Tomoya Sushi & Izakaya

Tomoya Sushi & Izakaya
6020 Canoga Ave Ste 100
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
818-703-0318

Tomoya Sushi & Izakaya is located on a busy section of Canoga Ave.  There are many homes, office buildings, and retail stores along this street.  The strip center is interesting in that the back is a storage building, there is a bank next door, and a chain Mexican restaurant across the parking lot.

Tomoya Sushi & Izakaya was busy for a lunch, with a steady stream of people coming in.  It's a dark restauran without much natural or artificial lighting!  There are bench and table seating on the right side, and the sushi bar takes up the left side.

 Tuna sushi-$5.95.  Good fresh, but a bit small. 

Stuffed cucumber roll- $15.75. Cucumber outside with salmon, tuna, albacore, imitation crab, avocado, and gobo with goma sauce.  This was an ok roll.  The main issue is that they cucumber roll is cut too thick, making for a weird texture combination.  If they would cut the cucumber thinner, it would have been better.   But, there was no goma sauce, unless it was mixed into the roll.  Overall good fresh fish.

Calamari tempura roll- $12.50. Calamari, imitation crab, avocado, and cucumber. This was interesting, part roll and part calamari!  The roll was fresh, but tasted too much like a shrimp tempura roll.  But, it was calamari.  The calamari on the side was ok with a few pieces that weren't crispy. 

Service was good.  Sushi came out quickly and our drinks were refilled.

I liked Tomoya Sushi & Izakaya, and while the prices are a bit high, I would go back here.

Barone’s The Pizzeria Express

Barone’s The Pizzeria Express
22435 Ventura Blvd Ste D
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
818-703-1700

I am working my way through the 2016 16 best places to get a slice pizza according to Eater.  The link goes to the 2017 17 best places to get a slice of pizza.  They took out Slicetruck from 2016, added Delicious Pizza and NY & C Pizza-which maybe closed now!  Gjelina Take Away is the last pizza I need to try from the 2016 list.  Debating if I should go to Delicious.

While I order a whole freshly baked pie, it should be good right? I haven't been to six places from that list before, so I went and loved all of them;  Pie Life Pizza in Pasadena, Pizzanista, Pellicola-which is now closed, Joe's Pizza, The Coop, and Prime Pizza. The other places on the list I've been to before I saw the list are; Abbott's Pizza Company, Lamonica's New York Pizza, D'Amore's Pizza, Vito's, Village Pizzeria, Town Pizza, Tomato Pie, and Mulberry Street Pizza.

I reviewed Barone's Famous Italian Restaurant back in 2011 and thought it was the same.  But apparently that Barone's is the original and eventually they owners split up and opened Barone’s The Pizzeria Express, which also delivers.

Located on Ventura Blvd. Barone’s The Pizzeria Express is a small restaurant with a few tables inside and a nice covered, if dirty patio.  The seats and tables had leaves from the covering.  They need to do a better job of keeping the patio area clean.

Medium mushrooms and jalapenos, $18.56 with tax.  This pizza was flat out terrible!  What a waste of money!  The crust was cracker thin and bad.  The pizza was a bit too well done.  The sauce was just bland.  The toppings weren't that plenitful, not many mushrooms on there.

Service was good.

I would never go back to Barone’s The Pizzeria Express, the pizza is terrible and not even worth the price!!  This is the first place on the list by Eater that I feel should not be on the list!!