Fiona Y.
Yelp
The ambiance in the restaurant was great. It was quiet and dimly lit with nice decor. It gave you the sense that it would be a nice dining experience to make you feel luxurious in some random Ktown plaza.
I felt it went all downhill when I asked for Orion beer and said it the way it's to be said, like "o-ree-on" and the server responded back "o-rye-uhn." Why would it be called that? A simple google search would have told you it's not, and why is staff not being trained how to say what they sell? I don't mean to nitpick, but I was disappointed the more the menu went on.
Going over what they offered on their menu for DineLA, we had:
Red Miso Japanese Eggplant: this was absolutely delicious and it tastes just like any nasumiso but deep fried. It makes for a nice texture and offsets how soft eggplant gets when cooked. I highly recommend this!
Toro Garlic Toast: the toro on top was really good, but I did not like the toast aspect after the first initial bite. It's so satisfying when you take the first bite because it's so reminiscent to crispy rice, but then it just gets immediately soft after and I felt it just ruined it because now you have delicious toro in your mouth and some soggy bread. Flavor wise I recommend it, but texture wise no.
Ochazuke: the tea(?) they offered felt kind of bland and I'm not sure what was in it, but green tea has more flavor than this. I should have asked the server, but I wish they would have told me too when explaining how to eat it just so we know what we're eating. The salmon felt dry and after the first bite where I happened to get mentaiko in it, it just felt so bland. If you really want to eat ochazuke and don't have any of these ingredients at home, I say go for it but otherwise I say just make it at home.. try a different appetizer.
Also, the spoons were so small and I think the intention is to slow down while eating, but I just didn't even want to finish the rice anymore because it was such a drag to eat with a spoon so small for something that wasn't that good.
Next we had sushi, dineLA offered shrimp, black snapper, mackerel, yellowtail, salmon, and bluefin tuna (top to bottom in my picture). The fish to rice ratio was good and it looks like they mix their rice with something? It didn't look like normal sushi rice. It looked kind of brown, maybe they mix it with akazu? It didn't have a sharp flavor to it.
The sushi was good except for the shrimp. The shrimp tasted like nothing and I wish it was replaced with amaebi or something more flavorful in general. The sushi did have some wasabi underneath when I lifted them, but I didn't even taste it and thought it had none when I added it. If you really don't want it though, I would double check and ask them to not add any when making your order.
I didn't see it on the dineLA menu online, but on the one at the restaurant, they also offered the cherry blossom roll. This was delicious and the crispy onions were so crispy that I forgot they weren't just tortilla strips on top of the rolls. I would recommend to get this though if you are looking to eat a roll.
Nagasaki Chan Pon: I did not like this at all. It feels inspired by chan pon, but it tasted nothing like chan pon in Japan. The broth had an off putting flavor, like as if it absorbed everything from the mussel and clam in it. Usually, chan pon feels so refreshing to eat but this was not at all refreshing and clean. I want to say it's because of the seafood because the mussels and clams didn't taste fresh when I ate them. Also, they used udon instead of ramen. The udon was overcooked in mine.. if you want to try dineLA, I would say try their Hato rice in hot stone instead. Maybe that one is better.
Dessert was hato special dessert and I'm not sure if they combined two different things or if it's their hato dessert on the menu, but this really put me off for their service because the server didn't even tell us what was on it. I had no idea what I was eating. I kind of guessed what it was, but they had matcha ice cream and black sesame ice cream and the black sesame ice cream was delicious. The matcha didn't really have a strong flavor. Then, according to their actual menu, we had the sweet taro potato balls. It's crispy outside and has a mochi-like texture batter for the outside. The inside is smooth taro and it's a good dessert. I'm not sure how good it would have been as a standalone though without the ice cream to help counterbalance it, because I don't think I'd want more than one of them alone just after a big meal.
I would say this is Japanese fusion though and while I am not sure, it tastes Korean owned if you know what I mean. It's not bad. I enjoyed most of the meal and I'm glad I got to sample their menu through DineLA. I think it's worth to go once and see for yourself if you like it, but as someone who has grown up eating Japanese food and has certain expectations from a Japanese restaurant, I just don't see myself coming again.
