joz joz "joz" j.'s Profile

John is an excellent tailor!  Not only is he great at what he does, but he's speedy, too!  

My brother bought a new suit and the pants needed to be hemmed and some adjustments were needed to the jacket.  

On Monday night he was wearing the unaltered jacket at a fancy event-- and while it looked good, by the time we attended a wedding together on Saturday, his entire suit had been perfectly fitted so that it looked AWESOME!!!

John had done all the alterations over night and it looked as if the suit was made specifically for my brother.  Thumbs up!!!

Nice Clean Decor: +1 star
Free wifi: +1 star
Great service: +1 star
Great dessert: +1 star

Music is nice (fits the ambiance), but is a bit loud for meetings.  They let us sit in a booth (actually 2) for 4 hours while we met & worked.  There's only 1 booth with an outlet and so when it opened up, they let us move over there.  Open til 11 with free wifi.

UPDATE (no star change).  

$5 was indeed charged to my room stay, so no free parking overnight.  Also, they do this weird thing where they charge your card a dollar when you arrive, so you may find small charges on your bill.  Kind of annoying if you are nitpicky with your bookkeeping (as I am).

Croissant Chocolate, Almond or regular: Two Thumbs up

Chocolate Eclair: One Thumb up

Raisin Cookie: Thumb Neutral

Cupcake: All Thumbs Down.  Way down.

In keeping with my tradition of annoying Moye by copying what she says:

"The whiskey fennel sausage style blew us away.

The thin crust is both crispy and chewy, the house marinated olives were addicting, the burrata salad was a little too salty but SALT IS DELICIOUS so whatevs, and the service was friendly and great. I also love the decor, which was spacious yet still stylish. If you want to avoid the crowds and noise at Pizzeria Mozza, then Mother Dough is definitely the perfect place to be."

True dat.  True dat, indeed.

(It's OK for me to agree with what she said, because we ate there with her, right?)

My brother brought me here for my second birthday dinner-- because spending the prior day celebrating my birthday wasn't enough, evidently.  

For an AYCE KBBQ place, this menu was really impressive-- 25 items to choose from, including quality meats such as Kobe beef... wow!  Nice decor, good ventilation, decent service.  

They were so good that they still get 4 stars despite three major dings:
1) The insanely long wait.  We got there at 4:30pm on a Saturday night and had to wait 30 minutes.  This wasn't so bad, but on the way out, I ran into a friend who said his wait would be almost 2 hours!  
2) The hostesses are pretty-- pretty stupid, that is.  I was waiting for 30 minutes and saw their so-called organizational method of a waiting list.  What a total debacle.  Whatever time they tell you the wait is, just double it-- you'll be much happier this way.  In fact, we were called to be seated at a table in back and got all the way there, only to find out that the table was already being used by another party... ooops!
3) The banchan and other side dishes kind of sucked.  My brother (who had been there before) said the number of banchan dishes had been reduced from 8 to 6.  There was no egg or pancake dish-- although you could order soondubu/other soup off the AYCE menu.  

All that said, this place would have gotten a 5 star review if it hadn't been for one niggly thing: the waiters lied to us-- not once, but twice-- about the availability of certain items.  When we got there, we asked for kim chi-- the napa cabbage kind-- we were told they had "run out."  How does a place run out of kim chi before dinner on a Saturday night?  Oh right, they don't.  Toward the end of our meal, as they were setting up the placesetting for another party next to ours, we saw that they had napa cabbage kim chi in their banchan mix.  

The same thing happened after our first serving of radish slices-- when we asked for more, we were told they were out.  But then, 20 minutes later, the table next to ours miraculously had daikon slices on their table.  Oh well!  Since they didn't want us to fill up on other foods, we filled up on the more expensive cuts of meat instead... their loss!

I recently decided that this is my second favorite chirashi in the L.A. area.  $16 for a good-sized, beautifully presented bowl of sushi rice, piled high with a great variety of sashimi.  Plus, it comes with a small salad and miso.  

The best chirashi I've had is at Akasaka Restaurant in Hacienda Heights, but it literally costs twice as much there as it does at Ebisu.  

Great happy hour prices and about a hundred items on the menu.

I've never stayed here, but I'm very familiar with the Crystal Ballroom and the Sunset Room for all the events (luncheons, galas, and awards shows) I've worked here.

Hands down, the best Meeting & Events/Catering team I've ever worked with.  

Recently, I was the technical director for a gala which meant that I was stationed in the tech balcony with my headset all night.  The head of catering arranged to have my dinner brought to me early so that I had enough time have a bite to eat before the program began (and wouldn't have to eat a cold meal).  Then, as the first half of my program ended, they sent up dessert for me to eat as dinner was being served on the floor.  

It's the small details like this that I can truly appreciate, especially as someone who works a lot of events.

Great Farmers Market.  

A good size without being so large that it's overwhelming.  

Easy parking, which counts for a lot in L.A..

It's hard to see indie films in a theater, so the Laemmle gets 5 stars for a fantastic programming, including opera!  

(We saw BEING ELMO) here last week.  If we hadn't come for this run, we wouldn't have been able to see this film until it was released online/DVD... which would be months or years from now.