A La Carte: Rock Sushi, Ocean Tava lead wave of new restaurants

Tricia Buchanan and Bennet Talsky celebrate the opening of their new Rok Sushi. Photo

Visiting Royalty… I’m skeptical when any press release calls someone “one of America’s top chefs,” because superlatives are tossed around a lot in the promotion business. That said, the gathering at Sashi next week does boast cooking by chefs with star power, such as Top Chef champion Michael Voltaggio and Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. In fact six famed chefs will collaborate on a tasting dinner to honor Sashi’s Chef Makoto’s performance on Iron Chef America. The six course tasting menu will be served on Thursday, July 8, which just happens to be the day that the Iron Chef America featuring Makoto will be on the air, and we might guess that they’ll have a TV or two on at Sashi. The dinner with cocktails costs $120.00 per person and promises to be spectacular – if you want to be there for the triumphal broadcast and eat some spectacular food, call (310) 545-0400…

First Looks… There have been a number of restaurant openings in the last month or so, some heralded and some stealthy. The biggest splash has been Rok Sushi Kitchen in Hermosa, which is an even hipper version of Club Sushi, the previous tenant of this space. Club Sushi was resolutely untraditional, and this is even more so – it’s about lounge culture rather than Japanese culture, complete with a VIP room and TV sets on every wall. Whether you like it will depend on your reaction to the décor more than the food – purists and those seeking a peaceful dinner will be running for the exits, but those obviously aren’t the clientele this place is aiming at. When I had dinner there the sushi was fresh tasting and artistically made but served in very small portions, and the atmosphere was cheerfully boisterous even on a weekday when the place was less than half-full. The excellent sake menu is a plus, and I expect this to be the sushi joint of choice for the young, single, and moneyed in Hermosa…

Meanwhile, Ocean Tava in Redondo opened with much less fanfare in a far less visible location, upstairs overlooking PCH with a blink-and-you-miss-it sign. I have only had the lunch buffet at this classy, modern Indian restaurant, but was impressed by the range of flavors and the quality of the cooking. The menu is small compared to the encyclopedic tomes at many local places, but there are some interesting items; I look forward to seeing how pan-seared salmon with Indian spices works in practice…

Kah opened in a much more visible space on Manhattan Beach Boulevard that has been the home of at least  five restaurants in the last decade. Their formula for breaking the curse of this location is to serve Thai food and sushi in a very pretty and upscale atmosphere. I don’t understand Thai and sushi as a combination; one cuisine is usually all about simple natural flavors, the other about subtle use of powerful spices, and the twain don’t really seem to meet. I tried the Thai food on my first visit and was happy with a mildly spiced but fragrant dish of fried noodles with shrimp and vegetables. I’ll ask for the fire to be moved up a few notches on the next visit and see if this kitchen lives up to its initial promise…

Update, Please!… The internet is a very handy source of information, much of it wrong, and this applies to restaurants as much as anything else. I was amused to note that Club Sushi’s website is still up long after the restaurant itself is history, and that Yelp and other sites still have reviews of places that have been closed for years. It’s more annoying when places that are still in business leave old menus and incorrect business hours up so that prospective diners who don’t call get unwelcome surprises. I checked American Farmhouse Grill’s website to make sure they were open on Mondays before driving over. I should have called; the place was dark when I got there. It’s not the first time that I had this experience with a restaurant’s website, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I know all you restaurateurs out there are busy running your businesses, but you might want to take a look at your sites every once in a while just to see if what you put up months or years ago still accurately reflects what you’re doing…

Event Alerts! Everything Happens At Once Edition… July 7 and 8 are busy days for those who appreciate food and wine. While Sashi is presenting the extravaganza mentioned in the first paragraph of this column, the HT Grill in Redondo will be serving a menu featuring Justin wines, which for my money are the best from the Central Coast. The winemaker won’t be there, but representatives from the distributor will, and they will be holding drawings for bottles of these fabulous elixirs. The menu looks excellent and the price is modest – only $55 per person. Call (310) 791-4849 for reservations…

On the Thursday, July 8, Cafe Pierre is hosting winemaker Josh Klapper of La Fenetre, who had been making interesting wines using central valley grapes right here in Los Angeles. Mr. Klapper will mingle with patrons while appetizers are served and tastings are poured, all for the modest price of $20 – reservations recommended but not required. Meanwhile, Tin Roof Bistro will be hosting wine consultant Peter Kerr and winemaker P.KJ. Ochlan of Cobblestone Winery in Napa for a menu that includes a premium beef slider with candied bacon, blue cheese, and crispy shallots. I don’t think I’ve ever seen candied bacon on a wine dinner menu before, but it sounds like an admirable companion to a good cabernet – you can find out for yourself by calling Tin Roof at (310) 939-0900.

Puns and Other Signs of Decadence… Those who love wordplay and want to invoke the spirit of 1880s Paris will find Zazou’s Absinthe-Minded Sundays irresistible. After nearly a century of being illegal, the eerie green liqueur is served with all due ceremony again, and ardent fans and the merely curious will want to stop in and enjoy a glass. I’ve had it straight and with the full ceremony including the flaming sugar cube, and I prefer to have it with a little water while someone nearby is having it flaming – that way I get to enjoy the show and still get the taste I like…

The Mysterious Absence of Taco Trucks… Mobile food stands have been generating a big buzz around Los Angeles, as lunch trucks have branched out into eclectic and ethnic foods and earned a devoted following. I have had delicious Jamaican food at a lunch truck next door to a rum bar in downtown LA, tequila-infused tacos in a back street in Culver City, and other strange delights all over town. I haven’t actually visited the Kogi Korean barbecue truck, a mobile institution so famous that people follow it for miles and blog its every stop, but it is certainly proof that the concept works. The craze has yet to catch on in the South Bay, and I wonder why – it has been the way many restaurateurs have assessed whether  there is a market for their cooking, and it seems like it ought to be as popular  here as anywhere else. Do the truck operators prefer to stay in their urban haunts, is there a law restricting them, or are they here and I didn’t notice? Drop me a line if you know, or if there are any food-related events or restaurants I ought to know about… I’m at richard@richardfoss.com. ER

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