Showing posts with label carbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carbs. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

C&O Trattoria
31 Washington Boulevard
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
Say what? C&O's for breakfast?!

Yes! It's true! They serve breakfast! I found out about half a year ago myself...I couldn't believe it when the words "breakfast" and "C&O's" were put together in the same sentence. Luckily, I was shown the error of my assumption. I finally went back, during breakfast time, to do a proper rundown.

First off, C&O's Trattoria is extremely crowded during dinnertime, and forces you to valet park your car, which is the worst, because valet parking near the beach is 6 bucks, that's not including tip. During the earlier morning hours, there's a chance you can grab one of the metered parking spots in front of the restaurant and spend about a dollar in change to park your car. Also, during breakfast at C&O's, you can sit in the coveted open air patio spots, although it might be a little chilly on a cold morning (remedied by heat lamps, which you can request for someone to turn on.)

Breakfast at C&O's is not like dinner at C&O's...where they have the regular servings and "gargantuan" servings. Breakfast is a lot more normal, with manageable servings. Garlic rolls, which are one of my favorite things here, are only served after noon. Blast. But, there are plenty of other things to fill the void...
Owen got the special: Apple Crepes with nuts and marscapone cheese. It came with 2 eggs (over easy) and choice of meat (2 slices of bacon was his choice.) I have to say, the apple crepes were some of the best I've had- thin delicate crispy on the edges but softer near the middle crepes, filled with fresh, thick apple pie-like filling, topped off with that delicate slightly sweet and creamy marscapone cheese and a few crunches of crumbled nuts. So good. This combo was a great "sweet and salty" combination, as eggs and bacon aren't usually included in sweet dishes. (i.e. ever wanted some french toast, but not like, ONLY french toast? Once they set a huge plate of french toast and nothing else in front of you, and you go, oh crap, now I have to eat all this french toast. Kinda like a burger without fries....well I digress. Back to the food.)
Here's my monstrous plate of C&O's version of an egg benedict. Now, I don't usually order eggs benedict, (actually, almost never) but this time, I felt adventurous. And hungry. First off, I loved the potatoes. Good solid crunch all around each piece, and seasoned as well. Now to the benedict itself... A perfectly poached egg on top of prosciutto (their version of Canadian bacon), on top of focaccia, douse the whole thing with hollandaise. Yep. This is not for wimps. This is going ALL OUT for maximum deliciousness.
Wow. Just check out that runny innards of the yolk - not TOO runny where it just splats all over your plate, but firm enough to the point where the yolk consistency is thick, and sticks to itself. There's just something about a delicious poached egg in the morning. The focaccia was surprisingly good with this combination, (correct me if I'm wrong, but the carbs in this are supposed to be english muffins...right?) because it withstood all the punishment from the hollandaise and the yolk runoff, and was still nice and bready, even till the last bite. The prosciutto was very salty, which at first was great, but as I attacked the meal, it became almost TOO salty. I mean, there's nothing to offset all the saltiness going on, on the plate. I think next time, as much as I liked the potatoes, I'll get fresh fruit, as a counterpoint to all of the savory.

I really liked C&O's breakfast - it's definitely not a place that one would think of for that greasy spoon diner breakfast experience, so that's what makes it more special when you roll into the restaurant on these morning off hours. I say give it a chance and perhaps try to get there during the later morning hours...so you can fulfill your fix of those sinfully good "killer" garlic rolls. What a way to start the day...

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

C&O Cucina
Washington Blvd and almost to Abbot Kinney Blvd.

Italian food is always iffy to me as a choice when wanting to go out to eat, because I almost always feel jipped. Why? Because spaghetti and meatballs are the easiest thing to cook at home, and paying 15 dollars and up for a meal that sometimes equally tastes as good as frozen meatballs and dried pasta noodles from TJ's (so good, so cheap) is a travesty. Of course, there are a few exceptions to this rule. One of these exceptions is C&O's Cucina/Trattoria.

C&O's Trattoria is actually better than C&O's Cucina, for the ambience, waitstaff and location (closer to the water.) However, they're always more crowded, the wait-time is longer and the valet is more expensive. Cucina is really almost as good, considering the tradeoff.

First off...the Killer garlic rolls...
They come around with a big fresh batch of these little morsels of deliciousness every 15 minutes or so, and fill a white oval plate - carefully transferring them with a pair of tongs. These cute rolly bites of carby goodness are covered in real chopped garlic and parsley bits, and are usually gone in a second with a hungry group. However, I warn you - these are so good that you might not be able to stop - and there's much more delicious food to go, so keep in mind: they are KILLER!
Owen loves himself some caesar salad, and here was one order of it. Nothing outstanding, but not disappointing. The cheese is great in this - real grated parmesan, like it always should be (unfortunately, not always the case.)
Yes, even more food. Worth the wait though - this was the gargantuan order of The Special - Wide, flat noodles with shiitake mushrooms, apple chicken sausage in a tomato cream sauce. This was amazing good! The mushrooms this pasta dish an AMAZING flavor, and the wide noodles made this dish super special to me - I just like wide noodles alright? The creme sauce was great - not too creamy and not too tomato-y. The apple chicken sausage had good bite and flavor. This is my new thing to love here!!
Ish got the C & O Classic Cioppino - "A famous Italian Fisherman's Stew featuring shrimp, clams, mussels, salmon, swordfish and scallops in a deliciously light tomato and Pinot Grigio broth.". Dang. This was a seafood orgy in a soup. He seemed to like it a lot and who wouldn't with all those different kinds of seafood swimming in his delicious thick soup.
Bryan got a classic Spaghettini with meatballs. Huge meatballs (the size of a fist!) nestled above delicious spaghetti noodles and homemade sauce, what's not to like? Bryan managed to finish this whole plate himself so I'm assuming it was edible :D

Dean and Ryan shared a Linguini & Clams - in a Garlic Butter White Wine Lemon Sauce. Hearty and so full of clams...

C&O's motto is "People generally don't leave here hungry." I can attest to that statement...I was full to bursting when leaving, full of carby carbs and holding enough leftovers to feed me and Owen for the next few days. C&O's rules!