December 27, 2004 2

Grand Lux Cafe (Beverly Center)

//// By in 09: Weho

DSC01793.JPGDSC01795.jpgHere the day after Christmas day is the on-sale shopping and returning-items day. Some retail chains even opened at 5am for desperate bargain-shoppers. The dress I got mom is wrong size so we have to beat the crowd at the mall for exchange. We ate at the restaurant Grand Lux Cafe which looked glitter, golden and shiny like a grand Las Vegas casino (in fact there IS one at Venetian Hotel). But the food is not ‘Grand” nor “luxury’ at all. It’s just typical California ‘fusion’ menu with ‘everything’ (from Continental breakfast to Filet Mignon, Pizza, Vietnamese roll, Mongolian steak…etc. and all extremely overpriced). It’s owned by the same creator who opened the ultra lame Cheesecake Factory. So it’s supposedly a more upscale sister restaurant to Cheesecake Factory. If CF were ‘The Gap’, then GLC would be their ‘Banana Republic’. ^^;;

DSC01797.jpgDSC01799.jpgSince it is located in the mall so of course there’re mall-crowd friendly Lunch specials. I got the $10 Pasta+Salad specials. Pasta Fresca corkscrew pasta dried tomato, olives, brocalli, asparagus with garlic butter sauce. OH my this is unbelievably delicious~~~ The salad too! *O*

DSC01803.jpgOmlette Special $8 Bacon, Spinach, cheese…Normal…

DSC01807.jpgNew Orleans Beignets $7 The waiter hardsell their “30-minutes-to-prepared-desserts-menu’ to every table so we tried one. It’s basically fried donuts with raspberry, chocolate and custard dippings. But it’s very good! The donut doughs are soooooo incredibly light and soft. YUMMY!

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December 27, 2004 1

The Kitchen (Old Town Pasadena)

//// By in 02: Pasadena

DSC01751.jpgDSC01750.jpgShopping too much for our room at Old Town recently. This little Italian place at the corner on Union St. is a safe haven from the lame crowd who traffic jam all the ‘obvious’ restaurants on Colorado. But it get filled up very quickly on a busy night too. The bread is really good~~ Minestrone is so-so.

DSC01755.jpgDSC01756.jpgLeft: Pasta Salad don’t like it, especially not on a tired chilly night. The pastas are hard and cold; 🙁 Right: Forgot name ^^;;; it has eggplant fried on bread, yum! I like the grilled potatoes, full of various flavor and strong garlic, but I smelled and felt too sickly garlic the rest of the night though 🙁

DSC01758.jpgTiramisu Good!

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December 23, 2004 2

Cafe Beaujolais (Eagle Rock)

//// By in 03: Eagle Rock

DSC01782.jpgDSC01775.jpgHad a wonderful dinner again at Cafe Beaujolais, this time with Stan and Dean (who went there few weeks ago after reading about it here ^_^ They too said it’s great! And last time they get acquianted with this lovely old couple sitting next to their table and met them again last night!). Apparently it’s Jazz night on Wednesday so there’s a jazz band playing in the already very noisy packed restaurant. So the waiter drew on the table paper to tell us the special menu (so cute! *^^*) I had a Rose Wine $6. Please excuse my ignorance of wine, ^^;; I thought it’s more lightweighted as Rose is sorta of semi-red wine? But still I was pretty dizzy half way the glass.

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December 22, 2004 2

Caffe Penguini (Playa del Rey)

//// By in 14: Marina del Rey

DSC01767.jpgDSC01761.jpgDSC01764.jpgDSC01762.jpgI spotted the penguin sign the first day, ever since I’ve been wanting to try it. It’s an Italian restaurant (Penguini ^_-). and located right by the beach (which is kinda bare and ugly btw). I was alarmed with “OH-oh” when I saw the ‘casually high-end’ interior and sophisticated looking patrons (40-somthing well dressed business executive looking men and women). Fettucini Bolognese $12 Taste as plain as the name sound. ^^lll Well the Fettucini seem to be handmade: taste very fresh and very light, which was really good. But still, the bolognese are a bit bland tasting. Definitely too overpriced…not for work day lunch break.

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December 22, 2004 1

Restaurant 2117 (Sawtelle)

//// By in 12: Sawtelle

DSC01730.jpgCoincidently I have a week full of Italian food (which is overabundant in LA anyway). This is a Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant located at Sawtelle opened by a Japanese chef (with all Japanese staffs). Everything about this place is a bit pretentious (over-DESIGN wine collection, all-white minimalism with only deco plates that are very 80s ‘Wolfgang Puck-ugly’). And during order, the waitress will hassle you with ordering wine+appertizer (if you order only water or entree, she’ll be like “JUST water/tea?” or ‘entree ONLY!?’). Totally give me a try-too-hard to-be-high-end vibe, and I don’t bother to treat it high-end with its poor Japanese serving size of bread that are cold and hard. I went there for lunch and later went there for dinner (giving it a second chance).

For lunch:
DSC01731.jpgMushroom soup. Too much pepper and ginger…

DSC01734.jpgFried Calamari Spaghetti with Plum sauce $12 Quite nice. The pasta are in half-cooked style.

This is from another day @ dinner:
DSC01769.jpgCrab Salad with Avacado $12 Not mine, seems good~

DSC01768.jpgHalf Chicken in Honey Mustard $11 I felt very lame after I ordered this (the cheapest entree item) and I never liked chicken anyway. 🙁

Verdict? Alright.

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