A couple of weeks ago, Squidink tossed out a list of the 9 Best Macaroni and Cheese Dishes in LA. Naturally, my mouth was watering profusely as I read through and saw the gooey, holy cheesus. And, while they all looked awesome, there was only one that I felt the need to eat immediately. This was Chef Marilyn’s Soul Food Express, which resides in that fascinating part of west LA on Pico and La Brea.

Chef Marilyn’s is truly an express restaurant, packing a whole lot of food into a 10×10 storefront with no seats or tables whatsoever. The food is out buffet-style and while a couple sauces had a film formed on top, I knew this was not going to be a bad thing. In this tiny space, Chef Marilyn’s offered a massive variety of soul food and as one whose only soul cred is having an afro throughout college, I found it hard to decide. Surely, I wanted the mac and cheese. The fried chicken breast was a no-brainer. But I knew this alone would not satisfy me after a humbling tennis loss to my arch-nemesis, Joel, who I also happened to be eating with. On a whim, I opted for a smothered chicken thigh and watched as the guy behind the counter dropped everything into a sectional styrofoam to-go box. I paid up my 8ish bucks and headed back to Joel’s to dine.

First, I had to try the mac and cheese and It unquestionably lived up to its reputation. To be fair, it would probably be more appropriate to call this cheese and mac, because it was loaded with that wonderful substance even a vegan has a hard time giving up. This stuff was all at once thick and creamy, with that nice variety of cheese texture you sometimes get when your mac and cheese is scooped out of a much larger vat. They had loaded a new batch in right before we ordered, but it still had that texture that I sometimes dream of.

Next up was the fried chicken, which was also awesome. I would have liked if the breading was a little more crisp, but the flavor and juiciness of the chicken was unbeatable. Finally, there was the smothered chicken. In truth, I had no idea what I was getting into when I ordered the chicken, other than knowing I’ve never had anything bad that has been described as “smothered.” Fortunately, this trend didn’t change with the smothered chicken. The smother itself was a sort of delicious gravy with a pretty good onion and juicy chicken flavor.

Needless to say, Chef Marilyn’s was a huge hit to my taste buds and stomach. In fact, eating it after tennis was so great that I may even make a tradition of it. because we all know nothing goes together better than tennis and soul.

As a pleasant surprise, my girlfriend decided to pick me up some dinner from the California Chicken Cafe. They were supposed to have some great rotisserie chicken, so before she picked up, I took a look at the menu to figure out what to order. Since just about everything on the menu began with the word “chicken,” I was pretty happy. I decided to go with the 1/4 chicken (breast and wing) plus one side. Picking out a side was probably the easiest thing I’ve done since graduating elementary school. Of the 12 sides, only two were unvegan-friendly. These were the mashed potatoes and the fresh fruit salad. Feeling in a strongly savory mood, I decided on the mashed potatoes.

After not-too-long, my girlfriend arrived with my food in hand. I opened the styrofoam lid and was surprised to find such a small amount of food. It was nice to see no vegetables present, but I was amazed by the amount of empty space. I remember a time when ordering 1/4 chicken meant you were getting a lot of food, but not in this case. Size aside, the chicken looked pretty tasty. The skin was glistening and looked crispy, so I started eating. It tasted pretty good and wasn’t too salty like a lot of rotisserie chicken can be. Underneath the chicken, I found a quarter of a pita. I wasn’t totally sure what it was doing there, as this chicken didn’t exactly seem ready to be sliced up and put into a pita. Due to the lack of lots of food, I still ate the pita in whatever way I could. The mashed potatoes were pretty good, but nothing really special. Next time, I may have to grab the fruit salad instead.

Ultimately, the California Chicken Cafe wasn’t a disappointing meal. I should have guessed by the price that I wouldn’t be getting a lot of food and the chicken did taste pretty good. In the end, though, I was still hungry and that was a damn shame.

Once Little Caesars abandoned their “Pizza Pizza” slogan, they seemed to fall off the face of the earth. A few years later, though, they were reborn with the $5 Hot-N-Ready large pizza. The idea behind this is that pizza has become too complicated. Choosing a topping can be a pain in the ass, then finding the right coupon to go along with your purchase can be even more difficult. With the Hot-N-Ready pizza, you can walk right into as Little Caesars at any time, throw down five bucks and walk out with either a large cheese or large pepperoni. It’s a genius idea, because who really wants a different topping on their pizza? But it only works if the product still tastes good. I recently paid a visit back to Little Caesars to see if their Hot-N-Ready was just like I remembered.

The only Little Caesars I really know of in LA is in the stretch of Centinela that falls between Mar Vista and Marina Del Rey, but really doesn’t have a name for itself. I walked into the place and asked for a large pepperoni, which they gladly pulled out of a heating device and handed to me. I hoped that the pizza hadn’t been there for long and a forked over my five bucks and change for sales tax purposes.

I took the box home and opened it up to begin eating. It looked like any normal delivery pizza would. Pepperoni covered it in just enough places and it didn’t looked like it had been hanging out in the heating box for too long. I took a bite and was quite content with what I tasted. There were no special ingredients and really nothing special about the pizza at all, except for how easy and cheap it was to get. There are plenty of better pizzas in the world, but a reliable $5 pizza is difficult to find outside of Little Caesars.