The Lifestyle Edit is a blog series featuring some recent highlights of my day-to-day life. Hopefully, you’ll still find inspiration and relatable content through this blog series. If not, let’s still celebrate life and the everyday victories we face.
I haven’t posted one of these in quite a while. Every time I think about it, I’ve already shared some of my latest life happenings one way or another. The last time I planned on posting The Lifestyle Edit, I barely hit my 300th Barry’s class, but I’m already inching towards 400 at this point. Instead, I bring forth to you a bit of my latest eateries in LA. Bon appetit!
Te Isshoku
Always, always, always, have to be the top mention, Te Isshoku. When you really want to treat yourself, you come here for their massive bento box. When you want something light, you can also come here for their futomaki or nama harumaki. If I feel like rewarding myself for a great job at work, the yellowtail usuzukiri bento box is my pick! My fave husband and wife chef duos!
PS. This shop is online pre-order only. Also available on other platforms (if you get one of those $10/mo Uber Eats/Doordash stipends).
Akami Sushi
Akami Sushi is one of my top three favorite sushi restaurants in Arcadia. This restaurant is in rotation with Opus and Kisen. If you’re looking for a more creative take on sushi, this restaurant is it.
The Akami Kaisen Don Set is a rice bowl topped with toro tartare, blue crab, bluefin tuna, salmon, yellowtail, scallop, white fish, shrimp, ikura, and uni. After you finish the fish and have some rice left over, the restaurant will add some sort of ochazuke to submerge your rice in tea (or soup). I ended up finishing the rice without the ochazuke. This was a nice alternative to the omakase option, but I would most likely opt for the premium sushi set next time.
Opus Sushi
Opus Sushi is actually a hole in the wall – IYKYK! I love Opus because their fish-to-price ratio is AMAZING. I absolutely enjoyed the premium chirashi bowl, which featured thick slices of assorted fish, ikura, uni, and amaebi. What more can you ask for?
master Wagyu
The Chubby Group went all in with their expansions and concepts, bringing us to Master Wagyu. It’s essentially an all-you-can-eat wagyu shabu restaurant.
There are three different tiers to choose from.
- The silver tier ($58) gets you basic access to the AYCE floor and soup base. The AYCE floor has rice, pastries, vegetables, sushi, basic meats, noodles, fish balls, basic seafood, and extra accessories for your hotpot.
- The gold tier ($78) gets you the silver tier options, more premium wagyu cuts, and you can pick out an item from the chef’s special selection (i.e., lobster roll, steak, etc).
- The diamond tier ($98) gets you everything from the previous tiers, plus more options from the chef’s special selection, and even more premium wagyu cuts.
Honestly, even if you get the silver tier, you just need to eat the equivalent of four plates of meat (no veggies or sides) at Hai Di Lao for two people to break even. I got the gold tier, and that was the most unappetizing lobster roll with uni and caviar I’ve ever had. Oh, and the steak? I’m already eating meat; I don’t need to pay more to have more meat on top of AYCE.
Soup base-wise… Nothing will ever beat Jazz Cat’s Spicy Seafood Essence. Regardless, if you’re looking to eat A LOT of hot pot, I’d go here over Hai Di Lao any day. The craziest part is that Mikiya is also owned by the same parent company, so choose your concept at this point?
Sugarfish
Sugarfish was a BIG hype in the 2010’s. With so much expansion, it kind of became corporate. They cut their fish in a centralized kitchen before shipping it out to the individual branches. All the staff has to do is make the rice and assemble it at the restaurant. Even then, I’ll still always get the Don’t Think. Just Eat. Trust Me.
Nick + Stef’s Steakhouse
The most corporate destination for happy hour, or if you need to expense a meal. Two medium rare ribeyes, count me in! This was one of the better ribeyes I’ve had recently. I’ll take a nicely charred steak over an overseasoned one any day.
The Donut Man
Everyone keeps raving about The Donut Man being the go-to place for strawberry donuts. For $6-8, you get about 6 strawberries stuffed into the donut, submerged in strawberry jam. I usually don’t eat donuts, but I found myself buying a regular glazed and a maple glazed donut while I’m in the office. Perfect excuse to have a short exercise down to Grand Central Market.
