Fritto Misto

I had been wanting to try this place for awhile, after passing it many times on my way back home from 3rd Street Promenade, and had heard great things about it, so I set up a lunch with Daphne and her brother to meet up here. The place was bustling crowded, filled with office workers from nearby. They wouldn’t seat us until we were all there, so I waited a spell and eyed their desserts (I guess all premade and precut, everything was pre-plated and saran-wrapped).

When we sat down, we were immediately served this basket of warm bread. The texture of this bread was not entirely unpleasant but nothing special, as was the crust. The best part about this bread was the fact it was very warm, and was refilled even though there was only one piece left (the lone piece of bread, no one wants to take it…)

My usual drink order, the Arnold palmer. Good ratio of lemonade to iced tea.

As I eyed the menu, I had really wanted to order the namesake of the restaurant, the Fritto Misto. We agreed to order one as an appetizer and share it. When this dish landed on the table, it was a massive mound of fried goods – fresh and hot – containing pieces of broccoli, zucchini, shrimp, carrot, scallop, and eggplant. Cocktail and tartar sauce were provided for dipping. This really ended up being too much, a more appropriate amount for 6 people instead of 3. We could not finish this, which was a shame because re-heated fried food is never the same, so it was a waste. Ahh, waste….don’t tell my mother, please.

This was Daphne’s gnocchi pasta balls, with mini shrimps, in a cream sauce. This was deceptively a big portion, as each little gnocchi dumpling was filled with…

…ricotta cheese, as Daphne is proudly displaying here. She liked it a lot, I think.

This was what Eric ordered, a ravioli in a pink cream sauce, with sundried tomatoes. I think the ravioli was filled with chicken (he insisted that he “needed meat”, so I think that’s what they offered), and he got “full enough” from this dish (a major concern he had when ordering), so I think it was a success.

ordered the lunch special, which that day happened to be lasagna. Lunch specials come with a side salad, and I requested it to be a walnut gorgonzola salad (extra charge) instead of the usual choices of Caesar or house salad, and I’m glad I made the choice – the gorgonzola salad was enough to be a meal in itself. The lasagna had a really rich tasty sauce, which I enjoyed greatly, but I managed to control myself and only have half of this plate, the rest went to Owen who was sick at home and appreciated the treat.

At this point, I was too full to even look at desserts, so I guess that will have to wait for the next time I go! I think I’ll try dinner here next time…

Fritto Misto

601 Colorado Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90407
(310) 458-2829

Ciao Christina

Ciao Christina is a small little restaurant, just recently reopened after a long refurbishment, within walking distance of work, so Louisa and I decided to give it a try. We had heard that they had great gelato, and the gelato case is what instantly drew my eyes when I walked in. After a quick review of what flavors they had, I decided on:

A scoop of hazelnut and a scoop of pistachio. I actually am not usually a pistachio flavor kinda gal, but this was an excellent pistachio gelato, although I think the real pistachios were quite stale and I had wished they had excluded them. The hazelnut was a rich nutty flavor, it was a good accompaniment to the pistachio. I ate this pretty quick - isn't gelato best eaten fairly quickly, before it gets soupy?

The rest of our dinner (yes, we had dessert first while waiting for our "to-go" order, sometimes, dessert first is a necessity) was unearthed when we arrived back at work, and what a pretty sight it was...

This was Louisa's chicken parm sandwich (sorry for the blurriness). The bread was thick, and possibly could have been made in house, it was so good. The chicken had a nice breading to it, and held up its' crispness against the tomato sauce. There were even some olive slices in the sandwich. The potato chips were a real treat - they were freshly fried! Not out of a bag! Extra crispy crunchy, and really fun to eat. (I ended up ordering this the next time I went!)

I had decided on a chicken sausage stromboli (they also have calzones, but strombolis have mozzarella cheese on the inside, instead of ricotta, and for me, it was not a ricotta kinda day.), which was freshly made by request, and it showed. First off, this thing was huge - like, football sized. The bread was really great, not too much chew, not too hard of a crust. I neglected to take a picture of the insides, but the chicken sausage was where all the flavor was, and the cheese held it all together.

This also came with my stromboli - tomato sauce. This was excellent sauce - great to dip pieces of the stromboli in, I was almost eating this as if it was tomato soup. Louisa gave her approval, as an Italian - she mentioned it was "good gravy" (I guess tomato sauce is known as gravy in her family?)


Louisa also had gotten a cannoli to go, as her snack/dessert for later. I should have gotten one too, but I figured my stromboli was going to kick my ass (which it did.) I tried a bit of the creamy ricotta insides...sweet, tangy but mild, with bits of chocolate chips and dried fruit in the filling. I should have gotten one.

The proximity of this place pretty much assures the fact I will return, but I am also pleased it has great food, although I admit it is a little pricey (cept the gelato, which is a steal at 3 dollars for their biggest cup.) I will have to try their pizza next time.

Ciao Christina
4201 W. Olive Ave.
Burbank, CA 91505
(818) 563-2426
http://www.ciaocristina.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

Cafe Paradiso

Way too much catching up to do, I know. I'm doing my best...I have so much to share still!

Daphne and I went on another food adventure, using another Restaurant.com certificate. Cafe Paradiso was fairly close to her place, but was a bit hard to park around that area. We managed to find metered street parking, which I am always paranoid about. Ah, well, we found it okay.

We walked into an empty restaurant...which was a little worrisome, this was during major lunch rush hours. Our server was very friendly though, and was quite attentive. Daphne was STARVING that day, so she was ready to chow down.

I got an arnold palmer, my usual drink order. It was presented in a vibrant pink grapefruit cup, which is kind of misleading, but almost made my drink taste better - I love the design on it, makes me want to drink pink grapefruit juice!

A bottle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar was placed on the table, this was some decent balsamic, very flavorful. This would be great on a salad.

Fresh bread, placed at the table. The bread was pretty fresh, chopped focaccia, the same kind that would later be on my sandwich.

Daphne ordered a minestrone soup to start, I had a small taste and thought it was decently tasty, veggies were well cooked, and good deep veggie flavor. The serving size was just right, I think - not too much where it's an overload and not too little to make you feel like you only got a taste.

Daph got the catch of the day - I think it was red snapper - which came with some simple pasta with butter sauce, topped with red pepper flakes. The fish was really good - cooked just right, moist, topped with fresh veggies. She cleaned off this whole plate.

I got a steak panini, and honestly, I wasn't digging on this sandwich. The steak was overloaded with balsamic flavor, and I think the problem was that it WAS just steak, pretty much. I think a slice of tomato was in there. I just wouldn't order this again, I only ate half and I wasn't looking forward to eating the other half. The caesar salad was good, standard caesar salad, heavy on the parmesan cheese which I liked.

Close up of the half of panini sandwich I ate...see...just meat stuff and tomato. I need a little more variety, maybe some greenery?


For dessert, Daph and I shared a lemony tart thing. The texture was nice, it was drier than I thought it should taste, but sufficient as a dessert. I like the raspberry sauce, which tasted fresh.

Overall, it was an ok lunch but I think they overcharged us (as in, they didn't apply the restaurant.com coupon properly or something). I don't think I'll go out of my way to come here, but it might be better for dinner, and Daph's meal looked good, so maybe I'd give it another chance.

Cafe Paradiso
2408 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 828-0218

Prizzi's Piazza
5923 Franklin Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90028

This third time around for Supper club, we decided to go somewhere for Italian food. Prizzi's Piazza was the choice of the night. The place itself was a small restaurant in a row of mini restaurants that line Franklin Ave, and I passed by it a few times before realizing that was the location. I lucked out on parking (yess!!!), which was seriously lucky because the only other thing that would have been available was valet.

We were seated in an upstairs table, which was kind of noisy as all the sounds from downstairs echoed throughout the ceiling. As we settled in and took a glance at our menus, we quickly made our choices because our waitress didn't seem to make the rounds very much on the second floor. We first started with....
...their "famous" garlic bread. More like garlic LOGS. A scant four pieces to share, it was good and garlic-y- everything i promised to be. It had good minced garlic clumps to punch up the garlic aspect of it, and covered in freshly grated Parmesan cheese - that's always good in my book.
A plate of calamari. Delicious, deep fried rings of seafood...there is no use trying to resist it. I know I sure didn't. This was a good plate of it, and with some of their marinara dipped on top, it was a slice of oil drenched heaven.
I felt like something simpler so I went with the old standby - spaghetti and meatballs. The dish was basically...eh. It was okay. Nothing spectacular. I know you're going to say, "But it was spaghetti and meatballs! What were you expecting?!" and I agree, yes, it IS just spaghetti and meatballs, and that's the point. Something this simple is most telling of the restaurant. First with the meatballs - not salty or flavorful enough. I think on the inside there was a bit of mozzarella, which was nice texture wise, but again, it didn't add flavor. The spaghetti itself was okay. Not overcooked, which I liked. The sauce was alright too, but I like bigger chunks of tomato in my sauce. Eh.
Pizza! This tomato, basil and cheese pizza was shared by Jane, Anna and Patrick. Their verdict was....eh, it's pizza. Nothing spectacular. The bread looked decent, the toppings looked fresh. Better than Domino's, worse than Abbott Kinney Pizza, I'm assuming.
Steven's pasta was an amazing -Frutti di Mare. It contained shrimp, mussels, clams, calamari, Ahi tuna and Tilapia, are sauteed in a light and spicy tomato sauce over a small nest of black linguine. It was basically almost everything tasty from the ocean, thrown together with some pasta and tomatoes, and thrown on a plate. It was seafood upon seafood. This was definitely one of the best things of the night.
George is so kindly is displaying his meal - Petti di Pollo alla Marsala. Medallions of chicken sauteed in a Marsala wine reduction sauce with fresh mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes were on the plate, and everyone agreed, was the best dish of the night. The chicken was moist and flavorful, the mushrooms soaked up all the rich marsala sauce. Delicious.

Prizzi's was okay. I still think C&O's is superior in quality and price, but this was an alright place. A bit unmemorable, but not too shabby.

Bay Cities Italian Deli
Lincoln Blvd and Broadway in Santa Monica

Oh man. I know this is a bold statement...but there is such a thing as the perfect meal. There are different versions of this perfect meal (fancy perfect meal, casual perfect meal, etc.). This is the perfect sandwich craving meal. Yep. Anyone else that has been here will have to agree - this place is awesome.

However, there are a few pitfalls - first being parking. The parking is in a small lot on the side of the store, and is always packed. Richy Santa Monica folks will murderously and inconsiderately cut you off for that lone half spot in the back. It's a huge bummer. Secondly, EVERYONE comes here for a sandwich from the deli - take a number and then wait for at least a half an hour for your number to be called. This is not a joke. For instance, our number was 43. They were on number 5. Don't get me wrong, those guys behind the counter work hard and they're super nice. There's just so many people that are waiting for exactly the same thing you want. And that is a DELICIOUS SANDWICH! They bake their own amazing bread there - these Italian rolls that have a crunchy crispy crust and a soft as anything interior. Super fresh. If you grab a loaf while mulling around the store waiting for your number to be called, there's almost always a fresh, HOT baguette stack near the front of the store.

In any case, yes, it's worth it to jump through these hoops and get to what you've been waiting for...
A LARGE GODMOTHER with the works - which consists of:
genoa salami, mortadella coppacola, ham, prosciutto, provolone. No substitutes. There's no NEED for substitues. This thing is amazing.
The delicious shredded lettuce, Boar's head meat and cheese, Italian mix of bell peppers, oil and vinegar, mayo and mustard, on that mouthwatering bread. Even though there's a lot of salty meats in this sandwich, it surprisingly not as salty as you would think it should be - the bread and other stuff mellows out the salt. This is a slice of heaven. Really.
Just to mix it up, Owen got a turkey with cheddar cheese. This was equally great. Love that Boar's head meat...the turkey is so delicately sliced and fresh and delicious and everything you want in a turkey deli meat.

We also got some Hava Chips (Owen's favorite) and I got an Orange Pellegrino drink (sooo good). This makes for a great meal and quelling of any sandwich cravings you could ever have. Just have patience while waiting for your number to be called...ignore your urge to go to the Jack in the Box down the street as your stomach growls...you will thank yourself over and over again as you're taking a big bite out of this sandwich.

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!