I eat at S.F.'s best restaurants. This dining experience is the one I look forward to all year
The Tenderloin Family Housing Cooking Competition is an annual event where the residents of 201 Turk, a building that provides affordable housing to low-income families, compete for bragging rights across three categories — appetizers, entrees and desserts. Last week I served as a judge for the second year in a row, and while I would like to say I do this out of my commitment to community, a sense of civic responsibility, etc. etc., between you and me I'm there because the food is really stinking good.
Located in the heart of the Tenderloin, 201 Turk is a 175-unit building with a focus on families managed by the Chinatown Community Development Center. A large percentage of the building's residents are immigrants, and this diversity is a big part of what makes this cooking competition such a delight. This year there were chicken masala sliders, a tagine, fish sauce chicken wings, Syrian and Egyptian molokhia, sweet glutinous rice cakes, chocoflan and apple pie.
With 10 entries in every category, my fellow judges, including Oakland-based chef Pierre Thiam and AA Bakery owner Henry Chen, and I were in for a lot of eating. We made our way down the line of folding tables, each home cook serving us a portion while describing his or her dish, sometimes through a translator. After sampling the entries, we deliberated on who would place first, second and third in each category while the rest of the attendees filled their plates.
Much debate and horse trading ensued before we announced the winners. The woman who took third place in the dessert category with her marzipan-like cookies known as makrouta sauntered victoriously to the front of the auditorium with an Algerian flag wrapped around her shoulders. A cook in the appetizer category was both humble and incredulous when her flavorful Yemeni bean dish took first place. 'It's just beans,' she said. Award-winning beans.
Amazing home cooking aside, what I love most about the Tenderloin Family Housing Cooking Competition is the sense of palpable community in this building, even among people who might not speak the same language. I watched the Yemeni bean wizard trade bites with her neighbor, who made a punchy pico de gallo, and when one resident took second place with his eggplant lasagna, he called his wife of 27 years up with him and said it was her recipe and she deserved the credit. This is the feel-good food event we all need, and I can't wait for next year.
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- Eater
The Katsuya in Century City Is Now Open and Ready for Expense Accounts
is the Lead Editor of the Southern California/Southwest region, and has covered dining, restaurants, food culture, and nightlife in Los Angeles since 2008. Japanese lounge restaurant Katsuya opened on July 25 in the former Century City Rock Sugar with a wide menu of sushi, sashimi, hot appetizers like rock shrimp tempura, and larger mains like miso black cod. The years-long build-out that was first announced in 2022 includes the newly opened Casa Dani, which was awarded a Michelin star in New York City, from lauded Spanish chef Dani Garcia. Okinawa-born chef Katsuya Uechi opened the first Katsuya in Studio City in 1997, in Studio City, joining the long history of California Japanese restaurants that serve the San Fernando Valley. He expanded to Brentwood with SBE in 2006, eventually growing to six other locations around the world, including Toronto, Miami, and the Bahamas. Katsuya also opened in Hollywood and L.A. Live (it also operated an outlet in Glendale, but it has since closed). Uechi runs a more independent collection of Japanese restaurants that include the Izakaya by Katsu-ya and Kiwami, but the Century City restaurant will fall under the SBE partnership that leans more into the sleek, high-design Nobu-esque category. High ceilings, a striking Japanese-inflected design, and a sprawling patio overlooking Santa Monica Boulevard define most of the tactile experience of the new Katsuya. A moody bar area lit like Japanese shoji windows leads up to charcoal-covered lamps looming over the dining room like the giant eyes of local spirits. Sleek wood beams intersect and break up the negative space while greenery shrouds the eye-level glass looking out to the patio. A stainless steel-backed sushi bar puts the chefs front and center for the dining room to behold, with dark speckled tables and pitch-black chairs spread over the floor. A more sunlit side lounge offers a good waiting area or happy hour hangout for office workers. The food is predictable and elegant, featuring Katsuya's most famous invention, crispy tuna rice. Slim slices of tuna tataki, salmon sashimi with soy citrus vinaigrette, and yellowtail jalapeño derived from the Matsuhisa playbook are good starters. Specialty rolls like the Century feature king crab, avocado, and wagyu sashimi topped with caviar and fresh truffle. Prices are expectedly to be on the higher end, with some rolls sitting at $59, but are probably within the expense account range of the high-end law firms and talent agencies in the restaurant's proximity — indulge if someone else is paying. Katsuya, like its Japanese lounge counterparts, isn't here to challenge diners with complexity. It's a slick place to catch a light-ish dinner with friends, co-workers, or clients in the comfy and curated confines of Century City, and is sure to be a hit in a neighborhood where a $59 sushi roll doesn't feel out of place. Katsuya is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. It's located at 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 1799, Los Angeles, CA, 90067. Katsuya dining room. Moody bar area at Katsuya. Dining area of Katsuya. Katsuya patio. Katsuya's lounge seating. Katsuya's signature crispy spicy tuna rice. Seared A5 wagyu tataki. Tai uni maki. The Century Roll. Truffle and caviar-topped Century Roll.
