Shayan "Gourmet Man" S.'s Profile

Came here for a quick drink before dinner at Le Colonial. We were lucky enough that it was still happy hour, meaning 4$ beers on tap and 5$ cocktails. The margarita was meh (tasted industrial), the bourbon sour was too sour. The atmosphere is pretty neat, and I like the bar itself. But don't go looking for amazing cocktails.

Ended up going here instead of Millenium last night. Unfortunately, M. wasn't able to augment our reservation from 2 to 4 :(.

Still, this place is fantastic. Yes, it's pricey, yes, a bit ostentatious, but love the decor. Brought me straight back to a time where Indochina was Indochina.

I started with the pork belly which is to die for, especially as it sits in a delicate pool of truffle oil... lovely. I had the wrapped seabass which is the most subtle dish I've had the pleasure of eating stateside... highly recommended. We ordered sides of the brussel sprouts which are good option for vegans and delicious to boot. The tofu is tofu. What can I say? At least vegans won't feel left out here.

The bread pudding was really good, but not the best in the world. Still, I'd order it again. Most, firm but yielding. Drizzled with caramel and served on hot chocolate sauce, nice !

Came down to 150$ per couple. Mind you, we had 2 bottles of wine, but still, expensive.

Definitely a nice place to make a good impression !

You know what ? Maybe it's not the most kick ass thai restaurant in SJ, but it's pretty damn good. Does it come close to Teenee Thai on The Alameda ? Or Siam Thai in Willow Glen ? Not completely. But it's good. And the vegetarian options are super super tasty (the Asparagus and Shitake Stir Fry are delicious!).

I ordered the Pad Thai which was good, but not blow your head off good.

The sushi was pretty damn good I must say. My wife ordered the Zebra, which is a vegetarian roll that contains avocado, black mushrooms, and cucumbers. Great vegan option.

I had the Spicy Crunch, which has eel, spicy crab, avo, cucumber, peanut on the inside, tempura crunch on the outside. Very tasty !!

All in all, came down to 46$ - a bit pricey, especially given that there was no alcohol in our order... but convenient and friendly service, convenient location, I'll probably order from them again.

PS: portions are great (not small, and enough for left overs to make your colleagues at work jealous at lunch).

Great lil' place. Come early, or be prepared to wait. We showed up at 5pm, the place was empty. Wanted to make a reservation for 7pm, but were told the place doesn't accept reservations (too bad). We decided we'd take our chances, and went to have a drink with friends down the road @Casanova.

We came back a couple of beers later, and the place was packed ! We put our names down on the list, waited about 5-10m, and got seated. We made quick time in ordering our meals:

We ordered tapas style... a ton of stuff:

Vegan gyoza ($5.75 for 6 pieces) - nice, crisp wontons, tasty

Dengaku (Broiled eggplant, tofu, and portobello mushroom with a miso-pasta glaze, $8.50) - one of my favorite dishes on the menu, but the miso-pasta glaze is super rich and salty, but delicious with the mushroom and tofu. The eggplant doesn't look like eggplant, but it's good anyway!

Vegetable Tempura ($8.50) - another highlight... delicate, crispy and super tasty. Rare. Usually Veggie tempura puts me to sleeeep ! (yawn)

Cha-Ya Sushi Roll ($7.25, Tempura sushi filled with avocado, yam, and carrots. The entire roll is lightly battered and deep-fried. Served with a special house sauce (cut into 8 pieces)) - ok... i still like my sushi w/ fish in it. Becareful when they're served, they are piping hot !

Wakame (sea Vegetable) for $8.25 - pretty decent, we had these with Soba (buckwheat) noodles. Healthy, and filling.

Agedashi Tofu ( Deep- Fried Tofu) Deep-fried tofu in a light broth, garnished with grated daikon and ginger, kaiware, scallions, and shredded nori for $6.00, 4 pieces) - another one of my favorites of the evening, soft, lush tofu, served in a beautiful tasting broth. Really enjoyed it, but too bad there's only 4 pieces !!!!

All in, 77$ for 4 people, including 2 bottles of nigori sake... i'd say low to mid-range prices, and a paradise for vegans.

Highly recommend!

Popped in here for a quick drink or 2 before dinner at Chay-Chay up the street. Met up with a couple of friends. Pretty chilled out, it was a Sunday night, so no drama, no crowds.

The decor is slightly bizarre, some will like it some will not (naked ladies on oil or velvet paintings, reddish hue to the whole place, couches, and a bar area).

Music was a-ok, nothing mind blowing, but you can talk, and hear others talk, which is cool if you wanna hear the party.

Drinks-wise, stuck to Fat Tire... which is pretty much good anywhere !

My wife and I were heading out to meet some friends @Casanova right across the street, but we were feeling a lil' peckish, and stumbled upon Frjtz (pronounced... Freetz). Max (my wife) being Dutch and all, was jumping up and down that we must, must, must get a "klein" (small) portion of fries, and take a trip down memory lane, when we used to stop in Belgium on the way back from the South of France to Amsterdam where we used to live.

Max being vegan and all... we couldn't get the fancy mayonnaise dips (but my, do some of them sound amazing). We settled on the truffle/artichoke/ketchup dip.... and voraciously devoured the fries in less than 5 mn (even though they were piping hot).

The fries are pretty damn good: slightly crusty (but not crispy) on the outside, and yielding and soft on the inside. The dip is freakin' amazing.

Definitely a nice spot to catch a quick snack !

A keeper.

I'm probably not going to make any friends with this review, but I guess maybe this place is a little over hyped, and perhaps resting on the laurels of its Michelin star. For non vegans, Ubuntu offers an interesting experience (carnivores will enjoy its new age/creative curioso appeal, vegetarians will enjoy the imaginative and tasty concoctions), however for vegans, I'm sorry, you will be disappointed. So Ubuntu might earn 3-4 stars as a vegetarian, but really misses the mark in terms of meeting an increasing demand for vegans looking for a gourmet and extraordinary dining experience. Millennium in San Francisco sets the bar higher in comparison (of course, a comparison between the 2 is unfair, as Ubuntu is vegetarian, vs. Millennium which specializes purely in vegan cuisine).

I am no vegan myself, nor am I a vegetarian. However, my wife has been vegan for almost 2 years, and we are on a quest to find the panacea for vegan gourmet foodists, and boy, is this a challenge! Even in the great state of California.

My alarm bells went off when our server told us that they were serving small (tapas style) plates the night we went, and that we should look at ordering 2-3 plates per person (at 17-20$ each, we were 4). Don't get me wrong, I'm all for small, delectable plates full of high impact flavor, but imagine my disappointment when I realized that I really only enjoyed 50% of the dishes we order (12).

Of course, it wasn't all bad.

The highlights:
Marcona Almonds (lavender, sugar): those are absolutely amazing, a blissful bite and crunch, the lavender works amazingly well w/ the sugar and depth of the almond. Highly recommended.
5/5

The carta da musica (crisp homemade flat bread with porcini, pecorino and summer truffle) had mixed reviews on the table. Without the summer truffle pecorino for the vegans, this dish loses a lot of its muster. So vegans, prepare to be disappointed. For vegetarians, this is an interesting dish.
3/5 (vegan), 4/5 (vegetarian)

We had this medley of chopped carrot and radish heads with a dreary vinaigrette. Boring. Disappointing. Forgettable. (1/5)

The cauliflower put us in a trough of disillusionment.  (1/5)

Desserts... looked interesting. But again, for vegans... a fruit medley/sorbet ? Come on guys, we can do better than this. When are chefs going to start realizing that vegans like decadence too ? Margarine instead of butter, people? Cashew/Tofu dairy cream options? The lack of inspiration was underwhelming.

About the service... when my wife asked for truffle oil/dressing as an alternative to the truffle / cheese pecorino that the non-vegans were having, we got a pretty sour look from our server. She came back 10m later, with a less than a thimble full of "mushroom" vinaigrette. I'm sorry, not worthy of a 1 star restaurant.

I had dinner at "La Folie" in the city (SF) 2 days later. You can read my review on this later, but that is a dining experience worth paying for. Different price point, I know... but it is time that vegetarian establishments (as fancy as Ubuntu aspires to be) start meeting this kind of experience and flexibility.

So no repeat experience required for me, or my party. Why?

Even though vegetarian, there is a clear lack of creativity to provide alternatives for vegans (elimination of key ingredients is NOT what I call creative, it's laziness). Putting an asterisk on your menu stating that the dish can be veganized is a bit of a short sell. I know it's not your target segment, but you gotta expect that within thissegment, a sub-segment exists that is made up of an increasing number of vegans that are desperately looking for culinary experiences worth remembering.

Pure and simple.

PS: On our way back to the South Bay from Napa about 1.5 hrs later, my wife tells me she's hungry. I tell her I'm starving. Too bad it was too late to hit the Vegetarian House in San Jose, Milpitas or Palo Alto :(

I must say, that this is truly a wonderful place to stay in Los Angeles. The service is impeccable, everyone is attentive, friendly, and goes out of their way to help/assist you. The rooms are nice (nothing super - ostentatious), large LCD screens in the bedroom, flat screen in the bathrooms, bulgari toiletries, comfy beds, nice views of downtown LA.

I love the hotel "house car" (depending on your luck: Bentley, rolls, merc), that can take you up and down to Rodeo Drive.

The food is good too. Had dinner at the Gardens, the scallops were divine.

The Spa is also very nice, especially the massage. Had a 1.5hr session, Deep Tissue and trigger points. Possibly the best I've ever had. And I've had LOT'S.

All in all, a nice business hotel in the heart of Beverly Hills.

We went here with some friend visiting from London. After some pre-dinner drinks @ Vesuvio on Columbus, we were happy to see that this restaurant is a bit off the beaten path of the rest of the cat calling restaurants on Columbus as you enter North Beach (beyond Stinkin' Rose).

The place probably seats about 40 max, so reservations are definitely recommended. We arrived for reservations at 8pm, the place was packed, but we got seated immediately.

My wife had called ahead to say that she was vegan, and had asked whether they could accommodate her. Although Contadina is not a vegan restaurant, it is definitely vegan friendly, and the owner was adamant that we should come, and they would assign a "vegan-aware" server to our table.

The service was impeccable. They indeed took care of us, and our quirks, and were super nice and friendly as well as accommodating.

The bread they serve is absolutely divine. Some sort of amazing home baked sourdough bread which isn't too sour. Absolutely delicious (with some garlic infused olive oil... yum!).

We ordered the anti-pasti (which was meh, btw. The cheese is pretty blah, and the meats, well... I'm very peculiar and have very high standards when it comes to cold cuts, having had the privilege of indulging on some of the best hams (bellota) in the world). This is where I take off a star.

The mains however, were fantastic: the veal saltimbocca was very rich, but also very good ! The asparagus it came with were perfectly cooked, and the veal was soft and tender. The other veal dish was the Correnti, which consists of pan sautéed veal scaloppini topped with a porcini mushroom cream sauce and served with sautéed Swiss chard penne pasta, it was absolutely divine.

The fresco is an awesome option for vegans/vegetarians. It was explosive w/ flavor, but mind you, you gotta like the garlic, and accept the fact that there will be a 3 meter radius of empty space surrounding you for the next few days.

The one additional sore mark in the dishes we ordered are specific to the Linguini Vongole, which consists of linguini pasta with sautéed clams and a lemon, butter, garlic and white wine sauce. This dish was far to acidic and bitter, and we left it untouched. Thankfully, the service here is so good that they did not charge this dish to our bill.

All in all, a fantastic meal with some minor sore points, impeccable service, and a really warm, exciting atmosphere. Would definitely come back.

I'd like to give this place 4 stars, I really would. But I simply can't, for a number of reasons.

Number 1:

First off, if you're gonna post your menu online, KEEP IT UP TO DATE!!!!! For the love of whomever, why post online, set the wrong expectation, and then disappoint your customers when they show up with a changed menu ?

My wife really wanted the truffle fries, and that was one of the reasons we went there... they took them off the menu 2 weeks ago ! UNACCEPTABLE. Same goes for half the menu (gnocchi's, etc. etc.).

Number 2:
The ambiance - I travel a lot for business - the last thing I need is some dodgy flashback of a business trip when i'm going out for dinner on my birthday (yep, it was my birthday). From the elevator music to the ridiculously low urinals, the sterile front office, and the dining room with business vagabonds (i know you), this is not the place for romance, or as we say in Dutch, "gezelligheid". Scratch that.

There was actually a conference/seminar happening in a room near our table, bell boys dragging luggage carts through the dining room, it was definitely not cozy.

Positives:

On the whole, the service was good (not perfect, but they were accommodating to vegans. There are some good options for vegans here, notable the Verdure (like a pasta primevera on steroids). Manon ordered a custom meal, of shitake mushrooms, asparagus, artichokes, etc. They served a mountain of mushrooms, which was awesome !

Also, the corkage here is "only" 15$ vs. 20$ in some steakhouses down town or more.

Finally, desserts seem good here. I would strongly recommend the apple bread pudding, which is succulent.

All in all, good food, decent service - a pity about the crappy cheap business hotel ambiance (sorry, Tully House) which gave me flash backs, and the menu desynch issue.

Will probably not be going back (although this was the 2nd time for me)