la.foodblogging

When I was a kid, I ate in Alhambra fairly frequently. There was one restaurant in particular that I went to. I can’t recall the name of it or how the food was. I really only remember it because it was an art deco building, which stood out for that area. I drove by there about a year ago or so and I had to do a double take. The building still stood out, but not just because of its shape. It was very yellow. Of course, I had to find out who occupied the space and discovered it was a Thai restaurant, Spice Basil.

Over the weekend, I was meeting up with a few friends for dinner, and I suggested we go there. First of all, parking in front of the restaurant is very limited (about 6 spaces) and tight. I was running incredibly late and was ever so grateful that I was able to just pull right up to the front of the restaurant and park literally 7 feet from the door. Although it’s impossible to not notice the yellowness of the building, but if you missed it, let me reassure you that it’s just as yellow inside. We were immediately seated and figured out rather quickly what we wanted to order.

I find that I am very picky when it comes to pad thai. I like pad thai, but I rarely order it because most Thai restaurants can’t make it the way I like it. (I do go along with ordering it when I’m with friends if we are all sharing. It is, afterall, a favorite.) So here’s what Spice Basil did right. The flavor in general was right on. There was enough crushed peanuts and the lime juice really brought out a nice tang to each bite. There was also a good amount of chicken throughout the noodles. So what was wrong? Definitely not enough shrimp. I think there were only 3 pieces at most. While every Thai restaurant I have ever gone tend to be stingy when it comes to shrimp in the pad thai, usually there is still about 6-piece minimum. The worst offense, however, was the texture of the noodles. I understand that Pad Thai noodles are supposed to be soft, but theirs was a little too much so. For me personally, this is a huge no-no. Nevertheless, if I had to choose between the right noodle texture or the right flavor, I will choose flavor every time.

We also ordered a couple of Spice Basil’s specialty dishes, the garlic clams and the spicy fish. Some time between the cooking and plating process, some of the clams escaped from their shells. I scooped up three clams to my plate and as I eagerly picked up my fork to taste them, I found out that only one of the three on my plate had clam meat in them. This didn’t happen to any of my friends. I did eventually get to taste more of this dish. Even though I enjoyed the garlic clams, I tasted more garlic than clams. I couldn’t really tell the quality of the clams because the garlic and sauce were very strong, but I thought it was delicious. Also, it wasn’t really spicy, but there was a slight kick to it. The fish was also a very good dish. It was deep fried first, so the outside was nice and crispy while the inside was soft and moist. The pineapples went very well with the sweet and sour sauce. I did not find this dish to be spicy at all, but it was still enjoyable. As this is a whole fish, be forewarned that there are fishbones. People who are not used to eating fish that has not been deboned should proceed slowly.

While you can order steamed rice with your dinner, I recommend skipping that and going for one of their garlic rice in clay pot dishes. There are only three choices: pork ribs, beef, or shrimp. We chose beef. (We had ruled out shrimp because there was shrimp included in the pad thai, but had we known that we would only get 3 shrimps in our pad thai, maybe we would have ordered that one instead.) I was not too impressed with this one at first. Overall it was good, but I didn’t feel like there was much garlic flavor with the rice, despite the fact that I could see some minced garlic on top of the rice. As we ate more of the rice, I found the garlic flavor to be quite potent. I suspect that since I had the garlic clams right before my first bowl of the rice, the garlic taste in the rice was just more subtle in comparison. After a while, I came to really appreciate the flavor of the garlic rice with beef and was reaching for a second bowl.

I usually give exact prices for what I order, but unfortunately, I left the receipt back at the restaurant, so I don’t recall exactly how much each dish is. Roughly, the pad thai and rice were $7 each, and the fish and clams were $14 each. Thai iced tea is $1.75, and a smoothie is $2.50. Spice Basil is not the best Thai restaurant in L.A., and definitely not my favorite Thai restaurant in town. It is, however, good food at a reasonable price. You can’t miss it. It’s the yellow building.

Spice Basil
25 W. Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 282-3200
Hours: Sun.-Thu. 11 a.m.-midnight, Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-1 a.m.

By Pauline (see more of her posts).

I moved to Los Angeles straight from college and landed here a naive 22 year with a freshly printed engineering degree and a knowledge of the city built from Raymond Chandler novels. Contrasting with the cozy comforts of my collegiate Boston existence, LA was a cold distant mistress. Everywhere I turned, the rule was detachment and distant. As standoffish as New Englanders and Bostonians are reputed to be, Angelenos take the cake.

That changed when a college buddy arrived for a month of working at Mount Wilson. It marked my first time spending any appreciable time in Pasadena. Looking for places to eat and drink, we stumbled on an ad for Crown City Brewing Company. My buddy, now an executive chef in Manhattan, and I clocked endless stool hours at Cambridge Brewing, so score!

Walking in to the pub felt like turning the corner into a home away from home. The first night there was great, chatting with the bartenders (and one of the owners), enjoying a pint and the above
average pub grub. Shockingly on my next visit, the staff greeted us warmly, as if we were visiting friends. Wha? No surprise folks always mention Cheers when trying to describe the place.

Wasn’t long after those first visits that I became a regular. Every week, Wednesday night, Drew night. Even in the midst of 100-hour workweek projects, I still found my way to my stool for a few pints
and worked my way through several “100 Mug Club” cards on my way to a serious case of brew knowledge. The staff kindly critiqued and encouraged my first attempts at brewing. I don’t think they knew what a beer monster they were creating.

Founded by four friends and inspired by San Diego’s new born brew scene, Crown opened in 1988 just south of Pasadena’s Central Park and began serving their Arroyo Amber and Mount Wilson Wheat to the masses. On top of their house beers, the pub stocks over a hundred bottled beers and 30 more draft beers, an astonishing selection for our burg. Until the brewery finally broke down in 2002, Crown held the distinction of being Los Angeles’ oldest operating brewpub. Pasadena’s Craftsman Brewing picked up the slack and provides the pub with its flagship brews.

With the recent opening of the Del Mar Station apartments, things are changing on the south side of Old Town, starting with the Crown’s closing. A combination of inadequate parking, tough competition and their landlord’s refusal to grant a new long-term lease is forcing the boys out. The remaining partners are searching for space to open the “Crown 2″, but there are no firm plans yet.

Now as the brewery prepares to close on May 31st, the beer list is winding down and customers with their names on the wall can fetch
their plaques. I have four waiting for me! Stop in, grab a pint and a
lavosh and say goodbye to a piece of LA brewing history and the great
folks that made it happen.

Crown City Brewing Company (until May 31st)
300 S Raymond (at Del Mar)
Pasadena, CA 91105
626-577-5548

When Drew's not eating or cooking, he's probably busy contemplating fine malted beverages and the best way to enjoy them. In fact, you can usually catch him writing a column for BeerAdvocate, the Magazine.

It must be a sickness. After updating the look of la.foodblogging, I have been working on an update to the Digesty family of sites.

Here is a preview look at the new design:

Digesty Los Angeles

I worked hard to accomplish some very basic goals with this design. I wanted to focus on a few features.

• The latest posts from all blogs are now listed on the top left of the page, I estimate that this is the number one reason that people come to Digesty, so I made it the first thing they see.
• The main section of the page is now more compact. Instead of listing a number of headlines, I know just show the latest headline from each site, and then allow the reader to mouse over the dates for earlier posts to see the headlines pop up.
• I added search back to the page. This is a customized search that will only look at sites listed on Digesty. I used to have it on the pages and it was used fairly often.
• Added a list of random posts under the most recent posts on the left. The theory here is that many foodblog posts are relatively timeless. A review that is useful this week will also be useful six months from now, and the random stream will help highlight posts.

There are more features to come, including:

• The ability to receive a list of new topical foodblog posts via email. Digesty is meant to make it easier to find new content, this will make it even easier for people so that you don’t have to come to the page
• Adding more sites, please let me know if you have any local foodblogs that you would like to see added.
• An updated user submission method. I am working to make it easier for people to add individual posts to the stream
• Site wide, I am adding more topics, including the return of Wine and the addition of topics like Coffee and Molecular Gastronomy

Digesty LA test site

My request of you is to take the site for a test drive, let me know what you don’t like or what isn’t working. I appreciate any constructive criticism you can muster. Email to Digesty [at] gmail.

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.

[photo from their website]

I occasionally like to imbibe a cocktail or dine in a hotel. It feels extra glamorous and I can pretend I’m a traveller in a foreign land. So when a visiting friend suggested we meet for lunch at the Hotel Intercontinental, on Avenue of the Stars, I jumped at the chance to put on a pretty frock and heels (despite LA’s pre-emptive June gloom – okay, I added a chic cardie, aka sweater) and tool over there.

The Park Grill dining room at the Hotel Intercontinental is surprisingly unpretentious. Diners can relax in the clubby atmosphere of the dining room, with its gay, striped carpeting and comfy, upholstered armchairs.

Beyond the large, glass french doors lies the garden patio, where I’m sure we would have dined had it been a sunny day. It’s an attractive and intimate little garden and the umbrella’d dining tables skirt an expanse of lawn. Apparently this is a popular venue for weddings.

The menu offers a decent range of two soups, several salads and sandwiches, a few hot meals and desserts. My dining companion went for the great sounding watermelon and spinach salad ($15). This came out as a kind of log cabin of sticks of watermelon with a mass of baby spinach, chunks of chevre and candied walnuts in the middle. On either side of the ‘cabin’, the long, rectangular plate was attractively drizzled with the mango dressing as well as cross-hatched drizzles of vibrantly ‘kermit’ green basil oil. Now, while this looked impressive, in fact it’s a little tough to get the dressing off the plate and onto your food. But the baby spinach was also lightly dressed and sprinkled with black sesame seeds (love them!) so this wasn’t an issue, just a tiny bit irksome.

She also ordered a prosciutto and arugula pizza ($19) that was, shall we say, extremely disappointing. Suffice to say, upon reflection, one probably shouldn’t go to a hotel and expect them to have a roaring pizza furnace…

I opted for the ‘Bento Box’ ($35) as it gave me four small courses with two options per course. It arrived all at once, on a large, white, square ceramic platter with four smaller square dishes within.

The soup was the soup du jour; a chicken broth with a hint of lime, neat cubes of breast meat and finely chopped vegetables. Delicious! Of the two salads, I went with the wild rocket salad. It was studded with candied walnuts (actually, too many…), sweet slivers of dried pear, and a couple of teeny little heirloom tomatoes. The rocket was generously dressed with a rich balsamic vinaigrette that was perfumed with white truffle oil. Rich and satisfying. I couldn’t imagine a whole bowl of it; it worked really well as one small course of four. It also came with two batons of plain but toasted crostini.

The ‘entree’ portion of this bento was one of their cooked entrees, and I would recommend dining at the Park Grill for this dish alone. A small but sufficient hunk of Chilean Sea Bass, beautifully cooked, was resting on a bed of ‘forbidden’ black rice that actually looks dark red. The modest portion of fish was served with two gorgeously braised and grilled wedges of endive and a sprinkling of soft greens. It was superb!

For my fourth course I went with the plate of fruit over the pastries, and I was glad I did. A sprinkling of blueberries, boysenberries and raspberries were complemented by a slice each of honeydew melon, cantaloupe, orange and pineapple. All the fruits were exquisitely ripe. This was a perfectly balanced, filling and delicious meal.

I noticed they are doing a special buffet for Mother’s Day. I definitely think hotels are the ideal place to pamper the grande dame in your life. I’ve already raved about the exquisite afternoon tea at the Peninsular Hotel.

But the Hotel Intercontinental might be just the place for a family gathering. If it’s a nice day, you can dine outside and the kids can run about on the grass. There will be a band performing soul, jazz and Latin music.

The buffet menu is pretty extensive and has something for everyone. Highlights from the menu include:

Kid friendly choices such as wild berry mini pancakes, triple decker peanut butter sandwich, mini BLTs, mini nutella and banana club sandwiches and baby sliders.

Assortment of miniature breakfast pastries and a seasonal sliced fruit display. Egg dishes include omelettes by request and crab eggs benedict with paprika hollandaise.

There are salads such as mushroom and shrimp salad with green papaya, multicolored heirloom tomato salad with bocconcini and aged balsamic reduction, ahi tuna salad ‘a la nicoise’, grilled marinated artichoke salad with Asian beef and so on.

In addition to a sushi and sashimi display, there’ll be shrimp, mussels, oysters, clams and crab claws. Pasta dishes include truffle gnocchi with sage and brown butter or wild mushroom risotto.

Barbecue items include prime rib eye steak, citrus marinated organic white salmon, and baby lamb chops marinated with whole grain mustard and lavender. Loads of grilled and roasted vegetables, such as parmesan grilled corn on the and roasted vegetables with fresh cilantro and lemon oil.

Assorted cakes and desserts, including panacotta, tarts, pies, cookies, brownies and blondies and even a sweet crepes station with fresh fruit sauces.

This gastronomic spread will cost $68 for adults and $34 children 4-12, (with no charge for children 3 and under).

Happy Mother’s Day!

Park Grill, Hotel Intercontinental

2151 Avenue of the Stars,
Los Angeles
Front Desk: (310) 2846500

[FYI – Validated valet parking was $6.00]

By MaxMillion (see more of her posts). Max Million is the nom de 'net of Pauline Adamek. Born in Sydney, Australia, Pauline has lived in Los Angeles for the past thirteen years and finds it agrees with her. She has been reviewing films and filing celebrity-based interview articles since 1991, and has filed stories from various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. She completed a family cookbook and has also written novels for 8-12 year olds. She is the creator and host of ArtsBeatLA.

Before I tell you about Salsa Y Beer, a small Mexican eatery near Encino, you have to ask yourself one question. What are you looking for when it comes to a Mexican restaurant?
Are you looking for a decent if uninspiring 3 item combo that you can get at one of any hundreds of places in the Valley?
Are you looking for a cool, hip vibe, a place with a long sleek bar that you can sidle up to and order form a list of tequila’s a mile long?
Or maybe you’re looking for a happening scene, a place where pretty people gather 3 deep at the bar, drinking watered down margaritas? If you are, let me know, because I can think of places that will fit the bill just fine.

But if you are looking for authentic, unpretentious, delicious Mexican food, that will often surprise you, then look no further then Salsa Y Beer.

The space is small, and decorated with large, brightly colored murals of suns, moons an rustic scenery. We were greeted warmly but then had to wait for a table. If you go on the weekends, expect a wait because this place is almost always packed.

After sitting down we were served fresh, warm tortilla chips along with a spicy bean dip.

If salsa is a bit more to your liking, check out their small salsa bar. Their offerings range from your standard salsa fresca, to an unusual spicy orange salsa with coffee and chocolate notes, much like a mole. Or they have a spicy green, creamy avocado salsa that has terrific pepita and cilantro flavors.

Our drink order was taken pretty quickly and I should tell you that they serve only beer and wine, so if you are looking for tequila, you won’t find it here, although they do offer wine based margaritas and sangria. Our drinks came quickly but then our server dashed off to take care of another table. We noticed that the service was a little slow, but what the waitresses lacked in speed, they made up for with great attitudes.

While we noshed on chips and sipped our beers we check ed out the menu which serves food from the Jerez, Zacatecez region in Central Mexico. There are your traditional menu items and others that sounded a bit more unusual, like the Carnes con Salsa de Molcajetes. Vegetables, rice, beans and potatoes are served with your choice of meat and topped with Molcajetes sauce. A molcajetes is a stone mortar and pestle used to crush the fiery red peppers that are the base of the sauce.
This dish is not for the faint of heart. The flavors were delicious, the adovada, or cubed pork meat was beyond tender, but the heat of the dish was intense.
Another word of warning: don’t overindulge on chips and salsa at this place because the servings are huge.

The carnitas, grilled pork, was also pretty damn good.

It was steaming hot and practically falling off the plate. The meat was incredibly moist, rich and flavorful, with that perfect caramelized crisp on the outside.

We also ordered the Steak Torta. The portion was easily enough for two. The crusty white bread was toasted to a golden brown and the cream sauce dripping off the sides was so good that finger licking was definitely in order.

Spicy Green Enchiladas also did not disappoint, in heat or in taste. The all white meat chicken wasn’t dried out as is so often the case. The green sauce was creamy, sour cream based, not tomatillo as I had expected. I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious it was.

The Fajitas Tostada came with shredded carne asada, some of the best I have ever had, along with freshly grilled onions, peppers and zucchini.

We also tried the Tortilla soup. For the price, $3.99, the portion was more than generous. The chicken was, again, all white meat, the veggies just tender enough without being mushy and the broth had a nice kick to it without being too spicy.

Like I said, Salsa Y Beer might not be the right call for a first date, a romantic evening or a night on the town, but it’s certainly a good choice for a family dinner or a casual evening out. It’s for sure a great choice anytime if you are looking for delicious, quality food, friendly service and a reasonable price.

But before you tell your friends about Salsa Y Beer, make sure you ask them that one question: “What are you looking for in a Mexican Restaurant?”

Salsa Y Beer
6740 White Oak Ave.
Lake Balboa, CA 91406
818.609.8877
Hours: Sun-Thurs: 11 am - 9 pm
Fri - Sat: 11 am - 10 pm

By Erinn (see more of her posts). You can find more of Erinn's writing at her own website Sunday Dish.

Just over three years ago we had our first post. Since then we have had a bevy of contributors who have donated their time and efforts to bring a constant stream of restaurant reviews, discoveries and tips to our fantastic readers.

We are nearing our 1,000th post, which should happen sometime in late May. Over the past three years, we have had nearly 50 different writers, some who are active today, and some who have moved on. I’m personally thankfully to all who have been part of the la.foodblogging family. Many of the authors I have met and even shared a meal with. Would you believe that there are also authors who I have never met face to face, only through email?

It’s worth noting some of our more active posters. Their dedication is one of the factors that keeps our readers coming back.

• Even though she hasn’t posted in two years, SoCalorie remains the top poster (not counting myself). She brought a true journalist’s style, breaking coming trends and restaurant news in addition to providing dining reviews. She is truely missed
• We are lucky to have Pauline still writing for us. Even with her time spent at Notre Dame, finishing her MBA, she managed to rack up the second most posts behind SoCalorie. Pauline has reviewed some of the finest dining spots in town, and has also provided insight on hidden gems in the SGV — often detailing why a restaurant’s cuisine is authentic or unique.
• Rene has been with us from the beginning, turning out consistent posts, representing the kind of dining I think many of our readers enjoy. Rene covers a broad region of Los Angeles, highlighting not just restaurants, but also markets, festivals and special events.
• MaxMillion brings her skills as a professional writer, along with her passion for good food to lafb. As a result, her posts are well researched and narrated in a style that makes you feel like you were right there with her during the meal. Not only that, but she makes a heavenly Pavlova!
• KT generously writes her restaurant reviews here at lafb while maintaining her own foodblog at Gastronomy 101. KT makes it a point to try out some of the most talked about new restaurants in town and reliably reports back to us whether the talk is hype or if the buzz is justified. Always giving us pictures and a detailed account of her meals, I often look to her reviews for dining ideas for myself.

I appreciate the efforts of all of our authors over the past three years. In addition to those mentioned above, we have enjoyed posts from Cybele of Candyblog.net, Kristy from Best of LA, Dylan from Eat Drink and Be Merry, Sarah from The Delicious Life, and Zteve from Gastrologica.com. We also enjoy contributions from a host of creative minds who stop in from time to time to give their insight.

I enjoy the different perspectives that everyone brings to the table, it’s a true joy to come to la.foodblogging and see what dining adventures are being had.

As I mentioned last week, we are adding new contributors. If you’re interested, drop me an email at “foodblogging” at gmail.

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.

In keeping with la.foodblogging’s recent focus on the Valley (sorry, Westsiders!) I am thrilled to be writing about one of the best little finds of late.

Tarzana has a lovely European-style café restaurant that is one of the best kept secrets in the Valley. The only reason I am telling you about it because I want it always to be there, but please don’t tell everyone you know or we’ll never get a table!

Located right next door to the Corbin Bowl, in the corner of a large mall, is Nona Café and Restaurant, a little slice of the Mediterranean that offers some truly fabulous and seriously affordable food.

First things first, you have got to start with their sangria, either red or white. I’ve tasted both sangria, but far prefer the white. It is a little on the sweet side, but it has some delightfully peachy high notes. If sangria’s not your thing, they also offer wine and soju cocktails.

By far the best things on their fairly large menu are the tapas, and for once, the portions are generously sized.

One dish I always get is the creamy, dreamy burrata with roasted tomatoes ($5). For those of you who haven’t already encountered this heavenly dish, burrata is a very soft, yielding and exceptionally fresh version of mozzarella cheese mixed with cream. Yep, cream. The outer shell is solid mozzarella while the inside contains both mozzarella and cream, giving this Italian delicacy its unique soft texture.

I also love their ahi tuna tartar ($7), which is a generous portion of chopped, raw tuna served with scallions, piquant ginger and crisp sesame crackers. Their seared hamachi tuna is paired with avocado dip, ‘supreme’ sections of ruby red grapefruit (meaning the pith and membrane removed, with just the tender fruit remaining) and drizzled with citrus ponzu sauce. They do several middle eastern-inspired and fantastic shrimp dishes, including crisp rock shrimp with lemon aioli ($7) and a wonderful grilled shrimp served with plump pearls of Israeli couscous, fried leeks and spicy carrot puree ($7) – incredible!

Then there’s the lamb and mint kabob with pine nuts and tahini ($7) or sautéed salmon with refreshing cucumber, medjool date and walnut salad and saffron emulsion ($7) as well as a few LA small-plate standards such as shaved fennel salad ($5) or beet salad with chevre, tangerines and marcona almonds ($6). Their full-sized salads are enormous and well-priced, averaging around $11. A variety of sandwiches are also available. They bake their own irresistibly delicious bread and make their own desserts.

It’s all truly wonderful and eclectic cuisine. So far, I’ve been back about four times as there are so many different small plates to sample.

Breakfast looks fantastic, too, and is served until 2pm (take that fast food joints!), and as late as 3pm on weekends. Everything from the usual suspects of egg white or wild mushroom omelettes or even portobello mushroom benedict ($12) to buckwheat or berry waffles or blueberry oatmeal pancakes ($10) to an intriguing-sounding Oatmeal Crème Brulée (also $10).

Indoor seating is warm and pleasant, but they also have a large patio. Best of all, there is plenty of parking available.

At Nona they also have live music some evenings during the week. You might wanna call and find out. One Thursday night we were expertly entertained by a duo of guitarists, one of whom had played with Carlos Santana.

Love this place!

Nona Restaurant & Café

Open 7 days a week
Breakfast until 2pm, ’till 3pm on weekends
Lunch, dinner and tapas bar ’till late

19598 Ventura Boulevard, Tarzana CA 91356
(818) 881 9855

By MaxMillion (see more of her posts). Max Million is the nom de 'net of Pauline Adamek. Born in Sydney, Australia, Pauline has lived in Los Angeles for the past thirteen years and finds it agrees with her. She has been reviewing films and filing celebrity-based interview articles since 1991, and has filed stories from various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. She completed a family cookbook and has also written novels for 8-12 year olds. She is the creator and host of ArtsBeatLA.

The San Fernando Valley is a hot spot for top notch sushi restaurants - you don’t have to drive more than a mile down Ventura Blvd.to find one. 

But I sort of feel it my mission to find places that are amazing YET relatively undiscovered. 

Enter 4 on 6. 

One of the first things you’ll notice is that it doesn’t look like your average sushi joint.  The space has a modern meets Zen vibe with a beautiful, rough hewn, wooden sushi bar.  There is also jazz streaming out of the speakers.  Music in a sushi bar?  Jazz in a sushi bar?

If you do go you’ll get a really warm welcome.  If you go more then twice they’ll greet you by name - how often does that happen in L.A? .

After placing our drink orders – Japanese beer and a surprisingly yummy unfiltered sake in a very girly pink bottle – we checked out the specials.   We then asked our sushi chef Saito what he would recommend.  Without a word he pointed to the specials board he said anything on that list would be terrific.  Who are we do disagree?

FYI there are no prices on the specials menu so if budget is an issue, make sure to ask. But then again, if budget is an issue - you might not be eating sushi very often.

We started off with Spanish Mackerel sushi.  Amazing.  A touch of garlic was the only garnish and it was so good with a velvety texture.

Next?  Sea Bass sushi. 

This came with a spot of chili and lemon along with a sprinkling of sea salt.  As he set the plate down Saito said, rather gruffly , “no soy sauce!”  Okay.  Again, who am I to argue? I love a man who takes charge.  Besides, he was totally right, the flavor was light, the texture delicate and soy sauce would have just taken away from the blend of flavors. At that point we went for Hamachi – or Yellow tail - sashimi. 

The portion was generous and this time, since Saito didn’t say anything, we tried a little soy sauce.  The Hamachi’s buttery flavor was to die for.

The vibe is really laid back and we never felt rushed.  We sipped our beer, the creamy sake, and just people watched. 

Surprise, surprise with in minutes we were hungry for more so we got a Spicy Scallop Hand Roll, not on the specials menu.  Unfortunately,  this was the low point in an otherwise stellar experience.

The spicy roll was not spicy and there was way too much rice and seaweed paper that overpowered the fish.  In his defense I will say thatSaito himself does not make the rolls – he leaves that task to one of the other chefs working the sushi bar.

Hoping to get back on a roll (ha, ha, no pun intended) we went back to the specials menu …this time taking a chance on the Toro – or Fatty Tuna.  It was seared with a kitchen torch and served with a ponzu sauce.  Score one for Saito!  This was so mouth-watering we ordered another round.   

We finished up with some fresh water eel flown in from Japan.  It had a melt in your mouth quality that again need no assistance from soy sauce or wasabi.  In fact, I touched my soy sauce only once the entire meal, that pretty much says it all.

The bill came to about 125.00 for two, with drinks.   A bit pricey?  It depends on your point of view.  For us it’s a no brainer.  Incredibly fresh fish, good variety, and Saito.  He’s not exactly a Sushi Nazi but it’s clear he is really passionate about what he does.  Good enough for me.

4 on 6:  16573 Ventura Blvd.  Encino, 91436  818.501.7191

By Erinn (see more of her posts). You can find more of Erinn's writing at her own website Sunday Dish.