The Hyperion sounds like sci-fi movie from the nineties that spawned a moderately successful TV series. Well, that or a moderately successful mythology-based TV series that spawned a terrible movie. It turns out that it is neither, and instead a gastropub in Silverlake. Plus, its full name is Hyperion Public. In any case, it might actually be a book series. But I digress, this is about the Hyperion Public’s food.

And, like any gastropub worth its salt, Hyperion Public was known to have a good burger. I opted for the Cheeseburger, which was topped with cheddar, jack, romaine, tomato and a spicy Russian dressing. I had no desire for the romaine or tomato, and was told the dressing was pretty packed with pickles. Therefore, I opted out of all of those and opted to get bacon as an add-on topping. I also got some aioli for the burger to make up for the lack of dressing and fries on the side.

When it came out, it certainly looked the part – the cheese was melty, the bun was shiny and the bacon was ever-present. But when I bit in, I was met with a burger that was drier and tougher than a burger should ever be, but especially in a place like this. I hoped it was just the first bite, but as I continued eating, it became harder and harder to get the food down without washing it down with my drink. Was the cheese good? Of course. Was the bacon delicious? Most definitely. But damn, if you can’t get that patty right you’re toast.

And thus, sci-fi, mythology or just plane gastropub, Hyperion Public let me down. Could it have been an off night? Of course. Could I keep asking myself questions? All day long. But I won’t. I’ll simply say that there are plenty of burgers out there in LA that consistently churn out juicy, delicious ground beef and if you’re looking for that Hyperion Public might not be a place for you.

When you need to get away from it all (say from a 3 month old child and the busy streets of LA), Cliff’s Edge in Silverlake is actually a pretty good way to do it. You see, just off of busy Sunset Blvd, Cliff’s Edge feels like it might as well be Middle Earth. There’s a real tree growing right in the middle of the place and the whole place really does feel like an earthly Lothlorien. There was no Lembas bread to eat, but there was plenty to be found.

For starters, we had their Roasted Peach, which was literally a roasted peach, but much more. Like burratta, fennel honey, huckleberry and dandelion greens. I’m not sure about those greens, but everything else combined to make quite the tasty appetizer. I especially liked the combination of berry and cheese, which is always a win.

My main course was the Pork Chop, which I chose for little reason other than the fact that it was free of veggies. There were shelling beans, some peaches, some piquillo sofrito, calabrian chiles and smoked pork jus to go with the chop, but the chop really took center stage. For one, it was huge. For two, it dwarfed everything in its incredible taste. Typically pork just tastes like a better version of chicken, but this tasted like steak. Super lean steak, but steak nonetheless and that is pretty much the best compliment you can give to anything or anyone.

Just as we started the meal, we finished it with cheese. Who needs stupid sweet desserts? We let the chef choose, and while I cannot and should not be expected to remember the three cheeses we received (one was creamy, another yellow-y and the last blue-y, they were each distinct and delightful. Also delightful was the strawberry puree they were served with that added a tart punch to the cheese.

Cliff’s Edge was a great escape, and most importantly they know how to make pork chops taste like steak. Steak!

Apparently in the two years that I went missing from LA, two things that had not been popular before got, well, popular. One is avocado toast, so whatever. The other is lobster rolls, which is somewhat strange considering lobster comes from the other coast, yet not because people like pricey stuff out here. One of these lobster roll spots is Knuckle and Claw in Silverlake.

Because just lobster in a roll is not enough for me, I ordered the most expensive grilled cheese I’ve ever seen in my life. Here it was called the Knuckle Sandwich, and was made with cheddar, 1/4 pound of Maine lobster and sourdough bread. My wife got the full lobster roll, which is that other thing in the picture and also the reason for that disgusting pickle.

Alas, my Knuckle Sandwich was damn good. The lobster really was fresh, which is incredibly difficult to do considering it is more than 3,000 miles to Maine. The cheddar was necessary, because as good as lobster is, it always needs to be covered in some sort of dairy product to bring out its best. At $20, it was something I was very happy to have eaten, but also a luxury I can wait to eat again until I make it to Maine, where I hear they are practically giving away lobsta.

My buddy, DCo, is a bit of a pizza snob. It works out well for me, because he likes to point me in the direction of awesome new and old pizza places. Recently, he told me about a new place called Lago D’Argento over in Silverlake. It took a bit of convincing, but finally I had a real reason to go to that part of town and decided to make a run for pizza while there. I invited another buddy, Jeff, to join and we checked the place out.

I was happy to find a good few pizza options on the menu that weren’t just the basics. One of these was called Good Morning and was topped with Serrano ham, fried egg, Vermont cheddar and some pesto and Jeff and I decided to split that. But we weren’t done there – we also went with their version of a meat lover’s called the Carnivore. This pie had salami, fennel sausage, crispy bacon and Wisconsin mozzarella. If nothing else, this place knew the states to get cheese from.

Before going any further, I should note that upon my first bite of pizza at Lago D’Argento, it was clear that this was not the kind of place for pizza snobs. If you’re looking for classic Italian pizza, do yourself a favor and don’t be fooled by the Italian name of the place. If, on the other hand, you are a huge fan of American-style pizza, this place might just be for you and you should keep reading on.

Basically, when you break it down, the dough is nothing special. Think Dominos pizza, but fancied up a bit. Sure, I know that doesn’t sound very good, but also realize that the ingredients are many levels above “fast food” pizza. While I love the fact that I’m seeing fried eggs all over the place, this was the first time I saw it on a pizza and they kept it nice and juicy. Good Morning could have used some more sauce to add flavor and actually impress me, but it was still an interesting pizza that I was glad to have eaten.

The Carnivore was a definite step up on that. Damn, meat is just so good. Each of the meats worked in delicious harmony with each other, but it just felt unfortunate that they weren’t on an equally good dough conduit.

So here’s the deal…when it all adds up, Lago D’Argento gets the job done. It’s a level up from regular delivery, but fails to be much of a worthwhile enterprise. And again, if you’re a pizza snob, you really shouldn’t have even read this far into this review.

Over in the land of Silver Lake on LA’s east side, my sister, girlfriend and family friend converged upon a restaurant called Home. The place looked nothing like my home and the menu items barely had some items I’ve ever seen at home, so I assumed the name was derived from some sort of Silver Lake hipster irony. We sat outside on a relatively cold Saturday for LA and I watched as the workers fumbled helplessly to try to keep the heat lamps lit while the women tried desperately to keep warm. It was unintentionally entertaining, to say the least, and I hoped the food would at least be half as good as said entertainment.

Looking at their specials, one thing stood out to all of us: red velvet pancakes. But it would have been silly for all of us to order our own set, so we decided to order them as a bit of a brunch appetizer. A brunchetizer, if you will. These things came out covered in a thick cream sauce almost like condensed milk, but not as sweet or sticky. Stacked three pancakes high, they were light and fluffy and everything you could want from a normal pancake, but with the added benefit of being made of red velvety goodness.

After eating my fill of the pancakes, I moved on to my main course (because only fools don’t eat multi-course brunches). I had ordered the “World Famous” Sloppy Joe even though the waiter had assured me it wasn’t truly world famous. Instead, he said it was just famous locally. He was quite the literal man, but despite being stripped of its title, I was still excited for the mildly famous sloppy joe. It had come with a choice of many sides, and I had gone with the waffle fries.

World famous, or not, I found Home’s sloppy joe to be damn good. Bursting with flavor, meat and slop, it reminded me of the Manwich of my youth rather than a depressing cafeteria food. The ground beef was tender and chunky, and without fail every time I took a bite an equal amount of slop went into my mouth and onto the plate. The insides had been padded with a soft, yet hearty bun, which kept the sloppy joe intact and refused to get soggy. Unfortunately, the rare bit of onion slipped into the joe, which was the only source of disappointment. These rare bits provided no flavor and were wholly unnecessary, but did not detract from the overall enjoyment of this great sandwich.

And then there were the fries. Honestly, I don’t understand why more places don’t serve waffle fries. After eating them at Home, I was reminded that waffle fries are just incredible. I’m hesitant to say they are the best fries in the world, but an average waffle fry kicks the ass off of a really good skinny fry any day. Even better, these waffle fries were the perfect conduit with which to scoop up the scraps that my sloppy joe left behind.

While not exactly reminiscent of my home, Home in Silver Lake certainly delivered. From pancakes to sloppy joes to waffle fries, everything I ate surprised me with flavor. Aside from my issues with onions and a feeling that they were short at least one waitstaff (presumably the one who knew how to turn on the heaters), the food from Home found a very welcoming home in my belly.

As an unvegan I always like to be on the forefront of any sausage happenings around LA. Fortunately I have my friend DCo1 to keep in the know and he informed me of some new sausage popping up in Silver Lake called Berlin Currywurst. I am not the most knowledgeable about food from Germany, but I figured I am a fan of curry and a fan of bratwurst, so a place that combined the two sounded great in my book.

We arrived and found that the place was small. Like crazy small. Hardly any seats on the inside and a couple tables outside. The interior provides a nice view of the kitchen, which is probably larger than the seating area, but as currywurst is supposedly like a German fast food, it seemed that there would be high turnover in the place. The menu is quite simple, consisting of unpronounceable sausages ($5.89 each) such as Geflugelbratwurst (all natural chicken) and Scharfe Kasewurst (all natural beef with jalapeno and cheese). I ended up choosing the somewhat simple to pronounce Paprikawurst (all natural pork with paprika and garlic). Then, because one sausage is never enough for me, we split the Geflugelbratwurst and their Fritten (German-speak for fries) for $3.49. The also offer a variety of heat levels for those who like their sausage spicy. Level 1 is Berlin Calling, Level 2 is Bear-Bender, Level 3 is Kiezgrosse and Level 4 is called Break the Wall. Rumor has it there is a secret Level 5 called Auschwitz. Too soon? Sorry, I know. Anyway, I went with Level 3 on my Paprikawurst.

As for drinks, we got nothing. Did I mention they don’t have ice water? This is better than actually having ice water and making it taste like cucumber (achem Wurstkuche), but I didn’t feel the need to drop 89 cents on a bottle of water.

In the currywurst tradition, these sausages are served uncased (initially covered by companies like DCW Casing) sliced up and covered in German curry. Berlin Currywurst also throws in a couple of slices of German Farmers Bread to accompany the currywurst. It wasn’t too long before our sausages were ready. First, I dug into the Paprikawurst. The sliced up sausages reminded me of my youth, when I used to eat sliced up hot dogs, but this was a whole new level. Unlike all other curries I’ve ever eaten, this sauce was primarily ketchup based. I wasn’t sure what to expect for German curry, but this wasn’t quite it. Nonetheless, as someone who loves ketchup I was one happy man. In fact, as I love both ketchup and curry, this was one amazing sauce. The only problem was that it was just spicy enough to make me want some water. Unfortunately I was experiencing a self-imposed drought and had to suffer through this. As for the sausage itself, I could taste a bit of the paprika and garlic, but most of the flavor had been overtaken by the curry. It did have a nice snap, though.

As for the Geflugelbratwurst, this was one mighty tasty sausage. Although it was made with jalapeno, it wasn’t nearly as spicy as my Paprikawurst with Kiezgrosse. I wouldn’t have minded kicking up the spice a notch, but the sausage itself tasted better to me. I loved the cheese element inside and while it had the same nice snap as my other sausage, it just generally had some better flavor.

The bread, although nothing special on its own, seemed to serve as a nice accompaniment to the sausages. Being so plain, it really left the flavor to the curry and simply acted to soak up flavor and serve as a welcome buffer from all the ketchuppy flavor. The fries also made a nice companion to the meal and tasted even better when dipped in the curry. I would have liked them a bit more crisp, but that is a minor complaint for some pretty good Fritten.

Berlin Currywurst definitely left me satisfied. My buddy remarked that the meal didn’t blow him away and I can certainly agree with that. The menu is simple and well-executed, but I don’t think it is a meal that is meant to blow you away. It is simply a German fast food brought to LA and I’m guessing it does justice to the original. Plus, other than making the fries crispier, I’m not sure there is much room for improvement.

Although Restaurant Week has just concluded, I once again took the opportunity to try out a couple new places that I wouldn’t ordinarily visit. The first was Malo in Silverlake, which is a Mexican Cantina. Their menu wasn’t exactly exciting for me, but I still thought the place could surprise me. The reason the menu wasn’t exciting was because there was really only one good unvegan option for both the appetizers and entrees.

For the appetizer, it was their Salsa Flight. This flight carried some red salsa, verde, pico de gallo and some sort of creamy-ish salsa. When the flight came, I passed the pico de gallo off and went to work on the other salsas. Surprisingly, I found that the creamy salsa was the spiciest, but also had some great flavor. The verde and red were also pretty good, with the red having better flavor and the green having a better kick. Once I learned the subtleties of the salsas, I started combining the creamy one with the the other two to make a far superior salsa.

For the main course, my only real option was their Pollo Asada. It came with some vegetables that I didn’t order without so that other people could have them. This butterflied breast looked pretty good, but upon eating I discovered it was relatively flavorless. This was very disappointing, but would have been a lot more disappointing if I hadn’t ordered the flight of salsas. So rather than suffering through tasteless chicken, I started dipping it in the salsa to actually enjoy.

To finish off the meal, I actually had a tough time choosing which dessert to get. Finally, I ordered the Capirotada. This Mexican bread pudding was a delicious way to finish up the meal. The combination of orange, vanilla, raisins and whatever else they threw in there just ended the meal on a good note. I also tried out the other desserts, a tres leches cake and flan, and found those both to be tasty as well.

Unfortunately, good salsa and a good dessert isn’t enough to carry a meal. The meat of my meal (double entendre!) was quite disappointing and made the $26 prix fixe seem a bit pricey. I might consider going back to Malo for a burrito or taco some day, but I won’t be back for Restaurant Week unless they find some real entrees.

After a few days of burgers and wings, I decided I needed to have a meal kind of on the light side. To accomplish this, my buddy and I went to The Kitchen in Silverlake. The exterior of the place has a pretty cool mural and the interior has a nice vibe that is neither upscale, downscale or hipster. Basically, it’s the kind of place that should be in every neighborhood. At least by the looks. The menu was pretty simple and although their cheeseburger was tempting, I forced myself to order some chicken.

My eyes first went to their Pan Seared Chicken entree, but I was told this would take at least 20 minutes and I am no time millionaire. Instead, I ordered their Grilled Lemon Chicken Sandwich ($12). The menu said it came with provolone, apple honeywood smoke bacon (different from applewood?), lettuce and basil mayo on a La Brea Bakery baguette. Everything except the lettuce sounded great, so I ordered it without and chose their garlic mashed potatoes over fries for the side that came with my meal.

In far less than 20 minutes, the sandwich was in front of me, but this couldn’t possibly have been the sandwich I had ordered, as there was a sickeningly red tomato slice residing in each half of the sandwich. But upon closer inspection, I saw that the rest of the sandwich was all of the ingredients I had expected. Disappointed, I lifted the top off the sandwich, discarded the tomato and did my best to wipe away any reminder that a tomato had once resided in my sandwich.

With the dirty business finished, I finally started eating. The bread was quite delicious and the sandwich in general made me happy. The chicken was moist and the bacon was dry and crispy, which made the two a perfect pair. There was a little too much mayo for me, but otherwise there wasn’t much I would change. The mashed potatoes were a nice addition to the meal and although they definitely had garlic, it wasn’t overwhelming.

The Kitchen ended up being just the place I needed for dinner that night. It was a light, but tasty meal and the kind of place I would definitely return next time I’m in that kind of mood. Now, if only they would list tomatoes on their menu so I can avoid a future encounter of the vegetable kind.

For a while now, I have been a devout member of Blackboard Eats, an email list that sends out some cool deals for restaurants like 30% off, a free dessert, a free bottle of wine, etc. One deal they sent out recently, though, caught my eye. It was 30% off for a place called Gobi Mongolian BBQ in Silver Lake. I’ve always loved me some Mongolian BBQ because you get to decide everything you want in your food, so if you don’t want any vegetables like a smart little unvegan, you don;t have to pick up any. Plus, they are all-you-can-eat; a big bonus for this guy. Or are they?

When I arrived at the place, I finally took a look at my discount printout and saw that this was no buffet-style BBQ. I was shocked, appalled and mostly disappointed. I was under the impression that all of these Mongolian BBQs were all-you-can-eat, but LA’s East Side had ruined this for me. I took it in stride, though. Perhaps the food would be that good and at least I was only paying 2/3 of the full price. I walked up to the counter full of food choices and took the plunge.

The first thing I loaded up on was meat. I filled the bowl all the way to the brim with their rib-eye, then smooshed it down to make room for more rib-eye and a little bit of chicken. Since the meat was frozen and in rolls, I knew it would cook down real small. I walked briskly past the vegetables and made a brief stop at the water chestnuts before moving on to their sauces. I dropped a few ladles of their green curry into my bowl, then a ladle of their spicy chili sauce, Asian BBQ sauce and their Asian pesto. Lastly I dolloped out some of their garlic and ginger, before loading a half-ton of noodles onto my bowl. The ingredients for my unvegan stir-fry could hardly be contained within my bowl and I knew that this was going to be a good night for food.

I handed the cook my bowl and he tossed my food onto the mega-griddle. I watched as the meat cooked down and my meal became a beautiful brown stir-fry of perfection. When all was done cooking, I was handed one pretty awesome meal. I poured a few sesame seeds on it for effect, then brought it back to the table for ingestion. I dug in and it was just as I had hoped…meaty, spicy and fantastic. One of my biggest fears for a meal like this was that I had only one shot to get the perfect ingredients. At most Mongolian BBQs, if you muck up a dish, you can always try again, so I was happy that my fears hadn’t come true. Even if I had a second shot at this, I’m not sure I could have come up with a better meal.

Midway through my dish, though, I spotted something that didn’t belong. It was orange and carrot-like. Oh no, a carrot! How could this be? It must have slipped into my food from someone else’s on the griddle. For shame, Gobi! You are tasked with so little as far as cooking goes and you couldn’t keep my food segregated? Terrible, but at least the carrot was found before it had entered my mouth or else there would have been hell to pay.

Before I finished my meal, I was full and ready to take half of it home. I suppose my plan to load up on meat succeeded and I had no need for another round, although it would have been nice to not have to load up on the first attempt and give myself the option of trying out new things. Oh well, if I want Mongolian BBQ like that, I will have to look elsewhere.

Though LA still doesn’t have it’s own style of pizza, I keep finding more and more places that attempt to create a sort of New York style pizza. My buddy recently brought me to Tomato Pie Pizza Joint in Silver Lake. At first I was frightened by any restaurant that would use the name of a vegetable in their name. Would every pizza be loaded with tomatoes? Would this actually be a pizza place or just a place that baked pies made with tomatoes? Did my friend even know who he was eating with? What’s the meaning of life? All these questions and more flooded my brain, but when I walked into the joint and the kind of pizza they had to offer, my questions and most of my fears washed away.

Tomato Pie just sells good old-fashioned pizza by the slice. You can order whole pizzas, but I decided to try out a couple different slices. The first one that I had to get was pepperoni and then I got a little bit crazy. I found they had a buffalo chicken pizza that looked 90% awesome. I say 90% because rather than spreading the bleu cheese around each slice, each one had a dollop of the dressing just chilling in the middle of the slice. I hoped it wouldn’t have an adverse affect on my slice and ordered two slices and a drink for a total of six bucks.

They tossed my slices in the over for a few minutes and then they were ready for eating. I started with the pepperoni, which tasted great. The ‘ronis were well-distributed on the pizza and the mix of cheese, sauce and crust tasted great. Then I move onto the buffalo chicken pizza. The dollop of bleu cheese still bothered me and I wondered if I was supposed to spread it around myself. I chose not to and ate it as it was. Just like the pepperoni, the buffalo chicken was delicious. They put the perfect amount of chicken and buffalo sauce on it so it didn’t too much like buffalo wings or too much like pizza. Somehow they found the perfect medium of these two great foods. Except for that bleu cheese. When I reached that dollop in the middle and ate it, it made me realize how much better the pizza would have been if that dressing was spread all over or came on the side for dipping. As it was, any dipping would have had to bend the laws of physics.

So for a good 90% of my dinner, I was one happy man. All I needed was a little tweak to the buffalo chicken and this joint would have gone from a great pizza place to an awesome one.