Typhoon

This place is a complete novelty act. We came here because the birthday boy loves the whole deep fried cat fish. The location right on the runway of the Santa Monica airport is awesome if you like planes… and I do. It is very cool watching the take offs and landings while dining. Then there is the eclectic menu that includes an «Insect» section. Finally it’s a jazz club too! It adds up to too much going on at once.
We had a great night… BUT… I have to be honest the food is mediocre. The garlic short ribs were dry, lacking in garlic and the salty bottled sauce they were served in was overwhelming. It seem like there is a lot of stuff coming out of bottles and jars in the kitchen… nothing is fresh and vibrant. The salmon and the catfish were both cooked to death. The crickets purely a novelty… they taste like deep fried anything! The oysters were spectacular… but like everything thing else on the menu they were overpriced. On top of all that it was a little distracting having a big band get set up right next to us while we ate. The evening was saved by the outstanding service which covered over some of the blemishes. I recommend this place for the experience… but eat light and save your money!

I was soon disappointed! This used to be one of my favorite places in the city. The menu has been cut down to nothing but terrible Chinese. Now I understand why it was empty on a Friday night. I remember when you couldn’t get a table after happy hour. So said.

The food was cold and basically tasteless. The waiter brought our food out in 3 stages; one of our party wouldn’t have gotten her food at all if we hadn’t checked on it. We have been here before and the food was pretty good, but not last night. We’re not going back.

Typhoon is always a win. I saw a big band performance tonight, and ate some tasty Mongolian beef. Great date night outing!

I’m so conflicted as I write this. The music was amazing. The band that was there was the Ron King big band and their jazz was pretty stellar.
The reason for the three stars —
Service was just plain bad, food was fine, and the location was super cool, so I averaged the three. 1 star for the service, three stars for the food, and five stars for the music and location.

My son is super into airplanes lately, so we’ve been taking him to Santa Monica airport to watch them take off and land. Usually I go to Spitfire if we get hungry… for some reason I thought Typhoon was all seafood, but I digress. Today we finally checked it out. I’d rate it as follows:
Atmosphere: 3.5 stars. It’s a bit old looking inside, but major points for being right on the runway — so we could see the airplanes take off and land.
Food: 4 stars. We got the Chinese fried rice and the Chinese Chicken Salad. Both were pretty solid.
Service: 4 stars. Nice, but not overly attentive. Good people that aren’t in your face, basically.
Other customers: 5 stars! I swear, the nicest people were in here today. One man next to us noticed my son’s fascination with airplanes and asked some pilots if we could see a plane on the runway — and they let us! Another couple next to us — who I believe also has a plane or was flying one — were just genuinely nice and friendly. Seems like Typhoon has a solid group of awesome regular customers. We’ll definitely be back!

Their cod fish rocks !! Yummy food, very nice atmosphere. The band tonight was great !! It was a pleasant evening !

+ Cool novelty insect dishes
+ Nice ambiance
+ Live music on some days
+ Nice view of Santa Monica airport
— Cover band will charge you $ 10 even if you’re already there
— Insect dishes are pricey for what they are
I saw this restaurant featured on Bizarre Foods a few months ago and I wanted to try it out. They highlighted the insect dishes such as Singaporean Scorpion, Taiwanese Crickets, and Ant Salads. Of course I had to try them. I’m pretty daring with trying new foods.
The restaurant is sort of in a corner right next to the Santa Monica airport. In fact, you do have to drive into the airport and make a few turns. Once you get there, you’ll see the Typhoon sign, but it isn’t readily apparent where the front door is. You have to go up the stairs to the 2^nd floor and then turn a corner to see it.
The food was pretty tasty. Not mind blowing, but it was good. I was mainly there to try their insect dishes haha. The scorpion and cricket dishes were $ 12 – 13 or so. A bit pricey, but it wasn’t a big deal.
The scorpions are very tiny and you don’t really notice them when you eat them. Are you supposed to eat the little stinger? I’m not sure, so I broke the tip off since it felt really sharp.
The crickets came with fried potato sticks and were actually pretty good. There were a ton of them in there. If you’re not scared, I would definitely give them a try.
Three weird things:
* Some guy kept coming up to us and asking if we were going to see the band play. They started at 9:30 and it was currently 7:30. We said no, but he said if we wanted to stay and watch, it’ll be $ 10. Weird that a customer already inside eating would have to pay, but whatever.
* The guy came back again and asked the same thing. «Are you sure you don’t want to watch? They are going to start soon and it’ll be $ 10.» Soon? There was still an hour and a half left.
* Another person (maybe with the band) asked the same question and mentioned the $ 10 again.
Still a good restaurant. Nice atmosphere. I would come here again, but it is pretty far from my home.

We were invited to come to this place by my friend. It was a last minute invitation to check out a jazz band that was performing that night. I’ve been having a hard time at work the last week and a half so I said yes! Because I needed a drink and some entertainment.
Sooooo worth it!
The band was awesome! These are professional musicians who happen to not be touring and come jam out together on a Monday night.
The place itself is a little small, but it has a great view of the runway. The food was good. There are some interesting items on the menu… Crickets, pupae, frog legs… There are regular items on the menu as well, which are all Asian-​inspired. We ordered family style. We had catfish, noodles, duck, and tom yum soup. The catfish was HUUUUGE!!! I think that might have been my favorite dish. It was prepared nicely. The fish meat was tender, but the outside was crispy. I liked the sauce it was lightly doused with. It was savory with a hint of sweetness. There were 5 of us and we couldn’t finish it.
I would definitely love to come here again to listen to good music and have another catfish.

Just Tasteless! This has been the worst food I have ever tasted. If I could take back those seconds wasted of eating their food, I would! Chef Robert Irvine if you are reading this, please help them! I have no idea how anyone can rate this place over a one star.
Overall, SAVE YOURSELF A TRIP!

If this restaurant is still open in 2016, I’ll be baffled. The last time I came here was about 3 – 4 years ago and the food was mediocre. This time, it was bad.
Positives: the runway location/​view and the Mare’s Tail cocktail (rum, fresh ginger and lime). Sushi was good.
Negatives: The food and service was a disappointment. The 2 main ingredients that overwhelmed the garlic noodles and short ribs was grease and salt. Service was spotty.
The menus are plastic, the tables are worn, it just feels dirty, like the ‘morning after’ in an old bar. With all of the creative and delicious restaurants + great mixologists in SM and Venice, this place has its work cut out for it. On a Saturday night at dinner time, having ²⁄₃ of your restaurant empty should be an indication that your strategy should be reviewed.

We landed at Santa Monica and checked out this restaurant I saw on the show Bizarre Foods. Sure enough… insects on the menu! They serve other dishes too, but I wouldn’t want my food prepared with the same cutlery used to prepare the insects.
However, if you are into this kind of dining, the restaurant has great parking for planes and a perfect view of the runway!

Love the view, love the service, love the food. The owner greeted us when we arrived.
We were seated at the window. I tried their crickets dish, which was done well, and they have an extensive menu and a solid sushi chef as well. Head to the roof afterwards to watch the planes take off or sit at the bar with some friends.
Live music on select nights too. They have a great Happy Hour.

We had such a delicious meal. Pork, red snapper, green beans, broccoli, and crickets! Yes! They were surprisingly delicious. Good drinks, and what a view! We love Typhoon.
The service is not the best. Our waiter seemed annoyed that we were there and seemed upset when HE got our order wrong. The support staff was nice and willing to make things right.
It’s a little pricey, but worth the experience. I just won’t be a «regular» if I’m not treated like I matter.

Whoa… the food quality and price is horrible… No wonder it is called «Typhoon»…what a disaster…

I love you, Typhoon, but *slap* your sister restaurant served whale sushi, and *slap* this is for your mediocre food. I wish I could love your food, but I think it is so-​so. If anyone comes here at all, they should get the bugs. There is nothing better than bugs at this restaurant. I had the scorpion on shrimp toast. Although it was (slightly) good, it was bizarre. The house-​made pickle was very spicy, which I liked. Your owner is very nice, and engaged me in conversation, but your chicken buns are horrible. I wish you would get better at making your food. Please tell Chef Katsu that his food sounds good, but I wish I liked it.

It has been years since my last time here. I don’t know why. The service was friendly and helpful and the food was wonderful.
A nice mix of Asian dishes crossing many borders. The honey walnut shrimp and the green beans are two excellent choices. All of the flavors were very consistent and what they should be.

If you come here, you better get some insects. We tried the scorpion shrimp toast. There is also a worm pupae option and a cricket option. The scorpion dish was $ 12 for 2 scorpions on individual toasts (see pictures on Unilocal) and was delicious. It did not have a «strange» taste or texture at all. I would recommend getting the scorpion dish if you’re a bit doubtful about eating insects.
As for the «normal» food, I would say it is just alright. I probably wouldn’t go back if they didn’t have the insects. The short ribs were a bit fatty. The frog legs were deep fried, and a bit dry. The mongolian beef was very flavorful, and the pastry pockets that came with it were good. The grilled chicken was juicy and not dry, which was a surprise.
I do want to mention that it took us 10 steps to get from our plane to the restaurant, so if you are flying into Santa Monica Airport hungry, you can always come here!

We came here to try the insects. .the scorpion shrimp toast was ok. The shrimp over powered the scorpion.
The crickets were good. I really enjoyed the silk worms the tasted like a cross between chestnut and pinto beans.
There other food items were delicious.
And the entertainment very pleasant.

Be careful what you order. I ordered the spicy shrimp and what I got was fried shrimp — with the head and shell intact (they fried the entire shrimp).
When I was surprised by the food, the staff kind of shrugged their shoulders and brought me a bowl to discard the shell/​peel the shrimp.
Go for the music, have a drink, but maybe not the food…
They offer sushi now…
The elevator is not functioning…
Great music…

My sis in law LOVES this place and finally got hubs and I to go with her to dinner. I was somewhat weary after reading some of the Unilocal reviews, but I admit, my sis called it. Their food was pretty good. I would skip all the insect entrees though. The crickets were not all that. It really didn’t taste like anything and it looked disgusting. It was a lot of money for little shoestring potato fries and Siracha sauce. However, I highly recommend the catfish! It was the best catfish I ever had! You can choose either schezuan or black bean sauce. Go for schezuan. That sauce is amazingly good. After the catfish was gone, I used up the sauce and mixed in with my rice. Yum! Also the halo halo dessert was a nice way to end the meal. Also tried the green beans and garlic noodles. Both were full of flavor. But the catfish! Mmmmmmmm!

Again this Year, Typhoon has an amazing feast planned for Superbowl Sunday.
It’s going to be all you can eat again, sushi and sashimi on huge platters, also lots of hot food; noodles, wings and lots more.
The price is going to be the same this year, incredible. A deal at $ 35 for all this. Last year the food never ran out.
Can’t believe how much food there is going to be.
I’ve been going to Typhoon for 15 years, love it. For Superbowl you can’t beat it.

It was a fun place to check out! We obviously went for the unusual menu, frog legs, crickets, silk worm pupae, and scorpions. I’d say we feel the same as other reviews: it was a cool bucket list experience, but the flavor of the food wasn’t anything exceptional. Ask for extra dipping sauce so you can add as much flavor as you want.
I give it 3 stars because the owner was extremely kind and nice to talk to, the staff was great, and you can’t really find some of the menu items anywhere else.
It could be a 4 – 5 star experience if the chef was more imaginative with the insect menu. Kung pao crickets, plz? :)

The location is pretty tight. I didn’t realize that the SM airport has such a cool little enclave of stuff all tucked in there.
It would have been cooler if the menu at Typhoon was better. They had some weird dishes on there that I think were supposed to make it eclectic but it didn’t really work for me because the owner was white and the food was all supposed to be Asian.
I feel like if I opened a restaurant that was anything other than a direct relation to my own heritage, I’d be okay with people calling me out for it on Unilocal as well.
But that’s just me. A white guy with an opinion.

Decent. I think I was so excited to try this place because of the specialty menu items, complete with its own section entitled «Insects.» There are three things under that category: Silk worm pupae, Taiwanese crickets, Scorpions. I tried all three, and besides the novelty, weren’t really anything special. The crickets came with a bunch of really thin small fries which had exactly the same flavor and consistency as the crickets. Maybe it’s all for the best so you’re not thinking about it as much as you munch on the critters. The scorpions are laid atop a shrimp toast, which is actually where all the flavor is. You don’t taste the fried scorpion at all. It does the trick in terms of bragging rights, but in the end, you don’t taste the insects. HOWEVER, the silk worm larvae has a very unique taste… these come scattered on the plate (maybe 60 pieces?) and they look GROSS. It comes with a plate full of different dipping sauces. This dish is not for the weak-​minded. You can actually taste the innards. It’s crunchy on the outside but it has substance. Has a taste like some of the tiny fish roe I’ve had.
In any case, we also ordered a bunch of other dishes, all with some Asian influence although no one in the restaurant looked particularly Asian. Between the sliders, samosas, satays, dumplings, «pigs in pillow,» and main dishes, all were decent except for the Dan dan mian. I usually love Dan dan mian, which is supposed to be this very crunchy noodle with peanut sauce. This dish really sucked… I mean, the noodles were so overcooked it was like eating porridge. The sauce was flavorless. Very disappointed in this dish.
However, great desserts. LOVED the mango with sticky coconut rice. The ginger flan was good, but only if you like ginger. I also tried the shaved ice, which had great toppings including the scoop of vanilla ice cream, but the consistency of the ice was sub-​par. Not like true Asian shaved ice. Oh well, can’t have everything I guess.
Oh, did I forget to mention that this place is literally on the tarmac and you can see planes land and take off? There is also a nice sunset, but the place gets VERY sunny and it’s actually a little too bright in the restaurant for dinner even with the shades down.