Fill up on a budget in Westwood

  CATHERINE JAYIN JUN/ Daily Bruin Senior Staff Cowboy
Sushi, located in Westwood, is a popular restaurant with UCLA
students. The menu features an all-you-can-eat buffet, a sashimi
platter, a shrimp tempura meal, as well as a baked scallop
appetizer.

Cowboy Sushi Cuisine: Japanese Price Range: $5.95-$22.95
Address: 911 Broxton Ave., Westwood Phone: (310)
208-7781

The name Cowboy Sushi is baffling, but besides that, this
minimalist-decor Japanese restaurant is one of UCLA’s
prominent sushi hangouts as it sports an all-you-can-eat buffet at
reasonable prices from $15.95-$18.95. Hanging out at the sushi bar
is probably the best part of the eating experience as diners
eagerly await the wonderful array of sushi ““ salmon, tuna,
albacore, baked eel and other specialty rolls such as the shrimp
tempura and the Philadelphia, which is made up of salmon and cream
cheese. Considering its price, the sushi bar is without contest the
best thing about Cowboy Sushi. One delectable appetizer provided
with the sushi buffet is the infamous dynamite ($5.95 without
buffet). In most Japanese restaurants, Dynamite is a special brand
of sushi roll, but in Cowboy Sushi, it’s a little clay pot
filled with delightful seafood consisting of baked scallops,
mushrooms, imitation crabmeat, and rice spread over with maguro
(fish roe) and smelt eggs. Another heavenly must-have appetizer is
the baked mussels: succulent mussels deliciously covered with their
special sauce (although it is strongly suspected as mayonnaise in
disguise) and sprinkled with sesame seed all cooked in a little
battered-looking toaster oven. However, disregarding aesthetic
display, these simple yet flavorful dishes make it worth coming to
this eatery. The shrimp tempura entree ($8.95) is another favorite
house item: five jumbo shrimp and vegetables all tempura-fried,
with sides of bean sprouts and broccoli, naturally accompanied with
miso soup, rice and salad. For those willing to spend more money on
their meal, the deluxe sashimi, priced at $22.95, is a great
option. Sashimi lovers will savor this exquisite platter of 25 fish
slices that comes with five options open to the individual
patron’s tastes. So Cowboy Sushi sounds like a wonderful
place to satisfy one’s cravings for good and inexpensive
Japanese food, yet one question lingers in the minds of food
critics: what is the catch? The catch is made up of two things: the
ever-popular lunch and dinner specials aggressively advertised in
the forms of chicken teriyaki and fire beef sets which comes with
miso soup, rice, salad, vegetable tempura and California rolls.
These so-called specials can be deceiving to those who aren’t
sushi connoisseurs. The only thing special about the sets is the
surprisingly well-made California cut rolls. But to spare the
readers pain, avoid the teriyaki and firebeef sets at all costs.
The teriyaki chicken is a repugnant creation of thin, sweet sauce
poured over a dry, flat, pale-looking piece of unappetizing meat
that passes off as chicken. As far as authenticity goes, these
items truly fall short of what constitutes as real Japanese
cuisine. The ambience is interesting enough. In terms of spatial
quality, Cowboy Sushi is a small restaurant and it has a great use
of space. As for the service, simply put, it is terrible. A
constant battle for the customers to get the attention of the chefs
or the waiters, it is a wonder how anyone manages to obtain
service, with the exception of flashing. But for the economical
UCLA students, service and ambience are usually not on most minds
when the insatiable cravings for inexpensive and good Japanese food
take over palates.

Rosanna Mah

Sandbag’s Gourmet Sandwiches Cuisine: Deli
Sandwiches Entree price: $6.21 for all sandwiches Open 11-4 daily;
closed Sunday 1134 Westwood Blvd. (310) 208-1133

Let’s face it, Westwood is hurting for some good,
inexpensive, traditional deli sandwiches. Sure, there’s
Jerry’s Famous Deli, which admittedly does have incredible
deli sandwiches, albeit at not-so-famous prices (about $10-$12 for
a full sandwich). Then there are the sub sandwich joints, Subway
and Quizno’s, which are of a slightly different genre than
the traditional deli sandwich. But just across the street from
Subway, there’s Sandbag’s Gourmet Sandwiches. At first
glance, Sandbag’s appears to be an average, healthy sandwich
place, with an attractive Santa Fe motif and clean-looking,
artistically-lettered menus. The real surprise of Sandbag’s,
though, is that it pulls at heartstrings that haven’t been
tugged in a long time. When the sandwich is ready, for take-out or
not, an employee brings it to patrons in a paper bag with a
chocolate chip cookie that wasn’t asked for. It adds a
personal, almost a motherly touch, that isn’t seen too often
in Los Angeles, and harks back to those happy-go-lucky days when
lunches always came in paper bags. For UCLA students, it gets even
better: with the purchase of any sandwich item, a bag of kettle
chips and a fountain drink come free. Also, local delivery is free
with a $10 minimum order from 11 a.m. -3 p.m. Monday through
Friday, a great way to get good food off-campus without making the
trek to Westwood. Fortunately, the food is great as well. The
sandwiches, of course, are the specialty. The Sandbag’s club
is excellent, a perennial favorite made just right with the bread
lightly toasted. All it lacks is avocado. Steak aficionados will
love the classic BBQ beef, which goes back to the basics: sub roll,
BBQ sauce and, well, beef. The fajita wrap contains excellent
grilled chicken (or beef), and combines it with several
southwestern ingredients to create a distinct taste. There are also
many cold salads and sides to go with the sandwiches. To top it all
off, the Choc-aholic brownies are as sinful as the menu says,
covered with a layer of melted cream cheese and chocolate chips.
Heavy stuff. Sandbag’s may not have the most gourmet-sounding
name, but it is a critically acclaimed restaurant. It was voted in
the “Best of L.A.” list by Los Angeles magazine, and
was also recognized in the Zagat Survey in 2000 and 2001. Maybe
this little sandwich place isn’t so underrated after all.

Nick Rabinowitsh