Ggiatta Delicatessen
I would go back.
You can read about my experience here:
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I decided to try Villas Tacos after seeing @JeetKuneBao share one of their Instagram posts, and thought it was really great. They’ve been gaining some momentum recently with a write up from LA Taco and coverage from the Infatuation so I wanted to see what the fuss was about.
Ordering was super easy via DM over Instagram, and I got 3 tacos, pollo, asada, and chorizo all with cheese. All the meats were super flavorful, my favorite probably being the beef, but the real standout is the handmade blue corn tortilla smothered in cheese. The tortillas are a bit thick and sturdy enough to hold a significant amount of meat, cheese, onions, cilantro, guac, hibiscus onions, and whatever salsa you decide to dump on top. As I dove in, I realized the best bites are when you get the crisped up cheese that sits around the edges of the tortilla.
The Villas Tacos crew threw in 5 different salsa with the order (all of them packed a punch, but the habanero lit my mouth on fire), as well as limes, radish, and hibiscus pickled onions.
I’ll definitely make a return visit.
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Have you tried the mulitas at Carnitas El Momo? That’s exactly how their mulitas are served.
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No, just their tacos–looks like I have work to do!
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1 order of mulita’s enough to fill you up.
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@Starchtrade Thanks for the info! The sommelier at Ototo told me about this shochu and recommended it. I really enjoyed it - it’s got the nice imo shochu pungency, but it’s smooth and rich with a nice long finish. My favorite is Satoh, but evidently we can’t get that in California.
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Thanks, @NYCtoLA. So nice to have someone else on the board that enjoys shochu!
Satoh is limited in availability, but you can find it in CA.
I know that it is almost always in stock at Shibumi.
Satoh is shochu-drinker favorite, even in Japan. Good choice.
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BBR
Catching up on my other best bites this week…
Ototo
I’m a fiend for persimmons and when I saw it was getting the cream puff treatment on the menu for the weekend it was an instabuy. It definitely leans way more vanilla than persimmon, which is used more as an accent on top and lightly worked into the cream. So it didn’t quite reach the heights of the passionfruit, but that’s probably because I was hoping for more persimmon.
Needle
I’m so glad that I got to snag one of the almond “jello” in the last weekend–especially since they were selling out. Why didn’t I take a cue from @moonboy403 and get this in my life sooner? I loved the variety of fruit, which made eating it for the first time like an adventure as I sampled around and mixed and matched the various combinations.
I also grabbed some char siu (lean) which was meaty and perfectly juicy.
PRD
Whew, the chicken croquette was fantastic this weekend. I popped it in the oven so it was scorching when I put into it, but that was fine. It was so creamy with a traditional chicken pot pie like filling that I didn’t mind the pain. I also got hainan chicken this week, but you know my feelings on that.
Hayato
The shrimp shinjo and snow crab tofu always battle it out for my favorite bite, and this time the it was the crab that walked away the winner.
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I wonder what they’ll come up with to replace the “jello” next.
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Newport seafood dining at home. No pics but ordered all the old time favs.
6lb house lobster
Walnut shrimp
Kung pao chicken
French style beef
Pea shoots
Basil clams
Seafood soup
Also got a bunch of cold plates from yunnan. 6 orders of tofu noodles, smoked bean curd with tendon, pig ear, seaweed, fried tofu, and mao chai.
We ate everything.
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Went to tartine sycamore today. They just started serving pizza recently. I’m not sure if it’s the same recipe that bianco uses for his dough.
The guy at the register told me that it’s the same dough they use to make their bread and that is a sourdough base. I’m not sure if bread dough makes good pizza dough but the pizza was well cooked and the crust had good chew and flavor but was a little soft for my liking.
Definitely gonna go back and try more.
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My money’s on dou hwa (silken tofu)…
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Seafood heavy week.
Belle Vie is still alive and kicking. Octopus and ?parsnip puree, warm goat cheese and mesclun salad, and salmon/spinach/beurre blanc. Steaming means no crispy skin on the salmon, but everything was still very nicely prepared. I esp liked how the spinach didn’t have the mineral-y taste or weird tooth residue that it often has. Beurre blanc was thinner and more lemon-y than I had anticipated (so maybe I’m misremembering the sauce?).
Please don’t be an idiot like me; make sure to replace the paper salmon cover w/ foil when reheating. 
(don’t judge, folks; it’s been a long year)
Some scallops and burrata from Bristol Farms.
The Providence Maine Lobster Bake has been discussed elsewhere. I’m linking to @PorkyBelly’s review and pics b/c he’s a way better photographer. 
I’m a sucker for nice packaging, so I’ll include these pics:
Yes, the lemon comes in its own bag w/ a stretch wrap. Classy.
BTW, that whipped creme fraiche goes great w/ everything (incl a random baguette I had sitting around… No, seriously).
Thanks to @hanhgry, I tried
Breakfast combo (dao bing, turnip cake, savory soy milk), fan tuan w/ purple rice. Not pictured: passionfruit tea, half sweetened half soy milk, taro milk tea.
To me, part of the enjoyment from a Taiwanese breakfast is the interplay btw sweet and salty and the mixture of texture. The quality of the ingredients is there, but the food is way, WAY undersalted, so you miss the fundamental interplay. The chili sauce (which is fantastic) and the soy sauce-garlic are mandatory to bring out the full flavors. And the turnip cakes are TINY (like half the size of what you get for dim sum?). I think I got dao bing mixed up w/ sao bing, so I’m not sure what dao bing is normally like. The dough actually reminds me of an unsweetened version of the batter my grandmother used to make chinese “pancakes” (I have no idea what they’re called in Mandarin).
Savory soy milk was a bit odd. My memory is that the you tiao should still have some integrity, even when soaked in the soy milk. In this instance, the you tiao had turned completely mushy. I’m not sure if that caused the soy milk to have this very odd, almost doughy particle texture. Flavor was very good (esp w/ the chili oil), but only AFTER I finished the dish did I notice the separate package w/ vinegar. Drat.
Is it common for fan tuan to have a tea egg inside??? The tea egg was good, but it doesn’t make any sense inside a fan tuan, IMHO, where the flavor and texture of the egg get overwhelmd by… everything else. You tiao was also lacking chewy and crispness.
Hot and sweetened soy milk was very good. I was a bit surprised that the half sweetness was as sweet as it was. Passionfruit ice tea and an additional fan tuan were complimentary b/c the order was finished late (so these folks get an A+ for customer satisfaction).
I don’t know whose idea it was to put chunks of actual taro in the tea; there’s no way to suck it up through a straw, so it ends up clogging the straw (and not adding any flavor to the tea).
The place is very promising but could use a bit of fine tuning. Will be happy to try it again.
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Welcome to the board!
Agree that the pizza looks good.
Do they not have facilities at the Sycamore location to do baking on-site? I’m not familiar w/ that location. They also have a Santa Monica location (and, given how big it is, I assume they bake on-site there).
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I don’t want to jump the gun but I don’t believe they bake on site at the sycamore location.
However, they do have a wood fired oven on-site, so the fresh dough is delivered there daily I would assume and used for the pizza.
I believe they are still operating the bakery at ROW DTLA for wholesale, so the dough might still be coming from there before it gets baked in the wood fired oven?
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I assume they’re probably active early in the morning because the bread that shows up at my local Whole Foods must be coming from somewhere 
I’ll walk by every once in awhile to see if there is any movement going on there–still praying that we eventually get a Pizzeria Bianco in the space–but it’s always quiet. FWIW as confused as it was with what that Tartine wanted to be to ROW/the neighborhood/LA in general, I enjoyed what it and Alameda Supper Club had to offer.
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Yup, that place was confusing, I didn’t know where to order or sit. The food was fine, but it wasn’t a wow factor plus that area is so dead at night. It wasn’t a destination restaurant (as in driving across LA to eat there) There are many similar options across LA.
It was a complete lack of hospitality. I remember being there when it was raining grabbing a coffee and pastry. They didn’t want you to sit inside, because that’s not the designated area. Felt like a lot of thought was put into creating a space but not how it would fit in the community
I’m sure that wasn’t the intent but that’s how it came across. It’s really too bad because i like Row DTLA it would have been nice to have a reason to go more often
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