Quick Hits for the Tummy!

So last week Shana and I hit up two pretty nice restaurants, both of the small casual variety. One is the Auld Irisher which is located in Orange, CA and the other is an okonomiyaki place called Gaja which is located in Lomita, CA (near Torrance). Here are some quick thoughts on both Restaurants...

Auld Irisher

* Post St. Patty's Day, Lora and Teresa invited us to join in on all the Guinness and Boxty action.  To the right you will see our drinks: Guinness/Irish Cider Mix, Irish Cider and Guiness.

* We had puffed pastry stuffed w/ sausage dish and all I have to say is: how can you go wrong w/ flaky and crunchy w/ some delicious Irish sausage..?  You CAN'T

* Shana had the Fish & Chips which I've had before.  She felt it was too oily but it's to be expected with everything being deep fried.  The fish isn't bad but it could be a crispier.  I like the fries there and they taste very good with the curry you can order on the side

* I had a corned beef and swiss cheese boxty.  If you don't know, a boxty is a potato pancake that is filled with various goodies.  Imagine gnocchi, smashed out into a crepe, grilled, and then stuffed with corned beef and topped with swiss cheese.  I really enjoyed it.

Final Verdict - This place was definitely a nice place to just hang out and have some beers.  That coupled with the very filling food makes it a wonderful location for a small group of friends to reminisce of old times.

Gaja

* Okonomiyaki is the Japanese "Healthy Pancake".  All I can say is it is delicious but very hard to explain so follow the link.

* This place is great for a few people but we would avoid big parties.  There's a grill right in front of you but unlike Korean BBQ, it does take some focus to cook and you're not passing stuff around, you have to have space to work.

* Gaja is great because they have the okono/manja - yaki dishes plus izakaya style food.  Their Takoyaki was amazing and although Shana didn't like it, the Karaage with cheese on top is great!  Cheese makes everything better!

* The okonomiyaki was delicious!  Crispy with great ingredients and you can cover it yourself with the toppings YOU want.  Customization is key.

* Cooking yourself is a lot of fun but make sure you OIL the pan enough and that the pan is hot enough.  We had neither of these requirements in place which lead to epic fail okonomiyaki.

* Fortunately, if you screw up, they bring out a fresh order made by the chef.  So no matter what, make sure to try cooking because it's a lot of fun!

* The desserts here are crazy.  They have an endless selection of parfaits and we ended up getting the "Deluxe Japanese Parfait" which was very good at the start but as we got to the bottom we realized, you need to mix the ice cream into the condense milk and vannilla-choco flakes.

Final Verdict - This place is a lot of fun.  Great food and you get to cook a very creative dish yourself.  Then season and sauce as you like!  Finally, end the night with one of their very innovative parfaits.   Next time we are definitely conquering the grill!

Cheers!

~ 平安 \/. ^_^