Shogun and New Music Works

Although it's been around for a while I had never been to Shogun, so I was happy to check it out when Gerry suggested it for our pre-concert dinner. The restaurant is very pretty, very busy, with a vibe of young energy on a Saturday night. The food, though, is less exciting than the atmosphere & interior of the place. There were five of us, so there was some variety in what we ordered. The Miso soup and Pacific/California Rolls were good, the dinner boxes huge and also not bad, but it certainly isn't top-notch. A salad consisting of Iceberg lettuce is always a turn-off for me, even if the dressing is "addictive," to quote Gerry. I also would have expected better soy sauce than Kikkoman on the table. Kikkoman? A place that calls itself "Japanese Restaurant" should be able to do better. On the other hand, when we ordered a pot of tea for 2 bucks, we were served very delicious Genmaicha, which was a pleasant surprise.
And people watching is a lot of fun... More on Yelp, where I appreciated one reviewers description of how

Once you stumble over the schizophrenic transient, weave thru the zombie heroin addict kids, wind around the hippies and hipsters and avoid the usual gaggle of oddities that make up the greater population: you will find Shogun.

That's Pacific Avenue on Planet Cruz for you!

I absolutely loved New Music Works' "Music for Linda" featuring compositions by Zappa, Cage, Sid Robinovitch, Hyo-shin Na, Stravinsky, and locals Philip Collins & Lou Harrison. Definitely not the last New Music Works concert I will enjoy. The next one, Continuation, is already coming up in January, and there will be two more for this season in March and June.