Where the hot dog is King!
Papaya King’s Director of Operations, Wayne Rosenbaum talked about the expansion. “Basically, we teamed up with some partners out in L.A., the SBE corporation, and Sam Nazarian,”. “He loved the product.”
That was it, deal done. About the sordid billboards that fits right in; don’t you think?
By Emi Kagawa
2027 Sawtelle Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 479-2231
The drawbacks are tight parking and cash only, aside from these inconveniences the ramen is quite good overall, although Ramenya still rates higher in my book.
By Emi Kagawa
11555 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
West Los Angeles
(310) 575-9337
www.ramenya-usa.com/ramenenglish
Ramenya serves the best ramen on the Westside of Los Angeles. Usually there is a wait to get in.
IDG (Innovative Dining Group) borrowed a concept developed by Nobu Masuhisa and whittled down the prices and came up with Sushi Roku, which opened up in West Hollywood in the late nineties. They then expanded by opening BOA Steakhouse, Katana and other venues. BOA Steakhouse is a California vision of a New York Steakhouse, which means it is more feminine and more casual.
Santa Monica Seafood
1000 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310.393.5244
Market Hours: Mon thru Sat: 9-9, Sun: 9-8
Café Hours: Mon thru Sat: 11-9, Sun: 11-8
Since 1939 Santa Monica Seafood has operated a retail store in Santa Monica, California to service the needs of residents and restaurants in the West Los Angeles and South Bay areas. They started retailing on the Santa Monica pier more than 70 years ago. About 30 years ago they were asked to relocate off the pier and now are situated in their newest location at the southeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and 10th Street in Santa Monica. Aside from the cashier’s more pleasant and relaxed attitude, the new store and cafe boasts some outstanding features:
More than 60 linear feet of state of the art seafood refrigerated cases, which maintain the seafood at optimum temperatures and allow customers to get a close-up look at all of the seafood available
Hamamori Restaurant & Sushi Bar
3333 Bear St., Suite 320, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Website: www.hamamorisushi.com
Perched atop a tiered, open-floored, breezy layout in Orange County’s Grande Dame Shopping Mall South Coast Plaza makes an ideal location for this really outstanding Japanese restaurant Hamamori, which specializes in top-quality sushi. The space is sparkling, fresh and gleaming as is the fish that they serve; accented with glass and modernistic chandeliers it is a pleasure to spend time here and accounts for the many repeat customers, some of which, dine here as frequently as a few times a week.
Culinary Tidbits . . . TV star Mario Batali and restaurateur & winemaker Joe Bastianich have plans to open a Los Angeles branch of Eatly, their huge Italian food mega-store, which opened in New York last year. A location could possibly be around the fringes of the Fairfax district. With the exception of good neighborhood farmers markets LA still lacks interesting gourmet markets and has so far nothing to offer on this scale and scope.
Note: I apologize for the low volume of posts. They have been and will be severely curtailed from April 10 – mid to end of May due to my repair & remodel of my rental property in Los Angeles, where my time to write is limited and internet connection in this location is very spotty at best.
R&D Kitchen
1323 Montana Ave. (14th St.)
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Tel. 310-395-3314
Gastropub
Great French Fries
R&D Kitchen is a very popular cafe and bar, with a no reservations policy. the large bar is chock-a-block at night with an animated crowd waiting for tables. The reasons for this are: it is the only establishment on Montana Avenue with a full liquor license, and has an abbreviated food menu with classic American comfort food which is always fresh and well executed, and a more than adequate wine/wine by glass list.
“Rubenesque” sandwich
Chinese Chicken Salad
R&D Hamburger
Greek Chicken
8479 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Tel. 323-782-1104
Website: www.commecarestaurant.com/los-angeles/
David Myers restaurant Comme Ça in West Hollywood was both hit and miss on the food side and maybe, I will give him the benefit of the doubt, he was out of town or at least not present on two back to back visits I made to his restaurant. Looking at it positively, the wine end with its good selection of well chosen wines, both by the glass and bottle helped to mke up for it.
The red & yellow beetroot salad was very good, while a crispy skate suffered from too much dusting that masked the subtle flavors of the fish. Profiteroles were too crispy for my liking and an unneeded, and unwanted in my case, mass of spun sugar did nothing for the dessert but interfere, granted it was meant as decoration. A hamburger on another visit filled with a thick patty of good-quality beef on a pleasant tasting bun was cooked as I requested (medium-rare). An accompanying cone of pomme frites appeared as if they might be good, although that observation was to be short lived when I bit into the first soggy and limp fry. The surrounding clientele seemed pleased with what was delivered to their table however, I had the impression that a great deal of them had not the faintest idea of what French cooking was all about; in this case it served them well.
Tavern Tipples . . . Jared Meisler and Sean MacPherson, the people responsible for Bar Lubitsch have opened, according to them, La Cienega’s first speakeasy. However, one of the Lawry’s locations on the west side of the street had a basement that was possibly used as a speakeasy that predated The Roger Room. We are checking it out!
