Studio Café, also known to me as Jinky’s East, has one of the same problems as the original Jinky’s – lack of parking. That didn’t bother me when I lived in Sherman Oaks because we always walked there. After we moved, one of our many moves during that time, we found ourselves rarely going there because of parking. We would park in Ralphs parking lot and hope nobody would notice. Studio Café is closer to our home but it isn’t within my walking distance. They have a parking lot which is taken over for valet parking and cost $2 even during off hours. This is another of my pet peeves – restaurants with large parking lots that still have a valet. I then refuse to park there and find parking on the street. Today we were lucky as we found a space right around the corner. By the way, the parking lot had maybe 4 cars in it.
We were immediately seated and received our usual Diet Cokes while we looked over the menu. We decided to get a hamburger with sweet potato fries and a bowl of chicken vegetable soup. Since the hamburger was ½ pound, we decided to split it but I wanted sweet potato fries and B doesn’t care for them. She ordered the bowl of soup. The waiter brought everything at the same time which was fine with B and he also brought two plates without us having to ask. I did have to request a refill on my soda. The soup was excellent with many vegetables and chicken in what looked like fat free broth. There was also garlic toast as a side with the soup. The hamburger was served on a fresh wheat bun and was perfectly done as we had asked – medium. It comes plain with purple onion, a slice of tomato, lettuce, jalapeño, and pickles on the side. I like tomato and pickle on my half and Bonnie asked for and received Dijon mustard and pickles on her half. Both of us declared that this was again a wonderful hamburger. The sweet potato fries were excellent, not at all greasy.
I wonder if others have noticed that hamburgers seem to be much better than they used to be. Is that because they are making them so much bigger? Is it because they are using better meat? There was a Kobe burger but we chose the plain burger. I can’t remember exactly what the burger cost but it wasn’t cheap. Again, wouldn’t it be nice if they had a ¼ pound burger at half the price? Our bill came to something over $24 without the tip, a little high I think for soup, a hamburger, fries and two sodas. I did, however, bring home about half the fries.
I think I have been going to some very good restaurants and had some very good meals lately. I like that. Studio Café is on the corner of Colfax and Ventura in Studio City.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think, at some restaurants, if you politely insist, they will usually allow you to self park when the lot is that empty. Because if the lot is almost empty, then the restaurant is almost empty, and the management would frown on the parking attendants turning away business. It has worked for me.
ReplyDeleteI just find another spot or go to another restaurant which is their loss. Valet parking when there is no lot or it is very small is understandable. I also understand it in Malibu where people, like me, would park and go to the beach instead of the restaurant. But these situations do not apply here and we shouldn't have to haggle to park. Also, the restaurant wasn't busy but there were more people in it than cars in the lot would indicate so I guess others found parking on the street also.
ReplyDeleteLive in Milwaukee. Very few restaurants with valet parking.
ReplyDeleteWendy