Acapulco

Well, I don't really go to chain restaurants very often as a personal rule (with so many other places to eat, why bother with chains?), this time I broke my own rule for two reasons: 1. It was at Acapulco, a place made infamous by the Tonight Show with Jay Leno (I remember jokes where they would offer to "send" an audience member to Acapulco, and then reveal that it was really this particular restaurant, across the street from the studio) and 2., it was open later than a lot of other restaurants in the area, and I was meeting up with Bryan for a late dinner. I was waiting for Bryan for a long while, and I ended up ordering for him, because the kitchen was going to close...I made a guess as to what he wanted...

My usual drink order, an Arnold Palmer. Free refills abound.

Chips and salsa, complementary right as I sat down. I remember these chips being very brittle and kind of tasteless. Salsa was okay but not spicy at all.

And here's what I got, an appetizer platter (as my meal...). Pretty blurry, sorry for the bad photo. Going from the top, clockwise: boneless buffalo chicken strips, some sort of pork plantain concoction with sour cream (I think?) on top, southwestern eggrolls, sauce, and then repeat around the wheel. In the middle was some nachos. This was way too much food, I packed more than half of this away for home. That's the thing about chain restaurants, they really give you a ton of food for the price, but this whole plate was horribly heavy food. Nothing was extremely bad, but I can't remember it being super good either. It was okay for what it was.

This was the chicken fajitas I ordered for Bryan, who was not hungry at all (he had eaten before he got to the restaurant, drat!) These came on a sizzling hot platter, which was suspended above the table on a wire stand. I think this is one of the more popular things to order at this restaurant, as it looks super impressive when they take it out from the kitchen. This also came with a plate of condiments (lettuce, tomato, sour cream, guacamole), and tortillas, which I neglected to take a picture of because of it's mediocrity. The chicken was nice and hot, but again, not particularly memorable or flavorful.

I still avoid chains like the plague, if anything for the pre-packaged taste of everything (I have a sneaking suspicion that everything comes in freezer bags, cooked at some huge factory, and then just reheated in the kitchen, but maybe I shouldn't be so cynical?), and my want to support smaller local businesses, but sometimes it's good to maybe mix it up, and have something I wouldn't have very often. Again, it was okay for what it was, and reasonably priced...maybe if I drank alcohol I would probably enjoy their margaritas.

Acapulco Restaurant
3133 W. Olive Avenue
Burbank CA 91505
818-841-4433
www.acapulcorestaurants.com

Huckleberry Cafe

Huckleberry was white hot when I went to visit it, it had only been open for a week or two, and the lines were insane. Daphne and I still braved the lines and managed to barely snag a table (un-bussed, messy). The queue to order was massive, but I was excitedly checking out their menu, written on huge chalkboards stationed high above the cashier. We ordered, and I also got a few things to go.

I love their logo. Cute and simple.


Water here is not just water, it's refrigerated filtered water, in individual bottles with fun cork style tops. Water here is also serve yourself, so drink up!

Daphne got a caramelized banana creme mini pie. So deliciously good, I know this now because I got this myself on another visit...the crust was perfect, the whipped cream freshly whipped and luscious, banana slices on top of rich banana pudding, on top of caramel sauce. Get this, you won't be sorry.


A insane chocolate croissant, that I got for Owen, to go. The chocolate was oozing out of it, super great quality, he noted one of the top 5 chocolate croissants he's had, and that's saying a lot (he loves his chocolate croissants.)


My treat for later, a ham and gruyere croissant, I love my savory snacks, and this was exactly what I wanted - a flaky pastry salty cheesy kinda snack. Not exactly great for me but a real treat.


And here's what I ate right out of the box when I sat down - a chocolate elcair. Pretty tasty, the custard tasted just right, and the chocolate was dark and creamy. This was pretty much gone in a few bites - I was really hungry! We had to wait a long while for our sandwiches, a server finally came by with our sandwiches after locating our number on our table...


My sandwich - the turkey meatball, that came with a fresh side salad of greenery, lightly coated in salad oil. I liked my sandwich ok but the bread was overwhelming, a lot of bread for not a ton of meatball. The tomatoes were great quality, added a nice tartness to the sandwich, but I found myself tiring of the taste of the meatball - I think they needed a bit more salt. I loved the salad, and left most of the bread.


Daphne's roast beef sandwich fared much better, lots of thinly sliced roast beef (I think, roasted in house), a good strong mustard spread, just a pretty lookin' and good tasting sandwich all around. I think I'll get this next time.

I've been back once, since, just to pick up some baked goods. I love the feel of this place and hopefully the rush has died down a bit during lunch hours, and they have gotten a few things more organized. I'll definitely be back to try that roast beef.

Huckleberry Cafe
1014 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA
huckleberrycafe.com

Tudor House Restaurant

I took Owen's grandma, Nannie, here, because she loves her British food and she can't cook, and this is one of the better places to go (along with enjoying a nice sunny day close to the ocean). We were one of two occupied tables at this place, on a weekday early afternoon, but I think this place gets pretty crowded on the weekends, for people wanting afternoon tea. The one waitress was extremely British, and nice, but it was a lot for her to handle when other people started arriving to eat. Nannie, of course, has to have:

...her tea, she always has to have tea or coffee. I snapped this because of the nice tea set that came with her tea, that creamer is just too awesome.

And here's a cup of Nannie's tea (no sugar, only cream), she chose orange pekoe. After checking out the extensive menu (everything looked so tempting! Fish and chips were strongly calling my name...) I decided upon something I've never had before.

I got bangers and mash, with a choice of beans as my side. This was so delicious - I have never had sausages like this - all perfectly burnished on the outside, the grind of meat on the inside was very smooth, no nubbins of fat (yeah I know, gross, but that's sausage for you), it was just all around tasty. The mash was really nice as well, and the gravy was something to behold. The British definitely know their gravy. Beans were nothing to scream home about but added a nice flavor contrast to the meat and potatoes.

Nannie got the same thing, bangers and mash, but wanted mushy peas as her side. I just think the name is hilarious - "mushy peas"? I think mushy peas need to talk to their marketing department, maybe they can jazz their name up to something less...baby food sounding. Well, mushy peas are very descriptive of what they are - when I saw them on Nannie's plate it was pretty much what I expected. Didn't try them, but didn't really want to try them either. Nannie was quite content with her food, (which was great because she otherwise, I've only seen her eat grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas...seriously.)

Tudor House is pretty cool because there's also a store attached to the restaurant, where you can buy British goods, plus they sell pastries and pies, which are awesome to get for later. British candy is also awesome (Cadbury's makes some decent stuff, try a "Flake" bar!)

Tudor House Restaurant (and store)
1403 2nd St
Santa Monica, CA 90401-2301
(310) 451-4107
www.thetudorhouse.com

Hungry Fox

A visit to my friend Mike in the valley, and I took him out to breakfast to escape his house. We went around the corner to his neighborhood breakfast place, Hungry Fox. I remember coming here during the first year of college, when I was around the valley a fair amount of time. Since then, I've usually avoided going over the hill, thusly, haven't visited Hungry Fox in ages. The place is really welcoming, more of a mom and pop diner style, with mini booths and chairs. A lot of locals come here, and they tout their "homemade jam". This is what we got...

A glass of orange juice. Nothing special, I doubt it was fresh squeezed, but did the job.


Mike ordered pigs in a blanket, three pancakes with sausage rolled in the middle. He scarfed them down pretty quick so I guess they were good, I don't care for pancakes much so I didn't have a taste.

And here's the inside shot of the "pig" in the blanket. They used sausage patty instead of the usual sausage, interesting choice, I don't think it deterred much from the flavor or anything, it just makes it harder to roll up.

I felt like lunch at that point so I ordered me a gyro with fries. This was actually pretty tasty, the yogurt sauce was tasty, the gyro meat grilled again after sliced off the meat cone. Fries were crinkle cut, a fry style I enjoy. Overall, a solid lunch.

Hungry Fox is a cute little place with nice friendly folks. If anything, I'll be back for a breakfast-for-lunch if I'm in the area.

Hungry Fox
13359 Sherman Way
North Hollywood, CA 91605-4442
(818) 765-7111

It's It - the ice cream sandwich of my youth

Let's have a blast from the past, well for me anyways - It's it was the ice cream sandwich of my junior high youth. They sold these, individually from the cafeteria, for 75 cents each, with a variety of flavors to choose from - vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, coffee, mint. It's been a long time since then, but I realized that Southern Californians did not even know what an It's it was, much less had access to them. I naively thought that everyone had access to these! I guess it's more of a bay area thing, since the only It's it factory that I know of is off 101, right outside of San Francisco. However, one day while perusing the aisles of a...Vons? Ralphs? I forget now, but I saw a 3 pack of It's It! I blindly grabbed at it, and brought it home to share.
Here's a snap of the wrapper - vanilla flavor, old school illustration, same old lettering. I love it.

And here it is, bitten into. The chocolate coating, the oatmeal cookies, the vanilla ice cream. It really is the perfect ice cream sandwich. I think I can only have one once a year though...don't exactly still have that junior high school metabolism anymore, heh.

http://www.itsiticecream.com/
Supposedly, they're available at Albertsons in Southern California, but I don't recall where I got these!

Smokehouse Restaurant

So, I work next to this old timey restaurant called the Smokehouse, which is supposedly one of George Clooney's haunts. Can't say I've seen him there (but when I do, I will give him a piece of my mind! One of my first questions - "How do you get your eyelashes to be so amazing?"), but Louisa and I have stopped in on numerous occasions now, mainly to take advantage of their $12.99 Prime rib Monday special. Yes, folks, you read it right - 13 dollas' for a sweet slice of prime rib, complete with 2 sides. If that isn't recession friendly, I don't know what is.

But they gotta make their money's worth as well, right? They're known for their famous garlic bread, as shown by their take out aluminum foil bread loaf bag...(this is another time, when I got take out garlic bread by itself...)

"Worlds Greatest Garlic bread" huh? We'll see about that...

And this is what a half order looks like. Old school artery clogging goodness. The topping, Owen has noted, looks and tastes like contents of those Kraft Macaroni and Cheese sauce packets. Processed, powderized cheese and garlic bits. Well, I guess they USED to be garlic and cheese at some point...right? Well, it's all pretty damn tasty still (again, my love for fake nacho cheese probably helps with this). This is where they get yer money's worth out of you, bread isn't free at Smokehouse, half order is like 4 bucks, and full order is like 6 bucks. Hrm, digging into the pockets now for that extra change...okay, back to the rest of the meal...


Here's my Prime rib special, (cooked to my specifications, medium) with my two chosen sides of creamed spinach and mashed potatoes. They have those little extras that are always nice with a prime rib - horseradish sauce, and a little gravy boat of au jus. Tasty...very tasty. This is a usual item on the menu, that costs, oh, 23 dollars? So this isn't that gross cheap 2 dollar prime rib from a shady casino in Vegas (oh so suspicious! why does it cost 2 dollars?!) I'd also like to mention that the service is LIGHTING FAST here. Once you order, I say it takes about 5 minutes for them to deliver your meal to the table. But I guess I'm speaking for myself, since I usually only go on Mondays, when there's less people. But every single time - super fast service.

Louisa's plate looks pretty similar to mine, except she chose the asparagus spears and the rice pilaf. She raves about their rice pilaf, someday I will get it instead of my power combo above.

Smokehouse feels fancy, like taking your grandparents out to a nice birthday meal, but with a deal like that, the fanciness is just the icing on the cake to a great meal. Clooney, I'll meet you there, when, next Monday? Yeah, prime rib's on me, hah.

Smokehouse Restaurant
4420 West Lakeside Drive
Burbank, California 91505
(818) 845-3731

IKEA cafeteria

One of life's simple pleasures...

...The swedish meatballs plate from IKEA's cafeteria. Hello, gorgeous. I love the little things about this well constructed, filling dish - the little Swedish flag, the lingonberry sauce, the way they exactly count out how many meatballs per plate, the splash of gravy from a gallon vat, complete with that gravy skin that is oh-so-disgusting/appealing. If you have 5 dollars, it's enough to score you this wondrous product of Swedish ingenuity. But bus your own plates...this ain't the Gordon Ramsay.

IKEA (various locations, but this one happened to be at)
IKEA Burbank, CA
600 N. San Fernando Blvd,
Burbank, CA
818-842-4532

Baby Blues BBQ

BBQ is a tricky thing. Good BBQ is even trickier. I can't say I'm a connoisseur of BBQ, but I heard great things about Baby Blues BBQ, in Venice, so as a test, I picked up a number of pulled pork sandwiches for my coworkers (since I live way closer to the westside) and we all tried it at the same time. I admit that I probably shouldn't judge too harshly, since by the time I got to taste my pulled pork sandwich, it was rather cold. Anyways, here's a picture of it.

The pulled pork sandwich, which came unsauced, and with a small coleslaw topping as the vegetable crunch. First off, the bun - which was really big for what I was expecting, more of a big unruly grilled on the bottom foccacia style roll thing, which was a lot of bread. I understand the necessity of adding your own bbq sauce right before consumption but since it had cooled, the bbq sauce did not coat everything evenly, like I would have liked, but I really can't blame Baby blues for that. The meat was tender enough, and even though I'm really not a fan of cole slaw, it went well as the crunchy vegetable texture to distract from just the meat.

Here's a slightly closer look...very unsauced. Huge amount of bread. I don't remember finishing all the bread.

Louisa got a bbq chicken sandwich, which really was the same deal as the pulled pork - same bread, just different meat. I remember her liking it.

And here's Louisa's mouth eating some mac and cheese. It was nice and cheesy but I think that it actually needed more seasoning - it needed to be more salty and less creamy. Still good though.

I'm going to give Baby blues another chance - perhaps their ribs - and to eat there next time, so I can get a better assessment of their famed bbq prowess. They were very efficient with my order, though, I had called a few hours beforehand and they had everything packed up and ready to go when I arrived.

Baby Blues BBQ
444 Lincoln Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
babybluesvenice.com

B and B Ristorante - Las Vegas, NV

Vegas trip, a few months ago - as a celebration for Obray and Will's 30th birthday (a momentous event!) we wanted to go somewhere good for dinner, but we were in a bit of a rush as well, as we were going to see Blue Man Group that night. We decided on the B and B Ristorante, really close to the Blue Man group theater, and in the "Restaurant Row" area between Venetian and Palazzo. I've been wanting to go here for awhile but I think they are only open for dinner, so I was really pleased that everyone went along with it (we had a fairly large group, and the restaurant was happy to accomidate us.)

Our waiter was superb - really patient with us, wanted to go over any questions we had about the menu, really great suggestions. After a long deliberation, we made our choices..I was totally excited when they placed these plates in the middle of the table...

...A small appetizer from the kitchen - chickpeas, mixed with olive tapenade, over toasted bread. The chickpeas, oozing with the tapenade, glowed with flavor. I loved the finish with olive oil over the whole thing, it was really flavorful olive oil, and perfect toast. We were off to a great start.


Our waiter circled the table and individually placed a piece of french bread on our bread plates. -the crust was very crispy and crunchy, the inside soft. We dipped this in olive oil. Wished we got more than one piece each but wasn't going to complain.


Owen and I started with an order of Vegetable misto - Different kinds of veggies - carrot strips, eggplant, green onions, and onions, from what I remember - quickly fried, with a tomatoy dipping sauce. This was excellently fried, the delicate veggies were still fairly crunchy, but by the end of it, it was a bit much. I think we finished most of it, but by the end we were kind of tired of the taste of...fried. I know! How could I ever be tired of the taste of fried stuff?


Owen got The special of the day - Nettle paparadelle, with wild boar. This was a huge winner, Owen ordered this, along with a few people at the table. The meat was really tender, the noodles flavorful. The bite I had, reminded me of a stew my mom would make when I was a kid. Really wish I had gotten this one to have more bites of it.


Beef Cheek Ravioli with Black Truffles and Crushed Duck Liver Cheek meat, in general, is really tops. I tried a piece of this, it was very rich. I think this was a pretty small portion though...that'd be my only complaint.


Horribly blurry picture of my Duck with Cherry and Green Almond Conserva. This was just right, crispy skin, some of the best duck (that's not asian style peking duck) that I've had. I picked these bones clean.

I think this was Bryan's pasta dish, which had all sorts of seafood in it. He had no complaints. I like how all the pasta was very fresh (they made this in house, right?), but I have no idea how it tasted, so moving right along...

Pappardelle Bolognese was Obray's choice, sorry for the blurry ass picture. Not everyone is used to my snapping of pictures, and all of us were pretty hungry. I love papparadelle...I'm sure this was a tasty version, Obray certainly enjoyed it, I think.

And, for dessert, as it was Obray's 30th birthday, he got himself a bananas foster cake, with a nice "Happy birthday" written in chocolate sauce. Festive, fancy, and delicious. I can't think of a better combo.

And to finish the whole meal off, a plate of mignardises. There were little brownie bite things, awesome orange jelly things, and biscotti bites. My favorite out of all these were the orange jellies, very soft and homemade tasting, with fruity flavor.

Service, as I mentioned earlier, was excellent, and I definitely wouldn't mind coming here again, but there are so many places for me to try still...and it's difficult because they are only open for dinner, no lunch service.

B and B Ristorante
website
at the Venetian
3355 Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV
(702) 266-9977