Every time we’d go for a walk, we’d pass by Kifune. It’s a very unassuming japanese place on the corner with no windows. To me, there’s always something a little amiss about a place with absolutely no windows. As if they don’t want you to see what’s inside because it’s so horrible. Well, after passing it so many times, we had to go in. And boy, were we wrong. The place is adorable inside. It’s very traditional japanese with rice paper walls and wooden slatted everything. It’s not swanky at all, it just feels like a traditional japanese home. Most entrees come with a salad and miso soup. I found the dressing not as flavorful as I thought it would have been, considering it’s bright orange color, but it was still pretty good. I hadn’t eaten fresh vegetables in awhile, so I relished it. J go tthe hibachi kushiyaki dinner, which came with three skewers of meat, some broccoli, and a spicy tuna roll. I dug on the spicy tuna roll. The meat was good and teriyaki flavored. Unfortunately, there was some weird sauce on the broccoli that he did not care for. And it was thick and everywhere, so it was nearly impossible for him to take it off. I got the sukiyaki, and man, it was gigantic. Can you see how big the dish is as compared to the bowl of rice? Oye. It was loaded with meat, mushrooms, green stuff, and shirataki noodles. I’d never actually had shirataki noodles before. When my mom makes sukiyaki, she uses some kind of clear japanese noodle, but it’s definitely not shirataki. Shirataki is made from the konjac, which is some kind of weird vegetable. But the strange thing about shirataki is that it has no calories, no carbs, and no glutens. It’s as if it’s nothing at all. But when cooked, it takes the flavor of whatever it’s cooked in. I also got some sashimi with my dinner, and it was a surprisingly large portion of some nice and fresh fish. Oh, our waiter was super nice and polite and actually japanese. So don’t let the no window thing scare you off. Give Kifune a shot.

Santa Monica has a plethora of shopping at the 3rd street promenade. You could spend hours just walking around. Well, we actually did do that, and so we got famished. There’s tons of places to eat too, but as I’ve said before, I’m terribly indecisive. Well, eventually after walking round and round, we happened upon Buddha’s Belly. It was a good thing too, because I was going to fall down from hunger.
It’s a pretty cute place, cleanly decorated. Dark wood in the booths and the tables, with a smattering of really soothing colors. I guess it’s considered an asian restaurant. It’s got a mix of japanese, thai, chinese cuisines, just basically taking the best and most popular from each cuisine.
We started with some chicken lettuce wraps. J had never had these before. He’d only just gone to PF Chang’s for the first time a few weeks ago, and he’s never been to the Cheesecake Factory, so this was his first foray into lettuce wraps. I liked that this particular dish had jicama in it, and the little fried crunchy bits too. And guess what, he liked it! J ordered the japanese noodle set with veggie and shrimp tempura. That’s an extremely long drawn out way of saying tempura udon. His first time having anything like this, and he enjoyed it. They make pretty good food here, and their presentation is also nice.
I’d been hankering for some ramen lately, and not from a packet, so that’s what I went with. The spinach ramen noodle, with spinach noodles (they’re green!) and a bunch of other stuff in a spicy miso broth. I didn’t think the broth would be spicy but it was, but in a good way. I liked this very much. I was surprised.

Service was good, but it took our waiter forever to come by and see us the very first time. But after that, it was smooth sailing. The waiter was funny though, not because he was trying. He was just a weird dude that talked strangely. And he was freakishly tall.

On a lazy sunday morning, we went rambling around the neighborhood. We were headed for coffee, but also happened upon the Mar Vista farmers market. I told you, on the weekend, there are farmers markets galore. People like their coffee here too, but not like the pacific northwest. With normal chains like starbucks and the coffee bean, there are still many local shops or smaller regional chains. Our ultimate destination was Venice Grind. We’d been passing by it a bunch of times and I really liked their “coffee” sign, so much that I wanted to go there.
The place had some pretty cool art, including big framed pics of celebrity mug shots. There was also lots of skateboardy type stuff. There are a bunch of little two-top tables, along with a more loungey section in the front, with big smooshy seats. But we decided to sit out back, in an adorable patio area. For whatever reason, J got an iced cappucino instead of his usual latte. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we got to enjoy the weather, and sat under a nice umbrella. There’s wi-fi here too, and we enjoyed surfin on the patio.An adorable and extremely friendly cat stopped by. She was very vocal and very friendly. How can you not love a place that even a finicky cat loves?