If you’ve been reading this blog, you’d remember me reviewing the Shabu-Shabu House in Little Tokyo.  What I said in that review was that their little secret was their great ponzu sauce.

Well, guess what?

What?

On my recent visit, I discovered this little bottle on the table next to the sign-up sheet.  I asked the chef and all he told me was, and I’m quoting here, “Coming soon!”

Yes, they are going to bottle their secret sauce and sell it.  This is very interesting from a business and marketing point of view.  On one hand, this will bring people to the restaurant.  But on the other hand, it might cause people to make their own Shabu-Shabu at home.

Well, that’s for business and economic brains to work out.  It doesn’t change anything for me because I can’t cook.

Shabu-Shabu House
127 Japanese Village Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 680-3890
Lunch from 11:30am – 2:30pm, Dinner from 5:30pm – 10pm
Closed Mondays
Map

While visiting Zip Fusion, I noticed another restaurant in the same building called East Third Steak House.  I found out later that it’s the same owner.   Normally, I wouldn’t review a steak house but since it’s the same owner, I decided to check it out.   This place also has no parking so you’ll either have to vallet or park on the street.

The setup is very strange in that there is a very narrow hall with tables for customers as you enter to get to the main room.  The main room has a DJ booth and a nice looking bar.  There’s more seating in the back area plus an outside patio with seating.  The ambiance is sexy and dark, and is meant for late night dining or drinking.  Next to the bar are soft chairs that you can move to accommodate your party.

Ahi Tuna $9.95

Although this is a steak place, I decided to try their Ahi tuna salad.  The Ahi was excellent but the salad itself was just barely okay.  They need to use better quality lettuce for a dish like this.  But overall it’s a good dish.

Fillet Mignon $29.95 with Kimchi mashed potatoes

For the main course, I picked the Fillet Mignon even though I know that the New York Steak is the way to test a good steak house.  The fillet was cooked perfectly and was so succulent that I didn’t really need a knife to cut. There’s a big choice for the side, but I chose mushrooms and a kimchi mashed potatoes.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Mashed potatoes with Korean kimchi in it.  I love kimchi but I’m ambivalent about it being in mashed potatoes.  I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it.  Maybe it’s one of those things that have to grow on you.

Conclusion
Cool hip place for late night drinking or a date for the “in” crowd.  Ambiance is good.  The food is good.  The service is okay.  And, no.  I didn’t order green tea here.

East Third
734 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 680-3003
Mon-Fri: 5pm-1am, Sat: 11pm-1am
eastthird.com

This place doesn’t try to confuse you at all.  They have the word “Fusion” in the name of the place so you know what you’re getting.  This restaurant is located east of the Los Angeles Little Tokyo area, right near Crazy Gideon’s on 3rd street east of Alameda.  3rd street is one way going West so you’ll have to go East on 2nd street.

Giant Ponzu Oyster $5.95

First up, big ass oyster on a plate.  The oyster itself was delish but the Ponzu sauce sucked badly.  Instead of tasting vinegary, it was more on the sweet side.  The sauce pretty much ruined the oyster for me.

Nigiri sushi - Albacore $4 and Hamachi $5

Next, I had some nigiri sushi.  Although I didn’t like the sauce on the Albacore, it was still very good.  So was the Hamachi.  Excellent sushi here in terms of freshness, quality, quantity and simple presentation.

Ravioli $14.95

Since this is “fusion,” I had some Ravioli.  The plate was so hot, they put it on top of yet another plate.  However, when they first brought it to the table, they put it on the other side of my table, causing me to have to move it.  Nobody said anything about it being hot but I could tell that it was so I was careful.  After I moved the plate myself, the waitress came over to remind me that it’s very hot. Duh.

But I digress.

Although the skin of the ravioli is a little hard, I still liked it.  I don’t think I would order it again because it’s almost too much for me in terms of it being a little “heavy,” but it’s tasty.

There’s tons more stuff on the menu to try out here so I’ll have to return.  Yes, the green tea is $1.95 but this isn’t a sushi place.  They don’t even pretend to be.  It’s “fusion” baby.

Zip Fusion (Downtown)
744 East 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 680-3770
zipfusion.com
Lunch: M-F 11:30am-2:30pm, Dinner: M-Th 5pm-11pm, Fri-Sat 5pm-midnight

Sushi Combo (B) $13.95

Driving down Central last Wednesday, I happen to notice a new sushi place called Tenno so I stopped by.  I didn’t know where to park so I parked in the mall lot down the street.  There’s some street parking and they told me later that they validate parking for the lot at the corner but I’m not sure which one they’re talking about.

But I digress.

This place has a fairly large sushi bar and and front and back area for table seating.  It’s got that dark ambience that these new hip places like to have.  The sushi bar was well lit but the tables were a little dark for my taste. It would be good for a date, however.

As for the sushi, the pricing is very reasonable.  I tried their sushi combo which was only $14.  Everything was fresh but only acceptable in preparation, size and taste.  Also, they charge $1.50 for hot green tea and if you’ve read this blog before, you know that’s an indication that this is not a true authentic sushi place.

Conclusion
Fresh and cheap but nothing to write home about.

Tenno Sushi
207 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 625-0602
Sun: 4pm-11:30pm, Mon-Thr: 11am-11:30pm, Fri-Sat: 11am-1am

There’s nothing more satisfying than having a friend tell you about a great sushi place that you’ve overlooked. I’m not a valley area guy so I was very surprised when my friend told me that there was a great sushi restaurant in NoHo.  “Are you sure?” I asked twice.  This Chiba place is in a strip mall with very little parking but there’s some street parking available.

Inside, it’s a medium sized place but there’s 2 sushi bars.  For a relatively small place, that’s a lot of sushi.  That was a good sign to me.  We sat down and I went straight for their best nigiri sushi set (Jyo Nigiri Sushi, $24 – see picture above).  Before the sushi, we got some miso soup which had something in it that was surprising.  It had miso in it.  Yup.  Tons of miso in miso soup.  What a new concept.  Along with my miso soup, I got some free green tea.  So far so good.

When my sushi dish arrived, I could tell that it was going to be good even before I took one bite.  To my utter delight, the sushi was absolutely great.  Not just good. Great. 

That’s the good news.  The bad, and weird news is the rice was a slightly dried out.  For a place where the fish is fresh and delish, it was very strange that some of the rice was not perfect.  Although the waitress was very nice, the busboy (or busgirl in this case) refilled my friend’s ice tea like we were at some outdoor Tijuana taco stand, spilling and overfilling the glass as if that was perfectly normal for her.

So it’s not perfect.  But I have to admit, the sushi was great.  So if you can look past some minor problems with this place, I think you’ll find that it’s a great discovery.  Well, actually, the waitress said they’ve been there for around 30 years, so I guess it’s nothing new to most people in the Valley.  Just new to me.

Chiba Sushi
11713 Satacoy St, North Hollywood, CA 91605
(818) 765-9119
Sun: 5pm-9:30pm
Mon-Thr: 11:30am-2:30pm, 5:30pm-9:30pm
Fri-Sat: 11:30am-2:30pm, 5pm-10:30pm

Tokyo Wako is a teppan-yaki place very similar to Benihana.   They have several in Los Angeles, but this one is located in the Paseo Colorado Mall.

In case you’ve never been to one of these places, people sit around a grill where a chef prepares your food in front of everyone.  Teppan in Japanese means “grill” and yaki means “broil.”  The attraction is that the chef makes a big show out of the cooking, especially using some samurai like skills to cut the meat.

As far as the food, it’s acceptable and if you’ve been to any Benihana, this one is almost identical, all the way down to the way the chefs make the onion volcano and cut the food. Okay, let’s be honest.  It’s a complete rip-off of Benihana.  I guess there’s no way to copyright or patent food preparation techniques in business.

Don’t come here for the sushi, but they do have it available for people who want more food than just the beef or chicken.

Tokyo Wako – Pasadena
330 E. Colorado Blvd., #239
Pasadena, CA 91101
(626) 440-0670
tokyo-wako.com

For a while, I’ve been trying to eat healthier.  During my grocery shopping, I noticed this healthier soup by Campbell’s. 

“Healthy Request.” 98% fat free and 40% less sodium.

I don’t know who requested this, but it tastes 100% like crap.  The less sodium is bad enough but the 98% fat free makes this thing taste like plastic.  Plastic with no taste.  If I have to eat this crap to live a few years longer, I’d rather be dead earlier.

I’ve seen restaurants with “A” ratings that didn’t seem very clean to me.  Hope I don’t die from eating here.

Yuzando is located in the West LA Tokyo Row area on Sawtelle in the same building as the Shabu-Shabu place.  It used to be another sushi place and I guess it has changed owners and there’s a new temporary sign hanging on the building.  That’s always a bad sign when the owners don’t want to spend the bucks for a “real” sign.

The inside of this place looks almost the same as before but it’s been brightened and spruced up a little. The lighting on the wall next to the tables are way too bright and hurt my eyes.  But everything looks clean and updated.  So far, so good.

Other bloggers seem to like this place so I was looking foward to some great sushi.  My friend ordered her usual seaweed salad and although it looked small, she said it was good.  We both ordered the mixed sushi, mine for what was supposed to be under $20 on the menu, but came out $23.50 on the bill, and hers for $19.50.

The picture above is what was supposed to be the best mixed sushi on the menu.  No, it’s not a picture of something from Ralphs.  You can see from the unagi and even tuna, that this is not what it should look like.   For a comparison, see the picture from my Izayoi mixed sushi plate.  When sushi looks bad, it follows that it tastes bad.  The bait and switch on the pricing was bad enough, not to mention the small sized sushi, but I just don’t like bad sushi.  Period.

The only good news is the hot green tea was free.  Unfortunately, it comes in the smallest tea cup ever invented.  If you’re going to offer tea that small, you need an ultra attentive waitress to refill it every 5 minutes.  Unfortunately, no such luck here.  Stay away from this place.  I’m sure it’s not going to last very long anyway.  At least the owner saved money on the sign outside.

Yuzando – Sushi on Sawtelle
2004 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 473-2388

My friend and I have been coming to this place for many years but I haven’t been back in over a year.  The first thing I noticed was that it has been remodeled and now has a darker, sexier ambience.  The funiture also seems to be new but I’m not sure.

As we sat down, my heart sank when I realized the sexy Asian waitresses have been replaced by Asian waiters.  What’s this world coming to when you go to a Thai restaurant and they don’t have sexy Asian waitresses?  The end of Western Civilization is closer.  I’m not homophobic so I don’t care if the waiters are gay.  I just want to see some sexy girls.

I got over the lack of sexy waitresses situation and ordered my usual beef steak dish with a side of white rice. My friend ordered his usual fried rice thingie.  The picture above shows my plate. The dipping sauce was a lot spicier and less tasty than before, and worst of all, the steak was not the great marinated dish at all. In fact, the steak was barely edible.

Oh, the humanity.  One of my favorite Thai hang-out turns into a “pass” in just one year.  If they brought back the sexy Asian waitresses, I could overlook the bad food.  One can hope.

Tuk Tuk
8875 Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 860-1872
tuktukla.com
Saturday – Sunday: Noon – 11pm
Monday – Friday: 11am – 11pm