2. March 2009 by Azat.

AOC - http://www.aocwinebar.com/

Monday, February 23 was a special wine flight night at AOC

Flight: Santa Barbara and Santa Rita hills
Bites:
*etude goat’s milk cheese and picolo cow’s milk cheese from Petaluma, California
*little gem lettuces with avocado, tangelo, radish and green goddess
*shrimp with smoked tomato butter and cornbread

We ordered the blood orange salad with hamachi, wild mushrooms, pork belly, black rice with squid, curry cauliflower, albacore, fingerling potatoes and the famous bacon wrapped dates. We had a both special flights from the special menu.

The blood orange salad with the hamachi was my favorite, followed close with the curry cauliflower.  The wild mushroom dish was excellent.  I did not try the pork belly but my 2 friends loved it.  The black rice and squid was loved by all around the table - it was exquisitely rich (not overly so), garlicky, tangy and delicious. I recommended the bacon wrapped dates to my friends as I have heard about them alot.  The bates are filled with parm cheese and wrapped in bacon and they got 2 thumbs up from friends.  We had a wonderful experience at AOC.

This is a GREAT restaurant where you get to try different food because of the small bites.  Its a bit pricey but the food is very good.

Albacore

Shrimp

Beat Salad

Squash

Naked Chef Jaime Oliver was at a table across from us.

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22. February 2009 by Azat.

I ave not had wine for few days(this will change tomorrow as Im going to AOC with couple of friends) but I did go to a great restaurant for the 3rd or 4th time last Monday.  That restaurant is the Pizzaria Mozza but celebrity chef Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton who is the famous chef owner of La Brea Bakery

The interior of the place is warm and welcoming.  Maroon and mustard walls, very high ceilings and  a constant buzz from the diners is the ambiance from this place.  There was 4 of us so we ended up eating/tasting few things this trip.

For starters we ordered the deep friend squash blossoms filled with burrata cheese I believe, deep friend fingerling potatoes with sage and oregano and fried garbanzo beans, and the last starter was the mixed salad.  They were all cooked to perfection.  Highlight was for sure the squash blossoms.

For the second course we ordered 3 pizzas goat cheese, leeks, scallions & bacon pizza, the Margarita pizza the radicchio potato pizza.  I did not try the goat cheese pizza as it had bacon and Im a vegetarian but the other two were incredible.  Im told that te goat cheese was the best pizza my foodie friends had ever tried.  I can personally vouch for the margarita as being the best pizza I have ever had all over the world.

This is a great place to go unfortunately the wait is very long if you walk in with no reservations and to get a reservation during normal eating times is about 3-4 weeks

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26. January 2009 by Azat.

R23 is a great sushi place with great views of Downtown skyline.  I started coming here so many years ago.  Maybe 10.  They had just opened up the place.  It is located in the “hood”(not really). Watch out for the homeless.  The neighborhood has improved dramatically as more and more artsy folks have moved in to the old downtown toy district

The place itself is an old Rail Road warehouse on track 23(hence the R23 name) that has been turned to a great sushi bar. Beautiful old brick building with warm wood floors and high ceilings.  Chairs designed by Frank Gehry made of cardboard.  Very romantic and nice place.

The sushi is terrific as well. :)  Tourists who come to LA from Japan always request to come to R23 because of the quality of their food. They have traditional basic sushi at R23, but this in my opinion is what makes R23 so special.  you wont find albacore with special sauce or yellowtail with jalapenos(dont get me wrong I love those as well, but this is very traditional and simple sushi).  What makes R23 so special is the freshness of their food.  Jake the owner and Kato the manager must have incredible connections with the folks in the LA fish market.

Their shari (sushi rice) is really good and this is key to good sushi. The way they form the sushi and the proportion of the sashimi to the rice is also well done. Their uni is the only uni I can eat around here because everything here is super fresh.  Their ama ebi (sweet/raw shrimp) is nicely big and plump. Their wasabi leaf ohitashi is very good too. Their dungeness crab salad is exceptional.  Also, good tempura is not an every day find around here but you’ll find it at R23.

R23 is not an inexpensive plave to dine but in my opinion it is worth every penny.  I’ll give this place 4 stars.

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