Restaurant Review #253: Senor Gomez Courtyard, Simi Valley

Chicken, beef, and shrimp fajitas - $19.99

Senor Gomez is a little pricier than the average Mexican restaurant, but it's worth the money for the quality of the food, the plentiful portions, and the attentive service. It's also one of the only non-chain Mexican options in Simi Valley where the atmosphere is nice enough to dine in rather than do takeout.

The interior decor is a tad dated, but the lighting is low enough at dinner and the food delicious enough that you won't really notice.  If it's a Saturday night, you might get to enjoy some live music in the main dining room. There's also a pretty outdoor patio that can be very peaceful as long as the folks at the next table over haven't had too many margaritas.

I'm not sure what they do with their fajitas at Senor Gomez, but they're far tastier than the ones you'll find at your favorite chain restaurant. My favorite dish at Senor Gomez, however, and a more unique option, is the pescado rico ("rich fish", below), a huge portion of pan-seared fresh orange roughy smothered in pickled jalapenos, black olives, fresh oregano and a light tomato sauce with loads of umami. The flavors from the main dish seep into the side dishes to make them extra delicious.

The entree portions are so generous that you definitely don't need anything else, but all entrees come with soup or salad, and you won't want to miss the albondigas (meatball) soup. For sides, you can choose a baked potato or grilled veggies for a lighter alternative to rice and beans.

Pescado rico - $17.99

The chile relleno is good enough, but for $11.99 it's nothing special--you'd be better off ordering this item from a less expensive takeout place. If you want the usual stuff, Senor Gomez has it--tacos, enchiladas, tamales, burritos. But Senor Gomez also has quite a few dishes that you won't find on a typical Mexican restaurant menu, like paella a la mexicana, Baja crab cakes with sweet corn and avocado relish, and lobster in tequila sauce. There are many other things on the menu at Senor Gomez that I'd love to try, too, like the chicken mole and chili colorado. But I love the pescado rico so much that I haven't made it any further into the menu.

Senor Gomez is not just a good restaurant, it's also an interesting one that's suitable for everything from a happy hour to a casual dinner to a date night to a bachelorette party.

Senor Gomez Courtyard
2916 Cochran St.
Simi Valley, CA 93065
(805) 527-5763
Hours: Open: 11:00 am to 10:00 pm, 7 days a week
Senor Gomez website
Senor Gomez menu

Restaurant Review #250: Howie's Grill & Bar, Simi Valley

Grilled Portobello Mushroom - $10.95

Howie's opened in January 2011 on the corner of Cochran and Madera, a location that's very convenient to the freeway if you happen to be at the far west end of Simi Valley just before you get to Moorpark. Howie's occupies a former Applebees, and the dining room hasn't changed much. The cuisine is also somewhat similar--what I'd call suburban American--but with just enough creativity to capture your interest. The beer selections are also slightly less boring than usual.

Meat is a major feature on the menu, but they also have a portobello mushroom cap, grilled and served with swiss cheese, caramelized onions, and a balsamic glaze, that was enormous (I only ate half) and delicious. As for the side of sweet potato fries, I'll take them over regular fries anyway, but these fries weren't really seasoned and didn't taste as good as any frozen grocery store sweet potato fries--not worth the deep-fried calories at all.

Skillet Mac ‘n’ Cheese - $6.95

We're very picky about mac and cheese because we have a homemade recipe that we're very fond of. Howie's kicked up mac ‘n’ cheese with 4 kinds of cheese, topped with a jalapeño bacon, panko, and parmesan crust sounded very promising and looked delicious, but didn't have as much flavor as you'd expect. I started to suspect that our cook was too careful with the salt.

Kobe Beef Sliders - $9.95

I know what Tony Bourdain says about kobe burgers duping the masses out of their hard-earned money for what are essentially ordinary burgers, but I love them anyway. Howie's3 mini kobe burgers topped with cheddar cheese and sweet caramelized onions were the highlight of the meal. Please don't tell me how many calories are in these things--you can see the fat glistening even on the buns.

BBQ Bacon Burger - $10.95

The bbq bacon burger is a basic burger with applewood smoked bacon, bbq sauce, and your choice of jack, swiss or cheddar cheese. It was as good as any restaurant burger and served horror-movie style with a giant knife plunged into the center.

Chocolate Fudge Cake - $6.45 plus $3.95 for ice cream

As if we weren't already so stuffed that we needed to be rolled out of the restaurant, we splurged on dessert. There was no way I was missing the chance to try a dessert that combines two of my favorite things--beer and ice cream. We paired the ice cream with a side of chocolate cake. The cake was pretty much what you'd expect it to be, but the Drunken Udder Guinness chocolate stout ice cream was a disappointment. I couldn't taste the stout at all. The ice cream is expensive, too--$3.95 for an a la mode scoop, and even more if you order it alone.  But with the exception of the ice cream, the prices are very reasonable, especially for the portions you get.

Nice view from a booth by the window

Howie's has a patio, but it's somewhat noisy since it's adjacent to a busy street and not far from the freeway. Still, it's nice to have the option to dine outdoors. We enjoyed our window booth with a nice view of the surrounding mountains and Simi Valley's immaculate landscaping.

For the most part, I liked my meal a lot. I haven't been back, but that has less to do with Howie's and more to do with my aversion to eating enormous, heavy meals.

Howie's Grill and Bar
109 West Cochran Street
Simi Valley, CA 93065
(805) 520-3000
Open daily 9am-11pm
Howie's website
Howie's menu

Restaurant Review #240: Golden Tiger Chinese Restaurant, Simi Valley

Mongolian beef

Golden Tiger is an unmemorable Chinese restaurant in Simi Valley. We tried two dishes: the Mongolian beef and kung pao chicken. The beef was fatty and unflavorful, and the dish had lots of of green and white onions--filler that goes straight to the trash can, since we don't like to eat onions. The kung pao chicken fared slightly better since it was heavy on the meat and used the green onions very sparingly, but it still was just average at best.


Kung pao chicken

As much as I like the idea of supporting restaurants that are independent and unique, Panda Express and Pickup Stix are both much better than this place. Golden Tiger is one of the few restaurants in the area that offers delivery, but I'd rather get in my car and grab some better food for takeout. If you live in the area and really want some food delivered, a better option is Thai Kitchen.

Golden Tiger Chinese Restaurant

1494 Madera Road
Simi Valley, CA 9306
805.520.9022
Golden Tiger website
Golden Tiger menu

Restaurant Review #238: Bread Basket, Camarillo

Bread Basket is a well-known Ventura County bakery that creates sandwiches, breads, pastries, and cakes, including wedding cakes. It was the search for the perfect wedding cake that sent us there after everyone we mentioned wedding cakes to asked us if we had been to Bread Basket.

Bread Basket is known in particular for its fresh fruit cakes that use blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries in the middle layer of filling and on top of the cake. Their fruit basket cake is especially popular, though personally I don't care much for fresh fruit in or on my cake.

It seems like the store is always very busy and crowded. Each of the five or so times we've been, there have been a steady stream of customers, no matter the time of day or day of the week. Part of the reason the store always feels crowded though is because it is so small. Besides having a small space, the store has placed large baskets of bread on the floor, making it difficult to walk all the way up to the counter. Bread Basket also has devoted a corner of the store to selling shelf-stable gourmet foods, which further clutters the space. If you want to enjoy your food there, the only tables are outdoors, facing the parking lot.

All of these things are annoyances, but the cake is so good that they're worth putting up with.

If it's a wedding cake you're looking for, Bread Basket's selection of cake fillings is smaller than most wedding cake vendors. Here are their choices:

Cake flavors: white, chocolate, lemon, carrot, red velvet, banana

Fillings: fruit basket (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, french whipped cream), fresh raspberries and raspberry cream, fresh strawberries and french whipped cream, fresh banana and banana cream, lemon cream, mocha cream, hazelnut cream, german chocolate, vanilla mousse (with optional raspberry puree), chocolate mousse (with optional raspberry puree), amaretto and french whipped cream, Bailey's Irish cream and chocolate mousse, Kahlua with chocolate mousse or mocha cream, dark Myer's rum with choice of french whipped cream or banana and banana cream

They also have cheesecakes, but we didn't try them.

My absolute favorite is the chocolate mousse filling with raspberry puree (photo below). The chocolate mousse filling is has delicate shavings of chocolate that give it some texture and combine a deeper, more bitter chocolate taste with a lighter, creamier chocolate taste. The cake itself doesn't offer anything special in terms of flavor, but it is very moist, unlike many other wedding cakes we sampled.


Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and raspberry puree filling and buttercream frosting with a white chocolate wrap

The banana cream filling (we opted to leave out the fresh bananas it normally comes with) with dark Meyer's rum it also delicious, but unfortunately it's only available for wedding cakes.

The cakes Bread Basket offers on a daily basis are essentially the same as their wedding cakes. The differences are that there are a few more flavor options for wedding cakes, the wedding cakes have two layers of filling and three layers of cake instead of one layer of filling and two layers of cake, and the wedding cakes must have a special outer coating to keep the cake fresh and intact while it's on display for hours during the wedding reception.

For the outer layer, you can choose fondant (which I didn't like, but then, I never do) or a chocolate or white chocolate wrap. The white chocolate wrap can be made in either ivory or white. Whatever design you want can be piped onto the outside (and yes, it will stick to the chocolate wraps without sliding off). Underneath the outer layer, which only coats the vertical surfaces of the cake, not the horizontal ones, is a thin layer of buttercream frosting. They say that the ivory and white buttercream taste the same, but to me the ivory buttercream had more of a true butter-based buttercream flavor and the white had a more sugary, fake butter flavor. Both were good, but since I don't like super-sweet things, I preferred the ivory buttercream. In fact, one of the selling points of Bread Basket for me was that their cakes aren't super sweet.

At our initial consultation we received, for free, four generous full-sized pieces of cake to taste (which would have cost $20 if we had walked in to buy them). These were the four flavors that they normally carry and sell out of the display case daily--if you want something special from their wedding cake flavor list, you'll need to place a special order well ahead of your consultation. We did feel rushed on the two times we went to Bread Basket to discuss our wedding cake with them--the store is always so busy that it seems like the employees don't have the time to really sit down and discuss cakes with you. After we got a quote for our wedding cake, we surreptitiously ordered a small sample cake a few days later. We wanted to make sure they could get our order right before we committed to a wedding cake.

Bread Basket did get our small order correct. (The two other places we tested made significant mistakes, which was a deal killer.) After a second consultation and lots of questions, we decided to order our wedding cake from them. You don't have to commit until two weeks before the wedding date, and full payment is due at that time. Also, unlike other bakeries, there didn't seem to be any issue with our wedding date filling up with too many orders, so there was no pressure to make a decision quickly.

The wedding cake itself was prepared and delivered according to our order. It ended up costing about $6 per person, which seems to be a pretty average price for the area. We felt that it was a good value for the price because the cake was so good and the serving sizes were generous. We had quite a bit of leftover cake, which we happily took home and ate over the next week. We received numerous compliments from our guests on how good the cake was, including one from our friend's wife who months later got pregnant and said she was craving our wedding cake.

In addition to their generous tasting samples and reasonable prices, if you bring them a photo of your wedding cake on your first anniversary, they will give you a small cake, worth about $30, for free. This means that you don't have to freeze the top layer of your cake if you want to eat your wedding cake on your one-year anniversary--you can get a nice, fresh cake instead.

Bread Basket has an excellent reputation and is always busy for a reason. Their cake is my favorite cake anywhere. It's probably a good thing that I don't live closer to the store or I'd be eating cake every day.

Bread Basket

83 E Daily Dr.
Camarillo, CA 93010
805.482.1337
Closed Sunday and Monday
Bread Basket website

Restaurant Reivew #237: Thai Kitchen, Simi Valley

Papaya Salad

Thai Kitchen has some pretty great Thai food, and not just for Simi Valley standards (North Hollywood isn't that far away, after all). I tried my three favorite Thai dishes--papaya salad, pad kee maw with beef, and pad Thai with tofu to see how they measured up.

The papaya salad was the one dish that didn't impress me--for the price, I felt that it wasn't a lot of food. The tomatoes were of the mealy, refrigerated variety--which is usually the case with restaurant tomatoes--and, for my taste, there were too many different veggies and not enough papaya. Also, while I appreciate the use of fresh rather than dried shrimp, and I know that shrimp aren't cheap, it would have been nice to get more than one shrimp in my salad.


Pad Kee Maw

The pad kee maw was not quite as spicy or as flavorful as the one from Krua Thai--I don't think any pad kee maw will ever beat Krua's. And I like mine with mint, which this version didn't have. I also thought it could use more meat and red bell peppers, but overall, it was still a tasty dish that I would order again.


Pad Thai

The pad Thai was really spectacular--totally comparable with Krua Thai (my standard of Thai food, in case you hadn't noticed). Best of all, you have the option to order it spicy--and they will actually make it lip-tinglingly spicy if you ask. I also thought this dish was a good value for the price--I could easily make two meals out of it for $8.

However, it was only totally spectacular on my first visit. On my second visit, I guess another cook was in the kitchen, and the dish wasn't as good as the first time. I still plan to go back, though, in the hope that my third experience will match my first.

Thai Kitchen doesn't offer much in the way of ambiance. It's located in an unattractive shopping center and the interior is pretty blah. This restaurant appears to do mostly takeout and delivery business. Thankfully, they are very quick to prepare meals for takeout and they have a low delivery minimum--just $15.

Overall, I think the service, food, and prices are all better than average and I would recommend Thai Kitchen.

Thai Kitchen

995 East Los Angeles Avenue
Simi Valley, CA 93065-1879
(805) 581-8049
Thai Kitchen menu

Restaurant Review #233: Firehouse Cafe, Simi Valley

California Fireman omelet with hash browns - $7.75

Sitting in Firehouse Cafe, you'll feel like you've been transported out of Southern California and into a friendly Midwestern city--say, St. Louis. There's zero pretense at this affordable, no-frills breakfast and lunch joint. The flooring is charcoal gray industrial carpet, the chairs are standard-issue black metal with padded vinyl seats, and the white walls are somewhat haphazardly adorned with photos and firefighting memorabilia and gear. Red accents throughout, including diner stools at the counter, contribute to the firehouse theme. The space is just one big, rectangular open room, so there's no sense of intimacy at any of the tables, but at least the tables are spaced well apart. The restaurant was busy late on a Sunday morning and we felt lucky to get the only open table.


Huevos rancheros - $6.95

The coffee doesn't break with the restaurant's no-frills vibe--it's of the coffee-pot-on-a-burner variety, so if you're into the gourmet stuff, be warned. But it does come with free refills. The breakfast menu offers everything you'd expect at and is served all day (which, most days, means all morning and early afternoon). I love omelets, but can only make a mediocre one myself, so that's what I almost always order at breakfast joints. Firehouse Cafe's version met my expectations--fluffy, cheesy (swiss), and stuffed with bacon and veggies (mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, avocado). Our food arrived in a reasonable time frame and the portions were so generous that we had ample leftovers. (Not that leftover omelets are terribly appetizing, but I hate wasting food.) The lunch menu offers more than 30 sandwiches, 16 firefighting-themed burgers, and several salads, plus standard appetizers like mozzarella sticks and potato skins. They also serve dinner on Fridays.

The service is supposed to be friendly here, but our waitress seemed like she'd much rather be somewhere else. This wouldn't prevent me from giving the restaurant a second try, though, given my positive experience with the atmosphere, food, and price tag. 

Firehouse Cafe

1244 Sycamore Dr
Simi Valley, CA 93065
805.527.9598
Hours:
Mon-Thu, Sat-Sun 7 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Fri 7 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Firehouse Cafe Menu

Restaurant Review #230: Oaks Korean BBQ, Simi Valley - CLOSED

Chicken and beef on the grill

Update: This restaurant has closed.

Oaks Korean BBQ in Simi Valley, whose sign actually says "Oaks Oaks Korean BBQ," is the only Korean restaurant in the area--the next closest are in Canoga Park. The restaurant is attached to a sushi bar, which seems like it may have been a separate restaurant at one time.

It's possible to order sushi from your table, so you don't have to choose between Korean food and sushi, making this restaurant a great option for a group with diverse tastes. The sushi, however, is of the spicy mayo school of sushi preparation, so if that's not your thing, be warned. I tried a spicy yellowtail roll and while the portion was generous and the fish was fine, I couldn't force myself to eat more than two bites because the rice was too soft and not vinegary enough and the mayo was overpowering.


Beef bulgogi, uncooked

The main attraction at Oaks is the barbecue, of course. The restaurant offers the option of cooking the marinated meat at your table over a gas grill or having it cooked for you in the kitchen. Personally, I prefer the latter, as it leaves the cooking to the experts and makes the dining experience more relaxing.

I always stick with bulgogi, as I'm not too adventurous when it comes to eating meat. You have a choice of spiciness when it comes to the meat marinade, but this being Simi Valley, there doesn't seem to be any difference between medium and hot--neither is spicy enough. It's still a decent marinade, and the pork and beef are particularly flavorful here.


Bean sprout banchan

The barbecue dishes come with an assortment of banchan, which are side dishes like bean sprouts, broccoli with sesame seeds, "spicy" cucumbers, and kim chi. The banchan are not very spicy--I even asked if they had spicier ones, hoping maybe they had a second batch only for Korean diners and others who requested them, but no such luck. You can ask for a side of chili sauce, but it's not quite the same. (I enjoy that fiery sensation on my lips and the sweat on my brow, trying to douse the flames in my mouth by chugging beer and shoveling in rice and meat.) Also, the banchan selection is not as extensive or as exotic as you'd find at a K-town restaurant. Steamed white rice, fresh lettuce leaves, and miso paste also come with the meat. The lettuce and miso are for making wraps with the grilled meat.


Marinated turnip (?) banchan

In addition to sushi and Korean barbecue, there are Korean soups, teriyaki beef/chicken/salmon, tempura, raw beef, octopus, tofu and yellowtail collar. There's also a savory, fried scallion pancake that comes with tempura dipping sauce. I highly recommend ordering this as an appetizer. An extensive selection of ice cream beckons for dessert: fried ice cream, mochi, and plum, mango, green tea, strawberry or chocolate ice cream. There's also a small selection of beer and wine.

Cucumber banchan

The food isn't cheap, with each plate of meat costing around $17, but you do get a lot of food for the price considering that miso soup, rice, and all the sides are included in the price. The restaurant is quiet and the booths offer privacy. Since the grills are gas, you won't reek of barbecue when you leave, and there is no noisy vent fan to yell over. The restaurant is also very clean.

Kim chi

The restaurant isn't easy to spot from the street or even after you've pulled into the parking lot. It's at the corner of LA and Sequoia, in the back corner of a strip mall with a 7/11, next to the comic book store. The service is excellent--friendly, prompt, and well-informed. It does seem that the age of the server corresponds directly with English-speaking ability, with the grandmotherly woman who might greet you at the door not seeming to speak any English and the young man who served us last time obviously being a native speaker.

Dining room

Though dining here does make me crave K-Town restaurants like Soot Bull Jeep, whose food is notably better, the less intense food at Oaks is probably more crowd-pleasing for a suburb like Simi Valley (even though Simi does have a surprising number of surprisingly good ethnic restaurants). There's definitely no "scene" here, but that's one of the things I like about it--the atmosphere is very comfortable, yet still probably nice enough for a date. Oaks is one of my favorite restaurants in the area and definitely a place I would return to.

Oaks Korean BBQ
1970 Sequoia Ave #9
Simi Valley, CA 93063
(805) 583-3434
Oaks Korean BBQ Menu

Restaurant Review #226: Ken of Japan, Simi Valley

Spicy mayonnaise--err, spicy scallop roll

Ken of Japan serves the kind of sushi that I used to like--before I moved to California. I knew what I was probably getting myself into by choosing a restaurant that was both Japanese steakhouse and sushi restaurant. But on the other hand, if I had ruled out O2 based on the teriyaki chicken and teriyaki filet mignon that appear on its menu, I never would have found an almost Westside-caliber sushi restaurant in sleepy Simi Valley.


Yellowtail nigiri

So to Ken of Japan I went. We called to make a reservation. For some reason we couldn't have a 7:00 slot for four people--granted, we made the request at 6:00, but you don't expect to be refused a reservation time in the suburbs. Especially when the restaurant is almost entirely empty when you arrive. Who knows why they didn't think they could or didn't want to seat us earlier.


Eel cucumber roll

The menu is expansive. A photo menu of different sushi rolls shows most of the options available, though because of (I'm guessing) space limitations, it is not entirely clear on all the ingredients that are in each roll. Most of the rolls seem to contain crab (or fake crab, as the case may be) or spicy tuna. So while there appears to be a wide variety of interesting sushi on the menu, if you don't like these two items, you'll find yourself mostly limited to the usual stuff. And the usual stuff, like the dry yellowtail nigiri I ordered, is not very good. With sushi, there is no acceptable middle ground. Either the fish is top notch, or it's just not appetizing to eat raw. And with globby, spicy, mayonnaisey rolls, the quality of fish takes a backseat. So why pay a raw fish premium when you're mostly just eating rice and sauce? (As some consolation, the spicy scallop roll was genuinely spicy.)


Spicy tuna tempura roll

If you're the kind of sushi eater who likes spicy tuna tempura rolls (quick, eat them before they get soggy!) and doesn't really like raw fish, you'll probably be quite happy at Ken of Japan. Like I said, the selection is considerable. The portion sizes are also huge, especially if you're used to Westside restaurants, and the prices are reasonable (even bordering on inexpensive). We ordered way too much sushi. Each roll had eight large pieces--not the small six pieces I am used to. I kind of wish our waitress had commented that we might be ordering too much food. But I guess it's not really the staff's job to discourage you from spending money.


Salmon mango roll

As I alluded to in my comments about the reservations, I was disappointed in the service. The mango salmon roll came stuffed, unexpectedly, with crab. When we mentioned it to the waiter, he had no interest in having the roll remade or taking it off the bill, but only asked us if we wanted to box it up and take it home. (I'm not a fan of the "customer is always wrong" philosophy of business.) A take-home box didn't exactly solve the problem for the people who couldn't eat crab (yes, even fake crab). Also, the quality of mango used in the roll was pretty much what you'd expect for the dead of winter--so why is the restaurant even serving it? A place like Kiriko in West LA would never try to pass off a roll made with pale, almost crunchy mango as one of its top offerings--it wouldn't even serve it.


Teriyaki chicken and beef

The non-sushi-eaters in our party ordered a combination plate that came with teriyaki beef, teriyaki chicken, spicy chicken, eggrolls, salad, and miso soup. The salad had a mayonnaise-based dressing (surprise) that wasn't appetizing to anyone, so those went back to the dishwasher untouched. The miso soup had bits of fried tempura batter in it (intentionally), which tasted better than it sounds, though soggy bits of batter aren't very appetizing. The teriyaki meats were both dry and inunspired. The spicy chicken was a winner, though.


Spicy chicken

Ken's serves beer, wine, and sake plus cocktails made with soju, a Korean distilled liquor considered comparable to vodka in taste but that doesn't seem to require a full-blown liquor license (Musha in Santa Monica also serves beer, wine, and soju cocktails). We didn't try any of the drinks, though.

You've probably guessed that this isn't my kind of restaurant and I won't be going back. If it sounds appealing to you (plenty of Yelpers like it), save a few bucks by picking up a gift certificate on Restaurant.com before you dine. Look for a coupon code online to get your $25 certificate for as little as $2--Restaurant.com is always having sales.

Also, I should point out that while we chose to sit at a regular table for the peace and quiet and privacy, Ken of Japan also has a room with communal, Benihana-style tables and cooking.



Ken of Japan
4340 Cochran Street
Simi Valley, CA 93063-2352
(805) 527-6490

Restaurant Review #225: Pho So 1, Simi Valley

Charbroiled beef, eggrolls, vermicelli, and vegetables

If you want Vietnamese food in Ventura County, you don't have a lot of options. There's Pho Saigon in Port Hueneme, Pho Oxnard (guess where), and two branches of local chain Pho So 1, which has been around for 20 years. After those, Yelp! starts suggesting Thai and Chinese restaurants. Or you can drive, for a long time, to get the really good stuff in San Gabriel or Orange County.

Pho So 1, tucked in a corner of Simi Valley near the old Mervyn's where it can be surprisingly hard to find a parking space, looks and tastes like every other Vietnamese restaurant you've ever been to. You already know what's on the menu--pho, bun, charbroiled meats, traditional Vietnamese specialties, and assorted fruity shakes. The restaurant has a large, wide open dining room, plain tile floors, and a flatscreen TV. Like all Vietnamese restaurants, you'll find plenty of chopsticks, spoons, and an assortment of hot sauces on every table. The only thing that sets this restaurant apart is that the servers watch their customers walk up to the restaurant and are standing there, menus in hand, ready to seat you the moment you walk in. And within five minutes of ordering, your food will be on your table, piping hot and tasting freshly made even though it couldn't possibly have been. Now that's service.

Shrimp and beef sauteed with lemongrass and pepper and rice

I don't love Pho So 1--nothing is quite as flavorful as it could be--but it will do in a pinch. The prices are almost as good as Jack in the Box, but the food is more interesting and the portions are larger. If you'd like to try something familiar, consider the shrimp and beef sauteed with lemongrass and pepper (which can also be ordered sans shrimp). If you like Panda Express, you'll like this dish. Really, my only actual complaint about the food is that the "pork" that comes with the bun is a blubbery, pink, fatty pork that I've seen at other Vietnamese restaurants but can't bring myself to eat. I'm not sure if every pork dish on the menu uses this meat, but if you don't have a sense of adventure, ask the waiter first, or stick to beef or chicken. And I would not agree with the restaurant's website that their pho is #1.

Pho So 1 is good for a quick, casual, inexpensive meal any day of the week. When you're ready to pay, just take the menu pad ordering slip from your table up to the register. Unlike many Vietnamese restaurants I've been to, they do accept Visa and Mastercard. Also worth noting: they don't close midday, so if you've missed every other option for lunch, Pho So 1 can accommodate you.

Pho So 1
2837 Cochran St.
Simi Valley, CA 93065
Tel: (805) 306-1868
Hours: 9:00 am - 9:45 pm daily
Pho So 1 website

Restaurant Review #219: Eggs N Things, Simi Valley

Scrambled eggs, bacon, and potatoes O'Brien

There are a variety of reasons why I don't really like to go out for breakfast. I am not a morning person. Breakfast is cheap and easy to make at home. I don't like to eat right after I wake up. I hate the smell of bacon.

Perhaps worst of all is that it's impossible to get through a meal without those near-invisible traces of syrup that are on the menus and the edges of the table finding their way onto your fingers, elbows, and shirt. You can never see the stuff until it's too late. I don't understand why the servers and busboys at most breakfast joints can't do a better job of cleaning up. It takes a little more attention to detail and a little extra elbow grease to track down and clean up all the sticky spots and shifts are often fast-paced--I get it. But shouldn't a sit-down restaurant have higher standards of cleanliness than your average fast-food restaurant?


Crepe appetizer

So one of the things that I liked so much about my experience at Eggs N Things is that there were no traces of leftover syrup on the menu or the table. The dining room is sparsely decorated except for the country-kitsch yellow wallpaper. Sunlight pours in through the large windows lining the front of the restaurant, and though the view of nearby Target's parking lot leaves something to be desired, at least there is plentiful free parking. While the staff seemed fairly brusque, they were generally prompt. What they lack in charm is perhaps made up for by the free crepe that starts your meal--hot off the griddle, bathed in melted butter, topped with berry jam and dusted in powdered sugar. If I go back, I'll probably order the crepes for my meal.


Blueberry pancakes

Being a newcomer, however, I ordered the blueberry pancakes. While fluffy and perfectly cooked, they could have had more blueberries and more moisture. I prefer IHOP's pancakes, which seem to border on greasy but don't need to be drenched in syrup to be swallowable.


Omelet with hash browns

I didn't try the food that the other people in my party ordered, but I can say that everything looked properly cooked, the portion sizes were generous, and everything is reasonably priced. On a weekday at 11:00 a.m., there was no wait for a table. The restaurant is quite large, so I imagine they can even accommodate the weekend rush fairly well (though I can't say for sure, having only been there once). In the same week, I also went to Coco's, which just drove home what a superior breakfast joint Eggs N Things is--it's celebrating its 20th anniversary in Simi for a reason.

Eggs N Things
2955 Cochran St
Simi Valley, CA 93065
(805) 527-0055

Restaurant Review #218: Two Guys From Italy, Moorpark

Jägerschnitzel

Our party of five showed up at Two Guys From Italy on a Thursday night around 7:30. We were a little taken aback at first because we were asked to wait for a table and the restaurant looked nearly empty. But then a friendly woman told us that she had two large parties coming in and she wanted to give us a quiet table in the back where another group was finishing up. Once we found out that the wait was to try to give us a better experience, we didn't mind. I used the time to peruse the menu, and started falling in love with the restaurant as soon as I hit the beer list. Just to have a beer list that consists of something more interesting than Corona and Heineken is exciting; to have a full-page list of interesting German brews, complete with descriptions, is a godsend for beer lovers. (They also have a wine list for you oenophiles.)

Contrary to its name, Two Guys From Italy is actually run by "a chick from Bavaria," as owner Valeria refers to herself. She purchased the restaurant in 1998 and has allowed her native southern German cuisine to influence a small part of the menu (ten entrees). The rest of the menu is Italian--awfully good Italian that you'd never guess came from a German. The lengthy menu would take weeks to eat through--there are eleven types of pasta and twenty-six sauces that you can combine any way you want, along with several meat and seafood entrees and pizza. If you want to try to get through the menu a little faster, you can try the restaurant's lunch buffet.


Tortellini con nocini

The tortellini con nocini is one of the create-your-own pasta options. The nocini is a creamy gorgonzola sauce with walnuts and one of the best pasta sauces we've ever tried. The chicken Marco Polo, two thin, juicy chicken breasts with mushrooms and artichokes in a slightly tangy, deliciously heart-attack-inducing cream sauce, was also a winner. If you're sharing plates though, don't order these two dishes--the flavors of the different sauces clash with each other.


Rouladen

A recent trip to Germany and a couple of years of German lessons had me in full-on trip nostalgia mode, so I ordered a German beer (Wiesen Edel-Weisse) and a German entree, the rouladen, which is a three-quarter-inch thick piece of beef rolled around pickled vegetables, onions, and bacon and drenched in gravy. I can't say I've ever had this dish before, so I didn't have anything to compare it to. The beef was moist and tender, and while I was somewhat concerned about the pickles being overpowering, I didn't even notice them. The onions were similarly mild. The dish paired wonderfully with the beer, which was served in the correct glass and expertly poured by the waiter. The dish came with a side of spaetzle, a sort of fried, homemade noodle-dumpling perfect for sopping up excess gravy, and sweet-tart braised red cabbage (not pictured).

All of the entrees come with your choice of soup or salad (the lentil soup tastes wonderfully homemade) and a basket of warm bread and olive tapenade (that doesn't taste like a tin can).


Cannoli

Of the items on the dessert list, the tiramisu and cannoli are made in house and the rest come from outside vendors. The cannoli's thick, crunchy, bubbly shell oozes with dense, super-sweet cream that has a hint of vanilla.


I'm not a cannoli expert, but I really loved this one. Like a Sprinkles cupcake, however, it's perhaps too much of a sugar high for one person.


Tiramisu

As for the tiramisu, I think that once you've had one tiramisu, you've had them all. This one didn't change my mind--not that it wasn't good, it just didn't wow me. We also tried the blackout cake, which was similarly good but generic.


Blackout cake

The service at this restaurant is superb. Of the many servers we interacted with, all were friendly, pleasant, and seemed happy to be there. All of our dishes arrived promptly. Valeria, the owner, visited our table several times during the meal. The decor is, shall we say, very red and green, with lots of hanging plants, a wall of mirrors and some neon (yes, it's a bit dated). There's nothing trendy or showy about Two Guys, and it's not the kind of place you take someone who is hard to impress. It's just a casual, comfortable, reasonably priced restaurant with excellent food and excellent service. And that's why I like it.

Two Guys From Italy
484 E. Los Angeles Ave
Moorpark, CA 93021
Hours:
Mon - Fri: 11am - 9pm
Saturday: 4pm - 10pm
Sunday: 4pm - 9pm

Restaurant Review #203: Eric's, Thousand Oaks

Chocolate bread pudding with bourbon caramel sauce

I will freely admit that I don't have very high expectations of restaurants once I leave a major city. Despite the way that some food critics portray the Los Angeles dining scene as a joke compared to those of New York City or San Francisco, I'd say Los Angeles has enough great restaurants to thoroughly spoil anyone, including me. So when I was taken to Eric's by a friend of the chef to enjoy the restaurant's special eighth anniversary menu, I had my suburban restaurant radar on. The warning signals in my mind started flashing even more when I saw that the restaurant was attached to the Palm Garden Hotel, since I haven't really had any good hotel food experiences in my lifetime, even at $500 a night places. Thankfully, the food far exceeded my expectations, and at prices that would make any Westsider thoroughly jealous.


Bruschetta and olives

Most of our group took advantage of the $30, four-course anniversary menu. At many restaurants, including Eric's, an entree alone can cost $30, so this pricing was quite a steal. I wondered if the portions would be miniscule or if they would only be offering inexpensive dishes like pasta, but they weren't. Corkage was free, and plenty of fresh-baked kalamata olive bread was included, too.

The first course was twin bruschetta crostini with an Italian olive tapenade and a balsamic tomato pomodoro and a small wine glass of green and reddish-brown olives. The tangy bite of fresh garlic and the juiciness of tomatoes that hadn't been ruined by refrigeration paired nicely with the lightly grilled triangles of chewy bread, and the olive tapenade was surprisingly flavorful--bad olive tapenade often tastes like the can its olives came from.


Enclosed patio

We sat on the enclosed patio next to the gas fireplace, which we definitely needed on the chilly January night. The view outside the windows was nothing but lush greenery, but the atmosphere was cheapened a bit by the plastic chairs. Perhaps this part of the restaurant is often used for more casual purposes.


Eggplant and portabello tower

After the bruschetta, there were several choices for each course. I had been craving breaded eggplant, but couldn't find any on my last visit to Trader Joe's, so I knew I had to try the eggplant and portabello tower. Also, the other choices were soup and salad, so I wanted to choose the most unique option. Despite sitting in a red bell pepper sauce, the breaded eggplant retained its crispiness. The eggplant was perfectly cooked, neither too spongy nor too runny, and the dish was beautifully presented. The asparagus retained its smooth skin, crispness, and bright green color, like properly cooked asparagus should. When Chef Robin Nishizaki came out to talk to us about the meal, he said that he created the dish as a twist on the classic eggplant parmesan.


Filet Mignon

For my entree, I chose the filet mignon over the grilled salmon, seared scallops, prime rib fettucini, oso bucco, and seared ahi. It was a tough choice--I could have eaten almost any of them, but I opted for the filet because it was such a great deal. I ordered the filet medium rare, which I realized after taking the first bite was more pink than I could handle (believe it or not, this was the first steak I had ever personally ordered at a restaurant). Though not as tender as some (admittedly more expensive) steaks I've sampled, the table agreed that the meat was excellent. The garlic mashed potatoes had a wonderfully smooth consistency, but they were too buttery for my taste. The sauteed broccoli, baby carrots, and asparagus were all very good, though it would have been nice to have a different vegetable after the asparagus that came with my eggplant. Normally I might not have noticed this minor flaw in the meal, but I had recently finished reading a book by a waitress who used to work at Thomas Keller's Per Se, so my perfectionistic side was probably in overdrive.


Cheesecake churros

Since we knew the chef, we got a bonus dessert of his own creation: cheesecake churros. I can't imagine a more sinful dessert than deep-fried cheesecake topped with caramel, chocolate, and whipped cream, and it was delicious. My only complaint was that I couldn't eat as many of them as I might have liked because I was already incredibly full from the rest of my meal!


Creme Brulee

For dessert, I chose the creme brulee. The generous portion had a delicious carmelized crust. The addition of fresh strawberries and blueberries, both in the custard and on top of it, were an interesting twist, but I think I'm a traditionalist when it comes to this dish.

This extra-fantastic anniversary deal was only temporary, but the regular menu prices are quite reasonable: small plates are $6-$13, and large plates are $20-$34. $34 will get you a generous portion of lobster. While Eric's is not a destination restaurant, I think that anyone living in the area or staying at the hotel would be pleased by the food, the service, and the prices.

Eric's Restaurant and Bar
495 N Ventu Park Rd
Newbury Park, CA 91320
805.716.4100
Eric's Website
Eric's Map