Nem Nuong Khanh Hoa- Authentic Vietnamese Food

Located in a strip mall in Alhambra, this Vietnamese restaurant is a hidden gem. With low prices and tasty food, the owners know how to please an audience.

We ordered Pho Tai, Bun Bo Hue and Nem Nuong along with three fresh coconuts. Yes, coconuts cut out at the top so you can just sip the juice! Nothing in the can beats that.

The Pho Tai was okay, kinda flavorless, but my kid wanted it badly. I think Pho 999 is still the best in terms of pho.

Bun Bo Hue was very good, albeit not that spicy. I liked that she asked us if we wanted blood and other funky items in there. We said no thanks. I'm prefer my beef noodle soup sans the red stuff. It came with a dish of veggies to add into the broth. One thing I like about Vietnamese food is the abundance of fresh veggies. Makes me feel healthier as I stuff my face.

The Nem Nuong was good and it was my first time trying it. Basically, you get a plate of veggies, a plate of meat and shrimp and rice paper to wrap your own spring rolls. I liked the variety veggies especially the mint and perilla. The dipping sauce was kinda blah though, just a weird flavor and not spicy at all.

Total bill was $42 for our party of four. Not a bad deal for all this food! I would come back and try the other dishes. Make sure you get the Nem Nuong, it's their specialty.    

4****

Nem Nuong Khanh Hoa
1700 W Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91803
(626) 943-7645

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Khan Shabu Shabu - Great Deal for $9.99

We came here for the $9.99 lunch special and it was so worth the trek!

The Japanese style shabu is the way to go. It comes with your choice of normal or spicy broth. I was feeling adventurous so decided to try the spicy broth and boy was it HOT. It was so hot that I had to ask the waiter to change out the broth to normal. Wimp. The normal broth way tastier anyway.

Special comes with prime beef, a huge plate of veggies consisting of cabbage, tofu, scallions, carrots, 1 piece of bok choy and udon noodles. There was so much napa cabbage I felt like a bunny. It took a while to make a dent in that plate.

One of the advantages of being at a Korean restaurant is the banchan you get with your meal. We got potato salad, kimchee and cucumbers. The potato salad was the best so we got more. Yay for unlimited refills!

Also, you get free iced tea with your meal.

All this for a mere $9.99? Believe it.

Service was on par and we used the call button when we had to.

Highly recommended. Can't wait to come back!

4****


Khan Shabu Shabu
210 N Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90004
(323) 465-6688

The Counter - Customized Burgers in the Valley

First thing I noticed when we walked into The Counter was how friendly everyone was. Even amid the chaos, we were still greeted and shown to a table within 2 minutes. Kudos to the staff for that.


The Counter's drawing point is customized burgers which is great for picky eaters like me. We were hungry so we ordered a ton of food.


Crispy onion strings: thinly cut onion fried to a golden crisp. It came in a huge, heaping portion. I think we should have got the half order. Very tasty!

Parmesan french fries: fries topped off with melted Parmesan cheese and mixed with parsley, rosemary and garlic aioli. Not bad, but way too heavy for me. I had a few bites and was done. 

Sweet potato fries: Pretty tasty, good choice for the health conscious.

All the sides came with different dipping sauces. My favorite was the roasted garlic aioli.

Now on to the burgers. I had the beef burger with mushrooms, avocado, red onion, mixed lettuce and roasted garlic aioli on a multigrain bun. It was delicious! Very juicy and great flavors. 

One of my dining companions had the buffalo burger with mushrooms and gruyere cheese on an English muffin. He liked it a lot and said the buffalo was cooked well and very tasty. 

My other DC had the beef burger with grilled onions, Swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato on a regular hamburger bun. She liked it as well.

I ordered a glass of Riesling to drink since I don't drink beer. The manager actually carded me. Oh yesss.. thanks for making my day! They do have a wide selection of wine and beer for you alkies.

Overall, a great dining experience. I would definitely come back when the burger craving hits again. 

4/5****

The Counter

12117 Ventura Blvd
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 980-0004

Cham Sut Gol - AYCE KBBQ

We were so excited for AYCE KBBQ at $16.99 per person. After reading some stellar reviews on Yelp, we couldn't wait to try the bomb ass chadol and sirloin and enjoy the awesome service.

Hmm.. did that happen? Well, 1 out of 3 delivered so you be the judge.

Our group of 5 sat at a table by the back, next to the serving stations. You would think that would help our chances of getting great service, but nope! We had to constantly ask for food and drinks. At one point, we were sitting there meatless, banchan-less and with no drinks whatsoever. WTF?

All of us were pretty annoyed by this fact and we had to ask for steamed egg a few times. They tried to tell us we already got it, but we weren't that dumb. One of the waitresses was cool and hooked us up with 3 steamed eggs (that's the limit per table). However, I did see that the table behind us got stellar service and tons of steamed egg. Hmm..

On to the food. We ordered pretty much everything off the $16.99 menu, except for the intestines (barf) and the pork belly.

Chadol: Weird. Not like typical chadol, too thick and progressively got more funky. We had about 4 plates of chadol. At one point, even the waiter couldn't tell if it was chadol or beef tongue!

Sirloin: OMFG. Winner of the night! This thick and juicy steak was delicious! There is a limit of 1 steak per 2 people. We had 5, but still got 3 steaks. Yay for some sweet talking from MC in our group. Definitely get the sirloin, you won't be disappointed. 

Sirloin

Kalbi: Pretty good, albeit kinda chewy. I've had better elsewhere.

Baby octopus: Really salty, but tender. Could have done without the intense salty marinade.

sirloin, baby octopus, spicy pork belly

Beef tongue: Not bad, but then again, I'm not a fan of tongue. Don't want my food tasting me back.

Spicy pork belly: I didn't like this at all. Very hard to chew and really salty. Skip this.

Salad was okay and very salty as well! I was so thirsty the entire dinner and for hours after. 

Salad + banchan

Banchan was lacking and small in portion size. Nothing out of the ordinary here. We had potato salad, daikon, fish cake, tofu, kimchee, rice wrappers, bean sprouts and pickled cucumbers. My favorites were the rice wrappers, potato salad and bean sprouts.

Overall, the food was about a 3.5 and service was a 2.

Would I come back? Probably not. But, you can't beat a $20 dinner and feeling like a stuffed cow. 

3/5***

Cham Sut Gol
3700 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 734-9292

The Waffle - Worth the Wait?

We saw this place featured on "Best Thing I Ever Ate" thanks to Susan Feniger praising the red velvet waffles. So, we came here last Sunday to see what the fuss was all about.

First off, be prepared to wait a good 30-40 minutes for a table. We got there around 1 and didn't get a table till about 1:35 pm. Then, be prepared to wait for your food. Our food took another 30 minutes to arrive. F that. We were starving! I seriously can't stand waiting that long to eat. But, I took one for the team.

The red velvet waffles come with cream cheese butter and truly taste like red velvet cupcakes. At $10.50 for 2 pieces, it will pretty expensive. But, I guess you pay for novelty.

I ordered a tuna salad sandwich as did my DC at $8.25 each. The sandwich came with waffle fries which made them worth the price. Actually, the sandwich was pretty good.

I opted for the bottomless cocktails option which is only available on weekends. You get your choice of mimosas, bloody marys or margaritas for $12. I started with a mimosa which was just okay. Then I progressed to a bloody mary which was very watered down and weird. I would skip the cocktails and just drink water.

Bloody Mary

Someone was still hungry after her waffles so she ordered the dip and chips. What a waste of $7. A pile of stale chips and some artichoke chip = fail. Don't get this dish at all.

Our total bill was $57 before tip! Wowza. That's way too expensive for the food we got, especially after waiting an hour to eat.  

3/5***

The Waffle
6255 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 465-6901

Wurstkuche- Exotic Sausages in DTLA

Finally got to try this place last weekend and it was definitely worth the trip to downtown. We parked on the street for free right next to the restaurant. As we walked up we saw a long ass line and were I felt kinda annoyed since waiting for food has never been my thing. However, I took one for team and sucked it up. Waited about 25 minutes to order and another 20 minutes for the food to be done.

menu

in line to order

Here's what we got:

Rattlesnake and rabbit sausage: AMAZING and sooo juicy. I loved it. For those of you wondering what the heck that tastes like.. well, chicken. Doesn't everything taste like chicken in some way? I got sauerkraut and spicy peppers for my toppings and they really balanced out the sausage. Yummy.

Duck and bacon sausage: This one was a bit dry which was kinda disappointing since it sounded so juicy. It had a smoky flavor to it as well. Not sure I'd recommend this.


L- R: truffle fries, kielbasa, rabbit + rattlesnake, duck + bacon, rabbit + veal

Kielbasa: Yum, very tasty and one of the "normal" sausages. This one is good for those faint of heart and less adventurous.

Rabbit and veal sausage: Tender and juicy as well. Tasted very similar to the rattlesnake and rabbit one. But, the RR one still ranks #1 in my book!


Rabbit + rattlesnake with sauerkraut + spicy peppers

mmm mmm good

Fries with truffle oil glaze: OMG. I'm not a fan of bigger cut fries, but these suckers were delish! I could totally taste the truffle oil too ($2 extra), but it's so worth it. We also got 4 dipping sauces to go with it. 2 chipotle aioli, 1 pesto mayo and 1 buttermilk ranch. The chipotle aioli was our favorite, good flavor with a kick.

There is also a mustard stand where you can serve yourself. My favorite was the sweet mustard. So tasty with fries too!

As far as drinks go, they have plenty of beer and sodas. I got a Pellegrino for myself and my dining companions got a vanilla cream soda (yum) and an orange soda (decent). 

In terms of price, not cheap! Our lunch was $56. The dipping sauces should be free instead of $0.75 each. 


view from our table

Good food, decent seating and alright pricing. Just remember to get the rattlesnake and rabbit!


4****


Wurstkuche
800 E 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 687-444