We decided to go for the gusto and order the Angus Beef Selection (Chef’s Angus Menu – $110) where the chef will pick 3 courses for you.

The meal started with warm fris salad which tasted just like breakfast in your mouth when the poached egg melted into the bacon. However, my favorite salad was the Persian cucumber salad, which was light and vinegary. This was the perfect prequel for the steaks.

Next, the main course. It wasn’t surprising that the Filet was cooked to perfection at this well known steak house, but the Porterhouse was not only perfectly prepared, but we were both surprised at the great seasoning as well.

Unlike at other outings, I made sure I had room for desert. Personally, I like very light desert so the Sorbet with fruit was perfect for my taste. However, for decadent pleasure, the Monkey bread with banana ice cream was to die for. The clever mix of monkey with banana just tops off the greatness of this dish.  If you just want to get great desert after your dinner, I highly recommend getting this desert.

It was a nice change to be completely satisfied with a great meal. Personally, this was too much food for me, but if you want to taste the different offerings here, let the chef decide for you and I’m betting that you will be as happy as I was. Be sure to make this place one of your stops in Vegas.

BarMasa Entrance

The new Aria Hotel and Casino is located in the new City Center in Las Vegas. The entire complex is stunning to look at. It’s a complete change from the 80′s look of the Balagio, Paris, and Mirage. BarMasa is located towards the inside left. The entrance is so large, you might not even realize what it is.

By Los Angeles standards, this restaurant is gi-normous, but by Vegas standards, about what you would expect. Basically, it’s a bar and one large room with mega-high ceilings.

Service is very good but maybe because it’s new, some of the servers seems a little tentative, like they’ve never done it before. The prices here are somewhat expensive, even by Vegas standards. We decided to try the Sushi sampler for $98 shown below.

Sushi Sampler

Although it may be hard to tell in the picture, the portions are very small. The selection is good and everything is fresh but the preparation technique is not top notch. In LA, you could get this same thing for $20. The strange thing was the sushi chef loaded the cucumber roll with wasabi to the max. I’m used to wasabi, but this was over-kill.

There was no need to even ask about “free” green tea. I knew what the answer was going to be. All in all, although the ambiance is good, don’t come here for the sushi. It’s over priced and not close to anything that I would consider great sushi. In fact, I would have to rate their sushi sub-par and would never order it here.

I’ll have to look for another good sushi spot in Vegas this trip.

There’s one located very close to LA Live on Figueroa in downtown LA, but there’s no parking so you have to valet or park at the lot across the street for about $5.

The decor is much nicer than the downtown Katsuya at LA Live, with non-plastic comfortable chairs and real booths where you can sit and relax.

Since this was the first visit, I decided to go very safe and ordered from their “Spring Fusion Prix Fixe” menu where you get to choose one item from 3 courses. I chose the potstickers, Rustic Charred Salmon, and melting hot chocolate souffle for desert. This set is $35.

Rustic Charred Salmon - $35

The potstickers was fine but nothing to write home about. The salmon shown above was prepared perfectly and very delish, and the desert was very good but it’s hard to screw up a chocolate souffle. In case you’re in a hurry, remember that the souffle takes about 20 minutes to prepare.

My friend ordered the “Shellfish Sampler,” which comes with butter poached half lobster tail, seared scallops, and stuffed shrimp, on pesto risotto for $33.95.

Shellfish Sampler - $33.95

Having tasted a tiny portion of the sampler, I can recommend it as something you might want to try yourself.

The waitress was very personable and attentive. Everything was to my liking here.

All in all, this first trip was a “sampler,” and I am determined to return to try the other dishes there. Don’t come here for bargains, or authentic Japanese cuisine. Instead, come here for upscale Asian fusion.

Roy’s Restaurant – Downtown Los Angeles
(213) 488-4994
800 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90017
roysrestaurant.com

“Sweet Pink” wine. I wonder if they’ll have these at restaurants around town. I guess since they sell Hello Kitty vibrators and bikinis, it’s not too surprising that they have wine. Next up, Hello Kitty cigars.

See a list of online sellers at: mwcimporterforhellokittywine.com

They have other branches in Brentwood, Glendale, Hollywood and others opening in Vegas and Miami, according to their website. I’ve never been to any of the other branches so take that into consideration as you read the review of this new branch.

The ambiance here is your usual upscale, hip-fusion Japanese Restaurant that can charge a lot. However, the strange thing was the chairs were cheap plastic chairs that you would have outside for your kids to play on. On top of that, they had tiny tables where they would seat 6 people! The table was so small, at other restaurants, you would seat 2 people and putting 4 would be pushing it. Very strange.

Sushi Bento - $36

My friend ordered the Sushi Bento because it comes with a futomaki roll, which she loves. Don’t ask. In any case, it also comes with nigiri sushi, miso Cod, sunomono, inari sushi, albacore meatballs. The Futomaki is the huge roll closest to the camera and the inari are the “footballs” you see next to it.  The miso Cod was excellent. Almost as good as the cod at Mori Sushi.

However, the albacore “meatballs” were not edible. I don’t use that phrase lightly. When I say “not edible,” I literally mean it. If I bought it at Ralphs, I would return it for my money back. This should not be served anywhere, especially not at a high priced Japanese Restaurant.

Sushi Sampler - $30

As per my usual technique, I ordered the Sushi sampler which comes with the usual assortment of nigiri sushi: tuna, albacore, yellowtail, salmon, halibut, shrimp, octopus, fresh water eel, and egg, and California roll. As you can even see from the picture, the California roll was falling apart and not properly made. Although everything was fresh, all the sushi showed inexperience in the sushi chef’s technique. I’m pretty sure Mr. Katsuya was not part of the creation of these pieces by any stretch of the imagination. It was more like his intern’s helper made them.

We complained about the horrible “meatball” and the waiter told us that other people have complained about it. I guess it doesn’t matter what their customers say, they are going to serve it no matter what. The waiter also warned us that on busy nights, service is very slow because it is so packed and therefore, the restaurant should be avoided. After seeing the food, no problem. At least we were there early and the service was good.

All this wouldn’t be completely horrible if the price was not so inflated. I guess with the name of the restaurant, and the supposed upscale LA Live location, the over inflated prices are to be expected. To add insult to injury, the green tea is $5 here. Yes. That’s right. No, for one person. And everyone that reads this blog knows that in my opinion, any Japanese Restaurant that charges for green tea is not authentic.

At least they validate your $5 parking at LA Live. It can always be worse. You won’t be seeing me there again.

Katsuya
800 W. Olympic Blvd. #A 175
Los Angeles, CA 90015
sbe.com/katsuya/
lalive.com/dining/katsuya

Well, if you go to Japan, or find a store that has Japanese imported Kit Kats, you can get the Strawberry flavored version.

Is it just me or does the strawberry look flesh colored? By the way, it pretty much exactly what you think it will taste like. Not very good.

Sushi Deluxe - $25.95

The first thing I noticed was the nice ambiance of this place. I’m sure it gets pretty crowded on weekend nights. The entry greeting “center” looks like a I.T. control center with about 4 LCD monitors all around with some type of seating application running on them.

My friend got a roll, but I decided to get the standard nigiri combination called “Sushi Deluxe,” which comes with 9 nigiri and a tunu cut-roll as you can see above. Although the sushi was fresh, there was nothing very exciting about it and it’s a tiny bit pricey for what you get. Compare this to something like the combination at Izayoi and you’ll see what I mean.

This place is a Asian fusion type place so don’t expect the perfect sushi here. They do have chicken and plenty of other non-sushi dishes which I think I’ll come back and try.  This is more of a meet & greet, lounge than a sushi bar.

Wakcano, Santa Monica
1413 5th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401-2401
(310) 458-3080
wokcanorestaurant.com

This time around, I decided to try the regular sushi combination instead of ordering piece by piece.

Crisp Duck Risotto - $16

My friend and I were both tricked by the name of the appetizer we picked. The name of it was “Crisp Duck Risotto,” and I somehow thought the duck was crisp. Instead it turns out that the risotto was crisp, which isn’t exactly the way I like my risotto. If anything, I like my risotto mushy, and not crunchy. Nonetheless, the small pieces of duck was good and everything was right in the world again.

16 Sushi Combo - $33

The sushi combination was fresh and well prepared but not as spectacular as on the last trip when we ordered each piece separately.  This seems to be the same at almost all sushi places, where you get better stuff when you order them one shot. There was nothing to complain about here except for the price. You can get the same or better for less money at places like Izayoi.

Moreover, unlike the last trip, the service was not up to snuff for an upscale sushi restaurant. The waitress seemed very rushed and out of sorts and when our sushi combination arrived, there was no soy sauce dish.

In my opinion, at a sushi restaurant, this is worse than the waitress at a steak house not bringing the steak knife. We did eventually flag down a waitress but at any good restaurant, the waitress should return soon after the dish arrives at the table to make sure everything is fine.

However, I will still give this place good marks for their upscale ambiance. But ambiance alone cannot sustain a restaurant. Ask any of the thousands of great looking restaurants that have closed over the decades.

Oh, and one last thing. The hot tea $1.50. Nuff said.

Maru
24250 Town Center Dr. #180
Valencia, CA 91355
(661) 290-2595
maruvalencia.com

I

Dragon Roll - $13

The Dragon Roll is made from fresh water eel (unagi) over shrimp tempura and kaiware sprout roll with plenty of unagi sauce. It wasn’t the best unagi I’ve ever had but it was much better than the worst I’ve had and the price is reasonable. Overall, I’d rate this roll above average and tasty enough for even a picky sushi eater like me.

This place offers a bunch of other rolls to try. Good place for drinks and rolls.

Joy Mart Restaurant
Sake bar and sushi
137 Japanese Village Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 680-9868
Map

Left to right: Meat balls, chicken leg meat, chicken wings, asparagus w/ bacon, chicken white meat

Honda Ya
333 South Alameda #314, Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 625-1184
Tuesday-Sunday: 5:30pm to 1am (last call about 12:30am)
Map