Oyster Paradise at a Bargained Price - EMC Seafood & Raw Bar

Don't you just love downtown LA for its vibrant food scenes and broad selection of multinational cuisines? Chinese, Indian, Burmese, French, Costa Rican, even African and Ethiopian restaurants are happening in such a small area just to name a few. 

There are also a number of seafood oriented restaurants, and this one - EMC Seafood & Raw Bar is still quite new in the K-town neighborhood. What makes it stand out from the others? Freshness is a must and pretty much standard applied to all restaurants. Wide selection of seafood offering at a bargained price is definitely a plus. However, the best thing about EMC is that you can also get your hands on seafood dishes with an Asian flare such as uni pasta and abalone congee. 

*The congee here at EMC tastes even better than the infamous late night munch that opened for years in Korea Town (party people, you should know which place I'm talking about).

Pardon the grainy pictures. I already knew this meal requires digging in with both hands, so the big Canon was taking a break at home and my handy iPhone 5S took over the mission. 

Two entrances, one on the street and the other one can be accessed directly through the shopping center -

EMC does not take reservations for party under 10 people. To avoid the waiting crowd, we got there way ahead of regular dinner hours. Hey! Oysters can also be a good late afternoon munch besides tea and cakes.

Pretty small table with not so comfy bar stools for a party of six. EMC does have regular dining tables with seats that you can lean your back on in the other area, but even when we got there early, the back section was already packed with seafood craving customers.

A round of icy cold water first -

Menu (click for enlarged view) -

Some cooked dishes -

Drink menu -

Wine, beer, and non-alcoholic choices -

Sake bomb using Tozai, "Typhoon" and Sapporo $3/each -

Bucket for the shells -

Zucchini fries with yogurt ranch dipping sauce $7 -

Underneath the medium thickness coasting is fully cooked zucchini that melts in your mouth slightly. 

Happy hour oyster - Eastern from Delaware, Chesapeake area, $1/each -

Clean, not much distinct taste.

My glass of Riesling, goes well with oysters -

Here's the big boy, a giant plate full of oysters -

The tiny ones inside are Kumamoto oysters from Humboldt Bay, Northern California. Strong and crisp, packed with umami taste, my favorite of the day. 

Outer layer clockwise from the top right corner: 
Kusshi from Vancouver Island, BC, Canada - Fattier than Kumamoto, also packed with ocean aroma, second favorite of the day.

Fat Bastard from Seattle, WA -Not too much taste but definitely a whopping, satisfying bite.

Naked Cowboy from Long Island, NY - pretty plain compared to above options.

Mini lobster roll $9 -

Regular size lobster roll $18 -

Tarragon butter, sea salt, brioche bun, plus extra clarified butter on the side if the already buttery brioche bun is not enough. The lobster roll here is not as refined as the one from Son of a Gun but the quality is definitely up to par.

Uni pasta $20 -

Creamy goodness. The dried seaweed adds a little saltiness to the dish. A must order item here especially after numerous oysters. The uni cream provides a sense of warmth and comfort to the stomach.

Garlic noodles $8 -

Just wanted to give it a try. By far Crustacean still has the best garlic noodles that I've ever tasted.

The plan was having raw oysters and end with warm dishes, but I guess that bad ass plate of oysters wasn't enough, so here we go again -

Hokkaido scallop carpaccio $12 -

Seasoned with yuzu kosho, ponzu, extra virgin olive oil, and smoked salt.

Very condensed aroma, it's like the essence of two scallops packed into one. A little bit spicy, overall better than expected.

Oyster shooter $8 -

Quail egg, uni, ikura, ponzu, Tabasco, chives, and soju. The oyster shooter is slightly different here. The customer has to do the assembling work.

Squeeze the lemon -

Pour in the uni, oyster, and ikura -

Then it goes the quail egg -

Nearly overflowed -

Personally speaking, I think the oyster shooter was too big to finish in one gulp. Satisfying it was but also kind of painful for me with such big shot, all my other friends enjoyed it though. I know..how dare I even complain about large portion seafood and soju..

After rounds of oysters, hot dishes, oysters again, even more oyster shots, now we are finally back on track with one last satisfying hot food, congee with abalone $16 -

Add in the ginger and scallion for extra kick, and warmth. For sure the abalone congee from EMC is a better version of the late night munch joint in K-town.

EMC actually stands for Eat More Clams, but apparently we didn't get any clams, not even the tables around us. Everyone was here for the oysters and all other Asian influenced seafood dishes. Los Angeles is good to you.


Cindy's Rating: 8


EMC Seafood & Raw Bar
3500 West 6th Street. #101
Los Angeles, CA 90010
(213) 351-9988
http://www.emcseafood.com/

*Do not take reservations except for large party with 10 or more people 
*2 hours dining limit

Other Seafood Restaurants in Los Angeles:
Son of a Gun
The Hungry Cat

Quick Review for My dineLA Restaurant Week Jan 20-31 2014 Experience - The Hungry Cat Hollywood

2014 dineLA event falls between January 20th to January 31st. Restaurants will create prix fixe menu specifically for this event, usually ranging from two to three courses at an attractive price. The goals are to draw in more customers for local communities, generate awareness, and hopefully get people to venture to new dishes and new places. This time, I'm trying out The Hungry Cat - Hollywood branch.

My last dineLA experience was a dinner at Chef Tom Colicchio's steak house Craft almost three and a half years ago. Man..I seriously have to get my butt out of this Orange County bubble more often, can't believe how much delicious food I have been missing all these years. 

The Hungry Cat is located in the courtyard of the sunset and vine building. Valet parking is not available. However, there is a public parking structure on the street right behind the restaurant. You can click on the map on the very bottom of this post, where I have marked the parking location with a green dot. 

Outdoor seating was very spacious but might be too cold at night, especially in January (and yes I'm complaining about the unbearable cold weather in southern California). 

Indoor-wise, there are quite a few bar seats on both left and right sides. Few tables in the middle and along the French windows.

It's a seafood based restaurant, hence the name Hungry Cat. You'll also find many cat related decorative items throughout the place.

Sign for ladies' restroom -

Sign for gentleman's restroom - 

Pardon the grainy pictures. They were all taken with iPhone 5 and the lighting was not too helpful at the restaurant. 

Past event poster - 

Look closer and you'll see some cat related souvenirs from Greece, Japan, and other countries on the shelf -

Regular menu, click to enlarge the view - 

A la carte raw bar menu -

Wine menu -

Other drinks -

Restaurant week menu (dinner) -

Some oyster crackers to munch on -

Front: greyhound proper, made with Plymouth gin, grapefruit, candied grapefruit $13. Back: Anchor Brewing Co. California lager $6 -

Here it comes our seafood platter. Not included in the dineLA menu but this is a must when dining at The Hungry Cat -

This was 1 tier platter $47.5 -

There are also 2 tier for $87.5 and "the hungry cat" luscious tiers for $147.5.

The caviar is not included in the seafood platter. The one we have here is 1/2 ounce hackleback for $27 -

Caviar is one of the common fancy ingredients used as a garnish or to boost a slight umami savory taste for other dishes. However, when caviar is savored on its own in larger amount, the taste is similar to ikura (those Japanese orange colored fish roe) but in a much more concentrated and intense way.

And our caviar comes with blintz, or blini, basically a yeast crepe to be consumed with small spoonful of caviar and other condiments -

Sour cream, chives, cooked egg white, cooked egg yolk, and shallots -

Truly an indulgence. The hackleback caviar is slightly sweet and has a nutty aroma in the end. The blini even just by itself are quite flavorful also.

Sauce for the platter - 

All the shellfish that night were very fresh, crisp, and sweet, especially for the large cherrystone clams and oysters. 

It's nice when you have a jar of caviar around..

Small lobster -

I personally prefer their raw items more than the cooked ones such as this lobster and the crab legs. There is no substitution for the items come with the platter. If you would like to try everything then the seafood platter is definitely the way to go. Otherwise it might be wiser to just order from the raw bar. 

On the side note, it can get pretty messy when trying to dig through the cooked seafood. You can tell that I don't have any pictures holding up crab legs or lobsters, both hands were busy working on those shells. As for the oysters and cherrystone clams, they just slide right down the throat quite easily, and I do have many pictures of them, one hand holding up the food, the other stays clean and still able to take pictures.

Restaurant week menu first course: flash seared albacore tuna, beet puree, fried chickpeas, mint, cerignola olives and almonds -

Despite the western ingredients mentioned on the menu, the flavors and seasonings were actually quite Asian-like. Love the crunch from the almonds.

Restaurant week second course: braised mussels, pork belly, green curry, coconut milk, apple, scallion, cilantro -

Iwasn't expecting this plate full of mussels. I mean it's a good surprise, but based on the description, I thought it meant a big chunk of pork belly that comes with just a few mussels on the side.

Instead it was numerous mussels with pork belly strips throughout. I'm not complaining though. 

The sauce was aromatic and not too salty, especially the restaurants I've been to recently tend to overdose on salt when it comes to mussels. This dish could be better if there were some bread or even rice that goes along with the sauce.

Special menu: lobster roll and fries -

I'm more into the lobster roll from Son of a Gun. However, Mr. K thinks The Hungry Cat version is better because the Son of a Gun lobster roll was too buttery and way too salty. I never have a problem with buttery dishes, but I do agree with him on the overly salty food from Son of a Gun. 

Restaurant week menu dessert: Meyer lemon parfait, whipped cream, sugar cookie -

The dessert was quite a disappointment. It was overly sweet (and I can take very sweet treats) that I couldn't even finish half of the parfait. The other half was gone thanks to the help of whipped cream and sugar cookie. 

Final bill -

You can always count on The Hungry Cat for top notch, fresh-off-the-ocean quality seafood. I wouldn't mind coming back with a few friends sharing a seafood platter and maybe a few entrée. Most likely no more dessert from here though. Hopefully next time I'll get to order "the hungry cat" platter and see how grand it is with my own eyes!


Cindy's Rating: 7


The Hungry Cat (Hollywood Branch)
1535 North Vine Street
Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 462-2155

Restaurant website: http://thehungrycat.com/hollywood.html
dineLA website: http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/dinela-los-angeles-restaurant-week

*Courtesy of Google Maps (click to enlarge to view)

Red A balloon - The Hungry Cat
Green dot - Public parking structure, enter on Morningside Ct.