Nickel Diner (some people call it 5¢ Diner because of their sign) is a great neighborhood restaurant in the Historic Core Downtown Los Angeles, within one block of our gallery and home. They are especially famous for the bacon donuts. The catfish is very delicious, too. For vegetarians, there’s grilled veggie sandwich that is just phenomenal. Here’s a segment from last year’s episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, hosted by Guy Fieri, featuring Nickel Diner.
Posts Tagged ‘restaurant’
Take A Bao is situated in the middle of the food court at the Westfield Century City. I had been impatiently waiting for it to open for months. I love baozi 包子. I can be happy if that’s all there is in a meal. Steaming white bun filled with all kinds of goodies. Meat, veggies. Even sweet bean paste. Baskets and baskets of them. But I discovered a week ago that they weren’t doing baozi. Instead, they were doing guabao 割包.
You might have seen similar stuff like guabao. They use them for Peking Duck sometimes. I also love guabao when they are done right. The steamed bun can be opened to add fillings in the middle. Like a sandwich. Very popular in Taiwan. Usually stuffed with soy braised pork belly, pickled veggies, fresh cilantro and peanut powder. I am drooling just thinking about it.
Take A Bao didn’t serve the traditional guabao. They offered several Asian-fusion kind of combinations. I think you can also build your own with the stuffings they have. They are good. Just can’t compare to the original in my opinion.
The service that day was absolutely awful. I think they weren’t prepared to serve a crowd. The orders were out of order. The people in charge looked like they just zoned out and didn’t want to bother with customer service. They barely whispered your name when the food was ready, and it could sit there forever if you did not go up and get it. We watched people coming up behind us get their orders first, and had to inquire about it before they went to look for our order. We weren’t the only ones. A couple was waiting for their food at the same time as we were. They were still waiting by the time we finished eating.
OK, enough complaining. I found some positive reviews on Zagat. So, maybe they’ve finally established a system and is running the restaurant smoothly now. Don’t know if I will go back often though. I was really looking forward to having some good baozi!
I got a rushed project on Sunday, so I stayed in most of the day while CB and Sven went out to lunch and to see the Hollywood sign. No pictures to show for that. But I did join them for dinner at La Serenata. I am throwing in some funny pics of Sven to make up for lack of photos for this post. hehehe
La Serenata
http://www.laserenataonline.com/
We usually go to the West L.A. location. I actually liked the one in Downtown L.A. better. The building was gorgeous. A completely different atmosphere. I think the food was better, too!
10:09 am, CB just took Sven to the airport. It will be CB’s turn to travel and see Sven in Frankfurt next month.
We started Saturday with a visit to our friends, Mike and Gaby. Sven was still feeling sick, so we hurried to Triumphal Palace in Alhambra for some dim sum. The food is still great. But the service has gotten lousy. Under the previous ownership the service was top-notch. The waiters stopped by constantly to replace dishes and refill water and tea. But this time they didn’t even take our order until we stopped one of them to do so. This is not unusual in a Chinese restaurant. It is just unfortunate that they couldn’t make the experience better than the others. Food is still fantastic, dim sum or dinner. Definitely give it a try if you are in the area. Just be aggressive in ordering and asking for stuff. Well, not aggressive to the point of being mean, of course. 
The Huntington Gardens
It is absolutely beautiful in the gardens. We’ve only visited the Desert Garden, the Japanese Garden and the not yet finished Chinese Garden. I especially loved the Japanese Garden. Do take a look at the photo album to see more pictures. Especially the bonsai collection.
Yamato Westwood
http://www.yamatorestaurants.com/
Sven’s second visit to this Japanese Restaurant in Westood. Great food. Desert was nicely done, too.
This week has been filled with social events. Most involved eating, and there were three restaurants worth mentioning. One old favorite, and two new experiences.
Wednesday night we met with Stephen and Todd at Sanamluang Cafe, our favorite Thai restaurant. (Sorry Jill B. I took my camera, but forgot to get some Kodak moments.) Sanamluang’s food is super tasty and cheap. It also opens late for club goers to get some food in their stomachs after a night’s activities. We ordered some usual appetizers, Shrimp cakes and Satay. Those can never go wrong. My favorite is the Spicy Beef Noodle. Super hot, but so delicious.
Thursday noon we met Nancy and Mark at Canter’s Deli, a Los Angeles landmark that I always wanted to visit. Very friendly service. I ordered Corned Beef and Cabbage. I almost fainted when it arrived. The thing was HUGE! Half head of cabbage covered with layers of thinly sliced corned beef. Plus a super large broiled potato. So good, but there was no way that I could finish the whole plate. I would definitely order it again though!
Thursday evening we went to a new French restaurant comme a. Nicely decorated interior. Music was a bit loud when we walked in. But then we were lead to a section partly enclosed by walls that dampened the sound a bit. Waiter was very attentive and friendly. (Cute too!) Maybe too friendly that it bothered CB and Dorothy. It was fine with me.
We started with Moules Frites and Tarte Falmbe. OMG! The fries with garlic aoli were just heavenly. And the mussels, the broth was not too heavy, but flavors just exploded in the mouth. CB especially loved the tarte. Caramelized onions so sweet and tasty. And it was as big as a medium pizza!
For entres, Dorothy ordered Salmon, CB ordered Beef Stroganoff, and I ordered the waiter-recommended Braised Lamb Shank. I didn’t try the salmon or stroganoff. But the tasters assured me that they were really good. The lamb shank was tasty but a little too salty for me. They did top it with a sweet tomato jam that balanced the saltiness. But there was too little to go with the meat. I am not saying that it was bad though. Just a little salty. I think I will try the Duck Confit next time.
