Mastros, Beverly Hills

You know that commercial where a couple go to a fancy schmancy restaurant and are served tiny portions of food? They have to have a second dinner at home because they were still hungry after dinner!

When I was at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant a while back, I felt like I was in that commercial. I ordered a mushroom soup and they brought out a pitcher the size of a coffee creamer and then poured the tiny amount of soup into my amusingly large soup bowl.

If you spend the same amount of money at Mastro's, however, you will eat like a sumo wrestler. We went here for a friend's birthday party and we got the private room with a window overlooking the kitchen. We ordered the rib eye (split), oysters on the shell, and all the trimmings (including lobster mashed potatoes, green beans, brussel sprouts, and shishito peppers). The lobster mashed potatoes definitely lived up to the hype. Every bite I took contained a meaty, buttery piece of lobster.

By the end of the meal, I was uncomfortably full. Everybody had leftovers, and our steak was just as good the next day!

Mastros

Patrick's Road House, Santa Monica

The Jessica Burrito

Brad raves about Patrick's Road House every time we drive past it on PCH. It's one of his favorite after-surf spots to refuel. The other weekend on our way up to Malibu, I finally got to taste it for myself. We got a breakfast croissant sandwich and the Jessica burrito (not on the menu), both with sides of fruit. The croissant sandwich was my favorite--the bread was perfectly flaky and toasted. Inside of it was an egg, avocado, tomato and bacon. The restaurant itself is so cozy and has a great "home-like" feel to it. They just opened for dinner as well, so I can't wait to come back.

Breakfast croissant sandwich

Hokulani Cupcakes, Honolulu

We had a cupcake tower for our wedding, and Hokulani Bakery provided the sweets. The two flavors we chose were strawberry guava with cream cheese frosting and lilikoi with lemon cream cheese frosting. The cupcake topper is from Etsy seller Melabo.

Hokulani Bakery

Imanas Tei, Honolulu

Chanko Nabe

Hawaii's izakaya restaurants are so much more affordable than L.A.'s ones! At Imanas Tei, six of us ordered a whole boatload of dishes to share PLUS two orders of chanko nabe. I have never eaten so much at an izakaya before! We got the bill and it was only $30 a person (including tip!). I loved the food, and the decor was gorgeous.

The Chanko Nabe is pictured above. Our waiter told us that this is what they feed sumo wrestlers to get them big and strong. All the pieces are artfully arranged in the pot, and the dish is allowed to cook over an open flame at the table. As it stews, the tower sinks lower and lower until it's all in the broth. After you finish eating, the server comes with rice and more broth, and makes a comforting rice porridge out of the leftovers.

Imanas Tei

Father's Office, Culver City

We took our friends Mike and Michelle out to a thank you meal at Father's Office in Culver City. I've discovered the secret to a fun dining experience at F.O.--get there at opening time! We got there exactly at noon on a Saturday, and we had our pick of seats. By 12:30, the place was packed inside. Brad got the Father's Office burger and I got the lamb skewer. The lamb was pretty good, but next time I am going to stick with their burger since it's undoubtedly the best thing on the menu. We also got a basket of sweet potato fries, and a basket of regular fries. Don't ask for ketchup--they only serve them with the blue cheese dip!

Shirokiya, Honolulu

butterfish bento box

Every time I visit Honolulu, I make a stop at Shirokiya. Shirokiya is a Japanese marketplace/shopping area located in Ala Moana Shopping Center. I love the food court area, where you can get everything from gooey takoyaki balls to fried ika and hand rolls. This last trip, we went three times (taking three different groups of friends with us).

On this trip, I fell in love with the grilled miso rice balls and the butterfish bento box. The bento box made a great snack to take to the beach!

inside the daikon kiriboshi (not a fan of this--the bun was a little too tough)

delicious grilled miso rice balls

Sushi Izakaya Gaku, Honolulu

Spicy tuna tartar with quail egg

Brad and I got married in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago, and my first meal of our wedding week just blew me away. I went to Sushi Izakaya Gaku with my friend Erin (Brad had a headache and couldn't come) and now it is my favorite restaurant in Hawaii! In addition to everything pictured, I also got a natto handroll, a spicy tuna handroll, and an additional tamagoyaki for Brad takeout, and the whole tab was around $55! I couldn't believe how affordable everything was, and how delicious it was too. The only downsides are that the parking lot is small and street parking in the area is scarce. Make reservations!

Sushi Izakaya Gaku

fresh tofu with dashi soy gelee on top

Tamagoyaki

Salmon toro sushi

Okinawan Sweet Potato croquettes

Soy milk dessert

Thanksgiving at Paradise Cove, Malibu

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

In keeping with tradition, for the third straight year Brad and I went to Paradise Cove in Malibu for Thanksgiving. We slacked in getting reservations, so the only time available to us was at 10:30 am. We dragged ourselves away from bed ("Wake up, we have to go eat!"), did the beautiful coastal drive up PCH, and stayed for a lazy two hour brunch. The feast started off with a trip to the salad bar and a Bloody Mary, followed by a rich clam chowder, a herculean plate of Kobe beef ribs (their specialty), an overflowing plate of turkey with all the fixings, and coffee with a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. We took home two of the largest take home containers I have ever seen at a restaurant, and I believe we have enough leftovers for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow!

On our drive back, we were listening to Good Food on KCRW. Evan Kleinman was talking about a stuffed pumpkin dish and a brussel sprouts dish that made our full bellies hungry again. We're going to make these two dishes next week, so stay tuned!

Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good

Brussel Sprouts with Lardons, Cranberries and Hazelnuts

Clam Chowder

Salad Bar

Turkey with everything

Kobe beef ribs

Pumpkin cheesecake

Pier outside the restaurant

Brad was full after three bites

Bloody Mary

Beautiful day by the beach!

Test Kitchen: Marcel Vigneron

I just blogged about my recent experience at Test Kitchen on my other blog 365losangeles, but I'll be a little more critical in this post for all the foodies who might be interested...

For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Test Kitchen is a unique restaurant. Chefs take over the restaurant for two or three days and come up with a prix fixed menu that features innovative dishes that they might not normally be able to create in another restaurant. The cuisine is frequently bold and daring. Sometimes you will get a few duds, but it's all in the name of experimentation.

This past weekend, Top Chef alumni Marcel offered a six course menu for $55 per person.

The price doesn't include drinks or tax or tip. Test Kitchen adds on an 18% tip on all tabs, which I found to be a little presumptuous. The service was not consistent. A couple of waiters were great and described the dishes perfectly to us. Others just gave us a couple of scanty details and left it at that. Our waitress forgot our drink order and we ended up not getting it. There are long wait periods between dishes and it took 2 hours to finish our meal (I actually like slow meals because it gives me more time to talk and relax, but this is just a warning to those of you who might get antsy sitting for that long).

Kombu Cured Hamachi: Crispy Rice, Pineapple, Avocado

This was one of my favorite dishes. The pineapple is the yellow rectangle underneath the hamachi. It is thinly sliced and topped with seaweed, toasted rice, jalapeno, avocado dollops and a foam. I tasted each ingredient individually before wrapping it up into a hamachi "taco".

Scallobut: Flavors of puttanesca, artichoke

This dish was very clean and simple. A scallop and a halibut cheek sit next to a deconstructed puttanesca with anchovy, olive powder, roasted cipollini onion, tomato and toast. Parsley and garlic dollops frame the composition. The scallop was barely raw in the center--a beautiful thing.

Wagyu Beef Tongue & Fried Egg: radish, beet, arugala, beans

Break open the fried egg and you'll find a perfectly runny yolk dripping out. Three types of beets, arugula, radish and beans adorn the Wagyu tongue. The tongue melted like butter in my mouth. My only criticism is that the dish came out luke warm, like it was sitting out for a while.

Vadouvan Lamb Chop: Cauliflower, Amaranth, Mint

This was my other favorite dish of the evening. In the background is a cauliflower puree that is saturated with butter. The lamb sits on top of an almond, pomegranate, mint and feta "cous cous". It is topped with more foam.

Ricotta Fritter: Baby peach panna cotta, agave

The green thing on top of the panna cotta is a Japanese baby peach. It was just about the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. The panna cotta was brilliant. The fritter tasted like salty old oil, sadly. It was fine when eaten with the panna cotta because it hid that "off" taste, but by itself I found it unpleasant.

Macadamia "Sponge Cake": textures of strawberry

The sponge cake was made all in the microwave, our waitress bragged. What a strange thing to be proud of, I thought. This was such an interesting dish. The cloud of strawberry foam was topped with this carbonated filled strawberry jelly. It popped in my mouth just like the "olives" at the Bazaar. The whole thing was lightly sprinkled with pepper and topped with celery leaves. It all worked, strangely enough!

Keep your eyes on the Test Kitchen calendar. On October 7 and 8, three Top Chef alumni will be in the kitchen! Check it out here.

Rustic Canyon, Santa Monica

Crispy White Polenta photo by Carol L. on Yelp

Rustic Canyon is right across from its sister daytime restaurant Huckleberry. Rustic is only open for dinner, and it offers Farmers'-Market-fresh ingredients and an ever changing menu that is dictated by the produce offerings at the markets. I didn't get to take pictures of our meal, but I'll give you a play by play...

We had reservations at 6:15 pm on Saturday and were seated right away. I was struck by how much smaller the restaurant looked on the inside than the outside. It is a wide space, but shallow. Our friendly waiter brought out some delicious olives to start.

We ordered:

Figs with roasted fennel, burrata, honey, black pepper ($14): This was a great starter... All the flavors worked very well with each other, and the burrata melted in our mouths.

Crispy white polenta with farm fresh egg, wild mushrooms and parmesan ($16?): Brad wanted this all to himself. The egg on top was sunny side up, so we broke the orange yolk and let it spill all over the polenta. The polenta was cooked perfectly--crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside--and the wild mushrooms brought a rugged earthiness to the dish.

Butternut Squash Mezzaluna with pumpkin seeds, sage and brown butter ($15?): Half moon pastas stuffed with butternut squash. The pasta was made in house and was both al dente and silky. Topped off with crispy roasted pumpkin seeds.

Whole trout with greens, currants and capers ($24): The trout came out split in half. It was crispy and brown on the edges and just so delicate in my mouth. The only problem I had was that I got a mouthful of tiny bones near the head. I guessed they missed a spot. But other than that, it was divine.

The prices are from my memory, so they might be give or take a few dollars. The total was $90 including tax and tip. Not a cheap night out, but certainly date-night worthy.

We didn't order any wine, but I heard that they have an excellent selection. I will be back to try their doughnuts and hot chocolate (they didn't have it when we went) and other seasonal offerings.

Rustic Canyon

LA Mill Coffee Boutique, Silver Lake

We met up with our friends Ron and Fran (and Vincent!) for brunch at LA Mill Coffee in Silver Lake this past weekend. I am in love with this place!

We started with house-made brioche doughnut holes (6 for $3.50). The doughnut holes were so light, it was like eating sugar dusted clouds. They came with an airy vanilla whipped cream (additional .50). We were in heaven.

Brad ordered the Steak and Eggs ($11). Soft scrambled eggs were accompanied by flank steak, chives and a house-made steak sauce.

I got the Arctic Char Tartare ($15) with creme fraiche, capers, hard boiled egg and toasted house made brioche. The arctic char melted on my tongue, its flavor punctuated by salty capers and sweet sour pickled onions. Egg yolk was presented crumbled on the side, and egg whites were chopped up, providing an interesting texture.

We'll definitely be back to LA Mill soon. If you go, don't forget to get the coffee--they're famous for it!

Ichiza, Las Vegas

Ichiza is a Japanese izakaya just off the strip in Chinatown in Las Vegas, and it's a really great find. These are just some of the dishes we got. The honey toast dessert shown above is a must: it is fluffy sweet Japanese bread toasted and topped with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of honey. Everyone at the table swooned when they bit into it. For L.A. people, you can get a similar version at Tokyo Table.

Grilled Shishamo (smelt):

Make your own hand roll with mackerel and spicy tuna:

Beef Tataki: