Osaka

Flores Review: The Food of the Moment, Prepared Expertly in Little Osaka

Top 4 Events: Beer Float Night, Japanese Food Fair, Snack Food & Wine Pairing Father's Day Beer Brunch Cruise

McConnell's Fine Ice Cream & the Surly Goat Beer Float Night For one night only, the Surly Goat has invited McConnell's Fine Ice Creams for an evening of pouring beer over scoops of ice cream. Some of the flavor combinations slated include Firestone Walker Brewing Company's Velvet Merlin with Turkis ... More >>

Marugame Monzo and Tsurumaru: Two Handmade Udon Shops Now Open in Little Tokyo

While Japanese noodle fanatics have been gawking over artisanal ramen joints, another type of noodle business has been growing, albeit at a much quieter pace, within Los Angeles. The noodle of choice? Handmade udon. According to Yoko Isassi, a Japanese cooking instructor in Los Angeles, the compos ... More >>

5 Great L.A. Restaurants for Lunch When The Boss is Paying

It's rare, but sometimes the planets align and your chakras are glowing (or whatever), and your boss steps out of her office and asks you where you'd like to go eat for lunch. Maybe she really screwed something up and she knows it, so she'd like to make it up to you with a mea culpa and an appetizer ... More >>

Meatless Mondays: sbe Chef Danny Elmaleh an Artichoke Flatbread Recipe

When creating new dishes for sbe restaurants Cleo and Mercato di Vetro, Danny Elmaleh leads a team of four in search of something that gives what he calls a pop of flavor. This can come from anywhere: an herb, a certain spice, or one in the range of vinegars they are experimenting with. It's an ingr ... More >>

Sundance 2013: An 81-Year-Old, Shirtless, Japanese Artist Boxes With a Canvas

Bare-chested, in shorts and goggles, an 81-year-old Japanese man stood in front of us. It looked like we were about to watch him go swimming. But it was zero degrees outside, and we were in an art gallery during the Sundance Film Festival last Saturday. It turns out films aren't the only things to s ... More >>

10 Best Eats in Little Osaka: Neighborhood Grub Crawl

Just north of the intersection of Sawtelle and Olympic, in the neighborhood known as Little Osaka, there's a quadrant of Los Angeles with so much outstanding food crammed into a relatively small space that it makes you wonder why these neighborhood planners can't have a crack at other parts of town. ... More >>

Turtle Smuggler Busted at LAX Sentenced: Atsushi Yamagami Gets 21 Months

Atsushi Yamagami had quite an import-export business going, according to federal authorities. Not only did he bring protected tortoises into the United States for sale, but he used that cash to export snakes, turtles and tortoises native to America back to Japan, they said. Savvy, yes, except he ... More >>

Gottsui: A Review A Brief History of Okonomiyaki

That new metro stop whose opening you've been awaiting: not complete. Those suspension-shredding chuckholes on your street: not filled. But there is still good news. It's not as hard to find good Japanese okonomiyaki in Los Angeles these days as it once was. Even a hardened cynic must admit that's s ... More >>

Miyata Menji Opens on Sawtelle Clusi Batusi Coming Soon

Upon entry to the newest ramen shop on Sawtelle Boulevard, you're welcomed with shouts of "Hello, thank you for coming" in Japanese. Miyata Menji opened less than one week ago, taking over the shuttered GR/eats space. With its flagship location in Osaka, Japan, Miyata offers a simple menu with just ... More >>

Top 10 Best Karaoke Bars in L.A.: #10-6

​For all the best of L.A. music, download our free Best Of Mobile app. To the rest of the country, L.A. is a city of wannabe stars chorusing, "Look at me!" But outside of Hollywood, most of us only want to be onstage when we're bombed. Lucky for us, L.A.'s karaoke bars are as diverse and plen ... More >>

4 Japanese Valentine's Day Chocolates for Guys

photo credit: Janne in OsakaJurassic Chocolat​Valentine's gifting is especially tricky for women. You want your gift to tell him how you feel, without telling him how you feel. (Not because you're cryptic or unsure of how you really feel, but because he's not a heart-shaped box kind of guy and ... More >>

Osaka: You May Have to Swim to Get In

B. HansenOsaka entrance​Osaka, the new Japanese-Peruvian place in Hollywood, has the scariest entrance. It's very dark, and you have to cross over stepping stones in a pool of rippling black water. I subconsciously felt drawn to fall, and all the time I was in there, I worried about how I woul ... More >>

Shonen Knife - The Echo - 11-1-11

Javier Cabral​Better than...almost anything this side of the Ramones. Everyone raised their finger bunny ears as Japanese pop punk female trio Shonen Knife, celebrating their 30th anniversary, walked on stage. Their fans cheered enthusiastically, knowing they were about to get their fucken so ... More >>

A September Roundup of Restaurant Openings and Closures

Though the days of summer and beersicles have ended, some zip codes are still feeling the heat. The restaurant forecast seems a bit more chilly. Venga, which opened less than two months ago, announced its closure, but owner Shahriar Besharat recently told Eater that the rumors were false. "Apparentl ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Picca

At Ricardo Zarate's restaurant, Peruvian meets the Japanese izakaya

Sneak Peak: Osaka Opens in Hollywood [Photo Gallery]

Guzzle & NoshThe sushi bar at Osaka.​Adolfo Suaya's (BoHo, Surly Goat) newest restaurant, the Peruvian-Asian concept Osaka, officially opens tomorrow. Given the wave of new Peruvian restaurants like Picca, which offers Ricardo Zarate's spin on Peruvian-Japanese fare, and Chimu, which features ... More >>

Simone Legno of tokidoki: Italian-Japanese Fusion

Jonathan Gold Reviews Glowfish Truck

Searching for Okonomiyaki: 
Japanese Pancakes

Anne Fishbeinthe invisible restaurant critic​ Dear Mr. Gold: Outside of Gaja in Lomita, I've yet to find decent okonomiyaki in Los Angeles. Have you stumbled across any respectable versions? Proximity to downtown would be a huge plus. --Daniel Dy, via Facebook

Nocando Kicks Off RePlay LA Tomorrow at the Hard Rock; Talks Quik and Swagnosticism

​James "Nocando" McCall titled one of his first solo releases, "Nocando is a Virus." And like any virus, he's innately aware of the importance of mutation. By 25, the Leimert Park-raised rapper had toured the country with Project Blowed avatar, Aceyalone, won Scribble Jam, dropped a pair of al ... More >>

10 Handy Rules For Tipping

Flickr/iirraa​ 1. Tip 20 percent. Every time. Pre-tax? Post-tax? In practice the difference is no more than a buck or two, unless you're Joe Pytka. In which case there's a $10,000 wine tab, so it works out. But the idea that a tip is optional, or variable, is a useful fiction, even when the so ... More >>

The Makioka Sisters Review

Ventriloquists Staying Alive, Keeping the Faith

Ask Mr. Gold: Finding Okonomiyaki in Lomita

Anne Fishbeinthe invisible restaurant critic​ Dear Mr. Gold: I had okonomiyaki in Hiroshima a few years ago. It's a stand-alone wonderful hangover food, and I'd imagine it's even pretty great with high-quality ingredients. Any recommendations to find this treat in Los Angeles? --Scott Cody, vi ... More >>

OCTOPI HAVE BALLS?

Introducing LA Weekly's DJ of the Week: This Week, Dennis Owens

​ We received many responses to our many best DJs lists. So many, in fact, that we haven't been able to get a good night's sleep ever since, what with all the awesome DJs that we weren't able to properly honor and call attention to. So we decided to fix it with giving you a DJ of the week eve ... More >>

Squid Ink Food Fight: Currying Flavor, Thai Red Curry with Beef

Curry can mean many things, its contents and flavors capable of splitting off into innumerable directions. Two Indian vegetable curries from two restaurants on the same block can vary greatly, so imagine the differences between a Pakistani tikka karahi and a pork katsu curry from Osaka? In many case ... More >>

Mitsuwa Torrance Japanese Food Fair Update: Go!

Ben CalderwoodChibaki-Ya gyutan ramen​ Culinary euphoria descends on the South Bay now through Sunday in the form of the chaotic, overcrowded Umaimono (delicious things) Gourmet Food Fair at Mitsuwa Marketplace Torrance. Fans of authentic Japanese eats--flown in, chefs and all, direct from Jap ... More >>

The Real McCoy: Hatfield's Revisited

Web Surfing: A Roundup of Posts from LA Food Blogs

-- Eddie Lin takes a few little princesses to eat frogs legs. [Deep End Dining] -- NakedSushi visits Yunnan 168 in the San Gabriel Valley. [NakedSushi] -- Bacon & egg martinis at the Allston Yacht Club. [Eating L.A.] -- The LA Times test kitchen has been opening up their recipe vault: Top 12 reci ... More >>

Shonen Knife Slice and Dice at the Echo tonight MP3

Shonen Knife Slice and Dice at the Echo tonight

But How's the Food: Spacecraft/Kristopher Keith's Many Design Languages

Spacecraft, the design group headed by Kristopher Keith, has practically become synonymous with the revitalization of Hollywood's nightlife and dining scene. The firm's signature black and white signage, with its bold use of courier font, is a visual fixture around the neighborhood. Keith is the des ... More >>

Live in L.A.: 88BoaDrum at the La Brea Tar Pits, 08/08/08

"88BoaDrum" at the La Brea Tar Pits, August 8, 2008 (photos by Timothy Norris) It's tempting to leave the evening alone and let it live on in the heads of those who attended and no one else. One theory is that to sully such tribal majesty with words is to diminish its power. But my job is to capt ... More >>

The Boredoms Pound Their Way Onto the Astral Plane

The all-seeing Eye

Waiting for Shwarma

Little Armenia’s Arax Falafel

James Brooks, Fumiko Amano

Rock Picks

From October 13-19

Man of Many Parts

Jaguar Express

Power Puff

Asian bakeries, French dough

Give It Up for the Geisha

The exquisitely phony charms of the Asian bourgeoisie — Hollywood style

The Intangibles

Mighty Tezuka!

The God of Manga

The Quality of Mercy

Revisiting Kon Ichikawa

Poison the Hood

Have It Their Way

Japanese pub food in Studio City

The Go Club

Getting lost in the game

Hypothetical Pleasure Dome

Revisiting the visionary architecture of Archigram

Griddle Me This

Japanese pizza in Torrance