Greenblatt's on Sunset has pan-fried chicken breasts.

Sorry, I'm not a fan of the Little Door. The restaurant is a scene, the food is average at best, and the prices are much higher than normal, even for a sceney joint. Never again.

Skav's Grill in North Hollywood is my Middle Eastern restaurant of choice. Nice folks, and the best baba ganoush / hummus I've had in LA.

I also had a less than great meal at Dish, with indifferent service, poor pacing, and mostly unimpressive dishes. However, I did try Girasole last night, as I'd heard great things about it from both my girlfriend and this board. I'm sorry to say that the dinner we had was abysmal.

I did come out of this meal with a story worth the price of admission, so it wasn't all a complete loss.

I ordered a simple, traditional and common Italian dish, Penne Arribiatta with chicken. It wasn't on the menu, but a normal marinara sauce with chicken was at the top of the menu, and I was certain that they would just spice it up a little.

I received my dish, and besides being totally without any spice, there was no chicken in it. I wanted to call the waiter over, but he was nowhere to be seen. So I walked into the restaurant (we were on the patio), found the waiter, who came by and I explained that I ordered Penne Arribiatta with Chicken, and there's no chicken in it.

He apologized, and promised to fix it right away. But here's the kicker: After 10 minutes he came back and asked me what Arribiatta was. Note that this is from a restaurant that is staffed and run by what seem to be native Italians. He went on to explain that they had been looking up the recipe on the internet, but couldn't figure out how to make it !

I told him that it was fine, I was glad to eat the dish as they usually serve it (which by the way was watery).

I guess I was out of line asking for an off menu item, albeit simple and common.

I'm going to keep looking for that elusive and great Pgh dining experience. I'm not looking to compare the scene with NYC or LA, but there's got to be something great there !

I saw some Le Creuset at a store called Tuesday Morning, which is kind of a discount housewares store. They had only baking dishes, no dutch ovens, but they were seriously discounted. Under $50 as I recall.

Does anyone know where I can buy this mustard in LA ? I've seen their pickles and horseradish at a lot of markets such as Whole Foods, but not the mustard.

Thanks.

Pace delivers.

As a person who has this same allergy, I can give you my experiences.

Most restaurants are very careful as long as you let them know that it's really a food allergy, not a fad diet issue. I eat sushi at least once a week, and they always clean the knives and cutting boards before preparing my fish if they've recently prepared shellfish. Other restaurants are generally good about it, as they don't want an ambulance at their door. It isn't good for business.

I would stay away from some ramen places, as they often use shellfish in their stock, some Thai curries use dried shrimp, and the better chinese places may not speak enough English to hear anything other than "shrimp" when you tell them that you're allergic to shrimp. This actually happened to me and I was proudly served shrimp as that's all they understood in the sentence.

I would definately stay away from Killer Shrimp, as the name isn't supposed to be taken literally.

Any vegan (Reall Food Daily), healthy (Newsroom), or standard fare (Grill, Daily Grill) are all very safe bets. Most Mexican or Cuban places are also good choices.

My favorites, all equal to my mouth:

1. Hot Wings on Melrose or in Glendale on Brand Blvd.
2. Ye Rustic Inn
3. Hoagies and Wings on La Cienega. I haven't been to their Venice Blvd location.

It's not exactly licorice, but Mashti Malone's on La Brea has ice cream with anise type flavors.

Zeke's BBQ at La Brea and Santa Monica is the best based on my recent Onion Ring tasting.

El Floridita does not have good food, but it's a fun place to go, especially on Mondays, where it's a very popular salsa dancing night.

I like Rincon Criollo and El Colmao, personally.

Vendome Liquors in Studio City on Ventura has fine wine tastings on Thurs - Fri - Sat. It's usually $15, sometimes $20 for 7 different wines. Highly recommended.

Ciudad or Xiomara in Pasadena are my votes.

Panera Bakery also offers free wi-fi, but they have a way to get the freeloaders out: they shut off the internet at busy times, not being obvious, but you just lose connectivity. The web surfing / coffee purchase only set then packs up their stuff and goes home, giving the lunch crowd places to sit.

I was at a Lee's Sandwich location near Anaheim - big place - and they gave you 5 minutes of web access with each $1 you spent. The access code was on your receipt. Kind of clever, but I'm sure not cheap to implement.

I've had great meals at Carnival on Woodman and Moorpark, in Sherman Oaks. It tends to be crowded, but the line goes quickly.

My experiences at the other Carousel on Hollywood have been really good - have you tried that branch ?

Canter's should have it.

Pretty much any of the larger Latin supermarkets will have beef marrow soup bones, like El Colmao in N. Hollywood, but there's tons.

I go to Art's maybe once every week and a half or so. It's well above average. The sandwiches, soups and egg dishes are good, the salads are less so. I far prefer it to Canter's, and I will not eat at Jerry's.

Yes, Brent's is much better, but I can only do the drive once in a while, as deli food isn't to me a destination meal. Langer's is my favorite, but it's a one trick pony. Anything other than pastrami is terrible, but the pastrami is worth whatever it takes to get there.

I don't think the cost of Art's is significantly different than Jerry's, Canter's, Fromin's or Brent's.

Pace on Laurel Canyon, it's about a 5 minute drive. You need reservations, as it's gotten pretty popular.

There's no shortage of these cakes. Brent's has a version about a foot high. I don't personally know anyone who's ever ordered one. I can't imagine being that hungry.