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Robo Eats – Lucille’s

May08

Restaurant: Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que

Location: Westfield Topanga. 6220 CA-27 Suite 1480, Woodland Hills, CA 91367

Date: September 21, 2022

Cuisine: BBQ

Rating: Not bad for a giant chain

As I eat over in Woodland Hills fairly frequently (by myself) I was googling around for lower carb options and found this place. I actually had no idea it was a chain, or even worse, in a mall. I just picked it from Yelp because it was nearby and BBQ (which offers lots of meat).

I hate when restaurants are attached to mall complexes. I don’t shop retail — 95% online — so I find malls to be annoying, crowded, and vestigial remnants of the 20th century. Parking was a PITA.

Interior is large. The menu can be found here. I forgot to photo it but it was structurally very interesting as it’s kinda modular and you can expand, modify, or add on to the basic components. I actually really liked this as it suits my ordering style (different and large).

Smoked Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread. I couldn’t resist this carb.

This was a three meat “Build your own Bar-B-Que Combo,” including baby back ribs, pulled pork, and rib tips! Sides were Creamy Coleslaw and Southern Braised Greens. The BBQ was pretty good. Sauces were a touch sweet for my diet, very classic American BBQ, but pretty well cooked. At a lot of chain places it might have been dry. It wasn’t.

I was surprised that Lucille’s was decent (for a chain). As I mentioned, I hate chains and malls, and this was good enough that I would go back again — better off hours though when the mall parking isn’t so jammed up and one can actually park nearby.

For more Italian dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: bbq, chain, Lucille, Mall, Robo Eats, SFV

Eating Israel – Aroma Cafe

Jul26

Restaurant: Aroma Cafe

Location: all over Israel

Date: June 29, 2019

Cuisine: Israeli

Rating: Not impressed

Aroma Cafe is a chain that’s all over Israel. As far as I can tell, it’s not in any way related to the LA Aroma Sunset Bar & Grills (which is vaguely Israeli).

The Israeli chain itself is kinda like Au Bon Pain Israeli style, salads and sandwiches. They are everywhere (in Israel).

The menu.

An iced coffee.

Chocolate croissant.

To get simple pasta we had to order a more complex pasta with everything on the side. They wouldn’t sell us just the pasta.

Here is the “on the side.” lol.

Halloumi salad. Sliced of roasted halloumi cheese with white cabbage and roasted mushrooms, roasted pepper, red onion, tomatoes, ccarrots, lettuce, parsley, arugula. Seasoned with olive oil and lemon juice dressing. With an over easy egg.

A close up. I did NOT like this salad. It was warm, very white, and basically had no seasoning at all. In general Israeli food can be a bit under-seasoned and this certainly was. I had to go up and ask for dressing and all they had was tahini. Did not combine well, made it very heavy — and it was 100 degrees out. Really, I wanted some kind of highly acidic vinegar dressing. I didn’t find these at all in Israel, salads were usually sweet.

Shakshuka. Two eggs sunny side up, tomato and peepper sauce, parsley. Bread and butter. This is a very common dish in Israel.

Roast Beef sandwich. Not much of a looker.

Tuna sandwich. Also not exactly gorgeous.

I can’t say I was impressed with Aroma. In fact, didn’t like it at all. Felt so corporate and nothing I tried tasted good.

Click here to see more Eating Israel posts.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Aroma Cafe, chain, Eating Israel, Eggs, Salad

Quick Eats: Coastal Flats

Dec03

Restaurant: Coastal Flats

Location: 7860-L Tysons Corner CenterMcLean, VA 22102(703) 356-1440

Date: Nov 30, 2010

Cuisine: Southern Coastal American

This place is part of a small local chain of one-off’s. That is, each restaurant in the group has a different name and menu. While they’re slightly commercial, they do a good job. Everything is tasty and reliable. Not innovative or fancy, but good. In a world dominated by chains the complete one-off restaurant is dying at the midrange level. In particular, they seem unable to secure leases in these coveted mall-type spaces. Probably the mall authorities are unwilling to take a risk. However, not all chains are totally evil — just most! — you know who you are Olive Garden et all!

The menu. Not so disimilar to the little non-chain Eastern Shore places I remember as a kid, just bigger and more internationalized.

Crab cakes, with cous-cous. I didn’t try the sandwich, but the cous-cous was very tasty, with a slighly sweet flavor.

A grilled salmon sandwich, not on the menu, but they improvised.

The lobster roll. This was GOOD. The corn was very sweet, and the lobster tender and fresh. The fries were excellent too.

The remains of the fried grouper my two-year-old enjoyed. He was particularly partial to the applesauce.

I love tartar and cocktail sauces with my fries. This tartar, i have to say, was one of the best I’ve had. There were capers, and an excellent lemony tang.

The flour-less chocolate waffle is awesome.

The commercial-style decor. Nothing wrong with it, but not a lot of character either. Service is always very good at these places, in that way that tells you they have a formal staff training program.