Restaurant Review #123: Famima!!, Santa Monica

According to Famima's napkins and bags, "Easy is good. Easy with all the amenities is rare. At Famima, every day becomes a better, richer experience. Simplicity in design, superior products and personalized customer care is what life should be all about."

Should I get into all of the things I take issue with in their mission statement? Why not?

Simplicity in design: First of all, while the store looks lovely, simplicity should include functionality. The store's design is inefficient when it comes to moving about the store and paying for your food.

Superior products: I liked my curry chicken bun quite a bit (more on the food to follow), but the chicken in the steamed chicken and mushroom bun bordered on gross. I also considered getting the sushi, but declined for three reasons: rolls with lettuce in them, carrots cut into unnatural round matchsticks, and an unidentifiable brown ingredient in one of the veggie rolls (some kind of pickle, perhaps?).

Personalized customer care: What? Where? Do I need personalized care for grab-and-go food? And while there was nothing wrong with my cashier, there was nothing special about him, either.

Finally, I hope my life is about more than superior products and simplicity in design. But hey, this is America.

Okay. So here's the deal. Walk into Famima. Be confused because you thought it was a lunch to-go restaurant of some sort, but all you see are school supplies, gum, and refrigerated stuff. Walk by the counter. Ponder the absence of menus behind the counter. Wonder if they have any real food to order. Note the plethora of cigarette boxes. Are they advocating the consumption of nicotine sticks in lieu of lunch?

There are actually just a couple of hot food items, and they come from display cases by the registers. The chicken curry buns are only $1.75 and they are yummy. Where else can I get hot food so cheaply on the Promenade? (Wetzel's, okay, maybe, but that's just bread.) Since the buns are small (about the size of your hand, fingers and all), you can either eat one as a somewhat nutritious snack, or eat 3-5 for a meal. I guess at the 3-5 mark you aren't really saving money anymore, but it's a nice break from the corporate coffee shop's refrigerated sandwiches. The buns have flaky breadcrumbs on the outside, like curry chicken.

Other hot selections include soup (one soup each day, depending on the day of the week, listed on a chart behind the registers), more breadcrumb-coated things, and assorted steamed buns ($1.50), including char-shu (barbecued pork) and the chicken and mushroom bun that I ordered. I wasn't very happy with it, since the filling kind of like school cafeteria food and the chicken was watery and fatty (the curry bun didn't suffer from the same problem). For those of you not familiar with steamed buns, they are completely white since they haven't been baked, making them look raw, especially when they're still in the display case. Rest assured that they are cooked, and the bun part has a consistency similar to Wonder Bread (or pan Bimbo), except that it sticks to your teeth more.

Famima also sells a variety of sushi rolls and their kin, an assortment of French-influenced Japanese desserts, and treats like Pocky and bottled drinks usually only seen at Japanese grocery stores or 99 Ranch. For bringing all of these items closer to the mainstream, I'll allow Famima!! to keep their exclamation points.

And they're right about the easy part--I picked out my food and paid in 5-10 minutes. I went on a rainy day, so it's hard to tell what real lunchtime traffic will look like, but there was barely any line, though the place seemed popular.

Since I was in a hurry, I wasn't able to really examine or absorb everything that the store sells. After visiting the website, I discovered that my idea of what Famima!! was supposed to be was off. Rather than a lunch-to-go spot, it's really more of an upscale convenience store. Though not necessarily all it hypes itself up to be, Famima is not a bad stop for a cheap to-go lunch.

Famima!!
1348 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-393-2486
Open daily 6am-2am
Website

Restaurant Review #118: Sushi Mon, Santa Monica

What's that in my yellowtail roll?

Dining options in downtown Santa Monica are limited. Not that restaurants aren't plentiful, but good restaurants? Good restaurants that are open for lunch? Well, that's another story. So we decided on Sushi Mon, formerly known as Shige, formerly known as Shabu 2. That's a big warning right there, I know, but I like the space, and I like sushi. There have to be limits on how bad sushi can be when the nearest ocean is within walking distance. However, the board in the window lists such blasphemies as the Rolls Royce Roll, which includes tomato. Who puts tomato in sushi? I went in skeptical, but hopeful.

The light yellow walls weren't the greatest idea, but otherwise the space is great--bright and airy during the day, slightly hip at night, with plenty of room to space out the tables. You can sit at the square sushi bar in the center of the room, at a table next floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows, or in a dark booth off to the side. Small, shimmery mother-of-pearl tiles decorate much of the area around the bar. The floor's perimeter is lined with smooth oval stones and green plants between the tables and the windows.


Didn't I order scallop nigiri?

I used to really like this kind of sushi. I loved creative rolls oozing with cream cheese and mayonnaise (hopefully not at the same time). I remember being thrilled with something called a firecracker roll at the defunct Mon Sushi at 6th and Wilshire. It was so huge I could barely fit it in my mouth, let alone chew it. Yes, the similarity in the names of these two restaurants is suspicious, though since "mon" means "gate" in Japanese, maybe it's not that suspicious. If I were opening a restaurant, I wouldn't name it gate of anything, but a quick Google search will show that restaurant gates to India, China, dragons, and even London are quite common.

Sushi Mon quickly showed me how much my tastes have changed--an experiment I've been meaning to try for a while now. I think that something happens as you eat more sushi. You get more used to the concept and texture of raw fish. Your mouth transforms its perceptions from "eew, I can't believe I'm chewing this" to "mmm, what's next?". And that's when you stop being able to enjoy, or even tolerate, the presence of mayonnaise or spiciness in your sushi.

Suspecting that my mouth had undergone this transformation a while back, I ordered conservatively--yellowtail roll, scallop nigiri, albacore nigiri. But at Sushi Mon, there's no such thing as ordering conservatively. With few exceptions, the fish is doused or mixed with something, even when it shouldn't be.

First of all, I've gotten really accustomed to yellowtail rolls containing nothing but yellowtail. Most places specify if they add even scallion to your roll. I'm okay with scallions, but what was the reddish-orange stuff in my roll, and why did the chef think he could add that (and scallions) without my permission? Thankfully, the roll tasted fine, though the rice was too sticky, making it hard to swallow.

The scallop "nigiri" was truly alarming though, and I would have sent it back if not for the knowledge that I would be able to make a spectacle of it in my review. First of all, what the hell? I didn't order a boba fish roll. Where is my slice of smooth, succulent scallop? Secondly, you can't give a person with a shellfish allergy something with unexpected ingredients without setting off serious alarms in her head. The waitress confirmed that it didn't have any crab, and I picked off a tiny scallop with my chopsticks. The taste took me back to the salad bar at Foley's (out here it's Robinson's May), where I used to eat occasionally as a child. Remember when department stores had restaurants? The sweet mayonnaise flavor made Sushi Mon's scallop mess taste exactly like salad bar seafood salad. Scary. I left most of this on my plate.

The albacore was almost good. There was nothing wrong with the fish--at least, not that I could taste after it was smothered in condiments. Everyone knows that a brush of ponzu and a dash of the orange stuff (probably what was in my yellowtail roll, someone please tell me what this stuff is) is a great complement to albacore, but the rice shouldn't be soaked and sitting in a small puddle on the plate. And onions? I didn't order a salad, man. With so many toppings and so much sauce, it was impossible to eat the albacore properly--with my fingers, fish side down-- and not make a mess.

Finally, there's the issue of the lemon garnish. Can you imagine going to Sasabune and being given a wedge of lemon to use indiscriminately?


Free fish

I didn't take advantage of the marvelously priced lunch specials because all of them came with the above five pieces of nigiri: white tuna, pepper-seared tuna, albacore, regular tuna, and salmon. Since I don't like tuna (except albacore) or salmon (I ate too much last year), the combo was out. The specials are a great deal though: you pick your price range, from about $10-15, then pick one of the roll concoctions from that category--and there are plenty of choices no matter what price suits you.


Rolls Royce Roll

If you think this is ridiculously huge, you should have seen some of the rolls I saw served to other tables--rolls that occupied an entire round plate. The Rolls Royce Roll, one of about 70 crazy sushi experiments you can choose from, is an eight-piece California roll topped with a formidable mound of seared albacore and tomatoes tossed in spicy orange mayo. Is it the size that is supposed to be reminiscent of a Rolls? Because it wasn't the quality of the ingredients (or the price!). It was better than my salad bar scallop roll, but as much as I love tomatoes, I don't think they should ever cohabitate with my sushi. Some of the pieces of seared albacore consisted only of the seared part, which seems thoughtless and which my friend wasn't fond of. The presentation was kind of sloppy and unappetizing.

The service was attentive at the beginning, but nonexistent once our food came, and it took a long time for the bill to arrive. There wasn't even anyone in sight that we could have flagged down. I've noticed in the last couple of months that this is a problem at many restaurants. The busboy refilled our water regularly, though.

The website I found through Google lists only a Las Vegas location, but has too much in common with the Santa Monica location to not be related. The Sushi Mon website for the Santa Monica location though has a .net address though--don't get the two confused.

If you're a sushi novice or a fan of mayonnaisey American concoctions, you probably won't find much fault with Sushi Mon, and the lunch special prices are killer--the Rolls Royce Roll plus five pieces of nigiri were only $10, and the quality of fish was perfectly acceptable. If you have been eating at top-notch places like Nobu and Kiriko though, do yourself a favor and keep eating there.

Sushi Mon
401 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-576-7011

Restaurant Review #110: The Hump, Santa Monica -- CLOSED

Update: The Hump has closed.

I am re-posting this review with some changes because of the vastly different experience I had on my second visit.

The Hump has an unusual atmosphere for a sushi restaurant. Rather than cool colors, sleek surfaces, and clean lines, The Hump's dining room is warm yellows, and browns and has the round, homey feel of your grandparents' living room with only a hint of LA chic. Even on a Saturday night, and even at the sushi bar, the acoustics are such that you can hear your friends without straining your ears or your voice at all. And even at 7:30 on a busy Saturday night, the hostess will manage to find you a 9:00 reservation.

On my first visit, we sat at the far end of the sushi bar, and surprisingly, it was both cozy and unintimidating. The bar is wide enough and the seats are far enough apart that for once, I actually enjoyed the sushi bar experience. We ordered the omakase and had a friendly, humble chef who accomodated our special requests. It looked like everyone got the same omakase, which made me feel a bit less special. Our chef gave us the inside scoop on the food though, which made me feel a bit more special. Also, I got to try young ginger and fresh wasabi for the first time, both of which I loved. Young ginger comes in round sticks slightly wider than a pencil that are white and taper to a bright magenta. Does it grow like that, or is it dyed, I wonder? Fresh wasabi doesn't have that grainy consistency that powdered wasabi can't help but have. It's also more moist and perhaps more pungent. The basic flavor didn't seem too different from it's powdered cousin, though.

The food was excellent, the service was excellent, the prices were slightly above average, and the atmosphere was unpretentious, cozy, and conducive to conversation. This combination is a rare treat, and makes The Hump one of my favorite restaurants. Oh, and in case you were wondering, its proximity to the Santa Monica airport (practically on the runway) doesn't make it a noisy place, but it's pretty cool to watch small planes landing in the dark.

On my second visit, my friend and I went on a Tuesday night around 8:00, again without a reservation (not that we would have needed one--the restaurant was about half-empty). The shishito pepper appetizer was excellent--a generous portion served piping hot and garnished with shaved bonito. I couldn't quite finish them all. All of the fish was excellent--I ordered red snapper, albacore, and yellowtail nigiri, my usual favorites. I also ordered seared scallop, which I didn't like as much--something about the flavor of the citrusy green bits on top just didn't go with the flavor of the scallop. The quality of the fish itself left nothing to be desired, though. The portions of fish are smaller here, and the prices are standard ($5-6 for most things), which makes the food overall a bit more expensive. I didn't really mind though, because I like being able to fit my sushi in my mouth. Also, to my disappointment, we didn't get fresh wasabi. Guess that's reserved for the big spenders.

Along with any semblance of service.

Everything was fine, until we were ready to order seconds (I always order seconds of sushi, rather than ordering everything I think I want at first, since sushi is so perishable and definitely should never ever ever be taken home as leftovers). No server came our way or even looked at us for what must have been at least 15 minutes, if I'm being generous. When we finally ordered more, it took at least another 15 minutes for our very small order to arrive (again, I'm being generous on the time). The restaurant wasn't busy, and it didn't seem understaffed. No one looked rushed or overworked.

Then they brought us the wrong check. If it had been my first visit, I probably would have left an insulting tip in protest at being overlooked almost completely during at least half of my meal (people around us were being seated and served, no problem). I couldn't figure out what to attribute our flagarant lack of service to (I say flagarant because apologies ranged from meager to nonexistent), unless it was because our total bill, including tax and tip, only came to about $75.

I thought The Hump wasn't like that. At least when they brought our final bill, the shishito peppers had been knocked off ($5 in my pocket), but I had a feeling it was an accident, not an apology, based on the rest of the evening.

Now I'm not sure what to think about one of my formerly favorite restaurants.

The Hump
3221 Donald Douglas Loop S
Santa Monica, 90405
310.313.0977

Restaurant Review #105: Cha Cha Chicken, Santa Monica

Jerk chicken enchiladas with fried plantains, rice, and beans

Normally I don't like chicken enchiladas (the chicken takes up space where there could be cheese, after all) but I like enchiladas, and wanted to try some kind of jerk chicken without actually having to eat a plate of chicken. Jerk chicken enchiladas were the obvious choice.

My vegetarian friend got the jerk veggie burrito, but wasn't too excited about it. I, however, was quite excited about my enchiladas. They were on the small side, but with the rice, beans, and plantains, I still had leftovers. The nice thing about the smaller portion than you get at Mexican restaurants was that I didn't feel heavy and stuffed. The jerk flavor seems to largely be found in the enchilada sauce, which is a tasty, sweet, and slightly tangy sauce. The accompanying rice and beans didn't taste like much, and for some reason were cooked together (maybe it's a Carribean thing). The fried plantains are good, as all fried plantains are, but I wish they would have given me more than two small pieces--it's not the raw ingredients or the preparation are pricey, after all.

I had a canteloupe agua fresca to drink--yum! It was much sweeter and much less watery than the aguas frescas I am accustomed to, which are more like fruit-flavored water. This was more like a full-blown fruit juice. I loved the flavor and the tiny bits of canteloupe letting me know that there was actual fruit in my drink, but I actually would have liked it to be a little less sweet and more watery, since I don't care for fruit juice. But still--canteloupe!!! It's one of my favorite flavors (especially for gelato), and you hardly ever see it. All drinks are served in disposable plastic cups--you know, the kind you used to drink out of in college. If you want to drink the free water, you only get a tiny cup. Panera does that too, and I abhor the practice.

Cha Cha Chicken is one of the only restaurants that has patio seating only

Cha Cha's setup is a little confusing if you're a first-timer. When you walk in, head to your right to order at the counter. If you don't see a menu, look around on the counter for some laminated, brightly colored pages. They'll bring your food to your table. The tables are all outside and pretty effectively separated from the noise of Ocean Avenue by brightly colored oil drums with large plants growing out of them. Umbrellas, more plants, and brightly colored decor create a festive, tropical atmosphere. My only complaint was that the umbrella didn't block out the sun very well, so I had to shade my eyes with my hand the whole time, even though I was wearing sunglasses.

They have a tiny lot (4 spaces or so) but at this time of year, 2 hour parking meters on Ocean are plentiful. In tourist season though, you might have a hard time parking here.

Overall, the food was good and cheap, and I would go back. I'm not sure I have any better grasp on what Carribean food is than I did before I went, though. Surely it's about more than jerk chicken? Maybe I should try that Royal Carribean place on Broadway. Has anyone been?

Total cost: $10 (and I had a small box of leftovers, but I wasn't very hungry)

By the way, if any of you are canteloupe fans like me, you can get a canteloupe drink at Lollicup and sometimes at Tapioca Express. I haven't tried either yet, but I believe the one at Tapioca Express uses fresh canteloupe. Also, Rose Market sells a canteloupe and something (rosewater?) ice cream, but the other flavor takes away from the canteloupe flavor.

Cha Cha Chicken
1906 Ocean Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90405
310-581-1684

Restaurant Review #104: Barney's Beanery, Santa Monica

Barbecued cheeseburger with bacon

I went to Barney's with some fellow burger-lovers because of the restaurant's extensive burger menu. The burger menu actually isn't that extensive when you look at it more closely, however. It reads something like this:

Hamburger
Cheeseburger
Cheeseburger with bacon
Barbecued hamburger
Barbecued cheeseburger
Barbecued cheeseburger with bacon

and later on:

Chili burger
Chili cheeseburger
Chili bacon burger
Chili bacon cheeseburger
Chili, guacamole and cheese burger

You get the idea.

A disproportionate number of their burgers involve either chili or guacamole, which I think sounds completely repulsive. Granted, I hate chili, but I do love guac, so I feel somewhat unbiased in my assessment, even though I didn't try either (yeah, yeah).

I ordered a barbecued bacon cheeseburger. See, I passionately, passionately hate bacon, but I really like it on burgers and potato skins. Weird, I know. I ordered my burger medium well, which I know is blasphemous, but I didn't eat red meat for so many years that I just can't get over the pink meat thing--if it's still pink, it can't be ready to eat, can it? What if it starts bleeding, or worse, mooing, on my plate?

So yes, my burger was dry, but based on my extensive experience cooking burgers at home, I attribute the dryness to either the cooking method or to using meat with a low fat content. There's no excuse for a dry burger, no matter how you like it cooked. My homemade, pan-fried burgers with blue cheese, cumin, and kosher salt are plenty juicy (or perhaps just greasy, but that works for me). My friend had to send back her burger, it was so overdone.


Parmesan Burger--but that's not parmesan, that's provolone!

My other friend's parmesan burger had not a trace, not a hint of parmesan. Huh? The thick cut cajun fries were tasty and also made good leftovers when reheated in the toaster oven, but I thought that charging 35 cents extra for the cajun seasoning was pretty lame. Barney's also charges 35 cents extra for grilled onions on your burger, and 50 cents extra if you want a kind of cheese that isn't American. I hate the "build your own burger, but it will cost you" philosophy espoused by Barney's and the Library.

A major redeeming factor at Barney's (and the Library, hmm) is their massive beer list. I had a delicious Fat Tire (my long-time lover) and a raspberry cider from Canada, which was like a less sugary, more intersting alternative to Smirnoff Ice. There are no prices on the beer list, which is divided by region, but our beers ended up being $6 each, which is reasonable in Los Angeles (but just plain mean in St. Louis).

If you're not a burger fan, Barney's also makes, well, everything. Their menu is actually a small newspaper about the size of the Santa Monica Daily Press. Anyone could find something to eat here, including vegetarians.

The atmosphere is a lot like Chili's--noisy with tons of crap on the walls. There are also tons of TV's. If you sit at one of the booths lining the walls, you'll have four TV's to look at, so no matter what game you were hoping to catch, it will probably be on. Needless to say, I wouldn't take a date here, unless I wanted to get dumped for being a jackass.

Overall, Barney's isn't my kind of place--I could barely hear my friends across the table, which caused me to resign myself to watching the Nuggets fight through OT2 and checking out my old pal Sam Cassell swishing some free throws. Fortunately, I love basketball.


Barney's Beanery
1351 Third Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website (with complete menu)

Restaurant Review #98: Jinky's Cafe, Santa Monica

Table for two

At 7:15 in the morning, there aren't a lot of breakfast options around downtown Santa Monica, it seems. The crepe place on Arizona isn't open yet. Panera doesn't count, because I used to work there. Blueberry has closed and transformed into a place called Jack and Jill's, which doesn't open until 8:00. Coffee shops don't count, because I want a hot breakfast, not a mere muffin, to make up for the fact that the doctor appointment I woke up an hour and a half early for got cancelled at the last minute. I could have gone to Buon Giorno Caffe, but I wanted to try something new.


My custom omelette

Jinky's menu is quite extensive, consisting of quite a few omelettes, myriad ingredients from which to create your own omelette, cornflake battered french toast (yum!) and other standard breakfast fare. I ordered decaf coffee and a portabella and swiss cheese omelette. Happily, the waitress delivered an entire carafe of coffee to my table. Unhappily, it was watery, like most restaurant coffee. Damn Americans! When will the rest of you learn to drink real, strong coffee? Europe has spoiled me! And by strong, I don't mean heavily caffeinated (it makes me feel crazy and sick to my stomach) but boldly flavored. Dense. Not watery.

My omelette was also lacking something--salt. Just like Broadway Deli, the cooks at Jinky's seem to leave the salt out of the omelette. Why? Salt is a crucial ingredient in any cooked egg dish! Adding it on top isn't the same--that leaves me with salt crunchies (yuck). I like my salt cooked in. Guess I'll have to stick to homemade if I want a good omelette.

Most dishes come with a side of potatoes and bread of your choice--sourdough, white, or wheat toast, or an English muffin, or a bagel, or...gosh, why dont' you just pick for me? Honestly, I think this is much more food than almost anyone except a football player could consume in one sitting, especially breakfast. I realize that I'm suppposed to be breaking a 9-12 hour fast, but honestly, I'm not that hungry in the morning. I ate about 1/4 of a piece of toast, 2 squares of potato, and a third of an omelette.


Partial view of the dining room

The service was just okay--it took us a while to flag down someone who would bring us a bill, and that someone was not our waitress. Since I'm not a morning person, I don't really expect anyone else to be totally awake and on top of things at 8am either, but alas, some of us must go to work at that ungodly hour and need to pay for our food and leave.

Overall, Jinky's is a decent option for breakfast, given the limited options in the area and given my faith in the french toast I have yet to order. There is also something pleasantly not-LA about the decor and the vibe, though I can't pinpoint what that is. It's not southern, it's not midwestern, it's not LA, and yet it's not generic, either. I would go back, but hopefully I won't have the opportunity, because I'd rather be asleep!


Jinky's Cafe
1447 Second St.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-917-3311
Website (warning, plays music!)

Restaurant Review #91: Fritto Misto, Santa Monica

Sweet potato ravioli with wild mushrooms in a sage cream sauce

Hidden across the street from the Big Blue Bus barn at the busy but unnoticeable corner of 6th and Colorado lies Fritto Misto, a highly rated but somewhat unknown Italian cafe that I discovered by accident one day while looking for a parking space. It looked quiet and peaceful, popular but not overcrowded. Though I rarely go out for Italian food, something told me I should make an exception.

I went with the expectation that I was about to be let in on a hidden secret.

The interior didn't look like I'd anticipated--it's very casual. There is a refrigerated display case to your left when you walk in (yet I had faith that it had no connection with what I was about to eat). The decor is scarce--three walls are taken up by large windows and the kitchen, leaving only one wall to be adorned with large, brightly painted plates. Two fans turn overhead, their rhythm making the track lighting flicker across the glossy wooden table tops. There are about fifteen tables in the main room, and I think there may have been another room in back, though I didn't investigate.


Dining room

Some of the tables are much too close together, but since I arrived for an early dinner on a weekday, I got to take the more secluded table for four in the back corner by the window. Several other tables filled around the time we arrived, and by the time we left an hour later, the restaurant was almost full. Even when it was full, it still wasn't too loud.


Fritto Misto

My friend and I ordered the fritto misto appetizer, jumbo ravioli, pasta puttanesca, and creme brulee. The fritto misto appetizer was described on the menu as "Shrimp, calamari, artichoke hearts and seasonal vegetables in a light spicy batter, quick fried in vegetable oil and served with pineapple cocktail sauce and roasted garlic mayonnaise." I was surprised to get a heaping plate of food that would have been enough for four meals for me (or two or three for someone with a larger appetite). I was also pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of a few whole baby calamari, although they didn't have as much flavor as the calamari rings. The flavor of the calamari took me back to Spain, where the food is fresh and flavorful. According to my friend, the shrimp were his favorite part of the dish, and the broccoli was quite good, considering that he doesn't like broccoli (I still wouldn't touch it).

The artichoke hearts didn't live up to my hopes of what a fried artichoke could taste like--I think they should use bigger chunks to lock in more moisture and artichoke flavor. The other vegetables were broccoli, carrots, eggplant, zuchinni, and button mushrooms. The calamari and the eggplant had the best flavor, so next time I'll get the calamari appetizer and maybe ask them to throw in some eggplant. If there was pineapple in the cocktail sauce, I couldn't tell, though it sounds like a good idea. What sounds like a better idea to me though is to forgo the red cocktail sauce altogether in favor of something more pinappley, but still tart. The flavor of the roasted garlic mayonnaise complemented the batter nicely. There are a few cajun items on this otherwise Italian menu: cajun seared chicken and pasta New Orleans. Hmm. Quirky.


Make your own pasta

In addition to its excellent food, large portions, and very reasonable prices, another of Fritto Misto's strengths is the large variety of menu options. Fritto Misto has plenty of ingredients to choose from if you want to make your own pasta, making it a great choice for kids and other picky eaters. You can choose your own pasta, sauce, and toppings in whatever combination you want. Even without this option, the menu has plenty of variety and accomodates vegetarians and others with dietary restrictions.


Jumbo ravioli

The jumbo ravioli was the clear winner of the night. It was my friend's dish, but it smelled so good that I beat him to the first bite (and snagged the leftovers). The jumbo ravioli are "stuffed with prosciutto, mortadella, and chicken, tossed with garlic cream, carmelized onions, pancetta (bacon) and sundried bacon." In case you were wondering what mortadella is, it's a very large smoked sausage--real Italian bologna, which is very different from the rubbery slices you see in the supermarket. Though I don't really care for meat, I didn't mind it in this dish, since it was all either in small bits or well-disguised, and lent the ravioli and cream sauce a very rich, smokey flavor. The dish was also very colorful, though I thought the actual arrangement on the plate was a bit sloppy.


Pasta puttanesca

This was my first experience with pasta puttanesca: "kalamata olives, capers, fresh roma tomatoes, anchovy, red pepper flakes on lemon pepper fettuccini in a cabernet butter sauce (spicy)." I was in the mood for something nice and salty. The dish tasted like Christmas trees, and though that may sound highly unappetizing, what I mean is that the flavors somehow captured the essensce of Christmas for me, maybe because that's usually the only time of year that I eat real Italian food. It paled in comparison to how good the ravioli was, but my addiction to the leftovers confirmed that it is indeed a very flavorful dish. I especially liked the cabernet butter sauce. In case you're scared of anchovies, don't worry--they're cut up into bits so tiny that you barely notice them.


Creme brulee

The creme brulee had a pleasantly thick carmelized crust and a slightly thicker consistency than usual. The dessert had a rich, eggy flavor, and overall I really liked it, though it was served just a tad cold, indicating that it had been stored in the fridge (or perhaps that display case) and not heated well enough before it was served.

Our friendly, unpretentious waitress stopped by frequently to check on us, our food came quickly, and our water glasses never got more than 1/3 empty. There is a small parking lot behind the restaurant which fills up quickly and may have a hard time accomodating large vehicles, but when we went, street parking was plentiful.

I think this is one of my new favorite restaurants..

Fritto Misto Italian Cafe
601 Colorado Ave.
Santa Monica, CA
310-458-2829
Fritto Misto Menu

Second location:
316 Pier Ave.
Hermosa Beach, CA
310-318-6098

Restaurant Review #89: Real Food Daily, Santa Monica

Club sandwich with Asian slaw

Real Food Daily is very popular and almost always full, though I don't think the food itself is exactly the cause for its popularity so much as the concept behind the food. The food can be a bit hit-or-miss, especially if soy milk and tempeh aren't for you, but the stuff that hits is awfully good, and healthy, too.

A lot of people in LA, and especially in the yuppie-friendly north side of Santa Monica where RFD is located, are very health conscious, and RFD really caters to these people with their menu full of fresh, balanced, organic offerings. And I get it, because I really do like seaweed, tofu, and tofu cheesecake. Really. And I definitely like not putting weird chemicals into my body, be they food chemicals or pretty much anything else except wine and the occasional martini. And I used to be plenty concerned about staying thin. If you're trying to eat healthy, RFD isn't a place where you'll have to ask for a million substitutions to keep the tablespoons of butter away.

RFD is also a completely animal-product-free restaurant, which I think is wonderful. At so many restaurants, vegetarians get stuck ordering whatever the one meatless dish is and vegans often have a hard time going out to eat at all. Here, the entire menu is available to these groups.

RFD's food is also grown locally and organically, which I have become a very staunch advocate of after reading a book called Eat Here. Have you ever noticed how many of the avocados in the grocery store come from Chile? Have you ever wondered why, when we produce plenty of avocados right here in southern California? This book will tell you. It reveals about produce what Fast Food Nation reveals about meat.

The atmosphere at RFD in Santa Monica (there is another location in West Hollywood, which I haven't been to) is cozy, particularly upstairs. Some of the tables are a bit close together, but I still feel like I could sit upstairs by a window and write or read for hours. The restaurant's popularity makes it noisy, but it's the kind of din that makes it easy to block everything out and work. The service has always been very friendly and. . . peaceful. How often do you come across a restaurant employee who is neither weary nor unnaturally perky? The management must be doing something right here.

Here's a rundown of the dishes I've tried:

Nori Maki
Sweet brown rice with tempeh, avocado, carrot, collard greens, scallions and umeboshi rolled in nori served w/ ginger tamari dipping sauce, daikon, wasabi & pickled ginger

Disappointingly dry and refrigerator-cold, a dead giveaway that it wasn't made fresh, which seems contrary to the restaurant's philosophy. Also, does anyone else think that calling it nori maki is really odd?

The Club
Lightly breaded seitan served club-style on toasted sourdough bread with tempeh bacon, lettuce, tomato and vegenaise $10.25

This sandwich could convince anyone that being vegetarian or vegan doesn't mean you're missing out--it's incredibly flavorful. In fact, I fantasize about this sandwich (now you know).

I'd much rather eat breaded seitan than the usual slimy coldcuts and dry turkey breast. By the way, seitan is a meat substitute made from wheat gluten. It tastes better than it sounds--it has a richer, more complex flavor than than tofu and doesn't have the bitterness of tempeh. I think it's the most accessible and effective meat substitute (did you hear that, Boca?).

Basics
Create your own dish from a selection of vegetables, grains, and proteins. I've ordered the sea vegetable of the day with tofu and house dressing (purée of tahini, tamari, lemon and watercress). The seaweed goes very well with the house dressing, but the tofu is lackluster. I think you'll get a better feel of what the restaurant has to offer if you order a real menu item, though I do like this option because it makes life easy for people with dietary restrictions or very limited budgets.

Asian Pear Ginger Kombucha Wonder Drink $4.00
A slightly tart, slightly sweet effervescent wellness drink.

This is a bottled drink that you used to be able to get at Wild Oats (I guess I didn't buy enough to keep it on the inventory list, sigh. Home Grocer carries it though). It's fizzy, but not explosively fizzy like ordinary soda (soda gives me the hiccups instantly!). I'm predisposed to like this drink because it has ginger, but damn, it's good, though $4.00 is pretty expensive for a small bottled drink (to be fair, it is $2 even at the grocery store).

Teeccino Latte
A caffeine-free coffee-like beverage blended from herbs, grains, fruits and nuts capped with steamed soy milk $3.95

Since caffeine makes me batty, I tried this drink. I really didn't like it, which probably is at least partly, if not completely, because I really don't like soy milk--I think it tastes like glue. By the way, don't ask for sugar with your coffee--RFD only has maple crystals. I would like to give this drink another shot without the soy milk.

Dessert
I've had both the coconut cream pie and the tofu cheesecake. No instant toothache here--I really liked both of these, particularly because RFD only uses natural sweeteners. In fact, if you've never tried an RFD dessert, you might not even realize just how incredibly sweet most desserts are! I love sugar, and have no issues with my waistline, but for some reason I find a little less sugar in my dessert incredibly refreshing. And if you're skeptical of tofu in a dessert, let me just say that you really can't taste the tofu. The best cake I've ever had was actually a homemade tofu chocolate cake--wow, was it moist.

I really respect Real Food Daily's mission and the niche they've both filled and created. As long as you go with an open mind and a recommendation for a good dish, you'll really enjoy your meal, even if you aren't a vegetarian or a health nut.


Wednesday's Soup of the Day: Squash and Apple Bisque

Real Food Daily
514 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 451-7544
Website

Restaurant Review #87: Rosti, Santa Monica

I almost never eat at chain restaurants, so I'm always surprised when I walk by one and see how busy it almost always is. But then when I do eat at a place like P.F. Changs or Buca di Beppo's, I can kind of see why. All snobbery and noise level consideratiosn aside, the food is quite good.

Rosti hypes itself as an authentic Tuscan restaurant. To be fair, I haven't eaten much authentic Italian food, but I'm sure that this isn't what everyone raves about when they talk about real Italian food. The food at Rosti is bland and uninspired, with the possible exception of their signature dishes, the roasted chicken and rosemary potatoes, both of which I have not tried because I hate roasted chicken and roasted potatoes.

To elaborate a bit on why Rosti's food is overhyped--mostly by the restaurant itself--I'll tell you about the dishes I've had there. The tomato, basil, and mozarella salad is the first loser. Smack in the middle of August, the tomatoes weren't the greatest quality. When the Santa Monica Farmer's market teems with delicious heirlooms just blocks away, there is no excuse for any restaurant to serve subpar tomatoes, especially in the middle of tomato season, unless they all decide to make a run on the market one week and exhaust the supply. Also, the mozarella wasn't very flavorful. Sadly, most Americans think of mozarella as a very bland cheese with no other purpose than to adhere toppings to pizza, but true mozarella has a deliciously rich, creamy flavor. A salad that highlights tomatoes and mozarella should use nothing less than the highest quality tomatoes and mozarella.

The other dish I've tried was probably doomed from the moment I ordered it since it came from the healthy section of the menu, but still, it's not hard to make a tasty, healthy piece of fish. All you need is some olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and an oven--ingredients that any restaurant has on hand. If I, a slightly above average home cook, know this, any restaurant should. Instead, Rosti tries to use butter to flavor the fish, while trying to skimp on the butter in order to be healthy, and serves it up with a side of uninspired vegetables. If this is what's labelled as healthy, it's no wonder so much of our population is overweight.

Rosti gets points for having vegan soups, but I'm going to assume that vegans don't have a terribly difficult time at Italian restaurants anyway. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

In short, if you're on Montana and jonesing for Italian, skip Rosti and go to Spumoni instead.

Rosti
931 Montana Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90403
310.393.3236
Website

Restaurant Review #86: Swingers, Santa Monica

Swingers is a popular late-night dining spot, and by late, I mean post-club late. It's open 24 hours, but it's hipper than Denny's, and probably has better food as well (having thankfully managed to avoid Denny's for the past seven or so years, I couldn't really say).

You've probably been to Swingers, so I'm not entirely sure why I'm writing this review, except to steer you away from the ahi tuna salad. It's not that Swingers is abnormally deficient in this area--it's just that half-raw fish has no place in a diner, even in LA. It bugs me that so many places, in an attempt to incorporate some hipness into their menu, feel the need to serve ahi tuna steaks and ahi tuna salads. You get the worst of several worlds, all at the same time--tastelessness, awful texture, and the knowledge that whoever created the menu thinks it's okay to serve something they don't know how to purchase or prepare.

Other than this, I have no problems with Swingers. I also think the atmosphere strikes an interesting balance between not being an authentic fifties diner (it's not that old, is it?) but also not being one of those shiny, new, contrived "diners." It's not trendy, it's not quite hip, but it's not uncool, either. A place that doesn't try too hard or too little is kind of refreshing in LA, don't you think?

Swingers
310-393-9793
802 Broadway
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Restaurant Review #85: Sunset Bar and Grill, Santa Monica

Sunset Grill is yet another mediocre stop on the Promenade, serving rather blah traditional American food, including sandwiches, burgers, and salads. The Chinese chicken salad I had was passable. My favorite thing about the restaurant was that from our second floor table, I had a great bird's eye view of the open kitchen. They have a happy hour from 4-7 on weekdays, and are open until 1 am Sunday through Thursday and until 2 am on Friday and Saturday, but keep in mind that the Promenade is owned by the often schizophrenic homeless after midnight.

Sunset Bar and Grill
1240 Third St Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 395-7012

Restaurant Review #84: Yangtze, Santa Monica

One of the great and somewhat undiscovered things about Yangtze is supposed to be their half price sushi bar hidden in the back of the restaurant. Too bad cheap sushi almost always means crunchy, flavorless sushi, and Yangtze is no exception. It's also generally a safe bet that if a restaurant serves Thai and Chinese in addition to sushi, they probably aren't focused enough on the sushi for it to be high quality. However, if you avoid the sushi, you should be okay. Their kung pao chicken is quite good and consists entirely of chicken and not too many bell peppers, which is great for those who don't like a lot of veggies watering down their meat dish. Yangtze delivers, and often sends coupons in the mail, though they aren't worth much (something like $2 off of a $15 minimum order). Yangtze, like most places, has a $10 minimum on delivery orders. I think this is one of the better restaurants on the Promenade, though I still contend that there are no truly good restaurants there because all of these establishments can rely on lost, hungry tourists to get them by even if the food isn't top-notch.

Yangtze
1333 3rd St Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 260-1994
Website

Restaurant Review #82: Josie, Santa Monica

Ostrich with baby turnips, baby carrots, brussel sprouts, shitake mushrooms, and truffle mashed potatoes

I rarely go out to nice restaurants, the kind of places where they pull out your chair for you and have sommeliers, but every once in a while, I get lucky. Last time it was Melisse, and this time it was Josie. Jonathan Gold recommended it. He put it in his 99 Essential Restaurants list. It had to be good. And I wouldn't have to sit in traffic for an hour to get there. Plus, I could finally pay tribute to one of the women-run restaurants in LA. Josie's kitchen is run by not one, but three women: Josie Le Balch, Jonna Jensen, and Jill Davie. It sounded perfect.


The Dining Room

Valet whisked our car away, and the hostess greeted us enthusiastically-so enthusiastically that I wondered if she thought she knew me and was expecting me to strike up a conversation. Hmm. Later I realized that she had a terribly lonely job and was probably dying for someone to talk to. The only hostess, she had no job but to stand there and seat people--and there were only about fifteen tables, so there weren't that many people to greet.

Someone brought us a wine list, which was presented like a large menu except the outside was made of cork. I put that aside for later. How do I know what I want to drink before I know what I want to eat? I guess the assumption is that I want to drink something before my meal even comes. Too bad I'm such a lightweight.

The menu is pretty short, consisting of about 10 appetizers and 10 entrees. There wasn't a tasting menu, but there were quite a few specials. We were still able to order all the specials we wanted at about 8:15, but by 8:30 they were returning apologetically to some tables, and by 9:00 they seemed to be out of too many of the specials. The specials we ordered were the escargot appetizer and the ostrich entree. From the regular menu, we ordered the fig tart appetizer and the buffalo burger entree. Our waitress commented that I had ordered well, and she seemed surprised, since it was my first visit to Josie, but pleased.

Once I decided what to order, the sommelier helped me pick out one glass of red and one glass of white. The wine menu was extensive, but almost everything had to be ordered by the bottle. There were a few half-bottles, but we wanted to try more than one thing without breaking the bank. So I settled on a chardonnay and a 1995 margaux. I can only think of one red I've ever enjoyed, which was something at Orris, so chardonnay was the best choice to go with our meaty dishes, and I picked the red because apparently it is rare for a 95 to be poured by the glass. Just tell me something is rare or unusual, and I'll want to try it immediately! By the way, our sommelier, I believe, was Frank Delzio, the general manager and Josie's husband (we're on a first name basis).


Le amuse bouche-something with cheese, egg, and a pie crust

I always appreciate an amuse bouche. This was good, but failed to impress me and was a bit heavy. I think an amuse bouche should be something incredibly impressive and light that will get me excited about the meal to come.


Fig and goat cheese tart

a savory tart layered with herbed goat cheese, figs, sweet-and-sour red onions, Oregon hazelnuts, and arugula
$14.00

The first few bites didn't impress me that much, but once I got to the crusty tart, I was quite happy. I generally don't like pie crusts or any other kind of crust, but his one was buttery and crisp, not dry, mushy, or cardboardy (yes, I grew up on frozen pies). The goat cheese was very creamy and not grainy at all. The figs tasted like dried figs--I would have preferred more moist figs, though I realize that fig season has passed and there may not be much you can do to perk up a dried fig. I think there was a bit too much arugula, and the onions complemented the other flavors well, but didn't seem any different from ordinary carmelized red onions. I don't like nuts, so I won't judge those.

By the way, Josie gets a lot of its fresh produce from the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, which I think is fantastic.



This is escargot, I swear

I'd had escargot once before at a sushi restaurant in Newport Beach called Abe, where the sushi chef was mentored by Nobu. As much as I love sushi, I never would have tried snails (yes, they were cooked) had they not been on the house (we knew the waiter). They came in an odd dish that reminded me of the dialer part of a rotary phone, with each snail in its own miniature bath of garlic butter sauce. They were incredibly tender and completely amazing. Because of this experience, Josie's escargot had a lot to live up to, and unfortunately, I wasn't impressed. There were only 4 snails, along with a few mushrooms, a lot of mashed potatoes and a huge garnish. Of the three snails I ate, one was pretty good, one was okay, and one had an odd consistency as if there were some guts or waste product inside the snail (okay, I know nothing about snail anatomy or escargot preparation, but it was gross). The mashed potatoes were underwhelming and, I thought, a bit dry.


Buffalo foie burger with truffle fries

sirloin of buffalo, ground and stuffed with Gruyere cheese, topped with foie gras, and served on a brioche bun
$27.00

My first encounter with foie gras. It has a very rich taste and a smooth texture, and I can see why some people like it, but to me, it just tasted like something I wasn't meant to eat. Maybe I just couldn't overcome the mental hurdle of eating duck liver, especially with all the semi-recent controversey, but I didn't enjoy it. Buffalo was new to me and has an interesting texture--it's much smoother than ground beef. It took me a while to get used to the idea, but I ended up liking it a lot, especially with the cheesy insides.

The truffle fries were my favorite part of the meal (incidentally, they can also be ordered separately). They were addictively good and had a salty kick due to some white mystery ingredient that was sprinkled on top. Also, one of the dipping sauces was muhummara, a Middle Eastern dip made of red pepper, pomegranate molasses, walnuts, and a few other ingredients. I love muhummara and it's particularly rare to stumble across it at an American restaurant with French and Italian influences. The mustard sauce was very heavy and tasted mayonaissey; I didn't care for it. Ketchup is ketchup.


Fry dipping sauces-ketchup, mustard, and muhummara!

The restaurant felt like being in someone's living room--cozy--but it was a bit too cozy. Some of the tables were much too close together, especially ours, which was positioned right next to a booth in an odd way that made it very difficult for my friend and I to hear each other. The restaurant was a bit noisy on a Friday night at 8:00. Also, the booth we sat at had a very narrow bench and a very upright back. The restaurant had tried to make up for this by providing a pillow, but since the bench was so narrow, I couldn't use the pillow and still have enough room to sit (and I am not a large person). I was uncomfortable the whole time.


View of the semi-open kitchen

The ginger pear upside down cake was joyously moist and something I would like to be able to make myself. I didn't love the brown sugar ice cream, and thought it would have been better as brown sugar ginger ice cream, a la Kiriko. But I'm also somewhat biased because I don't like ice cream with my dessert--I like to eat it alone. The ice wine was very sweet, so the tiny portion was okay, though it was somewhat alarming to get something the size of a shot for about $8. I'm used to budget dining, what can I say.


Ice wine and a ginger pear upside down cake with brown sugar ice cream

Overall, I felt sort of eh about the experience. I really liked the truffle fries, the buffalo burger, and the dessert. The service was pretty good, but the noise and discomfort of my seat really distracted me. American/French is not my favorite kind of food, so I'm not too inclined to go out for it often. If I go back, it will be for the fries, and I'll go on a quiet night of the week, like Wednesday.

Josie
2424 Pico
Santa Monica, CA 90405
310-581-9888

Restaurant Review #81: Toi, Santa Monica

Toi is unusual in that while it is a Thai restaurant, it is decorated in rock and roll memorabilia. It is also open from 11 am to 3 am daily. Yes, you read that right. Perhaps the long hours explain the empty tables. Or perhaps it's the food.

Toi has two locations, and I've only been to the Wilshire location in Santa Monica (the other is on Sunset). Both times I was underwhelmed by, if not downright unhappy with, their food. I went with a different group of friends each time, and other people seemed to like their food, but then, they're not as picky as I.

On my first visit, I ordered pad Thai. I'm such a sucker, I know. It's hard to mess up pad Thai, unless you're using the red box from the grocery store, but Toi managed to do it. On my second visit, I ordered the crispy duck. It wasn't well-described on the menu, and perhaps it's my fault for not asking for more detail, but I definitely wasn't expecting a plate of fried duck pieces still on the bone. My vegetarian inclinations don't like eating meat off the bone, but even pushing that detail aside, the meat was overcooked and it took a lot of work to even find the meat. There weren't any vegetables on the plate, and I didn't order rice (extra charge, sigh) so after a lot of work picking around bones for meat, I was still hungry, and I'd ordered the most expensive dish of the group. I went home and ate a salad and cookies for my real dinner.

Based on my two experiences and the reviews elsewhere on the web, I'd recommended avoiding Toi unless it's late at night and you're looking for an alternative to the usual diner food.

Toi
1120 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 394-7804

Restaurant Review #77: Buon Giorno Caffe, Santa Monica

The first time I went here, I was so hungry I thought I was going to pass out and had to get food from the nearest available place. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a lovely little Italian cafe. The small, rectangular interior had a dark green nicely tiled floor and a just few small tables, maybe about 8, and another 3 tables outside. It was very clean and bright, and somehow has a bit of atmosphere and tranquility in spite of its location on busy Santa Monica Boulevard. It's not enough atmosphere to impress any date, unless you've got a quick breakfast date (but who does that?) who would be impressed by your ability to choose a non-chain, but the atmosphere is definitely better than you-know-where. The back wall has lots of framed artwork. Metered street parking was very easy to find at 8:15 AM.

I did not want to spend my money on a full blown meal, so I got an orange cranberry muffin. The muffin was exceptionally good, and this is coming from a person who does not like muffins. And it wasn't just because I was starving that I thought it was tasty. Though it was because I was starving that I actually ate a muffin. Why don't I like muffins? I don't know. I don't like breakfast food much, except for pancakes and French toast. I can often be found eating pizza for breakfast. However, this muffin was exceptional, and even used real fresh cranberries, not dried ones! The service was friendly and respectful and offered to heat up my muffin for me. Fortunately, they did not ask if I wanted my muffin buttered.

In addition to breakfast pastry type items and coffee, the cafe has panini and a pretty extensive menu of other Italian stuff. They also have various desserts and other breakfast items, like eggs. I'm pretty sure they had some hot pasta dishes. I wouldn't mind eating here for real sometime, but we all know how often I eat Italian when I go out.

This morning, I tried Buon Giorno again, because I wanted coffee but wanted to give my money to someplace more unique than the Coffee Bean. I ordered a blueberry muffin and a medium decaf coffee. The total for these two items was a reasonable $4. My decaf coffee was excellent. It tasted fresh and rich-- not old, watered-down, dull, or burnt. The muffin was good as well, though I liked my previous cranberry muffin better. It seems these muffins don't have preservatives--it took me a couple of hours to eat mine since it was a busy morning at the office, and it started to dry out and get stale quite quickly. As I prefer to not eat preservatives, I consider this a good thing.

If you're looking for a potentially good undiscovered hole in the wall Italian cafe, you may want to check this place out.

Oh, and they actually said "thank you" when I put my change in the tip jar!

Buon Giorno Caffe
1431 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90404
310-260-0073

Restaurant Review #76: Lago, Santa Monica Farmer's Market

Parma Panini: Mozarella, tomato, and proscuitto

Lago, an Italian restaurant located on the Promenade, has a panini stand diagonally in front of their restaurant during the Santa Monica Farmer's Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. They sell mostly panini, but also lasagne, polenta pancakes, and minestrone soup. All but one of the panini had meat, I believe. One may have been vegan, if the pesto spread did not contain cheese. They also sell $2 Italian bottled soft drinks, and less expensive cans of Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite.

The stand has a short line most of the time, and a short wait for your food, which is all pre-made but needs to be heated and/or boxed. Unfortunately, they use large styrofoam boxes for everything. I wish more places would use Juliano's Raw/Real Food Daily style cardboard boxes. The service was smiley and appeared to speak Italian as a first language, rattling it off between customers and wishing me "buon apetito" when they handed me my food. Panini are $5-6 each for two medium sized triangles--about the perfect lunch portion to be full but not stuffed.

It took me about 15 minutes to get the panini from the stand back to my office where I ate it. By that time, it was only vaguely warm, so I popped it back into the toaster oven. The sandwich as a whole didn't taste like much and was a little too salty, and in my opinion, would have benefitted from some freshly ground black pepper and a basil spread. Cheese is not enough to moisten bread properly for a sandwich. The bread was very crunchy and covered me with crumbs, but this may have been due to its stint in the toaster oven. I prefer chewier, moister bread in general (a la Panera Bread, though I'm not a huge fan of the foccacia they use for their panini) and think that all sandwiches benefit from some sort of spread--just enough to moisten the bread without making it soggy.

I decided to take apart the second half of my sandwich and eat the ingredients individually. The tomatoes had a rich heirloom tomato flavor, but were ruined by a mealy consistency. The proscuitto was very thinly sliced and soft, not tough, and didn't have too strong of a flavor. I'd say the quality of it was pretty high, though I'm no expert, and my inner vegetarian couldn't eat all of it. The proscuitto had the effect of making the tomatoes and mozarella taste extra salty (or maybe they added salt to the sandwich?). The mozzarella was on the more flavorful side--not the best I've had (that was in Italy), but definitely above average. The proportions of ingredients were well-balanced, except that there was a bit too much bread.

The sandwich wasn't good enough to finish, and I doubt I'll return to try any of their other food. In generally, I'm not too quick to forgive a restaurant for a sub-par dish. Instead, I'll try the not-yet-opened Panini Grille on Wilshire at 6th in the old Mon Sushi spot (which, according to Tony Bourdain, means it's already destined to fail).

Restaurant Review #74: Broadway Deli, Santa Monica

Broadway Deli is very popular, with waits easily 30 minutes for weekend breakfast. They offer something for everyone--a deli, a cheese counter, an extensive wine list, a full bar, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. You can come in for a meal, or treat the place like an upscale grocery store. You can also come for happy hour and get wine and cheese pairings, which I hear are a great deal. And they even have one vegan dish--their buckwheat pancakes.

I've been three times, and here are my observations:

The service ranges from okay to eh. It can be hard to get a server's attention when you need something. The atmosphere casual, and the booth tables are big--good for loud talkers and groups of 4-6. It's also noisy, due to the size, the open kitchen, and the general hustle and bustle of a busy restaurant. Everything is overpriced, meaning that the price exceeds the quality.

The cornflake encrusted French toast is great and addictive. The vegetarian omelette is very bland--little to no seasoning, and no tomatoes! Who puts carrots in an omelette and omits tomatoes? The coffee is watery and lacks any real flavor. The fruit cup doesn't have particularly high quality fruit.

They have valet parking in the alley behind the restaurant for $7, or you can park wherever you're lucky enough to find a spot--perhaps the public garage on Broadway. They're open until midnight Sunday through Thursday, and until 1am on weekends.

Broadway Deli
1457 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, 90401
(310) 451-0616

Restaurant Review #72: Juliano's Raw, Santa Monica

Dining room

The first thing you'll notice when you walk into Juliano's, as I like to call it, is the low lighting, the sleek gray interior, and the potent aroma of a couple hundred fresh hibiscus. Since raw philosophy dictates that nothing be heated above 120 degrees, the restaurant doesn't smell like the food it serves. I like that someone clearly realized this and thought of a way to create a pleasant scent for the restaurant that wouldn't detract from the food--incense, for example, is too strong to contend with the flavors of a meal. At the same time, the flowers, as well several candles, add warmth to what would otherwise be a cold space.


Raw-violies

There aren't a lot of good tables at Juliano's (or a lot of tables, period), so try to arrive early to get a quiet corner table. The menu is a trip--Juliano is very in-your-face about his opinions on food, and you might find yourself chuckling at the description of sprouted buckwheat crisps baked in the sun for ten hours on a rock in Palm Springs. That's a joke, right? Honestly, I'm not sure. Read the menu and you'll understand. It contains so much information that you'll probably want to hold onto it and keep reading after you've placed your order. Here's a preview from the online menu:

NO MAD COW, SALMONELLEA, E. COLI OR DESTROY THE RAINFOREST FOR GRAZE LANDS BACON WESTERN CHEESEBURGER $24.94
Mushroom nut burger w/ macadamia cheese on a sprouted buckwheat bun w/ pickles, tomatoes, onion, guacamole, homemade heirloom ketchup, mustard & French fries.


Thai spring rolls

So what is raw cuisine? According to Juliano himself, "Raw is cuisine in its real form: organic, from the earth, and uncooked. For food to be considered raw it can be chopped, blended, pureed, juiced, dehydrated, or combined into infinite flavor combinations, but whatever the end result, all raw recipes are vegan (no meat, fish eggs or dairy) and living."

What do you mean, living? Once you pull a plant out of the ground, isn't it dead? Well, I'll leave that up to you, but according to Juliano, living means uncooked, and uncooked means not heated above 120 degrees.


Appetizer sampler plate

Juliano's isn't cheap--high quality, fresh organic ingredients aren't cheap, after all. A smoothie is $10, but it's not bulked up or watered down with crushed ice, either. It also contains an unbelievable number of ingredients, which, surprisingly, aren't excessive and work together very well.

KLEEM $9.24
Ras, blue, straw & other blood cleansing berries blended w/ love honey, Mac Milk & cream of sapote, peach, nectarine, persimmon, cherimoya, apricot, cherry, melon & mango.


Non-garbanzo hummus
My favorite dish at Juliano's is Harem in the Raw, a platter of hummus, falafel, and other related goodies.

HAREM IN THE RAW $24.94
In a purple shell you'll find hummus, heavy mint, heat, caramelized & fresh onions, cucumber, lots of ginger dressing, tomato, parsley, falafel balls, avocado, black olives, eggplant & Buckwheaties.

It's easy to be skeptical of Juliano's cuisine--it's totally different from what we're used to eating. But if you're open to a unique experience and don't hate vegetables, you'll probably be pleasantly amazed at the creativity of each dish, the newness of the flavors to your palette, and the range and intensity of flavor in each bite.


Even the bathroom has ambience

Juliano's Raw
609 Broadway
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310.587.1552
Website

Restaurant Review #71: Spumoni, Santa Monica

I almost never go out for Italian, because it's so cheap and easy to do at home. In fact, probably at least half of my daily meals are either pasta or pizza (it's my secret to staying so slim). There is definitely a difference between restaurant Italian and slapped together on a weeknight Amy Italian, but there's even more of a difference between the invisible hamachi in my fridge and the sushi at Kiriko, so Kiriko and it's many cousins tend to win out 95% of the time.

I was curious about Spumoni though because of the incredible garlic aroma I smelled whenever I walked by, so I finally caved.

Though Spumoni seems to specialize in gnocchi (they have a whole page's worth of gnocchi entrees), what I really wanted was a pizza--an artichoke heart and garlic pizza, to be specific. Yum. Pizza bliss. It was served piping hot and had plenty of cheese, just the right amount of garlic, and, unlike most places, they didn't skimp on the artichokes at all. I also had leftovers for two more meals.

Spumoni doesn't have the greatest atmosphere, and it's usually crowded, but when all you want is a good, filling, reasonably priced meal, Spumoni is perfect.

Spumoni
713 Montana Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90403
310.393.2944

Restaurant Review #70: Trastevere, Santa Monica

Trastevere is a seemingly nice restaurant on the Promenade which is designed primarily for tourists and is not nearly as special as it pretends to be. The garlic herb dipping sauce that came with the bread was addictively good. The veggie pizza I had for my meal was fine, but nothing memorable. Unfortunately, the most salient part of the meal for me was the rude, rude, I-am-too-good-for-you-because-I-am-an-aspiring-actress-and-you-are-not-wearing-designer-clothes-or-makeup service.

A visit to their website (link below) will give you a good idea of how cheesy and poorly run this restaurant is.

Not recommended unless you have a hole in your head.

Trastevere
360 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 319-1985
Website