The Unvegan » Japanese

Japan Meets Italy at Ramen Yamadaya

The Unvegan — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:00:24 +0000

My, what yellow ramen you have.

Not too long ago (at least it feels that way), a new ramen place popped up in Culver City calling itself Ramen Yamadaya. It was around this time that I had been totally spoiled by the ramen of Tsujita, and while Yamadaya looked good, I wasn’t exactly in a rush to get there. This was a mistake, though, because when I finally got there, I had a feeling that this was going to be my go-to ramen joint.

You'd be crazy not to get the free garlic. Don't be crazy.

Now, the ramen on the menu was pretty much what you would expect, with your good old tonkotsu, chashu and whatnot. The biggest surprise on the menu was the tsukemen, but otherwise it was pretty much business as usual. But before I go any further, business as usual is not a bad thing. There is really a limit to what you can realistically do to ramen to get creative, so it usually just comes down to quality. But with this in mind, I saw that Yamadaya had a special called Cheese Ramen. That’s right, they found a way to cheese up one of the last bastions of food that still hadn’t been cheesed. For better or worse, I knew I had to try it, especially upon reading that they only made 30 bowls of the stuff a day.

You’re probably wondering what cheese was used for this and the answer is parmesan, hence the title of this review. But not only that, they also threw corn and parsley into the mix. For an extra three bucks, I opted to make this a combo with some kara-age (Japanese fried) chicken and steamed rice.

A step up from Lawson's.

The kara-age popped out first and looked delicious. Yamadaya surprised me by actually delivering five pieces instead of the four mentioned on the menu, so I was already excited when I got to work eating. On the other hand, the kara-age also came with a mini cabbage salad that made me unhappy, but it didn’t get in the way of the meat. The meat, by the way, had a nice crunchiness on the outside and juiciness on the inside, exactly what you would want from kara-age. It made for a nice warmup, but I used to live on kara-age in Japan and knew what to expect, with my main course I had no idea what I was getting into.

They weren't kidding about the cheese.

It arrived with what looked like a giant afro of parmesan shavings on top that brought back memories of my old hairstyle. I got to stirring and as the cheese started to melt into the broth, I finally caught sight of some pork and noodles. Digging in, I didn’t find the flavor of the cheese to be too prominent, but it was clearly there and unavoidable. The broth was pretty basic, so I added both fresh garlic and garlic chips, then some chili paste. This turned the broth a delicious orange color that I was pretty happy with. The noodles were thick, which isn’t typically my preference, but they were good so I wasn’t too upset. As I got deeper into the bowl, though, I found the broth getting way too cheesy. It seemed that pretty much all of the parm had sunk to the bottom and became a huge glob of corn and cheese. This wasn’t an ideal situation, but I had pretty much signed up for this when ordering something called Cheese Ramen.

But while not ideal, I am definitely glad I tried out that crazy ramen. For one, the taste of the broth at the top of the bowl told me this was a ramen place worth revisiting. For two, any place willing to take risks with a dish that sometimes gets stale is a winner in my mind. Cheese Ramen may not be a perfect combination, but the thought that went into crafting it certainly meant something to me. There’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll be back, for while the taste wasn’t quite at the level of Tsujita, I know I’ll be able to hit up Yamadaya whenever I want and not have to worry about waiting in a crazy line. Plus, it’s not like I’d be settling, because Yamadaya is still nothing to complain about.

FuRaiBo Knows

The Unvegan — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:35:07 +0000

FuRaiBo knows fried chicken.

Oh, Little Little Tokyo, the gem of the LA’s west side. Aside from Little Ethiopia, there’s really nowhere else that you can be driving along regular LA streets, suddenly find yourself in a foreign country for two blocks, and then pop back out into regular LA again. There’s a pretty steady stream of awesome restaurants and stores in this foreign territory and for this review a group of us headed to FuRaiBo. In order to be seated immediately, we had to sit in their floor room (like a tatami room, without the tatami). This meant sitting on the floor. While this sort of seating is not common in modern Japan, it certainly still exists. The trouble with this seating at FuRaiBo, however, is that their floor seating gives a distinct lack of leg room, such that my legs couldn’t even get under the table. Nonetheless, while seating played a role in the meal, it didn’t define it.

FuRaiBo’s menu is great, and not only because the first couple pages are entirely Japanese. No, it’s great because of what it offers, which is a vast array of Japanese foods that are neither sushi nor ramen. So, in looking at the menu, I couldn’t help but think of Bo Jackson, who according to a Nike campaign back in the day, knew just about everything. It was called “Bo Knows” and I figured I could twist that around for this review.

FuRaiBo Knows Beer

$9.50 for a pitcher of Kirin or Sapporo. Just sayin’.

FuRaiBo Knows Chicken

FuRaiBo only kind of knows wings.

Well, at least the fried variety. My first dish (as pictured above) was the Tori Pirikara. This was some sweet and spicy fried chicken (nuggety in size) and delivered precisely on that promise. As with most Japanese food, the spiciness itself was questionable, but there was a little kick. The sauce went perfectly with the karaage-style texture of the chicken and was easily the highlight of my meal. I also ordered their Teba Saki (chicken wings) and to continue on the spicy theme I ordered them “Extra Spicy.” Although this had been called FuRaiBo’s Special Chicken on the menu, I was quite disappointed. The wings were pretty dry and had very little flavor. Even the extra spiciness added very little to the wings. Although the price was right at $4.10, I polished these off thinking I could do better at home.

FuRaiBo Knows Beef

FuRaiBo knows raw.

Here’s where I managed to surprise myself. I consider myself quite knowledgeable when it comes to Japan and Japanese food. Not an expert by a long shot, but still I feel pretty confident. What that said, I somehow managed to accidentally order Beef Sashimi. I don’t know what came over me, but as I read the item on the menu and said it aloud to our waitress, I kept thinking I was ordering sukiyaki. Huge difference, but one that has led me to appreciate raw meat just a little. These tender strips of beef had been seared ever-so-slightly around the edges to kill off any bacteria, but were utterly raw otherwise. They had a great even marbling and came with a ponzu sauce for dipping. I’ve gotta say, I was surprisingly happy with this cold beef. It was easy to take down, had good, beefy flavor and didn’t have any of the uncomfortable chewiness I’ve experienced with tartare. Would I trade in cooked beef for sashimi? Hell no, but I am glad to know my accidental order gave me a new appreciation for a crazy food.

By the time I had finished, my legs had fallen asleep more times than I could count, and I found myself doing my best to sprawl on the floor. While not every dish was a home run, I was very happy with my meal. It was good to eat at a restaurant that paid homage to authentic Japanese food and if I don’t hit up FuRaiBo again, it will only be because LA has so much other food to offer.

Feeding on Curry at Fat Spoon

The Unvegan — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:00:09 +0000

Just keep swimming...

Apparently some place called The Lazy Ox downtown is a big deal or something. I wouldn’t know because I haven’t been, but supposedly the guy behind it, Michael Cardenas, is also a big deal. Such a big deal, in fact, that he took it upon himself to open another restaurant, called Fat Spoon. The new place is down in Little Tokyo and is conceptually a Japanese curry house. As a man with a fair amount of Japanese curry experience, I definitely wanted to check the place out, and it didn’t hurt that I had one of those Blackboard Eats 30% off printouts either.

We arrived for a late dinner on a Saturday night, but fortunately Fat Spoon keeps their doors open until midnight for hungry curry-lovers. With a group of people, we decided to go all-out, order a bunch of things and eat them family-style. This was pretty easy to do with the modest prices, and even with the vegetable choices that my foolish friends made, I felt like I was getting a fair share of meat.

But before I get into the mass of food, I feel the need to mention the beer I ordered with my meal. It was a Sapporo, which was the only beer they had on tap and when it arrived, it seemed to be lacking in bubbles. Upon tasting, the flatness was confirmed. Sapporo isn’t an especially great beer in the best of conditions, and being flat certainly didn’t help. We let the waitress know and she brought us a second round, which was only slightly better. It was a shame to have this as my first taste of the restaurant, and I hoped the real meal would make up for it.

Like a Japanized poutine.

It started with a round of jalapeno, cheese and curry fries, which was a strong start. The combination of flavors made it into a sort of Japanese poutine. Instead of gravy, there was curry, and instead of cheese curds there was shredded cheese, but the spiciness added a nice twist. Even bites without the actual jalapenos had a bit of a kick, which was nice. The fries themselves were thick-cut and crispy enough on the outside to survive the curry without coming out too soggy.

My, your ribs are short.

Next, I moved on to our two main curry dishes. The first was the beef curry, which was made with short rib meat. It looked awesome and tasted pretty good too. Yet, the spiciness that had been a part of the fries was lost in the regular curry, leaving me wanting a little more. Of course, Japanese curry is not known for being spicy like Indian is, and I could probably order it spicier in the future when I don’t have to share with spice haters. The meat was damn good and short rib was a nice change from the chicken cutlet I usually find myself eating with Japanese curry. I also tried a bit of the seafood curry, which had the same sauce, but a nice variety of invertebrates (shrimp, calamari, scallops and clams) swimming around in it. As not much of a seafood lover, I preferred the beef, but the seafood was definitely worthy.

Curry donuts!

For a fake dessert, we followed up our main courses with some curry pan. Pan means bread in Japanese and these were like crispy eclair donuts, but with curry in the middle. The panko crust that covered the pan gave them an awesome crunchy texture and the ground beef curry inside made them nothing short of awesome. They were a great way to close out a pretty tasty meal.

As a self-proclaimed Japanese curry expert, I was pretty happy with Fat Spoon. It doesn’t quite measure up to the standards set by Hurry Curry of Tokyo, but is definitely a solid establishment with good food for even better prices. Next time, though, I’ll pass on the beer and order my curry extra spicy.

Artsy Noodles at Tsujita LA

The Unvegan — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:00:41 +0000

Artisan or artesian?

Have you ever looked upon a meal and thought it was just too pretty to eat? It happens to the best of us, and to be perfectly frank, a pretty-looking meal is often disguising a lack of flavor or creativity. So when my buddy and I decided to head to Tsujita LA in West LA for lunch, I was a little concerned that their claim of “Artisan Noodles” would make for a pretty meal, but little else. But when we showed up and found an obscenely long line of people waiting to get a taste of the noodles, I thought again.

Mmm...undulation.

We walked in and got our name on the list, then proceeded to browse the Japanese Outlet store next door and even took a ride to Best Buy. By the time we returned, an hour had elapsed and it was just in time to be seated. The interior of the place had a pretty basic and functional design, with very few tables and a long bar-like row set up that we were seated at. What stood out, though, was the awesome ceiling design, which consisted of uneven wooden dowels that made for a pleasant undulating pattern. It was about as much as they could do to improve the little space, but after a few glances, I was more interested in the food itself.

This is the Spicy Tuna Don, which I had no part of, but looked purty.

The lunch menu essentially boiled down to two types of ramen. The first was your traditional tonkotsu ramen, and the other was tsukemen ramen, which differs from the traditional in that the noodles are kept separate from the broth and are dipped in the broth when eaten. It’s a cool concept and although good traditional ramen is hard enough to find, tsukemen is even more of a rarity. I went with the rarer of the two, but my buddy got the regular ramen so that we could get a taste of both. I ordered my tsukemen “chaa-shyo” style which meant it came with pork and a seasoned egg.

Your noodles will soon be mine.

I didn’t take too long to arrive (despite warnings of a longer wait time than the regular ramen), and looked simply beautiful. But after an hour wait, I wasted no time destroying the beauty and began dipping the noodles into the broth. The taste was nothing short of delicious. The broth was way strong, but the noodles tempered it perfectly to combine for a perfectly rich flavor. The noodles themselves were thicker than regular ramen and almost had a yakisoba-esque texture to them. Which is great, because yakisoba is awesome.

This broth is so brothy.

I was happy to find a good amount of pork accompanying my noodles, but found each little slice to be about half-meat, half-fat. I love fat as much as the next guy, but there’s a difference between having it blended in with meat and simply chewing fat. Fortunately, the meaty halves tasted amazing in the broth and I left the fatty halves in to add even more flavor to the soup.

Let's go in for the side view!

And finally, there was the egg, which was a really nice touch. As it had spent more time in the broth than anything else, it absorbed a nice bit of flavor that just burst in my mouth with every bite. Then, once the noodles had taken out a fair amount of the broth, I had the option to refill the broth bowl with hot water to make it more like a traditional ramen broth. I took them up on that option, but was so full from the noodles that I managed only a few sips of the soup before calling it quits. Yet, the little bit I tried was delicious and certainly worthy of continual consumption if I had the stomach capacity.

And finally, the tonkotsu ramen.

Of note, the ramen my buddy got was equally awesome. The noodles were cooked somewhere between medium and hard and the broth had a nice, even balance to it. By the time we both finished, we concluded that the hour wait was well worth it…at least to try the place. I’m not sure that I would wait in that same line again with Ramen Jinya just down the street, but would happily return in better line circumstances. If you don’t like the ramen at Tsujita LA, you will likely never find a ramen to suit your fancy. It may be too pretty to eat, but it’s too good not to.

It should also be noted that Tsujita LA only serves ramen at lunch, which is likely the reason for the crazy-long wait. So heads up and all that.

The Thrill of Far Bar

The Unvegan — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:00:23 +0000

These drinks could kill me softly.

A month or so ago, Thrillist Rewards made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. For $29, it included one half-pound burger, unlimited wasabi fries, unlimited wings and two flights of delicious beers at a place called Far Bar in Little Tokyo. A few of us capitalized on this deal and finally made our way there to indulge. But finding it wasn’t exactly easy, as it required a walk through a strange alley. In fact, I walked into the restaurant next door by accident, but a guy there walked me over to the actual bar. Upon arrival, my friends who had gotten there first thrust a basket of fries and wings in my face and I knew I was home.

Look for an alley like this, it's easy!

One thing that Thrillist did not mention in their reward was that the bar would feature a free drunk guy. And this guy was plastered beyond belief. It entertained for a while, but ultimately the bar kicked him out. This left us as the next closest thing to loud people in the bar, and most of our loudness was asking for more beer, wings or fries.

I’ll start with the fries, which were a nice component of the meal, but ultimately just filler to keep my stomach from eating more wings. They were topped with garlic and a sort of creamy wasabi sauce to give them a bit of an Asian kick. Fortunately, the wasabi was only lightly drizzled on the fries and each basket came with an extra dish of the sauce so they wouldn’t get soggy.

Sichuan, Japan, it's all the same.

The wings, though, were pretty awesome. These were neither your average buffalo wings nor your average Asian-style wings. Despite being in Little Tokyo, they actually had a flavor and texture reminiscent Sichuan fried chicken. They were cooked with hot red peppers and weren’t topped with any sort of sauce. While I love me some buffalo sauce, these wings did a great job of capturing the essence of wings, and included an Asian touch that can seldom be found in your typical wing joints.

Don't worry, it's not rude to stick your bacon out at me.

But let’s not forget about the burger. While everything else was unlimited, but devoid of options, there were a good handful of burgers to choose from. Ultimately, I went with the B.L.A.T Burger. This half pounder was topped with bacon, avocado and ponzu onion marmalade. I was weary of the onions in this marmalade, but figure I would give it a shot and scrape out the bastards if they were ruining my burger. I ordered medium rare, then ate some more wings and drank some more beer as I waited. Upon arrival, my burger was a pretty little thing. There was a thimble-sized bowl of pickled vegetables sharing the plate with my burger, but thankfully none of the juices escaped the thimble. I opened the burger in search of onions and, finding none, went to town.

What I found was perfectly crisp bacon mixed in with perfectly ripened avocado. The ponzu onion marmalade had little-to-no onion remnants or taste and was a very welcome addition to the burger, offering a little tartness and sweetness to an otherwise way savory burger. Oh and the meat was pretty damn good. It was cooked perfectly with a sort of medium grind to let me know it wasn’t just some pre-made patty. And the bun was everything I could have hoped for. It acted as little more than a conduit for the burger, but was both sturdy and pillowy all at once.

Oh, I should also mention the mind-melting cheesecake-filled eggroll dessert. Not to be missed.

Meanwhile, the beers I tried were delicious. I would write about them all here, but that would be both boring and painful. The most important thing to remember about them is that they have a ton of locals on tap, including just about every beer Stone makes. Plus, although they weren’t available for my flights, they have a ton of Japanese beers that I would love to pour down my gullet on my next visit. Oh yeah, I do think there will be a next visit, because they have a happy hour during which they sell their burgers for only 5 bucks a pop. That alone is worth heading to Far Bar for. This little gem in a back alley in Little Tokyo definitely has a new fan.

Getting All Fresh in the Box

The Unvegan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:00:25 +0000

Don't you be getting fresh in my box!

In the search for something light to eat after an afternoon of consuming delicious snacks at work, I found a Japanese place called Fresh in the Box in Culver City. Now let’s be realistic, who doesn’t want to get fresh…in a box? And if I told you I was going to some Asian place called Fresh in the Box, you’d probably think I was in for more than just a bite to eat. Yet, there I found myself at a pretty legit Japanese restaurant.

You might be one of those people who thinks “fresh” translates to vegetables and unfortunately that is usually how people interpret it. Thankfully, Fresh in the Box was not one of these places. In their case it meant organic, free-range and all that fun stuff that can often translate into some really tasty meat. Fresh in the Box covered a good range of Japanese food, from curry to sushi to udon and I decided to go with one of my favorites: Chicken Katsu Curry with brown rice. I also ordered some Melon Soda (aka the nectar of the gods) to accompany what I hoped would be a delicious Japanese delight.

Bonus points for the melon soda, even if it isn't Melon Fanta.

When my chicken arrived, I was surprised to find a pile of fried chicken upon my pile of brown pile. I was perfectly fine with the whole “chicken on top” thing they had going on, but it was the chicken itself that had me concerned. The word “katsu” literally means cutlet and these were no cutlet. Instead, the chicken had been chopped up before being breaded and fried, which gave them a whole different look. Sadly, this gave them a different flavor as well. What happened was that while the breading was crispy and delicious, the interior of the chicken was not as juicy and tender as it would be if it had been fried whole as a cutlet. The curry was pretty good, but lacked some heat. They didn’t have different heat options, but the waitress was nice enough to bring me some chili oil to add some kick to my curry.

Was Fresh in the Box good? Yes, it was. Could it have been better? Also yes. You see, Fresh in the Box seemed to do too much. I loved that they kept strictly to Japanese food and didn’t bring in random Korean or Chinese, but they also tried to cover a whole lot of Japanese cuisine (where was the okonomiyaki?). Unfortunately this left my dish (and my buddy’s udon) leaving a bit to be desired. It’s definitely a good, light meal if you need a Japanese fix, but if you are looking for a specific Japanese dish, you may want to make your way to more of a niche restaurant.

Sinking into Hara Sushi

The Unvegan — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:00:25 +0000

It's uh, yeah it's sushi.

I’ve never understood the point of expensive sushi. When you get down to it, they’re all pretty much using the same ingredients with similar results. So when I ended up grabbing dinner at Hara Sushi in Santa Monica, I was a bit excited. Why? Because their sushi is always half-priced. And, they have a happy hour until 9:30 pm with some pretty cheap beers. So for once in my life, sushi sounded like a good time.

Meh #1

As soon as we were seated, we were presented with bowls of miso soup. It was a good start, but then as we looked at the menus we learned that not all was perfect in the land of Hara. As it turned out, those half-price sushis only applied to non-rolls. This felt like a bit of tease, especially considering everything interesting came in roll form. Fortunately, the rolls still kept themselves at a reasonable price. I chose the Titanic roll. Loaded with fried shrimp, then topped with spicy tuna and a chili sauce, this sounded great, but I feared it wouldn’t be enough food. To be safe, I ordered two more dishes from the half-price menu. One was the smoked salmon and the other was the crab, real crab.

Meh #2

When these things arrived, it was clear that the half-price sushi was not a winner. With two pieces each, these were hardly worth the price and simply didn’t taste very good. The Titanic, however, sank beautifully into my mouth. The crunch of the fried shrimp (tempura) added a nice complexity to what could have been just some more droll sushi. The spicy tuna was also nice and created a good balance with the shrimp. The chili sauce wasn’t exactly spicy, but it did add some nice flavor and made the roll taste good even without soy sauce and wasabi. Of course, I still dipped the pieces in those, but I didn’t feel the need to.

Green? Check. Tea? Kind of check.

While the crab and salmon were disappointing, I have to say I was pretty happy for the included miso soup. And then, when we thought we were done, out came green tea ice cream, also included in our meals. This was some of the strangest green tea ice cream I had ever had – mainly because it hardly tasted like green tea. Instead, it was a strong vanilla ice cream that had just a hint of green tea flavor. I like my green tea strong though, so while I was happy this was included, I would have liked it to hold true to its name a little better.

So here’s the deal with Hara Sushi. Don’t get excited about the half-price because those pieces of fish just aren’t worth it. But if you like some rolls and beers for a pretty good price, it is not a bad place to get some raw fish inside you.

Real Ramen at Ramen Jinya

The Unvegan — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:00:33 +0000

Why spinach?

Sometimes nothing beats a good bowl of ramen. No, I don’t mean the Cup O Noodle that powered me through late nights in college. I mean real ramen in a real bowl, with some thick broth and some real meat. For lunch, I headed to Ramen Jinya in Studio City with some coworkers to see if their ramen could bring back my memories of drunkenly wandering the streets of Osaka for some noodles in a bowl. There are four signature pork ramen flavors, and although they were strangely out of the Hakata premium rich broth, I was already going with their Original Yokohama ramen, so luckily this didn’t affect me.

The Yokohama ramen was made with pork chashu, spinach, bamboo, green onion and flied onion. Yes, that’s right, the onion was flied and not fried. Already I was reminded of Japan and decided to order as though I was actually in Japan. This meant I didn’t order without the spinach or onion and would just eat around it. Also, I kind of figured this ramen was made in batches and such ingredients couldn’t be avoided. On top of those regular ingredients, I ordered spicy miso and garlic for my ramen.

Not long after, my ramen was on the table in front of me and looked beautiful. I pushed the spinach aside, mixed in the spicy miso, squeezed some garlic out of the press and went to work. I quickly found that the spicy miso wasn’t too spicy and had to add more spice, but it only went up from there. The broth was thick and full of salty porky flavor. The pork itself was from the belly and tasted like boiled bacon, but in a good way. But by far the best part of the ramen was the noodles themselves. These were sturdy noodles and cooked just perfectly so that they were almost the Japanese version of al dente. They were truly delicious and even more so with that great broth.

At a price of $8.55 before any add-ons, Ramen Jinya might scare off some people used to Cup O Noodle, but it is definitely worth the price of admission. Plus, who doesn’t love flied onions?

Katana Means Sword in Japanese

The Unvegan — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:00:03 +0000

Gyoza for one.

Katana (warning: turn down your speakers because their retarded site automatically plays loud bass) in West Hollywood is about as trendy as you can get for Japanese food. Yet, to my surprise, when I was sent their DineLA Restaurant Week menu for a possible dinner, I saw only one sushi option. With this in mind, I thought that perhaps the $34 fixed price would actually be worth it, so off we went to Katana. Showing up last, I was greeted with a rousing “irasshai” (although I was a bit disappointed they didn’t go for the more formal “irasshaimase”) and found that some chicken gyoza (potstickers) had already been ordered. This struck me as strange since we were about to order a fixed price meal, but I decided to roll with it.

While waiting for said gyoza, I decided what I wanted for my meal. For the appetizer I chose the Ebi Bacon, also known as bacon-wrapped jumbo shrimp with chili garlic sauce. Then I chose the Spicy Niku Don for my main course. Niku, of course, means meat and in this case the meat was sliced beef and served on steamed rice. To wrap it all up, I got the sorbet with fresh fruit. Now I was ready to eat some gyoza.

When it came out, there were a total of five dumplings. Not exactly what I had hoped for an 11 dollar appetizer. It really was some good gyoza, but I couldn’t help but think about my life once upon a time when I used to stuff myself with a plateful of gyoza for a buck in Hikone, Japan. Alas, such a memory could do me no good at Katana.

One...skewer sensation! (pretend there is music playing)

After that I moved on to my personal appetizer, the Ebi Bacon. If an appetizer is something simply meant to make you hungrier for the main course, then the Ebi Bacon really did its job. It came as one simple skewer and although there were multiple ebi on the skewer, this was certainly not an appetizer fit for the $34 price range. As for the taste, the Ebi Bacon was really quite delicious. I am often fearful of shrimp because it can be rubbery, but this was nice and crunchy with a nice balance of bacon, chili and garlic. After my skewer I was left wanting more, but there was no more to be found.

I know Japan has a lot of Korean influence, but keep it out of my food.

Instead, I found my Spicy Niku Don. This dish was pretty much an upscale Yoshinoya beef bowl, but with a vile twist. Yes, that’s kimchi in there. I don’t know what crazy person thought kimchi in niku don was a good idea, but dammit if I wanted kimchi I would’ve gone to a Korean restaurant. And I don’t want kimchi, because it is a terrible terrible pickled vegetable. I removed the kimchi from my don and then went to work. Once again, I was happy with my dish, but I was left wanting more. Preferably more of the beef, because I struggled to maintain a good ratio of beef to rice as I ate through my bowl.

Enlarged to show texture.

Finally, it came down to dessert. First, they brought out the wrong dessert, so I sent it back. After about 15 minutes passed, my sorbet with fresh fruit arrived. I was amazed that such a tiny dish could have taken them so long. Among all the bright colors, I almost couldn’t find the sorbet, but then I realized that it wasn’t because of the bright colors but because the scoop of sorbet was only slightly larger than a raspberry. Wait, I take that back because I have seen raspberries bigger than that. I dug in knowing this would be my final food of the meal and once again I found some tasty food that left me desiring more.

Look, we all know the saying, “leave the audience wanting more.” Let me get one thing straight: THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO FOOD. When I leave a restaurant, I want to be full. I may want more another day, but I should never want more immediately after departure and I don’t care how good your food is. You know, unless I just paid a buck. But with Katana, I dropped a lot more than a buck and although I really did enjoy the general taste of the food, there is no way I got my money’s worth.

A Benihana CES

The Unvegan — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:00:35 +0000

Everything looks good behind a Sapporo.

In Vegas for CES, I was lucky enough to be invited out for a little lunch at Benihana at the Hilton of Las Vegas. I had never heard of anyone going to Benihana for lunch (outside of The Office), but I wasn’t about to turn it down. If you don’t know Benihana, you’ve probably been living under a rock, but as a Japanese steakhouse, they cook in the teppanyaki style, which involves cooking on a huge griddle that also happens to be part of the table. For lunch they were cooking up steak, chicken, shrimp, mushrooms, onions and peppers, plus a salad for a set price of $24.99. This was actually a really good price for both Benihana and Vegas in general, so after ordering a Sapporo, I was ready to eat.

A little upset my meat is sharing the grill.

The chef came out and started working his magic. The chicken came first because that was going to take the longest to cook, but soon enough came the shrimp and the veggies. I was a little disappointed to find out midway through that our chef wasn’t going to do any fun cooking tricks with the shrimp or onions. Usually there’s a shrimp flip into the hat or an onion plume, but we were treated to none of that. Apparently they don’t do that for lunch. I was a little disappointed, but if I wanted a show in Vegas, Benihana wasn’t exactly going to give me the best anyway.

There's the steak I was looking for.

The chef dished out the shrimp and then the veggies, which I politely declined. Finally, the best part of the meal came out: the steak. It looked delicious and well-marbled. There was actually a full steak for each person at the table and he cooked them to order. During its short cooking time, I downed my shrimp by dipping it in the couple sauces we had been given. One seemed to be a sesame kind of sauce and the other was a salty ginger sauce. Both added a different touch to the shrimp and tasted pretty good. When I was done, both the chicken and steak were ready for eating.

That meat is just what I needed.

And both were damn good. The chicken was nice and juicy, and although it didn’t have a ton of its own flavor, it tasted really good in the sesame sauce. The steak, though, was definitely the highlight of the meal. It was juicy and tender and had been cooked just the right amount. It even tasted great in the ginger sauce. On its own, the steak probably would have made the meal worthwhile, but coupled with the chicken and shrimp, this meal was definitely a great deal.

I’d definitely head back to Benihana for a meal like this at a price like that. I was a little disappointed that the chef didn’t have any fun with the food, but the food made up for it.