Eat. Travel. Eat!

Part of the Waterside in Marina Del Rey, California, Sugarfish by Sushi Nozawa opened its first location here. A collaboration between Kazunori Nozawa, Jerry A. Greenberg, Tom Nozawa,  Lele Massimini ,  Cameron Broumand , and Clement Mok, Sugarfish aims to provide Sushi Nozawa style and quality sushi at a larger and more accessible scale. Such accessibility means that there are no sushi chefs or sushi bar viewable to the customers; rather, all the sushi is prepared in the kitchen and presented on tempo when one is ready to receive more food. Inside, it is sleek, and the menu is simplified -- although there are a la carte sushi, handroll, sashimi, and drink options, almost everyone, according to the menu and our server, orders one of the three Trust Me's: Trust Me Lite (17 USD), Trust Me (25 USD), and Nozawa Trust Me (35 USD). For simplicity's sake, we ordered one of each. As such, we began with plates of o rganic edamame (2.50 USD), which were also p...

Tsujita LA Artisan Noodles has been in my radar on places to try for quite a while, given the wide media press ( LA Weekly , Jonathan Gold ), and recently, I was finally able to try it out! To avoid the lines, we had a late lunch around 3PM. Still, the restaurant was over 70% capacity, with lots of people seated outside, enjoying the LA sunshine.  After being seated, we were handed a simple menu, consisting of ramen, tsukemen, sides, and rice bowl options. The drink of choice seemed to be water for the day--pitchers of water were placed at almost every table--so we went with that too!

Our last visit to Sagami went so well that we recently visited it again. This time, we were just as satisfied, and ran into a great special item!

We wanted to visit Shaab Japanese Cuisine in Pasadena, CA again recently, but at the entrance stood a different restaurant: Osawa. Quite confusing, considering Shaab has existed for so many years in Pasadena! (consequently, photos taken with my phone, a Nokia Lumia 920) Though we were about to change course, we had to first do some analysis of the lunch specials and  winter specials--which vary upon the day--as well as the regular lunch menu . All of the menus expressed quality ingredients, and with that thought, we walked in.

Sagami is "beloved among actual Japanese people" and is "quite possibly the only place in Orange County" that serves hitsumabushi , said Edwin Goei of Monster Munching . It didn't take much after that for me to add Sagami, a 24 year old Japanese restaurant located in the Crossroads Shopping Center in Irvine, CA, to my Orange County restaurants to visit list. Thoughts to try the hitsumabushi that Goei raved about in his review, however, were slightly complicated after we were seated in the cozy interior. For, a weekend lunch special page presented an additional appealing option: uni and ikura bowl. Furthermore, additional dishes to try out were posted on menu boards as seen in the above photo. Luckily, after some thought, we ordered both of those appealing dishes, and some more. In the meantime, we enjoyed the complimentary hot green tea, whose flavor was especially apparent thanks to the use of reverse osmosis water .

Oto-Oto Izayaka Japonaise may be a large chain restaurant, operated by Ramla Inc., the third-largest chain restaurant in Japan, but the food quality was decent enough for a friend to recommend it to us. To thank him for a year's worth of mentoring, we decided to surprise him here, and as expected, the dinner went very well. Holding a corner spot in a strip mall, one may think that Oto-Oto is small, but it is actually quite a decent sized restaurant, with a large number of booth tables and stand alone tables.  They were able to fit our 20+ attendees comfortably that evening along with regular patrons and a birthday party! Throughout the visit, the employees made sure that we all had enough water, although by the end of the visit, they were slightly less enthusiastic as we spent more than three hours in their restaurant. It happened to be happy hour while we were waiting for our special guest, and so I ordered a small appetizer: spicy trio cones. These consisted of sp...

Originally I had planned to visit California Fish Grill or Bear Flag Fish Company , but a friend's recommendation for Sushi Imari swayed my initial decision. Complimentary surprises plus a closer location to UC Irvine made this place more attractive to the other restaurants, and it also happened to be that Sushi Imari was positively reviewed on Monster Munching . Plus one indeed! Inside, waiters friendly greeted us and brought us to a table. We sat in an atmosphere heavily decorated with Japanese (and some Korean) ornaments, with elements of light and dark woods. A fusion menu was also in sight; besides the fresh fish, there was a whiteboard with various fusion rolls, of which some were already on the regular menu while others were new creations. Sushi Imari's complimentary miso soup, provided to us after ordering, was different compared to some other miso soups as there were a few enoki mushroom pieces in the soup along with the usual tofu and seaweed pieces. The ...

During Celebrate UCI my friend and I visited California Teriyaki Grill, a relatively new addition to University Town Center. It is a small restaurant with only about eight closely packed tables; however, one can easily order take out and just eat outdoors, where there is plentiful seating. All food is packaged in take-out containers. Being a fast food/take out place, California Teriyaki Grill's prices are quite reasonable (especially for University Town Center), and what makes it really different from the competition are two aspects: condiments and its teriyaki sauce. Green onions, jalepenos, and a variety of sauces are available as toppings, and the teriyaki sauce is made in house. Unlike teriyaki sauces from some teriyaki outlets, California Teriyaki Grill's teriyaki sauce is not saccharine, but rather somewhat savory and fruity. In addition, the proteins and veggies on the menu only get a light squiggle of sauce, allowing for greater customization with condiments. ...

(pictures taken with a HTC Surround) Replacing what used to be Noodle House, a steam tray Chinese restaurant that offered excellent deals (for example, three entree dishes and rice for 10 USD), Daikokuya was a somewhat surprising addition to the President Square Food Court. Its operation is quite similar to that of other ramen outlets, such as Santouka : one orders at the counter and can get plenty of condiments and water to the side. Daikokuya offers a wide variety of sauces and toppings like pickled ginger (the blurry red box in the picture), more so than any other food court restaurant that I have seen.

Three new vendors have joined Costa Mesa's Mitsuwa Marketplace food court: Sanukiseimen Mugimaru, Don Don Tei, and The Loft Hawaiian Restaurant. On my last visit, one companion and I tried out Sanukiseimen Mugimaru while my other companion went to Miyabi-Tei. Sanukiseimen Mugimaru has a cafeteria style layout; first, line up at their udon pictures, and then tell the employee what you would like to order from the menu. With udon, the freshly made noodles will be heated/boiled up at that time and the noodle bowl will be heated up in the same cooking water, with the employee moving the bowl around. I find that unsanitary, but they did pass certification! For onigiri or tempura, continue to the counter where you can select as many items as you would like. The next stop is the cashier, where you can get utensils as well as condiments including sauces, ginger, green onions, and fried tempura batter bits for extra crunch on your udon. During our visit, the menu was quite limited, b...