Greek mythology tells the tale of Damon and Pythias. It is a tale of friendship that has withstood the ages and while I won’t get into the details, calling a restaurant Damon and Pythias is kind of like saying, “you’re gonna be best friends with this place.” It is quite a claim and one that I was ready to test. Located in the heart of Westwood, Damon and Pythias serves mostly sandwiches and salads, but with some more normal entrees and even some hot dogs. The food is priced a little bit high for college students in the area, but for a working man like myself, the prices looked amazing.

The first thing you notice when walking in is the succulent smell of garlic. This is due to their garlic fries, which I just had to try. But then I noticed the menu also had other fry options, one of which being Blue Cheese fries. Struggling to choose between the two, I decided I had to have both and would just split them with the table. But fries would not be enough to get me through the meal, I also needed something meaty.

Enter the LA Cheesesteak, one of the specialties of the place. This cheesesteak was a world away from it’s cousin in Philly other than the fact that there was both cheese and steak in the sandwich. The steak was sliced up thick flank steak that had been marinated in balsamic and spices and the cheese was blue cheese dressing. On top of that, it was made with crispy onions, field greens and tomatoes. And rather than being contained by a hoagie, this cheesesteak was put inside grilled focaccia bread. I ordered mine without the onions, field greens and tomatoes to make it a true cheesesteak, then added a beer to the tab and took my seat.

While waiting for the food to come, I took a look at my receipt and noticed I had been given a 10% student discount on everything except the beer. And they hadn’t even asked me for a student ID. Still got it!

The blue cheese fries came first and looked heavenly, even Greek godly. These weren’t simply fries with blue cheese on them, but perfectly crispy curly fries that refused to get soggy even under the pressure of the blue cheese dressing. Not only that, but they were also topped with garlic to add additional, yet not overwhelming flavor.

Then came the cheesesteak with my additional garlic fries. The sandwich looked mighty tasty and I dug in immediately only to come back with the taste of disappointment. It seemed they had neglected to prepare my sandwich without the crispy onions. While these onions are much less offensive than their raw or caramelized buddies, they were wholly unwelcome in my cheesesteak. I opened the bread and quite easily removed them from the situation, then got back to my eating. I found the blend of blue cheese and steak to be an interesting take on the cheesesteak, but it did not compare to the Philly sort with Cheez Whiz. The steak itself was cooked quite well to a nice medium, but the blue cheese dressing seemed much better suited for the fries.

In truth, I think the LA Cheesesteak had doomed itself based on its name. Had it just been called a steak sandwich, I wouldn’t have held such high hopes for the thing. Instead, though, I found myself comparing it to the original, against which it couldn’t hold up. Taken just as itself, it tasted great (after the onions), so I will review it thus, but do not try this sandwich thinking it will be the next Philly Cheesesteak or you will be let down.

Oh and before I forget, the garlic fries were damn good, but not quite as good as the blue cheese fries. I fear the first fries spoiled me, but if you’re not a fan of blue cheese, the regular garlic fries will not let you down.

Despite my complaints, Damon and Pythias is definitely a place I would return to. For their fries alone it is worth it, and although they didn’t make the world’s greatest cheesesteak, they still came up with a unique sandwich that is often hard to find. Next time, though, there better not be any onions.

In yet another night that I was made to eat sushi, I was brought to Yamato Restaurant in Westwood. Catering to the college crowd, their sushi is always half off, which is great, except that it makes you wonder why they wouldn’t simply print prices that are low. Is it some way to confuse people into ordering more or to make them think they are there at a special half off time? Either way, it is weird, but good for the wallet. When I arrived, some food had already been ordered, which was slightly bothersome, but I decided to roll with it (pun!).

This starter was the tuna tartar over crispy rice and wasn’t half bad. The softness of the raw tuna met with a nice crunch on the rice and was a pretty good way to start out the meal. Since I had to get the obligatory sushi, I got the crunchy roll. This had some shrimp, crab and avocado in it and was covered in some sort of crunchy tempura-esque mix. It was actually pretty good for sushi and a great way to go for an unvegan since it was completely devoid of cucumbers. Luckily, though, this place wasn’t simply dedicated to sushi and also had some robata, also known as Japanese grilled food. I ordered a set of chicken meat balls from this robata menu and they were really good. The sauce on them was great and the balls themselves were nice and juicy.

And that was it. The end of my meal. And from the looks of it, everything tasted really good, right? So you may be wondering why this is entitled “A Sad Ending at Yamato Restaurant.” If you are, then I will reveal something to you, and as a fair warning, if you like this restaurant and want to return, you may not want to read below. Ready?

As I was walking out, I saw a cockroach on the ground crawling around. That’s it. It wasn’t even in the kitchen, but seeing something like that in the waiting area really made me squeamish. It also made all the sushi that had tasted pretty good start rolling around uncomfortably in my stomach. If this cockroach was out here, how many could be there without my knowledge? Hopefully none, but who knows?!

Sorry, Yamato. You may have made some pretty good sushi and your restaurant may have an A, but once I see a cockroach in a restaurant, I never go back.

Finding ourselves in Westwood without any idea where to eat, my roommates and I walked into Ambala Dhaba. None of us had looked the place up online, nor had it been recommended, but we were feeling risky.

A look at the menu revealed a whole lot of vegetarian dishes, but also some meaty Indian dishes I had never heard of and was excited to try. Tucked under the glass on the table was their beer special, Bell beer from Uganda for only $3 a glass. I wasn’t sure why Ugandan beer had found itself at an Indian restaurant, but it would definitely be something new for me.

Foodwise, we started with a couple orders of naan bread. One was garlic and one

was chili garlic. I ended up being a big fan of the chili naan, since it offered a kick, but not a huge one. Then it was time for the main courses. I decided to split a couple dishes with the roommie. Our first choice was Chicken Dehraduni, which was chicken cooked with cashews, coconut and mango. For our next choice we decided to be a bit more exotic and ordered some bakra, also known as goat. I had never eaten goat before, so we kept it simple with Bakra Curry.

While waiting for my main courses, I tested out this new beer and was extremely disappointed. It was poorly carbonated, which I could have gotten over if it tasted good, but it did not and for the first time I felt that $3.00 was too much for a beer at a restaurant. I hoped my meal would fare better. Luckily, it did.

The chicken dish was great. The mix of spices with cashews and mangoes made a deliciously complex taste. The goat was also pretty good. I thought it would taste pretty similar to mutton, but it really didn’t. In fact, it was closer to beef than lamb, but still kind of hovered between the two. The curry sauce it was in wasn’t too bad either.

To top off the meal, we ordered some Kulfi, Indian ice cream. It’s different from regular ice cream because it’s extra creamy and extra tasty. It was certainly very different from any other ice cream I’ve had before, and was a good way to finish off dinner at Ambala Dhaba.

As I’m no Indian aficionado, I can’t vouch for the authenticity of any of my dishes, but I can definitely say I enjoyed them thoroughly.

In the quest to finally find some good schwarma in LA, I made my way to a little Lebanese place called Sunnin Cafe. I have fond memories of delicious Lebanese food back in Michigan, so I hoped that this place would be at least a little awesome. Getting there was a little confusing, though, as it appeared as though there were two Sunnins, right across the street from each other. On further inspection, it looked like the larger of the two is unopened and the small place will be moving in there soon.

The inside of the little cafe gave the appearance of a generic diner. There were seats

at a counter and no more than ten small tables. The big difference, though, was the strong smell of the Middle East and the rotating spool of meat where a deep-fryer might typically belong. I also loved that they made no effort to hide the fact that the cooks were Hispanic. It’s a pretty widely known fact that kitchens of ethnic restaurants all over LA are filled with Hispanics, despite the fact that waiters and such fit into the ethnicity. It was refreshing to see that Sunnin didn’t hide that aspect of their business.

We ordered some “hommos” (love the spelling) to start things off. There were a lot of great-looking appetizers, but I find hummus to be a great gauge of how good a Middle-Eastern restaurant is going to be. Luckily, the hummus was awesome and made me excited for my main course. It was a tough choice between the chicken shawarma platter and chicken shawarma sandwich, but the sandwich eventually won out. To be safe, I asked our waiter, who also appeared to be the manager and maître d’, what came in the shawarma. He said it came with sauce, lettuce and other vegetative matter. I couldn’t let me meal be ruined by such veggies, so I ordered with only sauce and chicken and hoped it would turn out well.

When my shawarma sandwich arrived, it was fully free of veggies. The chicken looked a little yellowish, but I didn’t let that stop me from digging in. Every bite was delicious, greasy and garlicky. It was even better when I dipped it in hummus, but the dipping wasn’t necessary. If I’ve had better shawarma, I couldn’t tell you where. Sunnin is now officially my number one Middle-Eastern place. I only hope that when they move into their larger location, they hang on to at least some of their quaint little diner mentality.