Santa Monica90405
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.
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.
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.
NOTE: While this location may be closed, this review unquestionably applies to all other Tommy’s
When I first moved to LA, a friend of mine told me a story about Tommy’s Burgers. Apparently the success of the original Tommy’s spawned a multitude of strange chili cheeseburger places with various spellings of the word Tom or Tommy. In all this confusion, I didn’t know where to find the place that started it all, until my friend enlightened me to the location of an Original Tommy’s in Santa Monica. Now, even though it is called Original Tommy’s, the true Original Tommy’s is on LA’s east side. Confused? I was too. At least until I got to Tommy’s.
Once I got there, everything became clear to me. Having just finished a game of tennis, I found the way to reproduce all the calories I had incidentally burned, the Mega Combo. This combo featured a triple chili cheese burger and chili cheese fries, with a drink bigger than my office’s water cooler. This Mega Combo is not just a meal, it’s a gamble that you’ll survive eating it long enough to look back on it with pride, like storming the beaches of Normandy. I had to make it mine.
The customizable meal has always been one of my favorites. From pizza to stir-fry, I’ve always felt that it is one of the best ways to eat. It’s basically how you would make something if you had all the ingredients yourself. The unfortunate side-effect is that if you don’t like the food, it’s your own fault. The Counter has taken the customizable concept to burgers.
Their amazing array of ingredients and choices gives and unvegan like me a world of opportunities. Of course, they have lettuce, pickles and tomatoes, but there are enough non-vegetables to really make it an unvegan burger. I ordered the 1/3 pound beef burger with, bacon, herb goat cheese, pineapples and dried cranberries. For my sauce, I got the sweet BBQ on the side (learning my lesson from last time that it is easier to dip a burger than to try to find a place for sauce on it).