Bruce D.'s Profile

Simply Pho You is in a little corner mall thingy, and has the usual limited LA parking with spaces meant for the size of a Yugo being taken up by minivans. I happen to drive a small car, so I speak with righteous indignation at the evil minivans. In truth, it's not the minivans themselves that I hate, it is the people who can't drive and especially the people who can't park that drive me crazy. People: the rule is "One space per person", OK?

Once inside, the world gets a little calmer. No TVs or dance music playing, just people eating and waiting for food. They do have stuff besides pho, of course, but being it's my first time there I have to try the pho. Plus, I'm eating by myself, so it's not like I can order a bunch of dishes to share.

I ordered the "Rare Steak with Flank" pho. At $5.99 for almost all of the phos, it's easy to love the prices!

I love how they give you the side things you can add in: bean sprouts, thai basil, lime, and sliced hot peppers. I love 'em all. Some people don't like thai basil, but I think it's fab and gear.

This place also gives you the sliced onions without you having to ask specially, like I've seen in some other pho places. If you haven't seen these, or haven't known what to do with them, the traditional thing is to take some oyster sauce (a thick brown kind of sweet sauce, also used in Chinese cooking) and Sriracha hot sauce and squirt them over the onions and mix 'em up. It may sound weird, but it tastes great.

The pho is, I must say, very lovely. Pho has a very light broth by definition, but this broth had all of these wonderfully rich undertones of meat, ginger, cloves, anise and cinnamon. Being that this was in K-Town, most people thought thought the soup was a tad wimpy and were pouring a half bottle of Sriracha into it. That's ok, I guess, but I thought it was perfect just as it was. The subtle flavors would have simply vanished with the introduction of anything else, aside from the requisite sprouts, thai basil, lime juice and peppers.

All in all, a wonderfully satisfying lunch at a very easy to swallow price! Highly recommended.

For photos of my lunch, go here:  http://mythursdaylunch...

My wife and I went to Island Fresh today for lunch for the 1st time.  It was excellent.   My wife got the sandabs and I got the catfish/shrimp lunch special.  The seasoning was terrific and even the breading was light and delicious.  We don't normally do a lot of fried foods, but it was so nicely cooked that we both felt wonderful afterwards, without that feeling of a lump in your stomach that greasy fried foods can give you.  It wasn't greasy at all, in fact.  Beautifully done.  My wife said it was some of the nicest restaurant fish she's ever had.  

The owner, Andrew, is a very nice guy and rather mystified by Yelp, but he says that quite a few people have come in saying they heard about the place through the site.  Cheers, Andrew!  Best of luck!

One of the things I love about sushi is the serenity you feel, eating fish that is lovingly and oh so carefully prepared in a calm, zen-like atmosphere.  

Starfish Sushi has nothing whatsoever to do with that.  It's loud music, waiting forever to get a table, waiting forever to get your food, waiting forever to get your check and when you do get the food, wishing they'd put as much care into the taste as they do into the presentation.  

Good sushi tastes alive.  Yeah, of course the fish is mostly dead, but good sushi tastes alive.  This sushi might as well be a piece of bologna.  The chef did put a lot of care in presentation, which was pretty.  I liked the little nipples of hot sauce he put on two beautifully rounded pieces of fish.  Perhaps he also works for a plastic surgeon part-time. :-)  

But aside from the quality boob-job-like presentation, there is little to recommend Starfish Sushi.    Save up your money and go someplace good.  Personally I'd rather eat sushi once a month, spending more money and getting better quality than going once a week and getting spam instead of sushi.

Five stars for CJ's?  You bet!  Sure, it's not haute cuisine, but it's great food at amazing prices.  The wait staff is always friendly and cheery.   Last time we were there it took unusually long for us to get our food, something like 15 minutes.  Four different people came over to apologize.

My wife and I don't eat out very often.  She always says, "You cook better than any restaurant and it's a lot cheaper!"  But then I introduced her to CJ's.  Now we eat breakfast there every Saturday.  My wife always gets huevos rancheros.  She happily tastes whatever I get, but can't resist getting the huevos rancheros for herself.  

Everything I've had there was really excellent, though I heartily recommend the chilaquiles con huevos, and obviously my wife recommends the huevos rancheros.  :-)

We'll certainly be at CJ's this and every Saturday morning!

As some others have noted, it's just this side of over-priced.  I don't mind being overcharged so much, as long as I get something for it, and Falafel King does not deliver.  "Meh" really does fit the bill for a description.  The big chip things were, in my humble opinion, kind of disgusting, practically dripping in oil.  I suppose if I were really drunk (or really hungover) this kind of thing might be appealing.  The motto should be "Falafel King - You probably won't get sick from eating our food!"

Went back again today with my wife and she was blown away.   She's not a big eater, but she couldn't help herself.  She kept saying, "Ok, just one last bite."  I'm not sure how many times she said that was the last bite!!  We were both stuffed and driving home, I could see she was already thinking about when we can go there again.  Wonderful stuff.

I went to Sapp for the first time yesterday for lunch.   Perhaps they've updated the place recently, otherwise I can't see why a few people talk about how funky the place is.   Wilbur L., who, gave it 4 stars, says, "is this place a dump?  CHECK".  Just don't get it.   It seems perfectly clean and nice to me, even if it still is a "B".  Maybe it gets funkier in the evenings, but in pretty Thursday sunshine, it seemed clean and inviting.

Now, to the food.  After reading the other reviews, it was a no-brainer to try the boat noodles on a first visit.   To the people who scream about all the animal parts they don't like -- listen, you DON'T have to get them!  I ordered the pork boat noodle -- the waitress asked me if I'd like to have the pork liver with it or not.  They aren't trying to gross you out, they are trying to make you happy.  If you don't want the extra parts, just tell them.   The noodles were, of course, incredible and the broth delightful.  I got the medium spicy, which is several notches down in spiciness compared to Ord Noodle, which I also love.  And $5.50 for these noodles?  Amazing.  I will certainly be back.

Disappointing.  I was expecting more from the reviews.  The place is nice and clean and the waitress was very friendly.  I felt like a curry and I wanted duck, but the duck curry came with pineapples and I didn't want pineapples, so I asked if I get the regular red curry (which comes with bamboo shoots) with the duck and she said, "Sure!".  I thought, well, this is a good sign.  Except when the curry came out, of course it had pineapples in it.  I looked at it for a minute when she said, "Oh, sorry sorry, you wanted the other" and she took it away.  So she finally served what I asked for.  Then it was time to play, "duck, duck, who can find the duck?".  There were about a half dozen shavings of duck, and I mean shavings, razor thin and they were damn hard to find.  The bamboo shoots were undercooked and inedible.  Ok, at least they were fresh bamboo shoots, but I'd rather be able to eat them in any case.  So I ate the duck slivers and put some of the red curry sauce over the rice.  The curry sauce was  tasty enough, I'll admit.   When I asked for the check, the waitress didn't a) ask me if I wanted to take the rest home, since it was barely touched or b) ask me if it was ok or if anything was wrong, since it was barely touched.  Anybody can make a mistake, but this just struck me as indifference.   So no, I won't be back.  There are a kazillion Thai places in LA, so I don't need to worry about this one.

I can't add much to what's already been said.  The garlic chicken is amazing and I love the black beans and rice.  I've tried (and tried) to cook chicken like this at home, but can't replicate it.  And I think the prices are really quite reasonable for the amount of food you get.   I've been there a bunch of times and certainly will go back.

Meh, meh and meh.  It's certainly not very Mexican, and not really very good.  Prices are ok - but wouldn't you rather enjoy what you're eating?