chips you would expect at the zoo.

    The environment was spectacular and if they could just kick the food up a notch it actually would have been an amazing dining experience.

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  9. Restaurant Review: Harry’s Coffee Shop in La Jolla

    April 13, 2012 by editor

    So, Today I went with the girlfriend and the two kids to Harry’s Coffee Shop in La Jolla.

    Harry’s Coffee Shop
    7545 Girard Avenue
    La Jolla, CA 92037
    Ph: 858-454-7381

    We also brought along Sara as an experiment.  I think I might have already mentioned that as I have entered the new world of sort of daddy-hood.  One of the biggest issues for me since I am a little bit of a germ freak is eating food and not having anybody’s fingers go into it.

    So, Today it was really nice for me because I had the girlfriend on one side and Sara on the other and the two little girls were cornered in the booth being blocked off from me.  I sat at the head of the table which for me was actually incredibly relaxing.  We also discovered that if we have somebody else to watch the girls while we are together, although we still end of getting to have the experience of being with them, we don’t have to keep our attention on them all the time and we are able to pay attention to each other as well.

    The food was exactly what you would expect from a Harry’s coffee shop.  We had scrambled eggs and pancakes that the girls loved. One of the girls just had slices of tomato.  The new girlfriend got half a papaya that was filled with chicken salad which I tried which was really good and she loved.  I got a their special omelet which was basically a Denver omelet with ranchero sauce.  All of the food was very decent coffee shop quality and generous portions.

    It was a bit more than I would liked to have paid, but it is La Jolla.  For the 5 of us, we ended up spending $52. The waitress looked like she had been working there for 20 years.  She did a phenomenal job.  So, we gave her a 20% tip.  By the time we walked out the door, for feeding 5 people, breakfast was $52 with very little food thrown away.

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  10. Restuarant Review: Roppongi Restuarant-Sushi Bar

    March 28, 2012 by editor

    Roppongi is one of my all time favorite restaurants.  In fact, when the place is on, it’s actually my all time favorite restaurant.  Roppongi is pacific rim fusion cuisine.  They were doing pacific rim fusion cuisine before there was even a name for it.

    Statue

    Roppongi
    875 Prospect
    La Jolla, CA 92037
    Tel: (858) 551-5252

    The head chef, Stephen Window, has been the head chef there from the beginning, the middle, and still is the head chef.  Sammy of Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza fame, is the originator of the restaurant.  Stephen has been his head chef since the beginning.  Everyone else of the staff have come and go over the years.  But the two of them have maintained the helm of the ship.

    We had their famous crab stack for dinner to start with.  It’s always been wonderful for the last decade.  It is something I could have for dinner every night.  It has protein, it’s fresh, has mangoes, and daikon radish sprouts.  It is just absolutely like a smack of a bite of a garden that was growing in the tropics.

    Stephen sent over some complimentary things from the kitchen.  One of them was their new Quinoa Cake which was much more spectacular than you would expect.  It had a taste of Christmas in it.  It had cumin, coriander, and cloves which was all part of a garam masala, there was coconut milk in it and yogurt.  Stephen told us the Quinoa Cake was coated with honey on the bottom.  It tasted like something super healthy from Whole Foods mixed in with something from a cupcake shop that made it Christmas time.   Absolutely wonderful and as always at Roppongi very healthy as well.

    He also gave us another one of his new items which was Jidori Chicken.  It was wonderful.  It tasted almost a little Jamaican and a little barbeque rib style with chipotle and tomato paste sauce.  It had a good firmness to it.  It wasn’t greasy and there was enough flavor in it that throughout every bite of the chicken you got the flavor.

    We also got their classic calamari which is glazed.  To this day I  don’t know how they make the calamari so it is not chewy.  It is absolutely positively hands down the best calamari I have ever had.  It has great macadamia nuts, red peppers in it and onions also.

    For dessert, there was no way we could have eaten a full dessert, but I wanted to get to try their gelato.  So, I got a scoop each of their caramel and vanilla gelato with a side order of hot fudge sauce.

    If Stephen hadn’t given us a few complimentary items it would have been a bit more.  I would have expected it to come out to close to $100 for 2 for dinner, but it is a bargain because it is the best food you will find around.  Remember if you go to Roppongi I believe from 3pm-6pm each day everything on the tapas menu (which is most of the menu and the good stuff) is specially priced at half off normal and you will get out of there for a lot less money.  Unbelievably phenomenal food.

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