blitzy's Profile
What should i order at mission chinese food? [San Francisco]
I don't know what all this "disgusting" talk is, since even when MC is a miss, it's still better than most of the places in the neighborhood. And after moving here six months ago from Echo Park, where there is virtually zero Chinese to speak of, it's positively inspired.
The Ma Po Tofu is great, but spicy.
I like the pork belly, but tend to avoid the egg (not my thing).
I like the pork soup dumplings far better than the lamb.
I think the cod fried rice is terrific. Or any of the rice dishes.
If you're somewhat adventurous, I think the steamed custard is good, but it's not for everyone.
I personally don't care for the beef cheeks. The fattiness of the meat and the dish in general feel unfocused to me.
I will say this about the place: it's got a great energy. The guy who runs it is truly trying to accomplish something here. He makes interesting food that tastes oddly personal and he's generally pretty successful at it. With all the pretension in the neighborhood with respect to food, there's something unobtrusive and natural about this place. It's the kind of place where you ask for a recommendation and can trust that you're not being steered the wrong way. Or just try something different.
Seriously, if Echo Park had such a place while I was there (for eleven years!), I would've been there every week.
Tender Greens Restaurant. Specifcally, that Green Hummus [Moved from LA board]
Does anyone know what's in the green hummus served by Tender Greens? I dream about it. I don't need a recipe. Well, hell, yes, I do. Or a close estimation of one.
Extra points for that wheatberry, hazelnut salad.
We're moving to San Francisco! Now if only we had a decent Japanese place.
We've lived in Los Angeles for a decade and we're looking forward to all the great food in San Francisco. But the thing we're afraid of giving up is our favorite Japanese place: a small, mom-and-pop place, impeccably fresh, relatively inexpensive (in comparison to many of the other Japanese restaurant "scenes" here in LA). I don't mind getting around San Francisco itself, but Chowhounders, I need your help on this one: the best, under-the-radar (or on-the-radar), inexpensive sushi and Japanese restaurants in the city. And by the city, I want to avoid crossing a bridge or driving outside of town.
Has anyone been to Grub
I've been there many times for breakfast. I think it's reasonable: not cheap for what you get, but not necessarily overpriced. It can get busy on the weekends. The standouts: the croissant French toast is delicious, albeit incredibly sweet. The bacon is basted with a secret sauce (I think: maple syrup, fennel seed, a touch of cayenne)....people either LOVE it or dislike it. The scrambles are all good. And if you're up for it, I've heard from friends that the oatmeal is transcendent. BUt it's a solid breakfast choice and a GREAT place to meet people and have everyone find something that they'll enjoy
Irvine...help!
Working in Irvine for the week, in a sea of office parks. But I hear that Irvine is an interesting place for food: Chinese, Persian, etc.
Can anyone give me some decent recommendations on some good ethnic restaurants nearby...I think I'm near some mall called the Spectrum?...great food, good-value deliciousness. Hole-in-the-walls welcome.
Come on Chowhounders, don't let me down.
Dim Sum Expereience for one person
Look, I realize that dim sum is best with a large group to order different dishes and to taste a bit of everything. But I'm one person, relatively close to the SGV and am hungry for Chinese today. I could go to a dumpling house, but would probably order 1-2 plates of dumplings and that would probably be filling. Can anyone recommend any place where you can try lots of things but still be a solitary diner? I'm talking dumplings, xlb, har gow or whatever.
Help! lunch is fast approaching!
Eating within walking distance of Davies Medical Center
I'm going to be at Davies on Castro (?) for a couple of weeks doing a work project. Can anyone recommend places to eat, drink, and be merry that are in walking distance of Castro St and 15th?
SF Coffee Shop Recommendations!!!!!
I'm coming to SF to do some work and wanted to see various neighborhoods while I do it. I need to work primarily in coffee shops and was wondering what the best ones are in the city. Wireless is preferred, but not a deal-breaker.
Who out there knows their coffee shops?
Need to buy uncooked ravioli for a party
The problem is, I don't know where to go (except Trader Joes and nothing against Trader Joes, but I'm looking for ravioli that are a bit more authentic). Cheese preferably. Anyone have any suggestions?
Larkin's, Hungry Cat, or Grace
I'm taking someone on a birthday dinner and when I asked where he wanted to go, he offered these three suggestions. I've never been to any of them and I'm interested in the pros and cons. Some questions I already know to ask are: Is Grace worth the hype and the price?, Is Larkin's nice enough for a casual-but-lovely birthday?, Is the patio or the inside better at The Hungry Cat? But there might be other pros and cons too.
Also, if there's a dish at any of them that's a must have (understanding that the menus are probably changing with the season), I'd like to know that too.
Help me Chowhounders!
Searching Problem
I search on the Los Angeles board for something, say "happy hour." Several pages come up. I scroll down the first page and select the second (or third, fourth, or ninety-ninth) page and the page goes to "how to search" with various ways to search for "artichoke hearts." But no pages.
What am I doing wrong?
Fresh sashimi to purchase on the East Side
With the downtown Mitsuwa closing (so sad), I wonder where to buy fresh sashimi on the east side. Any suggestions?
I've been to Fish King in Glendale and find them a little pricey. Mitsuwa was a quick stop for fresh fish on a hot night. I have to believe there is a sizable population in Little Tokyo of people that buy sashimi. Where will they go?
Looking For One of a Kind, Fun, Nutty-Campy Restaurant Experience
I have a friend who I owe a dinner to and I want to give him the nuttiest, campiest restaurant in the general area. Does anyone know of a fun, weird, one of a kind, non-touristy, restaurant. It can be a bit outside of Los Angeles, but not too far. Any kind of ethnic welcome. Nothing high class necessarily. We're not looking for a great restaurant, just something different. Decent-to-terrific food. But something unforgettable. And fun.
The Elderly Side of Burbank
A friend of mine is looking for a restaurant in Burbank where older people hang out. The kind of place that you find in Florida, where dinner is served early and the food isn't necessarily delicious in the Chowhound way. Anyone have any suggestion. I guess the restaurant doesn't HAVE to be in Burbank, but it would be great. Where do all the older Hollywood types hang out?
Anyone know?
Anyone know of a Greek grocery?
Anyone know a place that sells Greek groceries: spices, canned goods, cheeses, etc?
A grown up place in Los Feliz/Silverlake
I have a friend in for the night. In Hollywood.
I'm in Echo Park.
He is free around 9-9:30pm and wants to meet somewhere between our locations.
He wants someplace "grown up," where he can buy wine.
I don't drink alcohol.
We tend to talk for a couple of hours, at least.
We don't really need food, but if there were some dessert options, great.
He wants me to suggest something.
I'm coming up blank.
Help?
I need a grown up place in Los Feliz/Silverlake
My friend is in Hollywood for the night.
I'm in Echo Park.
He can't meet until 9-9:30pm.
We tend to talk for a couple of hours usually.
He wants someplace "grown up" that serves wine.
I'm not drinking alcohol.
I don't think we need food, but if there was some dessert, fine.
He wants to meet some place in between our two locations.
He wants me to suggest something.
Suggestions?
15 Restaurant in Echo Park
We've been to 15 twice. Both times we've gotten the $15 meal (which is an insane deal, we thought). We had a sea bass, short ribs, a pumpkin pasta, and the scallops. Plus the calamari, a terrific salad and the quesidilla. We enjoyed almost everything. I can't think of anything that was BAD. I'm particularly sensitive to salt and don't remember the short ribs being salty at all. I think they're getting their "legs," but for a neighborhood without too many restaurant options, we really liked 15 and have recommended it to many. It's just nice having someplace to eat at without driving several miles.
Wood Spoon, downtown (review)
I'd read about Woodspoon in the LATimes and it sounded great: a newish Brasilian restaurant conveniently located downtown serving tasty food at reasonable prices. Quite a find. I checked posts on this site which all seemed extremely positive and all signs pointed to a great evening out. And it was. Kinda.
The good.
I'd called an hour earlier because I'd heard they do a Saturday family meal and, having never been there, I wanted to check on availability, reservations, etc. I was told that the place served a big meal (which happened to be Feijoada that night) and for $25, they served an appetizer, drink, entrée (with all the fixings) and a dessert. Great! Let's go!
Given downtown at night, there was plenty of parking. The restaurant is really well-designed. So pleasing when you walk in. Bright, simple. The place had about 8-10 tables, three were occupied at 8pm. But it filled up later.
We were met at the door by the waitress, who immediately wanted to know if we'd be ordering the family dinner. We hadn't really sat down, didn't have menus. We hadn't really had the family dinner explained to us (I'd spoken to a man on the phone and he'd said to just show up). When we asked questions about the meal, she seemed confused and we learned later she was new. That's fine. No big deal. She brought water, served in carafes with giant cinnamon sticks in it. A great touch. Everything on the menu looked delicious and we opted for one of us getting the family meal and the other ordering off the menu.
Then Nathalia, the head chef and owner, stopped by the table. What a terrific, warm lady. She explained the dinner, suggested a few things on the menu and was so damn welcoming. I'd forgotten how lovely it is to have the chef come out and actually TALK to you. I would've ordered her shoes after that if she'd have suggested them.
Then the food arrived.
I'd ordered the coxhina appetizer ($8) I'd heard so much about. These are small teardrop-shaped, croquette-like bites served with a mayo I'd read was delicious. Each of the four bites is about the size of a very small fig. The filling is a ground chicken and, what seemed to be, a mashed-potato mixture. Good, not great. For the price, somewhat underwhelming. The mayo: just okay. It got a solid shrug (which is not quite a head-scratch, but close).
For dinner I ordered the chicken pot pie ($10). Again, I'd read and heard raves about it. Let me add my two-cents to the record: regardless of what you've read here, it's not a big pot pie. I don't know where some of my fellow Chowhounders hail from, but a "big" pot pie should be somewhat larger than the size of my hand. Shortly after ordering, I saw my soon-to-be dinner crossing the room toward someone else and thought "that can't be the huge pot pie I've heard so much about." Now, it's definitely unique. The filling is full of meat, hearts of palm, olives, etc. The flavor is quite nice, but the effect is more of an empanada than a pot pie. It was good, quite light, served with a simple salad, but not overly filling. Or really filling at all. Just manage your expectations on this dish and you'll be fine.
The feijoada was a similar situation. Maybe more so. The "dinner" we'd been told about on the phone was absolutely not the meal we received. There was no appetizer, no drink, no dessert. Here's the meal: a bowl of the stew with sides. Not a lot. Maybe the size of a cereal bowl, half filled. A single portion of rice. A nice-sized portion of collard greens. A bowl of salsa (which tasted strangely like the stew itself). A small bowl of farofa and three 2-inch lengths of fried plantain. The stew was delicious (comment: "Well, there's not a lot here, but at least it's tasty"). It had some nice chunks of meat and even a few meatless bones in it but, hey, it's feijoada. It struck me as odd that given the small portion that the kitchen would send it out with meatless bones in it. Totally forgivable, though. The greens were very fresh. The rest, perfectly fine. It simply all bordered on those single-portion entrees where one asks the question "this is it?" And for $25, it was unquestionably small.
Here's the skinny (no pun intended): We really really wanted to love this restaurant. Two small (albeit tasty) entrees, water, one even smaller appetizer. The bill was over 50 bucks. Not astronomical, but not a "find." Sadly, we won't go back. I'm glad we stopped here in the name of trying something new, but honestly, I'd probably steer people away from it. More the price than anything else. The food had nice flavor, but it was nothing earth-shattering or even special.
eastside butcher?
I hope it's alright to expand this post slightly. I'm looking for a butcher on the eastside as well, but with a slight expanded territory: echo park, silverlake, los feliz, downtown. Any ideas?
Lamb! Lamb! Lamb!
I'm assuming they were raw and you cooked them at home. But did they have any other cuts besides chops?
Lamb! Lamb! Lamb!
I'm having a difficult time locating a great resource for lamb. Raw lamb, to cook with. Given that I'm in Echo Park, close proximity to the Armenian communities of Hollywood and Glendale, I'm wondering if anybody can direct me to a great store/butcher/outlet to buy lamb in a variety of cuts.
Sausage Casings in Los Angeles
I'm looking to buy some from a store that has them in stock right now. I was at Surfas and the gentleman I spoke to said they were out. Any other suggestions? Extra points for east side.
Italian Bakery in LA
I have a good friend from a big Italian family in Brooklyn. He's looking for an authentic Italian bakery (as in those great bakeries in New York: cookies, etc). Is there anything like that in LA?
