27 posts tagged “restaurant reviews”

Here's a review for your North County residents. Leucadia Sushi is located on North Coast Highway, north of restaurants such as Jamroc and Cap'n Keno. Basically, where Leucadia really gets funky - not in a bad way, but in a decidedly low-brow, relaxed way. On a side note, I've been wanting to visit Cap'n Keno, for the hell of it. Spaghetti dinners are $2.95. I'm not expecting much, but it's intriguing.

I had a $25 gift certificate from Restaurant.com for Leucadia Sushi so we decided to try it last night when I was sick of turkey leftovers. It was empty except for a group of 4-5 diners, but I think it may be a new restaurant. Here's what it looks like; it's one of those sushi boat places.

The sushi was pretty cheap (around $4 for two pieces of nigiri), and a fairly decent quality considering the price. It definitely can't compare to nicer places like Sushi Ota, Station Sushi, Tomiko or Tajima... but if you're looking for someplace cheap, this is better than your typical cheap joint in, say, P.B.

Overall, I'd say it could be an ok happy hour spot if it attracts some more business. There's a coupon on their website, and of course, you can get a gift certificate off Restaurant.com.  The honey and I ended up paying about $28 after the coupon,  including tip, two teas, 4 orders of nigiri, and 3 rolls.

The restaurant doesn't offer enough to make me want to come back, because I'd prefer to hit the Tomiko happy hour, which is in Encinitas, which would end up being slightly more expensive, but much better sushi and a much better ambience.

The final word
(1-5 rating:  1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)

Food (Taste, Quality): 2.7
Value: 3.4
Service: 4
Ambience: 2
Memorable Experience: 2
Price: around $4 for nigiri, and $7-14 for rolls.
Menu recommendations: I liked the salmon nigiri and the albacore. The tuna wasn't very good. Their dynamite dishes had too much creamy mayo-like sauce.
Notes:
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?:  Probably not, given the other better sushi places that are closer. 

Yesterday I met some girlfriends for happy hour at Truluck's, a semi-new restaurant located in La Jolla, by the Aventine hotel. The honey had raved about their happy hour, so I had to give it a try.

I wasn't disappointed. The prices are ridiculous. Happy hour is 5:00 - 7:00, seven nights a week. Appetizers are half off, so they range from $4.50 to $8 each, and include such yummies as seafood, steak and crab sliders; stuffed Wagyu burger, warm goat cheese, and crab deviled eggs.

Cocktails are also half price, ranging from $4.25 - $5.25. The drink menu isn't all that cohesive. About half of the drinks are frou-frou "martinis"; the other half includes a mai tai, kir royale, a couple margaritas, mojito, and a long island. I'm only really in the mood for a mai tai in a tiki bar, and for margaritas in a Mexican restaurant... so I think they could replace these with some more sophisticated cocktails that would better match their ambience.

Speaking of ambience, it's got a dark seafood/steak place kind of feel. It's a little bit generic, and the people there seem kind of generic too, I guess because it's business people and business travelers... no regulars, no real local flavor. But it's nice, not overly formal, and they have a good piano player/ jazz singer.  I'll definitely be going back for happy hour. It would be a good spot for dinner, but the menu didn't seem super interesting to me.

The final word
(1-5 rating:  1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)

Food (Taste, Quality): 4
Value: 4.5
Service: 4
Ambience: 3
Memorable Experience: 3
Price: $5 cocktails and $5 appetizers during happy hour
Menu recommendations: nothing stood out, but it was all pretty good
Notes:
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?:  Yes for happy hour, maybe for dinner. If you like steak/seafood places (that are not steakhouses), it would be a good joint.

San Diego Beer Week has just ended. While I didn't go to as many of the events as I would have liked, I went to Hamilton's Tavern and Alchemy on Saturday.

Hamilton's was pouring a bunch of Pizza Port brews, including two casked beers. Excellent.  They had free barbecue and a whole roast suckling pig, but -- damnit! -- we arrived too late and all signs of the pig were gone. Sigh.

After a couple brewskis in the very crowded bar, we walked over to Alchemy. Alchemy is a pretty hip, schwanky little restaurant that serves some innovative cocktails, small plates, and a few entrees. There's a cool serpentine-shaped bar there, and I'd like to come back during the weekday after-work hours sometime.

I was really pleasantly surprised by the food -- I haven't been so pleasantly surprised since I ate at Market, one of my favorite restaurants in San Diego county. Alchemy was a little pricey, but the food was worth it.  We had:

Calimari - I've actually never had it not fried. I realized what I was missing. The broth was incredible - lots of butter and white wine.

Stuffed squash blossoms - Cheesy, crunchy, delicious. This tends to be one of my favorite dishes. It was nice and crisp, not at all soggy or heavy despite being really stuffed with filling.

Charcuterie plate - Really, really good. They didn't serve the same ol' salami stuff that most places serve (which I love, but it was nice to see something different).  There was chorizo, serrano, and duck. The portion is small, however.

Ceviche - Good, fresh, crunchy. Comparable to the good ceviches I've had in Mexico. No unusual spin on this one.

Avocado and corn salad - This dish wasn't my pick but turned out to be very satisfying. Lots of good contrasting textures and it was full of flavor. There was a base of creamy avocado and crunchy corn shaped in a ring mold topped with a salad. I'm not doing it justice, but I'd order it again.

Burger - The burger was full of juicy goodness. It was on some kind of egg roll or challah, which was the perfect buttery accompaniment; the whole burger was rather rich, but the richness was cut by the fresh, crunchy spiced pickles in the burger.

The cocktails looked really good too. My friend ordered the "dirty pickle" which is a martini with pickle juice and cornichons that was quite tasty.

The final word
(1-5 rating:  1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)

Food (Taste, Quality): 4.8
Value: 3.8
Service: 5
Ambience: 4
Memorable Experience: 4
Price: About $10 per small plate, $10-20 per entree, $10 cocktails
Menu recommendations: burger, charcuterie plate
Notes: A little noisy, nice bar, great service.
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?:  Yes

Last night, the honey and I attended a Chef's Celebration dinner at Kitchen 1540 in the L'Auberge hotel in Del Mar. For $65, you get a four-course meal created by five premier San Diego chefs. Our featured chefs were:

Paul McCabe – Kitchen 1540
Matt Gordon - Urban Solace
Jeff Jackson – The Lodge at Torrey Pines
Jim Phillips – Barona Casino

The proceeds go towards a culinary scholarship fund.  Here's the menu; the items we ordered in bold:

Amuse: Braised veal cheeks (Chris Kurth)
Cold:  Potted jidori chicken liver pate, ginger-spiced poached apple, almond cracker (Matt Gordon)
Hiramasa Crudo, abalone, compressed fennel, sake cured steelhead roe (Paul McCabe)
Hot:  Roasted scallops with pork trotters, persimmon, mizuna, hazelnut vinaigrette (Chris Kurth)
Carta Fata Cookery lobster, scallop, prawn, heirloom squash chutney, leek fondue, tarragon infused shellfish sauce (Jim Philips)
Entree:  Venison strip loin, roasted venison marrow sauce, mustard braised lights chard, butternut squash and sweet corn spoonbread (Matt Gordon)
Trio of duck, herb smoked breast, confit ravioli, seared foie gras, braised artichoke (Jim Philips)
Wild striped bass, sweet potato walnut saute, black truffle, whipped cider (Paul McCabe)
Dessert: Quince tart tatin and fresh cream (Jeff Jackson & Lori Huffman)
Mignardises:  Salted caramels, pan forte, orange truffles (Jeff Jackson & Lori Huffman)

So how was it? You guessed it, wonderful.  The veal cheeks were amazingly tender. Every time I order "cheeks" of something it seems to be excellent.
 
I am not really a pate fan, but this dish must have been very good, because I enjoyed it. All the sides made it much more palatable to me, and the presentation was gorgeous. 

The hiramasa crudo was a scrumptious little salty bite.

The Carta Fata Cookery lobster dish had a gorgeous presentation -- everything was steamed in a little bag, which our waitress cut open.  The dish was overly spiced for my taste -- a whole lot of Indian type spices overwhelmed the lobster and made the ingredients difficult to distinguish. When you have ingredients like that you want to taste them. However, the seafood was tender and cooked nicely.

The venison was the highlight of my meal. Super tender, lots of flavor, and it didn't turn out gristly or gamey like venison can. I haven't been to Urban Solace yet, but this dish makes me want to go.

I didn't even get to try the striped bass, because the honey snarfed it before I could get a bite. Sneaky!

The dessert was also quite good, but I have to be honest -- my tastebuds were almost worn out by that point. The salted caramel was my favorite part of dessert.

We left stuffed and happy after a 3-hour dinner.  Oh, and I have to say -- part of the excitement about the night was that it provided me an opportunity to wear a new Nanette Lepore dress I scored at Nordstrom Rack recently. It was divine.

My boss went to the Chef's Celebration dinner at Cowboy Star, and was raving about it. She sat at the bar, and got to see all the chefs interacting, which sounded really fun.

Last night, with an empty fridge and empty stomachs, the honey and I decided to use one of my Restaurant.com gift certificates and try out a sushi place in Del Mar called Shimbashi Izakaya.

First, a word about Restaurant.com -- I really like it. They sell $25 gift certificates for $10 (other increments sometimes available).  They have 80% off sales so often that I usually get the $25 certificate for $2.  The fine print?  It varies by restaurant, but usually, you have to spend at least $35, an 18% gratuity is automatically added, and you can't use the certificate towards alcohol.  Usually I spend & tip that much anyway, so it's not an issue, and it's an easy way to save some dough.

Now on to the restaurant. Although we didn't sit at the bar, it looks like a great place for happy hour. Nice, open bar, but a fairly intimate, quiet atmosphere in the restaurant. Well-lit, not loud, gorgeous ocean view, and of course, the Del Mar people watching.  I'll bet this place gets packed in the summer.

The whole restaurant has a very nice feel to it -- comfortable, organic, fairly traditional. You won't find any crazy rolls with names like "dynamite" or "san diego". But you will find some top quality fish, prepared consistently perfectly.

We started off with the fried squid legs appetizer.  "Great with beer!" the menu declared. I'm sure they would be. Kind of like meatier, more flavorful calimari. A little salty, crunchy, chewy... yum.  Then we ordered some mixed sushi, a shimbashi roll and a chef's special roll.

The rolls were cut into perfect mouth-size pieces. I find this important with sushi. I don't want something I can't eat in one bite... especially if it's at all mushy.  These were perfect.  And they have a flare for making rolls with the perfect mixture of textures and tastes -- everything had some crunch, some soft, some savory, some sweet or tart.  The shimbashi roll was my favorite. The nigiri sushi was melt-in-your-mouth. I didn't even want to put soy sauce on any of it because it was already perfect.

Shimbashi Izakaya is a little on the pricey side, but you pay for the quality. It definitely rivals or tops any other place in San Diego that I've tried.

The final word
(1-5 rating:  1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)

Food (Taste, Quality): 5
Value: 3.8
Service: 4
Ambience: 4
Memorable Experience: 4
Price: $75 (pre- certificate) for 1 app, 7-piece nigiri, 2 rolls, 2 teas.
Menu recommendations: Shimbashi roll
Notes: Come back for happy hour.
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?:  Yes

Since I'm now being super good with my budget, eating out is one of the main areas I had to cut back on. Oh, the humanity! But, I did treat myself to one dinner for restaurant week -- Hexagone, a new French restaurant in Bankers Hill.

Hexagone is on a fairly busy street corner, and has large windows looking out onto the street, which gives it a casual bistro kind of feel. However, I'd say that the food is a bit fancier than the atmosphere feels. Most of the waiters are French, or at least have really good fake accents.

Hexagone was on the $40 menu, and I chose:

1. Cappuccino de Homard
   Lobster Soup with Tarragon Broth
2. Vegetarian dish - gnocchi and portabella mushrooms with tomato and goat cheese (this description is from memory because it's not on the website)
   
3. Gateau de Fromage Blanc aux Bananes
   Bananas Foster Cheesecake, Sautéed Bananas in a Caramel Sauce
    

The lobster soup was perfect. It wasn't really chunks of lobster; rather, it was more of a somewhat (not overly) creamy broth intensely lobster flavored. It has its "cappuccino" name because there was foam on top. Perfect serving size - it whetted my appetite without being filling.

The vegetarian dish was also quite good. The little gnocchi were in a mustard sauce, perfectly prepared to be like fluffy little pillows. Separately, there was a stack of portabella, tomato, goat cheese in herbs and breadcrumbs, tomato, portabella. I usually don't order the vegetarian dish on a prix fixe menu, but I wasn't in the mood for duck confit or halibut, and I don't usually order steak unless I'm at a place that specializes in steak. So, it may not have been the most expensive dish, but it held up quite well on its own. The portions are typically French, which is perfect for me, but may be a little on the small side for those with a bigger appetite. (The honey would've been waiting for more).

I had a glass of French chardonnay with the meal. Over the past year or two, I've really grown an appreciation for French chardonnays -- unlike their California counterparts, they are not big and buttery (which I also like, depending on the dish). They are subtle, kind of mineral-y. Anywho, I enjoyed it and Hexagone seemed to have a very good wine list.

The cheesecake was delicious. It's hard to get the consistency perfect on a cheesecake -- that point where it's creamy and not underdone, but you don't really have to bite into it. Hexagone did a good job.

Overall, Hexagone was a very good experience. My only criticism is that it's a fairly fancy restaurant in terms of the quality and prices of the food and wine, but the setting feels more casual -- so it isn't a place I'd go to if I was looking for an extra-special date restaurant. I'd love to go back for lunch -- that could be the perfect meal there.

The final word
(1-5 rating:  1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)

Food (Taste, Quality): 4.5
Value: 3.5 - For restaurant week, it's a 4.2, but the regular menu has prices pretty much in line with what you'd expect
Service: 4.8
Ambience: 3.5 - nice but more casual than the food
Memorable Experience: 4
Price: $21-28 for dinner entrees
Menu recommendations: lobster soup, bananas foster cheesecake, French wine
Notes: Try it for lunch sometime.
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?:  Yes, but maybe for a group dinner - an occasion where I didn't want quietness and low lighting. Would definitely try it for lunch.

Even though I'm Asian, I'm not that adventurous with Asian food. My explanation for that is that Vietnam is very rich in natural resources, so my peeps didn't have to come up with as many recipes for offal n' stuff... we'd just pull more shrimp from the sea or something.  (I don't know if my interpretation is actually true... but hey, whatever works).

Anyway, to the point, I must be a bad Asian because I've never eaten Peking Duck. My Irish friend from Philly would tell me at length all about his transcendent Peking Duck experiences, which left me feeling like an overly Americanized backwards Asian who doesn't care about her ancestry.

Anyway, ever since reading this foodie blog post about Golden City, my craving for Peking Duck grew. And those that know me know that my cravings have to be satisfied eventually. Ye gads, you'd think I was pregnant or something. (Noooo I'm not).

There's really not much that I can say about Golden City that wasn't already said better in the blog link above, so I'll just say this -- I'll be back. And those little duck skin sammies are so. damn. good. Oh, and the presentation is very nice too. A waiter brings the crisp duck on a cart to your table, then carves the skin off of it ever so delicately and professionally. They give you the duck skin on a plate, and the duck fat is rendered off quite well. You put some skin in a little steamed bun with some hoisin and scallions.  The rest of the duck is chopped up with watercress and put into lettuce bowls for your second duck course.  5373 Kearny Villa Rd deserves a visit.

The final word
(1-5 rating:  1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)

Food (Taste, Quality): 4.5 -- for the Peking Duck anyway
Value: 4.7 For $9 each, we got rice, 2 courses of Peking Duck, beef and broccoli and kung pao chicken.
Service: 4
Ambience: 2 (typical Chinese place)
Memorable Experience: 4
Price: $9 for lunch
Menu recommendations: Peking duck!
Notes:
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?:  Yes, and all my co-workers will be coming with me as well.

Last night was the honey's birthday, so we went to Kitchen 1540 for dinner. It's in the L'Auberge hotel in Del Mar, which underwent a really nice renovation last year. I had already been to Kitchen 1540 for brunch, which was fabulous.

The decor at Kitchen 1540 is really nice - California beachy modern. Nice lighting, cool bar. The patio is a great place for summertime evenings:

The hotel bar just outside the restaurant is annoyingly loud with the post-race crowd who's typically already half in the bag by the time they get there. (Can you say "meat market"?)

On to the food - The ingredients taste exceedingly fresh and most are local, which is a big plus in my book. Overall, the dishes show a flair for creativity and a respect for the ingredients - particularly the starters. I had a sweet corn agnolotti which was "to die for". Little ravioli-type things with sweet corn and big hunks of Maine lobster. The honey had a mushroom risotto, which came with tempura vegetables on the side. Both were prepared excellently. The risotto was nice and creamy, not too sticky, heavy, or cheesy, which I've found at other places. 

I'd like to see more variety on the dinner entree menu, as there just eight entrees, including some of the things I see on a lot of menus, which I wasn't in the mood for - short ribs, fancy burger, roasted chicken. Yawn. The honey ordered the May Ranch beef tenderloin, which we split along with an organic green salad and the starters. The beef was a disappointment. A steakhouse steak it was not - no crusty outside. It was very tender, but had a semi-pasty and gristly texture. It also was not very flavorful, although the tenderloin is a pretty delicate flavor so I wasn't expecting big beef flavor anyway. I think it could have used a lot more seasoning.

The organic green salad came with cherry halves, marcona almonds, and a large hunk of Humboldt Fog cheese, one of my favorite cheeses. Great combo. I didn't order a cheese plate, but would have loved to, as they had a really nice selection.

For dessert, I had the root beer trio - a little root beer float, root beer brittle, and these curious little brown and white cakes that actually tasted like root beer on the bottom (brown half) and foam on the white half. That was pretty cool and very original. The honey had the vanilla cheesecake, which was extremely light, but in my opinion, too light. It didn't actually taste like cheesecake. But if you dislike cheesecake because it's too heavy, you'd like this.

I would definitely come back for drinks and appetizers, and also brunch, but would probably skip the dinner entree next time.  

The final word
(1-5 rating:  1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)

Food (Taste, Quality): 4.3 for breakfast, 3.8 for dinner
Value: 3.6
Service: 3.2
Ambience: 4
Memorable Experience: 4
Price: $11-19 brunch entrees; $16-28 dinner entrees
Menu recommendations: Brunch - California omelette, almond crusted french toast. Dinner - sweet corn agnolotti, risotto, organic green salad (all starters)
Notes: I prefer it for brunch.
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?:  Yes for brunch, no for dinner.

Now that I work in Sorrento Valley, I'm in one of the top two centers of lunch convenience of San Diego (the other being Kearny Mesa, home of cheap ethnic eats, in my book). Come to think of it, I'm only a 10-minute drive from Kearny Mesa anyway.

So far, I have only tried a few places -- not even scratching the surface. But here's a review of what I've tried so far.

Opera Patisserie
I've eaten here several times, and it always fulfills my croissant sandwich craving, which happens every month or so. Nice French style sandwiches, great salads, a small bakery of French pastries. Usually around $7-10. I wouldn't say it's a place that's super special, but it's one of my ol' reliables.

Habaneros
My first-day lunch, courtesy of my company. I had the two taco combo: a taco al pastor, a carne asada taco, rice and beans. It was a lot of food, even more than a typical Mexican restaurant. The tacos were great. The salsa bar was pretty standard - like what you'd find at Rubio's. Don't expect Habaneros to compare to "real" Mexican food joints, but for a Mira Mesa lunch place, it's solid, and I prefer it to a place like Rubio's. I'll be back again. There are also flat-screen TVs for sports junkies.

In n' Out
Well, I don't think I need to review this place. Oh manna from heaven. Had a great lunch there, but I will have to limit future visits, as I looked up the calorie count for my lunch (burger + milkshake, no fries or soda) -- it came out to 1,170 calories. I'm not freakish about my diet, but that's just overdoing it.

Yoshi Sushi
I was stoked to find a sushi place within .5 miles of work, but this place is just mediocre. I had take-out sushi, and the hostess was pretty un-friendly. The sushi itself was pretty good and tasted fairly fresh. It was kind of pricey. I wouldn't balk at going back to get my sushi fix, but I'd rather find a better sushi place.

Fresh & Easy
This is a sort of convenience-meets-grocery-store. I love the concept, because I'd like to replace fast food with healthy prepared foods when I don't have time to make lunch. I would like the store much better if as a brand they embraced healthy, organic, and local as their thing. There were a lot of items that weren't -- like Lunchables, and really high-sodium, high-fat frozen meals. However, they also had plenty of produce and some healthy deli selections. You have to look at the labels to really find out if you're buying something that's any better than the fast food. I would love to see something more along the lines of a Whole Foods meets convenience.

Sorrento European Bakery
Don't let the name fool you -- this is a Vietnamese-French banh mi (baguette sandwich) place and bakery. They have a menu selection of four different American sandwiches on baguettes (tuna, ham, etc.), and four Vietnamese banh mi - pate, grilled pork, barbecue pork, and meatball. They also have a full size bakery. I ordered the barbecue pork banh mi for $3.10.

I've got a special double-feature today on two restaurants that opened side by side in Cardiff -- Zenbu and Rimmel's. These are walking-distance from my house, so I was keen to check them out. I am naturally biased by my laziness!

Rimel's is casual dining with some outdoor patio seating, serving mainly rotisserie chicken and fresh, local seafood. The emphasis on Rimmel's is on healthy dishes -- clean, fresh taste with minimal sauces and accoutrements. I've eaten there twice, and tried the chicken quesadilla and the mussels (both appetizers big enough to constitute a meal).

The food is basic and high in quality. They don't mess around with a lot of different dishes or preparations, but what they make is fresh and mostly local. The people next to us ordered Mahi tacos and the delicious scent just wafted over to our table.

The service both times was friendly and efficient. The first time I was there, our patio heater wasn't working full. It really wasn't a big deal (we do live in San Diego after all), but the owner came out to address the issue, and gave me a free fancy floral tea, and our entire table free cake. I really appreciate that kind of personal attention.

Zenbu is a pretty fancy, pricey sushi place. I believe these two restaurants are owned by the same company/person, and they are adjoining -- but they couldn't be more different.

Since Zenbu is super-pricey, the honey and I just ordered two fairly basic sushi rolls, an order of nigiri, edamame, and one miso soup. No drinks. Our bill came to $63. Yikes.  I must say, the sushi itself was excellent. I'm not necessarily opposed to high prices, but with high prices comes a high standard for food and service.

The honey and I waited more about one hour to get our food. (And we didn't get there until 8:30!). Our waitress brought the miso soup.... the honey finished it.... we waited...and waited.... and then she brought the edamame. Then we waited.... then one roll.....we finished it....and waited... you get the picture. I think we got home around 11pm.

During this epic wait, we sat in a loud restaurant full of annoying posers. There was a table of drunk girls snapping photos, probably for their MySpace profiles, and at one point started singing. (At heart I'm a grumpy New Englander and nothing annoys me more than unsolicited singing).  Then two sushi chefs go over to flirt with them. Not like they didn't have a long list of sushi rolls to make!

The waitress came to us once and said "sorry the wait is so long, the kitchen is backed up." Well, it's nice that she noticed, but in my mind, a good waiter offers something to appease me for the wait, especially at such an expensive restaurant. How about a free drink?  Or a freakin' seaweed salad at least?  Nada.

The final word
(1-5 rating:  1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)

Food (Taste, Quality): Rimel's: 3.8, Zenbu: 4.2
Value: Rimel's: 4, Zenbu: 2
Service: Rimmel's: 4.2, Zenbu: 1.8
Ambience: Rimel's: 2.5, Zenbu: 2
Memorable Experience: Rimel's: 3.5, Zenbu: 2
Price: Rimmel's: $10-15 per entree, Zenbu: around $30 per entree, $18-22 per roll, $7.50 for nigiri
Menu recommendations: In general, I would go with one of the specials as that will be the freshest and most local.
Notes: 
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?:  Yes to Rimel's, No to Zenbu.