La Villa Basque-Closed

La Villa Basque 2801 Leonis Blvd. Vernon 323-583-1696 Vernon, a city that used to have the Vernon Tigers, of the old Pacific Coast League. Don't know about the Vernon Tigers? Maybe you heard of the Hollywood Stars, who played at Gilmore Field? Well, the Vernon Tigers are their "grandfather." Follow me now. The Vernon Tigers started in 1909 and stayed until 1912, moving to Venice for the 1912 and 1914 seasons. But then moved back to Vernon until 1925, when they moved to San Fransisco, to become the Mission Reds. The Reds would spend twelve seasons in San Fransisco, before coming back to Los Angeles, to become the Hollywood Stars!!! Why did Vernon, a very small city, even back then, get a PCL team? They were not a "dry" town, meaning they served alcohol. Why did Venice get the Tigers for two seasons, you got it, Venice was able to serve alcohol. Anyways, in keeping with my theme of reviewing restaurants in new cities, I go to La Villa Basque, for their $11 lobster roll and whole lobster. Yes, that's right a whole Maine lobster for $11. During the month of September, La Villa Basque has a lobster special. They bring in live lobster from back east and sells them for a great price. La Villa Basque is an interesting restaurant. I walked in and the dining room is closed. But the bar is fairly busy. I sit down, order a drink and then order a lobster roll. Lobster roll, $11. I tried the lobster roll first. The lobster was in a hot dog bun, that was almost burnt. Not a good start. But the lobster, mostly tail meat, was pretty tasty, it was mostly lobster tail, mixed with some mayo. The lobster was well cooked, not tough or chewy. I loved the wasbi aioli, which added a nice kick to the lobster roll. That kick worked well with the coolness of the mayo. But I really came here for the whole lobster, $11. But this wasn't the whole lobster, I was expecting. I wasn't expecting to get down and dirty, cracking lobster and everything. From the pictures of the lobsters served before, the lobsters were prepared, much differently the the just plain steamed. I thought the lobsters were prepared Basque style but they are just steamed. The lobster was pretty good, but served luke warm. They need to turn up the warmer, because eating luke warm lobster isn't my thing. But, the lobster was tender and well cooked. Service at the bar was pretty good. I would not go back to La Villa Basque for the lobster special. The lobster special isn't anything special. It's the samething as Quality Seafood, for a few bucks less.

Khoury's Restaurant-Closed

Khoury's Restaurant
110 Marina Dr.
Long Beach
562-598-6800

As I write this review, I'm so fucking happy!!!! That fucking NFL team in Indiana lost to the San Diego Chargers. YES GO Chargers.

The big draw at Khoury's is the all you can eat Maine lobster. The buffet, which is served Saturday nights, also includes crab legs, roast beef, shrimp cocktail, a pasta station, and a salad station all for $45.95.

You're limited to one Maine lobster per trip. The lobster are big when you get them. But some were missing the claws, others as you can see in the picture had one huge claw and one smaller claw. I only ate the tails of most the lobsters. The claws, which normally provide good pieces of meat were were rubbery and not tasty at all. The tails were a bit tough but they were good, dipped in the melted hot butter they served them with.

The snow crab legs were among the largest snow crab legs I've seen. They were served chilled and were meatly and tasty.

For the price you pay, you better eat a lot of crab legs and lobsters. I had six lobsters and two plate fulls of crab legs. These two items are the only thing good in the buffet.

The one problem is that most of the hot items have little turnover. So they stay under the heat lamps or steam trays for a long time and just get bad.

The roast beef, which they say it's prime rib, but it's really a roast beef. It's not from the same cut as the prime rib. The beef is very tough and not tender at all.

The shrimp cocktail is already peeled, a nice touch but the shrimp was overcooked and tough.

The pasta station has tons of seafood, crab, shrimp, and scallops, and fresh herbs and pasta with red and white sauce. I got the scallops and red sauce with some basil. The sauce was so flavorless. I've had better sauce in no name brand canned sauce. The scallops were cooked nice and saved the dish. I ate the scallops but the didn't finish the pasta.

Service is OK. I made reservations on Wednesday. I called Saturday afternoon to confirm the reservations and they had me on the list. I arrive about 10 minutes for my reservations and the two hostesses couldn't find my reservation. One hostess dressed as though she was going to a club right after work. But we got seated anyways.

Our server was slow at taking away dishes from our table, refilling drinks and getting more napkins.

The buffet line can be long. We got there at 7pm and they had one stem tray filled with lobster. Once the tray was empty, it took forever the server to go back into the kitchen and get another one. All the while the line just got longer and longer. Later on as two or three larger parties came in, they would get a few trays of lobster and would serve people faster.

I would go back to Khoury's again but only for the lobster and crab legs. Again to get your money's worth you gotta eat a lot of lobster and crab legs. I would say at least 3 lobsters would be worth the price.

Quality Seafood

Quality Seafood
130 South International Boardwalk
Redondo Beach
310-374-2382

I heard about the Lobster Festival at the Port of LA this weekend, Sept 15-17 and another Lobster Festival in Redondo Beach next weekend, Sept 22-24. While trying to decide which Lobster Fest to go to, I found that Quality Seafood on the Redondo Beach Pier is offering a $15 lobster dinner for the entire month of September. The Lobster Festivals cost about $8 for admission and $17 for a Maine lobster meal. The admission price includes the live bands and other booths but who cares about that stuff, I just want the lobster. So I decide to go to Quality Seafood.

Quality Seafood is really three to four different sections. One section they sell fried seafood. Another section they sell oysters and clams. Another has the shellfish. The fried section looked good, so I ordered one piece of fried fish, one fried shrimp, and a fish taco for $7.25. The fried items aren't fried to order but allowed to sit under heat lamp. That doesn't make for a crunchy or fresh piece of shrimp or fish. The fried shrimp was pretty bad. The shrimp was very small but it's just covered with tons of batter. The batter was very greasy and nasty tasting. I torn off the extra pieces of batter and just ate the shrimp, which was ok but nothing special. I would much rather have fried shrimp from almost anywhere else. The cocktail sauce is really just ketchup.

The fish was a little better, as there wasn't as much batter but it was soggy and pretty bland. The tartar sauce is packaged and is mostly mayo. Again I would rather go to a H. Salt or Mr. Fish and Chips or The Olde Ship for their fried fish.

The fish taco was actually pretty good, as the spicy salsa and the mild white sauce covered up the taste of the fish. The fish is the same fried fish but is covered with fresh cabbage, a medium spicy salsa, and a white sauce. It's pretty big and I was stuffed after having the fried fish, fried shrimp and fish taco. But I wanted to have at least some of the lobster while it was nice and hot. So I cracked open a claw.

The lobster is steamed and takes about 30 minutes. There are already cooked lobsters served cold but I wanted a freshly steamed lobster. The lobster comes with butter and corn on the cobb. The lobster is pretty good, tender, not too tough but on the salty side. The lobster is steamed in a steamer, not a pot of hot water, so I'm wondering what gave the lobster such a salty taste? The lobster is 1.25lb but the meat is much smaller than the size of the shell, when I cracked opened the claw, I was expecting a huge piece of meat but it was about a third the size of the claw. If you eat there, either bring your own mallets and nut crackers. They require a $3 deposit for their mallets.

Service is pretty damn good and fast. It was crowded there and the outdoor picnic tables can fill up pretty quickly but people also finish quickly. An added bonus they serve beer!!!!

I'm glad I made the trip to Quality Seafood. I know that I would not order the fried items but having crabs and shrimp steamed is the way to go. The crab, including my favorite, Maryland blue crab, looked very good. I wouldn't order the lobster unless it was $15.

Newport Seafood

Newport Seafood
18441 Colima Rd.
Rowland Heights
626-839-1239

The Newport Seafood in Santa Ana, that I went to a few years after this review, is owned by a different company than the original Newport Seafood.

I normally do not want to be social around September 11th. With the 5th anniversary of Sept. 11th coming up, I changed my way of thinking. Sure I am still very angry and sadden by what happened. I don't need reminders about that horrible day. I WILL NEVER FORGET. But being angry and bitter doesn't do me any good and more importantly it doesn't honor the memory of all the innocent people who were killed that terrible day. So I figured I would go and enjoy the company of a new found, fellow foodie and the food of Newport Seafood. Great company and great food always make a great combination. Newport Seafood provided the great food and my fellow foodie provided great conversation and company. All the while I had these two songs in my mind Calling All Angels and Proud to be an American.


We ordered the Newport Special crab and the shrimp with curry sauce, white rice, and two beers was about $47 with tip. The crab is listed as seasonal price, which tonight was around $9lb.

The Newport special crab is steamed and then topped with the special sauce, green onions and jalapeno. It made for a spicy wonderful dish. The crab was steamed just right and it was the so flavorful. It was messy but worth it.

The shrimp with curry sauce was label hot and spicy but I found it a notch below mild, and I'm not one for anything over medium spicy. The shrimp were large and tender. The curry was very good with a spicy but not too spicy flavor. The onions, green and red peppers added to the dish helped add color and a crunch to the dish.

Service was good but you do get the impression they want you to order, eat and get out as soon as possible. We sat down and barely took a look at the menu when a waiter came by to take our order. But we were so busy talking, we didn't really decide what we wanted. They must have came by 3-4 times asking if we were ready. They could give us some time to actually look at the menu. The food was served quickly and was served hot.

I would go back to Newport Seafood anytime.

Update 6-25-08




I went back to Newport Seafood for their Newport Special lobster, $15 per pound. I got a 5lb lobster for three people. The Newport Special is made with lots and lots of black pepper, ginger, garlic, and green onions. But the black pepper really overpowered everything. They used finely ground pepper. course ground pepper and even half peppercorns.

The lobster was tasty but a bit tough and of course had the overwhelming pepper flavor. I did enjoy the lobster because I like pepper but next time I'll ask them to go easy on the pepper.

Service was below average since the server actually left while I was ordering. What the hell kind of service is that?