Ok, i've really been slacking. This is backlog of my breadbar event Crush by chef Adam Sobel a while back. I was mainly attracted to this event since chef Sobel has worked at places like Guy Savoy, Charlie Trotter and Bradley Ogen. OMG, all restaurants I've dreamed of eating at! Being the foodie on a budget I thought I may get a taste of such refined gourmet cusine at a fraction of the price.

Needless to say, I was surprised when I found out the theme of dinner was STREET FOOD. Looking for gourmet, and here I get STREET! lol...Ok, being from Asia, I LOVE streetfood, but not loving paying 50 bucks for it!? However it was sort of intriguing...to see what chef Sobel interprets as "street food". Talking to Adam, I found out he just finished a tour of asia last year, where he fell in love with all the street foods... ya who can blame him....asian street vendors are the BEST. Anyways, thats where he drew his inspiration from. and oh, did I mention Chef Sobel was a CUTIE?!??! =)

breadbar's signature bread basket and dips. Mmmm this would be perfect for munching on with wine. Breadbar does not have liquor license therefore it's BYOB no corkage! A basket of this with yummy dips and a bottle of red wine can be the perfect budget friendly happy hour!

Marinated Bay Scallops, young coconut, kaffir lime vodka - the lime vodka and coconut sauce was pleasantly delicate, however, the scallops were not good quality/freshness and tasted borderline fishy.

Black bass crudo, fennel, preserved lemon, tomato confit, black olive, pickled cauliflower - Good variety of texture, from olives, diced bass, and cauliflower added a crunch. However I did not feel the flavors stood out. The bass was rather blend. This dish lacked a focus and punch of flavor.

Crush Ramen noodles, BBQ pork belly, poached egg, handmade noodle, spciy pork broth - Yes it is hard to please an asian person when u try to make asian food. Cuz we always like it the original way. Sobel's noodles were generic, the pork belly surprisingly tender with slight crips skin, the broth tasted like chinese pork stew... tasty but lacked depth of flavors from traditional japanes ramen. Overall enjoyable but not remarkable.

Liquid center potato gnocchi, fontina, chanterelles, toasted potatoe consomme, valderramma olive oil - Now this dish I'd say was highlight of the night. Could this because this is a very "western" dish, therefore I am not as critical? Not sure. But these gnocchi were heavenly little pillows, not a bit too dense. Amazingly comforting. And the chanterelle mushrooms just can never do wrong. YUM.

Korean style braised short rib, carrot ginger sauce, crispy rice salad - tasted like if you did korean BBQ with a quality piece of short rib. This was done well but again nothing exciting for an asian person like myself.

Slow cooked lamb shank tagine, fresh chick pea falafel, harrisa scented yogurt - The lamb was tender, flavorful, but yet not too heavy. This was also one of the better dishes. The falafel though, was tough and grainy.

Pineapple in all forms - My favorite dish of the night. Now THIS is what I came looking for. Creativity that turns out elegant and tasty! I wanted dishes that excites my tastebuds, not familiar asian flavors interpreted in a western eye. Pineapple sorbel in a pineapple soup with kiwi seeds swimming around. This dish was beautifully presented and so refreshing, not overly sweet. I gobbled this down.

"stoner sandwich", warm belgium waffle, nutella, pistachio gelato - Chef Sobel admitted this was a dish he came up with while being stone with munches! lol! He grabbed whatever he had in the fridge and slapped it together... and bam! comes a fun dessert! I can see kids loving this as afterschool snack.

Overall, the meal was a pretty good variety/deal, 5 course of $55. I do applaud that Chef Sobel drew inspiration from his travels and tried to creat what he is passionate about. However, I must say it is so hard for re-creations of asian food to please an asian palate, since the "street food" I grew up with ties so much with my nostalgic memories, in a way that I would almost always prefer the original. And it is pretty hard, for any chef, to make ramen that can beat ma and paps that have been making ramen their entire life for a living. I can, however, see an american tongued customer finding this concept interesting and exotic. This meal definitely was not what I was expecting, but nontheless entertaining. Chef Sobel seemed very adorable and young. I wish him the best in his new business ventures!

Breadbar

8718 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048
310 205 0124

Yes. I know you are like, WTF, what kind of name is B&F sushi. When my boyfriend first suggested we try this place...mm... 3 yrs back, I contested saying "this place can't be good, look at tthe name!". Well, boy was I wrong. Ever since we first tried this place, we went back EVERY week when we lived in Rancho Cucamonga in the Inland Empire.

Now you may say, well, you lived in the Inland Empire, it's not like you had much choices for real sushi! Well, it isn't just that. Cuz now even though we've moved out west, I still once in a while drive 1 hour east, just for the pure purpose of going to B & F.

The main sushi chef at B &F have become our good friend over the years. He is insanely generous to his customers, and has a great sense of humor. He has great knife work, and serves good honest fresh sushi at a very reasonable price. I even told him several times that he should make his portions smaller or else he will go bankrupt. But he is adamant about giving his customers their money's worth.

The sweet shrimp this visit was HUGE and juicy that it was like a mini lobster lol. Great texture and fresh! We never had Ebi this large and delicious that I had to order an extra order.

He piles on the uni when we only order one order. I'm a sucker for uni, and this was so sweet and creamy it could have ate it forever.

The yellowtail is always so fresh, with the perfect blend of fattiness, and he cuts large thick slices thats practically twice the portion of most westside places.

We also enjoy his "double trouble" specialty roll, made with spicy tuna, shiso leaf, avocado, fresh sliced tuna on top.

The place also have tables that serves up "japanese BBQ", with grills at the table and self-serve style, sort of like korean BBQ. Though we mostly end up sitting at the sushi bar, the few times I've tried the BBQ I was surprised to find the meat was flavorful and tender.

Now the only downfall is the location of B & F. It is inside this little random plaza that has few commercial office buildings and a starbucks. Pretty much you would NEVER find this place unless someone suggests it to you. Which is partly why the business there isn't as good as it could be. But this place has truely fresh honest good sushi, and the owner/sushi chef is generous and dedicated to his job and perfection. He's worked almost every day of the year minus christmas and new yrs, for the past 4 years. He is withou complaint and only wants success for his restaurant. I highly recommend this place if you are ever out in the inland!

Now I heard of this place on many food blogs as well as yelp. But really, asian mom n paps making french food? the idea scared me a little. But the apparently affordable price and close location made me think its worth satisfying my curiosity.

Upon arrival on a friday night, this place was packed! with.... OLD ppl that is. We went early around 7. And it was like the early bird special night lol. Hey, I hold no prejudices, I still had my high hopes. I saw a newspaper clipping in the glass door, an LA times featured article about La Vie, which reassured me. The place was very old school, sort of a dinky little place to be honest. But I would go anywhere any little shack for good food, so this did not stop me either. I was ready!

One can not go to a french place without trying the french onion soup. This one was.....not what I wanted it to be. There is a good layer of cheese, with nice burnt top. But the soup was way too light in flavor and depth( this coming from me, the taiwanese girl who loves light flavors....) Just was not up to par and not satisfying.

The menu looked good with a variety of options. However, when the server presented with the night's special - chilean seabass, I couldn't pass it up. This is probably my favorite fish, if prepared well. When my dish arrived though, first I was a bit taken back by how thin the fish piece was. When I took a bite, The fish was well seasoned, but a bit overly salty and oily . It was crispy on the outside, also with a touch of nice citrus/caper sauce. But since the fish piece was so thin, the bite of sweet/fattiness of chilean seabass that I love was not quite there.

My friend's salmon was honestly.... quite unremarkable bordering on bad. The fish again, thin sliced, which really isn't how quality fish should be served. Then taking a bite verified this - fish was not fresh, and also overcooked. The fish was drenched in this unremarkable sauce that could not cover up the poor quality of fish. Would not order this again.

Grilled lamb chops. This was one of the favs of ppl's on yelp. I was nice how it came separated from the chop bone. And the dish was beautifully presented. But again the quality of meat was not there, the lamb tasted a bit old. And the exterior lacked the crispiness I was looking for.

Finally, the souffle. I have never had a bad souffle, so this unfortunately was a first. The souffle was light, but too light in a way that it tasted almost like....nothing! and towards the bottom it was very watery, sort of like it should have spent at least 5 more minutes in the oven.

During the dinner, there was a party of 20 asian ppl next to us. In a tiny tiny restaurant, you know how that goes. It was so loud that we can barely have a decent conversation with each other. The food, not to be brutal, but personally I think it tasted just one notch above the typical cantonese cafe food. If I got this food at a cantonese cafe I would be impressed, but it is definitely no where near standing alone as a "gourmet" french restaurant. The prices are very reasonable. But I would much rather pay a bit more for better quality ingredients, and a decent ambience.

La Vie

(626) 571-1180