Viva Ventura pt1

I recently moved to SoCal and that means a whole new group of restaurants to try. This series of reviews will be dedicated to restaurants along Ventura Boulevard, and there are a lot of them. I will cover local chains, but I'm not going to talk about national chains since really, there's no point.

Kabuki: Japanese restaurant that's definitely interested in being an "it" place more than being completely accurate. That isn't to say the food isn't good, but some of the menu items are a bit odd for a traditional Japanese restaurant. I had the beef sukiyaki and it was really good although definitely constructed with an eye to the health freaks. It was loaded with more hardy vegetables than tofu, beef, and noodles. There was very little onion or cabbage, which I'm used to seeing in my sukiyaki and there was a lot of button mushrooms and what I think was zuchini. Also, the amount of soy sauce used was also a lot less than usuall, again I'm thinking it's a concession to the "health conscious" that run the area. Again, not bad just not what I'm used to getting in my sukiyaki and definitely a little short of the level of soy(salt) that I prefer.

China Star In and Out: Chinese restaurant and fish and chips place. Now I don't really have a problem with this as I grew up near a Japanese and fish and chips combo place. But, I think it's popularity stems from the fish and chips. The chinese food was decidely sub-par. I had the Beef and Brocolli lunch special which included a veggie eggroll and egg drop soup. None of it was very good. The Beef and Brocolli was bland and when that's what you're going for, that's not good. The service was good, especially given the fact that one lady is handling all the sit-in, take out, and call-in customers by herself. But really, good service doesn't overcome bad Chinese food.

Sol y Luna: I really liked this place. The chips and salsa were good and I got the beef flauta for my lunch. Oh man it was good. And the group I was there with all really loved the food they ordered too. It's a little pricey for a Mexican restaurant, but the servings are huge and everything is really good. A definite recommend.

Curry Bowl: This is a Sri Lankan restaurant and I've never had Sri Lankan food, so I can't speak to authenticity. My experience and love of curry comes from Indian curry and that is the basis I compare all others to. So understand that's the perspective I'm coming from. I had the lunch buffet and ordered some of the beef pastries to go. From the lunch buffet I tried the chicken curry, egg curry, some roast vegetable curry and the rice. The chicken curry was alright but had no kick and was a bit bland. The egg curry could have had no curry for all the flavor it gave to the hard boiled eggs. The roast vegetable curry was sweet but not really my thing. The beef pastries were good though. I'm not all that into that kind of thing but I was craving samosas so I gave them a shot. I had three different varieties and they were all pretty good, even if not quite my cup o tea.

Shanwen Shanghai Cuisine: I had the wor won ton soup. This is the variety with a bunch of extra stuff thrown in. Again, I think this is a restaurant that has it's eyes towards the health conscious a lot more so than those who want accuracy. There were a lot more vegetables that wor won ton usually has and the broth was very light, almost flavorless. The won ton were very good, which redeemed it. The bok choy were barely cooked so they seemed a bit off. As a whole I think the place is OK, but I would try another place before going there again.

Pickwicks: A British Pub that's not. It looks like a British pub, has the right beer and has darts. But the menu is definitely not that of a British pub. There's a few items here and there that are British but most aren't. That being said it's a good crowd, good service, and the food is pretty good.