justin "Co-Founder of Menuism - always ready to eat!"

Since being introduced to Blue Marlin, I’ve only ordered one kind of dish here: the omrice.

What is an omrice?
Think omelet + rice. First they take a special kind of rice and cook it in some broth along with some chicken (so it’s moist and tasty). Then they use some special eggs and make a huge omelet with the rice as filling. The eggs are light and fluffy and it’s always perfectly formed. Every bite has egg and rice in it. It’s got a creamy, almost cheesy texture.

As a bonus, the omrice can come with a number of toppings: chicken or pork katsu, sliced beef, sea urchin, shrimp, or whatever they have as a special.

This is one of my favorite foods now. I love omrice!

As for the rest of the restaurant, the cuisine is basically home-style japanese. There’s a bunch of odd pastas (risotto, spaghetti) and lots of sea urchin dishes. I’ve heard the risotto is pretty good. The parking lot is valet, but I’ve never had trouble parking either on Sawtelle or on a side street.

I was never a huge fan of the cupcake craze. The ones I had before were just topped with a bunch of nasty frosting. But after trying Sprinkles and Susies, I think I’m a convert now. A good cupcake basically taste like a mini-wedding cake. The cake is moist and the frosting is just the right balance of extra sweetness. Sprinkles might still be the best I’ve had, but the inconvenience of driving to Bev Hills and waiting in those crazy lines make it hard to justify. Susie Cakes is a 5 min walk from my place and there’s never any lines. Plus it feels a bit less pretentious.

Great veggie places make it so you don’t even miss the meat. This is one of those places. My favorite veggie places don’t try to “pretend” there’s meat with the fake meat stuff. I’ve had meat and what they peddle as meat is not meat. I’d much rather just have them take vegetables and do something wonderful with them.

The ambience is very homey and there’s plenty of seating between the indoor and the enclosed patio. The people are super friendly also. I’d definitely come back here.

Pho cravings are a fact of life. Sometimes you just want some pho. Well it finally hit and Le Saigon was the only vietnamese place we could find around us.

It’s a small place so we went early to avoid any crowds. The menu is actually pretty small – only 5 or so varieties in each category of pho, rice vermicelli, or rice. Prices aren’t cheap, but they’re ok for LA.

Food wasn’t mind blowing, but it hits the spot and that’s all I can really ask for. I’ll be back next time my craving hits.

From what I can tell, the thing to order is combo #8 – that’s what people seem to be ordering.