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.
Showing posts with label East San Fernando Valley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label East San Fernando Valley. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
EAT Café
After an especially hard workout at the pool this morning, BK and I went to EAT Café on Magnolia in North Hollywood, which is close to the Y, for breakfast. We have gone there various times before but I haven’t written about it. This is a great place for breakfast for many reasons. The restaurant is very small with only 9 or so tables and a few outside. I think much of their business is carry-out as I saw many people coming in and picking up food.
Today I decided to have a scramble with mushrooms and cheddar cheese. This comes with a choice of potatoes, Ned’s shreds or fruit. Then there is also a choice of toast, all kinds and I picked an English muffin. First the scramble was perfectly done and tasted delicious. I ordered Ned’s shreds which are shredded pieces of zucchini that are fried up like potatoes. I love them. They are a bit greasy but a great substitute for potatoes – not many carbs. I asked for my English muffin well toasted and often that doesn’t happen but here it came just right. In fact, the waitress told me that she would be a little late with the muffin because she was toasting it twice. I also like that they have orange marmalade jam packets, my favorite treat with English muffins.
BK ordered the 222 which consisted of two eggs, two pieces of sausage and two huge pancakes. She said her scrambled eggs were perfect as was the sausage. The pancakes were delicious as I had to take a taste also. They do make all different kinds of pancakes, including chocolate chip, so I have to remember this place when my family visits me. The coffee is also very good as was the service.
When coming on the weekend, expect to wait. However, we went at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning and there was a place to sit. If ever in the North Hollywood area and you want breakfast, this would be a good choice. Prices are moderate. Eat is at 11108 Magnolia Blvd.
Today I decided to have a scramble with mushrooms and cheddar cheese. This comes with a choice of potatoes, Ned’s shreds or fruit. Then there is also a choice of toast, all kinds and I picked an English muffin. First the scramble was perfectly done and tasted delicious. I ordered Ned’s shreds which are shredded pieces of zucchini that are fried up like potatoes. I love them. They are a bit greasy but a great substitute for potatoes – not many carbs. I asked for my English muffin well toasted and often that doesn’t happen but here it came just right. In fact, the waitress told me that she would be a little late with the muffin because she was toasting it twice. I also like that they have orange marmalade jam packets, my favorite treat with English muffins.
BK ordered the 222 which consisted of two eggs, two pieces of sausage and two huge pancakes. She said her scrambled eggs were perfect as was the sausage. The pancakes were delicious as I had to take a taste also. They do make all different kinds of pancakes, including chocolate chip, so I have to remember this place when my family visits me. The coffee is also very good as was the service.
When coming on the weekend, expect to wait. However, we went at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning and there was a place to sit. If ever in the North Hollywood area and you want breakfast, this would be a good choice. Prices are moderate. Eat is at 11108 Magnolia Blvd.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Magnolia Grille and Casa di Giorgio
BK’s sister, CA, who lives in Milwaukee, had suggested I write a review of a restaurant that we went to while we were there, Casa di Giorgio, one that we all enjoyed. I would love to do that but I can’t remember it. I do remember going there and that one friend was late and that my oldest daughter came with us but I have no recollection of what I ate. However, CA has reminded me that it has “good food, service & reasonable prices.” BK remembers having a very good steak. If any of the other people who were there could remember what we ate and give me some more hints so I can remember, I would appreciate it.
I would love people to write even very short messages on this blog about where they have eaten. Wouldn’t it be great to have many reviews from all over the country? However, I have yet to figure out how to get people I don’t know to read this so I just post it on Facebook and hope there might be some ripple effect. If anyone knows how to do this on Blogger, I would love that information.
I write these blogs very soon after the experience because I want it fresh in my mind (never mind my forgetting the whole thing). After water exercise today, we went to the Magnolia Grille, 10530 Magnolia Blvd., in North Hollywood. This is a neighborhood type place and they also bake their own bakery. The first big plus was the Diet Coke. Not only did it cost $1.50, but they brought a good sized carafe of soda to the table so we never had to wait to get more to drink. As you know from my previous posts, this is very important to me.
We were waited on promptly, served the drinks quickly, our orders taken as soon as we were ready and the food delivered in a proper amount of time. We each ordered a cup of chicken tortilla soup and then we shared a hamburger with fruit. The soup was wonderful, although not like a tortilla soup one might have imagined. It had a chicken broth base that was completely devoid of grease, was filled with white meat of chicken, some white cheese, corn, tortilla strips and a slight bit of cilentro. It was thick with ingrediants with no tomato or any real Mexican spices and I loved it as did BK. Our hamburger was a normal burger, good but nothing spectacular. The fruit was fresh and sweet. The wonderful thing was that they split the hamburger and the fruit for us and charged nothing extra. We were very satified with our meal.
We have been here a few times before, mostly for breakfast where there is a choice of freshly baked breads instead of toast – banana and zuchinni are two I saw there today. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Again, if you are in the eastern North Hollywood, western Burbank area, I would recommend the Magnolia Grille.
I would love people to write even very short messages on this blog about where they have eaten. Wouldn’t it be great to have many reviews from all over the country? However, I have yet to figure out how to get people I don’t know to read this so I just post it on Facebook and hope there might be some ripple effect. If anyone knows how to do this on Blogger, I would love that information.
I write these blogs very soon after the experience because I want it fresh in my mind (never mind my forgetting the whole thing). After water exercise today, we went to the Magnolia Grille, 10530 Magnolia Blvd., in North Hollywood. This is a neighborhood type place and they also bake their own bakery. The first big plus was the Diet Coke. Not only did it cost $1.50, but they brought a good sized carafe of soda to the table so we never had to wait to get more to drink. As you know from my previous posts, this is very important to me.
We were waited on promptly, served the drinks quickly, our orders taken as soon as we were ready and the food delivered in a proper amount of time. We each ordered a cup of chicken tortilla soup and then we shared a hamburger with fruit. The soup was wonderful, although not like a tortilla soup one might have imagined. It had a chicken broth base that was completely devoid of grease, was filled with white meat of chicken, some white cheese, corn, tortilla strips and a slight bit of cilentro. It was thick with ingrediants with no tomato or any real Mexican spices and I loved it as did BK. Our hamburger was a normal burger, good but nothing spectacular. The fruit was fresh and sweet. The wonderful thing was that they split the hamburger and the fruit for us and charged nothing extra. We were very satified with our meal.
We have been here a few times before, mostly for breakfast where there is a choice of freshly baked breads instead of toast – banana and zuchinni are two I saw there today. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Again, if you are in the eastern North Hollywood, western Burbank area, I would recommend the Magnolia Grille.
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