Friday, August 6, 2010

Tara's Himalayan Cuisine











I had a friend visiting from Portland that I wanted to get out and introduce to some of my Los Angelino friends. We wanted to meet somewhere between Culver City and Santa Monica. Thus - Tara's surfaced on Yelp and acclaimed by one of my friends for having good beer - we settled. I had Karma beer (a two-row barley), another friend had Lhasa beer (my favorite) and Tyler had some sort of crazy Monk beer that had super high alcohol content.

Food wise, I had the lamb skewers... they came out sizzling and were delicious. I really enjoyed this place, a good one to go with friends! Good luck finding parking - we were lucky, but there are a lot of apartments near by so just be aware it might be a small issue. Oh and next time I will go for the Eggplant curry - it looked really good!

Tara's Fork Rating

Accessibility: 3 Forks
Authenticity: 3.5 Forks
Ambiance: 3 Forks
Service: 3 Forks
Taste Factor: 4 Forks

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Sushi Roku











"We can seat you now, but the table is reserved for another party in an hour and a half, is that enough time for you guys?"
~Sushi Roku hostess

And what I heard: "Though your party also has a reservation, the group coming after you is more important."

Boom, I know, I know, quite possibly an over reaction on my part, but maybe you just had to have been there.

We settled on Sushi Roku because it seemed to be the ultimate LA experience for my friends visiting from Bean Town. Sushi, beach, Santa Monica - that was our thinking. Only this place fit all of the other parts of LA's bill a little too well. We even left a little hungry because our waitress kept forgetting we were one of her tables.

All that aside, the food was pretty good and the company rocked. We ordered edamame ($4.50) and seaweed salad ($7) as appetizers. Actually, they both were really good. My girlfriend and I loved the seaweed salad and both agreed that without sushi we would be pretty happy with just another order of seaweed. Oddly enough we are both Kombucha-holics and the seaweed for some reason fed.

Tyler and my friend's boyfriend felt differently so we did of course order and everything that showed up (and probably would have liked the Crab Dynamite, if the waitress had not forgotten to bring it, x 2) was good. My only qualm specifically food related, was how small the sushi menu was, but again the sushi we did consume was all delicious. In fact, I haven't had sushi this good since eating at Saburos in Portland, OR.

Sushi Roku Fork Rating:

Accessibility: 3 Forks
Ambiance: 3 Forks
Authenticity: 2.5 Forks
Service: 0 Forks
Taste Factor: 3.5 Forks