i like to eat.

Hilltop Mansion

After the touristy stuff, we headed up to Yamashiro which means "mountain palace" in Japanese. Yamashiro is a gorgeous, ornate mansion (now restaurant) with a lush Japanese garden and dramatic views of Los Angeles. Oh yeah, and there's a 600-year-old pagoda(!).

Instead of going into the restaurant, we walked down to the Pagoda Bar, an outdoor area where you can enjoy drinks, small bites and soak in the beauty (and smog - haha) of LA.

The Japanese garden is really beautiful. The landscape was a $2 million project with over 30,000 varieties of trees and shrubs. The garden once had a private zoo of exotic birds, monkeys, hundreds of goldfish and even rare Australian black swans. There doesn't seem to be much wildlife now, but it would have been amazing to see some black swans. I guess the antique pagoda is good enough. ;)

We ordered a round of drinks that cost $13 each. Am I back in Vegas with outrageous prices? I should not have been surprised, considering where we were. haha. I got a basil-jito that was pretty good, but nothing out of this world and not worth $13.

Mike was the only one that ordered a bloody Mary that was pretty darn amazing. The drink in general is an acquired taste, but this one was the best one I've had (not as though I always order them). It had the right balance of flavor, heat (tons of pepper!) and acidity. Yummy and memorable.

Click here to download:

Hilltop_Mansion_tag_japanese_c.zip (2309 KB)

Filed under // cocktails food hollywood japanese outdoor dining yamashiro

Comments [0]

Afternoon Snack

When I'm traveling, I always want to eat food that I can't find back at home.

This wasn't the case.

Jeff saw a Beard Papa after we meandered through the Walk of Fame and Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. I frequent the San Francisco location and my philosophy of eating unique things while traveling instantly ran through my head, so I said no. I finally caved in when he said, "let's go" and my thoughts transitioned into delicious cream puffs.

The cream puffs are fresh and filled to order. We ordered two - vanilla creme and cookie crumb. I took one bite and quickly fell in love with the puff again. The pastry shell is crispy, flaky, yet soft. And the creme? I can eat it as is! It's full of vanilla beans and has just the right consistency of creaminess. Delicious. The second one had the same filling, but a crunchier topping. It was good, but I still prefer the original.

Other fillings they have are strawberry, coffee, green tea, pumpkin and Earl Grey tea. I always get vanilla, but I need to try the others!