WHY The lunch-only cubano sandwiches are delightful, especially the pan con lechón (shredded pork with Spanish peppers). And the Cuban club is a tasty fusion of marinated turkey breast with applewood-smoked bacon on sourdough. WHAT This is no ordinary cubano sandwich joint—although they do serve them, elegantly, and garnished with microgreens, no less. Xiomara Ardolina’s [...]
April 16, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY Exemplary wine list; creative and confident cooking. WHAT This is certainly a contender for the title of “Best Upscale Restaurant” in the San Gabriel Valley. The patio’s the place for lunch; for dinner, the suavely modern dining rooms beckon. Standouts include the superb bouillabaisse and the grilled beef tenderloin. There’s usually a bread pudding [...]
March 24, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY Chef Akira Hirose, who trained with Joel Robuchon and has cooked at Citrus and L’Orangerie, brings his particular brand of culinary artistry to the French-Japanese restaurant that bears his name. WHAT Picture a townhouse on the Upper East side of Manhattan and you’ll have an idea of Maison Akira’s décor. Its quiet opulence—in the [...]
March 8, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY To worship at the shrine of California cuisine. WHAT Wolfgang Puck still works the room from time to time, when he’s not off overseeing his global empire, but this is really Lee Hefter’s kingdom, and it’s a magical kingdom indeed. Hefter-Puck (with chef de cuisine Tetsu Yahagi) have kept the standards at peak level [...]
February 21, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY Luscious prime rib and a theatrical sense of ‘going out.’ WHAT It’s kinda like the Disneyland of restaurants. Lawry’s has characters (waitresses in uniforms and perky caps and imposing carving men in stiff toques), adventures (salad tossed tableside in a huge spinning bowl, prime rib carved from a silver cart) and tons of Japanese [...]
February 17, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY Real shabu-shabu made with exceptional ingredients, notably the Wagyu beef. Best of all: When you finish cooking and eating your meat, seafood and veggies, they take the pot back to the kitchen and turn the now-rich broth into a heavenly thick soup with rice or udon. WHAT It’s a modest-looking place, and shabu-shabu (meat, [...]
February 16, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY Seductive charm, a setting right out of Venice, Italy, and superb Italian food make it ideal for a memorable date or celebration. Just be prepared to pay for the experience. WHAT This beachside trattoria is so warm and intimate that you’ll feel like you’ve been invited to a friend’s house for dinner—a friend who [...]
January 21, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY For celebrity cachet and hearty, South Beach—friendly Tuscan meals of salads followed by delicious bistecca fiorentina, flattened chicken or veal chops with rustic beans. WHAT The star power burns bright at this manly (and pricey) Tuscan trattoria, where the ingredients are good and the plastic surgery is better. WHO With co-owners like Robert De [...]
January 2, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY Its patio, its still-amazing art collection and its new front-of-the-house cocktail lounge. WHAT Michael McCarty opened his namesake restaurant back in 1979 and was hugely influential in defining what was dubbed California cuisine and went on to become modern American cooking. His kitchen helped make goat cheese, arugula and caramelized onions a wildly popular [...]
December 11, 2012 | Posted in
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Sunday December 16th, Chef Ricardo Zarate and Food GPS‘s Joshua Lurie will greet some of L.A.’s most celebrated chefs into the kitchen at Mo-chica to imagine and create ceviche dishes unlike any before. The first night, held December 9th, featured one of the more prized members of the seafood hierarchy, uni (better known as sea [...]
December 10, 2012 | Posted in
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