Food Junkie #6: AK Restaurant + Bar

A famous chef, good vibes and atmosphere... but the food is just... "meh."

AK Restaurant just opened its kitchen on Abbot Kinney Blvd. (Venice Beach area) in November, 2008. It has attracted attention of media and top chefs, and it is one of the most talked-about restaurants in the area.

BACKGROUND
No wonder, the owner-chef is a famous former executive chef Conny Andersson of Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel. He has served the last 19 years at Four Seasons with his impeccable "international cuisine," combining his knowledge and experience in middle eastern, mediterranean, south east Asian and European cuisines. He combines all these essences with Scandinavian style(Andersson is from Sweden).

So, I went to AK Restaurant with a couple of friends Wednesday night. I didn't expect that it would be crowded but I made a reservation the day before anyways. The hostess who took my call was very nice and she even called me back Wednesday to confirm the reservation. Anyways, I'm glad I made the reservation. I got there at 7:30pm and the place was packed.

ATMOSPHERE AND SETTING
As I entered the restaurant, the hostess would greet you and take you to the seat. You will be sitting inside the restaurant, but somehow it gives you a feeling that you are actually sitting in the spacious patio or something. It is probably because the restaurant had a nice high ceiling. They play vibrant yet quiet house music catering to people drinking at the bar. The tables and chairs are of modern style and pretty comfortable. The waiters, waitresses and bartenders are young but professional and they all have a good friendly energy.

The kind of crowds for that night was young-adults from mid-20s to 50s and up, dressing semi-casually and some of them even dressy. Each table had an average of 4-6 people, eating from a clean rectanble-shaped white plates with designer silverware (note: the pictures I posted on this blog are not what I took. I just googled them). Because of the music, you kinda have to speak up when you are talking to a person across the table. I didn't mind it but for some people it could be a bit noisy. You would have the same experience in Chaya on Navy St. in Venice - the atmosphere is decent but music is slightly overpowering. But overall, I liked the semi-casual atmosphere in this restaurant.

Now let's talk about their food...

DRINK
The drink selection was pretty good, they had variety of wines from different parts of the world and some beers from about 10 countries. I noticed there was a Japanese beer called Hitachino Nest White Beer. I'm from Japan but I've never heard of such a brand. Apparently, it's a locally-brewed beer in Ibaraki prefecture, some place that is not well-known for their beer. Maybe it's a good find. So we got curious and ordered that beer. Also, we had Stark Porter from Carnegie & Co., a Swedish beer. Well, Hitachino tasted just like Blue Moon and Stark Porter tasted like mild Guiness black beer. Hmm... meh.

APPETIZERS
Currently, AK has 9 appetizers, from steamed blue mussles to hoedgehog mushroom toast to good ol' onion soup. I wasn't too impressed with the selection so I passed on appetizers. Two of my friends who were with me ordered Young Frisée Salad with Smoked Salmon Loin and Artichoke Three Ways from the appetizer menu. I had a bite of Young Friée Salad and it was not bad at all. But mind you, the portion for each appetizer is barely enough for one person so don't expect to share one appetizer with more than 2 people, unless one tiny bite is enough.

MAIN DISHES
They have some selectoins of beef, pork, chicken, lamb and seafood in the menu (price range is $23 - $34), but they are rather limited selections: only 11 main dishes in total you can choose from.

Kurobuta Pork Schnitzel caught my attention since kurobuta (black pig) is a Japanese version of Berkshire breed, a rare kind and considered first class. I was curious how it is made. Well, basically they made the meat very flat and stretched out by beating it like 10 million times with a butcher hammer and deep-fried it tonkatsu-style. The taste wasn't bad, but not impressive at all. Without the sauce (which tasted like a bootleg version of Worcestershire sauce), the meat does not taste much. It was tonkatsu-style but was not nearly as crispy as I expected in tonkatsu. It came with brown butter to put on the meat and apple braised red cabbage on the side (tiny, tiny portion). I did not know how to apply or enjoy them. If you go to a tonkatsu restaurant inside Mitsuwa grocery store in Torrance, you can get a much crispier and tastier tonkatsu for less than $10. I'm sorry Mr. Anderssen, I would have to choose Mitsuwa tonkatsu.

My friends had Diver Sea Scallops and some kind of salmon dish I forgot the name of. Both of them came with a very small portion even for a girl with small stomach. These looked more like appetizers. They did not comment on their food so I supposed they were... "meh" or less (I'm only guessing here though).

OVERALL
I like the location and the atmosphere of AK Restaurant. Maybe I just have a different taste or maybe I didn't ordered what I would like. And, maybe my expectation was too high because of the hype. But in my opinion, the taste quality will need a lot of improvement to satisfy the tongue of food lovers. The food presentation was decent, though :)

By the way, I saw Mr. Conny Andersson walking around bringing some food to some customers... in suits. Wait, if he was dealing with his favorite customers, who was cooking all these dishes? Shouldn't he be in the kitchen, hello? lol

OVERALL RATING: 5.7 / 10.0

WHAT'S GOOD: Good vibrant atmosphere. Good dating setting.
WHAT'S BAD: The food is just OK. Small portion for a regular eater.

AK Restaurant + Bar [Cuisine: International Cuisine]
633 Abbot Kinney Blvd. Venice, CA 90291

Budget per person:
Dinner: $55 (one appetizer, one main dish and one drink)
Brunch: $25

UPDATE INFO:
In mid-2009, AK Restaurant closed its business.

Food Junkie #5: The Lido Grill [BYOB + Tapas Bar]

Bring your own wine, enjoy great tapas and indulge yourself with live flamenco show. Introducing The Lido Grill, a Spanish tapas restaurant located in Marina Del Rey, a couple blocks from Venice Beach where social eating/drinking is brought to another level.

The Lido Grill is a Spanish tapas restaurant that can hold probably maximum of 50 people. I was there Thursday night and all tables were occupied. I went there with a group of 8, we wouldn't have had a seat without reservation. It's a BYOB restaurant. When I got there, I saw 5 bottles of wine sitting on the table already. That made me happy already (I didn't know it's a BYOB place so I got there empty handed... ding it). Oh ya, before I forget, they ask you $5 for a cover charge. Valet parking is only $3, though (street parking is easy to find around the block as well).

I didn't check the menu thoroughly and didn't have a chance to enjoy all the tapas dishes brought to the table (long story but I was on the phone the half of the time), but their food is pretty good. I tried their Garlic Olive (hmmmmmmmmmmm!!!), Mussel, Skewer Chicken, Lamb, Pork, Steak on bread, etc etc. You drink your wine munching on these little dishes and chit-chat for a while.

Then here comes the flamenco live show. There is a hard-wooden floor stage where everyone in the restaurant can see. I enjoyed the show fully.

It's hard to see but you get the idea...

Because it's a BYOB, you don't have to worry about $$$. We were there drinking and chatting for about 3 hours and the total cost, including tips and tax, was only $15 each person. Sweet!

The Lido Grill is a great place to hang out on week nights getting together with your friends to socialize. The food is good, live show is great, the atmosphere is very nice, and it's very economical. The only thing is that I did not see small tables (there were 1-2 small tables but rather in an awkward spot), so it may not be suitable for dating situation.

The Lido Grill
417 Washington Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 577-3030
Reservation recommended. Flamenco shows are available during certain periods. You should check with them before you go.

By the way, though I don't agree with the reviews, they are getting rather poor ratings on review sites. There are other tapas bars if you want to check other options in Greater LA area. I would still go to The Lido though because it's so close to my place :P

Food Junkie #4: Tara's Himalayan Cuisine

One of my good colleagues sent me a Yelp restaurant review link for Tara's Himalayan Kitchen (formally known as Katmandu Kitchen). This Nepalese/Himalayan/Tibetan restaurant is located on Venice Blvd. in West LA, a few blocks from 405 Venice exit. My colleague who sent me lives in Hollywood and it would take him some effort to come to this place without knowing how good it is, so he wanted me to try this first. Well, he knows that when it comes to food, I wouldn't say no.

And, he was right. I decided to try out this restaurant the same night. Luckily enough I was able to grab a good friend of mine whose passion for food is as much as I do, if not more, so I was able to try more than one main dish. Anyways, below is the review I wrote to my colleague.

----------------------

So I went to Tara's Himalayan Cuisine last night. Supposedly they close at 10pm, and I got there around 9:20pm. I asked them when the last order was and they said "hmm around 10pm, it's ok, we can make it." I ended up staying till around 10:45pm and they did not complain a thing. All waiters/waitresses are very nice and polite. The atmosphere is semi-casual, ok for dating as well. There are 1hr- and 2-hr street parking around the restaurant. There are also a couple parking spots available just around the restaurant, but it's not easy to recognize that they are parking spots. If you can't find a spot, go into the restaurant and ask them where you can park. Someone there walked out and showed me where I can park last night.

DRINK (I didn't have alcohol)
Anyways, the food was pretty good. For drink, I had Strawberry Lassi. It's a flavored yogurt drink and it tastes pretty much like slightly sour frozen yogurt in liquid form. I liked it a lot. It's very refreshing. Some other Lassi has spice in it, too. My friend had some kind of hot tea and she said it goes well with the food.

APPETIZER
For appetizer, I had Vegetable Momos. It's basically dumplings with some beans and some other vegetables with curry-based dip. Pretty good. I only had vegetable momos since my friend is a vegetarian, but there are meat momos, too.

Vegetable Momos

MAIN DISH
For main dish, I had Chicken Sekuwa. Ovened sizzling chicken on the hot plate, marinated with herbs, garlic, ginger, etc. This was pretty good. I would recommend you include this in your order option. Rice comes with all dishes with the green sauce (I forgot the name). The green sauce can be applied to your dishes to boost up the flavor. Oh, when the dishes come, DON'T FORGET TO SQUEEZE THE LIME. I didn't do that till the end but dishes taste much better with lime juice.

Chicken Sekuwa

Besides white rice, I had Onion Naan. It's baked with minced onion and it was rather flavorful. Good to eat with your meal for sure.

Their specialty is supposed to be tandori dishes. My friend ordered Fish Tandori (salmon). To my disappointment, it did not have unique flavor that's different from other places. It was not bad, but you can get it somewhere else. I would not recommend this.

Fish Tandoori

DESSERT
For dessert, we had Gulab Jamman. It's a fried flour with very sweet syrup. For sweets lovers I guess it's good but it was way too sweet for me. The taste was good, though.

Gulab Jamman

Next time I go there, I want to try some lamb dishes. But I was pretty satisfied with Chicken Sekuwa this time.

Tara's Himalayan Cuisine is not a fancty gorgeous 5-star restaurant, but I would definitely go there again.

- Break down for 2 people -
Drink
1. Strawberry Lassi
2. Hot tea
Appetizer
3. Vegetable Momos
Main and Side Dish
4. Chicken Sekuwa
5. Onion Naan
6. Regular Naan
7. Fish Tandori
Dessert
8. Gulab Jamman
-------------------------------
Total Only $33

Good deal eh?

Tara's Himalayan Cuisine
10855 Venice Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 836-9696

Food Junkie #3: Sundubu Jigae (Soon Tofu)

Soon Tofu & BBQ Pork combo from ILMI Tofu House

If you like something hot and spicy Asian food, you have probably eaten Sundubu Jigae or spicy stew from South Korea (wiki). If you go to a Korean restaurant, 99.9% of the time they have it on the menu. Sundubu is one of my favorite spicy dishes of all time.

This spicy stew comes in a clay pot while it's still boiling. When they bring you a spicy one (many restaurants have spice levels), it is apparent to anyone's eyes that is is damn spicy. It's red, bright red. My tongue can take very spicy stuff and my stomach can bear with it as well. But, my intestine is not immune to the craziness so I would usually order spice level 7-8 if the hottest one is 10. If I go higher, I would enjoy the soup but then the next day I would feel like I have a large-size sparkling firecracker stuck in my ass. Unless you know your entire body can take it for sure, I would suggest you order the same level.

Anyways, aside from the goodness of the spiciness of chili powder and paste, what makes this soup enjoyable is tofu that is extremely soft and delicate. This is not "silk" tofu we see in an ordinary grocery store. The softness of tofu in Sunbubu is comparable to a flan. The texture is so smooth that sometimes it feels like the tofu melts in your mouth (but don't try to roll it on your tongue or it could give it a burn. It's very hot).

I tried to make Sundubu at home a few times but I never succeeded. Something is different. I've asked a few Korean friends but they said the same thing. Even their moms and grandmas can't make it quite as same as ones you get in restaurants. I guess I'd have to keep going back to restaurants to eat good ones...

Anyways, there are a few Korean restaurants I go often to eat Sundubu in LA area, but I don't know any place that's specialized in Sundubu... Ones I go are decent but not particularly great... I go there because it's fairly close to where I live or work. Let me know if you know good Sundubu specialty place.

Hodori
1001 S Vermont Ave, Los Angeles
Vermont and Olympic in K-town.
Open 24/7. Avoid 1am - 3am since the place will be packed with people coming from clubbing. Parking space limited.

Tofu House
3575 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles
Open 24/7. Plenty of parking space. Sometimes they close temporarily while cleaning around midnight.

ILMI Tofu House (Formally known as ILMI Sushi & Sashimi Bar)
818 N Pacific Ave Ste L, Glendale
Right off 134 Pacific exit.
Open daily 10am - 11pm.
Very friendly staff. They give out free frozen yogurt... pretty damn yummy :)

Food Junkie #2: Killer Shrimp

Shrimp lovers, this is for you. Introducing "full-body" shrimp-flavored soup.

There are many restaurants that claim they specialize in shrimp or lobster dishes. A lot of times, though, I get disappointed. Their shrimps are fresh alright. But they just don't seem to know how to bring the goodness of shrimps on the plate. What's the goodness I'm talking about? The flavor.

Shrimps have distinct flavor from their shells, yeah, that red shells (when they're cooked). There are many seafood restaurants that over-cook shrimps adding too much seasonings, killing the very flavor of the shrimp. Or, they don't do anything to shrimps and let them dipped in hot butter. That tastes good, but anyone can do that even at home. Besides, you're not really tasting the shrimp, you're merely chewing on the meat. Not in this restaurant, Killer Shrimp.

Killer Shrimp have 2 locations as far as I know, one in Studio City and other in Marina Del Rey. I went to the latter. Inside the small restaurant there are about 10 tables (patio seats available). There are two sheets of paper sitting on the table. One for the shrimp soup, the other for wine. Shrimp soup menu is quite simple; they only 3 items. The main dish is one-and-only Cajun style spicy shrimp broth with 13-15 shrimps with shells. 3 options: bread, pasta or rice. My friend told me the bread would be the best option since you can dip a piece of bread in the soup and fully enjoy the flavor of the broth. Pasta is kinda flabby (apparently they suck at cooking the pasta right) and I didn't see anyone with rice. So I went with the bread. They have about 6 selections of wine for white and red each.

The soup is bright red, but not as spicy as it appears. When you put your head right above the bowl, you feel that you're submerged into a shrimp paradise. You do notice the shrimp flavor right away. The shrimp broth is accompanied with basil, oregano (not sure), chili pepper and lots of butter and garlic. These seasonings do not kill the shrimp flavor; they multiply it. You take a piece of French roll, dip it in the soup... and throw it in your mouth. Hmmmmmmmmmm shrimp... garlic... butter... herbal flavor... I want more, and more and more.

By the way, shrimps cooked thoroughly, you can actually eat shells. Shrimp shell is full of vitamin A, good for your eyes. But I guess it's not easy to chew and swallow unless it's deep-fried like some Chinese dishes. Anyways I just wanted to throw it in here.

As mentioned earlier, there are about 13-15 good size shrimps in the soup. I took out the shells and hold the tail, dip it in the soup and then put it in my mouth... hmmm... shrimp again... it's all about shrimp, shrimp, shrimp!

Cons:
Some people may think the place is kinda ghettoish because the interior setting is very casual, more like a fast food restaurant, though it's not. Besides the lighting being very dark, there's nothing romantic about it. They had a candle holder on each table but they didn't have a candle (I asked). You won't get a spoon for the soup if you choose the bread option since you are eating the soup only with bread. So your hands will get wet and your fingers will taste like a shrimp (I like it though). Some wines on the wine menu are out of stock (well, Sunday night, what do you expect...). For those of you who don't enjoy all these things above, this is not the place for you. But if you're all about shrimp and don't care, you'll have to try Killer Shrimp!

Killer Shrimp
Venice
523 Washington Blvd
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292-5420
Phone: (310) 578-2293
Hours: Sun-Thu 11:30am-10pm, Fri-Sat 11:30-11pm

Studio City
4000 Colfax Ave
Studio City, CA 91604, USA

(818) 508-1570

Hours: Sun-Thu 11:30am-10pm, Fri-Sat 11:30-11pm

I went there Sunday night around 8pm. Plenty of seats were available.

Food Junkie #1: Phở

I get addicted easily when it comes to food. The last summer, I was addicted to Mul Naeng Myun or Korean cold noodle. I ate at least once or twice a week for lunch. Before that it was soon-tofu or Korean spicy tofu soup. I've been addicted to Thai flat rice noodle, basil pizza, linguine with clam sauce, lobster ravioli, live shrimp, steak tar tar, Indian curry, etc etc... Once I get hooked, I can't help but keep eating repeatedly.

Right now, I'm completely addicted to Vietnamese noodle, Phở.

I love the sound of Phở (fʌ/), smell of it, feel of it and most importantly, the taste of it. For those of you who don't know what the Phở is, well, I'm not going to explain to you but here's the wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho

So it's a rice noodle with flavorful beef-based broth with tons of onions. The clear color of the soup tells me that it is not of high calorie or fat, maybe high in sodium. When you take a sip, the soup goes into you mouth, onto you tongue, and down to your throat very smoothly. Yet, you can taste the full complex flavor of the soup. One of the key toppings include Thai basil... I love Thai basil. They also include coriander aka cilantro, south Asian-native herb (not Mexico just because they put a bunch in salsa and guacamole...).

The rice noodle is not fatty compared to Chinese egg noodle or Japanese ramen noodle (they base mainly on egg and flour). It's easy to chew and swallow. It doesn't have much flavor but that's the beauty of this type of noodle; it catches and releases the flavor of the soup precisely to your taste bud while enjoying the texture of the soft yet unfaltering texture of the noodle.

The whole noodle is about 200 - 400 kcal depending on what toppings you have. Much less than Japanese ramen (400 kcal - 1,000 kcal), comparable to soba or udon noodle. So as long as you don't consume too much soup which is high in sodium, you won't take too much calories out of it.

The flavor of the soup is very unique so some of you may not like it, but for those of you who love Asian food, especially herbal flavors (like Thai food), you would love it.

Over a month ago, a Phở restaurant just open within a block from my office. It's only $6.50 for regular bowl and $7.50 for large. It's cheap, tasty and non-fattening. I'm addicted to it. I have been to the restaurant at least twice a week for the last 4 weeks... hmm but I can't stop!