Akasha Culver City - American Grill with Indian Influence

Ron and I visited Akasha on a busy Saturday night. I loved the space- exposed beams and concrete walls. Very modern and chic. The food however, was hit or miss. The hit of the night was Ron's turkey burger. It was a hefty thick burger dotted with globs of red peppers- very flavorful and fesh. It's too bad everything else was a miss. Akasha prides itself on organic fresh ingredients. The dishes are clean and simple. But, you can still be clean and simple and tasty. The fries were dry. The table bread, although hearty with seeds, was dry. My onion and tomato tart was too much tart, not enough veges. And the arugala salad surrounding it was over-salted. My punjabi mung bean and rice bowl was fun but under-seasoned. Healthy, but bland. The biggest blunder was the mac and cheese. It is a sin to mess up such a favorite of mine. And although it looked like it should have tasted good, I could barely taste the cheese at all. Perhaps I ordered wrong. I may have to give it another shot to try some other dishes. The curried cauliflower, South Indian salmon and the scallops sound good. But if they screw that up, I'm done with you Akasha!

Eagle Rock Decent Vietnamese Food

Had a quick meal at a neighborhood Vietnamese joint. The place was pretty authentic. They had all the basic staples of the food of my people like pho, spring rolls, rice dishes, vermicelli bowls, sandwiches and even fresh squeezed orange juice and three color dessert. I ordered the vermicelli bowl with BBQ pork and crispy egg rolls. While the noodle and julienned veges were fresh, I thought the pork was over marinated and the texture was too chewy. The dessert was tasty, but they should have served it with traditional shaved ice instead of small ice balls. The spring rolls and BBQ chicken sandwich were decent. I'd recommed Lemongrass if you're in the mood for cheap decent Vietnamese.