Category Archives: Restaurants

Late Summer Menu is here!

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Oh Clementine, how I love thee. I had several “housekeeping” tasks to take care of today. I was super productive this morning finishing my tasks so I treated myself. It’s been so long since I’ve been to Clementine, the whole menu changed!

One thing stayed the same though, Moroccan Mint Tea.

mmmmm. Delish!

I asked the server what her favorite was of, oh about 5 dishes. She recommended the BLT, which is called the “Best BLT”.

Let me tell you. It is called “best” for a reason. This was the best BLT that I have EVER had. Bar none.

Let’s break it down:

  1. The bread was delicious and had mayo on it. Actual mayo. Normally I don’t have mayo, so maybe I thought it was the best because I haven’t had mayo for so long. This was what was going though my mind while eating.
  2. The bacon. Crispy but not too crispy. The flavor was amazing. You know when bacon is too crispy and it tastes oddly burned? I hate that but this bacon was savory and the oil was flavorful.
  3. Lettuce was crisp and cool. Excellent contrast to the bacon.
  4. The tomato was better than normal tomato. I can’t really put my finger on what it was but it was amazing. The tomato was marinaded a little bit. It was fantastic.

And that was it. The perfect BLT. I think everyone should run out right now and try it.

Umami Burger

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Yesterday night Kelly and I went to Umami burger for dinner. We both have heard rave reviews of Umami. Some even say that it is the best burger in LA. We all know that I have strong feelings about Father’s Office, so I knew I had to check out Umami! How could I not weigh in on the great debate?

Kelly and I went to the Santa Monica location which is located in Fred Segal and has  a parking lot. The importance of a parking lot cannot be under emphasized. Looking for parking is never fun, especially in Santa Monica. The interior of the restaurant is small, but was not over crowded and it had cute, kitschy things on the wall including taxidermy.

We started with beer. What is better than beer and burgers? I would argue nothing.We both had a Belgium Blonde.

So delicious!

Kelly and I both are big believers in sharing. Like we did at Taste, we both decided to order our own burgers and share them. Umami has a wide selection of burgers to choose from. Our server suggested that on our first trip we should have their signature Umami Burger.

Money shot:

Whoops a bit blurry. I have to say that this was pretty good. I am not a huge mushroom fan but I didn’t mind them in this burger. I loved the meat. Again, I am not typically a big fan of ground beef but the quality of the meat was fantastic.

We also tried a bit more “avant gard” burger, the “triple pork burger” which features a patty made of pork, chorizo and bacon with manchego cheese and a pimenton aioli.

So good! A little bit spicier. It reminded me of a pulled pork sandwich.

And now of the sides… Kelly and I knew that we wanted sweet potato fries and at the last min our server convinced us to also try the cheesy tots!

The sweet potato fries were just OK. They had a cinn sugar topping on them which was different and unexpected. It was not bad, but it was… different. Probably not my favorite sweet potato fry but pretty damn good.

And how can you not like a cheesy tot?

So good! The cheese was not overwhelming and the fried outside was better than say, ore ida. I would absolutely order it again. And, going back, I would probably only order one side. The sides are good and the portion isn’t huge but I would have been happy with just one side.

There were also toppings for the fries and tots:

Mustard

homemade ketchup.

So where do I stand in the Umami vs. Father’s Office debate? Well, they are entirely different animals. Father’s office is a great bar with awesome food. They have a better selection of wine and craft beers. You get a ton of food and I love the burger. On the other hand, Umami is more restaurant like. It is less expensive (in the aggregate- but a $10 burger isn’t “cheap”) and we didn’t have an issue getting a table, which is almost always an issue at FO. I do have to say that the sweet potato fries at FO are better than Umami. Umami has more veggie options.

So, in my humble opinion, they are about equal. Different moods, different venues. What do you all think?

Allston Yacht Club

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Tonight I had happy hour at the Allston Yacht Club. Bostonian’s might find this amusing because 1) Allston is student central 2) the idea of a yacht club in Allston is a little ironic. Angelino’s will be amused because the idea of a yacht club in Echo Park is verrrry ironic.

I have to say that the food and cocktails were really good and CHEAP! All food is $5 during happy hour and the cocktails are around $9. I don’t mind the cocktail prices because the cocktails are great and normally high quality cocktails in LA are > $10.

I ordered a “Blue Moon of Kentucky” which had bourbon, and blueberry mint lemonade.

So fruity and clean. I hate cocktails with sour mix and I love when I get a fresh, delicious and minty cocktail like this one.

And then, there were plates….

We started with cucumber carppacio (very light and kinda garlicey)

Then we had roasted Brussels sprouts. Frequent readers know how I feel about roasted Brussels sprouts

Broiled shrimp and feta gratin

Calamari with citrus, soy fish sauce and sweet chili

and eggplant parmagiano – because I love eggplant!

Then the waitress said something magical to us, “Do you want to hear about the happy hour desert menu?”

Umm, yes, we would!

Whoever decided to have happy hour dessert, I love you.

One bite and we were BOTH hooked. The seasoning! The whip cream! Le sign. Go to the Allston Yacht Club. It is deeeelish and they have fantastic drinks and great food deals at happy hour. AND happy hour dessert. Who doesn’t want dessert happy hour?

Taylor’s

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Tonight I met up with my Uncle for dinner at an old school steak house near my work, Taylor’s. Taylor’s is a great place to go if you want to go to an old school steak house. There are no windows so the restaurant is super dark. The booths are red and they made a decent martini:

Yes please! There is no pairing better than a steak and a martini!

For an appetizer we had bacon wrapped scallops and a cream of mushroom soup which was pretty good. Have I ever not appreciated something wrapped in bacon? Forgot to take a picture of the bacon wrapped scallops but they were good. The scallops were cooked to perfection. I never liked scallops until I moved to Boston and they always remind me of my “other” city.

For an entree obviously I had the “Taylor Special” which was a filet with onions:

I chose mashed potatoes on the side, always a good choice. It also came with a side of spinach which was good. I only managed to have three bites. I would totally live off of red meat and potatoes if I could. You just can’t go wrong. The steak was perfectly cooked exactly to the level of rare that I like it.

Unfortch I did not save room for dessert. I couldn’t even finish the steak and potatoes before I was stuffed! That’s what I get for scaling back portions for the past 7 months. I just can’t thrown down like I used to.

Overall I really liked the vibe of Taylor’s. I can always go for a martini and red meat. The atmosphere is very old school and more “Old LA” than most of the places that I frequent. The change of pace was delightful and I always love having dinner with Joe.

In other news: Tomorrow I am going to happy hour at a bar that has a bacon and egg martini. Yep, bacon infused vodka with a quail egg. Should I be adventurous?

Taste

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Tonight I met up with fellow section 3 member Kelly for dinner at Taste. Kelly wanted the “Left Coast Contessa Dining Experience” so I decided that we should try Taste, which I’ve been dying to try for a while.

Taste has two locations in LA: one on Melrose and one in the Pacific Palisades. We opted for the Palisades location figuring traffic and parking would be better.

The lighting was very nice and we really liked the decor. It was trendy and nice. Lots of dark wood and rich browns. This would be a great date location.

Taste has a prix fix menu which I highly recommend. There are several options and the house wine is only $5 when you order off the fixe menu, which is an awesome deal. They even give you a mini decanter! The wine today was a Croatian Red.

Wine with dinner is always fantastic. Kelly and I decided that we would both get the two course option on the prix fix menu. I got an appetizer and an entree and she got the entree and a dessert. There was a lot of sharing.

Our pick for an appetizer was easy: White Truffle Butter Mac & Cheese with Mushrooms

This was awesome! The cheese was literally still bubbling when it came to the table. I actually liked the mushrooms which is odd because normally I am not the biggest fan of mushrooms. The sauce was also super truffl-ey which was nice. Sometimes “truffle” is thrown around and you can’t even taste it. Not a problem with this dish.

For entrees we picked the kabocha squash rissoto and Kelly ordered the crispy chicken paillard

The rissoto was not exactly what I was expecting. It had a really interesting flavor. I suppose I expect my rissoto to be creamier maybe? Not what I was expecting but still good.

The chicken was pretty damn good. Fried to perfection, arugula salad, potatoes (!) and red onion jam which was delicious. I love onions and potatoes. Can’t go wrong. This was my favorite entree. Good pick Kelly!

For dessert we were going to get creme brulee but the waiter insisted, insisted, that we get the bread pudding.We went with the expect recommendation.

I like bread pudding and I have to say that this one was pretty good. I could have gone for a little bit more ice cream but what can you do? There was some chocolate in the mix and it was pretty good.

Overall, we really liked Taste. Taste had a great vibe and is a wonderful place to get a nice longer dinner, catch up with a friend and have a nice glass of wine. Check out their website for special deals, which they have on most weeknights. I have to say that overall, Taste is a little bit more on the expensive side but not too bad for LA and with the special deals its not too bad. Kelly and I had a good time and she will definitely be making some more LCC appearances.

Are you a planner?

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Because I am! I blogged the other day that I needed to go back to meal planning. Meal planning for me is essentially sitting down once a week before shopping and plotting out 4-5 meals that I want to have in the next week. Recently my meals have been fairly lame and I have been over buying at the farmers market and grocery store.

Today when I went to the farmers market I was ready!

So many wonderful things to come on LCC!

Early this morning I went for a run. It is getting HOT! I went for around 3 miles throughout campus at an easy pace. I had a lara bar before my run so after shopping I was getting hungry. Guess where I went?


Orange umbrella means Coral Tree Cafe.If you can go to Coral Tree try to sit outside on the porch because it is quite wonderful in the shade. Of course I started with a mint iced tea.

This time I ordered a Sicilian Panini which had panchetta (holy yum), mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and sun dried tomato. The sandwich also had eggs, was served on homemade bread, and came with potatoes!

You guys… this was really really good. I’ve shared my love of Coral Tree Cafe before, and I have to say that the love just keeps growing. I am not at all an egg person. I rarely eat eggs, normally opting for pancakes instead. This sandwich was fantastic and didn’t taste super eggey at all. I love panchetta and sun dried tomatoes so really there was nothing I didn’t like about this sandwich. The taste of the mozzarella, tomato and pepper really stood out. And the potatoes? There are no words.

Later I finished my shopping and am prepping to head out to Glendale. Catie and I are going out tonight. All the single ladies, all the single ladies….

-Left Coast

Tofu House

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Lunch today was an adventure! The law clerks wanted to shake it up a bit by going to Belly Time, but it appeared to be closed so we went into Tofu House instead. The sign on Tofu House had tons of writing in Korean and most of the menu was in Korean so we weren’t totally sure what we were getting into and thus I do not have names for the dishes. They were good though, I can tell you that much.

These appetizers were brought to the table after we ordered and came with the meal. We noshed on them while waiting for the entrees. We had no clue what most of them really were but that’s always a fun experience, right? Dan and Diana are more adventurous than I am and actually ate some green jello thing. I was not that brave.

Then we got this rice and soup thing. Again, I don’t know what it is but I know that it was delicious.

And then it was time for the entree… bring on the beef!

I would like to now state that I ate like, 1/3 of the food maybe? It was A LOT! I actually didn’t eat very much and I didn’t eat until I was stuffed. I barely snacked at work today minus 4 salt water taffies. Gotta give love to the treat jar.

Bite Bar & Bakery

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Happy Long weekend!

My long weekend started with another LA initiation, my first fender bender. Don’t worry “Ryan” and I are fine. A little shaken but were OK. What was your first fender bender like?

I was lucky enough to get to leave work today at 12 pm. After I figured I deserved a treat so I decided to try  Bite Bar & Bakery in Santa Monica.

I decided to try Bite after I got a discount code from Blackboard Eats. Blackboard Eats is a great website that provides discounts for various restaurants in LA, New York and San Francisco. They send emails out that allow you to access a promo code which is good for a month. Lots of the restaurants are more expensive so the 30% discount makes it easier to afford. Thanks to Rachel for tipping me off to it several months ago!

I really love the vibe here! All the sandwiches are $10 and under but you still get to sit down and be served which is just what I needed today. I had no problem getting a table, but the restaurant wasn’t empty. This is a great place to dine alone with a book. The service was excellent and right after I sat down I got some olives and the iced tea that I ordered.

Can I just say that I love this? Luxe extras and simple touches are kinda my favorite. I asked the waitress what in her opinion was the best sandwich because there were 4 that looked amazing (all under $10!!). I settled on the grilled asparagus and sun dried tomato pesto sandwich.

This sandwich was so yummy. I love a pressed sandwich, the asparagus was perfectly roasted and the sun dried tomato pesto gave a great, but not overwhelming flavor. The bread was perfectly toasted and the service was fast!

I was having such a great time just sitting and reading that I decided I had to have dessert. Plus, I figured after the kind of day I had, that I deserved it. There were a lot of delicious goodies to choose from but I had no problem settling on a chocolate ganache and cocoa nibs.

Mmmmmm. This was well deserved and so delicious! The chocolate was the perfect consistency, moist and rich. It totally hit the spot after a stressful day.

Overall, I loved my experience at Bite and I will be going back for sure! I got a nice, sit down meal and before the discount my meal was only $12, and after the discount it was less. It’s so great to be able to go to a nice, relaxed sit down restaurant to be waited on and not have to pay tons of cash for the experience.

After lunch I hit the Santa Monica Library and Coffee Bean. I got an awesome combo of chick lit and books about education, race, and housing issues. Cannot wait to dig into them tonight. Also, my knee is feeling much better and my arms are super sore from power yoga so I’m taking it easy on my knee for one more day with the hope that my knee problems will be resolved for my race a week from Sunday.

Happy long weekend everyone!

Soulmates

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This weekend is all about spending time with one of my best friends from college, Catie! Of course, we both wanted to go shopping so we went to Catie’s mall and hit up all of our favorite stores…

victoria secret for the semi annual sale

Forever 21

And then we made our way to our Mecca… Nordstroms! Did you know that as children both Catie and I had personal shoppers at Nordies? Well, its true, were soul mates.

I was 8 when Nordstrom opened at Old Orchard. Nordstrom is the best department store because there are so many personal touches that you would find at a really high end department stores like a cafe but they have great clothing and more affordable clothing also! Plus, a great shoe department. We didn’t actually buy anything… but we spotted this great top:

Twihard madness at Nordies

Then we did the only logical thing left to do after shopping: EAT! We hit the Nordstrom Cafe…

I love the Nordies Cafe because nothing ever changes… The table at Old Orchard are exactly the same!

Catie and I decided to split an entree which was a great idea. Catie is super healthy and eats a very balanced diet and inspires health in others (like me). We got a stir fry.

Yum! Can you believe this is a half portion? Its like a normal full portion that I would make for myself! The other benefit of slitting entrees is that you save money. I only paid $8 for this meal!

Yum! And for dessert? We went back to our roots…

With Boston Cream Pie! The cake was better than expected. Overall, the cake was moist and can you really go wrong with Boston cream pie? Of course not!

After pie we hit shopping hard! Highlights included buying a running bra because wearing a yoga bra while running is a poor choice, and size 6 denim Editor pants from Express for $20!!! Wee! I love a good deal.

Off to bed because I am wiped!