Petting Food: Marugame Monzo

Went to this Udon place in Little Tokyo this past Sunday and enjoyed some very nice udon. 

Date	August 3rd, Sunday night, quite crowded
Parking	♥ You know how it is for Little Tokyo’s parking. You either get lucky enough to park on the streets, or you pay for public parking. We had to park quite far for to get a street parking. And you know how it gets a little be creepy at night on the streets so I would actually prefer public parking that’s close to the restaurant. (I normally park next to pinkberry if I go to Little Tokyo)
Wait Time	♥♥ It was about 15-20 minutes wait for four of us. But compare to Daikokuya next door, I do consider the wait time to be short. The restaurant is not that big, so you will have to wait for sure. Please note that this restaurant might not be the best place for large groups.
Cleanliness	♥♥♥♥
Food	When you enter the restaurant, you can see a udon chef hand-rolling the udon dough inside the kitchen. All the udon in this restaurant is hand-rolled which makes the udon chewy but smooth. My husband tried this Sea Urchin Cream Udon. The taste of the cream and sea urchin matches perfectly well. Their creamy soup is not like the ones in Fu Fu Tei [which is more soup and salty]. This Sea Urchin Cream Udon is creamy and thick, but not as filling as it seems to be. It is a little pricier but it is definitely worth the try. You may think they might put so little sea urchin inside the soup, but that’s not the case. They actually have quite a bit of sea urchin for you to finish the udon without running out of sea urchin. Sea Urchin Cream Udon $15.95 ♥♥♥♥♥ I had this Curry Udon which comes in a thick curry paste/soup with udon and some beef inside. In my opinion, the curry sauce/soup was too thick and too salty. It would be great for rice but for udon, it was a little bit too much. I became so thirsty at the end that I couldn’t even finish the whole udon. The sauce to my taste is a little bit spicier and less sweetened than regular Japanese curry. Curry Udon $9.50 ♥ Miso Cabonara $12.50 Chicken Skin
Price	♥♥ Other than the sea urchin cream udon being pricier than the other dishes, I still consider this as a pretty good deal. I do think the sea urchin cream udon is worth that price.

Marugame Monzo
329 E 1st Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 346-9762
Visit their Yelp Page here

Petting Food: Pho Filet

Went to this restaurant the past July 4th for lunch as I've been craving for Pho for a long time. Since I've moved to LA county, I never really had a nice pho. Westminster, Orange County always has the best pho!
A couple of friends recommended this restaurant since it's close by, and it is also very famous for it's Filet Mignon. Yes, it sounds delicious!

Visit their Yelp Page Here

Date	July 4th, Saturday, crowded.
Parking	♫♫ (out of 5) Not much space. We had to park on the streets
Wait Time	♫♫♫ (out of 5) It was about 15-20 minutes wait. Considering it was a federal holiday and there wasn't many choices left, it's actually not bad. We did have to share a table at the beginning, but after we've ordered our food, a booth was opened and we switched.
Cleaniness	♫♫ (out of 5) Honestly, it doesn't look very clean. I didn't pay much attention to the floor, but it just feels like one of those Asian restaurants... Not clean. But if you don't pay attention to it then you can still survive.
Food	♫♫♫♪ (out of 5) The Filet Mignon pho is pretty good. It came rare and the soup gradually warms it up and gets it cooked. Well, this is pretty much how all rare beef pho is, except this is filet mignon. The filet mignon is tender, but it is chopped off into small pieces. Some might like it, but I can’t really taste the beef. The soup base is nice though. I like how they put extra ginger into the soup, which is different from other pho places that I’ve been to. I don't think the MSG was too strong even though I've drank 1/3 of the soup.  On top of the pho, I’ve also ordered an Avocado Milk Shake. I’ve tried one in Westminster long time ago. This one is actually pretty good too. It is not as “heavy” and “filling” as the one I’ve had before. It tastes light. However, the soup from the pho was too strong that took me awhile to finally get the taste of the avocado.
Price	♫♫♫♫♫ (good deal!) $6 for a small bowl of pho. I consider it as a reasonable price. $2 for Avocado Milk Shake. Pretty good deal. You won’t be able to get a drink for only $2 now at a regular boba place.

* ♫ = how good it is.


** Update on 7/28/2014: We actually just found out there's actually another Pho Filet 2 in Rosemead which is cleaner and bigger. Visit their Yelp page here.