This is a hole-in-the-wall place that is a real hidden gem in the Palms neighborhood of LA. It’s Japanese cuisine served kaiseki style. There are only 10 seats per night as the meal lasts just about 5 hours. There is no sign on the front. There is simply the address. We got there at 6:50 PM, but the door was locked. It actually does not open till 7 PM on the dot.

Smoke.Oil.Salt is another one of those many tapas shareable places that has been popping up all over Los Angeles. Unlike the other restaurants I’ve been to in the past few months, this is Spanish style featuring some traditional spanish dishes. It was surprisingly good.

This is #23 of 52 of my 2014 LA food expedition.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. This restaurant unfortunately is now closed.

I have a few “safety” cards for those days I just don’t feel like making a reservation or finding a place to get fat at. I decided to use one of those safety cards tonight at a place called Phorage. This restaurant replaced Roy Choi’s Chego location in Palms and features Vietnamese food sourced with high-quality locally grown produce.

This is #22 of 52 of my 2014 LA food expedition.

So a few weeks ago, I went to Tsujita for dinner. I wanted to come back for lunch to try the tsukemen style ramen, which is what it’s most known for. Across the street nearby is its sister store, Tsujita Annex which serves ramen the entire day. This one for the time being only serves ramen for lunch, and it does have a slightly different menu. For a Sunday morning at 11 AM, there were no lines or wait. It pays to solo dine, sometimes.

Pine & Crane hasn’t been around for very long and is located in the Silver Lake area on Sunset where a plethora of restaurants sits. It’s generally difficult to find decent Chinese restaurants, let alone Taiwanese, outside of the San Gabriel Valley. So I thought I would trek here to see what the hype is about.

This is #21 of 52 of my 2014 LA food expedition. I’m almost half way there.

Tsujita is known for their ramen, particularly at the location where the dinner menu is different than their lunch menu. I was curious to try it for dinner to see how it compares to other Japanese restaurants. Note that this is not the Annex location. The Annex location at the time of this writing is the only Tsujita location that serves ramen for dinner.

This is #20 of 52 of my 2014 LA food expedition.

This was going to be one of those weeks where it’s time to go street food. If you have ever been to New York, they have halal carts that people love to eat at after a night at the bars. This is LA’s tribute to that.

This is #19 of 52 of my LA food expedition.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. It looks like this restaurant/truck (and chain) is entirely closed. It cannot compare to Halal Guys in NYC.

What was so interesting about Maude was how each month has a different ingredient theme. I like this approach. Not only can you choose what you want to eat, but it also is cool to not have to think about what to order since the entire menu is a tasting menu. This so far is probably my favorite upscale LA restaurant (possibly attributed to the star of this month … rhubarb).

The full name of this restaurant is actually EMC Seafood and Raw Bar. It’s nestled in Koreatown close to 6th St. and Normandie. It’s on many new LA food lists, so let’s see what the hype is all about (other than the $1 happy hour oysters 4-7 PM).

This is #17 of 52 on my 2014 LA food expedition.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog.

Scratch Bar has been on my radar for a while. I love out-of-the-box food creations and multi-course prixe fixed menus, and this restaurant had both of those. It’s relatively new, and it was not even packed at all. I ventured out here by myself after work, and I’m glad I did for an unforgettable night.

This is #16 of 52 on my 2014 LA food expedition.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. This restaurant ended up closing, but it moved out to Encino with a similar theme but even more accessible.