Hollywood: Yamashiro

I freaking love Groupon. Because of Groupon I get to have the chance to try out some top-notch or popular restaurants around LA, and when Groupon had a deal for Yamashiro, instantly jumped on the deal haha.

Yamashiro was built over 80 years ago as a private estate, and after so many years it was converted to a restaurant about 3 decades ago. Literally meaning "mountain palace," it sits on a hill overlooking Hollywood with an amazing city view and has a Japanese garden and with a pagoda that you can walk through. On certain days they even have a farmers market, which is pretty unique.

The restaurant itself is more famous for the romantic setting and the view it offers rather than the cuisine. Calling them CalAsian fusion is pretty fitting, and they do a pretty good job integrating the two.

Yamashiro

1999 N Sycamore Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90068

yamashirorestaurant.com

Menu.

Red wine sangria & a glass of Sapporro. Sangria had a lot of brandy haha.

Truffle Hamachi with truffle-ponzu and micro-arugula. I was hellaaa excited for this since it has two of my favorites, hamachi sashimi & truffle oil.

Fresh and you can see the truffle-ponzu oil glistening :]

The only real letdown of the whole dinner, Reclining Buddha Roll, with shrimp, chilies, cilantro, peanuts, cabbage wrapped with soy paper and a spicy ponzu sauce. It was spicy but the roll itself was pretty bland and the sauce too salty.

You can never go wrong with a Crunchy Roll :]

Darth Vader Roll with spicy tuna, tobiko (those black roe on top), cucumber, avocado, black rice & spicy mayo. Pretty much a more extravagant spicy tuna. I love the tobiko since they just keep on popping in your mouth.

Seared Rare Filet Mignon Carpaccio with micro-arugula salad, sesame, fried shallots, and a soy vinaigrette. I gotta say, fried shallots beats fried onions anyday!

Snow Crab & Spicy Tuna Napoleon. Comes with snow crab, spicy tuna, avocado slices (on the other side), fried wonton skins, more arugula, and a wasabi aioli. You kinda make your own little spread with everything.

Chocolate soufflé cake. I love soufflé so when I saw it had to order it haha.

The view :]

All in all, a good spot for a romantic date or if you feel like you want to overspend for fusion cuisine. I didn't order any entrees since I felt that I could get the most by ordering a bunch of little things out of the Groupon. Maybe in the future I'll try their Wagyu steak.

Los Angeles: Bottega Louie

A good friend was leaving LA for Norcal so for a goodbye dinner, we went to Bottega Louie, which is an extremely popular Italian eatery in downtown LA. It is actually one of my favorite restaurant in downtown LA. With its affordable menu, it has slowly become a favorite for professionals, families and students. It's not surprising if you have to wait up to an hour or two over the weekend.

Bottega Louie is also famous for its Gourmet Market at the side of the restaurant, selling baked goods, sweets, cafe drinks, quick meals, and especially well-known for their macaroons!

Bottega Louie

700 S Grand Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90017

http://www.bottegalouie.com/

Bottega.

The Gourmet Market at the side of the restaurant.

Some sort of pastry.

Brioche. Never got a chance to try it... but it is probably amazing since I love brioche.

Their famous macraoon. Colorful yea?

$1.75 each.

Menu

One of their most popular sides, the Portobello fries. They slice up portobello caps, lightly batter them, then fried, and the result is this crunchy and meaty portobello. Seriously amazing. Perfect snack with a Guiness while you are waiting :]

I believe it's the Tequila Daisy cocktail. I forget. Looks pretty though haha.

They have amazing pizza there, baked in a super hot oven. Half margherita, half bianco.

Half burrata, half clam pizza. Burrata is burrata (type of Italian cheese), prosciutto, rapini & Reggiano parmesan.

Pappardelle with mushroom & foie gras duxelle. The aroma was amazing and a very earthy dish.

Bucatini Pesto with basil pesto, pecorino Romano & pine nuts.

Tagliatelle Bolognese, which is just traditional meat sauce pasta. Can't go wrong with the classics :]

Trenné. It is pan sauteed trenné pasta with braised prime rib eye, Tuscan black kale & shaved parmesan. One of the best pasta EVER because of the pan sauteed trenné. It gives the pasta such an interesting texture. The prime rib eye and the sauce give the pasta a very savory flavor.

Never thought we would get service at an Italian restaurant but our server brought out these chocolate brownie squares with raspberry preserve and edible silver flakes.

Of course, gotta get their macaroons! Forgot their flavors though so use your imagination :P

These pictures probably don't do Bottega Louie justice, and for once somebody didn't order the lasagna, which is another one of their most popular items. Hopefully I'll have more chances to take more pictures there!

Seattle: Piroshky Piroshky!

What is "piroshky?" It is essentially a stuffed pie filled with all sorts of fillings, from sweet to savory. It's similar to a calzone but the dough consistency is different, more like bread rather than pizza dough.

For the 3 times I've been to Pike Place Market, I've always seen a line form at Piroshky Piroshky. The first two times I/we didn't bother to wait in line cause there was so much to try still but on the last day of the trip, decided to grab a piroshky from this famous spot, just to see what all the hype is about, and holy crap no wonder this place got 4 1/2 stars on Yelp from 500+ reviews. It is daaamn legit.

Piroshky Piroshky

1908 Pike Place (between Stewart St & Western Ave)

Seattle, WA 98101

http://www.piroshkybakery.com/

Always a line.

The full menu, with beef & cheese and salmon being the most popular.

Stuffing the filling.

Looks like she was making potato, cheese & onion piroshky

Man prepping the dough. Zagat rated!

It has a slight yellowish color... probably from the eggs and the butter.

Finally got my piroshky!

Opted for the beef & cheese, the most popular item. It is... ADDICTING. Seriously of the best things I've had. Ground beef with cheese melted throughout. It's salty but it's a good saltiness that just makes you want more and more. The dough itself is amazing too: soft, buttery, and salty.

After trying that, I really really wanted to go back in line for more but the line got even longer, and since we were on a time restraint... decided to let go and hope sometime in the future I get to have these babies again! Seriously makes me sad that I can't get those piroshky here in LA... there's so many others I wanted to try too!

That's the last of the food I got to check out in Seattle. I would put pictures of Pike Place Market up but since the group only used my camera for the majority and my good friend Mikol already blogged about it, just go check it out here :]

Seattle: Where's the Milk Tea at?

While in Seattle, I started craving milk tea on our last day there so it was good that Chinatown Seattle was in our itinerary as I got to try out two of the spots. I didn't do any research beforehand and when I got to Chinatown, I went straight to the first store that had a sign for boba or milk tea.

Of course, the gate is a must for any Chinatown.

A Piece of Cake Bakery

514 S King St (between S 5th Ave & S 6th Ave)

Seattle, WA 98104

First shop that I saw with milk tea? A Piece of Cake Bakery.

Typical Chinese bakery, with buns, bread, and cakes.

Opted for the coffee milk tea. I tried to get it half sugar but the lady said the sugar was already mixed in... which meant it wasn't gonna be freshly made, except for the coffee part, which meant it wasn't gonna be any good... and I was right. Boo.

After walking around a bit more, saw plenty more more cafes and tea spots which totally made me regret jumping at the first spot but finally decided to try another from Oasis, a cafe that has a similar vibe to Guppy's in LA.

Oasis Tea Zone

519 6th Ave S (between King St & Jefferson St)

Seattle, WA 98104

Typical boba shop menu with snacks. Drinks MAY be customized which is a good thing haha.

Oasis didn't have honey milk green tea on their menu so I had to ask them to custom make it for me. It seems like they use condense milk for the milk part, which is okay, but not my first choice to be used for milk tea. Solid though. Love the honey, cause for some reason the honey flavor was stronger even though I asked for half the honey to make it not as sweet. Must be those crazy Washington bees.

To be honest, I did expect Seattle to have a Tea Station or something since it does have a pretty big Chinese population. Oasis wasn't bad and there were a few other tea spots that I didn't get to try but at least if I lived in Seattle I won't die from withdrawal of not having any milk tea hahah.

Seattle: Lola

Giada DeLaurentis on the show "Best Thing I Ever Ate" mentioned these donuts that were so amazing that its a must for her whenever she gets a chance. Of course, Connie and I were desperate to try the donuts and since we failed to try it at Dahlia, the next day we went to Lola, another Tom Douglass restaurant across from Dahlia Lounge, to have another shot at them donuts (and for breakfast of course).

Lola

2000 4th Ave (between Virginia St & Lenora St)

Seattle, WA 98121

www.tomdouglas.com/restaurants/lola

Gloomy morning in Seattle

After trying to get it at Dahlia Lounge and Lola the previous night, finally the famous donuts arrive!!

More like beignets. Really soft and fried to a perfect golden crisp.

Vanilla marscapone and fresh apricot preserve. They are the real stars.

My golden brown pancakes and pork-maple sausage, vanilla marscapone, and spiced maple syrup.

Very light and airy. Delicious :]

One of the best sausages I've ever had. Of course, made in-house. It had a light sweetness. Perfect with the syrup.

Connie's omelette with goat cheese, fennel, and onions. Comes with bacon and toast.

Goat cheese is the real star.

Lola Breakfast, comes with two eggs, pork-maple sausage, smashed garlic fried potatoes, and hella buttered toast.

Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. Never knew grapefruit juice could be this good when fresh made.

This was actually from the night before when we came to Lola after Dahlia Lounge hoping that they still had the donuts. Unfortunately, they ran out so I just ordered garlic oregano fries with garlic aioli. Good late night snack with a beer!

Tom Douglass is seriously too good. Got a great fine restaurant and then opens an awesome breakfast/brunch place right across. And the donuts... overpriced... yes, but man it definitely lived up to its hype.