Monday, March 15, 2010

Gaja, Lomita, CA

So after the AniMaid Cafe Meeting on saturday, almost the entire gang at the meeting decided to go to Gaja to celebrate one of the maid's birthdays there. I discovered Gaja thanks to Kchan and a random tuesday night happy hour there. For those people that don't know what Okonomiyaki is, the easiest description I could think of was inspired by a friend of mine. It is basically an Asian style-Pancake/Pizza thing. As my friend Marc would call it: Slanted Pizzas.

Modern Okonomiyaki



Modern Consists of Cabbage, Mountain Yam, Ginger, Yakisoba, Pork, Egg, and a plethora of other ingredients.

Side Note: This one was cooked by yours truly. I didn't think to make smaller portions so I just made 1 giant one on the griddle :D

Judgment: The okonomiyaki's ingredients were fresh and you can tell when you just bite into it. For not cooking Okonomiyaki that often, I felt I did an okay job cooking this one. I had recruited the assistance of Koto to mix up the ingredients and I think she did a great job. The Okonomiyaki was flavorful and it was visually acceptable. 7 / 10

Modern Mix Okonomiyaki (I think)



Similar to the ingredients of the Modern Okonomiyaki but with seafood as well

Side Note: This Okonomiyaki was cooked by Mio-chan of AniMaid Cafe. It was portioned and sized to fit the small dishes we were served and she did a great job with it.

Judgment: I thought this Okonomiyaki tasted better than the one I had prepared probably because these young ladies of the maid cafe had more experience in cooking these things than I did. Again, the ingredients that the restaurant provides was fresh and delicious. 8 / 10

Cream Puff Eclair Parfait



Mixed Fruit, Cream, Ice Cream, Chocolate Syrup, Honey Corn Flakes, Ice Cream, Whipped Cream, Eclairs, Cream Puff and Pocky

Judgment: I had a hard time deciding which dessert I had wanted. I was stuck between the Deluxe Japanese Parfait and this one. The only reason I didn't go with the Deluxe Japanese one was because they had that An-Pan Bread thing that Doraemon eats on it and I wasn't feeling it. I went with the Eclairs and Cream Puff. To my dismay, the Cream Puff and Eclairs were too frozen when I received the dessert. Also, this was stacked so majestically, I didn't even know where to begin other than the Pocky. I wished the pastries were softened a bit, I would've enjoyed it a lot more. 7 / 10

Conclusion: So this restaurant specializes in Okonomiyaki and Monjayaki, and it is very DIY encouraged, but for the lazy or just simply don't know how to cook, the restaurant does offer to cook your meal for you so you don't have to go through the hassle of trying to figure out what to do with all the ingredients. The restaurant itself is pretty small and cozy, especially when you have large parties like the group I went with, everyone's gonna be sitting real close to each other. The parking lot is almost terrible for the people with very low cars like mine. I recommend getting a ride with someone with a normal car when you want to visit this one. Otherwise, it might be a good idea to park a little further away and walk over to the restaurant.

The Restaurant gets an B-Rank.

No comments: