On Thursday, September 15th I partook of my first Feastly dinner prepared by Chef Darren Sayphraraj at the Newberry Lofts in DTLA. I know Darren personally from a tennis class we both attend in Santa Monica. He’s upbeat, hustles and is fun to play with on the court.
It’s easy to see that Darren also loves cooking and feeding people. The five-course meal featured: Chicken Karaage, Littleneck Clam “Kaho Soi” (noodles with clams in coconut curry), Vermicelli Noodle Salad (with some awesome sweet pork sausages, more like a mini-meatloaf consistency and sweet potato lumpia, basically a mimi egg roll filled with mashed sweet potato), Oxtail Dumplings topped with beef tendon Chicharron (the chicharron was one of my favorite parts of the meal), and Strawberry Sundae (with coconut ice cream, lime and strawberry granita).
The chicken was super tasty and fried just right, and it also combined nicely with the fried gizzards that were a bit chewy in a good way. My favorite parts of the meal were definitely the sweet potato lumpia, the sweet meatloaf-like pork sausage and the oxtail dumplings with the chicharron. I highly recommend attending one of Chef Darren’s Feastly dinners. It was a very good value, quite filling and uniquely flavorful.
4.5 stars out of 5 stars