Because an ex-convict told police there were weapons in his car after he was arrested for having a gun, which he accidentally left inside his jacket at a sushi restaurant at Hollywood & Highland. The bomb squad was deployed, but after a search, the scene was cleared. Earlier in the evening, the restaurant called police when they found his jacket with the gun in it. Officers were waiting when he came back to pick up......

I am a big fan of Sushi Nozawa. It was the first place I ever had sushi (I know, I'm lucky!) and I've always thought that his reputation as the "Sushi Nazi" is unwarranted. Now that Japanese style Omakase (where the chef prepares what he thinks is best from the day's catch) is more widespread, I've hoped that he would lose the reputation, but it hasn't been the case. Fortunately, Nozawa also has a......

It stands to reason that sometimes a good Happy Hour is hard to find in this town. But give us one that combines drink bargains with sushi and you've got our attention. If you're either coming or going on (Big) Santa Monica between the beach and WeHo or those general environs after a hard day's work, Century City's KULA Sushi Bistro's Happy Hour would make a worthy stopping point. Between 5-7 Monday-Friday evenings, the restaurant......

Photo of last year's Pasadena Chalk Festival by uselessdoug via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. ART Billy Shire Fine Arts opens it’s new exhibit, “New Work” by Detroit artist Glenn Barr tonight. Drop by the reception and take a look at his work and chat (& drink) with the artist! 7 p.m. // Billy Shire Fine Arts // 5790 Washington Blvd., Culver City // (323) 297-0600 // Free FOOD If you have......

While ordering tacos this past weekend, Pat at Eating L.A. noticed that Cardone's Deli on Sunset had been replaced by a new place called The Vegan Spot. "There are seriously a lot of vegan places in Silver Lake and Echo Park already. (Cru, Flore Cafe, Elf, at least four Thai places, etc.) So we're just wondering, are there really that many vegans on the near-Eastside?" One Food Network chef say Tapas could be the next......

EAT Happy Hour with 1/2 Price sushi and 1/2 price drinks! Need we say more? OK, how about free edamame and lotus chips? 5 - 7 pm // Kula Sushi Bistro // 10351 Santa Monica Blvd., Culver City // Prices Vary ART Ongoing until May 30th, The Times They Were A-Changin’: Baseball in the Age of Aquarius, presents the baseball world during the turbulent 60s. The exhibition includes artworks, artifacts, photographs and text from......

LAist Featured Photos pool contributor kristi.nicole shares with us a shot from a recent six course tasting menu meal at K-Zo in Culver City. Over on Yelp, K-Zo scores high with fans of high-end sushi, with one Yelper promising that if you hand yourself over to their Mr. Keizo for an omakase meal (where the sushi chef serves you what he wishes based on what's best on hand) "the master will take you on......

EaterLA is on a "Trendwatch" and finds a USA Today article where three Food Network chefs/personalities are asked to give their predictions on the next big food trend. Morimoto, executive chef at Nobu in New York and who competes as an Iron Chef, sticks with Asian foods. EaterLA says he sounds legit telling the masses to look out for more "izakayas, Korean food and shochu." LAist says give the new Little Tokyo vegan Japanese restaurant......

View Larger Map The call went out at 3:52 p.m., 55 firefighters arrived on the scene and the fire was out by 4:06 p.m. at the California Roll Factory, a sushi restaurant at 11629 Santa Monica Blvd. across from one of our favorite bistros in Los Angeles -- Nook. In other sushi restaurant destruction news, a SUV accelerated into TokyoIce on Ventura Blvd. in Encino, leaving a path of destruction and hurting one on Saturday.......

Cobra Pork Sushi The second location of Cobra & Matadors is a warm, inviting restaurant that invites lingering. Diners share small plates and feed each other delicious bites that are exotic, yet comfortingly familiar. It is hip enough for your most fashionable friends, but cozy enough that you always feel at home. The DineLA menu provided a wealth of options that made it difiicult to choose. My companion decided to order from the main......

Maybe he's a cat person? LA Times big-wig Sam Zell has been quoted as saying a healthy love of lady-parts is downright patriotic. LA Observed explores the origins of what was said and why; apparently Zell thinks pussy's so nice, he said it twice: "He said: 'Everyone likes pussy. It’s un-American not to like pussy'" explains someone at the Times. Prince Andrew paid a visit to Compton yesterday to helm the ribbon-cutting ceremony at......

Have you had enough of $5 coffee? $99 burgers? $125 martinis? I know I am -- doesn't anybody in this city want to find the cheapest drinks, meals, and booze? Los Angeles Magazine comes through this month with a feature on great deals and bargain finds on everything from martinis to furniture to underpants. We went straight for the food section, of course -- and here are our top food bargain picks from the......

The locally based GOOD Magazine, founded by Ben Goldhirsh, always treats its hometown with respect. Here's some of what they had to say about Los Angeles in their most recent rag, the food issue. LA Weekly's pulitzer prize food critic, Jonathan Gold, is given props in "The Next Sushi" (pg. 70). Which food type will go from unknown to trendy? Gold predicts that Korean Bibimbap could be it: "[It] may someday be as popular among......

Food bloggers Potatomato must have their Foodie Batphone connected to my psyche: after finishing a delightful and surprisingly inexpensive lunch at the new Phillip Starck-designed Katsuya in Hollywood, I jumped on the Internet to see what the bloggers had to say about this upscale sushi restaurant/bar/lounge. And what do you know, but those intrepid foodies had cased the joint only days before me. Katsuya is one of those places that I would normally consider......

Tomorrow is the ribbon cutting of the third and newest downtown Famima!! at the California Plaza on Grand Avenue near MOCA. It's about time this part of downtown receive some new food options, even if this is quasi Japanese 7-11 style. However, a made-to-order sushi bar will be the centerpiece of this location. In addition to the few food options at the California Plaza, Performance Row (as we once dubbed it) has a Koo Koo......

A sexy new NYC restaurant import is hitting Beverly Hills: Bond St, the brainchild of New York entrepreneur Jonathan Morr. BondSt is offering up modern Euro-Japanese cuisine in a sexy brown-leather setting (EaterLA has a few pics up here). The swank new space, inside the Thompson Hotel on the corner of Wilshire and Crescent, features "30 seats, outdoor dining, a sushi bar and an exclusive second floor Bond Street lounge with private library alcove....the......

I've got great news for Los Angeles dining connoisseurs: DineLA Restaurant Week, a new restaurant-showcase event, begins this month and runs from January 27th through February 8th. Participating diners will be able to feast on prix-fixe three-course meals from such fine establishments as Crustacean, Simon LA, BLD, Katsuya, and many many others. The event aims to [Unite] restaurants from the traditional to the ultra trendy, dineLA Restaurant Week will promote the extraordinary diversity and......

Yesterday, as shoppers lined the streets of Old Town Pasadena, four shots rang out on Colorado Blvd. A 23-year old man, the intended victim, was hit once in the back. He's in stable condition at a nearby hospital. It is, the LA Times reports, the area's first shooting. Channel 9 happened to be there. Old Town Pasadena is filled with mostly mallish chain stores and dining establishments and a few independent restaurants, but it's......

I am terribly saddened to report that my most favoritest sushi restaurant in Los Angeles will be closing its doors on December 31st. I've been going here regularly for 8 years now and I am devastated to see it go. For those of you who love Otom Sushi the way I do, hurry your way over there as you only have a week left. For those of you who have never been there, I'd......

What with all the Big Game festivities going on this weekend, a girl can't help but think back fondly upon her alma mater. But you know what? It's only been a few years since I left UCLA, and I gotta say -- I almost don't recognize the place anymore. Has it really been so long since I graduated? Five years? Maybe more? So much has changed -- I came of age in the Steve......

Farm Boy Palms (probably also known as Farm Boy Culver City) is finally open. With a pretty substantial workload, I haven't had time to go there a lot, but I did manage to take some pictures. They have loads of fruits and vegetables, all described on their handwritten cards as "sweet and fresh." The sushi looks about on par with Ralphs, and they have fruit flavored yogurts with all the Pinkberry trimmings.......

Stuffed, A Plush Food Show, features over 30 artists creating culinary feasts made of felts and fabrics....

I am thankful for… Thanksgiving - even though I think it’s a stupid holiday, and I pretty much hate all the food associated with it - for giving me the opportunity to spend the day with family that I love and actually enjoy being around. I am thankful every day that I am able to make a living being creative and doing something I love. (Except for when I’m on strike) I am thankful......

This week five fresh&easy grocery stores er, "neighborhood markets," opened in metro Los Angeles. We visited the Glassell Park store located in a gutted Albertson's on Eagle Rock Blvd (map) for our first impression of UK-based Tesco's (the world's third-largest grocer) attempt to hook finicky West Coast consumers. The array of fresh&easy branded products is impressive. The packaging is minimalist, reminiscent of a Safeway or Walgreen's branded generic. But as you'll see in the slideshow......

I was struck this weekend by a most wonderful thought: my neighborhood, the NoHo Arts District, is getting to be a fun place to walk around at night. I used to jokingly refer to the District's studiously "fun!" new moniker as "merely an exercise in public relations rather than a reference to anything 'real,'" but after getting out and about on Friday night, I have to say that this stretch of Lankershim Boulevard really......

I love the idea of tapas--the leisure of sitting down to a meal, getting a good drink and having someone bring you small yummy things to eat. But somehow, tapas never turns out to be as good as it sounds. In fact, my husband has declared that tapas are “crapas” and refuses to go. So when I get in that mood, we go to Echigo. Echigo’s not for everyone. It’s one of those no salad,......

This Saturday we had the opportunity to check out the sights and eats at the 8th Annual Japanese Food Festival, which was held at the lovely New Otani Hotel in downtown and hosted by the Japanese Restaurant Association (JRA) of Southern California. There were lots of tasty bites to eat, and plenty to drink, as well as crowd pleasing entertainment, like the Sushi Making Contest. We did our best to capture a taste of......

e3rd Steakhouse isn't your average late-night dining spot. Its vibe is less "let's go soak up all that alcohol" and far more "let's have a fabulous meal post-theatre." Located in the growing Arts District downtown, e3rd's premise is promising: a steakhouse owned by the guy who owns Zip Fusion Sushi, the most popular sushi restaurant in the area. When we asked owner Jason Ha why a steakhouse - and why a steakhouse only steps......

The Japanese Food Festival, a one day event being held at The New Otani Hotel, will be occurring this Saturday, October 27 from 11AM to 3PM. Tickets are 50 bucks but that includes all-you-can-eat-sushi as well as all-you-can-drink sake and beer (yay!). Hosted by the Japanese Restaurant Association of Southern California, there will be a best sushi chef contest, demonstrations of how to fillet a tuna, Jazz, and sake and beer tasting (drinks!). Do you......

Late this morning, a fire struck the delicious and affordable Taste of India restaurant in Sherman Oaks, a few blocks West of Woodman on Ventura Blvd. It took 40 firefighters 31 minutes to contain the fire in ventilation duct work. There were no injuries. Traffic on Ventura Blvd. was shut down in both directions for two blocks forcing motorists to clog the allies north and south of Ventura Blvd. It is unknown at this......