California Grubbin'

food: 3.5/5 experience: 2/5 overall: 2.5/5 My first visit to Seal Beach, which is a super cute beach town by the way and I need to move there, ended in a trip to Kaito Sushi. It's a small yet popular sushi restaurant on Main Street in Seal Beach's tiny downtown. Upon arrival it took quite a bit of time and confusion to seat us. When we were seated, we weren't presented with the sushi menu. When we finally received the sushi menu, I informed my waitress of my food allergies and she sent the sushi chef out. When he finally came out, probably a half hour had passed by since we first arrived. Not so great. I spoke to him about the rolls and pointed to two I wanted to order and if he could just make them without soy sauce or sesame seeds. He ended up giving us two random rolls he just created on his own. Some might like that. I wasn't particularly in the mood for a surprise. They were decent. Just fish with crab salad, pretty much. We also tried one of the appetizers, the fr...

food: 5/5 experience: 4.5/5 overall: 5/5 Lou's (now "Midtown Sushi") was recommended to me by fellow friend of the blog David O. after I voiced my complaints about never having had outstanding sushi. Lou's, it was said, is five-star sushi. And who am I to not take food  recommendations? So I went on my merry way to sushi on this occasion in hopes of some excellent grubs. The place is small and packed, especially on a Friday night. They all greeted us as we walked in which was nice. We opted for take-out. If you want a good Lou's (Midtown) experience don't get take-out. We were pretty much ignored the whole twenty minutes it took to make our two rolls. They didn't even start on them until fifteen minutes after we ordered. But they happily gave us the bill as soon as we ordered. We watched as some customers who were seated after we ordered got their sushi ahead of ours. Argh. The sushi though? Yea, 'tis five-star sushi. We got the Princess and th...

food: 3/5 experience: 3.5/5 overall: 3.5/5 We were in the area one day and since we're hardly ever way out in Rocklin we decided to try some place new. So we got some soosh at Kakogan. I ordered my standard sashimi dish. I thought the nine-ounce sashimi would be a paltry lil bit cus nine ounces don't sound like a whole lot but hot damn now I'm wondering exactly how much these other places were really giving me cus this is plate full. There are six different kinds of fish on there along with roe and lemon, and my favorite wasabi of course. Their wasabi is good, I ate it in like four bites. At $23 this is a good deal. Next up I tried their rolls. Their menu of rolls isn't too impressive so I just tried a few. Unfortunately for me every sauce of theirs has either soy or sesame in it so I was stuck with sriracha. The Chris roll is made with cream cheese which is the main reason I got it. Cream cheese and sushi is always a dealmaker for me. This one is good...

food: 4.5/5 experience: n/a it's to go overall: 4.5/5 Okay so if you're in Sac and in need of a good bakery, and you haven't heard of Mahoroba, you need to get on it now . This is like Porto's-tier baked goods for me. (Porto's is an amazing bakery in LA, review to come.) Everything here is a home run. And I have had just about everything. Let's start in chronological order from my very first trip. In here we have the hot dog (top right), the blueberry cream cheese pie (middle right), pie custard (bottom right), sweet cream cheese (bottom left), and kobe cream delight (top left). Now let me tell you about how good these are. If you can't decide between having a hot dog and a pizza, go to Mahoroba and get their hot dog. It's a juicy dog on a bun with cheese and sweet tomato sauce and it's everything delicious. The pie custard is like a cheese horn you get at a typical bakery with sweet cream and a hint of cream cheese, all wrapped in a perf...

food: 4.5/5 experience: 5/5 overall: 5/5 Fresh sushi in an unexpected location: a strip mall, next to Grocery Outlet. It's in the area so it was on my list. Takumi downtown is their sister restaurant. A tiny joint, but cute, and their selection of rolls is great. I've been here several times. Yes, mostly to try their sushi. The rolls I have tried are as follows. The Cherry Blossom. A simple roll containing salmon and avo, topped with tuna and "special sauces." Nothing exciting, and not my favorite. The Creamy Tataki. Like a California roll but with cream cheese as well. Topped with tuna and more "special sauce". Creamy, cheesy, and very American. The Extreme. Spicy tuna topped with many types of fish and even more special sauce. Very complex. Extreme-ly good. The Fire In The Hole. This will satisfy the spice lovers. Spicy sauce plus jalapeños. Be prepared. Actually wasn't too fond of this one, the spice was overpowering. T...

food: 4/5 experience: 4/5 overall: 4/5 Warning to all soy allergies: almost everything at Mikuni has soy in it. Noooo! Even the potstickers (gyoza). Dammit, I love potstickers! Why you gotta take that away from me, Mikuni? And I don't get to try the tuna sliders either? :'( But Mikuni takes allergies very seriously, which I respect and appreciate, so they won't serve anything to you if they think it's risky. Mikuni is known for their sushi anyway, so that's mostly what I eat here. They have seven locations within driving distance of the Sacramento area. I have tried some of the small plates as well. My favorite is probably the Spicy Dream 1. Seared albacore with two types of sauces. It's basic only if you underestimate how good seared tuna is. Had to get this one without sesame seeds so I sent it back. Hate doing that. A similar one is the BBQ white tuna, which is cubes of tuna on a skewer with dipping sauce. Just as good but more fun to eat. ...

food: 5/5 experience: 2/5 overall: 3/5 The food is cheap and the fish is fresh down at Kyoto. Unfortunately for me the first time I came here I forgot to mention my food allergies. I thought lamb would be safe. I was wrong. It's marinated in soy sauce. Ugh. Didn't find out till I faced the repercussions. Damned if it was not delicious going down though. The next time there I went with a safer choice: the sashimi plate. For eighteen bucks, ten pieces weren't that filling but the next price up was $38 for a twenty-piece set. I just don't have that kind of money to throw down. It was fresh enough though. The selection is typical: hamachi, salmon, tuna. Nice presentation at least. All rolls are fifty percent off! All of the time! Why not just put the lower prices on the menu? If you're fooling anyone then they deserve to pay the full price for stupidity. Okay that might be a little harsh. Anyway, these rolls are delicious for the price you pay. I've...