Matsuri Japanese Restaurant

 Matsuri Japanese Restaurant is located in Pasadena, CA. It is an average sized restaurant with a sushi bar. I think it's a great place for lunch gatherings (lunch menu is better than dinner). This restaurant is adorable and I'm guessing the owner runs it most of the time. They have one of those japanese taiku ? those big round "timpani" looking drums. When you walk in, they will bang it and welcome you in Japanese. It's cute.

So I've been here a few times before, and I suggested this place for my friend, Rosa's, birthday dinner. As it turns out, we had a great time, the food was fresh, and they offer ice cream and a small gift for the birthday girl.

I do think that their lunch menu is better because of the portions. The quality is the pretty consistent, but the portion seemed same if not less than lunch! I mean, I'm paying a lot more for dinner and I'm getting less? That just doesn't make sense to me...

The food? I love their tempura and their sashimi/sushi. Very clean and crispy tempura - 3 shrimps I got! The fish is fresh and nicely sliced. I also have to mention the desserts - Fried Banana and Green Tea Ice cream is the best to share after a nice meal! We also tried the fried ice cream and that was pretty good too. They also offer strawberry and vanilla ice cream, but I think their green tea is well flavored.

I will definitely go back for lunch dates but maybe not dinner...

Sry about the poor photo quality~ 

Redondo Beach Lobster Festival

So once a year near the end of september is the lobster season. Last year, I went to a Lobster festival at San Pedro. This year, I missed that one, so I went to another one in Redondo Beach. I yelped it (funny how a site name can become a verb) and read that it's more pricey and served a "higher" class. Well, I certainly hoped their lobster live up to the price. So, a group of us went on the friday night around 8pm. It certainly was a small area. We paid for our ticket outside and went in. They didn't have signs so we didn't know where to get the actual lobster. We walked past hot dog, lemonade, ice cream, corn on the cob stands and found a small area near the back that resembled a tent with some people. A small stand was nearby that sold drink tickets and lobster tickets. They also introduced steak as a main course this year. I've forgotten the lobster prices (either $20 or $25) and the steak was probably under $20. Well, I came for lobster and that's what I ordered (1 - 1.25lb - cheapest). The guys went to pick up our food from the not very busy lobster stand. The ladies made a mistake and actually gave us an extra lobster ! I guess that's a bonus for us. Well, the lobster looked kind of sad, not because it's just been boiled and I'm about to eat it sad, but it looked dull and small. The meat looks dry and shrunken. The meal also came with a bread roll, coleslaw, potatoes, and butter sauce. All were so so but the butter sauce was far too thick and tasted like popcorn butter. Well, the lobster did not seem as fresh and definitely was overcooked. But lobster is lobster so it wasn't too bad. Well, that was dinner, nothing too exciting there. We walked to the other side of the area and there were some stores that sold arts and crafts. At the other end was a rodeo bull riding machine. They were doing free rides on the first night. It was cute to see other people (especially a 6/7 year old girl ride it with her arm swinging over her head).

I guess next year I'll have to go back to the one in San Pedro. I remember that one was crowded and I lined up for an hour for my lobster... I'm sure the prices were similar too.