Fish in a Bottle

Fish in a Bottle
10205 Valley View St
Cypress, CA 90630
(714) 821-3400

okay, so i told myself i wouldn't do food reviews on my blog anymore and switch everything to yelp (which i still am doing), but this place is that good. i have to talk about it here. please note that all the photos are of the actual food served to us - nothing pull off their web site or anything! (hey, i did my best with a table full of stuff). the quality of the food is spectular. i wouldn't be surprised to see any of the food served here at a high end restaurant in LA or on the vegas strip.

we've been going to California Fish Grill for lunch for a few weeks now and the food is pretty darn good (and healthy). as fate would have it, when we got there one day the place was packed! there was no way were going to find a seat. we decided to leave and try out this place down the street called Fish in a Bottle (we were still in the mood for fish). i drive by the restaurant often and there was hardly ever a car in the lot. how good could this place be? we decided to try it anyway.

when i walked in, to my surprise, i found the place was very nicely decorated. there is a simple elegance about it. perfect for a business lunch or even a place to take a date. you can choose to either sit at a table or the sushi bar.

the menu is pretty extensive and everything sounded great. we started off with some garlic edamame. oh my god, was it good! so simple, yet packed full of flavor. they did not skimp on the garlic. be warned, there is a touch of spice because the pods are sautéd in a touch of chili infused oil. just the perfect amount.


next we looked at the lunch specials. two pages full!!! most of it was under $10.

i order the usual miso soup and lynette ordered a salad to start of her meal. their food not only tastes good, it's photogenic as well. always a plus.


don't worry, if you're not into sushi or rolls, like ron, there is stuff for you to eat there as well. the first time ron went he ordered the stuffed chicken and this time ordered the teriyaki salmon.




the rest of us had a variety of rolls. even john and krista ate the sushi (yes, it's that good).










i was shocked to see john eat piece after piece of the salmon sashimi i ordered. he's normally not that into it (to be fair, we're usually eating that stuff buffets or places like maki yaki - not the best sushi you could have).


i'm a sucker for dessert. i thought about having a nice little piece of mochi (which krista and john ended up ordering), but decided to try something totally different, a banana cheese cake roll. to die for! ron, lynette, john, krista, and i were all amazed at how good it was. i almost couldn't eat it after i took the picture because it was so pretty. krista looked at me. i guess she saw it in my eyes that i couldn't bring myself to eat it and took a fork to the plate and messed up the beautiful swirls.




you have to eat there. PLEASE eat here. i do not want this place to go out of business. it's just too good.

special thanks to ron, lynette, john and krista for putting up with me taking pictures all this food before getting to eat.

LACMA with gallery buddy

it was time for me and gallery buddy to do our semi annual gallery trek. this time we headed for the los angeles county museum of art (LACMA).

outside the museum is Chris Burden's Urban Light installation consisting of a crap load of salvaged street lamps. i want to do something sort of like this in my back yard one day, just not with so many. maybe i can look for old street lamps and sprinkle them though out my back yard as little pieces of art as well as having it work functionally as a light source for all those partys i like to throw. each one will be different and unique. i can't wait to start looking for salvage lamps!

There were a couple of photography exhibits including A Story of Photography: The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection and the Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008, but what interested me the most were the paintings this time. i finally got to see this is not a pipe by René Magritte in person. the real thing is much more impressive than the posters and prints i've seen of it, naturally.

my favorites were the two sculptures by Richard Serra, band and sequence. they are two monumental pieces of work made entirely from metal. even moved in segments i have no idea who would take on the equally monumental task of installing these things. i liked sequence much better than band, but that's because you could walk through it.



gallery buddy got lost inside and needed to check the map... no just kidding, he didn't get lost, he manned up and asked for directions. just kidding again. it really just makes a loop, you can't get lost, but it does feel like you are walking a while inside this thing.


after the museum run, we headed for little tokyo for some curry. i usually eat at this shop right across the street from the japanese american national museum and never wandered much farther in the shopping area. there were a group of old japanese men gathered outside my little restraunt drinking beer in the afternoon. it looked so quaint and made me wish i had a place to hang out with old friends on a weekend afternoon and share a few beers and a lot of good stories. frankly, i can't think of a place i could do this at in orange county, not with that kind of small neighboorhood atmosphere. everthing around me is so... commercial.


this time we did wander around the shopping area came across a little place near the center called joy mart restaurant (sounds like "engrish" already doesn't it?). the restaurant serves sushi and has a sake bar. i felt like having some sashimi and a bottle of beer, so in we went. the atmosphere was quite cozy, a good place for a first date or a nice dinner with some buddies. THEY SERVE PLUM WINE!!!!! THEY SERVE PLUM WINE!!! i've been a sucker for plum wine since james introduced me to it. i ordered an entire bottle hoping to get gallery buddy to share some with me, but he just stuck to a single beer because he had to drive. darn, i guess i was going to have to finish the bottle myself. after two plates of salmon sashimi and half a bottle of the wine i was feeling kind of tipsy, so we decided to head home.

i wish there was a quiet place like that close to where i live. i would be there all the time. i'm just not into loud bars and clubs anymore. call me strange, but i like not having to yell at someone three inches away from to in order to have a conversation.

all in all, i had a great day with a great friend, great food, and great conversation. when are we going out again gallery buddy?