Per recommendations for dessert after dinner at Momofuku Ko, we visited Chikalicious. All I know is this place is busy normally with lines outside the door. My buddy and I visited it on a Thursday night, and to our surprise it wasn’t overly busy at all. In fact we got there right at 9:30 PM. There were 2 seats at the counter right in front of the Chef Chika. Yes, Chika is her name.

In preparation for my second visit to Ink, I’ve finally got off my ass to review and post my original Ink experience. If you don’t know already, this is Michael Voltaggio’s first restaurant that he opened up here in West Hollywood. It’s his take on modern LA cuisine. I was looking forward to try some of his creations, so let’s see what it’s all about. Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog.

This was a special night where Top Chef Marcus Samuelsson creates a culinary experience with the dynamic duo of Son Of A Gun. The menu was nothing like their normal menu. Marcus Samuelsson greeted most, if not all, of the guests during my visit. You can tell he was very appreciative for us patrons to experience this. Not only did he prepare food for us, but he also presented a signed copy of his memoir book “Yes Chef”.

It was my cousin’s birthday, so she wanted to try this place because of all the rave Yelp reviews. Took the train to downtown LA and then hiked about a mile to this place. I hadn’t seen any of the reviews yet, but I personally take Yelp reviews like a grain of salt because from past experiences my palette seems to be very much different than the majority (or maybe it’s just that I’m picky?

In Las Vegas, Rick Moonen’s Seafood at the Mandalay Bay is suppose to be pretty good. There are 2 restaurants of his here: one is the fixed course meal higher end restaurant, and the other (this one) is just a middle tier restaurant. The menu is a little strange as they have your typical American no frills seafood AND sushi. My buddy ordered the sushi portions, and he was quite unimpressed.

This will be my last NY food post for a while. For the last day to cap off the trip, we went to Rice To Riches in Nolita. This was actually really close to our Blue Ribbon meal a few posts ago. Rice To Riches is basically the equivalent to Baskin Robbins 31 flavors in LA. Instead of many choices of ice cream, you have many choices for tapioca. You also have the option of sampling any flavor that you want.

The SAAM at Bazaar by Jose Andres is well known for its take on molecular gastronomy. It’s located in the SLS Hotel off of La Cienega near West Hollywood. It’s filled with your typical pretentious and superficial Hollywood crowds. If you can get past that, there are 2 restaurants here of note: the regular restaurant where you can order tapas and the SAAM restaurant where it’s a 22 course prix fix taster.

Whew, I only have 2 more New York City food posts including this one. Previously, you may have noticed the sliced pizza style. Here we have the gourmet pizza. This one is courtesy of Lombardi’s Pizza. On one side, we have italian sausage and pepperoni, and the on the other side we have margherita. As with all pizza, it’s all about the toppings, crust, and flavor. The crust is pretty good for what it is.

I only got a few more NYC eateries to blog about then I’ll be done for now. Shake Shack is basically the west coast’s equivalent to In-N-Out. The one we visited was the original Shake Shack that sits in the middle of some sort of park near Eleven Madison. For a rather chilly day, there was still a long line of people that took approximately 30 minutes for us to get our food.

Here in Los Angeles, we have a ton of pastrami places. My favorite meat is in fact pastrami. Not only do I enjoy the saltiness flavor in the cured meat, but I also enjoy how tender the meat is. I’ve been to Johnny’s in Culver City, Canter’s Deli near West Hollywood, Jerry’s Famous Deli, Langer’s in Los Angeles, etc. Compared to all those places, I very much prefer Kat’z Deli. The meat is chunky, soft, and super flavorful.