Down in Long Beach to visit my favorite baby named after Bella from Twilight, we found ourselves at Tequila Jack’s for lunch. Located in the touristy pier/wharf area, Tequila Jack’s had all the look and feel of touristy Mexican restaurant. Yet, for all that look and feel, it did have a few of those Mexican dishes you don’t find at your average tourist spot. One of these dishes was their Chicken Mole Enchiladas. So, like any unsuspecting fan of Mexican I ordered them.
With a friend in town for the summer and staying in Venice, we headed out to Centanni, an Italian joint in that part of town. The menu wasn’t too big, but had some basic sandwiches and pasta dishes. As per usual, my eyes drifted right to their gnocchi, which came with a pesto sauce. Soon enough, my meal was served and all looked well on the surface.
While LA has its fair share of Middle-Eastern restaurants, Kabab Grill in Palms boasts something I haven’t seen elsewhere: its own pita oven. Growing up with the Middle-Eastern restaurants of southeastern Michigan, I just kind of assumed every place had their own oven, but in LA I learned this was not the case. Yet, a pita oven alone does not make a place great, so I was eager to see how this Syrian-flavored place would taste and hoped it didn’t taste like the blood and tears of civil war (too soon?).
On a drunken evening in Osaka, I vaguely recall punching buttons on an old school lotto-style machine at a ramen restaurant. The result was some of the most delicious drunk food I have ever eaten. Fast forward to 2012 and Tsujita continues its stranglehold on the ramen scene of Little Little Tokyo in West LA. Yet, it is not alone in ramen. Tatsu sits just down the road and has taken that machine concept I encountered in Osaka into modernity.
A few years ago, I was introduced to The Beachcomber, a cafe in Crystal Cove, just south of Newport Beach. At the time, I had just eaten and couldn’t even imagine having more food, but I was certainly able to appreciate the setting and my cousins seemed to love the food. My now fiancee and I vowed to return one day and that day finally came over the weekend. While The Beachcomber appears to be a hidden secret, the hour-long wait to be seated begged to differ. Yet, while waiting for a restaurant can sometimes be obnoxious, The Beachcomber is quite literally on the beach and the beach is so nice that I would pay money to use it even if there wasn’t a restaurant.
One of the perks of staying at the St. Regis in Dana Point (or knowing people staying there) is to be able to eat at the Monarch Bay Club. This restaurant was once only available to people who live in the adjoining neighborhood of $10 million dollar homes and those willing to shell out $17,000 a year for membership. Now, though, this exclusive joint is available to anyone willing to stay at the St. Regis and their guests. Upon arrival, I expected high prices and subpar food that is typically endemic of hotel restaurants, but what I found was something a bit different.
The pool area of the St. Regis in Dana Point is like the gardens of Tivoli combined with an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. Well except for the all-inclusive part. Food here comes at a premium price, but for most people staying at a place like this and charging the food to the room, that price is pretty negligible. I am not one of those people, but I was fortunate enough to have my food being provided by my future in-laws. Plus, they picked the place, so I surely couldn’t be blamed for the fact that a basic burger with cheddar and a sweet potato bun ran $20.
Buffalo is still considered an exotic meat in the USA. Never mind the fact that bison are native to these lands and the cattle we chow on come from Europe and Asia. And because it is “exotic” it often fetches a high price at restaurants and is given the gourmet treatment. This is not the case at Billy’s Grill, a tiny diner-style joint in Sherman Oaks.
For my first outing to LA Live, my lady and I headed to WP24, a restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton created by that famous chef with a name like a prodigious hockey item, Wolfgang Puck. We were out celebrating, but didn’t call ahead to make plans. This meant we couldn’t get a table, because apparently WP24 has no room for walk-ins, but it also meant we weren’t locked into an $80 or $110 fixed price dinner. Instead, we were offered the lounge, which served sushi and appetizers.
Before basketball on Tuesdays I usually need to grab a bite to eat. For some people, this is a cramp-inducing process. I, on the other hand, cramp up while playing if I don’t eat enough. With that in mind, I went to Taqueria Juanito’s No. 1 in Balboa Park with my fellow baller and rather than order a couple little tacos, I got pretty much the biggest thing on the menu. It was their nachos, and came loaded with cheese, refried beans, a couple of salsas, cilantro and a meat of my choosing. I chose carne asada and pretty soon went to town on those nachos.