Yelp!

My friend got me into starting a Yelp account. If you got one, feel free to add me as a friend. Loner!

....please add me.

TGI Friday's Buy 1 Get 1 Free Coupon

My mom told me about this. She used it the other day. Just print it out and go to any participating TGI Friday's. You buy one entree and get one free. You can get different entrees. You just pay for the more expensive one. (Not Valid Valentine's Day).

Thanks Mommy.

Yuni Sushi

Yuni Sushi
1928 Lincoln Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 396-4037
Type: Japanese food / sushi
Map

After Candle Cafe & Grill, we met up with a homie that moved out here from my area. We asked him what was a good sushi spot nearby and he mentioned a cheap place he likes to go to called Yuni. It's a few blocks from the beach. I read it's a Korean-owned spot. Many don't like that idea and they just "know" it's not gonna be good. I personally don't care who owns and runs a restaurant. As long as they offer what I'm hankering for at the moment -- whether it's quality, price, quantity, exoticness, coolness, awesomeness, or a mix of those -- it's all good.

To save us all time, this place is decent. If I lived close by it might be worth returning to every now and then. Some of the prices for certain things are relatively appealing.



The salmon sashimi ($6.55) and yellowtail sashimi ($6.95) at 6 pieces each were a good deal. They were a little warm but they tasted good.



The dynamite appetizer ($7.75) was cool. I guess it was so cool that I forgot to take a picture of the dish til after a few bites.

whoops. still looks good though.


The baked spicy lobster roll ($11.20) and the super spider roll ($9.60) were eaten without any notes left about them. This looks good too.



I have no idea which hand rolls were which but I remember they gave us a shrimp tempura hand roll by accident and let us have it. YES!!!! One of those is the spicy scallop hand roll ($3.65).

freebie in the heezy


Damn, we ordered a grip of food! The last one looks like the rainbow hand roll ($4.95).



Between two people, that's a lot of food. I think I was barely able to finish everything. Maybe I took some home. Not sure. In my notes I put down everything was good. The Yelpers gave this place mixed reviews. Some gave it 5 stars while a few gave it 1 or 2. If you ain't a sushi snob, your chances of coming away happy with this place is good. If you are, eat here, and hopefully you don't enjoy your meal! You deserve it. Just kidding.

Candle Cafe & Grill - Venice

Candle Cafe and Grill
325 Ocean Front Walk
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 314-4456
Type: American food / casual
Map



Can't really say much about this place. It's located on the Venice boardwalk. You know: street performers, 5 dollar sunglasses, t-shirts with ironic quotes, bongs, pipes, vaporizers, Muscle Beach, basketball courts where they taped "White Men Can't Jump," and dudes rollerblading in Speedos. That boardwalk.

So Candle Cafe was just a spot for us to get a quick bite to eat, have some beers, and take in the scenery. We sat outside cuz it's the beach and I'm semi claustrophobic. Kind of.



We didn't exactly get front row seats to the boardwalk. We were on the side, but it was cool so you could just hang out in the cut and spy on the people walking by without them noticing you. So we ordered their calamari ($8.95) and a pitcher of Kona Longboard beer ($19.50). The calamari was whatevers to me. Too thick and chewy for my taste. Flavor was somewhere - not on the plate though. Maybe it put on some speedos and went rollerblading real quick.



The Kona Longboard beer was not that great-tasting either. I've tried many a beer and I could say I wouldn't order this again if I had the choice. If I had to rank New Castle, Corona, Hefeweizen, and Kona Longboard, I would put it last out of those 4. It's not super nasty though. I'd pick it over Budweiser and Bud Light, or any other light beer. I used to love Bud Light. Shooot... I used to like Mike's Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice!!!! Shut up.



I didn't try anything of substance in the menu, but from how the calamari was, I'm not really interested in trying. There's a handful of other boardwalk spots like this and I'll give them a chance before I come back here. But I'm assuming most of the other places are like Candle Cafe. You mainly come to hang out and enjoy the classic Venice vibe. That's cool with me. Get buzzed and rent some rollerblades.... don't worry bout what I'm gonna wear!

Restaurant Shizu - West Covina

Restaurant Shizu
116 N Grand Ave
West Covina, CA 91791
(626) 966-5279
Type: Japanese / sushi
Map





I don't remember too much about this place. I just took some pictures and wrote the prices of our food. Sorry -- once again.

Shizu is located off of Grand Ave. right by the 10 freeway. It's in the same plaza as House of Louie. I've always wanted to try this place and my girlfriend said she used to come here all the time back in the day. So we went during lunch time on a weekday. I think we were one of the first ones, but more people started coming in just after us.



There's nothing fancy about the place. It was pretty plain actually. But who cares about that right? Right. Let's make this quick. I ordered the combination with salmon teriyaki ($14.99). A little pricey for lunch from my experience. Like I said, I don't remember anything about the place or the food. So let's just say it was good. I would've complained and remembered if it was really bad or good.







Next up, the dynamite appetizer ($9.95). Again, relatively a little pricey. From the looks of the picture, it seemed good.



The two handrolls we got were the salmon lover hand roll ($4) and the yellowtail with spicy crab hand roll ($4.50). I'm sure we finished these. Can't describe it though.





We also got the salmon with scallop tempura roll ($7.95). That's somewhat decent in price but then again you only get 6 pieces instead of the usual 8. Tricky, tricky, tricky. It's an intersting dish from the norm and that's why we got it.



What? We got sashimi? I don't even have it in my notes. Well here it is....



Ahh shit. I give up. I'll go back here in the future and take better notes. From the two reviews on Yelp, they really like the place. I mean it wasn't empty by the time we left. There were a good amount of people still eating. Then again, Wesco isn't really a mecca for first class sushi.

Koji's - Hollywood / Los Angeles

Koji's
6801 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 871-0200
Type: Japanese / sushi / shabu shabu
Website
Map



I think we went to Koji's the same day we went to Galanga. We didn't eat much here. We didn't even plan on coming here. We were just hanging out at Hollywood and Highland to kill time. That same day, they were having a big premier for Iron Man (part one. yes this is very old). Anyways, we saw Robert Downey Jr. but from far away. We were actually on the 3rd floor or something at the Highland Center. That's the same floor where Koji's is at, and also the Highlands club.

can you spot Robert Downey Jr? Look hard.

just kidding. he's not in the picture!

So after getting a taste of the tourist-y stuff, we went inside Koji's and sat at the bar. Whaddaya know? It's Happy Hour!

Happy Hour is from 5-8pm Mon. - Fri.
-$3 draft beers
-$6 crunch rolls
-$9 sake
-$3 california rolls

Guess what. That's all we ordered from there. Hey, gas costs a lot to drive all the way to Hollywood. Don't judge. Anyways, I'll make it quick. The crunch rolls were cool. The california roll was a california roll. The beers were beers. The sake was sake. I don't mean to take away from what this restaurant really offers. I still don't know. I know their main thing from the looks of the place is they have shabu shabu where you cook your own food at your table. I think they have a few special rolls up their sleeves. The place is pretty big and a lot of people go there, so I don't really know.

Look at their menu if you really want to know.



crunch roll


cali roll


some sake


I guess if you want the chance to see some stars, this might be the place to be. Afterall, we saw Robert Downey Jr. who's a pretty big star IMO. The highlight of the night came as a surprise. We were sitting at the bar area looking out of the window for a while. After some drinks, I started noticing women walking by. These women were special. They weren't wearing much. And whatever it is they were wearing, was maybe a size or two too tight. They kept passing by. They were walking with guido-like dudes and men in suits (bodyguards?). I see camera flashes going off to the side. What's going on? Then I see a face that solved the whole equation:

scantily clad women + guidos + bodyguards + n = x
if n= Ron Jeremy
then x = porno event/convention!



Ron Jeremy as some of you may know is a well-known porn star back in the day. I don't know if he still "performs" for the camera. Anyways, he came by with a little posse, and he came in the restaurant and schmoozed with some people. Then he went to the bathroom where my girlfriend waited outside to get a picture with him. Great night. The End.

....oh yeah Koji's is cool. I'd possibly go back for the Happy Hour. Maybe for another "event."

Inland Empire Reviews

If you're out east in the Inland Empire, you may want to hit up this site to find the best Mexican food, burger joints, and I don't know what else they have out there.

Inland Empire Reviews