Midtown Lunch

I was promised there would be robots.  Sushi making robots.  It’s pretty much the only thing that would draw me to Beverly Hills for sushi, arguably the worst place in the city if you’re on the hunt for a raw fish bargain. But money is not an issue when robots are involved, and clearly my cheesy robot movies of the 80s filled brain needed to see this maki making machine in action.  I mean, are we talking a set of John Lithgow powered robotic arms handling raw fish in a sealed glass case like it was plutonium, Manhattan Project Style.  Or was this going to be some kind of love-able Johnny Number 5 type machine, making corny jokes as he rolls my spicy tuna roll. (I do seem to remember him mentioning sushi in one of my favorite lines of the movie.  Salmon to be precise.)

Sadly the “robot” looked more like a woodchipper than the Terminator, a headless, armless, legless Wall-E of sorts, minus the personality of course. In fact, the robot portion of the show consists of a metal box that spreads rice onto a pice of seaweed before your roll gets assembled by an organic, sentient being.  There’s a second, smaller box at the end of the assembly line that cuts your roll if you want it cut.  But calling that a robot would be like calling a hard boiled egg slicer a computer.  I quickly came to the realization that the talk of robots was just PR overindulgence meant to sucker people like me into visiting U-Sushi in Beverly Hills, and it worked.  Surprisingly, though, even without any A.I. I still managed to piece together a pretty fun and delicious lunch.

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The #2 from Banh Mi My Tho, one of L.A. Best Places to Eat for Under $5

• LIST 50 places to eat for under $5 [LAT]
• DTLA Roy Choi will serve lunch at Mike D’s new MOCA installation [FITNR]
• EAST LA The tamales at Guisados are also great [Squid Ink]
• WEST LA The Slice Truck brick and mortar is now open [Eater]
• WEST LA Tempura specialist Hannosuke is coming to Mitsuwa [Grub St]
• PODCAST Check out this podcast featuring me giving tips for eating at work [The Sporkful]

Guisados’ Taco Sampler Platter

• DTLA Congrats to Spice Table chef Bryan Ng on being named one of F&W’s Best New Chefs! [Eater]
• DTLA Guisados and Mariscos Jalisco tie for Taco Madness 2012 prize [Grub Street]
• DTLA The Counter is coming soon to 7th Street [Brigham Yen]
• SAMO Blue Plate Taco is opening on July 4th [Grub Street]
• WEHO A new Five Guys is coming soon [Eater]
• WEHO A look at the new Pitfire on Fairfax [Gourmet Pigs]
• WEST LA Slice Truck’s brick and mortar is now open on Sawtelle [Grub Street]
• WESTWOOD The Guru is also a big fan of 800 Degrees [LAT]

Have a Happy Easter!  I’m out of town and taking the next few days off… See you in a week!

Thanks to Yamadaya and Jinya and a few others, no neighborhood is safe from the ramen explosion that is currently sweeping through Los Angeles. The Valley, Miracle Mile, Hollywood, Culver City, even Koreatown has a better than average ramen option, saving pork loving noodle fans from the lines at Daikokuya, or the trip west to Santouka. It doesn’t matter where you live or work, a good to great bowl of ramen should be no more than 15 minutes away from anywhere in the city. And now that Tsujita is open, L.A. finally has the kind of place that you only read about on blogs like Rameniac or in magazines like Lucky Peach. The small ramenya dedicated to serving up a single, perfectly crafted bowl of soup- take it or leave it.

When you take a step back and look at the history of ramen in this city, the progression seems pretty clear. Introduction, Explosion, Expansion, Perfection. So, what’s next? It’s got to be innovation. How else would you expect to survive, opening a restaurant specializing in ramen and tsukemen across the street from the best ramen and tsukemen restaurant in the city. Ok, so maybe innovation is a kind word for what Miyata Menji is, the latest ramenya to open in West L.A. (right across the street from Tsujita, in the old Gr/eats space.) Downright wacky is more like it.

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