CHICK-FIL-A

I heart Chick-Fil-A!

I like to kill 3 birds with one stone when I'm visiting my cos in Irvine--it's good to be environmental. Since I have been eyeing Chick-Fil-A ever since my visit to the Deep South, I might as well stop by at a Chick-Fil-A. OMG, it was a nightmare getting there!

Google's directions are SO WRONG. If you're heading south on the 605 freeway DO NOT take the Spring Street exit, unless you want to get lost and talk to strangers. Take the Carson exit (before the Spring exit) and look for the "In and Out" sign -Chick-Fil-A is right next to the burger joint. To make matters worse, their parking lot was a bloody nightmare around 6pm on a Saturday.

The first thing that I noticed was the cleanliness. I had to double check that I was in a fast food joint. Most fast food joints' condiments/napkins area only has ketchup, mustard and napkins. Umm...Chick-Fil-A has 2 flavors of jams, 4 different coffee creams, hot sauce, mayo, ketchup, mustard, and napkins (I'm sure I'm missing a few items). Wow! They sure are generous with the condiments.

I went for the original chicken sandwich the 4-piece chicken nuggets kid's meal. The total came out around $6. I was impressed with the meat quality -check it out:

It sure doesn't look like Micky D's mysterious meat nuggets.

Chick-Fil-A's nuggets are small though...so we won't feel guilty eating them? The waffle fries are great.

I should have order the grill chicken sandwich as the nuggets and the sandwich taste the same.

Nonetheless, they are both quite good, and I had to force myself to stop half way on the sandwich to save room for desserts. I had asked a customer if she prefer the ice cream or the milkshake. She didn't know as she's always been too full from stuffing her face with chicken and waffle fries. Be sure to make room for their ice cream. Chick-Fil-A uses the ingredients for the ice cream and milkshakes.

Ok, now I know why everyone is crazy for Chick-Fil-A! I think I'll make Chick-Fil-A a regular stop when I'm heading to Irvine.

p.s. In case you're wondering what the third bird is, it's laundry.

Address: 7681 Carson Blvd Long Beach, CA 90808
Phone#: (562) 425-4232
Rating: 5 out of 5

VERRAZANO

Pinks and I had lunch at Verrazano there last week and we were disappointed. The crust was alright but nothing to rave about. We shared slices of mushrooms, sausages and Pinks wanted his own slice of pepperonis, which was a good call because the pepperoni was the best out of the three.



They should have sautéed the mushrooms to add more flavor; I was so spoiled by Vito's. I don't know what was going on with their sausages...maybe we should have ordered a slice of basil, mozzarella and tomato? But then that would have cost us $4 ($2.50 slice of cheese + $0.50 per topping)?

If you must, Happy Hour is the way to go: Monday - Friday 4-6pm, Buy 1 pie, get 2nd 1/2 off, $5 off $25 order, 1 Free Vanilla Gelato with any pie. I think this offer is dine-in or take-out only...good for office parties?

Address: 612 N La Brea Ave Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone#: (323) 933-1744
Rating: 2 out of 5

BERRI'S PIZZA CAFE

My friend and I came here for lunch last week, and we weren't expecting Berri's Pizza Cafe to be completely empty...needless to say, we had great service. The complimentary garlic bread rolls with basil pesto dipping sauce were addicting. The Caesar salad was good. Thanks to Heather for recommending the goat cheese and portobello pizza! It was heaven!


The crust was great--here's a close up shot:
We got the 10" (4 slices) for $14 (I think...). My friend wished the pizza came with tomato sauce. I don't have a preference; I just want it to be good.

I'm definitely coming back here again (most likely for lunch...) and I will be sure to leave room for dessert.

P.S. I am told that their service is a different story in the evening...

Address: 8410 W 3rd St Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone#: (323) 852-0642
Rating: 4.5 out of 5




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PINCHES TACOS

Mole Cow! I finally met a Chicken Mole I like!

Pinches Tacos is a popular late night joint on the Sunset Strip owned by the Anaya brothers, who also own the Original Cha Cha Cha Restaurants. Since I tend to avoid the Strip at night, I figured it best to go there for lunch. My colleague, Pinks and I trekked up the hill to Pinches last week for our own Tacos Festival. If you're lucky, you will score on parking in their tiny lot. As usual, I went crazy and ordered a bunch of tacos for us to munch on....


Carne Asada Soft Taco: I was disappointed with Pinches' carne asada as it was on the dry side. Pinks thought it was fine, but then again, he's not a picky eater.

Fish & Carne Asada Soft Tacos

Fish Soft Taco: The fish taco was ok, not bad, yet nothing to rave about like Sky Gourmet's tilapia and mahi's soft tacos.



The Potato & Manchego Cheese & Chicken Flautas: The lady who took our order said that those two are the most popular flautas. I love the potato & manchego cheese flautas -so creamy and all the stuff you shouldn't eat. Pinks prefer the chicken, but that's because he's crazy for chicken.

Al Pastor & Adobada Soft Tacos
Al Pastor Soft TacosLThe Al Pastor tasted better than the Adobada.


Pollo Mole: Before Pinches, I had Pollo Mole twice and I hated it! Pinks wanted Pinches' Pollo Mole. I digressed. WOW! SO GOOD!

Salsa and Guacamole: The guacamole needed more lime and salt. Chips are like Sky's Gourmet Tacos.

Pinks wanted me to note that he was disappointed that Pinches didn't have roasted hot peppers.

They serve Fiesta's horchata -not the best, but not the worst. Will R still owes me his horchata recipe. I forgot what Pinks drank...

The damage was around $35. Service was great. I think our wait time for the food was 5 minutes -not the ridiculous 50 minutes at Sky's Gourmet Tacos.

Will be back for their Pollo Mole and Al Pastor!

Address: 8200 W Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90046
Phone#: (323) 650-0614
Rating: 4 out of 5

Viet Noodle Bar

Viet Noodle Bar is the Banana Republic, and its sister restaurant, Pho Café is the Gap.

I didn't realized that this joint opened back in 2007...well, I guess if they had a bigger sign I would have eaten here much sooner. I don't quite seem to have much luck with other Vietnamese restaurants besides Viet Noodle Bar and Pho Café. It's probably because they serve Northern Vietnamese food, translation= simple food. I don't care if the haters think it's not "authentic" Vietnamese; the odor isn't as pungent as other restaurants.

Viet Noodle Bar has two sides; one side has the grand communal table for people who don't mind eating with strangers and the other side has a bunch of 2 tops for people who are scared of other peeps.

Dee and I came here just before closing and had the #3 Bo Bia Chay - Fresh Veg/Tofu Spring rolls

and the #23 Bun Bo Xao Xa - Lemongrass Beef Noodles

We wondered what the missing #1 dish was...they should make #1 the Bun Cha Goi Thit Nuong (Beef Vermicelli Noodle) and there sandwiches were unavailable. The #3 was delicious! It was so good that we had to order another round. The #23 was very light. I wished it had more flavors; nonetheless, I would order it again. The noodles are not like Pho Café's Vermicelli Noodle as you can see from the photo, which is a little out of focus...

Oh, Dee had a Vietnamese coffee (strong), and I went for the Organic Mint Soy Milk - OMG, it smelled and tasted so good! I need to try their Cinnamon flavor, which was sold out.

I'll be back with a bottle of vino to try the White Fish sandwich with the Organic Cinnamon Soy Milk.

p.s. The books are just for décor. It's not a swap library.

Address: 3133 Glendale Blvd, LA CA 90036
Phone#:(323) 906-1575
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Baccali Cafe & Rotisserie

Cheap, Chinese Chow

Friend and I had the Huanin (sp?) Rotisserie Chicken

and the Braised E-Fu Noodles (sp?)

The chicken was delicious. It came with the Huanin rice and marinated vegetables. For the noodles, I was expecting "Clothed" noodles; "E-Fu" in Chinese = clothes. The noodles were soft and came with lots of mushroom - yum!

Portions are HUGE! I was glad that her friend showed to up to help us finish the 2 dishes. The total cost for food was $15! They do need a service button on the tables, because at times, it was tough hunting a server down.

The best part of Baccali Café & Rotisserie is that there are FREE RE-FILLS! I was, "What!?" I can get a free re-fill on my ice milk tea? I'm sold.

Uh, oh...I didn't notice the C-rating...wonder if it's still a "C"....

Address: 245 W Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801
Phone: (626) 293-3300
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CJ'S CAFE

CJ's burger sucks.

I realized that CJ's is a breakfast joint, but I had breakfast already and just couldn't do eggs again for lunch. I noticed that they served fresh squeeze juice, so I was really hopeful that the food would be fresh and tasty since they are highly praised. Boy was I disappointed when my sad cheeseburger w/ fries came.

It was hate at first sight. The meat is like the frozen burgers that come in a bulk of 10 at the grocery store, and it tasted like those meat that have been sitting in the freezer too long. I'm not a big fan of fries cut like CJ's, but they were ok.

Service was meh. I had to ask for mustard 3 times, and it took awhile for me to get my check. Oh, I noticed a waitress adjusting the pancakes on a plate with her hands. I don't care if she just washed her hand, she should wear gloves or use a utensil.

If you're dining with a friend, I suggest you sit outside because it gets really LOUD inside.

The breakfast food looks like standard diner food -nothing to get all excited unless you want grit, catfish -soul or Mexican breakfast food. If I want breakfast in that area, I'll go to Bloom Café.

Address: 5501 W Pico Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90019
Phone#: (323) 936-3216
Rating: 2 out of 5

Sky's Gourmet Tacos

My longest wait time for tacos...

Sky's Gourmet Tacos (SGT) had the opposite problem of The Foundry On Melrose--great food but terrible service. To clarify, the staffs weren't rude and the owner was very affable, but OMG, the wait time was r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s! Now granted I was here for a food event, but SGT knew that we were coming. To make it more upsetting the owner had arranged a special area for to eat where there were lights but no one told us…so we ate in pitched black night (ok, there were a few small candles around, but they didn’t’ helped).

That said Diana and I ordered @

7:40PM: We paid for our order at the counter.

8:20PM: We rec'd our chips, salsa and guacamole and (1) large Sorrell Lemonade. The chips, salsa and guacamole were delicious. Chips were thick. Salsa and Guac - fresh. The Sorrell Lemonade on the other hand was disgusting! It was so sweet! I poured 12 ounces of water to dilute the sweetness and still tasted gross. Lemonade was very sour as if the lemons were bad... We were told that dark rum goes well with the Sorrell lemonade... They don't have dark rum, so you'll have to try the drink at home or BYOR. I don't plan on trying that cocktail.


8:30PM (What!? 50 MINUTES LATER!? FOR TACOS!?): We rec'd our (8) tacos:

Order from best to shit (sorry, my camera’s battery died quickly…):

Steak Angus taco - EXCELLENT, worth the $5/taco

Tilapia taco - flavorful

Beef taco - Ground beef...but still tasty

Mahi taco - very light

Chicken taco -Good but Diana felt that it was too salty...I must have ate all the toppings with the taco to disguise the salty chicken?

Turkey taco - Ground turkey - not bad

Salmon taco -- Yuck! Do yourself a favor and don't order the salmon taco unless you like fishy salmon.

**Shrimp taco - I'm allergic to shrimp, but my friend confirmed that that their shrimp taco is delicious. The salmon taco was the only one that's inedible. Portions are bigger than those tacos trucks, and be sure to have lots of napkins -gets pretty messy. Our total was $40 some dollars, which to me is pricey...nonetheless, I will be back for the Steak Angus and Tilapia tacos.


Address: 5408 W Pico Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90019
Phone#: (323) 932-6253
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THE FOUNDRY

How should you rate a restaurant that serves utter crap food with phenomenal service? After much deliberation from a 4 to a 3 to a 2, I finally decided on a 3; I'm being generous. If it wasn't for the great service, I would have easily given them a 2 or a 1.5.

Despite the negative reviews, the Foundry was the last pricey Dine LA restaurant on my list. I wanted to try this restaurant last year--always finish my food goals. My two friends joined me on my mission. I heard that the Cripsy Salmon was awful, so I figured it made sense for 2 of us to order from the Dine LA menus and 1 off of the regular/lounge menus. We ate...


AMUSE BOUCHE :


Some kind of pastry with w/cheese


Lukewarm...would be better if it was served hot.


BREAD (gratis): They gave us (2) different breads.


APPETIZERS:


Salad of Roast Beets & Mache: I noticed that they had a beet salad--DING! We're getting that! It's impossible to mess up a Beet Salad. My 2nd fav. dish.
The Foundry Tots ooked like donut holes, which came with 2 dipping sauces - cheese fondue & violet mustard. The cheese fondue was the winning the sauce. It was very fluffy inside.
The Spicy Albacore Tartare was most disappointing-too fishy & mushy for me.


Crispy Pork Belly was the grossest.


I spitted it across the room, ok not really, but it exited out of mouth as fast as it entered. I didn't realize that Pork Belly was basically fat. You need a chainsaw to cut through the meat.



ENTREES:


Grilled Cheese w/Short Ribs: I can't believe this won the 2008 Grilled Cheese award?! WOW was it SALTY! My friend was funny & thought it was the cheese that made the sandwich salty, so she removed it, but soon realized that the short ribs are ruining the sandwich. Granted it supposedly had apricot-caper puree, but they should use a sweeter fruit to balance the saltiness -maybe green apples-oh, Asian pears would add a nice touch, no, with caramelized Asian pears!
Hangar Steak - Crispy Fingerlings, Mushrooms, Anchovy Butter: The steak was not memorable. The mushrooms were funky -maybe a little too "earthy?" The potato fingers were standard.
Chorizo Crusted Jidori Chicken: If for some reason you have the urge to try the Foundry for Dine LA week (month), get the Chicken. Don't go for the steak or the fish. Normally I would avoid ordering chicken because it's such a standard, boring item, but oddly Jidori Chicken was the winning dish. The chicken was juicy & it came with some "plantains" that tasted like stuffing; I love stuffing.

DESSERTS:


Spiced Doughnuts - Pineapple Saffron Sauce, Chocolate Hazelnut Sauce:We were almost going to go with 2 desserts, but thank goodness I decided to order the Spiced Doughnuts because the other 2 sucked.

Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding - Rum Raisin Ice Cream (I don't know which photo is best... both bad)


Ok, I'm not an expert on bread pudding, but it tasted like a cinnamon roll. I am told that good bread pudding is supposed to melt in my mouth. I needed to chew several times...had a weird after taste too... Meh.


Chocolate Coffee Banana Tart: The flavors did not gel. Meh.
COFFEE: The chef is starting his new coffee called, "Cafe Bravo," not to be confuse with the amazing kabob place. The coffee is strong and not bad, but I still prefer Intelligentsia Coffee.


It's too bad the food didn't match up to the stellar service. The hostess was nice. Our waiter was great, & I thought it was really cool how the chef introduced every entrance to each table -talk about outstanding hospitality! Even though the people are great, I am a foodie & this is not a cheap hobby, so if I'm dropping more than $50 on my meal (excluding drink) for subpar food, I will be sad.


I can check this place off my list!

Address: 7465 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA 90046
Phone#: (323) 651-0915
Rating: 3 out of 5

OB BEAR

I joined a Fried Chicken club where we dress up in chicken suits and eat fried chicken cuz we're masochist.

I never crave for fried chicken, but with all these Korean Fried Chicken places sprucing up, I figured it's about time I check 'em out. We started with OB Bear, supposedly the mother of Korean Fried Chicken, well at least it existed in LA before Bonchon & Kyochon (check with Tony C for K(orean)FC' s history...). It should really be OB Chicken, but yeah, OB Bear sounds cooler like a frat house. Think someone said that the name has something to do with the Korean = English translation....They should just get rid of OB cuz it just reminds me of tampons.

That said OB Bear is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that serves rocking fried chicken! We started with a pasta dish w/ squid.

I'm allergic to squid, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. OB's Spicy chicken wings looked delicious!

I'm a chicken and can't handle spicy food, so I went for the regular chicken wings.

Wow! SO GOOD! I guess it's all about double frying the chicken. We also ordered a small whole chicken.

The skin is tasty! The next best thing about OB Bear's chicken is that it's not overly greasy! The ghetto salad was the perfect side dish. The Korean pancake was delish! Tab came out to around $120 (4 platters of chicken wings, squid pasta, 1 small chicken, 1 Korean pancake, and 2 pitcher of beers); each paid around $13. Excellent service.

OB Bear would be a great place to watch sport games -great food and cheap beer, but they need to turn on the volume...

If you're coming from the west on 7th Steet, you will hit the free parking lot with the "OB" sign, which looks like a mechanic shop, before the restaurant. The "OB" signs don't match...

OB Bear is a must if you're hunting for Fried Chicken!

Address: 3002 W 7th St Los Angeles, CA 90005

Phone#: (213) 480-4910

Rating: 4 out of 5