Restaurant: The Hungry Cat Location: 100 w. channel road. santa monica, ca 90402. (310) 459-3337 Date: September 11 & 25, 2011 & January 1, 2012 Cuisine: Seafood Rating: Can never get enough seafood _ I’ve been trying for months to find a…
Restaurant: Upper West Location: 3321 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, Ca. 310-586-1111. Date: September 10, 2011 Cuisine: Gastropub Rating: Tasty _ More and more gastropubs seem to be opening up. For those of you unfamiliar this is bar/restaurant with an emphasis on food, specifically tasty “comfort”…
Restaurant: Polo Lounge Location: 9641 Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California 90210. 310-276-2251 Date: September 10, 2011 Cuisine: American Rating: Good but pricey _ My wife and I were married (10 years ago) at the Beverly Hills Hotel so it’s a tradition of ours…
Restaurant: Yojie Location: 501 W Olympic Blvd. Ste 102. Los Angeles, CA 90015. (213) 988-8808 Date: September 7, 2011 Cuisine: sukiyaki and shabu Rating: Sleek and tasty _ I often go to Shabu Shabu (review of one of my favorites here), but it’s been a…
Restaurant: El Rincon Criollo Location: 4361 Sepulveda Blvd. Culver City, Ca 90230. 210-397-9295 Date: September 3, 2011 Cuisine: Cuban / Spanish Rating: Garlic! _ We took our son to the “train store” in Culver City (he loves trains) and this…
On Friday, September 2, we hosted a small Shabbat dinner party. This was a non-dairy (meat) kosher meal, which can be well done if you care (and most kosher restaurants don’t). As usual with our events everything was homemade. Almost all produce…
Restaurant: Hostaria del Piccolo Location: 606 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90401. P: 310-393-6633 Date: August 27, 2011 & May 6, 2012 Cuisine: Italian Rating: Good new casual Italian ANY CHARACTER HERE Hostaria del Piccolo is a casual new Italian with a rustic Pasta/Pizza emphasis…
Restaurant: Joan’s on Third Location: 8350 West Third Street. 323.655.2285 Date: August 20, 2011 Cuisine: American Rating: Fantastic gourmet shop & cafe _ Another father/son morning rolled around and after a most enjoyable trip to the Peterson Automotive Museum (excellent boy…
Restaurant: Osteria Latini [1, 2, 3] Location: 11712 San Vicente Blvd.Brentwood, CA 90049 310.826.9222 Date: August 20, 2010 Cuisine: Italian Rating: Excellent neighborhood Italian _ We have a regular rotation of neighborhood Italians. There are so many of them, but only a few…
Restaurant: Ludobites 7.0 [1, 2] Location: 227 East 9th St, Los Angeles, 90015 Date: August 31, 2011 Cuisine: Eclectic Modern Rating: Very interesting (& tasty) array of flavors. _ Last year my friends and I very much enjoyed Ludobites 6.0 (review here),…
Restaurant: Wilshire Location: 2454 Wilshire Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90403-5823. (310) 586-1707 Date: July 23, 2011 Cuisine: New Californian Rating: Solid _ Wilshire is a New American in the heart of inland Santa Monica. They belong to the approachable ingredient driven California style…
Restaurant: Picca [1, 2] Location: 9575 West Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035. Tel: 310 277 0133 Date: August 15, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Peruvian Rating: Really interesting flavors _ I was really excited to try this new Modern Peruvian. As best I can…
Restaurant: Gjelina [1, 2, 3] Location: 1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd, CA 90291. (310) 250-1429 Date: August 6 & 14, 2011 Cuisine: New Californian Rating: Great food, annoying service! _ I hadn’t been to Gjelina (despite it being a favorite) in a few months but…
Restaurant: N/Naka [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] Location: 3455 S. Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034. 310.836.6252 Date: August 13, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Kaiseki Rating: Awesome ANY CHARACTER HERE I first went to the amazing Omakase only N/Naka just three weeks ago,…
Restaurant: Takao [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] Location: 11656 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 207-8636 Date: August 6, 2011 Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi Rating: 9/10 creative “new style” sushi _ I’ve already covered Takao in some detail HERE and then separately here, here, and here,…
Restaurant: Via Alloro Location: 301 N. Canon Drive – Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Phone: 310.275.2900 Date: August 5, 2011 Cuisine: Italian Rating: Very nice _ The Drago brothers have an ever expanding little empire going in Beverly Hills. This includes Il Pastaio,…
Restaurant: Shamshiri Grill Location: 1712 Westwood Blvd. Los Angeles, Ca 90024 (310) 474-1410 Date: July 31, 2011 Cuisine: Persian Rating: One of my favorite Iranian restaurants _ Shamshiri is one of my favorite Iranian restaurants on the westside — and we certainly have…
One of the great mysteries of the culinary universe is how Brentwood in general, and San Vicente in particular, is able to support so many Italian restaurants. Every time someplace dies, it rises again Italian! Anyway, the food at Villetta was first rate. Really good actually, and the service was very friendly too (not super fast, but warm). The prices however are high. So I’d put this in the same category with Capo, Georgio Baldi, and Vincente of excellent but overpriced westside Italian.
