Is there anything better than going to your favorite restaurant with a guaranteed reservation and in the meantime earning points towards CASH rewards for future restaurant visits???
Simple answer? NO!
I have become a huge fan of OT.com, the subject of which has become a bit of an inside joke with the smASH-ster. Here’s my point, if we’re going to go to these places anyway ( i.e. Katsuya / Morton’s / Pecorino / etc.), why not get rewarded?
Check it out and join the reservation revolution!!! (kidding, the service is forever years old!)
Video Director guru Ryan Travis and uber-Producer Ari Weiner took me to a delicious lunch at Katsuya in Hollywood (I’ve now completed the Katsuya circle by visiting ALL of their locations) last week, and no I’m not going to write yet again about how amazing the food is.
Instead, I thought I’d share the view from the top of their office building which is totally newly renovated and just above the Katsuya spot. The rooftop pool and cabanas might just have the best view I’ve seen from a bigtop in all of LA (and provides a view of the building where I started my music career!)
Beginnings.
So after a handful of years living in the Toluca Lake area, and after telling myself multiple times that I would actually walk to the Riverside strip for some dinner/cocktails and then enjoy the walk back… I finally did it tonight!
And wow have I been missing out. If you’re in the area, stop by Nippon on the corner of Riverside Drive and Forman… Tall sake, tall Sapporo, Katsuya-esque crispy rice/spicy tuna concoction, some staple sushi pieces and at rock bottom prices! Love it.
The only way to top off that meal was with a delicious chocolate shake from Bob’s on the walk home.
This Is Living.
Today was the day for my first official visit to one of the two uber-swank new “non-Valley” Katsuya’s. Brentwood was the spot for a meeting and catchup with my old friend and music-vid-exec-producer-extraordinaire Yvette Lang. Now as a long-time fan of the delicious concoctions dreamt up by Mr. Katsuya and frequenting the Studio City and Encino locations like it’s nobody’s business, I’ve been eager to check out the SBE-assisted Westside launches.
These locations are much for the Koi-goer than the strip-mall sushi junky with nightclub-like decor/vibe but the great news is that the food is equally as delicious as the slightly more divey counterpart locations. As usual, the crispy rice w/spicy tuna, baked hand crab roll on soy paper, and albacore with crispy onion was the perfect nosh for a productive business lunch and a tall Asahi never hurts to wash it all down.
Celeb-gawkers would be, well gawking, at my brief encounter (an acknowledging glance) with The Hills‘ tabloid fodder Spencer and Heidi, apparently also out for some dish and paparazzi attention.
Yum.
I took one of my clients Brandon Rogers to my FAVORITE sushi restaurant in LA tonite, Katsuya (the original location, the one in a divey strip mall on Ventura Blvd in Studio City). The irony and reason that the word “favorite” is in ALL CAPS is because I never ate sushi prior to moving to LA and typically refused to once relocated. What can I say, I preferred more obvious choices such as a burger, turkey sandwich or bowl of pasta which, not coincidentally, made me the lunchtime outcast. After realizing that an aspiring music industry guy that doesn’t eat sushi was practically sacrilegious, I made a conscious effort to experiment with all types of sea-creature at a wide sampling of sushi purveyors until finally finding one I could literally sink my teeth into …
What makes Katsuya special isn’t the ambience, the amazing service or the wise man behind the counter slicing the fish. It’s the food.. It tastes good.. People like it.. And they come back for more. The dishes here aren’t as visually “perfect” as they are at celeb-friendly Koi or Geisha House, but it doesn’t matter… The food is delicious. Now I certainly don’t consider myself amongst the “sushi elite”, but I will happily tear through a half dozen crispy rice w/spicy tuna rolls, followed up with a couple of baked crab hand rolls on soy paper, a crispy onion w/albacore tuna dish and some creamy rock shrimp tempura to round things out.
This is “last meal” material and can only be complemented properly by a tall Sapporo, equally tall hot Sake and green tea with applicable dessert(s). Using simple twists on traditional sushi fare such as butter-fried rice “cakes” may seem simple enough, but when you make them taste this good… That deserves a little more than an honorable mention. This one is fit for The Cooler!
Oishii.
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