Dining Reviews
Pasadena Cheeseburger Week runs through Friday
Get out the ketchup and mustard — and the pickles and onions, too.
Dining out: The lowdown on Bittersweet Treats
My mother preferred cooking gourmet main dishes to baking sweets. She'd much rather make a stuffed pork roll than an iced cinnamon roll. But every once in a while I'd come home from school to the aroma of spice cake or poppy seed bread. Rarely frosted, these treats were simple and satisfying.
Dining review: Galleria's colorful eatery is pho fun
Everything about 9021Pho, Glendale Galleria's newest restaurant, is lively and uplifting. Walls of windows let in light, retro-modern decor is steeped in the colors of mango and raspberry sorbet, and plates of colorful, farm-fresh foods all serve to energize weary mall shoppers. But don't feel...
Dining review: Grain Lab stands out from the chain crowd
Squeezed on all sides by chain shops and eateries in Burbank's Empire Center, Grain Lab is an independent island. The small eatery, which opened last month, has the minimal look of a hip chain, with a slightly industrial-meets-organic laboratory feel with brushed concrete floors and white walls.
Dining out: Fishing for the best taco
If someone were to ask me what food I'd eat for the rest of my life if I could only eat one food, it would have to be fish tacos. I crave them at all hours of the day. So I embarked on a quest to find the best one in a 15-mile radius. I went to old haunts, new finds and friends' recommendations.
Burbank, Glendale bakers in the top 10 for L.A. Times Holiday Cookie Bake-Off
This fall, the L.A. Times asked readers to share their special cookie recipes for the third annual Holiday Cookie Bake-Off, and then to help narrow down their favorites to the top 50.
Dining review: Forget your arteries and lap it up at Slater's 50/50
There's a new burger and sports TV joint in Pasadena. We're calling it the Testosterone province of Cholesterolistan. The owners call it Slater's 50/50. The 50/50 stands for the makeup of their burger patties — 50% ground beef, 50% ground bacon. There's bacon in the ketchup, in the salt and in...
Dining review: Take a savory bite out of Umami Burger
Umami Burger has made its way to Pasadena. The modernist burger joint was bound to arrive sooner or later. Lucky for us, it was sooner.
Dining review: Le Comptoir in Glendale is a temporary delight
Los Angeles Magazine Chef of the Year Gary Menes has opened his latest pop-up restaurant in the historic Bekins Storage building on South Brand in Glendale.
Dining review: A buyer's market for pizza lovers
Now that Thanksgiving is over and Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are upon us, evenings are likely to be filled with gift wrapping, project making, holiday concerts and school pageants. It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's also the busiest and the most bank-account-emptying.
Dining review: A refreshing twist on Lemonade
In a perfect world, the inside of my refrigerator would look like the display case at Lemonade. Neat rows of prepared salads would beckon and crocks of braised stews and soups would await reheating. Unfortunately, I'm not that organized, but the people at Lemonade on Pasadena's South Lake Avenue...
Pop goes former Palate Food + Wine in Glendale
There have been pop-up Halloween stores and other temporary businesses in Glendale, but this one just might take the cake, or at least the chou rouge.
Dining review: Blaze Pizza puts your pie on an assembly line
You walk into the new joint on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena and a couple of people in the kitchen shout out “WELCOME TO BLAZE!” You step up to the counter and decide whether you want a signature pizza or a build-your-own. You waffle. The green stripe looks good; you love pesto. But the...
Dining review: Mi Corazon offers a lot to love
Frida Kahlo and Our Lady of Guadalupe gaze down lovingly at diners, their ornate frames nestled among carved crucifixes and colored glass hearts. They are emblematic of the care owners Vanessa and Jeremy Swan have for their customers at Mi Corazon, a new restaurant in charming Kenneth Village. No...
Dining review: Suit your whim at Pasadena's delicious a/k/a an American Bistro
A/k/a an American Bistro is like several restaurants in one. The interior shines, with black leather seating, glass chandeliers and high-gloss woods. This is where you'll be in the mood for the foie blond and filet beef tartare, for romance or...
Dining review: Jump-start your health at Da Juice Bar
I have a friend who swears she healed her son's serious brain injury with food. Antioxidants, omega-3s, pure proteins — she found them in blueberries, eggs and other nutrition-packed foods and helped pave his road to health. Even if you're not recuperating from a bike accident, eating...
Dining review: A gastropub for Pasadena
There are American gastropubs that feel like an Anglo-themed T.G.I. Friday’s, corporate-souled and dumbed down, with faux British ephemera plastered on the walls and the menu.
Dining review: Student-run Technique gets high marks
At the conclusion of your meal at Technique, the teaching restaurant affiliated with Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, you're handed an evaluation form. It asks for opinions on quality of food, speed of service, and the like. While I couldn't give the highest marks on every detail, I did mark...
Dining review: Bites between reps and reprimands
The Chinese buffet looms large in certain circles. Bodybuilders blog about how to load up on protein, with articles like “A guide to getting huge on the cheap.” For obesity researchers, the Chinese buffet is the mecca of behavior analysis, where they discover obese customers are more...
Dining review: Tickled by Tickle Tree's food
Late summer was the perfect time for Tickle Tree Café to have its grand opening. The crape myrtles, known by some as tickle trees, were in glorious full bloom all over the foothill communities. This gave me the opportunity to test the café owner’s claim that if one tickles the...
Dining review: This gastropub should outlive fad
Every food fad goes through certain phases — a pioneer or two who create a popular concept, followers who extend and expand it, a host of imitators who jump in to copy it. The final phase is when the next fad appears and all but the best examples of the previous fad wither away. Those hardy...
Dining review: A taste of the second city on the left coast
When I go to Chicago, I pack some clothes that won’t be coming back with me — socks wearing through at the heel, shirts that don’t really match anything else in my wardrobe, shoes that I think about wearing but rarely do. It’s not that I like visiting the Windy City badly...
Dining review: A taste of Naples in every pie
The best seat at Settebello Pizzeria Napolitana may just be the hottest.
Dining review: Trattoria's cocktails top the fine food
The buzz around Trattoria Neapolis, the new fine-dining establishment on South Lake Avenue, is almost deafening. But there's a lot to buzz about. The venue is spectacular, the service is impeccable, the cocktails are exhilarating, the wine and beer lists are expertly curated, and the ingredients are...
| Advertisement |
|
|
| Advertisement |
|
|