And in more happy hour news…

I’m a sucker for good, inexpensive food and drink. Cheap eats, as it were. And you can always find deals during happy hour, right? (Sometimes, if I can muster the appetite that early, I’ll make happy hour my dinner. But I digress.)

So e*starla and I went to check out the happy hour at Hokusai, a Japanese restaurant near the intersection of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards in the space that used to house Continental. It’s pretty darn close to where we live, and just across the street from e*starla’s place of business. (This was a while ago, but you know you still want to hear about it — because it’s happy hour!)

From 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. weekdays, the Japanese restaurant offers well-endowed bar bites for between $1.99 to $4.99 each, including hand rolls ($1.99) to fried calamari ($4.99). There are also drinks specials that include beer and sake $3 or $6 depending on size, glasses of wine for $7, and well drinks and house martinis for $5.

I liked the food better than the drinks we had here. We tried the lychee, fuji apple and guava sunrise martinis. They were too sweet for my taste. But in terms of the food, everything we had was pretty good.

California and spicy scallop handrolls

Assorted sushi

We tried the seafood cigars, stuffed with shellfish and fried like eggrolls. They were decent, but a little over fried. Better were the crispy rice tacos, which basically resembled a California roll in taco form. Since I like California rolls, this was really appealing to me, and it didn’t disappoint. I appreciated the whole slices of avocado; no skimping! The rock shrimp tempura was tasty in a spicy sauce and came on a bed of greens, like a salad. The handrolls and sushi were tasty, too.

Seafood cigars

Crispy rice tacos

Rock shrimp tempura

So while Hokusai might be an overlooked happy hour destination, stop by if you’re in the Mid-City West/Beverly Hills neighborhood. Good food at good prices.

After being open for a couple of months, I’ve finally made it to BoHo, the Spacecraft-designed and Adolfo Suaya-owned restaurant that’s “a little bohemian, a little Hollywood.” Since it’s usually packed on weekend nights, I was a little surprised that it seemed kind of slow last night, but I guess you can’t expect too much on a Monday night. Anyway, on to the food.

The good: My table, which included e*starla, enjoyed all of the food we ordered. I had the potato pizza, which included fingerling potatoes, spinach, roasted garlic, mozzarella, ricotta and grated reggiano. We also had the Pile o’ Ribs, the meat of which was tender and fell off the bone easily. The fries were decent. And we had an order of the beef shortribs, which were braised in Rogue chocolate stout and guajillo chiles and came with spaetzle. That might have been my favorite dish, actually. We were impressed by the list of 25 microbrews, and I had a Raspberry Sunset cocktail made with framboise lambic beer, lemonade and muddled mint. It was good, even if there wasn’t much alcohol in it. That’s probably why it was only $4. The waitstaff was friendly, helpful and knowledgeable.

The bad: Not too much here, though I wasn’t completely satisfied with the crust on my pizza. I like a doughy crust, or at least one with some bite, and BoHo’s was practically hollow. It didn’t taste bad; it just didn’t have to texture I prefer. Also, the restaurant space was a little drafty, probably due to the high ceilings and the open front door. But I got over that pretty quickly.

All in all, BoHo offers good value. With the exception of two dishes (peppersteak is $24 and beef shortribs are $21), nothing on the menu breaks $20. The portions are large, too. That’s why we didn’t have dessert, though the zeppolis (Italian doughnuts) caught my eye. I’ll try those next time with the 10% off coupon the restaurant gave us with our check.

Potato pizza

Beef shortribs

Pile o' Ribs

Poolside at the Avalon Hotel

Avalon Hotel’s restaurant, Blue on Blue, has just introduced its version of a chef’s table – the chef’s cabana. The poolside dining experience starts with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres that lead into a four-course family-style dinner. There’s a special menu that includes ingredients from local farmers markets and herbs and greens from the hotel’s rooftop garden. I had a chance to experience the cabana menu last week (along with e*starla, Pocket Lint and Ritz Bites), and some of the standout dishes were the smoked trout crostini, golden beat tartare, quinoa and hericot vert salad, and spiced pork tenderloin. The Elixir martini, made with house-infused cucumber-dill vodka (made with rooftop dill that’s infused with the vodka for six days), sweetened lime and white cranberry, is excellent (this martini is available on blue on blue’s regular drinks menu, too).

There is a downside: Only those with deep pockets will be able to afford eating here since spots at the cabana are $150 per person. For those with even deeper pockets, an additional $250 will get you a private shopping trip with Chef Scott Garrett, who will accompany you in buying your dinner at either the Santa Monica or Hollywood farmers market. Since you are paying so much, Garrett, formerly with Viceroy’s Whist, says he will accommodate off-menu requests. And he’s married to a pastry chef at SusieCakes, which means the bakery’s super-moist coconut cake can accompany Blue on Blue’s soft chocolate chip cookies (the secret: they’re undercooked).

Earlier: News from Avalon Hotel

Elixir martini

Rooftop garden

Smoked trout crostini

Spiced pork tenderloin

Market counter at La Grande Orange Santa Monica

After a Macallan scotch tasting at the Viceroy last night (set up by e*starla and attended by Caroline on Crack, LAist’s Julie Wolfson and LA-OC-Foodie – but more on that later), we headed over to La Grande Orange’s newest outpost in Santa Monica for dinner.

The good: The entrance is decorated with pots of homegrown herbs – nice touch. The market counter and wine display upon entering have a simple, clean presentation. This new location serves sushi, and the rainbow roll was excellent (go with the aioli dip, not the soy – too salty). The sweet potato roll, something I hadn’t seen before, was decent, though it was really just tempura-battered and fried sweet potato with avocado. The service was prompt and friendly. And when our server charged us for the wrong dessert item, she ended up comping it.

The bad: I wasn’t impressed with the food. Granted, it was opening night. I know it takes a while for restaurants to get it right. But after being impressed with LGO Pasadena’s food, I had high hopes. I ordered the turkey and vegetable meatloaf, which was a little bland, and came with broccolini. I thought surely it would be accompanied by mashed potatoes, or something of the sort. My fellow diners and I noticed some items were missing from the menu, too: deviled eggs, olive oil cake, and the pizza that has been touted as the Next Big Thing for LGO. The restaurant’s rep says Santa Monica is still tweaking its menu, so I guess we’ll see what ultimately ends up on it.

Of course, this isn’t a full review since the place just opened. All in all, I’d go back. I still have faith that it’ll be as good as the Pasadena location.