morinoya

los angeles, ca

website

i had no idea that this japanese restaurant was hidden away on the 2nd floor of the olympic collection at the corner of sawtelle and olympic until m directed me there for dinner after work. their specialty is inaniwa udon - i'm not quite sure what it's made of, but it looks like thinly sliced udon. the broth was flavorful and warm. it's a lot lighter than the ramen that you get elsewhere on sawtelle. but my favorite part of the meal was the warm plum wine drink that m ordered - extremely comforting after a long day.

yabu

los angeles, ca

website

one of our go-to lunch spots, a quick drive from the office. solid and dependable japanese cuisine - great lunch specials. i usually get the chirashi with a side of hot udon, although pictured is their tempura lunch special. there are some days when the fish is spectacular - a fresh shipment must have just come in. on other days, the sushi is still very good. one tip that i learned from mohan - you can ask for your noodles to be topped with crunchy tempura flakes for free! why not.

sushi tsujita

los angeles, ca

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being a huge fan of their noodle shops - tsujita la and tsujita annex, i was very excited to try the new tsujita sushi restaurant. unfortunately, it didn't live up to my high expectations. some early dishes were very good - the starter pictured had amazing flavor - each ingredient was delicious. but the later sushi courses were underwhelming - while good, i think you could get sushi just as good for half the price down the street.

tsujita la

los angeles, ca

website

more ramen! before tsujita annex, there was the original tsujita la. it's rare to see this restaurant without a crazy line outside. it serves a different type of tsukemen (dipping ramen). the noodles are similar to the annex, but the broth is completely different. the broth comes in a small bowl with small pieces of pork. there is a bit more oil in this broth, which can throw some people off. but i just mix it all together and it puts a nice coat of porky goodness on the noodles when you dip. there's also a slight sour flavor which pairs nicely with the noodles and a hefty squeeze of lime. both tsukemen are amazing yet completely different. try both and see which one is your favorite!

shin-sen-gumi

los angeles, ca

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you would think that there would be a limit to the amount of ramen that i can eat and the number of ramen restaurants that i will try. but you would be wrong. this is shin-sen-gumi, which is one of many ramen shops on sawtelle. this place gets crowded, but not as crowded as tsujita annex. my new ramen buddy w and i decided to try shin-sen-gumi for lunch one day. broth was tasty, noodles a bit too thin. i liked that i could customize my ramen - choose whether you want your noodles al dente, choose how much pork fat you want floating in your soup, choose your toppings (corn!), etc. but since tsujita annex makes it perfect every time, why mess with perfection?

tsujita annex

los angeles, ca

website

long time no blog. but i'm back now with my favorite restaurant in los angeles - tsujita annex - which was recently featured in an eater article about its noodle supplier, sun noodle. the noodles here are indeed fantastic. i always order the tsukemen (dipping ramen). springy chewy yellow noodles, served room temp in one bowl. in another bowl, thick fatty flavorful pork broth, served hot. pull one or two noodles from one bowl and dip them in the other bowl until they're coated with broth. then slurp! red spice and garlic are available on the table to add even more flavor. i order my tsukemen without any spice and then add two spoonfuls from the table (otherwise, it's way too spicy, trust me). i also add extra vegetables because the bean sprouts soak up the broth and add a satisfying crunch to each bite. you won't be able to finish all of the broth - take it to go and add instant ramen at home for an incredibly rich and indulgent meal.

curry house

los angeles, ca

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curry house is a chain - there's even one in cupertino. i go to the one on sawtelle whenever i'm craving curry. delicious salad. good curry sauce - you can choose your spiciness level. and the katsu is appropriately crispy. i either get the menchi katsu (basically a deep fried hamburger patty) or the tofu katsu. yup, that's curry house.

oumi sasaya

lomita, ca

link to yelp

whhhhy is it so far awaaaay. cindy c once drove me to oumi sasaya for their amazing curry udon. it's a tiny japanese restaurant that specializes in curry udon and there is always a wait for a seat. and they're only open for a few hours for lunch and a few hours for dinner. when they're out of noodles, they just close up. the curry udon is amazing. the noodles are made fresh every day and the broth is rich and spicy. they also serve it with fried mochi, which is one of the best things to ever go into soup. but lomita is so far away from where i live. i would have to get on the 405 and actually stay on the 405 for quite a while, which seems like a risk if they might not even have a seat or any noodles left when i get there. ugh.

sakura teppanyaki and sushi

redwood city, ca

link to yelp

the lovely stacey was in town and we decided to show her a good time in redwood city. ah yes, september 6, 2012. what a night to remember... okay, so the photographic evidence indicates that we ordered beef. i think the beef was pretty good. but all i can remember of the evening was that the fried rice was ridiculously delicious (being cooked in beef fat might have had something to do with it) and that we had to park really far away from the restaurant because redwood city was hoppin'.

tokyo express

san francisco, ca

website

a few co-workers and i walked across the street from our san francisco offices and found tokyo express. it's a little confusing at first because there are numbered cards sitting on empty tables. however, when you order at the register in the back of the restaurant, you can tell them which table you want and the number sitting on that table. when your food is ready, they'll bring it to your table. very fast and efficient service -- this is clearly a lunch spot catered to busy professionals. my pork katsu was pretty good, although they relied on bottled tonkatsu sauce that was a bit too tangy. it's a good spot if you've got a group of 4 people and don't want to wait for a table elsewhere.

juban

menlo park, ca

website

miracle of miracles, derek and i were both leaving the office before 7 pm. we decided to celebrate by going out to dinner. and we decided since we had so much time on our hands, we should drive over to menlo park and check out a restaurant downtown (downtown of course being a single street with a handful of restaurants and shops). juban is japanese-style korean bbq, if that makes any sense. it's similar to gyu-kaku in new york city. the meat is prepared in a soy sauce-based marinade and is usually cut to be more aesthetically pleasing than you would find in a typical korean bbq spot.

the meat was very good and it was fun to cook it ourselves at our table. unfortunately the meal was missing the banchan dishes that you usually get with korean bbq and they even made us pay extra for the kimchi. we did, however, get an excellent bowl of oxtail soup - a warm and comforting broth, filled with rice and oxtail. since you do all of the cooking at your table, this is a very efficient place to eat - it took us about a half hour from getting seated to getting our check. a pretty good option for japanese bbq in the south bay.

michael mina

san francisco, ca

website

derek is very good at thinking ahead and making reservations. when he found out that cindy was coming for a weekend visit, he immediately made reservations at michael mina - highly rated, has one michelin star. a had been there before, so we followed his lead and ordered a la carte. cindy, a+ma, and derek split two orders of the tuna tartare (which was very good), but i had to be an uni-snob and order the uni pasta off of the tasting menu (pictured). the uni was incredible, the rest of the pasta was pretty good as well.

my entree, highly recommended by the waiter, was the "japanese inspired whole dungeness crab" served with ramen. some of the crab was tempura-fried and the rest of the crab was poached in miso-butter. the poached crab was amazing, served with an incredible sauce. the ramen was disappointing - tasted like overcooked instant ramen in a bland broth. the highlight of the meal, however, might have been the bread served on the side - ridiculously good. grilled, buttered sourdough bread served with a little pot of (what i assume must be) fresh ricotta topped with a layer of honey. after you finish one slice of bread, they bring you another slice and another pot of ricotta, so feel free to go crazy with the ricotta. overall, it was a quality fine-dining experience, just don't get the ramen.

kobe japanese cuisine & bar

foster city, ca

website

my sister cindy came to visit for a few days and i took her on a whole tour of the bay area - san jose, palo alto, foster city, and san francisco. i've been lamenting the scarcity of decent japanese food in the bay area, so cindy asked L to find a good restaurant for lunch on friday. she recommended kobe sushi restaurant in a shopping plaza in foster city. because its a shopping plaza with a grocery store and several restaurants, parking was extremely limited. we managed to park in a residential neighborhood nearby.

kobe had a menu of lunch specials, which both cindy and L ordered from. but what caught my eye was the appetizer list, which included octopus salad and hamachi kama (grilled yellowtail tuna collar). the octopus salad was excellent, though a very small portion for the price. the tuna collar was grilled perfectly - buttery and delicious. fish collar is tricky to eat - the flesh hides in little pockets inside the bones, but it's worth the effort.

kitchen kura

san francisco, ca

website

on the way back from reno, we stopped by SF to find dinner. which was a little difficult on new year's day. we drove around inner sunset, figuring that we had a better chance of finding an asian restaurant open on the holiday. april and lennon's favorite chinese restaurant was open, but had a ridiculous wait. we were too hungry and tired, so we ended up at kitchen kura, a decent japanese restaurant with some solid comfort food.

everyone else in the restaurant was ordering fried chicken and it looked fabulous. but i didn't feel like eating fried food, so i went with the sukiyaki (tofu, onion, beef, sweet soy sauce) and nishime (daikon, carrot, bamboo shoot, and shitake mushroom w/ dashi bouillon soup) with rice. derek ordered the katsu curry (pictured). very simple and comforting. definitely hit the spot after the long drive from nevada.

mums

san francisco, ca

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mums is all-you-can-eat and optionally all-you-can-drink shabu shabu. which inevitably results in sake bombing by a large and boisterous crowd. show up on a saturday night and you will very likely leave full, drunk, and half-deaf. your clothes might be slightly damp from being splashed with sake, beer, and/or soup. shattered glasses are common, judging by the efficient and non-chalant manner in which derek's sake-bombing failure was cleaned up. if that sounds like your idea of a good time, i highly recommend this place.

how was the food? does it matter? the quality of the meat (we tried beef, pork, and chicken) was surprisingly good for an all-you-can-eat place. i enjoyed the ponzu-based dipping sauce (especially with the daikon added) and derek's favorite was the peanut sauce. i've had better hot pot elsewhere, but not with an all-you-can-eat-and-drink package. good food, great fun.

kanpai

palo alto, ca

website

yes! finally! two things to celebrate. 1 - derek and i finally found a decent sushi spot in palo alto and 2 - i've finally caught up with all of my posts. i ended up skipping a few places because i either forgot to take a picture or i had taken a picture, but couldn't remember the restaurant. i hope to blog more regularly in the future but we'll see how it goes... anyway, back to the food -- kanpai received some pretty good ratings on yelp, so we decided to give it a try. as soon as we walked in, the atmosphere reminded us of authentic japanese restaurants we visited in tokyo and manhattan, so that was very promising.

derek knows all about my love of uni. as soon as we sat down he asked the waiter whether they had uni. the response - "yes, and it's very fresh!" and it was amazing uni, some of the best that i've ever had - extremely fresh. in fact, i ordered another piece after eating the first. the rest of the sushi was good, but not the same quality as the uni. next time, we know to ask them for what is "very fresh" that day. they also serve the sweet shrimp nigiri with the shrimp heads deep-fried, so you get all the good brainy bits too. delicious. in addition, kanpai has an excellent sake list and really good rolls - we'll definitely be back!

sasabune

los angeles, ca

website

you know a place is going to have good sushi when ... (1) it's recommended by cindy c and (2) you're greeted with a sign that warns you that they don't serve california rolls, spicy tuna rolls, or teriyaki. the only real option at sasabune is the omakase -- the waiter asks you whether you'd like the japanese or the american tasting menu. (we chose japanese, of course!) i had no idea how much lunch was about to cost, but i didn't particularly care. i had been deprived of good sushi for far too long to let financial concerns interfere.

amazing sushi, definitely around seki-level quality. we started with two plates of sashimi - toro in a ponzu sauce and what i think was raw clam with pink salt. so good - extremely fresh, buttery sushi. then the waiter brought us the nigiri courses, two pieces at a time. my favorites were the uni and ikura (pictured) and sweet shrimp, although every piece was fantastic. finally, they serve crab hand rolls - they don't look appetizing, but they were delicious. lunch ended up costing about $100 (incl. tax and tip) so this is definitely a special occasion spot, but i was very happy with the entire experience.

akane

los altos, ca

link to yelp

derek and i have been desperate to find a quality japanese restaurant in the south bay. akane is not it. derek chose this restaurant because it had a favorable rating on yelp. i'm not sure why. maybe it was an off day but when derek and i went, the food was very disappointing.

i ordered the nabeyaki udon. the only thing right was the poached egg, which was perfect with the udon noodles. but the broth was bland and the fish and the chicken were overcooked (and bland). we ordered a sushi roll and some nigiri. the uni tasted funky and not in a good way. the mackerel was not fresh. the sushi roll consisted mostly of green onion and what little raw fish was included was tasteless. sigh.

ryowa

mountain view, ca

link to yelp

i really miss all of the fantastic ramen shops we used to eat at in nyc (and the ones we tried in tokyo, of course). the south bay is seriously lacking in the ramen department. derek managed to find a spot on castro street in mountain view. it was pretty crowded when we went on a saturday afternoon. we had to wait a while before we could grab a stool. the shop reminds me of the ramen bars we visited in tokyo - simple layout, condiments on the bar, stool, wait until a spot opens before you sit and slurp.

i ordered the tsukumen, dipping noodles - while it was good and satisfied my craving, it wasn't nearly as good as the tsukumen with fatty crispy pork at setagaya. it's also missing the dense chewy noodles. but ryowa has buttered corn, good broth, decent noodles, it will do just fine. i'm hoping the crowd of eager ramen eaters indicates a growing interest in this japanese specialty and we'll see more ramen shops open up in the area.

ozumo

san francisco, ca

website

after a couple of days of working hard at the SF office, the team decided to go out for a celebratory dinner when our project was finished. we ordered several dishes for the table and several bottles of excellent sake. i really don't remember much after that. but i do remember that i did not want to inflict my uni-obsession on my co-workers, so i did not order the dish that i really wanted.

i have no qualms, however, on inflicting my obsession on derek. derek had just finished taking the california bar, three days of stressful exams, so we went out to celebrate at ozumo. i ordered that dish i was eyeing - the yamabuki - fresh uni, shimeji and shitake mushrooms in a healthy Genmai brown rice risotto. after the uni-xtravaganza i had at sakagura, this was a disappointment because it lacked strong uni flavor. the rest of the menu was good, though. quality japanese food, but maybe a little toned down for the financial district crowd.