O perfil de Pepsimonster

I am really torn about this place. On one hand, it’s actually very reasonable pricing at dim sum. On the other hand, it’s nothing specular to write about as it is ho-hum.

So ordinary for a place that gets big praise from a certain Pulitzer prize winning food critic. He just dropped the ball on this one. (Jonathan Gold)

The Kitchen was formerly known as NYC Jumbo Seafood which was a critic’s darling, but based on what I heard, another ho-hum. I am just beginning wondered if the place was over hyped because of a few food critics talked it up as one of the best dim sum place in LA (Citysearch was another one that praised this place).

The place does not have a cart ladies pushing the carts to bring food around. Instead you will have to order the dim sum items through menus. Finally there was some pitfalls by ordering off menu which we have experienced in the afternoon. First, compared to the other menu based dim sum places, the Kitchen is not very descriptive with their menu items and also does not have photos on majority of their items. It led to a confusion of wrong items ordered as some of group preferred a deep fried taro balls which they thought was salty, but instead got a rather very sweet sesame taro balls like a dessert.

Then even worse, there was confusion with the servers bringing these dishes to our table as they were unsure if we have ordered the items. The system or technique they employed for bringing dishes to the tables might need to tweak a little to get it right.

Those are the standard fares. There are really not much of a wowsers among these groups. The only saving grace was the roast duck. Keep in mind in that most of the item including the duck will not be served until 11am.

Presentation wise is not as impressive as Mission 261 or Seafood Harbour. The price is actually very reasonable as most cheap dim sum items are around $2 per dish. We averaged out to $14 for a large group. In taste wise, I’m a little bit underwhelmed. It’s not bad, but again not really specular where I can distinguished from other dim sum places that is all over the place in this city.

I think the big drawback compared to the other newer dim sum places are the lack of creative dishes for dim sum. The choices for dim sums are conventional with not much of newer choices. Look at some of the photos I have taken and you’ll see the standard dishes you’ll find at most places.

The crowd starts to pick up towards lunch time at noon, but it seemed to get a lot of competition around Valley Blvd (New Capital, 888, MPV Seafood..etc etc). There are plenty of choices to chose from with dim sum.

It’s a ho-hum choice for dim sum here.

Mei Long Village is the last of the Xiao Long Bao stop in this plaza. It’s one of the three that served the popular juice dumplings along with the neighboring restaurants of Dragon Mark and J&J Restaurant.

This also happens to be my favorite XLB place out of the three with a little exception. It also happened to be the more coughupscalecough restaurant than the other two joints.

Walking inside, you do feel a reminisce of a cuisine restaurant with a touch of Italian look to it. Funny looking square patch table cloths with the floral curtains hanging on the window. Yes, it does looked a little bit more fancier, but the food offered the same thing as the other with the menu more specialized in entrees than the lunch/dinner special the other two joints above would offer.

The place does offer a better ambiance and decor compares to their neighbors who are two doors down, but they also made it up with some of the better service.

The food on the menu ranges from noodles, rice, dumplings to other Chinese specialty dish. Affordable pricing for each item can range from $5 to $7 for one of the ample size plate of hot meals.

As in for the long running debate about Xiao Long Bao (juicy pork/beef dumplings), I prefer Mei Long Villages over J&J where they are served not too salty and have plenty of juice to kick that thing up. These little side pockets of buns stuffed with meat are just too irresistible to pass it up. Put a little soy sauce and they are the 8th wonders.

I also like to order their goyza (fried dumplings) when I can. The meat inside are freshly made everyday and when served hot are a better filler than your hot pocket.

The only downer for me is their pork chop rice, which I still preferred Dragon Mark’s over Mei Long Village. That is something I still search for with no mistake to be made. It’s a comfort food for me which brings me joy. I do liked it in here, but it just lacked the other stuff like a soy sauced hard boiled egg, soy sauced tofu, and minced beef. It’s just plain and naked without the other associates.

Overall, I still give them the high kudos for serving out necessary dishes, even though their next door neighbors are selling the same things. They have an edge on them for ambiance and some of the items. However, in a long run, you know one of them will crack under pressure. I just hope it’s not this one that bites the dust.

First thing that comes to my mind when I think of Brazilian food is the chuchurria or the all you can eat meat. Luckily I have experienced some good Brazilian meal today.

Based on the overwhelming positive reviews, I have to concur with the other reviewers in their assessment about this place. Although I have to suggest the correction on the restaurant style on top as this is an authentic BRAZILIAN restaurant, not Cuban or Caribbean.

The restaurant was a little tricky to find at first because it doesn’t have a name on the big sign. Instead I saw a big wooden spoon on the front sign. You get it? Wooden Spoon! ....yeah, that was what I was thinking too.

The two big dishes that was overwhelming choice to eat in here are the Pork Burger or the Brazilian Chicken Pot Pie

I took the liberty of ordering the Pork Burger. That thing although was delicious. It’s also very humongous! The patty was very thick and fulfilling after eating half of it. Instead of lettuce, the burger instead comes with cabbage. Instead of potato fries, it’s yam fires instead. It’s sweet and have a different unique taste to go along with the pork burger.

Now, back to the pork burger. I thought it was going to be shredded meat or a pork chop cutlet. With the patty portion, because it was so big, I had to cut in pieces .

Even with that, I’ll probably need to take two meals to finish that monstrosity of a huge burger. Definitely very fulfilling!

The appetizers are in two popular choices. The most requested seemed to be the Coxhina, which is a chicken in unique batter with special mayonnaise sauce. Also on hand was the Pastel Portuguese: which was a shrimp dumpling smothered in potato flavored batter marinated with pork sauce.

The restaurant is located in heart of downtown LA very near the Jewelery district. The service in this place was top notch as our server was excellent throughout the meal and was very knowledgeable in helping us decide. The chef also greet her guests warmly and was willing to take all suggestions that patrons might have. With service like this, it makes your meal more enjoyable.

For an authentic Brazilian or any Latin American meal, I would highly recommend anyone check this place out as it is unique in not just the sense of its bright colorful decor, but they also have wooden benches for seats for people sit along with the walls. They also provided many different unique cushions to go along with it.

Biggest obscurity?

Remembered about thinking about eating alone? Wonder no more! There’s a table set up for people dining alone right in the middle of the restaurant. Every table is against the wall, only except that one. Plus as you can see in the picture, the table setting and chair is only for one. I think someone should take the opportunity and sit in that!

I think Buena Park is essentially the KBBQ capital in both LA and Orange County. Hands down they had some of the best KBBQ restaurants.

The only one I liked in downtown LA area was Park’s BBQ and the only one I liked in Garden Grove was an all you can eat joint, New Seoul. Those were the only good ratings I would recommend for each of those so called “Korea town”.

Buena Park was one of the city that have seen new restaurants that opened up to strengthen the Korean restaurants destinations. I noticed just like La Habra, there seemed to just spruced up in the same concentrated area.

Brand new Korean BBQ place has one advantage they usually can solved where it would be hard to do for old places was the installation of a new air ventilation. This I have to say was one of the very few time I did not smelled like I just got out of meat fire pit. The only other time was at Park’s BBQ.

When I entered the place, it had that new look kind of feel without the fading wood or the greasy feeling in the dining area. The restaurants has ample amount of tables with the ever popular iron pot lid as the grill. They have also have some big air ventilation over the table. Then again I never really seen the smoke pop up to my face which was a huge sigh of relief. (I just didn’t want to smell a hour later at a different function).

The combo is pretty straight forward. It starts off at $40, which was one of the cheapest I have seen in a KBBQ place for a combo. It is good enough to feed 2 people. The pricing start going higher at $60 for three and $80 for four people.

The basic combo would include a plate of tender sirloin, beef brisket, and sliced pork. You also get a egg tofu and a choice of either a bottle of soju or two glass of wine. The higher combos get a plate of galbi and other beef dishes.

It get a little tricky because my companion and I don’t wished to drink that night so I tried to negotiate out of the alcohol and get a replacement for that. (Please don’t PM me to call me a weaksauce because I know!). They wouldn’t allowed it citing their policy. OK, then I tried to finagle my way to a galbi (marinated beef short ribs) and switch it out of one of the three dish. My best hope is to get out of the tenderloin because it was charging the same price for a plate in the menu. Finally with the manager consent, we got our wish in switching off the beef tenderloin in favor of the marinated beef.

Let’s just say it was the best trade I had made since my e-trade stocks trades before the Dotcom gloom.

The marinated beef was not too sweet and when cooked on the grill it had that aroma of a simmering kaboob. The galbi melt right in your mouth. The brisket has the most amount of meat and was the easiest to cook. The pork is like a slice of bacon. When cooked, it didn’t swivel like most places would have. It tells it was freshly prepared and not frozen before hand.

I liked the service here. Like the old theory goes, does it help to have a SLR camera to influence the staff to be active? I just can’t tell because I had the feeling I was being watched. There were three different wait staff that constantly comes by to check on us. It was one of the better experience in terms of service in a KBBQ I ever had. Not once did I pressed the buzzer to ring for them nor do I had to called them out with a shout of :”Yah-gio”.

There are also nice presentations of 10 different banchans (side dishes of bean sprouts, relishes, and kimchis). The egg tofu that came with our dinner was also refilled along with the side dishes. The rice wrappers for the meat and the salad was also included in our feast.

Nicely done with only $42 for two person.Even better was the free coffee machine for the drinks. Yet I felt cheated for some reason…

I was told that there was a Blueberry yogurt that was served here for free after the meal. I didn’t get one. Either that or I felt Jiffed, but nonetheless I had a very good experience in dining in this place.

I would say overall, it’s almost as posh or the place was as clean as Surrah’s in Buena Park. Hwarosarang offered better better combo choices than the other Buena Park KBBQ and the meat was almost as good as Wako Honey Pig. This place will definitely get my choice as a place to go for KBBQ. It’s much closer drive than to Park’s or New Seoul.

Buena Park may not be as ghetto as I used to thought after all.

Late last year (when I don’t know any better and still isn’t any better), I made a proclamation in that I would marry a Korean girl if I can go to Korean BBQ every night.

Well, let me amend that. I’ll marry one if it’s the right kind of Korean BBQ.

I guess I wasn’t fully prepared coming here thinking it’s strictly Galbi (beef short ribs) kind of Korean BBQ. Just like my earlier review of Korean BBQ place of The Toad House, Shik Do Rak specialized in pork meat more so than beef.

Their big selling point in the menu tends to be the Black Angus Deckle (chadol) which is thinly sliced beef that is freeze frozen and shriveled up like a shabu shabu meat . When neatly placed on the circular grill the meat would shrunk and shriveled up like a strip of bacon.

There is a form of strip of bacon in the pork bellies. That was another popular item in this place. Most KBBQ places I had been to would slab a huge piece of pork meat on the grill, then the server would cut it into pieces. At this place, the meat is already cut into small pieces for you to dump it in.

The cool thing about coming here was the two different wrappers that is served here. One is a rice noodle with the other being the veggie wrap. Once you dipped into one of the two different spice sauce, it make the meat more enjoyable and favorable.

I was a little hesitant in coming here because I saw the picture of the Yelpers posted with a portable grill, but I think it’s just for a certain item and glad that a bigger grill is in place at the middle of the table.

The service is excellent here with plenty of banchans (side dishes) passed out whenever we requested to get refill. It is also very good air ventilation at this joint so that you don’t have to smell like crap when you go home.

The big knocked I have against this place is obviously the beef was sort of lackluster as I needed to dip it extra (hate the double/triple dipping of sauce). I think enjoyed the pork belly more than the black angus deckle.

The place is not bad at pricing of $60 for three people worth of food. The great thing is that you can substitute a bottle of soju for either a bottle of beer or more meat. (we chose more meat!)

After trying out this place, it completed my 5 must go KBBQ places in Double G. My favorite is still Lighttown House (until I go back reviewing their gas grill). With New Seoul, Cham Soot Gol, Korea House, and Shak Do Rak bringing out the rear end.

BTW, if you must ask… all of the places are gas grill and not fire coal (Soot) BBQ.

As in for my previous review of marrying a Korean girl, I guess I will save that proclamation only for this place: New Seoul (Garden Grove). It’s a shame really.

Going into the places with the word “Mission”, I usually just think that it’s old time Missionary places like in Santa Barbara or San Diego. I just didn’t think it meant “challenge”.

Might as well think of it as challenge…or better yet, I should have ordered Mexican food or Spanish tapas if I was there.

Going into this beautiful missionary style building where there is an open courtyard patio seating in the middle, there are some history involved with this place. According to some of the people in my group, this used to be a winery that was converted into the restaurant we were dining at. The dining room used to be a room where they stumped the grapes. Think of the episode in “I Love Lucy”.

The place have a beautiful private rooms with a fireplace in front that accompany the elegant decor that comes with this charming place. There’s also stacks of wine when you enter the place. It gives the reminiscence of its former self as a winery. Please check the photos for details.

This was an A-grade (more upscale) dim sum place where you ordered the dim sum items from the menu instead of having ladies pushing up the cart like you would see in most B-grade dim sum place (more economized specials). The menu was presented with pictures and gives detailed descriptions of what’s in store when you order.

Right off the bat, I already had encountered problems with the staff at Mission 261. We have a large group where we split into two tables. I sit on the second table all by myself so that I can saved the table for guest arriving shortly thereafter. As I was examining some of the items at the menu, the group at the other table were short of menus and need more for their table. Instead of going to the front counter and get the menu, the hostess decided to grab my menu as I was reading it and hand it off to the table next door.

WTF!? The nerve of that person!

Honestly, I didn’t know what to think. Afterall, she knew I was with the group, but why the idiotic notion in that it’s OK to grab the menu considering I was using it and not done with it as I was still reading. There’s no need to be that friggin’ lazy, but the arrogance really dampens my mood.

There were also plenty of times when our late party finally arrives in that we tried to get glasses of water, it would take at least 4 different people to request it before a third different staff would finally brings it. Details and attention seemed to be lacking in the worst way. As much as any bad service in Chinese restaurant, this place was not very busy at all and was half empty in the dining room where it should not be much of the problem.

The types of dishes we ordered are: *Sticky Rice Shumai *Pan Fried Shrimp & Cheves Sten Cakes *Haigaw (shrimp dumplings) *Steamed Imperial Dumpling (sticky pork rice dumpling, very gooey) *Steamed Abalone Mushroom Dumplings. One of the more unique dumplings *Steamed Rice Pancakes with Deep Shrimp & Scallion

Desserts: *Rabbit Dumpling. This was very cute and nicely decorated. It’s great right before Easter as this bunny is packed with exploding custard. It was so cute, I’d almost didn’t want to eat it. *Sweetened Chrysanthemum with Red Bean Pudding. A yummy dessert with red bean paste in the middle covered by gelatin like pudding. *Sweetened Sago Pudding with Green Tea Flavor. Nice green tea pudding with tapioca in the middle. Very sweet!

The food was very well presented and almost decorated very well. Pricing wise it’s one of the more expensive dim sum place you’ll encounter in Southern California.

Taste wise, it’s a give and take. Not the most impressive and a bit overrated in my opinion. The items seemed to be some dry in some of the dumplings as it can taste bland with lack of flavor at times. Very inconsistent.

The place is very classy and looked elegant. Food are very well presented. It’s something I’ll give it another shot down the road, but I would throw wind in the caution as the service is very uneven. It’s definitely worth the look.

If there is a movie named after the food served here, it would be “Some Like It Hot”.

Alas, it wasn’t sexy hot like Marilyn Monroe, but an awkward hot just like how Jack Lemmon felt wearing the lady get-ups in the movie.

On a faithful afternoon, I went in very blindly on what to expect from the food served here. Didn’t do much on the research or read up on the dishes that was served here. So I let my dining companions who do have good ideas on what to order at this location. We were very excited to try out this location because it was highly recommended by LA Weekly’s Jonathan Gold.

The location of this restaurant is a stand alone restaurant on San Gabriel Blvd away from the busy streets of Valley Blvd and Las Tunas where galore of Chinese restaurants are bumper to bumper next to each other. It is a quiet small little yellow house in a street that is surrounded by local small businesses that is pretty much resembled what The Andy Griffith show was showing on its re-runs.

It is a small place with two big tables and a half dozen small booth seats. I was getting the feeling the decor matches with a Catina or a Mexican restaurant as I’m pretty sure the restaurant took over the former resident of this establishment. There is an AC blasting to cool down a hot afternoon, but a fan was blowing right into one spot of the table. Our waitress told me ahead of time in not to sit at that one booth because so many customers were complaining their hair was going to be cold dry, so I took it as a sign to move into another table before my dining companions shows up.

Before we ordered the dry beef, we tried to ask a question about a beef/fish in small pot as we wanted to know if the dish comes in a soup bowl. Our waitress was a little dismissive of the question and quickly suggested the dry beef in pot as she insisted that was the most popular dish. In a way I was taken aback by the exchange, but I was a little bit more appreciated when the dish came out because it might signaled to me that the fish was not good that day (or they found it easier to cook it along with the lamb. As the pictures indicated, they looked almost identical).

My overall thought about the food runs in the line of it’s spicy hot for people who appreciated, but not necessary for people who want just to try something new. The dishes are Sichuan (or popular spelled Szechwan) specialties that relies so much on Sichuan peppercorn which has this super numbing effect of making it spicy hot for all the diners.

The beef and lamb we have ordered with the spices are stirred dry until it was ready to be chew. The cold chicken in many of the other Chinese specialties would have been served with wine sauce or dipped in soy sauce. At this location, it was lavished with good amount of spicy pepper and thick hot sauce to change the flavor of the chicken. The won tons themselves were dipped in a bowl of spicy hot soup.

For a brief moment I actually lost a sensation in my tongue as my taste buds went south after a bout of spicy food. After deciding to power through the spicy food and not slowing down because the spiciness of the food will overpower you.

I realized in that I really never got the full fulfillment on the flavor or the taste of the food. The spiciness can be overpowering and done it with a bit much to turn you red instead of letting you enjoy the succinct flavor of the regions of the food. That was a bummer point for me throughout the meal.

It is also a “take it or leave it” kind of a place, where it’s not like Shin Shen Guimi where you dial up or dial down the spicy level of the food. It is very hard to tell whether or not they overdone the hotness of our food or this was the norm. If it was the norm, then we really were sweating after our meal. I felt like I was in Sahara desert searching for that elusive water fountain. Luckily our server came back often to check on us to get us plenty of liquid to quench our thirst.

After our initial order, the service was actually very good and attentive throughout the course of our meal. We really needed it throughout the meal to get our water refilled.

After enduring the pain and sufferings of our spicy food, I can honestly say that Orochon Ramen is nothing compared to this place. I probably would suggest people to come here if they love spicy food.

What’s left of that dry Beef in small pot. All those hot peppers and spices!

Be warned though, it’s not easy to endure for the people who are used to mild or medium spicy.

This place became a fascination of mine when I was in town for a weekend stay at WeHo. I knew it was a breakfast/brunch place only because they closed at 4pm everyday. So definitely not a dinner joint and they close down way before the craziness of the night at Sunset Strip begins.

I stumbled upon this place at the wee hours of the morning about 15 minutes before it opened. I forgot in that they opened at 8am on the weekend while it was opened at 7am in weekdays. So I had to wait out a bit until at 8am. While waiting, I grabbed the menu for a closer inspection of what was being offered at Griddle Cafe.

The interesting lay out of the menu was that they offering the big selections of pancakes or a French toast in their own section. They treat the sausages as a side dish, but you could ordered some of the traditional omelets or their egg dishes on the menu.

With many of the unique names and some creativity on their part, there were many different selections of pancakes/French Toast you can choose from. For instance, there were names of “Teacher’s Pet”, “The Golden Ticket”, to “Devil’s Daydream”. Yes, the last one is in the menu.

I decided to take a shot at Creme de la Cream which was a wheat bread French toast with sugar powder and cheese cake cream. Sugar delight for all cheese cake lovers.

The portions of huge and definitely can be shared. I got a good look at some of the omelets and pancakes, they were in gigantic portions like the French toast I have ordered. The pricings can be a little up there, but it’s definitely better than your local IHop.

My cheesecake French toast was delightful little fluff with cheesecake filling on top instead of butter provide an unique experience to a whole new French toast experience. I also added in a side of sausages which comes either in form of chicken, beef, or pork. (of course I chose the pork).

There is one thing I would strongly suggest everyone to order if they ever decide to come here… order the French Pressed Coffee. You gotta love the little coffee pot they bring you while you can “pressed” the coffee yourself while it’s hotly brewed in the pot. The breakfast was good, but the coffee made it even more than worth the while. The regular Pressed coffee is also refillable too.

The ambiance here in the morning reflects the tailback nature of the location. While a loud blues music can be blaring loudly while you walk in, but luckily the loud chattering of the patrons will drown that out. It is in a way very sociable for this kind of place and very informal. It’s very laid-back and not too pretentious with the staff reflecting that. Luckily they were quick and very attentive in the morning. Food also come in a very efficient time with plenty of check ups.

The only drawbacks are the popularity of this place. I recommend people to come in very early as in the crack of dawn when it opened because it can filled up really quick with long lines of wait in the weekend. Let’s just say that when I was leaving at 2pm on Sunday at WeHo, I can see the long ridiculous line forming for lunch. Try not to be the fool waiting for brunch on weekend at 10:30am.

The place does serve breakfast throughout the day with lunch menu offer in the afternoon. Try their coffee and one of their many unique selections of French toast or pancakes. They also have syrup from Maine to top off your servings. Just be prepare to wait if you came in too late.