Mishima is a quickly expanding chain of Japanese donburi, soba and udon restaurants.  I think they are up to 4 now.  Donburi is a bowl of rice with stuff on top.  Once they put the stuff on top the name is usually shortened to just don.  For example Gyu Don (Beef Bowl), Niku Don (Meat Bowl, thicker beef), Una don (eel bowl, tastes kind of like tender BBQ chicken), Oyaku don (Chicken and egg bowl)

I'm not sure if that's the "official" name of this area but on Sawtelle just north of Olympic there are about 3 or 4 blocks of Japanese stores.  It seems alot more lively than Little Tokyo in downtown L.A even if it is really small.  I've heard it called Little Osaka and also L.A. city had flags up calling it just Sawtelle.

Marukai is a store similar to Mitsuwa.  I'm not sure if they are also a chain.   As for food they have more selection than the Costa Mesa Mitsuwa and they have better prices.  They require a $10 membership but generally you'll save more than $10 over Mitsuwa on your first trip.

They also have some Hawaiian foods although they are all frozen.  They have pork, chicken and fish lau−laus and they have kalua pork and kalua chicken as well as some poke mix and laup−chong (a sweet sausage that Hawaiians like especially in fried rice)

What are the two best things about this place?  (1) It's open till 3 or 4 am.  (2) you get crayons to draw on your paper table cover with.

The food's just okay. Nothing to really special but it's alot more interesting than Denny's for that late night thing.

I'm not sure if this is true but I've been told the Little Saigon has the most Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam.  It's a great place to visit.  Especially check it out on Tet day one of the major celebrations.

Directions: A good place to start is the area near the Dragon Phoenix Palace Chinese Seafood Restaurant.  Little Saigon runs from Beach Blvd to Euclid along Garden Grove Blvd, Westminster Blvd and Bolsa Ave.

Horray!  Vietnamese food on the west side.  Pho, Charbroiled Pork, Vietnamese style eggrolls.  Yummy.

Acutally it's not great but it's not bad either.  Perfect when you have a craving but you can't make it down to Orange County.  Very inexpensive too.

On Santa Monica West of the 405 just before Barrington.

　

Why this place has done was well has it has it beyond me.  The place sucks!   There are like 50 of them too.  I don't get it.  I've tried it like 5 times at like 3 different locations and every time I've hated it.  Bland tasteless dry food.  Complete crap.  Blech!  Avoid this place and maybe it will go away.

For really good and really inexpensive French food my friend Natsuko introduced me to this place

It's about a 15 minute walk from Kagurazaka Station on the Tozai like or 8 minutes from the Odeo Ushigyome Kagurazaka Staion but it's well worth it.  At the time I went a three course meal was only about 3000 yen (about $23).

Highly recommended, especially for couples.

I don't really know what to recommend here.  It's not bad, it's not great, it's just a place we used to go because generally there wasn't a long wait and it was convenient.  It's on Beverly just east of La Cienega at the corner of Beverly and King's Road. Hence the name 😉

Kim Tar is the kind of Chinese restaurant that looks dirty.  I'd be surprised if they got a A or even a B from the health department.  Fortunately I'm one of those people that thinks those kind of places are the most delicious.  Kim Tar is a chain and there are several of them.  I've been to the one in Cerritos and also the one in Anaheim.