Eat. Travel. Eat!

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!

Caesar's Palace has quickly become famous for their Bacchanal Buffet, which is now the top-rated buffet in Las Vegas. Yet, during the holiday season, wait times were hours long, and prices were at their highest. Moreover, a quick visit inside the buffet did show lots of good options and a nice design (the same designers designed Cafe Too as well), but this experience was hampered by loud catwalk music from the speakers. the Given these factors and our limited time in Las Vegas, we decided to pursue another option: Nobu, located next to the Nobu Hotel lobby inside Caesar's Palace.

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.

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...

(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.

Our Irvine friend suggested that we try Shin-Sen-Gumi's Hakata Ramen, and so during a recent trip to Irvine we did! Shin-Sen-Gumi is easy to locate in this large strip mall thanks to its boldly colored signs. The colors actually represent "two" restaurants; one is dedicated to Hakata ramen (yellow) and the other to robata and yakitori (orange). Although there are two separate entrances and two separate rooms (connected by a small walkway), it is still possible to eat in either end of the restaurant and enjoy ramen. We were seated in the robata and yakitori side of the restaurant since the other side was full. (Thankfully, we did not need to wait for an open table) It was exciting to sit here, as occasionally there would be chefs cooking fried rice or preparing other dishes. Since my Irvine friend recommended the ramen, both my companion and I ordered ramen sets. At Shin-Sen-Gumi, they allow the customer to customize their ramen by adjusting the hardness/softness o...

We were shopping around one day at Costa Mesa's South Coast Plaza and Metro Pointe and wanted to eat somewhere. However, Metro Pointe had barely interesting to us, and so my Irvine friend recommended us to visit Mitsuwa Marketplace's food court for a meal. No, it was no Charlie Palmer , but I had heard quite a lot of positive comments on Mitsuwa's food courts, so along we went.  (Santouka- with food displays and water/seasonings to the side) This was certainly the largest Mitsuwa I had ever seen- there was a food court section, a full market, and a smaller area with lots of small vendors selling various foods (like mochi and cookies) as well as other items. At the food court, there were also plenty of options- traditional Japanese food was served by three vendors, there was one vendor selling Chinese food, and lastly Italian Tomato who sold cakes and desserts. Although we were enticed with all these options, we stuck to what we knew. I remembered reading ab...