Jinpachi - Toro Heaven

If you're looking for authentic Japanese food and sushi, Jinpachi is the way to go. I came here a couple weeks ago for dinner and I still fantasize about the amazing toro they serve here.

Located on Santa Monica Blvd in the heart of West Hollywood, Jinpachi is an unassuming restaurant that you can easily miss walking by. But, it's so worth the visit, even if you just get a few pieces of sushi.

Service was great, polite and on par. The sushi chef really knew what he was doing and each piece of fish was very fresh.

Here's what we ordered:

Sweet shrimp - I would skip this one. It tasted ordinary, not like the really amazing sweet shrimp at Sushi Go 55.

sweet shrimp & toro


Toro sushi - OMG. We ordered 4 pieces to start with and got 4 more because it was THAT delicious. Both of us took a bite and were in toro heaven. It literally melted in our mouths. I swear, I've never had better toro elsewhere. Definitely a must get item, but it's not cheap. It's still worth it though!

close up of toro goodness


Salmon sushi - Delicious and fresh as well. Like butter. Highly recommended.

Yellowtail sushi - Pretty good, but not outstanding.

Tuna sushi - Good, but not our favorite.

salmon, yellowtail, tuna


Spicy tuna, toro, salmon


Unagi - Very good, nicely grilled.

Blue crab hand roll - Yummy, but the blue crab hand roll from Sugarfish still holds my heart.

unagi, blue crab


Chawan Mushi - Loved it! Soft, silky, flavorful and packed with mushrooms and seafood. Simply delicious.



Mixed tempura - Came with white fish, shrimp, and assorted veggies. Kiddo liked it and it's a notch above the mixed tempura at other restaurants.



In a nutshell, I'd come back here just to eat toro. Mmmmmm. I'm drooling thinking about it now.

Save up because it ain't cheap. Just remember, toro!

Jinpachi
8711 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 358-9134

Shabu @ Kagaya

Oh my heavens. I had one of the best dining experiences here last night. It truly warranted the $51 price tag per person. In fact, we had so much food, I am STILL full this morning, and I passed out right away when I got home. Can you say food coma?

We arrived before our 8 pm reservation so we had to wait outside for the other diners to leave. But, once we were seated, the food journey began. And what an adventure it was.

Started off with a halibut and caviar sashimi. The flavors were amazing and I loved the caviar. I did think the halibut was a bit chewy as did one of my dining companions.



Next up was the duck soup. At first it was mild in flavor, probably due to the extremely flavorful sashimi, but after a few sips, the soup took on a life of it's own. It was sooo good and comforting. And the duck, omg, it was beyond tender. Very creative and well thought out soup.



Following the amazing soup came shark's fin chawan mushi. OMFG. OMFG. This was one of the best things I've ever ate! I should be on that Food Network show. The steamed egg mixed with the shark's fin was orgasmic. I could eat this every single day.



At this point I was already getting full, but after a brief 10 minute break they brought out the shabu. We all got the mixed shabu A, which consisted of beef, clams, king crab legs and one oyster. This came with rice and a plate of veggies - mushrooms, vermicelli noodles, napa cabbage, tofu and chrysanthemum leaves.







We dug in and started chowing down. Wow, the beef was so tender and fresh. It basically melted in my mouth. I liked the ponzu sauce they gave us but if you're into spice like me, add a few drops of hot chili oil and the flavors really come out.

The veggies were all delicious and cooked up pretty fast. I'm a fan of those chrysanthemum leaves, so damn good.

Clams and crab legs were good as well, but the best was the oyster. Yes, you get only one oyster, but holy moly, it was one of the freshest oysters I've ever eaten! We opted to eat it raw, and I would recommend you do that as well. If you cook, it's a waste of a oyster!



After eating all this food I really felt like I was going to explode. We all were in a food coma, but geared up for the next course.

Rice soup. I've never had it before and was quite interested to see what all the fuss was about.

They took our pot of soup and within 10 minutes came back with rice soup. It had rice, egg, tomato and veggies in it. It was amazing!! I was so full that I felt like I was 3 months pregnant, but I still downed my bowl of soup.



At this point, we were crying for mercy. But, the waiter came back and asked us what we wanted for dessert. I got the creme brulee, my friend got the sorbet and my other friend got the green tea mousse.

creme brulee



I'm not a huge dessert fan, but that creme brulee was heaven on earth. It was seriously one of the best I've ever tasted. I liked that it was small too, and yes I practically licked the bowl. The green tea mousse was pretty good as well.

green tea mousse



peach sorbet



The service was excellent all night and our waiter was on top of things. 5 stars for service.

Everything was amazing last night and I can't wait to go back asap. Who's with me?

5*****

Kagaya
418 E 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 617-1016

AYCE KBBQ @ Yi Ssi Hwa Ro

Woooot! One of my new favorite AYCE KBBQ places. A group of us came here the other night and ate till we almost exploded.

There are 2 different menus, one for $16, the other one for $20. We opted for the $20 one because it came with baby octopus, shrimp and spicy kalbi.

I'm a huge fan of baby octopus, I could eat them every day. However, the baby octopus here was not that good. The tentacles were good, but the head was so sandy I had to spit it out. Gross.

However, the chadol (brisket) was soooo good that we ordered 5 plates of it. Yeah. You think you aren't eating that much since the meat is so thinly sliced, but really, don't kid yourself. Meat is meat and it's gonna expand in your tummy.

The kalbi was good as well, and rib eye steak was alright. My faves of the night was the chadol and kalbi. I didn't get a chance to try the spicy kalbi cuz I couldn't really breathe after round 3.



Oh yeah, loved the rice papers and the sesame oil with salt dipping sauce. I didn't much care for the purple rice though. White rice!

As far as service goes, it was pretty damn good. They were attentive, friendly and even changed out our grill multiple times. I like that, it prevents cancer.

Oh, since 2 of our friends had birthdays that night, they gave us a free bottle of bubbly and made them dance in front of everyone. It was awesome.

We also had 3 bottles of soju at $6.99 and $9.99 per bottle. The $10 bottle was a bit smoother.

Overall, great dining experience and at $33 per person, a great deal.

Yi Ssi Hwa Ro
3465 W 6th St
Los Angeles, CA 90020
(213) 365-8111

Lunch at Eva Restaurant

I enjoyed a pretty good lunch last week at Eva and I got a $25 gift card to use for my next visit. Thanks to Groupon, I purchased a 2 person prix fixe lunch deal for $35. Normally, the lunches are $22 each.

I got this Groupon back in April when the restaurant used to be open daily for lunch. Since then, it has changed the lunch hours to just Thursday and Friday, and most recently only Fridays. Since the Groupon expires 8/3, I had to go last Friday.

Didn't get a reservation since they were all booked up, but when we arrived, they seated us right away on the outside patio. Yay for not waiting, especially since it took me 35 minutes to get there from the westside.

Service was prompt, courteous and great overall. Jill and Alexander took care of us and both were super nice.

For my appetizer I went with the lettuce salad with tomatoes and this great dressing. Not sure what the dressing was, but it was creamy and had tiny bit of onions on it. I wasn't too keen on the tomatoes still having the vine on the top, but it was a small inconvenience. Yeah, it looked cute, but eating it required me having to remove the stem.



My DC had the chilled corn soup with tomatoes and tiny bits of chorizo. He liked it a lot and I thought it was okay. I'm not a fan of cold soup tho, so if it were warm, I'd probably enjoy it more.



For our entrees, we both had the fluke (white fish) with summer squash and this amazing buttery sauce. I loved this dish! The fish was soo soft and tender, it seriously melted in my mouth. A++



Dessert was watermelon for me and donuts for him. I'm a fan of watermelon, but felt that it wasn't really considered a dessert. It was just 3 slices of watermelon. Maybe they could have done something else to it? He didn't care for his donuts, and said they were dry and boring. Oh wells, donuts are hit or miss.





Overall, I liked the lunch and left feeling full, but not stuffed.

I'm coming back to use the $25 GC, and hopefully try their other dishes.

4****

Eva Restaurant
7458 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 634-0700

Nate n Al's Deli

When you've got a hankering for a sandwich after watching an episode of "Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network featuring a huge pastrami sandwich at Langers, Nate n Al's is a good alternative for westside peeps.

I had been craving a nice beef sammie for 2 days after seeing said episode. I finally got a chance to satisfy that the other night.

The boy, kiddo and I went for dinner and were pretty full after.

I had the corned beef sandwich with a side of potato salad. He had the egg salad sandwich with a side of macaroni. Kiddo had a corn dog, fruit and chocolate milk.

Overall, I liked my sammie. It was packed with corned beef, which was tender, and flavorful. Not a bad deal at all. The potato salad was a bit sweet for my liking and drowning in mayo.





BF liked his egg salad sandwich, but then again he likes egg sandwiches in general. I had a bite and it was pretty good, packed with egg salad with a strip of lettuce.



Kiddo didn't really like her corn dog, but she dug the chocolate milk. The waitress was pretty funny, in a grandma kind of way.

The pickles they give you at the start of the meal are really good and crispy! Great addition to your sammies.

I'd come back when the craving hits again.

Nate n Al's Deli
414 N Beverly Dr
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
(310) 274-0101

Pourtal Wine Tasting Bar

My friend and I came here for happy hour the other night. Happy hour goes from 4-7 pm and we got in at 6:52 pm. We sat down at one of the many high tables and waited for service.

Our waitress comes over, and told us that they have HH, but there was only 8 min left. Yeah, we know.

She left and came back about 9 minutes later to take our orders. We ordered a glass of wine each ($5) and 5 appetizers at $4 a pop. Good prices.



We asked for duck rillettes, olives, spanikopita, burrata and tater tots.

After about 10 minutes she came by with the olives and mini hot dogs. I was confused and asked her what the hot dogs were. She said they were kobe dogs. Um.. we didn't order those I told her. She said sorry curtly and took them away.

Another 10 minutes later we got the tater tots, duck rillettes and spanakopita.

I've gotta say, those duck rillettes were effen amazing. Similar in texture to pate, and served with toast, it was the best thing of the night. I could have ate another order of them. I'm sure it was laden in fat and I probably gained 5 lbs from one serving, but whateves, it was worth it.



Tater tots were average, crispy, but after a while was just okay.



Spanakopita was soft and flaky with a nice spinach and cheese filling. Another winner.



Olives were just average. Nuff said.




And the burrata? Well, I couldn't tell you as they never showed up. We tried to flag her down but she was too busy chatting with some people at the bar. Seriously, the service was just off. She got the order wrong, then forgot our other order, and basically ignored us till we got our bill.

Maybe she should have written down the order. Just sayin.

Or hire another server, since she was the only one.

I might come back to try the Monday all night happy hour, but I really hope the service is not as bad.

3***

Pourtal Wine Tasting Bar
104 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 393-7693

Cafe Med

2 must try dishes at my favorite Italian place in Los Angeles.

Orecchiette with sausage, rapini, and garlic. My ultimate pasta dish. Love the flavors.



Fettucine with truffles. Divine in all senses of the word. Topped off with fresh parmesan cheese.



Cafe Med
8615 W Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 652-0445