There’s always room for dessert. After our donkatsu meal, we headed over to this place because my friend really wanted “milk fluff” aka “shaved snow”.

milk fluff w/ condensed milk topped with blackberries and mochi

I don’t know why I had low expectations going in here because it was pretty fricken good. The “fluff” is basically a block of ice that’s been shaved to super thin sheets layering over one another. At this place, you get to choose milk flavored ice or green tea flavored ice. We obviously chose milk - you can taste the milk but it wasn’t too overpowering. The condensed milk gave it the sweet factor topped with fresh blackberries and chewy mochi. 

There’s a variety of toppings to choose from. If you order small you get 2 free toppings and if you order the large you get 3 free toppings.

Man, kinda craving some right now.

My foodie friend brought me here. She came here once and ordered the “cheese donkatsu” only to find out that it was literally JUST cheese (although she later told me that the waiter specifically told her that it was JUST cheese and she refused to believe it..lol), therefore we decided to come back so she can actually eat the meat.

pork 

chicken 

The chicken and pork  were pretty similiar - juicy and crispy. They also have this sauce where you grind up sesame seeds yourself with a cute wooden stick. I think the sauce is what really makes this dish. It was sweet, tangy, sesame-y (i totally just made up a word), and rich. It also goes really well with rice.

The portions are pretty big, especially that never-ending salad. It also comes with miso soup and rice. Overall, it was good, but not amazing. 

Mexican food! I live near many Mexican restaurants and my goal is to try them all! 

carne asada nachos

Look at that! Just look at that! Do I even need to describe how good this was!? Fresh. Crispy. Cheesy. Meaty. 

Enough said.

I was craving jajangmyun and my friend recommended this place to me. It’s located within a grocery store, alongside an array of random shops (hair salon, clothing store, doctor’s clinic, etc.) Don’t expect this place to be a cute little restaurant. It’s almost like a bar, where you walk up, sit down on a stool, and order a drink or in this case korean food. Oh, and the flies are very comfortable with wandering around on bowls..plates..yea…….sometimes the dirtier the place, the better the food, right? 

jajangmyun 

I thought this was pretty good and satisfied my craving. However, I have yet to eat one that really blew me away. The noodles were chewy and there was plenty of black bean sauce. It’s hard to describe what the black bean sauce tasted like, but it was savory and definitely better if you eat it with the onions and meat embedded in the sauce. 

wang mandu (king dumpling)

These were ginormous. I can eat 2-3 and be full (without eating the noodles). I believe there’s pork, carrots, glass noodles, green onions, and seasonings in this dumpling. I didn’t think there was anything too special besides the fact that they’re big.  You’ll basically take a bite, raise your eyebrows, and nod. 

Overall, pretty decent. I will probably go back if I crave jajangmyun again, unless I find some place better.

This place serves gourmet waffle sandwiches. Why didn’t anyone else think of this earlier? Or perhaps it’s been around and I’ve just been living under a rock. 

green eggs and ham

Tucked inside the waffle were ham, egg, cheddar cheese, and pesto sauce.  The pesto sauce really complemented well with the other ingredients. The waffle in replacement of bread was nice because the waffle has a much softer texture. 

smoked salmon and dill cream cheese
 
Normally, I’m not a huge fan of cream cheese, but this one was extremely light in taste and in texture. The cream cheese was super smooth and almost had a whipped cream feeling to it. The smoked salmon was fresh accompanied by crunchy slices of cucumbers. 

creme brulee
 
Sweet and delicate - not heavy at all. It had fresh strawberries, vanilla creme with burnt row sugar dusted with powdered sugar.

This cute little cafe is so hidden you almost can’t find it on google maps. Thanks to a friend who posted a picture of her at this place that I even knew about it. 

french vanilla latte
 
The coffee was rich, sweet, and delicious. Foamy on top and smooth and silky underneath. It really warmed my soul. The little brown dot next to it is a brownie, but it tasted horrendous. 

mocha latte

My friend ordered this, and I had a little taste and it was very chocolaty.  I’m not too big of a mocha fan because I like to taste the coffee flavor. 

passion fruit lemonade tea 

 This looks amazing, but the taste is average. It tastes similar to Starbuck’s version. It’s not passion fruit syrup mixed with tea and lemonade. It’s passion fruit flavored tea leaves. So it’s not so much sweet and passion fruity, instead it’s a little to the sour/tart side. 

waffle sundae

YUMS. This is a waffle sitting on chocolate syrup topped with chocolate, strawberry, and green tea ice cream. Then nestled between the ice cream are strawberries and banana. Topped with fluffy whipped cream and decorated with cookies, biscuits, and almond slices.  Drizzled ever so lightly with caramel and finally, a few gentle shakes of powdered sugar. Mmmmmmm.

The decor is very adorable and it’s a good place to just sit and chat. However, there’s very limited seating. 

Celebrated mother’s day at oo-kook kbbq (because my mom loves meat). Our usual ayce kbbq place is Road to Seoul, but we decided to try something new, and this place supposedly have better quality meat. 

It’s $25 per person the whole day. This is their ayce menu: http://s3-media1.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/vqcndXobtNFMYt-cy8hpWQ/l.jpg

My favorites: 

Brisket

Brisket is always my go to meat when it comes to ayce kbbq. I like that it’s not marinated so you can taste the beef flavor. It also cooks the fastest (more meat faster! lol). Truly melts in your mouth. 

Beef Tongue

Obsessed! It was so good - soft, thin, and not at all gamy. 

We also ordered short ribs, kobe marinated thin slice beef (aka bulgogi), outside skirt beef, mushroom & vegetables, & shrimp. Honestly, we may have ordered some others but I was too concentrated on eating while my sister was ordering. 

Overall, the meat here definitely is better. It’s more tender and the marbleization of the meat is finer. The only downside are the side dishes. There aren’t much variety and they don’t have the good stuff like fish cake, steamed egg, or pancake. But whatevers, right? The meat is what’s important.

Clean, cute, and (sorta) cafeteria style. The neat thing about this place is you get to sample almost everything. 

Herb grilled chicken, mozzarella, basil pesto, arugula, ciabatta

Ho hum. Extremely ordinary and very forgettable. Anyone can make this sandwich..and it costs $9. Can you say “not worth it”? Yea. 

Watermelon rosemary

sigh..so I originally ordered Blood Orange Lemonade, but the worker there gave me Watermelon Rosemary instead. I didn’t know because I to-goed the meal and didn’t drink my lemonade until I already left the place. So disappointed that I didn’t get to drink my blood orange lemonade! However, I was lucky that watermelon rosemary lemonade wasn’t bad. I definitely tasted the watermelon flavor but not really the rosemary. It was sweet and tangy and would be really great on a hot summer day. 

I will definitely come back to get my blood orange lemonade!

Met up with my food buddy and decided to give umami cateseen a try since we’re both big fans of the umami burger. The restaurant is pretty spacious with A LOT of servers. 

shrimp burger with yuzu-kosho

I ordered the shrimp burger. I loved that I can actually see the shrimp and that it wasn’t all chopped up into a million pieces and smushed into a patty. I also absolutely adored that it had seaweed instead of lettuce. The shrimp had a really good bite to it (not mushy or overcooked). The sauce tasted a little bit like mayonnaise and I’m assuming that it was mixed with yuzu-kosho.

truffle burger

My friend ordered this. I didn’t try this in this location, but I did try it in the Santa Monica location (I’m guessing it should taste the same).  I’m also pretty sure this was yums. 

FG&J donut

Biggest disappointment ever. This is foie gras mousse and forest berry jam injected into a donut topped with powdered sugar and peanuts. I was a bit hesitant at first, but my friend really wanted to try it and I love trying new things so why not. We were still eating our burgers when my friend pointed out that the table behind me devoured this donut and was practically licking the plate clean. I got excited and finished my burger hurriedly. I stuck my knife into the precious looking donut and immediately the foie gras started squirting out. I cut a small piece and stuck it in my mouth. Then you can literally see my face change from grinning with anticipation to wtf-i-need-to-barf-now. I seriously wanted to throw up and could not take another bite. I sat there for awhile trying to think of how I can describe the taste and then I decided to taste the foie gras again (all for you guys!). After at least 5 minutes of tasting/smelling/thinking…I have concluded that it tastes like raw egg yolk with a splash of fresh blood. It also doesn’t help that the texture is super creamy and that it coats your mouth leaving a horrid aftertaste. 

overall, a great experience except the ending. 

A friend invited some of us to eat here. I was pretty excited because I actually have been wanting to eat pizza. There were 7 of us and we ordered 5 different pizzas to share. 

avocado festival

Toppings: avocado, tomatoes, basil, lemon zest
I thought this tasted like a margherita pizza and I did not taste the lemon zest at all, but that’s not saying they didn’t put lemon zest because 2 friends said they loved the lemon zest flavor on this pizza. I guess the zest decided to skip my slice.

the rocket man

Toppings: fresno chilies, broccolini, roasted garlic, oven-dried tomatoes
yums! i loved the spiciness of the fresno chilies, gorgeously green crunchy broccolini, and the mouth watering sweet tomatoes. the charred pizza dough added a nice flavor and was very soft - not at all crispy.

mushroom party

Toppings: crimini and oyster mushrooms, sweet onion, fennel
The pizza was literally covered with mushrooms and not surprisingly, it tasted like..well, mushrooms. haha. the fennel was a nice touch because it added some crunch and gave the pizza a contrasting texture with the soft mushroom. This wasn’t bad.

the fallen angel

Toppings: italian sausage, fennel, roasted peppers, red sauce (we added basil and roasted garlic)
This was another good one.  The roasted peppers were sweet and the italian sausage had just the right amount of spices to complement the whole pizza. It was savory and aromatic. 

the gladiator
(AHH..I DIDN’T KNOW I DIDN’T TAKE A PICTURE!!) 
Toppings: italian sausage, pepperoni, red sauce 
I didn’t think this was very special. It tasted exactly like a pepperoni pizza. I couldn’t even taste the sausages.

Overall, their pizzas were pretty decent. They also have free sea salt chocolate chip cookies which were just ok. I liked that there were several toppings (roasted garlic, basil, fresno chilies, onion, egg, spinach, fennel, broccolini) you can add to your pizza that is free of charge. I don’t know if I’d crave for the pizzas here. I would probably only come back if I have some other friends who want to try it.