Restaurant Review #153: Donuts and Delites, Van Nuys

Donuts and Delites sells the best donuts I have ever eaten. While their ordinary donuts are nothing to get excited about, the ridged donuts you see here taste like they're made from a completely different batter. Either the batter or the shape of this donut is responsible for a treat that is more moist, more gooey, and somehow simultaneously both denser and lighter than an ordinary donut. Take your pick of chocolate, strawberry, maple, or white icing. I like the white icing best because it's not as sickeningly sweet as strawberry and because, well, chocolate and maple aren't my thing. Cost for a dozen donuts and two 16 ounce bottles of milk? A reasonable $8.

Maybe I just haven't been paying attention all these years, but I've never seen a donut like this before. I'm in love.



Donuts and Delites
14350 Victory Blvd. #1
Van Nuys, CA 91401
818.782.4449

Restaurant Review #261: West Burton Antiques, Westwood

Hidden away in a small building next to a garden courtyard is West Burton Antiques, a small antique store with eclectic and unique finds. It also houses a little coffee bar that serves a small selection of snacks and sandwiches. The menu is not extensive and it’s the kind of place that will run out of items as the day goes on. Still, it’s a great place to enjoy a light lunch of fruit or yogurt or maybe a tasty croissant with cheese. The tiny store is serene and quiet, a veritable refuge from the loud, busy Westwood scene. The service is very friendly and attentive, yet not overbearing or intrusive. You can take your meal into the courtyard outside if you’d prefer to enjoy the weather. If you’re looking for a lovely place to take a break from your day and nosh on a healthy snack or enjoy a cup of tea, West Burton is a wonderful find.

West Burton Antiques
1131 Glendon
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310.208.3375

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 #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 #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 #33: Lazy Daisy Cafe, Santa Monica

I'll make this one short and sweet. The service was slow (only one woman to both wait tables and man the to-go counter--maybe it was an off day). The cappucino was good. The omelette was okay, but I can do better. The plates were different (white with bright blue painted edges) and matched the cups (bright blue). The atmosphere was nice. It was quiet and only about half full at 9:30am on a Wednesday. I'd go back, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go back.

Lazy Daisy Cafe
2300 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA
310-450-9011
Breakfast and lunch only

There are other locations as well (Wilshire near Bundy is one).