Eurochow offers upscale ambiance, delicious food

  Mary Holscher Eurochow serves a combination of Italian
and Chinese food.

By Laura Morgan
Daily Bruin Contributor

Sometimes a restaurant’s bark is fiercer than its
bite.

Eurochow, located in Westwood, and housed in a
beautifully-designed white building, is notorious for being ultra
expensive and ritzy.

Serving both authentic Italian and Chinese food, however, the
only thing that should be scaring off potential customers is the
prices. Though more costly than the neighboring California Pizza
Kitchen or BJ’s, Eurochow makes up for its costliness with
worthwhile dishes.

The upscale restaurant introduces diners to a wide variety of
appetizers, with prices ranging from $7 to $15. A few popular
choices are Butterfly Pillows with chicken, Prosciutto di Parma and
the Shanghai Little Dragon, which consists of flour purses filled
with meat.

The Glazed Prawns with Walnuts, which goes for $13, is an
absolutely mouth watering choice for diners to warm up
diners’ stomachs. The serving is small enough to cater to one
person, but even if you could share, you probably wouldn’t
want to. Consisting of prawns glazed over with a sweet sauce and
surrounded by walnuts that have a sesame seed glaze, this dish is
worth the price.

RESTAURANT INFORMATION
Eurochow Address: 1099 Westwood
Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90024
Hours: 11:30 a.m. – 10:30 p.m. Late supper
Sun.-Thurs. 10:30 p.m.-midnight
Fri. & Sat. 10:30 p.m.-1 a.m.
Phone Number: (310) 209-0066
Entree Price Range: $16.00 – $25.00

After working on the appetizers, diners won’t have to wait
long for their main course ““ an order can arrive in as little
as 10 minutes during non-peak hours. While waiting, however,
customers can look around and see that even though there is no
official dress code, patrons are expected to dress nicely.

For main course selections, a variety of pastas are made fresh
daily and cooked to order. Some diners may need to have the unusual
dish names translated by the waiter, however. Some choices include
Taglioni al Prosciutto Gratinati (baked pasta with parma cotto
ham), Middle Kingdom Water Ravioli (filled with meat and
vegetables) and Pappardelle Facsimile (bolognese wide pasta with
veal ragu). Restaurant patrons can expect to pay between $12.50 and
$17.50 for one of these exquisite pasta entrees.

Eurochow also offers a fine variety of seafood entrees to tempt
diners’ taste buds. Plates such as the Grilled Salmon Filet
and Baked Chilean Sea Bass served with mashed potatoes make
selecting a main course a difficult task. One of the house specials
in the seafood area is the Fresh Sea Bass with Pine Nuts. This
delicious course, a customer favorite, consists of a classic diced
sea bass from Shanghai served with lightly sauteed rice.

A fine choice of veal, lamp chops, pork chops and chicken are
among the other choices on the menu. One popular dish is the
Szechwan Chicken with Peanuts, which consists of traditional kung
pao chicken served with lightly sauteed rice.

If you are in the mood for game, however, duck is the best
choice. Served with swiss chard (a form of beet) and jasmine rice,
the duck is given in two servings. One consists of a tender portion
already sliced, and the other is a tougher version that contains
skin and bone. This meal is a good choice for diners who want a lot
more flavor, though the sauce can be quite overpowering.

If, after making it through the large dinner, you find yourself
with some leftover space, there are delicious options for dessert.
These include fruit sorbets from Italy, Gelati Italiani, cheesecake
and the house favorite, Panettone Bread Pudding.

Furthermore, the service at Eurochow is excellent and courteous.
After leaving the table for a moment, a patron will return to find
his or her chair properly pushed in and a refolded napkin. In
addition, a waiter is always waiting to aid diners by pulling their
chairs out.

To beat the heavy Friday traffic, potential diners should try
arriving around 6 p.m. At such an early hour, not many people are
in attendance, which might diminish the full restaurant atmosphere,
but the trade-off is that the main course will arrive much quicker.
Reservations are not required, but for peak times, such as after 8
p.m., they are encouraged.

Offering a wide variety of delectable cuisines to tantalize the
palate, Eurochow offers not only great food, but also an evening
that brings an atmosphere of escape from the outside world.