LA!! Chego

For dinner the first night, I wanted to go check out Chego. It's owned by the same people that run the Kogi food trucks. Which are my favorite food trucks so far!! The menu at Chego sounded sooo interesting and delicious!

Chego
3300 Overland Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 287-0337
http://eatchego.com/
Price: $

This is a tiny place and it was packed when we arrived!! The line was out the door!! There are only like 3 long community tables inside and a few small tables outside the restaurant. You order at the counter and find your own space to sit.

We weren't super hungry so we were ok with the wait. The line moved fairly fast. A lot of people ended up taking things to go and the people dining were pretty fast about moving things along.

We got a few things to share.
3PM Meatballs (Korean-fried, shaved green onions, sesame, blueberry habanero salsa, polenta patty) $4~

I've had their blueberry habanero salsa before on the quesadillas at the Kogi truck. It was pretty amazing. So this sounded interesting as well. You get 3 meatballs on top of polenta. It was slightly sweet and tart and had huge flavors. The meatballs were really juicy. I didn't care for the polenta being completely soaked in the sauce though.

One Chubby Pork Belly (kochujang-lacquered kurobuta, with fried egg, pickled watermelon radishes, water spinach, cilantro, cotija, peanuts, over rice) $8~

Who can say no to pork belly!?! This dish looked amazing and tasted even better!! OMG! I can eat this everyday! I loved all the different flavors and textures. Lots of veggies, tart from the pickled radishes, a hint of spice from the kochujang, the crunch from the peanuts. YUM! And the pork belly was fatty and tasty. I loved loved loved it! No complaints whatsoever!

Tiny's Prime Rib Rice Plate (chili-rubbed, with fried egg, water spinach, creamed horseradish, roasted garlic serrano paste, fried shallots, over rice) $9~

This was also really good. The prime rib was cooked perfectly and had so much flavor. I liked how they put a lot of veggies in their dishes. Tons of bold flavors as well. The only thing I didn't like was the horseradish. I'm not a huge fan and I think they put too much. But one of my friends loved horseradish so he liked the sauce a lot.

Tres Leches Cake (devil's food cake soaked in cayenne-cinnamon-infused leches, tapioca milk pudding, spiced peanut brittle) $4~

Even their desserts sounded interesting. I like anything spicy...even desserts. And I love the whole sweet and savory combination. This wasn't really a tres leches in my opinion but it was delicious. The best part was the milk pudding part of the cake. It was almost like a really soft bread pudding/mousse. The brittle added a nice crunch on top of the super moist cake.

Sriracha Candy Bar (chocolate crisped rice bottom, caramel, Sriracha ganache, spiced candied peanuts, dark chocolate) $4~

This was the dessert I wanted to try last time at the truck but they didn't have it. When we unwrapped the foil, we were like "that's it?" haha. It was $4 and didn't look appealing at all... But...it was pretty tasty! It was basically like a crunch candy bar. I liked the candied peanuts layered inside.

I couldn't taste the sriracha though. I ended up squirting some actual srirach and dipping the candy bar in there. And it was REALLY good! The sriracha basically added the salt and heat to contrast the sweet chocolate.

I think this was one of my favorite meals of the entire trip. This is one of those places that makes me wish I lived in LA. I'm STILL dreaming about that pork belly bowl. Droooool.....

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Sutra

I've been wanting to check out Sutra since it opened and then I bought a Groupon for it. But it's taken me forever to finally go. I read some reviews online and it make me a little nervous. Most of them were terrible... Most said the food was good but the service was atrocious. :/ But I gotta use my Groupon so I got a couple friends together and went last Friday.

Sutra
7181 Bishop Rd
Plano, TX 75024
(972) 398-9339
www.sutrarestaurant.com
Price: $$-$$$

The Groupon said I had to make a reservation so I did. But it really wasn't necessary. The place was pretty empty the entire time during our dinner. The decor was ok, kind of bare in my opinion and not as fancy as I expected after seeing the prices of the food.

The host at the front was very nice. Our waiter was nice as well. The service wasn't exceptional or anything but I didn't see any of the complaints from the online reviews...

There were only 3 of us and $40 to spend so we ordered a few things to share.

Cauliflower Katmandu (Sauteed with peppers and garlic sauce) $7~ This wasn't what I expected at all. I didn't know it was going to be breaded and coated in a sweet and sour sauce. It actually looked like sweet and sour chicken/pork in a Chinese restaurant. And it tasted like sweet and sour pork. haha. We were all surprised by it. But we all liked it. The flavors were bold and it was nice to eat a vegetarian dish and have it taste like meat! haha.

Punjabi Chicken Masala (Simmered in onion tomato Masala sauce) $15~ I like Chicken Masala but this wasn't what we expected. For the price, I would've expected a bit more chicken. But the chicken was quite tender. The sauce however, wasn't like normal Chicken Masala I've had before. It was ok... We didn't care for it too much.

Jaipur Malai Kofta (Potato, peas and paneer croquettes simmered in creamy tomato sauce) $12.95~ This wasn't what we expected either. Usually when I see "croquettes" I expect some sort of fried cake of some sort. This was neither fried nor in the shape of a patty/cake. It looked like 3 big meatballs. But it was all vegetarian. This was amazingly delicious!! The description also said it was a tomato base sauce but it was so different than the Masala. This was creamy and luxurious and full of spices. The combinations of spices were great and it had a nice heat to it. The "meatballs" (hehe) were awesome. The texture was velvety and soft and you can see the chunks of peas and paneer inside the potato based ball. I just wished there were more than 3! The sauce was good on everything. We sopped it up with the naan and poured it over the rice.

The basmati rice came with the 2 entree dishes. It was good...the texture was just right and worked great with the sauces.

Tandoori Naan (Garlic & Basil, Rosemary) each $2.99~ The dishes don't come with naan so we got some on the side. The naan were cooked great. The Garlic & Basil was my favorite out of the two because it had great garlic flavor. It was soooo good dipping in the Kofta sauce. YUM!!!

We were surprisingly stuffed after our meal, and we didn't even finish all the food! It was a pretty good dinner. I would definitely go back just for the Jaipur Malai Kofta. I'm drooling just thinking about it as I'm writing this! haha. The Groupon was a great deal. I think their regular prices are a little high but the food quality is there. I would recommend this place and I'm sure I will go back in the future.

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