Hello,

We're doing a father's day movie at the Santa Monica Promenade. We're looking for a good, lunch place for less than $20/hd. We'd like to be able to finish the meal within an hour or so. The restaurant does not need to be on the Promenade but close by given the time constraint. Atmosphere is not too important as long as it's not too loud. Child-friendly is not requred. Open to all types of food, just looking for something tasty. I have not been in this area for some time.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

I'm not sure if you're west or east of Sepulveda, but here's some east of sepulveda.

Open Sesame - new Lebanese restaurant in Manhattan Village Mall, I've been once and I enjoyed my meal. I plan to go back.
Kai Sushi - good take-out sushi
O-Sho - fresh local restaurant, cheap lunch special (teriyaki chicken, gyoza, soup, and salad), decent sushi
Pho Hoa - Vietnamese noodles in Lawndale on Prairie and Marine. My favorite of the choices in Lawndale
Saigon Dish (I think) - closer to MB on Manhattan Beach Blvd and Hawthorne or Inglewood for Vietnamese noodle. I've been once and it was good.
Chicken Dijon - I like the house special salad, it's on Artesia

Hi,

I'll be out in Monrovia for auto service. I'm looking for recommendations for lunch for one person (myself) before I head back to the South Bay. San Gabriel Valley is close so maybe Chinese. I'm be willing to go a bit out of my way before I head home. Please provide restaurant recommendations and dish of choice.

Thanks,
JinCC

Second (or third), Pho Hoa. I've tried a few more places in Lawndale, but this place has the best broth. I don't think I've tried Saigon Dish. I'll have to give it a try.

I picked up a Pastrami Sandwich (Sky High) to go with cole slaw. It was a big and tasty sandwich. Next time, I'm going to try the NY Pastrami as recommended by the sandwich maker at the counter. It is supposed to be more peppery.

Also, the menu reminds me of Jerry's Deli. Bagel chips, split pea soup, sky highs, etc. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as the pastrami is tasty. I couldn't find this in the South Bay, but I'm still learning this area.

Has anyone tried this deli? How's the pastrami and corned beef sandwiches?

TIA,
JinCC

Isn't there a place called Keg King (or King Keg) on Rosecrans and Hindry by the Carls Jr

All,

Thanks so much for recommending India Restaurant. We went for lunch today and had an excellent meal. Everything was well-spiced. We ate the lunch buffet and particulary enjoyed the palak (spinach), chicken makhni (curry?), and naan. The servive was excellent as well. We'll definitely be returning.

Thanks,
JinCC

Hi,

My wife and I are looking for recommendations on Indian food in Little India (Pioneer Blvd). I've searched the site, but each time I find a good place recommended; I find it is closed or vegetarian. We are interested in the non-vegetarian restaurants.

Please help us choose a good restaurant.

Thanks in advance,
JinCC

We used Regal Bakery for our wedding and loved it. We had a 3-tiered round cake(black forest, white cake with fresh strawberries, and chocolate cake with fresh strawberries) for 100 people for ~$300 three years ago. We tried many fancy cake bakeries (best part of wedding planning) and it came down to Regal and Hansens. Our goal was a beautiful, great tasting cake. Taste was essential. One key determining factors was that many bakeries said that we could not use dairy cream frosting. They were concerned with the cake losing form or going bad. Most did buttercream which we did not like the taste (too heavy - lose essence of the cake in the frosting IMHO). Regal Bakeries said no problem. Your budget is $1000 so you can get a quite fancy cake. I think it's important to narrow your decision down by determining what design and whether you want fondant, buttercream, or whip cream (dairy or non-dairy). This will limit your choices and you can focus on the taste of the cake. Good luck!

We mostly get two dishes: BBQ duck and Ong Choy with garlic. We occasionally get the spicy pepper fried shrimp. Our expectations match the restaurant. We don't expect SGV quality, but we love BBQ duck and can't go to SGV as easily.

I was excited to try this place as I'd read good things about the La Cienega place. We tried the steak hoagie, chicken hoagie, mild and hot buffalo wings. The hoagies were ho-hum. The mild and hot buffalo wings didn't taste much different (just a little spicier for the hot). They were on the small side as someone said above. The flavor was not that great. The place had a strong odor of frying oil and needs to ventilate better. The whole experience was ho-hum. I do not plan on going back and will go to Costco for Wings of Fire in the meantime. Too bad, I was really hoping to become a frequent customer.

We had duk from Howondong in the Galleria for our wedding and chut tul. We also had other traditional items as part of ceremony. Everything was great.

My daughter loves it as well. We have fed her the plain dduk with dates or other seasonal fruits for meals or snacks many times. It keeps well in the freezer and re-heats easily in a wet paper towel in the microwave. Of course, it's best to eat when fresh but these tricks work great with young kids.

Kuan's Chinese Restaurant in Montebello. Big and juicy.

I'll have to try the other selections. DTF was a real disappointment for their dumplings in general.

I hit the AM/PM Minimart today and they have a machine with blue raspberry, cherry, lemon lime, bubble gum, and something else. A medium is $1.07. The signs on the cups are wrong.

For some reason I had been craving one of these so I was wowed when I say this post. Thanks to all.

Hi,

My father is turning 70 this month. We're looking for a restaurant that is open for Sunday lunch on the Westside (Santa Monica, W. LA, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City, etc.). There will be 12-14 people. We're open to any suggestions.

Also, if we can't find a good restaurant open on Sunday, then we're open to recommendations on deli platters or pick-up/delivery items.

Thanks,
JinCC

Hi,

I'm going to party at Grill Lyon in a couple of weeks. Any recommendations on entrees to try?

Thanks,
JinCC

Hi,

We were planning on going to Corner Place tomorrow (Sunday), but we discovered it is closed on Sundays. Please help us find good cold noodles (dong chi mi guk su) or something close.

Thanks,
JinCC

Thanks for the info LAGirl. I can't wait to go. How much should I expect to pay for Omakase? Two people. :)

Hi,

My brother gave us a gift certificate to Matsuhisa. We love sushi so we're looking forward to it. Our last sushi foray took us to Irori in MDR. We sat at the sushi bar and had a great meal prepared by Shige-san. We basically shared all the board specials (sushi only, no rolls) and most of the regualr items. The total came to ~$120 including one large Asahi.

For Matsuhisa, it's been recommended that we sit at the sushi bar and make reservations. Is there a sushi chef to recommend? Any signature or outstanding dishes/sushi/rolls? How much should we expect to spend? Any other recommendations?

Thanks in Advance,
JinCC

Hi,

Please add a back to the message/board button. This is useful in helping navigate. Also please add a "back to the search" button. It is annoying when I do a search and select a thread. Then, I wish to go back to the rest of the threads found in the search but must refresh the screen everytime.

Positive: I like the new page where all the replies are included in the thread. The search engine looks far superior.
Negatives: Difficult to go through main topic threads quickly. Only 20 per page. Would much prefer the option to list more threads? Several boards have a option where you can set 15, 25, 50, 100, 200, etc threads which allows the user to balance their internet download speed. Personally, I'd like to see somthing like 100-200 threads so I can go through them quickly.

Congrats on the new site.
JinCC