‘Encino’
When you need breakfast or brunch in Encino, where do you go? Well, when the opportunity presented itself to me I found myself at Claudine, which is like a bakery and restaurant in one. You order at a counter, and seats are hard to come by on the weekend, but I managed to snag a table right out from under an old lady. To be fair, all she needed was 2 seats and we needed 6 so I found another table for her. Sheesh.
The drive from North Hollywood to Encino on the 101 during a Friday lunch hour is quite possibly the worst 10 mile stretch of road in the nation. Yet, to meet my girlfriend for lunch, I made that drive without seeing nary a Brennan Frasier-shaped caveman. We met at Coral Tree Cafe and after such a terrible drive I was craving some comfort food to counter the traffic blues I was feeling. We walked up to the counter to order and my eyes quickly made contact with their Baked Macaroni and Cheese. It wasn’t what you would consider an ideal food for a 90+ degree day in the Valley, but looked like it would hit the spot.
So apparently it’s been a while since I’ve had Burger King. In fact, since starting my meat blog I hadn’t set foot into a BK until now. Was there a reason for this? No, not really, except for the fact that I feel like LA has such better options for fast food burgers. Yet, with their new Smoky Cheddar Steakhouse XT, I felt like they deserved a visit.
I ordered a combo meal and made sure to order the burger my way. Hey, if any place is going to cater to an unvegan like me, it should be the place that once boasted, “Have it your way.”