Ocean Avenue Seafood

Another DineLA dinner from a couple years back.  I'm embarrassed, and resolve to catch up with posting some highlights from the last couple (!) of years that I've been away.  They'll probably be quick posts to share some photos of the food, but I really am resolving to 1.  post more.  2.  finally post the redesign of the blog.  Please bear with me.

Ocean Ave Seafood, located in Santa Monica, special Dine LA dinner -

Bread and butter, very good

Clam Chowder - with Applewood smoked bacon.  Very rich and creamy.

Oyster Sampler, 1/2 Dozen - Chef’s selection of fresh oysters.

A close up.  I don't have raw oysters too often as Owen does not like them, but I think I will admit that I prefer their preparation either fried or Rockefeller'd.  These were decent though, very briny and fresh tasting.

Mixed Seafood Pasta - Handmade linguine pasta tossed with clams, mussels, shrimp, scallop and calamari in fresh marinara sauce.  Daphne got this and she seemed to like this a lot.

I think it was some sort of dessert wine, a muscato.  Daphne loves this kind of dessert wine.

Grilled Salmon - with mashed potatoes, asparagus, and pinot noir reduction.  I love me some salmon, and mashed potatoes were excellent.  The skin was nice and crispy on this preparation, and thankfully not overdone.  Very good.

Traditional Crème Brulee - Caramelized and served with raspberry.  Rich, sweet, although could have used more crunchy caramelized topping.

Warm Chocolate Bread Pudding - Served with Vanilla Bean Sauce.  I think Owen would love loved this, as these are two things he loves the most.

Ocean Ave Seafood
1401 Ocean Ave.
Santa Monica CA 90401
310-394-5669
www.oceanave.com

Alaska Cruise: Pt. 9: Last dinner!

Last dinner on the cruise! After being at sea for two days, we were excited to be back on land soon, but we also wanted to savor our last chance to try so many different foods. Bring it!

Owen got the Avocado Boat with seafood in a lime cilantro vinagrette. Avocado and seafood, can't go wrong. The avocado was nicely ripe. Not too much seafood but not bad for an appetizer.

I got the Vol au Vent a la Reine - A flaky puff pastry case filled with chicken and mushroom in sauce supreme - this was awesome. I wish I could have one right now. The inside was kinda like pot pie, if you made it with Campbell's Cream of mushroom soup. The flaky outside was very well done, not undercooked like the other pastry dinner items we had on other nights.


Justin got some Floridian Oranges Steeped in Grand Marnier and Mint - The mint was kind of weird, as it tinted the oranges a bit green, but an orange is an orange. Albeit, a decent orange, since we had access to that amazing fruit on the cruise.


I was curious about what this was - "A Classic Philadelphia Pepper Pot" - It's just spicy minestrone. The mystery is solved. This was just okay.


Another prime rib night - "Texas Prime Rib with Creamed Horseradish - Roast beef with natural juice, grilled roma tomato, corn on the cob and baked idaho potato" - this is my "medium rare" cut. This is definitely NOT medium rare. I only ate half of this. This cruise does not know how to use salt on meat. Disappointing, to say the least. The baked potato, solid and good as always. Didn't eat my corn on the cob, but it seemed a bit oversteamed.


Owen loves turkey - given the choice, he'd eat turkey at almost every meal. So, seeing this on the menu, he instantly ordered it..."Young Tom Turkey and all the trimmings - Whole Roasted with Bread Fruit stuffing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce and glazed sweet potatoes" - Owen was in heaven. Thanksgiving came early for him. After I took this picture, they also added cranberry sauce, which really sealed the deal.


Justin and I decided to get this plate to share - "Sea Scallops Mediterranean Fashion - Served over Ratatouille of Eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, kalamata black olives, capers and fresh herbs" - I sneaked a few of the scallops, it was alright, but I think the mediterranian sauce was a bit off. It made the scallops almost...bitter tasting.


Dessert time! First up, a Honey and vanilla ice cream cake thing. I tasted it, it was okay. Not horribly memorable.


I got this strawberry mousse, the sugar free choice of the evening. The taste of this is described in one word: pink. It tasted like the color pink. Nothing really much of substance, that fakey sugary taste. This was really disgusting.

More mousse, but much better than that horrible sugar free crap. Vanilla and Chocolate Mousse, with chocolate shavings on top, it was really rich and tasty, especially as a contrast to the pink nastiness that I had just tasted.

The Princess Chocolate Heart dessert, one of the options that you could have every night. More of the same texture of the mousse, except a bit more cakey.

A splurge on the last night of the cruise, Owen decided on getting a chocolate sundae, with chocolate ice cream and fudge. This is a combination you pretty much can't mess up for him.

That's pretty much the end of the cruise! We had another sitdown breakfast before leaving the ship, but it was pretty much what we had last time we had the sitdown breakfast. What an eating marathon. I think I'm done with cruises for a bit, but it was great to catch up with family, and see Alaska! Now back to our regularly scheduled program of food blogging around LA!

Alaska Cruise: Pt. 3 - Not surprising, more sitdown meals

Our lunch, before heading out to Victoria, British Colombia Canada. We managed to get to the dining room for lunch before our excursion to Butchart Gardens (which was very beautiful, and we had perfect weather!) Pretty nice meal, considering...

A plate of calamari. Not the best calamari I've had, but it was pretty decent, as it was crispy enough and each piece battered well, if a bit too salty - one less pinch of salt, and it would have been perfect. The tomato dipping sauce was pretty bland but I used it anyway, to nullify some of the saltiness of the batter.

Owen's matzo ball soup, a comfort food for him. The taste I had of it was pretty solid, the matzo was yielding and soaked up the flavors of the broth.

Hello, salmon! This smoked salmon plate is amazing, imagine this being placed in front of you. Mmmm. This smoked salmon rolled "rose" of sorts was completely ALL SALMON. Not rolled around anything but ITSELF. The generous helping of cold smoked salmon was heaven. Seriously good. The cream cheese balls, onion and capers, all added to the taste of the salmon - a bite of this combo on a bagel was great. This is where Princess truly excelled at their meals - their quality and quantity of their smoked salmon was the best thing on this cruise.

Owen's Shepherd's Pie was very delicious too, bits of fresh ground lamb, carrot, onion and peas, with a whipped mashed potato topping, and then baked. Very British. The taste that I had of this was very good.

For dessert (yes! a lunch dessert!), Owen got a chocolate pudding pie. He liked it a lot, and finished the whole piece. The chocolate shavings on top were a nice touch.

I got their frozen yogurt selection of the day, some tamarind flavored frozen yogurt. It was just bleh. Again with the half melted textures! Ah well.

Not even halfway through the Alaska stuff yet, sorry if anyone's bored, but I went on a picture taking frenzy during this time, so bear with me...

Luna Park
672 S. La Brea (near Wilshire)
Los Angeles, CA 90036

The first meeting for Supper Club! Luna Park was the place because it is nearly impossible to get a reservation for anytime other than 10pm currently at Pizzeria Mozza...I will get there someday though. Anyways, on to Luna Park...I had made reservations and upon arrival, they stuffed us in one of the very cozy back booths near the bathroom. Really...they could have done better than that, because when we got there, there were still tables open. Oh well.

Starting off with bread and "dipping sauce". For some reason they took forever getting the dipping sauce ready so we all stared hungrily at the bread for a bit, before they FINALLY brought a little dish with oil and stuff over. Bread is bread...this was d
Aaron, Jane and I shared some "Luna Park Carnival Dogs" - Assorted Sausage filled "Corndogs" with Assorted Mustards. The assorted mustards were a dijon, a yellow and a seedy chunky mustard. They were alright. I like corndogs in general, so this was a nice warm up. Decent mini sausage inside crispy fried batter on a stick is always a hit with me. This is Jane's "Wild Mushroom Ravioli with Sage Browned Butter Sauce with Toasted Pine Nuts and Parmesan Cheese". I tried a piece of it and it was really good - very earthy mushroomy, good flavor and tons of butter which makes everything better. I definitely think that if there's any kind of pasta that's best to have at a restaurant, it's ravioli.
Here's Anna's “Tasty Burger”. They used Niman Ranch Beef, so I approve. Anna likes her burgers well done, so when she got it and it was less than well done, they offered to cook it some more for her. That was nice. French fries were well done and crispy like Anna requested.
This is Aaron's Jerk Chicken -Grilled Half Chicken with Roasted Plantains and Sauteed Mustard Greens. I tried a piece of the chicken which was deboned beforehand (nice touch). Juicy and well flavored. The plantains looked good and carmelized. I'd probably say this was the best entree plate of the night. This is Dom's Cobb Salad: Grilled Chicken, Mixed Greens, Tomato, Egg, Bacon, Blue Cheese, Avocado. She said it was good. She also ordered:A side of mashed potatoes. I think their mashed potatoes were top notch- creamy, flavorful, whipped, with little chives. Very very good.

Also, I had FORGOTTEN to take a picture of MY OWN FOOD! I know! I'm such a dork. I had gotten the Breaded Pork Cutlet Stuffed with Mushrooms and Gruyere Cheese with Mashed Potatoes, String Beans and Apple-Cranberry Sauce. It was good, but I don't think I'd get it again. There wasn't anything that special about it other than the mashed potatoes.
Now onto the highlight of dinner - dessert! We were STRONGLY pushed to get the toffee pudding, so Aaron ordered it on behalf of Anna...check this action shot out!
Anna's pouring skills are top notch!! It was actually really good. Very sweet, good sauce, fresh whipped cream. The bready stuff was alright, but a little too dense for my taste. Aaron seemed to like this one especially.
Jane ordered the Warm Bread Pudding served with Vanilla Custard. This was awesome. The crust on the bread pudding was excellent, studded with berries and carmelized very nicely (although burned a bit, but it still tasted good.) The vanilla custard sauce was a good counterpoint to the flavors in the pudding...I liked it a lot.

Dom and I shared a Domino Cake - Layers of Chocolate Cake and Dark Chocolate Mousse Served with Chocolate Ice Cream. A chocolate lover's DREAM! So good...the domino chocolate wafers were actually made of a delicious dark creamy chocolate, which was a huge surprise to me. The mousse was decadent. A great choice for anyone who likes chocolate even a little bit.

Luna Park's scene was a little dark, trendy and crowded. It's not necessarily somewhere where I'd be itching to get back to, but I say it was good for our first supper club. (Thanks Supper Club-goers!)