Your Perfect Downtown Thursday

I got my Thursdays down. If I can get out in time, that is.

Here's the not-so-secret plan: get to downtown at around 6, or earlier. First order of business: The Edison Bar for $0.35 vintage cocktail (ends at 7 PM). The cocktail changes every week, but always well done. Strong tasty drinks.

Depending on how fast you can finish your drink, you can either make it to Pitfire Pizza's happy hour right next door for 50% off food (ends at 7 PM). Or if you want to sip your cocktail slowly, you can also go to Pitfire armed with a Restaurant.com gift certificate.
$10 certificate for $3, or $25 for $10. But wait, don't buy it then! They almost always have a sale or coupon discount for 60%-80% off! That's $25 for a mere $2 or so!


From now May 31st 09 they're having a 80% off sale with code: SPECIAL.

So I came with a girlfriend armed with my $10 gift certificate and walked into Pitfire Pizza at 7:05 PM. As I handed the girl at the register the certificate she said that it's happy hour til 7 PM and so everything's half off anyway! Well it was past 7 PM I almost pointed out ... but I didn't and took her offer. Luckily the gift certificate is good for a year anyway, so i'm saving it for a later time. Double sweetness!

We each got Pitfire's individual-sized pizza and split em.

The burrata pie (burrata, tomato sauce, caramelized onions, arugula, hazelnut pesto drizzle - $9.95).
I really love the texture play that the tiny hazelnut bits added to this. I liked Pitfire's thin crust although I do wish it was crispier so I would eat the edges too ... The pizza is pretty light, as it is not overwhelmed by the cheese and tomato sauce. Overall I liked the combination of this pizza a lot. Chunks of burrata and fresh arugula, topped with crunchy hazelnuts! Plus, pesto ... I loove pesto.

Sweet Fennel Sausage (fontina, creme fraiche, crushed tomato, red onion, mozzarella - $9.95)
This was also good, although may seem a bit 'boring' compared to the burrata pizza. The sausages were good and I liked the use of crushed tomato chunks as opposed to just plain old tomato sauce. More cheesy than the first and was more familiar as a pizza. (Oh, yeah there's an iphone in the background so you can use it for a size comparison ;> )

$0.35 cocktail + $5 pizza. We made out like a couple of stuffed and buzzed bandits.

Pitfire Pizza Company
108 W 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 808-1200
http://www.pitfirepizza.com/


Read LA Pizza Man's review here and Sinosoul's review here.

Old Standby Brunch and Best Apple Tart Tatin in Town

Rose Cafe is a long-standing brunch destination in Venice. With its patio seating, brunch fares, bakery, and an awesome gift shop, it was (still is) the quintessential brunch in Venice, bustling with families and joggers alike.

I used to go all the time back when I was at UCLA. An off experience one day and moving to Pasadena kept me away from this place for a while. But then I came back.

Rose Cafe offers classical brunch fares - eggs and the like, entrees from the kitchen such as seared tuna salad, and a variety of deli items.

This time I got the Frittata (Italian Style Open-Faced Omelette). Roasted Eggplant, Roasted Peppers, Tomatoes and Basil, Topped w/ Goat Cheese
Generous portions and healthy, the food here is still very solid with good ingredients.

Friend got the Eggs Scandia (lox, poached egg, croissant, dill hollandaise)
Another classic brunch fare. The amount of lox in this dish is lacking - wonder if they've cut back due to the recession :/ It's otherwise very good with flakey buttery croissant. Just ... more lox, please.

Rose Cafe has a large selection of pastries and baked goods that you can either have there or take to go. It's hard not to when you're passing the gorgeous display case on your way out. I often get their apple tart tatin.
As I ate it at home that night, I was reminded again of how much I liked Rose Cafe. They still have the best apple tart tatin around! Sweet, plump, and juicy caramelized apples. Flakey pastry crust. Loved it. It might be the flakey crust that makes it better than the rest. Or maybe it's the apple to crust ratio.

I also remembered that I liked their cobblers. And bread pudding ... and ... what was I thinking only buying the apple tatin? *sigh*


Rose Cafe
220 Rose Ave
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 399-0711
www.rosecafe.com

Nishimura: The Beverly Hills Sushi Fortress

There was someone who kept claiming that Nishimura was better than all the sushi places I've brought him to. I took him to Sushi Zo, he says Nishimura is better. I took him to Sushi Mori, he says Nishimura is better value. So finally I just retorted back with "So why haven't you taken me there?" So off we went!!

Nishimura is located across the street from the Pacific Design Center. There's no sign, just a tall, solid, wooden gate, in front of which you may occasionally find a towncar or two. Street parking are aplenty next to it.

Unfortunately it was rather dark and I didn't want to use flash so only a few of the photos really turned out well. I'll just give you guys a sampling.

At first I was a bit disappointed because Nishimura himself was not the one serving me sushi. But my young sushi chef was very friendly and as it turned out, very good. We got to talking and apparently before going to Nishimura he used to work at Jinpachi.

Among our dishes were a sampling of oysters - 3 kinds per person.
All very fresh and delicious.

Then came a slew of sashimi. Unlike Zo which was mostly sushi or Mori which offers a significant number of cooked dishes for the omakase, our omakase here was significantly composed of sashimi dishes. I'm not complaining, mind you.

Among them were octopus with yuzu.
Fresh and chewy. "Crunchy" even. The quality of the ingredients at Nishimura is evident.

There were tons of hamachi and albacore with ponzu sashimi, etc, all of which were very good. It's a lot of fun watching this young chef coming up with dish after dish, all of which he tried to put special touches on.

The highlight of my meal was probably this one: seared toro with white truffle salt and yuzu.
Orgasm on a plate. I mean, it's practically everything that I love, with the absence of foie gras! The toro used here was fatty and delicious, but the one used for our simple toro sushi we had later that night was even better - it tasted fresher and fattier than the seared one.

I didn't spend the whole night eating fatty fish, though. The waitstaff also brought out piping hot ginko nuts with sea salt.

The highlight towards the end of the meal for me were these fresh king crab legs.
Fresh, juicy, meaty. I had to chow down with my fingers to make sure I got every little piece of meat out of those shells.

The meal for 2 post-tips was $160 - which was comparable to my meal at Sushi Mori, but with more of the things I like (sashimi!). I had to agree that Nishimura was very good indeed, and yes, probably is a better value than Mori. At least, I felt like I got more for my money here.

Nishimura
8684 Melrose Ave
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 659-4770