evelinag's Profile
21st Birthday Bash Ideas
also saw and had shots with Jason Segal. Heard he hung out there regularly.
21st Birthday Bash Ideas
had my birthday at Den of Hollywood on Sunset. Food was decently price and it was great for groups. Loved the place. Give it a try.
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The Den of Hollywood
8226 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90046
Best Dim Sum, Best Cupcake joint in LA
Best cupcakes in town: http://www.susiecakesla.com/
The Open Door: A Wonderland of Food (Monterey Park) [Review w/ Pictures]
Recently had a wonderful meal at The Open Door in Monterey Park. The Open Door is something that I wouldn't expect to find in the area and the prices are quite reasonable. Read on!
Review formatted with pictures: http://www.twohungrypandas.com/2009/09/open-door-to-wonderland-of-food.html
Text Review:
Chef Kouji Yamanashi's creations are what they serve in Alice's Wonderland, formally known as The Open Door. It's as if the food jumped into the rabbit hole (the Monterey Park plaza on Atlantic Blvd. and Garvey Ave.) and went through the whimsical loops (Chef Yamanashi's head) before hitting our dining table. Tater tots--BAM--tossed in truffle oil. Sweet potato fries--BAM--is served with a dash of curry. Fried rice BAMed with butter. It's all twisted and wicked, but in a deliciously satisfying way.
Lychee Cocktail (Happy Hour Special: $10 for a quart/~4 servings) - The lychee cocktail is dangerous. It's like when Alice first enters the Wonderland, and she is met with a bottle that says DRINK ME. Naively, she drinks it and she shrinks into a tiny thing. So sweet with the lychee syrup, we easily gulp down the sake cocktail. Let's just say, our impairment shrunk.
Truffle Tater Tots [$3.75 (Happy Hour Price)] Comfort food with a sophisticated twist: Tater tots doesn't exactly scream fine or even semi-casual dining, but the white truffle sauce dares you to criticize its place on the menu.
Imo-Fried Sweet Potato Fries with Curry Aioli [$3.75 (Happy Hour Price) - Again, another comfort food that's been given a special element, though we wished for a stronger curry flavor in the aioli.
Yuzu Pepper Whitefish ($12) Our favorite appetizer of the dinner, the whitefish is soft and tasty with the ponzu olive oil.
Fried Rice ($4) On the menu, its simply labeled fried rice, but the essence of The Open Door is that nothing's ever that simple. The twist in this oldie is the butter used to stir-fry the dish. We credit it as different, but Evelina couldn't eat this buttery dish because of her lactose intolerance and since it was nothing special to Wes, this was the only dish that had leftovers.
The rice in the Crispy Rice Tuna ($7.50) is really firm, but crispy. A little spice is added on top of the fish that tops each piece. We highly recommended this crunchy dish.
Yellowtail with Crispy Onions Roll ($7) This handroll was the least "special" dish we had that night. Tasted like any other handroll we've had.
Salmon Sashimi with Wasabi Sour Cream $10 The wasabi sour cream gives a nice tang in the dish while the cucumbers offer a refreshing balance to the sweet and salty roe that pops in your mouth.
Braised Meat and Potatoes $11.50 The beef short Ribs is glazed with a deim soy sauce, which enhanced the beef flavor. The beef is so tender that it falls off the bone. The waitress informed us that this is the most popular dish on the main menu. Complimented with a side of potatoes, this dish is at the top of our list.
The Beef Carpaccio had beef tenderloin in a pool of balsamic vineger and oil. Tomatoes and onions gave the dish a kick and some color.
The Almond Pudding ($4) is a creamy delight topped with lychee syrup. The jello is very sweet and silky.
With its ever-changing Happy Hour menu, there's always something new and unique to try at The Open Door, a Japanese Izakaya where food is served tapas-styled and alcoholic drinks are a-plenty . Don't expect your mom's typical cooking here. Heavy use of truffle butter, unique mixes of unsuspecting flavors, and those killer lychee drinks can make the unknowing patron feel like the Alice in Wonderland.
Note: The Open Door only opens for dinner from 5-10 pm. Happy Hour is from 5-7 pm.
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The Open Door
122 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754
Soleil: How Many Mussels Do You Have in Your Stomach? [Review w/ Pictures]
All the mussels are prepared the same way or else we would have probably not gotten sick of it that quickly.
Soleil: How Many Mussels Do You Have in Your Stomach? [Review w/ Pictures]
The mussels are huge, but obviously frozen. Most mussels are received frozen, so if you don't mind that then it's at best an alright dish. Nothing to go ga ga over.
Macaroni and Cheese Battle: Nook Vs. Baby Blues BBQ
The mac and cheese at Baby Blue's isn't anything to rave about. I much prefer the super rich mac and cheese at Pete's Cafe, though I can only have a few bites because I'm lactose intolerant.
Either way, there are PLENTY of places with better mac n cheese than BB Blues.
Bleecker St restaurant w/back patio and WATERFALL?!?!?
Is it a sushi or Japanese fusion restaurant? I vaguely remember passing it. Looked too hyped on the outside to be any good.
Mr. Pizza Factory [Review + Pics]
Full Review with Pictures at http://www.twohungrypandas.com/2009/06/mr-pizza-factory.html
Mr. Pizza Factory, located on Wilshire Blvd. in Koreatown, serves the Koreans’ take on pizza. The menu offers bulgogi pizza, potato pizza, and even pizza with crab meat. If pizza isn’t your thing, they also have pasta and rice dishes. We’ve been to Mr. Pizza a few times and what keeps us coming back is the sweet potato crusted pizza.
When we arrived to Mr. Pizza, there was a small wait for our table. Ten minutes later, we were seated.
After we ordered, they brought over some bread sticks and pickles for us to nibble on. We’re not a fan of pickles, so we didn’t really touch it. We also did not see how it went with the bread.
For our appetizer, we ordered the Soup of the Day: Vegetable and Calamari Soup. We had good service, but when the waitress brought over the soup, we seriously thought she was going to spill it on the table because she couldn’t hold it steady. Perhaps it would’ve been better if it spilled because the soup was disappointing. It tasted like canned soup, it was bland, and the calamari tasted over cook and old. The soup was not a good way to start our dinner.
What made up for a disappointing appetizer was our main course: the Potato Gold with the Premium Crust: Sweet Potato Crust. We enjoyed the unique pizza toppings, which included potato, bacon, mushrooms, onions, corn, cheddar cheese, nacho chips, and a drizzle of sour cream. Sounds crazy, but everything went well together. The pizza bread, which is handed kneaded (see picture above), was oily, though. This caused the bread to not be toasty.
Our favorite part was the sweet potato crust. It is encased in baked cheese that added a slight crunch. The sweet potato is salty, but sweet. After consuming the salty toppings of the pizza, the taste of the sweet potato brings a happy ending.
We don’t think there is any other place where you can get such unique toppings. Mr. Pizza Factory offers that specialty in their pizzas. We recommend skipping the appetizers, though and going for a few different pizzas.
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Mr Pizza Factory
3881 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010
Review: Mr. Chow [Tribeca]
Full Review with Pictures:
http://www.twohungrypandas.com/2009/07/mr-chow-manhattan-ny.html
My last week in New York is conveniently and luckily NYC Restaurant Week. Since 1992, this event has celebrated fine dining at the city's top restaurants. This year, more than 250 restaurants are offering prix-fixe three course meals at lunch and dinner for $24.07 and $35, respectively.
To begin my crash course in NYC fine dining, I went to the Tribeca location of the famous Mr. Chow. The restaurant offers Beijing-style Chinese in a very hip, modern and trendy-looking atmosphere. The smell of roses and jasmine welcomed my two friends and me when we entered the restaurant. We were greeted and taken care of by five different people: the matrie-d, our server, and three busboys. It was a little annoying at first because they just kept refilling our water after every sip. We couldn’t begin a conversation. After we finished our bottled water, they left us alone. I appreciate the attentive service, but it was overwhelming.
The semi prix-fixe dinner at Mr. Chow had some great choices and well-known dishes, such as the squab and lettuce and the lobster and Mr. Chow noodles, which are all served family style. Each of us was given the choice of one dish per course (appetizer and entrée). In addition, the meal came with Vegetarian Fried rice with Dried Scallops (yea, not really vegetarian) and Mixed Vegetables.
We started off with the Squab with Lettuce, which included minced squab, diced cucumbers, and pieces of batter. It also came with a hoisen sauce. The flavors of the dish were there, but the minced squab was dry; it tasted like the dry white meat of chicken. The squab with lettuce was a solid dish, but nothing impressive.
The Mixed Steam Dumplings had a thick and sticky outer skin and a dominant mushroom taste. I thought it needed a dipping sauce because by itself, it just tasted like I was eating diced mushroom. It needed more flavors.
The style of the Chicken Curry Puffs was very unique and unexpected. The outside is flaky and very-pastry liked. I would have liked for the curry flavor to stand out more, but overall, it was my favorite appetizer.
Our second round of dishes began with the Mr. Chow noodles and fresh lobster with ginger sauce. The Mr. Chow noodles are lo mein noodles that are handmade in-house. During dinner, one of the workers came out to demonstrate how it’s made. The lobster was delicious, but the dish had a strong MSG taste. I was really thirsty after I finished this dish!
The Steamed Sea Bass Filet was really disappointing. Unlike the sea bass I’ve had at other Chinese restaurants or Chaya, these filets were dry. The sweeten soy sauce that went with the dish was really oily.
Finally, the Ma Mignon came out. Slices of filet mignon were a bit dry, but the sauce that was drizzled over the steak helped with that. The flavors of the Ma Mignon weren’t unique; I’ve had the same flavored sauce at other places. The Ma Mignon was my least favorite dish of the night.
Mr. Chow might be hip and happening, but that’s all the credit I’m going to give it. With drinks and the $35 prix-fixe meal, I spent $87 on my meal that night. Imagine if I paid the original price for the meal! I didn’t pay for great food; I paid for an experience at a “celebrity” restaurant. Because it is considered a top-notch restaurant, I expected better ingredients and more flavorful dishes; it should have been ten-times better than the seafood restaurants in Monterey Park. Instead, at the end of the meal, I felt like I could have ordered all the same dishes at let’s say, Capital Seafood. I would've gotten double the portions and paid half the price. Wesley and I have always tried to avoid the hyped up places, and after attending Mr. Chow, I’m going to stick to that rule.
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Bistro VG
70 W. Crossville Rd., Roswell, GA 30075
Figs [Review and Pictures]- Beacon Hill
Formatted with photos: http://www.twohungrypandas.com/2009/06/figs.html
Text Review:
Hi everyone! Evelina here, reporting from beautiful Boston, Massachusetts. I'll be in Boston this week and then off to New York till July, so be on the lookout for some East coast restaurant reviews. Wesley will keep it going on the West coast.
I landed in Boston just in time for dinner. Lena and her boyfriend, who are my hosts this week, took me to Figs, a cozy pizza restaurant on Beacon Hill.
Figs offers thin crust pizzas, the best type of crust in my opinion and an array of topping combinations. We ordered four different types of pizzas in two orders (half and half). On the left is the Spicy Chicken Sausage ($17.00), which includes herbed ricotta, balsamic onions, and a light tomato sauce. The other half is the Red Sox ($18.00), which includes caramelized onions, roasted red peepers, sweet sausage, mozzarella, tomato sauce and mustard aioli.
We also had the Spicy Shrimp ($18.75) (left), which wasn't all that spicy. I loved the addition of the carmalized leeks, which added a unique taste to the gulf shrimp and tomato sauce. On the right is my favorite pizza of the four, the Fig and Prosciutto ($18.50). The fig and balsamic jam was a sweet and tasty contrast to the salty prosciutto.
I really enjoyed the pizza at Figs. The thin-crust pizza was crispy and delicious without being greasy and the toppings were unique. Also, the prices above are the full cost of a pizza, so we paid half the price for half the respective pizza. My first impression of a Boston area restaurant is that there is definitely good food.
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Figs
42 Charles St, Boston, MA 02114
Ultimate Los Angeles Restaurants 2008: The Poll Results [LONG]
some lobster from Hungry Cat sounds great right now. Thanks for posting this!
Chaya Brasserie [Review + Pictures] - Beverly Hills
Wow, what a small world. I definitely agree it is a solid restaurant with all around good appetizers, entrees, and desserts. You have to try the desserts next time! The sushi I've had there before tasted fresh and were well-prepared. Next time I go, I am definitely sticking to seafood.
Chaya Brasserie [Review + Pictures] - Beverly Hills
A little explanation:
The last four times I've been to Chaya, I have ordered fish, so I decided to order a steak because my other half wanted fish. I wanted to try something new.
