There's a "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode (forgot which one...) where Larry is complaining to Jeff Greene that bald men are treated poorly. Larry is completely ignored by the waitress and Jeff thinks he's overreacting. Lo and behold when Jeff goes into the hospital, the nurse thinks Jeff is a cancer patient and shaves his head, and that's when Jeff realizes that there is truth to Larry's observation.
I'm not bald, but there is a good reason for bringing this up...my colleague celebrated his birthday at Katana and there were seven of us, one of them was bald (I'll call him Joe). The only pretentious staffs we dealt with were the hostesses. You can stand in front of them and they won't acknowledge you; you literally have to bark at them to get their attention -guess they like to be treated rough. The bartender was nice; drinks semi-strong for me, but super strong for the lightweight birthday boy. We had the Ginger Lychee Mojitos ($14/each), which in my opinion it could use more lychee juice. I kept my tab at the bar so it would be less hassle when the dinner bill arrives.
I decided to order the Open Table's Stimulus plan as it made the most sense -you start of with and an appetizer, (3) robatas, (4) sushi pieces, (1) roll, and dessert for $35. My appetizer was the Chicken dumplings -- good!
For the Robatas (Skewers) we got: Salmon w/ pesto, Chicken Meatballs, and Shitake Mushrooms--fantastic!
Lots of flavor in the Chicken Meatballs. The Salmon w/ pesto was delicious -not too fishy. You can't go wrong with Shitake Mushrooms. When sushi time arrived, I had a Spicy Tuna roll and the 4 sushi pieces: tuna, albacore, red snapper, and salmon.
Come here for the robatas and not for the sushi. The tuna was fishy. The other fish weren't bad, but I've definitely had better. Spicy tuna roll was good. My meal ended with some kind of a chocolate cake, which was good but not orgasmic.
I also sampled the bday boy's wife's Sticky Rice, which was pretty gross...all I could taste was the charcoal...
Bald Joe ordered the more interesting and more expensive food... There was the Foie Gras (Filet Mignon wrapped around Foie Gras & Asparagus).
I don't think there was Foie Gras... as I hate Foie Gras and couldn't taste it. The Filet Mignon wrapped around the Asparagus was delicious. Even better was the Kobe Pepper.
Joe also ordered the Rainbow & Dynamite Rolls
and the Albacore Tuna w/ Crispy Onions.
Birthday boy got a delicious chocolate cake from them:
Now I would have easily given Katana a 4 -star, maybe a 4.5 star because we had great service (the chef accommodated my food allergies, the manager and waitress were attentive, bartender memorized my drink)...except Joe. Poor bald Joe. The waitress totally ignored him, and Joe was the one who ordered the most expensive items on the menu!
Here are the misfortunate incidents of being bald...After Joe had ordered drinks from the waitress, I went outside to feed the meter (my car was parked on the other side), ordered another drink at the bar, and somehow I managed to do all this before our waitress brought Joe his drink, which came 5 minutes after I was seated! Also, when the bday boy finished ordering his sushi, the waitress walked away before Joe could order his rolls. We had to help Joe out getting the waitress' attention. Sucks to be bald...
Overall, we had a great time except for Joe...I'll come back here on someone else's dime. As long as you don't order drinks, your tab should easily be under $50...otherwise expect to drop $80-100 with drinks.
Address: 8439 W Sunset Blvd West Hollywood, CA 90069
Phone#: (323) 650-8585
Rating: 4 out of 5
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