Sawtelle Kitchen is West L.A. Japanese 101
Even though it will likely never compete with the South Bay for Japanese food supremacy, Sawtelle has managed to compile a decent enough collection of lunch options to make those of us who live and work on the Westside less likely to make the drive down the 405. If you want a decent katsu curry, there’s Hurry Curry of Tokyo or Curry House. Japanese fried chicken? Furaibo has great lunch specials. Cheap hot bento boxes to go? Tempura House it is. Sushi? Kiriko if you’ve got money, Hide Sushi if you don’t. And now that Tsujita is open, West L.A. could reasonably lay claim to serving the best ramen and tsukemen in all of Southern California.
But as much as I enjoy lunching on Sawtelle one place has never enticed me: Sawtelle Kitchen. I don’t know if it’s the valet parking, the disproportionate number of white people who eat there (yes, I’m a self hating gaijin), or the fact that you could plop the place down on Doheny, and it would fit right in. Thanks, but no thanks. That is, until a trusted (read: Japanese) friend told me they have a decent hamburger/meatloaf and their salad dressing is amazing. Amazing, as in they closely guard the recipe and won’t you give you any extra in a to-go cup, amazing. No salad dressing could be that good… but I’m down with Japanese hamburger!
Posted at 11:30 am, December 8th, 2011 under Japanese, Sawtelle Kitchen, West L.A..
