Looking for dinner in Pasadena. LQ MaMaison is sadly sold out for tomorrow.
Food quality is the first priority. Am I driving to DTLA or can something be found in Pasadena?
is Lost at Sea any good?
Been a while since I went, but yes, I liked Lost At Sea.
drive to dtla
Chef who made Papilles good, so it better be good.
Sushi Kimagure
LQ’s almost Pasadena.
.
While A-it’s in South Pasadena and B-I’ve not heard it mentioned in ages, possibly Shiro?
http://restaurantshiro.com/
No, it sucks now.
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Darn; okay, scratch that idea.
reading is hard
Yeah, I don’t know how the fuck I missed that.
their sides are excellent. who knew carrots could be that good.
This is a sliding scale game between how much you want to drive down to DTLA and what you’ll tolerate relative to that. If quality of food is paramount and driving to DTLA is no object, drive to anywhere between Pasadena and DTLA that tickles your fancy… I’m inferring from the LQ comment that price isn’t much of an object.
If you’re disinclined to leaving Pasadena, here are some places I genuinely like:
- Bone Kettle: Chef Erwin Tjahyadi (Komodo) putting out inventive takes on Indonesian food alongside a very comforting and satisfying bowl of bone broth with noodles.
- Soh Grill House Korean BBQ: One of the best a la carte Korean BBQ experiences anywhere
- Lunasia on Colorado: Top-tier dim sum in an accessible location in Pasadena (The drive from Old Town to Alhambra, MPK, Rosemead, San Gabriel can be legitimately half an hour or more during peak traffic)
There’s also Lost at Sea (I guess 
), Union (strong pasta game but big crowds)… and an eye-watering number of chain restaurants, because Pasadena.
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It’s not in Old Town Pasadena, but Bacchus’ Kitchen on Washington & Hill is good.
Probably going to drive down to Tsubaki, as I have been wanting to check it out for sometime now.
Went to Tsubaki, and very glad I did. Even if the service was a bit aloof, the atmosphere and the food were great overall. Did not try any of the meat dishes, but tofu salad, fruit tomato kimchi, chawanmushi, kani corn korokke
(dungeness crab and corn croquette), and tako were outstanding. Nice wine/sake selection as well.
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Yes! We went for Father’s Day dinner and were so impressed. We had been way back when they had no corkage fee years ago, but was not so wowed by it that we made a special effort to go back. For reasons of logistics (time & proximity & low corkage), my husband picked it. It was great. And great value too. We had the calamari & chickpeas, wedge salad, lamb tenderloin, the hanger steak, and the ribeye steak. The proteins remain the same, but the sides and sauces change from day-to-day so YMMV, but I expect the quality of the food should still be high no matter what the menu. Everything was great. The lamb tenderloin was unanimously voted the best and my 7-year old ate almost all of it himself. Which is saying something because it was a substantial portion. All in, it was about $160 (incl. corkage and tax and tip). A real deal for that level of cooking and quantity of food.