Reviews

7/27/2009 Reviews Culver City

S & W Country Diner

The following guest blog is courtesy of Waldo Centeno. Check him out on Twitter: @waldocent

I woke up on Sunday contemplating two things: what happened last night and what’s for breakfast? In a way, both questions were answered with one phrase – S & W. Since moving to Culver City, my roommate and I have regularly attended S & W a few times a month and frequently run into people we know. This time was no different, as we were greeted with many friendly faces.

As usual, the diner was uniquely covered in a menagerie of old travel souvenir items (license plates, road signs, large coca cola cap, etc.) scattered along the walls. The simple setup of a counter, booths, un-sturdy tables, and mismatched chairs fondly reminded me of Ann Arbor’s own Fleetwood Diner, which is also a great place to get rid of hangovers while blowing away cigarette ash off of your plate. S & W, however, lacks cigarette ash/smoke, which is a plus in my book.

Breakfast Corned Beef Hash Culver City Diners Guest Blog Los Angeles Meat Restaurants S & W

7/23/2009 Reviews Los Angeles

Howard’s Famous Bacon & Avocado Burgers

Eat it. It's famous. — Eat it. It’s famous.

Nearly daily I have driven past Howard’s Famous Bacon & Avocado Burgers in Palms and wondered what sort of greatness lay within. Finally, I decided to check the place out.

Walking in, I kind of expected the place to reflect the decor of the awesome sign outside. This was not to be the case. Instead, it had a basic booth layout with a counter to order from. I didn’t mind so much, since all I really wanted was bacon and avocado on a burger. I checked out their menu on the wall, and saw all the options they had. In a way, I was hoping they had a limited menu consisting of bacon, avocado and burgers, but instead I found a menu with many burger options and an almost passively bolded lettering of their namesake.

Avocado Bacon Burgers Diners Food Hamburgers Howard's Famous Bacon and Avocado Burger Los Angeles Meat Palms Restaurants

7/22/2009 Reviews Los Angeles

The Dodger Dog

There's just something about that dog. — There’s just something about that dog.

In celebration of National Hot Dog Day, it’s time to write about the Dodger Dog. I’ve always enjoyed a good hot dog at a baseball game, but until I moved to LA, I didn’t realize that hot dogs were a baseball necessity.

Dodger Stadium offers two kinds of Dodger Dogs, one regular hot dog, which I assume is filled with various pork products, and their Super Dodger Dog, an all-beef version for an extra bit of money. I prefer the all-beef, so I ordered mine with a load of garlic fries, which I could smell from the moment I entered the stadium and just knew they had to be mine.

Baseball Dodgers Downtown LA Food Hot Dogs Los Angeles Meat National Hot Dog Day

7/21/2009 Reviews Culver City

Eating Greek the Fast Way at Daphne’s Greek Cafe (CLOSED)

What's Greek for burger? — What’s Greek for burger?

Edit: This location is gone, but Daphne’s as a whole is not.

Since the entire concept of Greek fast food is a bit confusing, I decided to check out Daphne’s Greek Cafe in Culver City and see what it was all about.

A quick perusal of the menu revealed the Pitaburger. This burger is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, because instead of a bun, they use authentic Greek pita. The differences between this burger and other burgers does not end there, however. Rather than typical burger toppings, this one comes with Greek offerings like feta cheese and for an additional bit of pocket change, you can get gyros added to the burger to make it as meaty as possible. This burger was not without fault in its intended version, though, as it also came with burger killers like lettuce and tomato.

Burgers Chains Culver City Daphne's Fast Food Greek Gyros Hamburgers Los Angeles Meat Pita Bread Restaurants

7/20/2009 Reviews Mobile

A Crunchy Treat from Let’s Be Frank

Tucked into a little corner in Culver City, right around the Helms Bakery, is a hot dog cart called Let’s Be Frank. I’d heard some great things about the place, so one day as I was wandering around Culver City, I decided to stop by and have a try.

According to their signs, they don’t mess around with their hot dogs. By that I mean they don’t do the things that most hot dogs do. They use all all-beef hot dogs from grass-fed cows, with no steroids, hormones, nitrates and nitrites (although they probably should start putting the latter two in since they are healthy by my standards). At five bucks a piece, I was ready to be shown an entirely new hot dog world.

Onions were an optional topping for the hot dog, and I politely declined. There was also a sauce available called Devil Sauce. It looked and smelled really good, so I decided to try some out.

Culver City Devil Sauce Helms Bakery Hot Dogs Let's Be Frank Los Angeles Mobile

7/17/2009 Reviews Los Angeles

A Late-Night Mess at Norm’s Diner

Which part of the Mignon is this filet from?

A long night of drinking compelled me to head to Norm’s Diner in West LA. Of course, this decision wasn’t the best I’ve ever made, but my decision of what to eat at Norm’s was a far worse one.

When I walked in the door, their specialty of the night/morning was on display and even a long look at their long menu couldn’t take my mind off of it. The special was a Filet Mignon, with eggs, hash browns and pancakes. Yes, pancakes. Whoever thought of this one was clearly on something that made him happy and delirious. Best of all, it was a whopping 10 bucks.

Breakfast Diners Eggs Food Late-Night Los Angeles Meat Norm's Pancakes Restaurants Steak West Coast Chains West LA

7/15/2009 Reviews Beverly Hills

A Waste of a Meal at Greenleaf

As I was getting dragged to Greenleaf in Beverly Hills, I knew my meal that night wasn’t going to end well. You don’t call a place Greenleaf without getting a reputation for having a lot of leafy green items, also known as vegetables. Fortunately, I was told they had burgers, or else I wouldn’t have gone within 100 feet of the place (court ordered).

I arrived ready to grab a burger, only to find they were all out. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place that has actually run out of the ingredients for a burger, but a place called Greenleaf is as good of a place as any to have my first. I scoured the menu in an attempt to make sense of the plethora of vegetables and finally decided on the BBQ Chicken Sandwich. The only problem was that it came with onions, so I ordered it without. Apparently they couldn’t do this, since the BBQ Chicken ingredients were pre-mixed. I guess the “made to order” concept doesn’t apply to leafy restaurants.

Beverly Hills Greenleaf Grilled Cheese Los Angeles Restaurants Sandwiches Vegetarians

7/14/2009 Reviews Los Angeles

Happy Hour Meats at Gyu-Kaku

In my never-ending quest for the perfect happy hour in LA, I wound up at Gyu-Kaku in West LA for Japanese BBQ. With five minutes left in their Happy Hour, we arrived and were told there was a ten minute wait. Discouraged, we still decided to make the best of it and took our seats after the wait. Our zealous waiter checked his watch as he arrived at the table and disappointedly reminded us that we had just missed happy hour. We told him that we knew, but we had tried to arrive on time and had to wait. Quickly thinking, he told us he was actually a manager and he would give us happy hour prices for our first round of ordering. Score!

Asian BBQ Beer Cooking Food Happy Hour Japanese Los Angeles Meat Restaurants Sukiyaki West LA Yakiniku

7/13/2009 Reviews El Segundo

The Inaccurately Named Stuft Pizza

One day I was reading about Stuft Pizza and saw somewhere that they had dollar slices on Mondays. Figuring that was a pretty awesome deal, I called them up to see if the dollar slices still existed. When I got a quick confirmation on the phone, I headed over for a cheap lunch.

At first, I was disappointed because the pizza rotating in the little pizza by the slice heater wasn’t even stuffed. Instead it looked like any other pizza and begged the question of how the place got its name.

Nonetheless, I was already there and determined to eat pizza, so I ordered three slices of pepperoni and waited for the man behind the counter to ask me for three bucks. This sound never came, as the man asked me for a total that far exceeded three bucks.

El Segundo Food Italian Los Angeles Meat Pepperoni Pizza Restaurants

7/10/2009 Reviews Bloomington

Tastes of the Northwoods, Part V: Crave

Not exactly what I ordered... — Not exactly what I ordered…

Before leaving the Northwoods, I made a stop at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota to eat at Crave. Although the Mall of America can hardly be considered part of the Northwoods, it’s close enough to be included in my weekly special.

Crave was a nice and spacious restaurant that came highly recommended by my family that was taking me there. A whole lot of food on the menu looked great and we started by ordering appetizers. We got the Mini-Burgers, which the menu said came with bacon, cheddar and rosemary. We also ordered the Lemon Garlic Wings, which came with “Amablu cheese dressing” and cucumbers. Since the family likes cucumbers, I didn’t order the dish without them and just hoped they didn’t touch any of the wings I wanted to eat.

Bloomington Burgers Chicken Wings Crave Hamburgers Macaroni and Cheese Mall of America Meat Mini-Burgers Minneapolis Minnesota Northwoods Restaurants St. Paul Travel Truffles

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