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Archive for bar

Bar Monette

Jan24

Restaurant: Bar Monette

Location: 109 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 310-8575

Date: April 27, 2023

Cuisine: Pizza

Rating: Great pizza

_

New “tapas” (not really) Pizza Bar in Downtown Santa Monica.
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Now that I’m working here, too bad they aren’t open for lunch.
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Cute and crowded inside.
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The short menu.
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Aunty Wendy’s Trevis. Passion fruit, basil. Basically a passionfruit pesto, this dressing was a surprising and wonderful counterpoint to the bitter raddiccio. Nice little (and it was little) saiad.
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Poached Prawns. Saffron Bisque. The saffron was subtle, but the sauce was every bit one of those shellfish shell bisques. So yummy. Great little dish.
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Sugo Puttanesca. Not as pungent as I might have liked, but certainly delicious with that umami quality.
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Burnt Romesco. Awesome smoked romesco flavor. really tasty.
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Scissors to cut the pizza!?!
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Margherita. Basil, Stracciatella. The dough on these pizzas is so soft, chewy, and perfect. Maybe the best pizza dough I’ve had.
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Zucchini Blossom Pizza. Piquillo Pepper, buffalo mozzarella, garlic. Lovely.
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Pesto & Dungeness Crab Pizza. Pine Nut, basil, aged cheese. Very interesting pizza. Great.
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Spicy Calabrese & Honey. Oregano, Sun-dried Tomato. My favorite pizza of the night. It was so salty/savory good. Yum!

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Overall, a narrowly focused but really brilliant little pizza bar. A touch loud, but the service was great and the food to-die-for.

For more dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Ultimate Pizza – Day 3
  2. Ultimate Pizza – Day 2
  3. Ultimate Pizza – The Pesto
  4. Ultimate Pizza – The Sauce
  5. Breakfasts of Champions
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: bar, Pizza, Santa Monica, Tapas

Palm Springs – Tropicale Lounge

Jan19

Restaurant: Tropicale Lounge

Location: 330 East Amado Road, Palm Springs, CA. (760) 866-1952

Date: December 26, 2011

Cuisine: American

Rating: 50s fantasy

_

Continuing our brief Palm Springs foray we decided to check out a classic dining destination. And classic it was, so much so that it almost seemed like a 50-60 year time warp.


Even the sign is totally old school.


And the Neptune’s Lair style interior bar. The Cuban jazz music only added to the ambiance.


This was sort of a cosmo like drink. Not bad.


And a passionfruit mango one. This one tasted a little fake fruit flavored.


The menu.


“Salt-Roasted Beet Stack. Imported Gorgonzola & Toasted Pistachios.” Sort of attempt to be more contemporary.


But not this. The “pupu platter. An ‘exotic’ combination of chicken & beef satay, Vietnamese spring rolls, ahi nori rolls, and coconut shrimp.” Everything feel into that half-tasty half-lackluster category. But the sauces were pretty yummy. Edible, but not high art.


Cheese pizza.


“Miso glazed Atlantic Salmon Rice Bowl. Broccoli, snow peas, tomatoes, shitakes & soy.”


“Pan-Roasted Wild Sea Bass with Gingered Thai Red Curry. Pineapple rice, stir fried vegetables, Asian sprout slaw, gingered tomatoes.” This dish was entirely made by the red curry sauce, which was half-decent (not fantastic). I could have used more of it. The vegetables were pretty old-school steamed.

This was a fun evening, even if our three year-old was a handful, but this joint is running on pure kitsch!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Palm Springs – Colony Palms Hotel
  2. Beverly Hills Hotel – Polo Lounge
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: bar, martini, Palm Desert California, Palm Springs California, PalmSprings, pupu platter, Restaraunt, Restaurant Review, Tropicale, Tropicale Lounge
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