The first time I had Cuban food was about 20 years ago when a Cuban friend of mine took me to Versailles. I was a bit concerned at first because I was not a fan of spicy food. She assured me that it wasn’t spicy and she was right. I don’t eat Cuban food often because it is sometimes greasy and is not what you might call low calorie. Sometimes I go to Porto’s in Burbank for their delicious Cuban sandwich. Their pastries are fantastic also. Anyway, today we looked at our coupons and there was a Cuban restaurant in Van Nuys that we had never heard of, although BK swears we went to this restaurant when it was at a different location. This was also convenient because it was not far from Costco and we needed gas.
El Criollo is a real gem. The restaurant is on Sepulveda between Kittridge and Vanowen which is not the most elegant of neighborhoods. As we stepped into this very simplistic but really nice restaurant, we were told we could sit wherever we wanted. We looked over the menu and saw that they had many items. There was the chicken, which most of the people did order. Cuban chicken is roasted with onion, garlic and some type of fruit, often lemon. The people near us had this and it was just a beautiful looking half chicken. I decided not to order that or Cuban pork which is also a favorite of mine. First we were given a basket of warm Cuban bread which was fine but nothing special. I ordered Bistec Empanizado which is breaded sirloin steak that is flattened and lightly seasoned. My meal came with rice and black beans along with plantains. I was surprised to find a small salad on my plate as well. There was no dressing on the salad but they brought bottles of oil and vinegar. Since I don’t usually eat the salad, I really didn’t care. Half the plate was rice. There was a cup with black beans and a spoon to put the beans on the rice. The steak was flat and fried crisp with raw onions on top. I actually took the onions, cut them up and mixed them with my rice and beans although the beans were tasty enough without the added onion. The steak had absolutely no grease and was very tasty. It cost $6.95, a real bargain.
BK was actually a little more adventurous. She asked the waiter to describe the Picadillo a la Criolla which, I believe, is a specialty since I have never seen it on a Cuban menu before. This was ground sirloin that had been broken up and simmered with herbs and spices. This was delivered to our table by, what I think, was the owner. He put down my dish and then BK’s. He bent over her and said that this was his favorite and best. Then he took some of the beans and put them on the rice and then put some of the ground beef mixture on top of all of it, mixed it together and told her that was the way to eat it. She took a taste and declared it wonderful. I took a taste and agreed. She mixed it all together and has brought about a third of it home for dinner. Since we brought home some pizza yesterday, we are set for our dinner tonight. She also had plantains. This meal cost $7.50.
El Criollo is at 6622 Van Nuys Blvd. The website is http://www.cubanfoodla.com/index.html . We will be back and I will have chicken. They also do have a vegetarian selections.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Watercress - A Café
Time for breakfast – actually a little late for breakfast – and we wanted to go somewhere new. When people like us go out to eat so often, we want something different. BK looked up a nearby restaurant on Yelp and there she discovered Watercress – A Café. I loved the name or brand as it is now called and so off we went. Here is a small, clean and tidy restaurant with about 12 tables. They call themselves gourmet and organic whenever possible. We were seated immediately and given the menu which is not too large but very interesting. We also were served our very good coffee which is roasted next door at the Coffee Roaster.
BK ordered cinnamon raisin French toast. It came with two large pieces and a few fresh strawberries on top. We ended up not quite sharing but each of us having more than a taste of the other’s dish. This was fantastic – not too sweet but sweet enough and tender and full of egg. I ordered the egg frittata panini. This consisted of scrambled eggs, cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and a regular tomato all inside two pieces of bread that had been toasted panini style. Usually, I have found paninis to be flattened out, like put in a grill and somewhat greasy. This one looked like a regular sandwich with grill marks on the bread and there was no grease at all. It was delicious. I ordered it without basil and they easily accepted my request. This came with potatoes that are cubed and fried nice and crisp. It also came with a salad of mixed greens and a rather tasty dressing. I was asked if I wanted potatoes or salad and said potatoes but I got both.
I thought the prices were a bit high but not too high either since our bill came to $23.60 before tip. Most items are around $10 which I thought was high for eggs, sausage and toast. However, I do realize that organic food does cost more. All their bakery is homemade and looked wonderful. I will return but not often because of the cost. I do want to try their lunch sandwiches which also look very interesting. They have many vegetarian offerings as well as at least one vegan sandwich. Watercress is at 13565 Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks.
BK ordered cinnamon raisin French toast. It came with two large pieces and a few fresh strawberries on top. We ended up not quite sharing but each of us having more than a taste of the other’s dish. This was fantastic – not too sweet but sweet enough and tender and full of egg. I ordered the egg frittata panini. This consisted of scrambled eggs, cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and a regular tomato all inside two pieces of bread that had been toasted panini style. Usually, I have found paninis to be flattened out, like put in a grill and somewhat greasy. This one looked like a regular sandwich with grill marks on the bread and there was no grease at all. It was delicious. I ordered it without basil and they easily accepted my request. This came with potatoes that are cubed and fried nice and crisp. It also came with a salad of mixed greens and a rather tasty dressing. I was asked if I wanted potatoes or salad and said potatoes but I got both.
I thought the prices were a bit high but not too high either since our bill came to $23.60 before tip. Most items are around $10 which I thought was high for eggs, sausage and toast. However, I do realize that organic food does cost more. All their bakery is homemade and looked wonderful. I will return but not often because of the cost. I do want to try their lunch sandwiches which also look very interesting. They have many vegetarian offerings as well as at least one vegan sandwich. Watercress is at 13565 Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Zach’s Café
Wanting to go to a restaurant that I had never been to in the Valley, we picked Zach’s Café. We had received numerous coupons and I had always nixed going there because it is Italian, not one of my favorite foods. However, on this particular day I looked at the menu and decided it was time to use the coupon.
Zach’s is on Ventura between Vineland and Lankersheim in Studio City. It is sort of hidden away from the road with its parking lot in front of the restaurant. Although it was a beautiful day, we decided to eat indoors. The restaurant is rustic looking with wood slat floors. We were immediately seated and, although I had difficulty understand the guy who was going to serve our drinks and he had difficulty understanding me as well, we did get our drinks quickly and correctly and they were refilled at the proper times. I was happily surprised at the menu which is very extensive. What really surprised me was the very reasonably priced lunch menu, the dinner menu which had smaller sizes of their regular dishes at smaller prices and the rather extensive vegetarian menu.
I had already decided I wanted lasagna with meat. They have one with only vegetables as well. First we were served six hot cheese garlic rolls that were just wonderful. I had to be careful not to eat more than one so I would have room for my food (I did eat another one for dessert). The luncheon came with a choice of various soups or salad. If you have been reading my reviews, you will know that I picked soup – minestrone this time. Minestrone is not usually a soup I would pick as they also had the house specialty, chicken vegetable, but it sounded so good. It is vegetarian blend of beans and veggies with a touch of pasta and not much, if any, oregano. It was delicious, thick like Mom used to make. A bowl of this would be a meal. My lasagna was in its own casserole type dish. It is correctly described as layers of noodles with ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese covered with a ground beef meat sauce. I finished every last bit.
BK had trouble deciding what she wanted. Originally, she was going to rely on her old stand-by, spaghetti and meatballs, but, after perusing the menu, she decided on their specialty, chicken parmigiana. All their chicken dishes are made with skinless, boneless chicken breasts. Her dish had a very nice size breaded chicken breast (this can also be grilled), melted cheeses and marinara sauce with a side of spaghetti. I tasted the chicken and found it to be crisp, moist and extremely tasty. BK also had a clean plate when she finished.
My lasagna cost $8.00 and the chicken parmigiana cost $9.00. We showed the waiter the coupon we had brought in before we ordered and he pointed out that we had not read it correctly because it was only good for dinner. However, he said he would honor the coupon anyway. That was nice. At the dinner hour, most meals come in two sizes and I must say that both of us had plenty to eat with the smaller size. If you like Italian food, I highly recommend Zach’s Café at 10820 Ventura Blvd.
Zach’s is on Ventura between Vineland and Lankersheim in Studio City. It is sort of hidden away from the road with its parking lot in front of the restaurant. Although it was a beautiful day, we decided to eat indoors. The restaurant is rustic looking with wood slat floors. We were immediately seated and, although I had difficulty understand the guy who was going to serve our drinks and he had difficulty understanding me as well, we did get our drinks quickly and correctly and they were refilled at the proper times. I was happily surprised at the menu which is very extensive. What really surprised me was the very reasonably priced lunch menu, the dinner menu which had smaller sizes of their regular dishes at smaller prices and the rather extensive vegetarian menu.
I had already decided I wanted lasagna with meat. They have one with only vegetables as well. First we were served six hot cheese garlic rolls that were just wonderful. I had to be careful not to eat more than one so I would have room for my food (I did eat another one for dessert). The luncheon came with a choice of various soups or salad. If you have been reading my reviews, you will know that I picked soup – minestrone this time. Minestrone is not usually a soup I would pick as they also had the house specialty, chicken vegetable, but it sounded so good. It is vegetarian blend of beans and veggies with a touch of pasta and not much, if any, oregano. It was delicious, thick like Mom used to make. A bowl of this would be a meal. My lasagna was in its own casserole type dish. It is correctly described as layers of noodles with ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese covered with a ground beef meat sauce. I finished every last bit.
BK had trouble deciding what she wanted. Originally, she was going to rely on her old stand-by, spaghetti and meatballs, but, after perusing the menu, she decided on their specialty, chicken parmigiana. All their chicken dishes are made with skinless, boneless chicken breasts. Her dish had a very nice size breaded chicken breast (this can also be grilled), melted cheeses and marinara sauce with a side of spaghetti. I tasted the chicken and found it to be crisp, moist and extremely tasty. BK also had a clean plate when she finished.
My lasagna cost $8.00 and the chicken parmigiana cost $9.00. We showed the waiter the coupon we had brought in before we ordered and he pointed out that we had not read it correctly because it was only good for dinner. However, he said he would honor the coupon anyway. That was nice. At the dinner hour, most meals come in two sizes and I must say that both of us had plenty to eat with the smaller size. If you like Italian food, I highly recommend Zach’s Café at 10820 Ventura Blvd.
Monday, October 19, 2009
The Final Cupcake Review
For a number of weeks now, BK and I have been, in the quest of knowledge, searching for the perfect cupcake. We have now experienced four different cupcake shops and have come up with our definitive answer – or not. One reason for this is that BK and I do not have the same tastes. So I will now end this quest by adding our latest research which happened when we went to Sprinkles in Beverly Hills.
Sprinkles is one of the first, if not the first, to start this gourmet cupcake craze that has swept Los Angeles and maybe the nation. My daughter loves these cupcakes. BK does not. I couldn’t remember if I like them better than the others we had so, of course, we had to go there and do a taste test. We ordered the usual chocolate with white icing (black and white), chocolate marshmallow, chocolate coconut, and cinnamon sugar. We split them all. The cake is dryer than some of the others but not dry and crumbly. I thought all these chocolate cakes were delicious with a better chocolate flavor than the others. It did taste different and I liked that. BK didn’t notice the difference. BK liked the icing while I thought it was too sweet and too much. Sprinkles also charges $3.25 for their cupcakes which appeared to be somewhat smaller than the others.
In conclusion, we both agree that My Little Cupcake on Ventura Blvd. was the worst and we would never go there again. That is all we agree on. My favorite is Famous Cupcakes which is near our house. I found the cake to be moist and the icing not too sweet. Bonnie’s favorite is Dot’s Cupcakes in Pasadena which I also loved and was the least expensive at $2.75. They also sell mini-cupcakes. And for the reasons listed above, Sprinkles, while not the favorite of either of us, certainly is tasty and is worth going to just because it is Sprinkles. However, when I want a cupcake and I don’t want to travel, the one near my house is #1 for me.
Coupa Café
This past Sunday we went to the Beverly Hills Art Fair, which has a much more elegant name to match the elegant art that is shown there. I love to attend that fair. As I walk among the beautiful pieces I have in my mind that I own a huge mansion with extremely large grounds, sort of like the White House, so I have the room and the money to buy everything I would want. However, I found a very nice 20 by 5 inch photo put on wood that only cost $200. That was the least expensive art I found and I didn’t like it well enough to pay that money for it. They have a very nice food court that we could have eaten at plus a wine garden but we decided to walk down the street to see what we could find – some place different and that is what we found at the Coupa Café.
I didn’t know until I just looked this café up on line that it is known for its coffee. I didn’t get that idea from their menu or I would have had some. I did see that it was a Venezuelan restaurant and that was interesting to me. They serve breakfast all day and they have a full menu. Since it was a beautiful day, we sat outside watching the people and talking to some who were sitting next to us. I wondered what they were eating and so I asked them. Getting older has made me much more outspoken. I am sorry to say I can’t write the name of what she had because it was Venezuelan. There was no menu I could take home and none posted on line so even without a name, it looked like a delicious omelet but the outside wasn’t eggs but a cornmeal pancake. She told me it was very good but very sweet. Since there are moments when I decide not to have sweet things because of the diabetes factor, I asked the man what he was eating and he told me a crepe. It looked interesting so that is what I ordered – the breakfast crepe which was scrambled eggs with gouda cheese in a buckwheat crepe. BK ordered a Black Forest ham frittata which came with a mixed greens salad. We split out meals so we could taste both.
They asked if we would like bread and I immediately said yes because I saw the bread on the next table and it looked different to me. And it was. There was some good focaccia and then these somewhat round things that were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I asked the waitress what they were and she gave me the Venezuelan name but I can’t remember it. However, she said they were cornmeal and, although I liked the crunchy outside and soft inside, it was tasteless. BK put salt on it and I put butter on it but neither helped much. That wasn’t the case with the food. I received my breakfast crepe and saw a lot of ham on it. I looked inside and it had cheese as well but this wasn’t what I ordered. It was something I would like so I decided not to point it out to the waitstaff. When the waiter came to ask how everything was, I told him I had ordered the breakfast crepe and this wasn’t it. He offered to take it back and get me what I wanted but I chose to keep it since it was really tasty. BK said it didn’t have any eggs in it and so he offered to bring some scrambled eggs at no charge which she immediately said that would be good. In a very short time, he reappears with some very nice scrambled eggs. Both the frittata and the crepe were excellent.
I want to go back. I didn’t realize that they also have some special chocolate and hot chocolate. And I want to order some real Venezuelan food. They have two other cafes – one in Palo Alto and the other in Caracas, Venezuela. The prices are very reasonable, our meals costing about $8.50 each. The Coupa Café is located at 419 N. Canon Dr. in Beverly Hills.
I didn’t know until I just looked this café up on line that it is known for its coffee. I didn’t get that idea from their menu or I would have had some. I did see that it was a Venezuelan restaurant and that was interesting to me. They serve breakfast all day and they have a full menu. Since it was a beautiful day, we sat outside watching the people and talking to some who were sitting next to us. I wondered what they were eating and so I asked them. Getting older has made me much more outspoken. I am sorry to say I can’t write the name of what she had because it was Venezuelan. There was no menu I could take home and none posted on line so even without a name, it looked like a delicious omelet but the outside wasn’t eggs but a cornmeal pancake. She told me it was very good but very sweet. Since there are moments when I decide not to have sweet things because of the diabetes factor, I asked the man what he was eating and he told me a crepe. It looked interesting so that is what I ordered – the breakfast crepe which was scrambled eggs with gouda cheese in a buckwheat crepe. BK ordered a Black Forest ham frittata which came with a mixed greens salad. We split out meals so we could taste both.
They asked if we would like bread and I immediately said yes because I saw the bread on the next table and it looked different to me. And it was. There was some good focaccia and then these somewhat round things that were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I asked the waitress what they were and she gave me the Venezuelan name but I can’t remember it. However, she said they were cornmeal and, although I liked the crunchy outside and soft inside, it was tasteless. BK put salt on it and I put butter on it but neither helped much. That wasn’t the case with the food. I received my breakfast crepe and saw a lot of ham on it. I looked inside and it had cheese as well but this wasn’t what I ordered. It was something I would like so I decided not to point it out to the waitstaff. When the waiter came to ask how everything was, I told him I had ordered the breakfast crepe and this wasn’t it. He offered to take it back and get me what I wanted but I chose to keep it since it was really tasty. BK said it didn’t have any eggs in it and so he offered to bring some scrambled eggs at no charge which she immediately said that would be good. In a very short time, he reappears with some very nice scrambled eggs. Both the frittata and the crepe were excellent.
I want to go back. I didn’t realize that they also have some special chocolate and hot chocolate. And I want to order some real Venezuelan food. They have two other cafes – one in Palo Alto and the other in Caracas, Venezuela. The prices are very reasonable, our meals costing about $8.50 each. The Coupa Café is located at 419 N. Canon Dr. in Beverly Hills.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Café Bizou
We decided to take advantage of the great bargains that are presented from Dine LA Restaurant Week. I may have mentioned this before but I will again. Fixed price lunches and dinners are presented for two weeks by certain restaurants at a very reasonable price. We decided to go to Cafe Bizou, a place we have gone to a few times over the years, for the $16 fixed price lunch which consisted of a choice of three appetizers, three entrees and three desserts. Any drinks are extra.
I chose the meatball soup for my appetizer. I could have had a Caesar salad or baked mushrooms. The soup was a light tomato base with vegetables, pasta and small delicious meatballs. BK chose the same thing and also enjoyed it very much. For my main entrée I chose sesame crusted salmon with potato pancakes and a burgundy wine sauce. The salmon was perfectly done, tender and moist. The potatoes which were not like any I ever had. They were more like mashed potatoes that were lightly fried in a triangular shape and very tasty. There were also mushrooms laid under the salmon and over the potatoes with the sauce decoratively laced around this mound.. It was not only delicious but also beautiful. For dessert I had a trio of sorbet – mango, lemon and raspberry – a perfect ending to a delicious meal.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Tequilas Restaurant and Famous Cupcakes
Tequilas Restaurant
A few days ago I felt like Mexican food, which is not unusual. I truly believe that I could eat Mexican, Chinese and Japanese, along with a bit of American every day that I live. We decided to try a place we had never been so we went to Tequilas Restaurant in Van Nuys. The restaurant, itself, looks like many – brightly colored on the inside and cute. They have outside seating but we sat indoors. Looking at Victory Blvd. isn’t exactly a great outdoor scene.
Tequilas has a very interesting and varied menu as well as a lunch buffet which was in the $8 range. We skipped that and ordered from the menu. One of my favorite Mexican dishes is carnitas. One of my favorite Mexican restaurants is Mexicali where I almost always get the carnitias which is pork that has been roasted in its own juices and just absolutely falls apart. I decided to have that for my lunch. One difference I noticed immediately was that this pork had a lot more fat than Mexicali has which is just about fat free. Actually this doesn’t bother me but I know it does bother some people. It was extremely tender and tasty. It came with refried beans, rice and guacamole. She asked me what kind of tortillas I wanted. I told her corn but she never brought them which was fine with me because I really seldom eat them and it is healthier for me to eat the meat as a dish in itself. The big disappointment was when she came to tell us they were out of guacamole. How can a Mexican restaurant be out of guacamole at lunch time? I love guacamole. When she brought my meal, it had three slices of avocado on the plate. I looked at her questioningly and she said that they just got the avocadoes. So why didn’t she offer to bring the guacamole when it was ready? Her English wasn’t very good so I didn’t bother to ask her. I took my three slices, squashed them up, added some salsa and made my own. The rice, beans and chips were OK.
BK had arroz con pollo or rice with chicken. This was a grilled chicken breast on top of Spanish rice with melted cheese and salsa over it. She loved it. She would go back again and get the same thing. Our service was spotty. The restaurant filled up quite a bit and most people got the buffet. I might like to try that also. Our meals were $10.99 each which, for some reason, I thought was just a little pricey. I guess that is because at Mexicali they have a lunch special where I would have the same food, except I could get black beans which I prefer, slightly less meat but also less fat, and a soda all for $7.99. Tequillas is at 13627 Victory Blvd. They have various specials throughout the week and a Sunday brunch.
Famous Cupcakes
Since we had been going to various cupcake places, we decided to return to the one that BK felt was the best to see if we still felt that was the case. Famous Cupcakes is in a little mini-mall off Laurel Canyon and Riverside between Jack In the Box and Starbucks. On this day we got three different cupcakes – vanilla milk chocolate which was a chocolate cake with white frosting, chocolate coconut which again was a chocolate cake with white frosting covered with coconut, and black tie which was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. We found all of these to be far better than most we had tried. The cake was moist. The frosting was not terribly sweet and it was thick but not too thick. These cupcakes are certified kosher and are all natural organic. There are 15 varieties of which 10 are available daily. They cost $3.25 each which is a little high but they are delicious. I know my daughter loves Sprinkles and she will be visiting here in about 5 weeks so I think we will then be going there. I would like to see if I think Sprinkles is any better than Famous Cupcakes.
A few days ago I felt like Mexican food, which is not unusual. I truly believe that I could eat Mexican, Chinese and Japanese, along with a bit of American every day that I live. We decided to try a place we had never been so we went to Tequilas Restaurant in Van Nuys. The restaurant, itself, looks like many – brightly colored on the inside and cute. They have outside seating but we sat indoors. Looking at Victory Blvd. isn’t exactly a great outdoor scene.
Tequilas has a very interesting and varied menu as well as a lunch buffet which was in the $8 range. We skipped that and ordered from the menu. One of my favorite Mexican dishes is carnitas. One of my favorite Mexican restaurants is Mexicali where I almost always get the carnitias which is pork that has been roasted in its own juices and just absolutely falls apart. I decided to have that for my lunch. One difference I noticed immediately was that this pork had a lot more fat than Mexicali has which is just about fat free. Actually this doesn’t bother me but I know it does bother some people. It was extremely tender and tasty. It came with refried beans, rice and guacamole. She asked me what kind of tortillas I wanted. I told her corn but she never brought them which was fine with me because I really seldom eat them and it is healthier for me to eat the meat as a dish in itself. The big disappointment was when she came to tell us they were out of guacamole. How can a Mexican restaurant be out of guacamole at lunch time? I love guacamole. When she brought my meal, it had three slices of avocado on the plate. I looked at her questioningly and she said that they just got the avocadoes. So why didn’t she offer to bring the guacamole when it was ready? Her English wasn’t very good so I didn’t bother to ask her. I took my three slices, squashed them up, added some salsa and made my own. The rice, beans and chips were OK.
BK had arroz con pollo or rice with chicken. This was a grilled chicken breast on top of Spanish rice with melted cheese and salsa over it. She loved it. She would go back again and get the same thing. Our service was spotty. The restaurant filled up quite a bit and most people got the buffet. I might like to try that also. Our meals were $10.99 each which, for some reason, I thought was just a little pricey. I guess that is because at Mexicali they have a lunch special where I would have the same food, except I could get black beans which I prefer, slightly less meat but also less fat, and a soda all for $7.99. Tequillas is at 13627 Victory Blvd. They have various specials throughout the week and a Sunday brunch.
Famous Cupcakes
Since we had been going to various cupcake places, we decided to return to the one that BK felt was the best to see if we still felt that was the case. Famous Cupcakes is in a little mini-mall off Laurel Canyon and Riverside between Jack In the Box and Starbucks. On this day we got three different cupcakes – vanilla milk chocolate which was a chocolate cake with white frosting, chocolate coconut which again was a chocolate cake with white frosting covered with coconut, and black tie which was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. We found all of these to be far better than most we had tried. The cake was moist. The frosting was not terribly sweet and it was thick but not too thick. These cupcakes are certified kosher and are all natural organic. There are 15 varieties of which 10 are available daily. They cost $3.25 each which is a little high but they are delicious. I know my daughter loves Sprinkles and she will be visiting here in about 5 weeks so I think we will then be going there. I would like to see if I think Sprinkles is any better than Famous Cupcakes.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Spark Woodfire Grill and My Little Cupcake
Spark Woodfire Grill
This week is restaurant week where you can get bargains at certain restaurants for specific lunches and dinners in LA. I know they also do this in Milwaukee. BK looked at the restaurants that were listed and mentioned Spark which is close to our house and we have never been there. However, they did not have a special for lunch but we decided to go there anyway.
Spark is a rather small, white tablecloth restaurant on Ventura Blvd. near the CBS Studios. It was fairly busy when we arrived which was close to 2:00. There was a large table of young people who obviously worked at CBS. There is a special lunch menu – 10 items which are $10 or less each. Although I wasn’t terribly excited about going there, my mind changed drastically. Our attentive busboy brought and refilled our Diet Cokes regularly. He also gave us wonderful, crusty bread with an olive tapenade which was good but we both felt the Gaucho Grill has one that is better. Too bad that restaurant is no longer in Studio City.
I chose ½ turkey panini with a cup of their special soup - Ribollita Soup which is described as a hearty vegetable based soup made with borlotti beans, kale, prosciutto and parmigiano cheese. I asked for the soup before the sandwich since I like to have my soup first. I didn’t think I would like it because I don’t care for Italian spices but this thick soup didn’t have any of those flavors. It was delicious. The half sandwich had turkey, watercress, tomato, roasted tomato pesto and asiago cheese on their crusty bread. I really liked this sandwich with my only complaint being that one of the pieces of bread was turned the wrong way and kept falling off the sandwich. Then I realized that it was probably an end piece put on incorrectly when melting the cheese. I didn’t mind but some may.
BK chose one of their lunch specials of the day – a BBQ chicken pizza. The pizza is cooked in a wood fired oven. It is a very thin crust but the crust is not crispy. It is soft and when we ate it, we folded it like you would a tortilla and the taste was wonderful. It had plenty of chicken, onion, excellent cheese and a good BBQ sauce. She was very happy with her choice and I enjoyed a piece as well. I definitely will return and next time, maybe have the $10 eggplant parmigiana. There were many choices and Spark is now on my list of very good places to go.
My Little Cupcake
As far as good places to go, My Little Cupcake is NOT one of them. After lunch, we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Then we drove back to this cupcake place that we had passed when we were too full to think about eating anything. However, give us an hour and we are ready again. My first impression was not favorable. The interior was not appealing to me. I looked at the cupcakes and saw very few choices, like 6, although there are many listed on the board. Also, the cupcakes were not nearly as attractive as many other places except for one. This one looked like a mountain of chocolate. We asked about it and were told it was a chocolate cupcake with a mound of homemade marshmallow covered in a hard chocolate. This was for me. BK couldn’t pass that one up either and so we got two of those, one peanut butter and one white cupcake with white frosting (definitely not for me).
When we got home, I took out my chocolate delight which I had to eat with a fork. The first thing I noticed was what looked like grease on the inside of the paper cupcake holder. Not a good sign. The outer chocolate was quite good and sweet. The mound of marshmallow was excellent. The chocolate cake was dry and tasted stale. After we threw away the cake part, Bonnie tried the white one. That one didn’t have grease inside the cupcake holder, had frosting that was OK but again the white cake was dry and tasted stale. She hasn’t tasted the peanut butter one but we do not hold out high hopes for that either. If you can’t make and serve moist, fresh cake, whatever is on the top is irrelevant to me. There are many excellent cupcake places. My Little Cupcake is not one of them.
This week is restaurant week where you can get bargains at certain restaurants for specific lunches and dinners in LA. I know they also do this in Milwaukee. BK looked at the restaurants that were listed and mentioned Spark which is close to our house and we have never been there. However, they did not have a special for lunch but we decided to go there anyway.
Spark is a rather small, white tablecloth restaurant on Ventura Blvd. near the CBS Studios. It was fairly busy when we arrived which was close to 2:00. There was a large table of young people who obviously worked at CBS. There is a special lunch menu – 10 items which are $10 or less each. Although I wasn’t terribly excited about going there, my mind changed drastically. Our attentive busboy brought and refilled our Diet Cokes regularly. He also gave us wonderful, crusty bread with an olive tapenade which was good but we both felt the Gaucho Grill has one that is better. Too bad that restaurant is no longer in Studio City.
I chose ½ turkey panini with a cup of their special soup - Ribollita Soup which is described as a hearty vegetable based soup made with borlotti beans, kale, prosciutto and parmigiano cheese. I asked for the soup before the sandwich since I like to have my soup first. I didn’t think I would like it because I don’t care for Italian spices but this thick soup didn’t have any of those flavors. It was delicious. The half sandwich had turkey, watercress, tomato, roasted tomato pesto and asiago cheese on their crusty bread. I really liked this sandwich with my only complaint being that one of the pieces of bread was turned the wrong way and kept falling off the sandwich. Then I realized that it was probably an end piece put on incorrectly when melting the cheese. I didn’t mind but some may.
BK chose one of their lunch specials of the day – a BBQ chicken pizza. The pizza is cooked in a wood fired oven. It is a very thin crust but the crust is not crispy. It is soft and when we ate it, we folded it like you would a tortilla and the taste was wonderful. It had plenty of chicken, onion, excellent cheese and a good BBQ sauce. She was very happy with her choice and I enjoyed a piece as well. I definitely will return and next time, maybe have the $10 eggplant parmigiana. There were many choices and Spark is now on my list of very good places to go.
My Little Cupcake
As far as good places to go, My Little Cupcake is NOT one of them. After lunch, we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Then we drove back to this cupcake place that we had passed when we were too full to think about eating anything. However, give us an hour and we are ready again. My first impression was not favorable. The interior was not appealing to me. I looked at the cupcakes and saw very few choices, like 6, although there are many listed on the board. Also, the cupcakes were not nearly as attractive as many other places except for one. This one looked like a mountain of chocolate. We asked about it and were told it was a chocolate cupcake with a mound of homemade marshmallow covered in a hard chocolate. This was for me. BK couldn’t pass that one up either and so we got two of those, one peanut butter and one white cupcake with white frosting (definitely not for me).
When we got home, I took out my chocolate delight which I had to eat with a fork. The first thing I noticed was what looked like grease on the inside of the paper cupcake holder. Not a good sign. The outer chocolate was quite good and sweet. The mound of marshmallow was excellent. The chocolate cake was dry and tasted stale. After we threw away the cake part, Bonnie tried the white one. That one didn’t have grease inside the cupcake holder, had frosting that was OK but again the white cake was dry and tasted stale. She hasn’t tasted the peanut butter one but we do not hold out high hopes for that either. If you can’t make and serve moist, fresh cake, whatever is on the top is irrelevant to me. There are many excellent cupcake places. My Little Cupcake is not one of them.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Russell’s Famous Hamburgers and Dots Cupcakes
After we walked at the Rose Bowl in the annual HeartWalk, BK and I went to the RV show that was there and found our perfect RV. Well, we saw one – a 30 foot Winnebago – that fit our dreams but, unfortunately, not our pocketbooks. So now we needed to eat and, of course, Old Town Pasadena seemed the appropriate place to look for a restaurant. We remembered we had been to Russell’s a few times and decided to go back since we found a decent parking place not too far from there.
Russell’s says it has been around as long as I have which is quite a record not only for a restaurant but also for a person. (a tiny piece of humor there) The restaurant has an interesting ambiance. There is a lot of red color, ornate chandeliers, and nice music. It almost appears like a French bistro but it is a diner, of sorts. We were promptly seated and were offered drinks – Diet Pepsi for BK and ice tea for me.
I didn’t know their specialty was hamburgers and since neither BK nor I wanted one, having eaten at The Counter last night, we looked at both the breakfast and the lunch menus to find something else. I was immediately drawn to a sandwich that was on both menus, the only difference being the sides offered. The sandwich is called the Croque Monsieur which is actually a grilled ham and cheese on sour dough bread. Well, it is a little more than that as the picture shows. It is made with what they say is French ham and gruyere cheese with a mornay sauce all inside this grilled sandwich that is then covered with cheese that is also melted. It is a sandwich that is eaten with a knife and fork. I decided on the side of hash browns which was an excellent choice. I was in heaven. It was all gooey, rich and wonderful.
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BK ordered breakfast as well – her favorite – a chili cheese omelet which she said was delicious. She also liked the hash browns. The only disappointment was that she ordered their famous cinnamon bun which cost $1 extra and they ran out of them so she had very good rye toast.
The service was very good. By the way, there is one other French sounding sandwich, Croque Mademoiselle, which is exactly like the one I had but has an egg on top. That didn’t appeal to me. My sandwich was $9.75 and BK’s omelet was $10.50. Russell’s is on 30 N. Fair Oaks Av. in Pasadena.
As we sat in Russell’s, BK noticed Dots Cupcakes across the street. In my effort to help my daughter in her quest for as much information about various cupcakes as she can get, we went there after our lunch to get some for later at home. They have many different kinds, some on different days. The regular cupcakes are $2.75 and the mini cupcakes are $1.50. We bought 4 of them. I wanted the chocolate mint cupcake which is the one in the picture. It is a chocolate cupcake with a very mint icing and chocolate covered mints on the top. (see picture) I loved it. Bonnie was taken with the Hostess cupcake that is filled with real whipped cream and it was also delicious. We have two more – a peanut butter one and one called chocolate vanilla – chocolate cake with white butter cream frosting. We haven’t eaten those yet but I am sure they are also great. If you are in Old Town Pasadena, stop in at Dots Cupcakes on Fair Oaks and Colorado – 21 N. Fair Oaks.
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Russell’s says it has been around as long as I have which is quite a record not only for a restaurant but also for a person. (a tiny piece of humor there) The restaurant has an interesting ambiance. There is a lot of red color, ornate chandeliers, and nice music. It almost appears like a French bistro but it is a diner, of sorts. We were promptly seated and were offered drinks – Diet Pepsi for BK and ice tea for me.
I didn’t know their specialty was hamburgers and since neither BK nor I wanted one, having eaten at The Counter last night, we looked at both the breakfast and the lunch menus to find something else. I was immediately drawn to a sandwich that was on both menus, the only difference being the sides offered. The sandwich is called the Croque Monsieur which is actually a grilled ham and cheese on sour dough bread. Well, it is a little more than that as the picture shows. It is made with what they say is French ham and gruyere cheese with a mornay sauce all inside this grilled sandwich that is then covered with cheese that is also melted. It is a sandwich that is eaten with a knife and fork. I decided on the side of hash browns which was an excellent choice. I was in heaven. It was all gooey, rich and wonderful.
BK ordered breakfast as well – her favorite – a chili cheese omelet which she said was delicious. She also liked the hash browns. The only disappointment was that she ordered their famous cinnamon bun which cost $1 extra and they ran out of them so she had very good rye toast.
The service was very good. By the way, there is one other French sounding sandwich, Croque Mademoiselle, which is exactly like the one I had but has an egg on top. That didn’t appeal to me. My sandwich was $9.75 and BK’s omelet was $10.50. Russell’s is on 30 N. Fair Oaks Av. in Pasadena.
As we sat in Russell’s, BK noticed Dots Cupcakes across the street. In my effort to help my daughter in her quest for as much information about various cupcakes as she can get, we went there after our lunch to get some for later at home. They have many different kinds, some on different days. The regular cupcakes are $2.75 and the mini cupcakes are $1.50. We bought 4 of them. I wanted the chocolate mint cupcake which is the one in the picture. It is a chocolate cupcake with a very mint icing and chocolate covered mints on the top. (see picture) I loved it. Bonnie was taken with the Hostess cupcake that is filled with real whipped cream and it was also delicious. We have two more – a peanut butter one and one called chocolate vanilla – chocolate cake with white butter cream frosting. We haven’t eaten those yet but I am sure they are also great. If you are in Old Town Pasadena, stop in at Dots Cupcakes on Fair Oaks and Colorado – 21 N. Fair Oaks.
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