We unexpectedly started our LA adventures off with a bang. We’d spent the day driving down from San Francisco, finding our lodging and settling in a bit. Sweetie had found a place that sounded good, had good reviews and wasn’t too far from where we were staying. We decided to walk over and check it out
We wandered through a bleak, dystopian sort of atmosphere for a few blocks before coming to the periphery of Little Tokyo and the Little Tokyo Marketplace, an unassuming mall-like structure at 8th and Alameda that was loaded with Eastern treasures, like a huge Japanese grocery store, a Daiso (think Japanese dollar store), Beard Papa (which I can’t have anymore) and lots of other great looking stuff.
Since we got there pretty early, and on a Sunday, we didn’t have a problem walking in and grabbing a table. We were kindly greeted and seated and as soon as we saw the menus and noted the tasting menu, I was set. I’m always a sucker for a tasting menu. Always take the tasting menu.
The meal started with their Spicy “Tuna” on Crispy Rice. I’m really liking some of these fake tuna type preparations that I am trying. They are another great example of how you can create something that tastes almost just like the real thing, and which was such a mutilation of an actual thing that you wondered why they bothered to make it with that real thing to begin with. You know what I mean? I rather liked it, and the crispy rice added some nice texture to the otherwise mushy “tuna” preparation. No need to kill something when you can still get the flavors and textures like this
This was followed by the Shojin Shish Gyoza, a delicate and delicious gyoza preparation wrapped in shiso leaves and otherwise typically prepared. I liked the texture of the filling and would have happily eaten many, many more of these.
Once we had wolfed these down, we were presented with the Truffle Tempura Avocado Salad, a plate of greens topped with the most delicately tempura fried pieces of avocado.
Next we had the Dynamite Roll and we finished with the Purple Treasure.
If I had one small complaint about Shojin, it was that there was a lot of avocado in their tasting menu, but it won’t stop my from going back, mind you.
Shojin is 100% vegan and as such has a VegScore of 100. I really loved the meal here. The service was attentive and quick. I can’t wait to go back and try more from the menu.