Crustacean

A Secret Kitchen...really?

Crustacean is a popular Vietnamese/French restaurant run by a family. They are in CA locations. They have a secret kitchen within the kitchen that only family members and their mom (head chef) can go into. I find this a bit asinine. Food is about sharing and enjoying. Didn't they see Ratatouille? Anyone can cook! This is part of passion with food. It's so accessible. Anyway...off my soapbox. In tired mood tonight...

For our first night in LA, we went to this place to check out the famous "garlic noodle" that Duff of Ace of Cakes said was his obsession. This was good but deserve a secret kitchen, I don't know about that. I called it garlic bread version of noodles. I have tried recreating it and it was not that hard, maybe not exact but good version.

Here are some other items we had. Sorry...didn't have camera with me on this first night.

Buddha Roll – Moist rice paper filled with black mushrooms, tender cabbage, baby carrots, water chestnuts and roasted bean curd

Vietnamese bouillabaisse, asparagus, Vietnamese celery, “doc mung”, pineapple, tomato, lemongrass and Vietnamese basil. V8 soup with warm veggies at it's best.

Colossal Royal Tiger Prawns, charbroiled with AN’s Famous Garlic Noodles. My cousin had this and said it was good.

Chocolate Lava Cake and Coconut Cake were the highlight.

It was a pricey dinner and a bit trendy and trying too hard. Even the wait staff was rolling their eyes with the secret kitchen...