More Comfort Food - Curry House

Sawtelle is a popular destination and was my hang out place when I was at UCLA. I used to go eat at Curry House a lot (still do, somewhat) so I thought I should finally make a post about it. Good, cheap (relatively) comfort food that I crave when I'm feeling a bit under the weather.

They have (unfortunately) getting more and more crowded and during a weekday dinner there can be a 15-20 minute wait :( And they used to be my "fast" food go-to place too.

Besides curry, Curry House also serves spaghetti, gratin, and 'hamburger' (Japanese style - grilled ground meat) on a sizzling hot plate. My favorite item there though, is their curry pan! When fresh, the crispiness of the bread is amazing!

Some of the dishes come with soup and you can choose either miso soup or their corn potage. I always get the corn soup - I love it! I love corn, and their soup is semi-sweet and creamy. It's not an earth-shattering soup, very simple. I mainly love it because it's the kind of soup we used to sometimes have at home.

When I come here, I like to get pork katsu in some form or fashion (although sometimes I have to get the crab omelette curry too!). This time I ordered the pork katsu curry in the stone pot.
The food came in a sizzling hot stone pot and the server will ask if he should mix it up for you with the curry sauce.

Curry House also have an assortment of desserts, starting from the ever present parfaits to somethings a little different like tofu cheesecake, or, what we got that night, sweet potato cake:
Their desserts are not bad, a bit heavy on the whipped cream usually, but it's a better version that the kinds of stuff you normally expect from this type of place.

For everyday dining, Curry House is such a great place to have nearby! I'm sad now that at Caltech there's nothing remotely close to it :(


Curry House
2130 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone: (310) 479-8477

Greek Fest. Opa!

As you can see from the "upcoming food events" calendar, this month is crazy! This past weekend was both the Long Beach lobster fest and also the LA Greek Festival at the St Sophia Cathedral.
On Saturday I decided to check out the Greek Fest with a friend of mine. Silly me didn't check the time, so I went there at noon and .... they don't open til 1 pm. D'oh!!! What kind of festival opens so late >_< Oh well. We swung by Wien Bakery real quick then came back.

I ran into LA&OC Foodie while waiting in line. Small foodie world :)

Upon entering we were greeted by this fine man in toga who was handing out FREE grapes. Cool guy in toga giving out free food - what more can you ask for?

Inside the festival, there's a looong line to the food court. We waited there for a bit then decided that we really would rather have some gyros instead! So we left the line and went around the corner, where they are slicing up some gyros.
Gyros ($8) in my hand, we went to find a seat. They had a nice seating area near the dance stage - but most of them were taken already. We finally managed to find one way in the back though.
The gyros were great! Delicious and the meat was pretty good quality. I also like the fresh pita that they were wrapped in.

Of course you can't forget to grab a bunch of pastries either to eat there or on the way out! Their selection was not bad. I got some baklava (of course!)
The baklava was delish! Crunchy flaky buttered pastries .. yumm.

I also got some kataifi (I get the ones with nuts in them, do you guys notice?)
The pastries are pretty good and I should've bought more baklava!! Sigh, darn you stingy gourmet pig >_<

Overall I thought the festival was pretty fun and the food was great. It was kind of small though and there was not much to see otherwise. There was a cooking demo at certain times, and also a salsa performance - which I still don't understand the connection to a Greek festival ...

Chabuya: Best of Sawtelle Ramen, Not Best of LA

Ahhh, Ramen. There's hardly anything else that would hit the spot like a nice bowl of ramen would. But what if you can't make it all the way to Daikokuya? Much less Asa or Santouka? What if the best you can do that night is Sawtelle? Well, Chabuya was the obvious option in my mind.

I'm a sucker for miso, so of course I ordered the miso ramen with pork. I also added an egg (+$1).
Pretty good, pretty good. I like the addition of sesame seeds and fried shallots. The soup is not nearly Daikokuya-level. It's not bad and is actually pretty flavorful and rich, but somehow ... rather boring. I agree with rameniac's contention that Chabuya's soup is a "one note samba". Still, I could live with ... at least temporarily. It is actually quite good compared to the other ramen-yas on Sawtelle.

They also have the "Zembu" option which, like the name says, contains ALL the toppings. Although actually it doesn't have all the possible toppings they offer. This bowl below also had tofu that cost $1 extra.
So the $1 for additonal toppings can be pretty expensive. I mean, extra tofu for $1 is fine, $1 egg is okay, but $1 for green onions ... ? You serious?

Anyway Chabuya has its faults, but overall it's still a good bowl of ramen, and at least there' no 30 minute wait out the door. When I can't drive all the way to Daikokuya, Chabuya is still my go-to place.

Chabuya
2002 Sawtelle Blvd

Los Angeles, CA, 90025

(310) 473-9834