But I digress.

Since their website touted that they make their own soba, I had to order the Yabu Soba Combination (soba, tempura and nigiri for $37.50) (see above). The soba was acceptable but considering this is why I came here, it was disappointing. I’ve had better back before the pandemic. The tempura was marginal but acceptable. However, the nigiri was not only not made properly, there were parts of the fish that any trainee would have cut out.

Since my nigiri that came in the combination was marginal, I was interested to see how the “real” Sushi Combination ($42) would be. As you can see above, you get a lot of variety but once again, it was not prepared properly. The size of the rice was extremely small and you can easily see in the picture sabove that the fish was not prepared or presented properly.

The rolls were surprisingly terrible as well. The “lobster” was too creamy and the nori was soggy. I suspect the nori is not being stored properly or I don’t really understand how it could get soggy in the short amount of time.

All in all, this turned out to be a terrible decision and I will never return here. If you want good soba, almost any other place will be just as good. Moreover, you can get better sushi almost anywhere in Los Angeles. And for less money.

Pass.

Yabu Restaurant
11820 W Pico Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90064
yaburestaurant.com

The post Yabu Restaurant Quick Review appeared first on Cochinoman.

One thing that I glossed over before, is the traditional tatami room they have shown below. This is about as traditional as you can get and in most modern Japanese restaurants, you would not see this any more unless you go way out of the city. I think this gives Honda Ya an ambiance that gives you the true Japanese flavor of many years ago.

Moreover, all the waitstaff speak fluent Japanese and yes, the hot green tea is free.

But I digress.

On this trip, I tried their Moro-Q ($3.95) Japanese cucumber with miso dipping sauce, which was excellent and fresh.

Next, I tried their Yakitori Leg meat ($2.60), and Corn ($2). The sauce on the leg meat is delicious and the corn is amazingly sweet. I don’t know how they do that but it’s consistently sweet.

Finally, I got the Tororo Zaru Soba, buckwheat cold noodles with grind yam. Although I love the grind yam, it’s not for everyone and I suggest you only try it if you are very adventurous. As usual, the soba was cooked perfectly and the wonderfully tasting dipping sauce makes it that much better.

All in all, this place looks, sounds and tastes authentically Japanese. If you want sushi or sashimi, I suggest you go to Sushi Go 55 next door. But if you want noodles, Yakitori, or anything else that’s authentically Japanese, come here. It’s also a great place for big parties because they have a big table in the middle of the room. It gets pretty busy on the weekends so come early.

Honda Ya
333 South Alameda #314, Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 625-1184
Tuesday-Sunday: 5:30pm to 1am (last call about 12:30am)
izakayahondaya.com

The post Honda Ya Izakaya Re-Review [CLOSED] appeared first on Cochinoman.

In any case, I was happy with the soba this time around and decided to try something new and ordered their steamed vegetables with ponzu and sesame dipping sauce ($6.75) as shown below. Since I’m trying to lose some weight, this dish is certainly healthy for me but it didn’t fill me up enough. Next time, I’ll have to order more food.

This restaurant will stay on my rotation and I’m going to try the zaru soba again next time to see if the dipping sauce change was in my head or their formula.

Morinoya
11301 W. Olympic Blvd. #210
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 473-396
restaurant-morinoya.com

The post Morinoya Japanese Restaurant Mini Review – Part 3 appeared first on Cochinoman.

But I digress.

The restaurant’s name is “Tora,” which means “tiger” in Japanese, and “noko” means “child of,” or in this case, “baby tiger.” The massive doors are left open to reveal a wide restaurant with art-graffiti on the wall and an inviting looking sushi bar on the far side. In the middle, there is an unendingly long skinny table that can seat a group of 2 to infinity.

To get started, I decided to get my usual Zaru Soba ($7) to get a baseline evaluation of the food here. As you can see below, the soba did come with the traditional soba “condiments,” and was cooked properly and the dipping sauce was good as well. The presentation could have been a little better but I was satisfied with it.

For my main course, I went straight to the Sushi Combo ($25) which had a choice for the roll. I decided to play safe and got the spicy tuna roll, just in case the rest of the sushi wasn’t good. As it turned out, everything was fresh and as you can see below, the presentation was good as well.

Although Toranoko has a very nice sushi bar, I did not sit there on this trip. Perhaps, I will try that next time.

Normally, I don’t get off on tangents away from the food in my reviews but I have to mention something here. While I was eating my sushi, I smelled a strong foul odor, and throught my sushi was not fresh. I put my face right into my food to see which item was bad but did not smell anything bad at all. I decided that it must be coming from the room, which would not be the first time at a restaurant for me.

However, I was soon able to determine that the smell was coming directly from the table behind me. I assumed it was the food that the people were eating but as far as I could tell without staring, they had already finished their food. Then the ladies left the restaurant and the odor went away.

I cannot say with certainty that the horrible odor was coming from the lady behind me, but using circumstantial evidence criteria from my jury duty experiences would lead me to conclude that it was coming from the lady and not the food, or restaurant.

What does this have to do with my review of this restaurant? Nothing really, except that I’m glad that they did not stay making me conclude that the odor was coming from the restaurant and giving a bad review. My take away lesson: Be very careful about determining the source of bad odors at restaurants.

By the way, readers of this blog know that I equate traditional Japanese restaurants with free hot green tea. Well, this place charges $3 for Roasted “Genmai,” but it does come in a very nice pot.

The service here is good but the over-the-top niceness is a little, well, over-the-top. It’s like watching a movie with bad acting. At first, it’s amusing, then it starts to get annoying. Then finally, it becomes creepy. But creepy or not, the bottom line is I got good service.

All in all, I’m glad I tried Toranoko and will be returning to try out some of their other items.

Aburiya Toranoko
243 South San Pedro
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-621-9500
Lunch: Mon-Fri – 11:30am-2:30pm
Dinner: Mon-Thurs 5pm-10pm, Fri 5pm-11pm, Saturday 5pm-11am, Sunday Closed
toranokola.com

The post Aburiya Toranoko Review appeared first on Cochinoman.

This place has a huge “L” shaped bar, even though they don’t serve sushi, along with regular table seating. For my appetizer, I tried their Tako Wasabi. I think I had the same thing elsewhere but my memory is fading and I can’t remember where. I prefer the traditional Tako-su dish and didn’t care for this dish. The picture is a little misleading in that the container is about the size of a large spoon.

When the waiter came over to collect the unused napkins and chopsticks from the empty seats at my table, he took all of them and left me with nothing. When he brought the Tako appetizer, he never checked to see if I needed chopsticks and left. This is a clear indication that the waiter is brand new to serving.

Next, I tried 2 items from the Kushiage menu list: Asparagus and chicken. Kushi-age are skewered items panko covered and deep-fried. In Japanese, kushi means skewer, and age (pronounced ah-ge) means deep-fried.

Generally speaking, I try to stay away from deep-fried food, even tempura, but because I’ve never had it before, I decided to try it. I asked the waiter what part of the chicken they used, he had to ask the kitchen. I guess nobody ever asked before or it was his first day. He was told that it was chicken thigh, which I love.

But I digress.

And sure enough, the chicken was delicious and hot, but I think I like my asparagus sautéed instead. They give you a choice of dipping sauce, so I picked the Worcestershire wasabi sauce. They must use real wasabi because it was really strong. Maybe a little too strong.

As you can see from the picture above, I got the Zaru Tororo Soba ($8) as my main dish. The actual soba was nothing spectacular and in my opinion, was cooked about 30 seconds too long. The dipping sauce was too sweet and it only came with real wasabi, and no grated radishes or green onions as is customary. The tororo (grind yam) was fresh and tasty but the dipping sauce basically ruined the entire dish.

It’s not all bad news. The hot tea was free. But the water used to make the tea tasted stale, like they need to use a filter for their water. But I’m pretty picky so most people probably won’t notice it.

All in all, I was disappointed with my visit because I was looking for some fantastic soba. However, from the looks of this place, I think it’s probably a nice place to come with a bunch of friends to drink and have some eats too.

Sojibo
2006 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 479-1200

The post Sojibo West LA Review appeared first on Cochinoman.

This time, I started with their Salmon Oni Chazuke ($7). Normally, Chazuke is rice with hot tea broth, but this one is made with a grilled rice ball immersed in bonito broth with dried seaweed on top. I’ve never had Chazuke made this way before and personally, I don’t like grilled rice balls so it was a bit of a stretch for me. Although I don’t think I would try it again, I did like the mild taste, and even the grilled rice ball which basically just falls apart in the soup.

Although I had already tried their regular Zaru Soba, I decided to try their Bukkake Soba ($8) shown below. Basically the soba is pre-dipped in soba sauce in a bowl, and topped with grind yam and salmon roe. I loved this combination with the great topping and the soba was also good, but the sauce was once again too mild for my taste.

I’m starting to see a pattern here with the mildness of everything. Maybe this is to help people lower their blood pressure by lowering their intake of sodium.

But I digress.

Next, I tried the Yakitori (thigh and wings – $2.25, $2.50) as shown below. They were cooked properly and unlike the other dishes, the sauce used had the right amount of taste to it. However, the Yakitori here does not compare with the ones at Honda Ya.

And finally, the hot green tea is free here. As everybody that reads my blog knows that this is a good indication of authentic Japanese food.

Once again, although everything was adequate, I wasn’t able to find anything that stood out as Morinoya’s signature dish that I could recommend for people to try. I do like the selections of authentic Japanese food with a slight new twist and the service, although a little slow, was also good. All in all, there are yet still a few more dishes I want to try here. More reviews to come.

Morinoya
11301 W. Olympic Blvd. #210
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 473-396
restaurant-morinoya.com

The post Morinoya Japanese Restaurant Mini Review – Part 2 appeared first on Cochinoman.

If you sit at the sushi bar, the first thing you will notice is that the sushi chefs are standing in a lower pit which makes them about the same height as the sitting customers, as shown below.

According to their website, Yabu makes their own soba noodles in-house. So I decided to order the Yabu Soba combination which comes with soba, tempura and sushi, as shown below.

Surprisingly, the soba was amazingly ordinary. In fact, it didn’t even make my top 10 list. Maybe I’ve gotten too used to pre-made soba and I don’t know what freshly made soba is supposed to taste like. At least the sushi was consistent with the soba and very forgettable. Don’t get me wrong. All the ingredients were fresh. Just nothing to write home about.

My friend got the Sushi combination shown above. As you can see, the selections are mediocre and so is the quality.

If you’re a big soba fan, you can simply skip this place. And according to their website, they have another branch in West Hollywood but I don’t think I need to check it out any time soon.

Yabu Restaurant
11820 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90064
310-473-9757
yaburestaurant.com

The post Yabu Sushi Restaurant (West LA) Review appeared first on Cochinoman.

This time, I tried their seaweed salad and found the dressing to be tasty. I don’t usually order seaweed salad but I felt like pretending to be healthy for a change.

Next, the big test for a “fake” Japanese restaurant: Cold Soba. They pass, but not with flying colors. The noodle itself was cooked properly and tasted fine. However, the dipping sauce was too sweet for my taste. I like mine a little more salty. I’ll probably not order it again but it’ll pass for less picky eaters.

Finally, I finished it off with some Nigiri sushi, a la carte and as before, it was acceptable but nothing to write home about.

As before, this is a great place to hang with your friends and drink some beer during happy hour, and enjoy some good Japanese eats.

Zencu Sushi & Grill
319 E. 2nd. Street #206
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 687-7780
Map

The post Zencu Sushi & Grill Review – Part 4 appeared first on Cochinoman.

For my main course, I decided to get the Sushi Combo (above – $14.95), which is basically Zip’s Nigiri sushi combo plate.  The price is very reasonable, and you get plenty for your money.  The fish was fresh but there was something strange about the way the nigiri was prepared.

As you can see from the close-up above, the Nigiri is prepared with a microscopic sized rice. I’ve never seen anything like this before.  It really doesn’t make the taste very different, but it makes it very hard to pick up with chopsticks.  I found that you need to squeeze the fish and wrap it around the rice, as shown in the picture above.  This strange Nigiri was not to my taste but if you’re on some type of low carb diet, this might be the ticket for you.

Looking to see if anything else here was real Japanese style, I tried their Cold Soba as shown above.  First off, the it comes with what would normally be 2 portions.  It was too much Soba for me.  Also, their Soba is not the traditional Japanese style Soba.  However, it was acceptable and the dipping sauce was good.

All in all, don’t come here for any traditional Japanese food.  What you’ll find here is really “fusion” as the name says.  It’s good food if that’s what you want.

Zip Fusion (Downtown)
744 East 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 680-3770
zipfusion.com
Lunch: M-F 11:30am-2:30pm, Dinner: M-Th 5pm-11pm, Fri-Sat 5pm-midnight

The post Zip Fusion Re-review – Part 2 appeared first on Cochinoman.

Before we get into the dishes, I need to clearify that I’m not vegan, or even vegetarian.  In fact, if you read my review of Healthy Request Soup, you’ll know that I don’t even like low fat anything.

According to their website, they not only want to serve you healthy food, they also want you to give you super friendly service.  One thing I noticed right away was the people there going out of their way to make you feel at home here.  In fact, for me, it was a little too much.  Yes, I like friendly waiters, but I started feeling like I was in an interview after a while.  Let me just get my food and eat it please.  If I want to talk to the waiter, I’ll bring my own with me.

The main dish I chose was the Cha-soba pasta with tofu and vegies (above – $13.50).  I love soba so I thought this would be a good thing to try.  It was spicy so at least there was some kick to it, but as most vegan dishes, it didn’t have that fatty taste that’s unhealthy but tasty.  But I understand I’m eating a vegan dish, and not fettuccine alfredo with extra sauce.  So although I didn’t really like it, I think any vegan would find this dish prepared perfectly.

Not feeling full, I decided to order the vegan version of chocolate cake, knowing full well that it wasn’t going to be full of bad things.  In terms of the actual taste, it’s amazing how mild but flavorful this desert was.  It’s certainly light and I really didn’t even need the black coffee that I normally need to compensate for a chocolate cake.  In fact, it’s so mild, I felt like I needed to put sugar in my coffee.  However, the coffee comes with soy milk and honey.  No sugar here.  It’s all natural.

If you’re a real vegan, I’m pretty sure you’ll find this place to be wonderful with all the choices and interesting dishes they have here.  If you’re a meat slash fatty sugar lover like me, you might find the dishes to be a little mild and bland.  But if you were to be dragged here with your vegan friend, I think you’ll find something you can fill up on.

Shojin Organic and Natural
333 S. Alameda St. #310, Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 617-0305
theshojin.com
Map

The post Shojin Japanese Vegan Restaurant Review appeared first on Cochinoman.