All about that good food
M-Grill
3832 Wilshire Blvd
Ste 202
Los Angeles, CA 90010
213.389.2770
I know you’re thinking.. Churrascaria? seriously? in K-Town? But as a Churrascaria it’s a pretty solid restaurant. I’ll make this a quick review since I’ve already reviewed a Churrascaria before. Read my review of “Agora” if you want to learn about Churrascarias.
Agora Churrascaria
1830 Main St
Irvine, CA 92614
(next to John Wayne Airport)
949.222.9910
(Sorry, don’t have good photos of this place. It felt kind of weird bringing my camera here so I just used my iPhone)
Churrascaria?
(A.k.a Brazilian BBQ) is its way an AYCE BBQ place. However, it’s on it’s own level in terms of meat quality, and style. To give a general idea, the servers come to you with a skewer of a single type of meat, which you can choose to take a slice or not. They usually rotate different types of meat. Agora supposedly has 14 types of meat that they serve. Most of them are simply seasoned with rock salt, or some sort of large size salt. It’s seasoned only on the outside but the salt generally spreads into the meat when cooking. However, be aware that the most outer cut can tend to be a little salty. I normally ask for the center cut or inner cut, where the meat is less saltier and more rare.
Just eating only salted meat might be a little heavy, so take advantage of the salad bar, which is common in churrascarias. They have a variety of sauces, veggies, spices, etc. to go with your meal.
Churrascarias are known for using a stop-go card. It’s some type of card or paper with a stop side and a green side. If you need a little breather between meats, flip it over to the stop sign, and the servers will just pass your table without offering more meat. Think of it as the opposite of the signs at Bubba Gump (where you flip the sign to catch the server’s attention).
Malbec
1001 E Green St.
Pasadena, CA 91106
626. 683.0580
This is a solid restaurant with good Argentinian food. Unfortunately, I have only had a chance to have one of their dishes to give a thorough review. But I will go again in the near future and try other dishes to give my two cents.
So here is my first review! I recently celebrated my birthday at this restaurant. So I thought this would be a great first post considering we ordered various thing and all shared. I’ve been to Il Chianti several times, and I have to say it’s my favorite Japanese-Italian restaurant.
IL CHIANTI
24503 Narbonne Ave.
Lomita, CA 90717
310.325.5000
(Located off of Lomita Blvd. & Narbonne Ave, on the Northwest side)
Japanese Italian Food
Okay.. I know what you’re thinking.. “Japanese… Italian? What do they put like seaweed on the pasta?” Actually yes, but it’s a little more than that. Japanese have a fondness for Italian food, and not the loads-of-sauce American style Italian, but the light and delicate Italian food you can get in Italy. Japanese-Italian is more closer to Italian than American-Italian in some ways, but in some other ways.. it goes beyond conventional Italian food. You have pastas with a cream sauce that has Mentaiko (明太子）or Uni (うに) blended into the sauce to add in a level of richness and flavor, and other sorts of menus only found in such restaurants.
Now that I’ve explained a little bit about Japanese Italian, here’s a little comparison. If you have been to Spoonhouse in Gardena, CA (I will have to check that place out), I’ve been told this place is a more elegant and fancier version of Spoonhouse. Hopefully that gives some of you an idea.
Food Lover Chronicles 