[Los Angeles] [Fusion] The Kress

The Kress
6608 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 785-5000
http://www.thekress.net

First things first: This place is huge. Like, so huge the main dining room alone seats 220 people. Built in 1934, the multi-level art deco-style building was originally an S.H. Kress Department Store. In 1949, it became the world headquarters for Frederick's of Hollywood. Now, after more than two years of restoration, owner Michael Viscuso (who helped resuscitate San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter) has unveiled its new-century incarnation as The Kress, a shiny larger-than-life supper club, sushi lounge, basement disco and rooftop bar. The ground level restaurant is like a temple to all things Asian with an '80s Vegas twist--red lights wash over the central wraparound bar anchored by a massive crystal chandelier, while clear acrylic bar stools, ornate black lacquer accents (including a completely restored 1930s ceiling) and gold leather banquettes dot the space. Oh, and there's two enormous fu temple dogs guarding the doorway. Not to be outdone, the menu is just as grandiose, offering everything from daily bento box specials to gold-flecked nigiri (it's standard here) and cook-it-yourself shrimp skewers that come presented on a 500+-degree stone. Now that's hot.  --From SCREW THE RECESSION--


Thanks to Screw The Recession, we can enjoy a new restaurant for 50% off every week!  Last week's restaurant pick was The Kress in Hollywood.  The Kress is more well known for its night club than its Asian fusion restaurant.  The club didn't have good reviews on Yelp.  But I was still hopeful about their food.  I mean, if it's not good, at least it's 50% off, right?



We managed to find free parking on the side street and walked a block to The Kress.  I read the valet parking behind the club/restaurant cost $20!




In the center of the dining room was the bar area.  There is a sushi bar on the second floor, but it was empty.  People rather sat at the bar area to eat sushi and sip drinks.



There were some boothes, as well as regular tables.  There is a private room upstairs.  Also a DJ was spinning on the second floor.


Edamame

Our meal started with some complimentary edamame.  The edamame was sprinkled with sea salt and served warm.  We really like the warm edamame, rather than the cold ones that we usually get in restaurants.


Chardonnay, Baileyana "Grano Firepeak Cuvee" Edna Valley, 2006 ($10.00) /
House Hot Sake (Carafe) ($10.00)

There was no discount for drinks.  But when you are dining with loud house music playing in the background, you just feel like alcohol is a MUST.  Dr. P got a glass of Chardonnay.  He liked it.  I really wanted to get their Kress Martini, which is a lychee martini.  But they said they were out of ALL specialty drinks that night.  Strange!  So I got hot sake to share with Dr. P.  It was sweet, just the way I like it.


Kress Sashimi Rainbow Rolls ($20.00)

Service was a bit slow.  Pretty long wait before each dish was brought out.  But we just sipped our drink and tried to enjoy the music and the vibe of the place.  The first dish came to the table was Kress Sashimi Rainbow Rolls.  Very fresh sashimi on top of the shrimp & spicy tuna roll.  It was probably the spiciest spicy tuna roll we've ever had.  The spiciness was a bit overpowering so we couldn't really taste the sashimi.  So we tried to eat the sashimi and the roll seperately.  The roll was really spicy, but since Dr. P and I both love spicy food, we really enjoy the rolls.


Miso Soup ($4.00)

Dr. P always orders a miso soup when he eats Japanese food.  I told him I would never let him order a $4 miso soup, but since it's $2 on that day, fine.  But when they brought the miso soup the table, I actually thought $4 wasn't too bad.  It wasn't just a bowl, but it was a big pot of miso soup.  It was served in the Korean style stone pot, and it remained hot for at least 30 minutes.  There were fresh shitake mushroom and lots of tofu and seaweed in the soup.  The soup itself was a little bit too watery for my taste.  But it was still pretty good.


Daily Bento Box ($25.00)
5 Daily Appetizer Creations

The Daily Bento Box got a lot of wooo's and ahhhh's when it was brought to the table.  There were 5 appetizers, which changes daily.  Let's see what we got on last Thursday night.


Coconut U-12 Shrimp

2 Coconut Jumbo Shrimps.  Super delicious!  The shrimp was so soft, and the coconut coating was sweet and crispy.


Spring Roll Bouquet

Spring Roll Bouquet had Veitnamese rice noodle salad mixed with vegetables and wrapped with Japanese rice paper.  It was very refreshing.  Quite good.


Veggie Spring Rolls

The Veggie Spring Rolls was the only thing we didn't like.  The skin was really thick, chewy and oily.  There weren't much veggies inside.  I think all I got was green onions.


Mandarin Chicken

Mandarin Chicken was our favorite appetizer of the five.  Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside.  It wasn't as sweet as the Panda Express version.  These chicken tasted a lot more "gourmet".  The accompanied salad with sesame dressing was equally delicious!


Crispy Calamari

The Crispy Calamari wasn't exactly crispy.  It was just really soft, in a really good way.  The calamari tasted very fresh.  I really like it.  After we finished the bento box, I was already full.  Then our main entrees came.


Lamb Chops ($22.00)
Caramelized onions, olive fondue

Dr. P got the Lamb Chops.  The meat was cooked medium and very juicy.  However, it lacked flavor.  I had a bite of the meat, and it just had absolutely no taste, not even salt & pepper taste.  If you eat the lamb with some caramelized onions or dip it in the olive fondue sauce, then you did get some flavor.  But I wouldn't recommend ordering this dish.


Peking Duck Chow Fun Noodle ($19.00)

I got the Peking Duck Chow Fun Noodle.  Roasted duck with crispy skin sitting on top of the noodle.  The duck was so good.  The noodle was cooked with lots of veggies.  The extra egg added some more points to this dish.  The duck noodle was so much better than the lamb.  Everything was so flavorful.  I was full, but I still finished the whole bowl because it was that good.


Assorted Creme Brulee in Sake Cups ($8.00)

My stomach was about to burst.  I was thinking maybe I couldn't eat any more dessert.  But when I saw the Assorted Creme Brulee in Sake Cups on the dessert menu, I stopped thinking.  The five flavors we got were almond, chocolate, oatmeal, blueberry, and original.  Dr. P loves the almond one.  I like it a lot, too.  But I also like the oatmeal one a lot.  It was very thick and gooey, just like oatmeal.  And it tasted like oatmeal cookie.  Yum!  Yes, I was beyond full.  Yes, I finished the whole thing.  Yes, I got sick.  And yes, I threw up!  If I was doing a commercial for The Kress, I would say something like "The food was so good so I ate until I throw up (big smile with a thumb up)!"



Our waitress brought us the bill.  They had "forgotten" to apply the 50% discount.  Hmmm.... I am just wondering if they do this to every table and hope that nobody would notice?



But they fixed it very quickly.  We saved $49!  If we weren't such achoholics, the bill would only be $56!  With that much delicious food, I say this was definitely a good deal.

If you want to celebrate a birthday or something, you can have dinner first and get free admission to the club afterward.   We enjoy the food at The Kress.  But their regular price is just too expensive in our opinion.  But if I'm going out with friends, I would come here, order a drink, and order a bento box to share.



On our way back to the car, we saw this very "unique"outfit inside a store window.  All my guy readers, would you ever wear anything like this?

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