Finally tried this French + Japanese fusion restaurant Maison Akira on Green St. in Pasadena! We passed by it almost daily for 4 years while we attended ArtCenter, but for some reason we never step in there once. Why? I don’t know ^^;;; (perhaps intimidation + bad timing + inconvinience + laziness?!?!) Once we almost went there for dinner but by the time we reach there they’re closing. 🙁
The interior is alright, seems like someone tried to DIY instead of getting real interior design people to do the job. But the wallpaper match my outfit 😛 The bread is pretty good.
Cobb Salad with Marinated Diced Tuna Sashimi, Shitake Mushrooms, Iceberg Lettuce, Egg, Bacon, Apple and Tomatoes. It comes with a cream corn soup (very sweet).
The Special Bento Box set was very very yummy and quite value since it comes with so many stuffs! Beside the box itself, it also comes with the Lobster Bisque which taste very yummy (it has 2 pieces of Lobster) and chawanmushi (also very good). Everything in the bento box taste excellent, starting clockwise with the Soba…
Close up of the Special Bento Box.
Left: Miso marinated Sea Bass + Crab Croquette
Middle: Sauteed Scallop with Wasabi Potato Mouseeline (yummy!)
Right: Duck Pate + Tuna Tartare + Salad.
It also comes with a bowl of rice which I didn’t have stomach to eat at all. We got too full by the food that we didn’t have stomach room for dessert. And their dessert seems good too! >0< May be next time…
It is so weird that you order a bento and it comes with Lobster soup~~~(^^;;;) The stuff in the bento is mainly Japanese though, except the
duck pate. I mean, shouldn’t “fusion” be like French fused with Japanese in one single food, maybe something like “茶碗蒸し with pate inside”(gross example…^^;;;), but not a bit of French food and a bit of Japanese food put in the same plate? Having said that, the food does look really good. The wasabi potato mousse with scallop must taste wonderful~~ What is the thing on the top right corner of the bento? Udon? Reddish?
Yeah, Joan really blend in with the background…^^;;;; What were you drinking?
Top right is soba (?).
Ha you’re right. May be their other dishes are more fusion? I don’t know. May be fusion is the wrong term then, their own tagline is “Fine Casual French Dining with a Japanese Flair”.
oh just drinking cranberry juice, ha…
Maybe that applies to other items on menu, but the special bento box was definitely 95% Japanese, 5% French though ^^;;