Steve G.'s Profile

Still as great as ever.  I recently attended a Dodger playoff game and took the Metro.  It turns out that Philippe The Original is a couple blocks south of the Chinatown Metro Station (Gold Line).  It's an easy walk.

This place was across the street from my hotel in St. George where I was staying for the marathon.  I don't spend much time in sports bars, but I was hungry and curious and there was a big college game going on, so I walked over.

It's a pretty big place with lots of flat panel screens to watch.  There are ten big booths, some table seating, a large bar with tall chairs and some tall bar tables on the bar side of the room.

It wasn't crowded, so I sat in a booth (that could have seated 8) and looked through the menu.  It's a huge menu with steaks, seafood, pasta, pizzas, sandwiches, salads...pretty much anything you might want, but nothing fancy here.

I ordered fish, grilled salmon, and it came to the table perfectly grilled, fresh and tasty, in fact quite good.  It was served with freshly steamed vegetables and a sort of saffron rice pilaf that was also pretty good.  I ordered a glass of wine to go with, and had a nice solo meal watching the game and eating my meal.

I would not expect food this good in a sports bar, but this place is an exception.  The atmosphere is also very warm and friendly (i.e. not rowdy, no screaming drunken sports fans here).  This is Utah, so you have to order food in order to get a drink  hahaha  so funny!

I came to St. George to run the marathon Oct. 3., and I drove past this place.  It's a tiny place, like a little burger stand, but it was packed to the gills...lines out the door and a long line of cars waiting for service to go.  Plus the sign says "greatest sandwiches in the world" and that takes some moxie.

I studied the big menu board and notice that everything in the open kitchen is fresh...all of the ingredients including fresh bread (rolls) that they bake every day.  They actually sell their day-old bread for 50 cents or something.

I ordered a turkey sandwich with everything and start to look for a place to sit.  My meal is out in less than one minute, and there is the perfect sandwich: fresh sliced turkey, fresh fixings, a little mayo and some sort of dressing and hot peppers all wrapped into a warm soft freshly baked bun.  I devoured it...so delicious...I didn't even take a sip from my drink until I was done.

The service was extremely friendly, and the place is very clean and comfortable.  There are a few tables inside, but most of the seating is outside at little cafe tables.  You can sit out there in the lovely weather and watch the people going by.

Highly recommended for lunch in St. George.  And if you come for the marathon, let me know!

My friend brought me here for our first dinner together, and I fell in love...with the restaurant and maybe with her, too.  The atmosphere is upscale, cool, Japanese with low lights and soft house/trance type music setting the mood.  And yes, in the bathrooms there are Japanese language instructional tapes playing...pretty fun.

The menu is fabulous and extensive with sushi, robata, exotic seafood plates, even some pedestrian chicken and beef selections (though I don't know why you would order that with the great seafood on the menu).  I don't drink much sake, so when I opened the drink menu and saw the dozens of sake selections I pleaded ignorant to our young, pretty blonde server.  She suggested several and then offered to bring three samples for us to try, free of charge.  How about that!

So we tasted and selected, while sipping a tasy miso soup and munching on edamame.  We ordered small plates of hamachi and tuna, both expertly prepared and delicious.  Wonderful food.

We had a beautiful view of the bay bridge as twilight settled over the bay, and the food, the drink, and the atmosphere was simply entrancing.  I think I'm falling in love...but got to go back to LA tomorrow!

This might be a bit pricy for a first date, but I was feeling happy about life and meeting a lovely girl for dinner, and, I figured if the date doesn't work out at least I'm going to have a nice meal on the way.

Roy's polished staff and dark amber, warm interiors are just the thing for a nice romantic dinner.  I sat at the beautiful bar and was served a glass of water by a beautiful bartender gal (OK, stop it...focus).  Once she arrived we were seated in a sort of side room that is not as nice as the main dining area...make a note of that...and it was cold, so they turned off the AC that was blowing on us.

When I left home I decided last minute to wear slacks and a nice shirt.  Good thing I did, since she arrived wearing a beautiful long black dress that complimented her figure, with a neckline that dipped just far enough to be distracting.  (Eyes...keep looking at her eyes!)

Drinks? "I don't drink alcohol".  OK, then, mind if I do? Fine.  The salads were great, dragon pear salad, and a sort of curry shrimp salad also quite good.  We split the butterfish and it was excellent.  

We had a lovely dinner with excellent service, at a reasonable price.  Afterwards we walked around  Fashion Island and chatted, getting to know one another and then...

Well, that's enough.

I finally ate at Street the other night.  It was Father's Day, so even with a reservation there was no room on the patio.  We were seated at a rather small table sandwiched between the side of a staircase and a table of six.  But, we were there to try the food, so no worries.

Our waitperson gave us the run-down on the menu and brought us some wine while we looked through the menu.  We started with the Kaya toast, Cuban stuffed potato cake, Shizo shrimp, and the Jerusalem bread salad.

The clear favorite was the Cuban potato cake...very tasty and surprisingly light with a nice tomato-mint salsa and poblano crema.  The shrimp were also very tasty and crisp, wrapped in Nori.  Kudos also to the bread salad, which actually doesn't have much bread in it at all.  It's more of a nice vegetable and greens salad with big, soft croutons.

I had mixed feelings about the Kaya toast, which is evidently one of their most popular dishes, but I thought it was just OK.  Dipping toast with jelly into semi-raw egg just didn't do it for me.  Not bad, but back of the line, please.

Still hungry, we ordered the peanut vegetable noodles and waited, and waited.  I have no idea what took so long for a stir-fry noodle dish but it finally arrived, a rather big bowl compared to the other dishes.  And it was...just OK.  The sauce tasted like peanuts, but it was too thick...sticky...and sort of bland.  It really needed a little rice vinegar and a splash of Sriracha to liven it up.  We left most of it in the bowl.

Me: "Would you like to take the rest home with you?"

Dinner partner: "No, I'm full."

I hate to hear myself say this, but the noodles at PF Chang are much better.

We left and got the cars ($8 valet) and headed out, pleasantly full and warm from the wine.  The restaurant is friendly and lively with a nice vibe and I would look forward to trying it again, but next time I want to sit on the patio.

Last year the Times ran a story on a ramen "expert", and this was his number one pick.  I made a note of it, and wasted a year in not going sooner...i.e. before I got on Yelp.

It is a place you would drive by if no one told you...it's just a stripmall on an ugly corner in Mar Vista.  Parking during lunch hour was difficult, but I finally walked into the food court inside of a Japanese grocery store.

First, I notice that almost everyone here is Japanese, and most of them are speaking Japanese...a good sign.  The Santouka storefront is just a counter, with a cashier and a couple of guys serving up the food from the back through a pass-through.  Beside the cashier is a display case with pictures of the food and the prices.

Most customers know exactly what they want, so the new people (like me) betray themselves by staring endlessly at the "menu", trying to figure out what to order.  The line moves fast, so with a little help from the cashier I order the special pork miso ramen bowl.  

On my tray was a big bowl of simmering broth and noodles, accompanied by a side plate of the pork, scallions, seaweek, bamboo shoots and egg.  I love ramen (not an expert), and this was the best I have ever had.  A deep, savory flavored broth, perfectly cooked noodles, and the softest, most tender, juicy pork slices in my lifetime.  The pork tasted as though it had been poached in butter...and perhaps it had.

I devoured the bowl, pausing only to breath and take a few sips of water, noticing that everyone around me was doing the same thing.  We were all heads down, completely absorbed by the simmering noodle bowls.

I left happily full, so full that I had to go home and take a nap.  Best ramen ever!

My only criticism would be the parking lot at lunchtime was really jammed up, with two or three cars in each lane, idling, waiting for a spot to open up...but otherwise five stars.

A close friend from my running group held her 40th birthday party here last Saturday.  We had about 20 people in all, so we completely took over the big community table at Musha.

We ordered loads of plates and just passed the dishes around so that everyone could try everything...the roast mackeral, the tenderloin of beef that you cook on your mini-hibachi, the omlet, the risotto, and we included all of the salads.

Our table was filled from end to end with plates of food, bottles of sake, bottles of beer, and happy laughing people.  The service was excellent, considering how large our party was, though I wonder if some of the dueces around the room were getting short-changed.  Oh well, after the sake and beer kicked in no one was minding anyway.

After all of that food was cleared away...bring on the desserts!  Plates of creme brulee, chocolate souffle, ice cream in unusual flavors, even mini-cheesecakes plus green tea for everyone.

Our star opened her gifts, some great gifts as other patrons looked on approvingly.  And as the night drew to an close, our birthday girl notified us all that the bill was already paid and we were all her guests for the evening.  Wow, so generous.

We had a blast...great food, great fun, good place for groups.

And agreed, the plates are small and a little pricey, but the food is really good.  Bring your best credit card...

I was dragged over here after a nice dinner nearby with a couple of friends...two asian gals...who were simply raving about Pinkberry.  It was about 10PM on a Saturday and there was no line when we got there.

I was impressed with the marketing of the place, nice look, major buzz, but honestly I thought the product was just OK.  I mean, isn't it all about the food, folks?  This is just yogurt, and weird yogurt at that, with toppings that really jack up the price.  I didn't get the religion at all.

My friends were very happy to be there, and by the time we left the line was out the door.  See you at Penguins, all.  This over-hyped place will not last.

El Gringo appeared in a strip mall near 8th street in Manhattan Beach a few years ago.  It is really small.  There are perhaps 10 tables all along one wall from the front door to the back door, like a dining car or a lane at a bowling alley.

As I walk in, an attractive young hostess smiles, offers a warm greeting and then steps back to let me choose my table  (it was 1:30 PM on Thursday and there was only one customer in the place).

The place is clean and comfortable, and there is a plasma screen at either end of the lane showing last night's Dodger game with the sound off (cool).  The hostess brings chips that are fresh and warm, along with a bowl of salsa.  The salsa is very fresh and flavorful, without being too hot (sabroso!).

My waitstaff is a young girl who is friendly and polite: when you say "Thank you", she says "You're welcome"...not "No problem", so I know that I'm in good hands.  

I ordered two tacos, one broiled fish, and one carne asada.  They arrive quickly and they are large, in fact this meal could have served two people.  Both tacos were fresh and delicious.  The asada was nicely cooked and tender to the bite, garnished with onions, ciliantro, tomato and a little smear of guacamole on the tortilla...yum.  The fish (Mahi-mahi) was also nicely crisp and full of flavor.  It was garnished with cabbage that was uncooked, and they provide a white sauce that you can squirt all over your taco.

Some places will wilt that cabbage and mix it with the white sauce to make a bit of slaw (my favorite), but this was a really good taco, and a big one for just $4:95.

I've eaten here once before and it was also quite good (tostada).  They have a large and comprehensive menu, but it is not unusual...just standard Mexican fare prepared fresh and healthy.

If you come during primetime you will have to wait.  As I said, it's a small place, so come during off hours for the best experience.  Many chefs will tell you "Never go out to a restaurant on Friday or Saturday if you want to experience the place at its best."  Try midweek, or go early.

Great little place.