TLT Food (Westwood)

There's another place that I wish was there when I was a Bruin: TLT Food. The food options in Westwood Village just keep getting better these days!

TLT Food is started by the guy behind The Lime Truck (hence TLT) that started in Orange County and won season 2 of The Great Food Truck Race! It is a great fast casual option, with beer and wine and free wi-fi. There are sandwiches, sliders, tacos, and fries with an Asian influence.

I had to get Blue Crab Grilled Cheese (can't say no to crab): Grilled Sourdough, Blue Crab, Cheese Blend, Scallions ($9)

Pretty generous helping of crab meat for $9! It was mixed with mayo but pretty lightly so you still get plenty of the crab flavor. This was my friend's favorite.

Taco prices vary depending on the protein (or potato) you get, from short rib to ahi tuna. I tried the Pork Belly Adobo Taco: Braised Pork Belly, Tomatillo Salsa, Sriracha, Cilantro ($4)

Two of the taco fillings you can actually get as toppings for fries, if you're inclined to get more carbs! They're great to share with the whole table, too. The two are 12-hour pulled pork, making up the "World Famous Carnitas Fries" and the Steak Fries. I got the Steak Fries: Marinated Steak, Asian Slaw, Homemade Wontons, Cilantro Chimichurri ($10)

Great combination, talk about fully loaded fries. Do share, the portion is quite big. The steak was pretty tender and I really liked the cilantro chimichurri. Who needs poutine?? (Well, we still need poutine but we need this too.)

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Strong Spring Cocktail Menu at Drago Centro

Drago Centro's bar had been in a limbo recently, when their bar managers/bartenders left one after the other and no one new was coming in, but now it's made a strong comeback with Kyle Ackley's new spring menu. His face and name was familiar to me and I finally remembered that I had met him at Lexington Social House. Kyle worked at The Bungalow at the Fairmont Miramar between Lexington and Drago Centro (and was at XIV prior to Lexington).

I went through the whole menu starting from the lightest, Bella Bionda: Grappa, kumquat syrup, citrus, orange bitters, club soda.
Drago Centro wanted grappa cocktail because, well, it's Italian, and Kyle came up with this drink. Here you can taste the grappa but it is not too strong. It's a very refreshing drink and great for those who want something lighter in alcohol.

There are a lot of long cocktails for the spring menu, while he plans on having many stirred drinks in the fall. He also makes his own pickles and syrups.

The Vibrante is made with Aviation gin, sloe gin, pickled grape skins (housemade, natch), tarragon, lemon. The cocktail is tart and herbal-y, tastes almost like a shrub.

There's no shrub in here, though.  His shrub makes an appearance in the All Dolled Up: Karlsson’s vodka, Campari, vanilla rhubarb shrub, grapefruit, lemon, egg white

This obligatory vodka drink looks like a girly drink but has more bitterness, a nice touch from the grapefruit and Campari. Ackley likes putting the two together, bitter on bitter. The Campari and the shrub are the stars here.

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Hironoya (Gardena, CA)

I got an email from Utopia, a South Bay-based Japanese-focused gift certificate store offering discounted certificates for South Bay and Japanese local businesses like Gaja (the okonomiyaki place), Robataya on Sawtelle, and Izakaya Bincho. They asked if I wanted to try using one of their certificates to visit a restaurant, and I do love Japanese food so why not! I was tempted to go back to Bincho but I figured I should use it to visit a restaurant I've never been to before so I opted for Hironoya in Gardena.

Hironoya sits in Tozai Plaza and seems to be visited by mostly Japanese. When I was there there was a reunion for some university in Japan and they proceeded to sing their alma mater song. Hironoya serves sashimi, sushi rolls, tempura, udon and various other dishes, but no nigiri sushi.

They did have some fresh fish, though so I tried their blue fin tuna toro sashimi ($18 for 4 pieces). Not as fatty as some other toro I've had but definitely fresh.

Also tried sea bream sashimi ($9) and a salmon roll, which were both pretty good. I haven't had sushi rolls in a while but enjoyed this one.

You can get almost everything tempura'd here it seems, from broccoli and eggplant ($1.95, 2pcs each) to sea urchin ($12.95) and oyster ($4.95, 2pcs)

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