The Unvegan

2/16/2011 Reviews West Hollywood

Katana Means Sword in Japanese

Katana (warning: turn down your speakers because their retarded site automatically plays loud bass) in West Hollywood is about as trendy as you can get for Japanese food. Yet, to my surprise, when I was sent their DineLA Restaurant Week menu for a possible dinner, I saw only one sushi option. With this in mind, I thought that perhaps the $34 fixed price would actually be worth it, so off we went to Katana. Showing up last, I was greeted with a rousing “irasshai” (although I was a bit disappointed they didn’t go for the more formal “irasshaimase”) and found that some chicken gyoza (potstickers) had already been ordered. This struck me as strange since we were about to order a fixed price meal, but I decided to roll with it.

DineLA Japanese Katana Los Angeles Meat Restaurant Week Restaurants Robata Sushi West Hollywood

2/14/2011 Heroes and Villains

Dale Vince: Unvegan Villain

Remember the glory days where sports and meat were almost synonymous? Today, it seems like those days are slowly passing us by. It started with PETA making up some dumb award for the most vegetarian-friendly ballparks, and has continued through this day.

Dale Vince Soccer Villains

2/11/2011 Reviews Santa Monica

The Not-So World Cafe (CLOSED)

With a night of partying in Santa Monica looming and a dire need of dinner, we turned to a place on Santa Monica’s Main Street called World Cafe. I really didn’t know what to expect from the place except that I had a feeling it would involve food from around the world. When we took our seats and then took a gander into the menu, it became apparent that World Cafe was not at all a cafe of the world.

I had expected to see food from all over the world, like Sri Lankan curry, Icelandic swan, The Falklands penguin and Uzbekistani rock. Instead, I found myself gazing into menu full of Italian food. Okay, I guess there were a few random appetizers. Real worldly. This obviously wasn’t the place to get any new and exciting food, but at least I would make the best of it.

Italian Los Angeles Pizza Restaurants Santa Monica World Cafe

2/10/2011 Reviews Los Angeles

A Choice Dinner at Juicy Burger (CLOSED)

Look at that shiny bun. But is it too big?

Joining the ever-growing ranks of custom burger joints is a little place in Hollywood, called Juicy Burger. Just opened last year, Juicy Burger quickly earned rave reviews, and in a burger-wild city like LA, that isn’t easy to do. The custom burger concept is something I never tire of, because the very core of the concept protects me from vegetables, but how many do we really need? And what sets Juicy Burger apart from its delicious competition?

Bacon Beef Burgers Hamburgers Hollywood Juicy Burger Los Angeles Meat Restaurants

2/3/2011 Rants and Raves

Time for Epic Meal Time

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.

Epic Meal Time Meat

2/2/2011 Reviews Anaheim

Yargh! at the Blue Bayou

If you’ve ever ridden the Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland, you may have noticed the restaurant next to the beginning of the ride, where diners ignore the people in pirate boats heading towards certain pirate doom. On my last trip to the happiest place on earth, I found myself not in one of those boats, but instead as one of those bystanders in the restaurant called Blue Bayou. In a land of ceaseless twilight, Blue Bayou can be found in the French District of Disneyland and serves up New Orleans-style food.

Anaheim Blue Bayou Chicken Disneyland New Orleans-Style Pirates of the Caribbean Restaurants Southern Travel

2/1/2011 Reviews Los Angeles

The Over-Peppering of The Capital Grille (CLOSED)

EDIT: This location is gone, but you can find the same over-peppered steak at The Capital Grille elsewhere.

Found in or around malls all around the country, The Capital Grille is a reliable, upscale steakhouse and I’ve never met anyone who isn’t a fan. So the combination of the girlfriend’s parents visiting and an awesome coupon led us to grab some dinner at the aforementioned grille. Despite having a reservation, we still ended up waiting a good 15 minutes for our table, then finally took our seats.

Beverly Center Beverly Hills Los Angeles Mac and Cheese Mac n Cheese Meat Restaurants Steak Steakhouse The Capital Grille

1/31/2011 Reviews Los Angeles

Blood, Marrow and Toffee at Waterloo & City (CLOSED)

Although it seems like the last Dine LA Restaurant Week ended a couple months ago, it seems that it has returned, which means a lot of food and some difficult choices for the unvegan. These difficult choices usually stem from the fact that it is tough to find a veggie-free prix fixe menu. Fortunately, Culver City has a relatively new restaurant called Waterloo & City with an unvegan-friendly restaurant week menu.

Waterloo & City is named after a Tube line in London that consists of two stops – one called Waterloo and the other called…Village. Wait, no, it’s called City. As you may be able to guess by the name, the restaurant serves English food. That’s right, English food, also known as the worst international food ever. The kind of food where when people go to England, the favorite thing they ate was Indian. Well somehow the English food at Waterloo & City had garnered the place accolades for being one of the best new restaurants in LA, so despite the ancestry of their food, they had to be doing something right.

Beef Bone Marrow British DineLA English Los Angeles Marrow Pie Restaurant Week Restaurants Waterloo & City

1/28/2011 Reviews Los Angeles

More Soup than Dough at Doughboys

On a beautiful morning, I got a call from my buddy who wanted to grab some brunch. He suggested Dougboys over in Mid-City. From what I’ve heard of Doughboys, I expected there to be a huge line, so I wasn’t too into the idea, but we still decided check it out with the intention to go somewhere else if the line was long. Fortunately, we found a manageable line and the fact that there were only two of us made the wait just about 5 minutes.

Brunch Doughboys Grilled Cheese Los Angeles Mac and Cheese Mid City Restaurants Sandwiches

1/27/2011 Reviews Los Angeles

Tasty Tacos at Tinga

On a Saturday night the girlfriend and I were sitting around feeling lazy. Neither of us had eaten dinner, and we weren’t terribly hungry, but we knew that we needed some sort of food in our systems. It had to be light, and as I looked over my list of restaurants I wanted to try, only one seemed to tickle our fancies. This was a remotely new (8 months or so) restaurant called Tinga, in Mid-City.

The interior of Tinga has a nice wooden atmosphere that is almost like a bar except that it is BYO. In the middle of the small seating area is a long communal table and the walls are lined with stools. The ordering takes place at the counter and although the full menu is on the side wall, they also have paper menus for those who don’t want to stare awkwardly over the shoulders of fellow patrons.

Beef Los Angeles Meat Mexican Mid City Restaurants Short Ribs Tacos Tinga

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