‘Chicken’
The name Pink Taco is something of a shock. You’d think you were walking into a strip club or something, but lo and behold, you end up walking into a restaurant. The Pink Taco in LA is at the Century City mall and although it’s not part of their glorious food court, it was still a place worth checking out. As you would expect, once you realize Pink Taco is actually a restaurant, the place serves up Mexican food in a trendy way.
Ever since beginning my meat blog, Fogo de Chao in Beverly Hills has been in my sights. I’ve eaten Brazilian food before, but I have been told over and over again that Fogo is the king of meatiness. But it’s expensive. Like a fixed price of $56.50 expensive. But when Restaurant Week comes to town, that ridicu-price drops down to a more reasonable $44 bucks, including dessert. So for my first Fogo experience, I made sure to go during Restaurant Week and was amazed with what that price bought me.
As a man spoiled by Buffalo Wild Wings, it is often difficult to try out new wing places. But going to a place where 50% of the name is Wings and the other 50% is Hoagies seems like a recipe for success. So even if Hoagies and Wings isn’t the most creatively named restaurant, it certainly makes clear what you will be offered. To be fair, they do offer some burgers and sides, but other than that, the menu is pretty much limited to the name.
After what feels like years of hearing about the deliciousness that dwells within Mao’s Kitchen in Venice, I finally found myself an opportunity to try the place out. A big perk of the place was that it was BYO, so I grabbed a sixer of tasty beer and brought it along to see if Mao’s could really be good Chinese food. Before delving into the meal itself, let’s take a moment to consider the name of Mao’s Kitchen. Honestly, I’m not so sure I would want to eat whatever Mao would have served. Most likely it would have involved mass atrocities and a side of untimely death. Cultural faux pas aside, I was still drawn in by their reputation for culinary goodness.
After a few days of burgers and wings, I decided I needed to have a meal kind of on the light side. To accomplish this, my buddy and I went to The Kitchen in Silverlake. The exterior of the place has a pretty cool mural and the interior has a nice vibe that is neither upscale, downscale or hipster. Basically, it’s the kind of place that should be in every neighborhood. At least by the looks. The menu was pretty simple and although their cheeseburger was tempting, I forced myself to order some chicken.
For a quick lunch idea to please a few people, the girlfriend and I decided to pick up food from Corner Bakery. Although the place is pretty well-known for its sandwiches, I was in no mood for such food. Instead, I found that they had a little selection of pasta dishes that looked like a good lunch to me. Of these, the Pesto Cavatappi looked best to me.
Heading into Noho Royal Garden in North Hollywood, I kind of expected to find myself in a typical Middle-Eastern style restaurant. But no, there were no rugs on the wall, no decorative lamps or beads. Instead, it felt like I had just walked into a Mexican cabana. Part outside, part inside, with umbrellas, trees and stones, this was a perfect place to escape from work…well as long as the food was any good.
Somehow, some way, I was convinced to go to a restaurant in North Hollywood called HealthyCA (pronounced hel-the-ka, rather than Healthy California) . The very name offends me, but I have chosen a life of open mindedness, as opposed to the closed-minded lifestyle so many vegans choose. I must admit, though, that I feared this place, and not because it was healthy, but because so many people associate vegetables with a healthy diet. Us unvegans know they are wrong, but it is hard to convince vegans to pay attention to facts.
When you name a restaurant EAT, you better be prepared to have some good food and you better be ready to feed some hungry eaters. One day I was hungry and was looking for something to eat, so I was really hoping that EAT would deliver on their name. My coworker and I took a seat outside and then took a look at the menu. They had some specials that gave my fancy quite a tickle, but when he asked the waitress what some of the best dishes were, she pointed out The 76ER and I knew it belonged in my belly. Well, at least most of it. You see, it was one of those sandwiches where you slowly read the ingredients and get more and more excited, until you find something terrible and your sandwich fantasy comes crashing down. On this sandwich, that destructive entity was the tomato and the fantastical elements were grilled chicken breast, cheddar and swiss cheese, bacon and avocado on sourdough bread. Fortunately, I saw the tomato in the list and ordered my meal without it. Then I got some fries with that.
EDIT: This building got knocked way down, but you can find other Mezzas.
Since my buddy wanted to eat something healthy (foolish, I know), we thought we would try out some Mediterranean food nearby. Since I’ve already hit up a few of the local places, we looked to Yelp to find something new and discovered a place called Mezza Grill in Culver City. We sat down inside and were greeted by a mildly friendly waitress with bells hanging by her waist that must have some Mediterranean significance. But considering she was blond and likely of some sort of Germanic or Scandinavian descent, the bell thingies came off as somewhat gimmicky. Oh well, gimmick or not, I was ready to eat.