A short time ago, Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern opened up a location in Santa Monica. On it’s own, this can be seen as a good thing, but an even better thing is that I was invited out to check the place out and give it a review. I happily accepted and set off for the place where the land meets the sea (well almost, Jimmy’s is a few blocks inland).

The meal began with some of the sexiest meatballs the world has every seen. They are called Buffalo BBQ Beef Meatballs, which meant that they were a combination of sweet and spicy, plus they were nice and juicy. They were served with a honey garlic ranch and despite the fact that the thin-sliced peppers on top came as a surprise, I enjoyed the hell out of these. We also got the Spicy Ahi Poke, which was good for raw fish and I’m sure those who like poke would have liked this, but it just isn’t my thing and I don’t see a future where it is.

Next came the Whiskey Shrimp, which was apparently cooked with Bourbon (so maybe bourbon shrimp would have been a better name), shallots, Cajun spices and dijon. The shrimp itself tasted pretty fresh (and I should have hoped so considering our proximity to the ocean), but the sauce was really the best part of the appetizer, as I probably could have dipped asparagus in there and made it taste good. Once again there were some unfortunate random tomatoes on top, but I slapped these aside.

When it came to the main course, I probably would have normally ordered a burger, but the waitress highly recommended the fried chicken. Like an obedient unvegan I listened. I can safely say the recommendation was not a mistake (although I still long to know what that burger might have tasted like). The fried chicken was definitely geared more toward the Santa Monica crowd then, say, a Louisiana crowd as it consisted of thin-sliced chicken breast instead of something dark and/or bony. Nonetheless, it was super juicy and the batter was flavorful, if not quite at my preferred level of crispiness.

We finished things off with the Bananageddon, which seems an appropriate name to end all things forever. This monster was a combination of bananas, pastry cream (which is apparently a thing), pecan blondie crumbles, butter pecan ice cream, candied pecans, whipped cream, caramel and white chocolate. It was all at once overwhelming and manageable. And by manageable I mean this would have been enough for an entire meal, but alas i had already basically eaten my weight in food.

I can safely say that I didn’t leave Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern hungry, but more importantly I left fulfilled. Overall, the menu vibe is like a Southern Upscale bar and it suited me just perfectly. Hopefully it will suit Santa Monica just as well.

There is a saying attributed to Jonathan Gold that goes something like “‘A’ is for ‘American’ Chinese food, ‘B’ is for ‘Better’ Chinese food and ‘C’ is for ‘Chinese’ Chinese food.” The letters, of course, are in reference to the health code and if you’ve ever been to China, you would know this to be true. Thus, when I heard great things about the dumplings at Emperor Noodles in San Gabriel and then found out it had a “B” rating, I got pretty excited to try it out.

Due to my familiarity with many things Chinese, I was put mostly in charge of the ordering and even used a bit of Mandarin to impress my waiter. It’s amazing how bad white Americans are with languages that even the correct pronunciation of Kung Pao Chicken (gong bao jidin) blows real Mandarin speakers away. So, I ordered two sets of shengjianbao (pan-fried soup dumpling) because I knew one per person would not be enough. It turned out I was right, as these were by far the biggest hit of the meal, beginning with the perfect dough, moving on to the delicious pork and finishing with the delightfully crispy sesame seed-laden bottom.

We probably could have just ordered a few more sets of those and been happy, but instead we added on some Salt and Pepper Shrimp, Kung Pao Chicken, Stir-Fried Rice Cakes and Duck Noodle Soup. It was quite the range of food and every bite was delicious. The in-laws weren’t exactly excited about peeling their own shrimp, but were pretty happy with the taste they found inside. Oh, and pepper in this case didn’t mean the seasoning, it meant the vegetable in case you’re wondering.

The kung pao chicken was the perfect throwback to my time in China, where I ate this stuff pretty often. It was just the right amount of oily, peanutty and spicy. And if you wanted it to be extra spicy all you had to do was take down a few of the peppers littered around the plate. They weren’t hard to find.

As for the rice cakes, they were probably my least favorite dish of the meal and also some of the lesser rice cakes I’ve eaten. The cakes themselves were fine, but the sauce was definitely lacking in flavor and there was very little meat to be found. In fact, nearly every time I thought I found a juicy morsel, it turned out to be cabbage with enough sauce on it to make it look like meat.

The duck soup was a nice way to finish out the meal (never mind that the rice cakes came out last, I saved the soup to finish things off). I say it was a good way to finish because it had great, yet subtle flavor, allowing me to wash everything else down while still enjoying some taste. It didn’t hurt that the noodles were also very enjoyable and the duck and bamboo shoots were pretty snazzy.

So, yeah, it was a solid outing. Not every dish was tops, but the overall experience felt ripped right out of my time living in Shanghai and frankly even real Shanghai would have trouble competing with this shengjianbao.

After hearing so much about seafood in Boston, we finally got the chance to test it out with a visit to Legal Sea Foods. We were told it was a “very Boston” thing to do, and that was really all we had to hear.

When we arrived and saw that there are Legal Sea Foods restaurants located all over the East Coast, we a were a little disappointed. I guess it wasn’t simply a Boston thing. Still, I could not penalize the restaurant for someone else leading me on.

After looking at the menu for a while, I decided to start off with the Lobster Quesadilla appetizer and finish off with the Double Stuffed Baked Shrimp, including a side of mashed potatoes. Since I was splitting the appetizer with my girlfriend, I didn’t ask them to hold the greens or pico de gallo. At $25 for most entrees, I hoped Legal Sea Food could deliver me some good unvegan eats.

The lobster quesadilla came and looked mighty tasty. Luckily, they consisted of only lobster meat and cheese. Unfortunately, the lobster had a slight fishy taste. Being so close to the coast, you would think their seafood might be a bit more fresh, but apparently not. Nonetheless, with enough sauce, the fishy flavor kind of faded.

My entree looked quite daunting after polishing off the quesadilla. I didn’t quite expect the shrimp to be so huge and so filling. The crabmeat was delicious, and

the shrimp had a decent crunch without tasting too rubbery. Even the mashed potatoes tasted great. Unfortunately, I was so stuffed already that I felt like I could hardly make a dent in my entree.

In the end, the experience was a pretty positive one, but not perfect enough to merit the inflated price tags.

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.

When it did finally come, the shrimp was fried pretty well. It was certainly crispy enough to override the typical rubbery texture. The hardest part was figuring out how the meal was worth more than 20 bucks. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly was nothing stellar. And the fact that it took another half hour for our waitress to clear our plates and for us to pay our bill didn’t leave a very good taste in my mouth.