09.22.08
Dining at Kado
Our family just celebrated my mom’s 75th birthday last night. Her birthday was actually on Saturday, but September has lots of birthdays for family and friends and my uncle had his big birthday bash on Saturday night. His birthday is actually on the 30th of Sept at which time he will turn 86 years old, oye! His birthday bash was a bit entertaining since it has been a long time since we’ve gotten together with that part of the family. Technically, they’re not blood relatives, but very close friends of the family. So close that we’ve called each other uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. Anyway, it was fun to see old faces again, but my have we all aged! Ha! “Our” kids are now adults and ready for their own kids! Yikes! Anyway, back to my mom, this year we decided to try a restaurant that we haven’t tried yet. Being that my aunt has not been to the Grove yet, we decided to try Kado, a Japanese restaurant on Fairfax. It is located on the second floor at the edge of the 3rd and Fairfax Farmer’s Market. Aside from the bar, the dinning is separated in three ways–regular dinning lounge, Teppan, and a sort of sushi bar/conveyor belt-type-thing. . . We saw this style at the airport in London and also on some Anime cartoons, but this is the first one I’ve seen here locally. This is what it looks like.
You can still order directly from the sushi bar, but they also have items circulating around the conveyor belt from which to chose. If it’s like the airport, the prices of each item depends upon the colored plate the food is on. We didn’t eat at this section nor at the regular dinning lounge. For this evening, we decided to try their Teppan. It’s actually very similar to Benihanna of Tokoyo or Tokyo Waco. They even did the usual “volcano” trick.
In addition to Teppan, we ordered sushi such as seared ahi, California rolls, tekka maki, unagi, and Kado’s ceviche. Here’s a pic of what their ceviche looks like. Was tasty, but I will say that I think Katsuya’s ceviche is better.
And here’s their California roll with snow crab. I particularly appreciated that they serve “real” crab in their rolls. But it should be noted that you have to “ask” for it, otherwise you get the imitation crab meat. The snow crab does cost more, but hey, at least it’s real food.
I didn’t take any pics of the teppan since everyone was already digging into it before all of it was cooked, but it’s basically fried and grilled stuff. I did take a pic of my mom’s birthday dessert.
My mom’s a diabetic, so unfortunately she couldn’t eat all of her dessert, but she did taste it! 
Here’s me mom and dad. Poor dad is currently on antibiotics, so his taste buds weren’t behaving.
As it turned out, everyone was pretty stuffed by this time anyway, so we passed on the desserts this time. Here’s a shot of my family. At first I wondered what all the “spots” were from. Then I thought “maybe” it from all the frying and cooking going on as the chef was just cooking at my parents’ table next to ours. I’m thinking that those were fried oil floating around in the dark and illuminated by the camera flash.
Here’s a clearer one “before” the cooking started of my boys and me.
A bit dark in there, but the food was okay and the price was comparable to other restaurants of the same caliber. For those who may want a bit more light, there is an outer dinning area, which looked more lighted than in here. Overall, I give Kado an “amateur” B rating, heheh.
Marlakins
