Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Cozying Next Door for Brunch

I've heard many good things about Little Next Door, but hearing that Boule's old pastry chef has moved to little next door made me decide I just had to go. I actually went quite some time ago, but just now got around to writing it up ...

We went for a weekend brunch, so the wait was quite, quite long ... About 30 min or so. But I love my weekend brunches, so oh well.

We had a hard time deciding what to order, but I opted for the Maryland blue crab melt. Why? The melted mimolette cheese, of course! Plus it's blue crab!
The blue crab melt was yummy!! It is loaded with crab meat that cheese! Oooh! The portion is smaller than some other places but the price is not too bad. Anyway, smaller portions are good for my "diet" hehehe.

One of us ordered the smoked salmon benedict.
This was a standard, but very well executed eggs benedict. Smoked salmon was fresh and flavorful. The other ingredients were also very high quality. I should also mention that I liked the salads that come with these dishes.

Now, back to the rumor of the boule pastry chef ... of course we had to order dessert!
We had the apple tart tatin (it fell apart on the plate, but the taste was good :P )
Again, standard, but well done.

The next one is more interesting: the cinnamon pear tart.
I love spices! This tart was very good, we all really liked it. A bit dry though, I think more cream or even maybe ice cream would be good?

The couple with us also bought some other baked goods , like some financiers, which were also very yummy :)

Although I would have liked to see more unique/interesting items on the sweets/bakery menu, I did think what they have were all very well done.


Little Next Door
8142 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Little Next Door on Urbanspoon

Sunday, February 10, 2008

DineLA 08: Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

My friend convinced me to go with her to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Beverly Hills on the last dineLA night. I had read on Chowhound that the dineLA menu is actually a good deal, so I gave it a try.

All four of us ordered the Ahi Tuna for appetizer:

I was pleasantly surprised by the generous portion. The dish itself was not at all bad. The fish was pretty good - it was not the freshest but not bad by any means. I was expecting three slices like what I got at other places for dineLA.

Got the petite filet mignon, medium rare. Someone had warned me that steaks at Ruth Chris is drizzled with lots of butter, and so it was.

The meat was medium rare, not overcooked, but it was rather fatty - it was not the best quality meat. My piece had too much fat for my taste, my friends' were supposedly better.

The portion of the side was also very generous (it was a regular sized side). We had both the creamed spinach and mashed potato. The mashed potato was fairly standard. I liked the creamed spinach more.

I really like bread pudding, so I opted for that instead of the chocolate sin tart (which also looked very tempting).

The bread pudding had a crunchy crust and is moist on the inside. Overall I liked it, it was rich and well done. I took it home and heated it up the next day - it was better then in my opinion, since it's warm and moist :)

I also tried a bite of the chocolate cake.

I really liked the chocolate cake. It was very rich and dark. I loved the espresso taste.

Overall, I thought it really was a good value for the dineLA price, but I probably wouldn't go back on a regular day. The quality of the meat that I got was not that great.

Ruth's Chris Steak House
224 South Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Ruth's Chris Steak House on Urbanspoon

Friday, February 8, 2008

Urasawa: Splurging once every 3 years

Sorry, I haven't had time to write it up completely. But everyone knows how amazing Urasawa is anyway, right? So for now, just enjoy the pictures and the brief reviews...

Hairy crab salad.Toro tataki, with yuzu, crysanthemum leaves, and gold flakes.
This dish has uni underneath. Urasawa's uni really is the best I've ever had. Nothing else is quite like it. Very sweet and the freshness is undebatable.














Sashimi ice sculpture. The one at the very left is of course, toro. The one furthest to the right is some great hamachi.
This was is a sort of chawan mushi, but potato-based.

Cod sperm sac tempura. (Sperm sac?? Yep .. Hey, it was GOOD)
Hairy crab, with hairy crab brain, topped with uni.

Seared wagyu beef. Yumm ...
This was what we got for the shabu shabu dish. It has live lobster, scallop, toro, and foie gras (in that order).
I spent a good part of the night just gawking at him while he does his stuff.

Hiro's apprentice killing a lobster.













Fresh lobster sushi.
We had so many different types of fish that night. Including needle fish, fresh kuruma shrimp, mirugai ...

Seared toro. The best sushi ever ... I had like 5 of them that night ... *sigh*
Hiro-san kept asking me if I was full. And all I kept saying was "I'll have more toro." What? I'm getting money's worth :P

Negi toro maki.
Ripe persimmon for dessert.
Azuki (red bean) with sesame seeds and gold flakes.



Urasawa
218 N Rodeo Dr
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
(310) 247-8939

Urasawa on Urbanspoon

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