The Unvegan

‘Santa Monica’

Winging Out at Hooters

August 4th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

You can almost hear them hooting.

It’s hard to believe that in the year-plus of writing for my meat blog, I have managed to not step foot in Hooters. Yet, somehow, I have avoided that magical land of orange booty shorts and ummm owls. But fear not, because after a little birthday reminder attached to a free entree coupon, I went back to visit my old friend. I took with me one of my only friends who actually appreciates Hooters for what it has to offer.

When we walked into the Santa Monica location, we were greeted by friendly faces. Now to be honest, I didn’t actually find the women working there that impressive. They were definitely friendly and cute, but there are just so many beautiful women in LA that these just didn’t impress too much. This only helped me concentrate on the food to make sure my review was unbiased. Continue Reading»

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Bar Food, Buffalo Wings, hooters, Los Angeles, restaurants, Santa Monica, wings

An Hour of Happiness at Q’s

June 8th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

What sort of bed have these wings been laid upon?

Finding a happy hour around town on a Sunday afternoon isn’t the easiest thing to do. You would think bars would be itching to get customers to come in for a post-Mass drink, but we had a to call a good four or five bars to find ourselves a nice happy hour with a combination of food and drinks. The bar we finally landed on was Q’s Billiard Club in West LA. Their happy hour involved $10 pitchers (of any beer) and half-off appetizers. It all sounded perfect for a fun little hockey-watching Sunday. Continue Reading»

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Bar Food, Bars, Buffalo Wings, Chicken Wings, Los Angeles, meat, q's, Santa Monica, West LA

Getting Huevos at the Omelette Parlor

April 28th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

A pile of goodness.

With some family in town, I headed to Santa Monica to eat breakfast at the Omelette Parlor. When we arrived, the line was out the door, but we were told there was only a 20-minute wait. Since it was so nice out, we took a walk up Main Street and came back just in time to be seated.

Now the usual thought would be that if you go to a place with omelette in the name, you order an omelette, but on this day, I was glad I didn’t follow that rule. Instead, I decided to order their Huevos Rancheros because they looked so good. It was a delicious mix of rice, beans, egg, cheese, tortilla and sauce. There wasn’t any meat involved, but there also weren’t any vegetables there to ruin the party. Continue Reading»

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Breakfast, Los Angeles, Mexican, omelette parlor, restaurants, Santa Monica

Surprised by Spumoni

April 26th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Meat and potatoes.

We headed over to Santa Monica to grab some pizza. Unfortunately, once we had parked and filled the meter, we realized that the pizza place we wanted no longer existed. Unwilling to let a few quarters go to waste, we decided to take a little walk and see if any other restaurant might be able to tickle our fancy. What we found was Spumoni. Though not a pizza place, at least it was Italian. Continue Reading»

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gnocchi, Italian, Los Angeles, meat, pasta, restaurants, Santa Monica

Bombed at I Cugini

February 22nd, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Mmmm a bomb of meat.

For a night out on the town with the family, we decided to head to I Cugini at the recommendation of their concierge. This hardly pronounceable restaurant was in Santa Monica and had a pretty cool setup with an outdoorsy patio-esque seating area. The menu offered some pretty good-looking food, but the menu wasn’t as robust as a typical Italian place. Nonetheless, I was transfixed by an item on the menu that I had never seen before. It was called a “Bomba” and was mixed up with the pizzas, so I knew it had to be somewhat similar to pizza. Continue Reading»

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Bomb, Bomba, food, i cugini, Italian, Los Angeles, meat, prosciutto, restaurants, Santa Monica

Another DineLA at One Pico

October 22nd, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Feeling crabby.

DineLA extended the LA Food week to make it almost a full month, so I made sure to experience another of the participating restaurants. This time it was One Pico at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica. It’s kind of tough to find, since very little of the building actually mentions the restaurant name, but once you realize that the restaurant is actually within a hotel, things become a lot more clear. Continue Reading»

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Chicken, dinela, Los Angeles, meat, one pico, restaurant week, Santa Monica, shutters on the beach

Buffalo-Style at the Library Ale House

August 31st, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Just like the Native Americans

For a nice night out on the town, I went to the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica. After about twenty minutes of waiting, we were finally shown to our table, in an outdoor patio area. I always love eating outside, so this was a definite plus for the restaurant.

Although the menu had a bunch of good-looking options, the buffalo burger really stuck out to me. I always enjoy a good bison, so I hoped the Library would continue that trend. Plus, I try to eat like Native Americans as much as possible, and we all know how much they loved their buffalo. Continue Reading»

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Allagash, Bacon, Bar Food, Beer, Bison, Buffalo, Burgers, Cheese, food, hamburgers, library ale house, library alehouse, Los Angeles, meat, native americans, restaurants, Reviews, Santa Monica

Classy Mexican at Border Grill

July 29th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Sickly looking green stuff on my quesadilla!

It’s pretty rare, but sometimes it’s good to break free of Mexican fast-food and slow, yet still greasy Mexican food. To make this jump, I went to the Border Grill in Santa Monica and attempted to class-up my Mexican repertoire.

They actually had a surprisingly welcome selection of unvegan options and I was torn between a few of the dishes. The steep prices may have ended up playing a role in my final selection, which was still pretty pricey at $15. This was one of their specials, the Chicken Adobo Quesadilla. Adobo is a great seasoning, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. It came with manchego, panela and cotija cheeses inside, and mizuna salad, salsa fresca, guacamole and sour cream on the outside. I ordered mine without the mizuna salad and although I’m not entirely sure what “mizuna” means, I know it involved vegetables I didn’t want to eat. Continue Reading»

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Adobo, Border Grill, Cheese, food, Los Angeles, meat, Mexican, quesadilla, restaurants, Reviews, Santa Monica

Further Down the Riva

July 3rd, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Well, it looks pretty.

My friend told me about a relatively new “pizza” place called Riva in Santa Monica. I put pizza in quotes because in my mind a pizza place is like a parlor. This, however, was no parlor. Rather it was a posh and fancy restaurant that happened to have pizza as its specialty.

We took the bar-style seats that had a perfect view of the preparation area and the wood-burning oven. While sitting there, it was really unnecessary to look at the menu, because we could decide what we wanted based on what we saw in front of us.

In this case, I took a slight deviation from my usual unvegan pizzas. Instead of getting the meaty offering, I got the Patate Semplice, which is just a fancy Italian way of saying potato, rosemary, fontina and sea salt pizza.

In the meantime, I enjoyed the appetizer of Wood Fired Pizza Bread. With olive oil, it tasted pretty good, but almost seemed silly to order a partial pizza as I was waiting for a real pizza. Nonetheless, the wait was quite short, as I watched my pizza go in the oven mere moments before it was pulled out fully cooked. Continue Reading»

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food, Italian, Los Angeles, Pizza, restaurants, Reviews, riva, Santa Monica

A Long Dinner at Enterprise Fish Co.

July 2nd, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Everything is better fried.

Being so near to the ocean, you would think LA has a lot of good seafood. To test this theory, I went to Enterprise Fish Co. in Santa Monica.

After looking over the menu, I decided to get something from the “Traditional Favorites” section. Now, typically I am not a big fan of shrimp because I find it to taste only slightly different than rubber. Don’t question my knowledge of the taste of rubber. The one way I have found I can eat shrimp is when it’s fried, so I decided to order the Golden Fried Coconut Shrimp. The only trouble was that our waitress never really came to the table. After dropping off the menus, we didn’t see her for quite a long time. Then, after ordering, it felt like the meal took forever to arrive. Continue Reading»

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enterprise fish, restaurants, Reviews, Santa Monica, Seafood, shrimp

Rants and Raves

Time for Epic Meal Time

February 3rd, 2011

Just watch them make a salad. I dare you.

If you’ve been on or anywhere near the internet recently, you may have heard of a new level of awesome called Epic Meal Time. Although I take my unvegan eating dangerously serious, the makers of Epic Meal Time have turned eating meat into an orgy of spectacular caloric intake. I could go on talking about what they do, but I’d rather just let the videos speak for themselves. Below you can find a few of my favorites.

Going Global at Plan Check

Fries of the world.

A couple of weeks ago, The Backyard Bite invited me to The Burger Culture Clash, sponsored by Stussy (which apparently still exists) and Plan Check. Plan Check, by the way, is a sort of new (since February) restaurant in West LA with Chef Ernesto Uchimura of Umami Burger fame. As my love of burgers, especially those of the umami variety, I jumped at the opportunity.

Although I arrived alone, I was not the only lone eater. Just next to where I was seated, I met e*star LA and we decided to share a meal called loneliness, because it’s better than eating alone. We made quick friends over our respective blogs and Midwestern roots, then got to work at dissecting the special menu, which Plan Check will be featuring for the next month if anything tickles your fancy.

‘Santa Monica’

Winging Out at Hooters

An Hour of Happiness at Q’s

Getting Huevos at the Omelette Parlor

Surprised by Spumoni

Bombed at I Cugini

Another DineLA at One Pico

Buffalo-Style at the Library Ale House

Classy Mexican at Border Grill

Further Down the Riva

A Long Dinner at Enterprise Fish Co.

Rants and Raves

Time for Epic Meal Time

Going Global at Plan Check

What is this?»

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