Ramen in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles

Came to Daikokuya Original Noodle & Rice Bowl because the long queue here attracted my attention.

I was there at 9, but there was still a long queue!! So, I waited for 15-20mins. This restaurant closes at 12am, try to go there later at 11 and see if there is a queue;)

I am happy with the ramen there as it tastes similar to some random ramen places in Tokyo.

Environment - "eat-and-go" restaurant, where is not good for friends gathering.
Service - not bad
Price - around $15/person

Food

1) Tsukemen, $8.95 - cold noodles + hot soup + pan fried chashu

I like this one more as the noodles are chewy and the chashu smells and taste better after slightly pan fried it.

2) Daikoku Romen, $8.50 - noodles in hot soup with chashu

This one tastes good as well, just that the noodles are less chewy than the one above. Other than that, the two are pretty much the same.

Don't forget to bring cash, they don't accept credit card.

I will visit this restaurant again if I come to LA next time. ;)

Joe's Crab Shake at Fisherman's Wharfs

It's my last day in San Francisco, so I give it a try to this touristy restaurant.

Price - it's not too expensive, around $28-30s per person.
Service - standard American services
Environment - big and a bar-like restaurant

It's a nice try, but I won't give it another chance.

Food

1) crabs + clams + lobster
The flavour is pretty strong, spicy, that it's hard to taste the freshness of the seafood. The crabs aren't good at all as the meat is a bit spoiled and overbooked.

For this dish, only the lobster and corn are good.

















2) crayfish + shrimps
This dish is not as spicy as the first one, however, the crayfish is soooo small and shrimps are normal. Again, they are all overcooked.

After all, I don't rate this restaurant and could probably try others at Fisherman's Wharfs.

Daikokuya at Little Tokyo at Los Angeles

Lots of young people hanging out and busy till quite late.

Urasawa on Rodeo Drive at Beverly Hills, Los Angeles

I haven't even eaten at this restaurant and they've already annoyed me. Walked in out of curiosity to inquire and heard a few good things, and the waitress rudely said, "No. Reservations only." She immediately proceeds to close the sliding door on us.
Understand that may be the case, but customer service 101 (which Japanese ia very well known for) would suggest an apology, and a question if we wanted to book for an available night.
This lead me to read a few of the reviews on yelp, which uncovered a few interesting things. There seems to be quite a few queries as to the underlying quality and skill of preparation of the food. Just presentation only!? Superficial?
I have clients too at a professional level and we treat them with respect and courtesy. Perhaps they should think about that.
Not sure I will ever find out though.

Bouchon, Napa Valley, California

This restaurant is recommended by a friend of mind when they know that I will be driving to Napa.

Soup of the day- Gaspacho, $9, a cold soup that tastes a bit sour with a sense of freshness of It's an interesting soup, but I won't order again as I like hot ones.

Soft shell crap $14- tastes gooood!! It's pretty fresh and you can actually taste every bits of the crab. It's totally different from Asians' cooking method which usually deep fried the crab.

Clams, $1.95 each - too small bit still fresh, ones at Hog Island are better. Not recommended

Lamb, around $30- not especially fresh and taste normal. Could order something else instead.

Well, probably won't be back, will try other places.

There is a Bouchon Pastry right next to the restaurant which will be talked about in the next review.

Safari West in Santa Rosa, California

I found Safari West while I was searching on tripadvisor.com. So I decide to stay here for a night while I am traveling in the States.

I have just done the safari tour and dinner at the Savannah Cafe here. I list out the things I like and don't like:
The good parts are:
- the tent (room) is big, unique and comfortable
- everything is vey clean here, just like the photos on the website
- the staff at the check-in office and tour guide are friendly
- the safari tour is interesting
- the steak and chicken for dinner are good (not the dessert)
- lucky enough that a giraffe came over during the safari tour
- had a chance to pet a 3-month antelope while it was having a walk
- see different animals in relatively close proximity

The parts I don't like are:
- finished the tour at 645p, food is taken away while we are still eating (feel like they are rushing to clean up)
- well, I wouldn't say that the tour is bad, if I know this is the type of safari I would experience, I would definitely do a tour here only, not staying overnight as it's expensive - $250 for a night.
- I would say that it's a "zoofari". It's something in between. Basically, you stay overnight in a gigantic zoo.
(eg) A chance to walk in the birds cage and get closer.

So, I strongly recommend you to do a day trip here only as you can get a nice hotel in San Francisco with $250.
*the comments here are globally relative, with the money I spend here $444, $250 (tent)+$68*2 (tour)+$29*2(dinner), we can fly to Kuala Lumpur for a days.

I will probably come back again only if i have kids as it's a safe way to encounter animals.

Besides, you can also visit Charles M. Schulz (who drew Snoopy) Museum and Research Center, www.schulzmuseum.org , it's cool. Only 5-10 mins drive away from Safari West. I spent 1.5 hours there looking around and taking photos. The admission fee is $10.

Ghirardelli at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California

"World famous ice cream shop" is their claim. What a huge stretch.

Ordered a warm brownie sundae for $8.95 (but they give out $1 vouchers nearby). The photo of the sundae is on another camera, but all I can say is it is very generic. Seems like random ice cream, fudge and nuts bought from a random supermarket and dumped together. No comparison to a similarly priced Jean Philip in Las Vegas.

It is crap.

There is also a cookie store or something adjacent to the ice cream store, but seriously, no interest.

Sapporoya in Japantown in San Francisco

Ordered a miso ramen with chashu for $11.90.

I got the feeling it was a Chinese noodle instead. The soup was somewhat thick with a tilt to tasting like canned soup. Noodles was very Chinese-like and the chashu is like a fat piece of random pork.

Try your luck elsewhere.

Awesome dinner at Incanto in San Francisco, California

After the 2-star Michelin Restaurant last night, I am still surprised by this restaurant - Icanto, the owner of this restaurant is famous for cooking everything, from head to tail.

It's only 15-20 mins drive from downtown San Francisco, and here is the address, 1550 Church St, San Francisco.  


Environment - pretty nice, nothing special to mention about itservice - good, the waitress patiently explained different glasses of wine and the taste of different dishes, 4/5
price - very reasonablely priced with such good quality of food
Food

The dinner overall is very nice and a few things should be mentioned here.






1)Starter:
- Salumi is good, but the must try is Iberico di bellota lardo & stonefruit. It's fat ham (the whole piece is white, smooth and chewy) with peaches. They are prefect matches!!!!!!!! If you think parma ham+sweet melon are good, you can't skip this one.

- Soup, daily special clam soup cooked with varieties of fresh tomatoes.  Well, not a suprise.  You won't get upset if you miss it.  The soup is too salty itself but it's better if you eat with tomatoes and clams.

2) Main / Entrees
- the pasta is very good, way above average.  The texture is chewy and fresh, not as soaky as those you get from chain restaurants or per-packed uncooked ones in supermarket.

Pasta with capers and tomatoes

- Tuna Heart Spaghetti is worth a try.  The tuna heart alone is very salty, just try once - funny texture.  After you mix everything together (egg and sauce), it's totally different.

- Pork Belly,  not bad.  It's a bit cooked like Asian Style.  If you haven't tried Asian pork belly before, it's good to try this one.

 3) Desserts - If you like sweets, try it ;)

*They have a special dish called Leg of Beast which you have to order in advanced.  I will definitely come back if I have a chance ;)

P.S.  This is not a tourist destination, I am there because of my friend's recommendations.

First meal in San Francisco

Arrived San Francisco at around 11am and took Bart to our hostel which located in downtown in Lower Nob Hill. It only took 30 mins plus maybe another 10 min walking - pretty convenient. 
 
Had lunch at Ferry Building at the pier just next to the financial district. 

We tried 2 restaurants: Boccalone and Hog Island.  Both of them are good.

Boccalone is a small restaurant selling ham and sandwiches. I only ordered muffuletta $9.5+tax. The sandwich is pretty good as the bread is crispy with a lot of ham and a little bit of spicy flavour.  I know nothing about Italian ham and sliced meats but have a look at the photos yourself.

At Hog Island, mainly sells seafood, together we had oyster bar mix, 24 pieces, $60+tax and chowder soup $14+tax. They are not cheap but they are worth your dollars. 
There are 8 different types of oysters and they all taste very different. I can't remember where they are from but they are all very delicious. 

About the chowder, this is my first time seeing this in such a fancy presentation .  The chief stacks up a lot of clams in the soup and the creamy soup is just a perfect match eating with them. 

Overall, they are all awesome!!! I rate them 4/5 in every aspect. 

Hope that I have time to eat here again during my 4 days trip here!!

Manresa @ Los Gatos, San Jose

The 1st night here in San Francisco, I decided to go to a 2-Star Michelin Restaurant, Manresa, in Los Gatos, San Jose.   It takes more than 45-60 mins drive from the downtown San Francisco.
This restaurant suprises me, and it's the only Michelin Star Restaurant that I would actually recommend friends to go recently after trying out 5-6 in the past few weeks.
Make your booking at opentable.com; www.manresarestaurant.com
Environment - generic fine dining place where you see candles everywhere in the restaurant and people dress up for it
Service - good service, to be honest, regular services in a Michelin Restaurant but relatively good comparing to normal restaurants
Price - 5-course for US$115, so not too expensive for a restaurant like this
Food - I ordered this 5-courses one and paired with a glass of white wine US$14 ( I went with friends so basicaly all the photos are 2x5-courses, everything you can get there)
I am not going to say much here as the whole experience is very good, so I only mention the highlights and you guys can look at the photos yourself. 
- Into the vegetable garden, it's a salad without any meat.  the presentation is very creative and all the vegetables are excessively fresh!!! A friend of mine even said that he would be a vegetarian if he gets to eat this all the time.
- Hailbut and lobster muchrooms, lemon confit with lobster pudding, leeks, is another highlight.  The texture of all the ingridents are pretty interesting.  The lobster muchroom is crunchy that I don't feel like eating a mushroom.
- Desserts!! Stone frust, roasted and raw, mascarpone cream with caramelized corn, thyme ice cream is soooooo goood that I haven't eaten in any other restaurants.
**As I am traveling, I can only use the blogger app on my electronic device which I can't put the photos in the order I want and put caption under it.  Just leave me a message if you want to know more details. 
Last, we got some macarones when before we got the bill.  After eating so much great food, the macarones aren't very good - too sweet.
All the ladies got a bag of banana and pistachio cookies to bring it home.
GREAT DINNER, hope that I will have a chance to be there again!!!!!!!!
HIGHLIGHT of this round the world trip so far ~~