...I thought it would be better. Kind of a tourist trap. The oysters were way overpriced at $2.50 or more a piece.

The Quince people really think a lot of themselves.   I had to make the reservation EXACTLY 30 days from the time I wanted the reservation. No more, no less.  They wanted a $100 deposit (cancellation fee) on the credit card for four people.  You can only bring up to two bottles of wine per table, at $35 corkage for each one.  And when I tried to take a picture of one of the courses, the hostess quickly ran up and said that there were to be no pictures of the food.  I thought I was on a Seinfeld episode, the one with the Soup Nazi.  That said, it really was a great meal.  We opted for the tasting menu ...

My husband has been craving an authentic New England Lobster Roll, and I had heard this could be procured in SF.  After much research, I decided we would try the Lobster Shack, a tiny little place that is located in the in-between area between China Town and Little Italy. The people there were very nice, and the owner even stopped by to chat. We got the double, which came with home-style cole slaw and thick cape-cod chips. The sandwiches consisted of two wonderful "hot dog" buns that were grilled and basted with butter.  The five oz of lobster tail and claw meat nice and chunky with just the right amount of hellman's mayo mixed in.  (We loved the way they made a point of mentioning they use Hellman's and not the nasty cheap no-name or miracle-whip stuff.) They also offer a "naked" option for those mayo-haters out there. More butter ...

...

I was in Marukai last night looking for dinner inspiration. I usually tend to go for the raw fish for some kind of sushi concoction, but then my eye caught some shiny pink-tinged Dover Sole Filets.  I have never cooked Dover Sole.  Hell, I am not sure I ever even had it in a restaurant.  ...

It's still Chinese New Year time for a couple more weeks, and we wanted to get some authentic goodies.  But it was late, there were just two of us, options were limited.  You may recall I already rejected a number of local options in previous posts.  So I hit the Internet and decided to try Shanghai Palace Garden as it sounded most authentic, and I like Shanghai style Chinese.  I called first. Yes, they had some fresh lobster specials.  Yes, I could bring wine.  ...

I am in the middle of listening to the audio version of Fast Food Nation.  I am sure I will get to the outrage part soon enough, but at the moment all of this talk about burgers is really making me crave a Big Mac and fries. And a shake.  And I never eat that stuff.  Sigh.
...

So I keep this database of LA restaurants that includes those I want to get to at some point. Part of it consists of all the so-called "premium" sushi places in LA. I have been to many of them with different degrees of success. My favorite is probably Shibucho off Beverly, but that is for another review. For my husband's birthday, we decided to finally hit R23. Scary valet parking, Really cool decor, great art, funky cardboard chairs. But who called this place premium?

The background is that we were huge Michael fans - loved him at WaterGrill. Yet we have been to Providence twice before now, did the tasting menu, and were underwhelmed each visit. This time we went for my husband's birthday with three others. We all agreed to order off the menu and not do the tasting, in hopes of a better experience. Admittedly, we were terrible customers. One person in the party arrived 30 min after we were seated. We brought 4 bottles of our own (very good) wine and only ordered a few cocktails. We were kinda loud. And when they overheard me complaining about the tasteless Ahi/Black Truffle dish ($55) they came by and offered to take it back.

9:15 on a weeknight...we just worked out. Hungry. Where to go to get a light dinner? We just weren't in the mood for Soon Tofu. ...

And more recently, Crudo (Italian Sashimi) and Ceviche have become quite trendy as well.  I was recently in South Beach and South American fusion sushi was all over town.   But not until my experience with the new Sushi Chef at Chez Melange have I experienced...Tropical Sushi!  ...

We love good dim sum but Alhambra/Monterey park is such a long drive we don't go that often unless we just want to kill most of the day.  But sometimes we really get a craving, and are too busy for the trip.  FOr those circumstances, South Bay had two options: Sea Empress in Gardena, and Regal Palace in Lomita.  The last several times we went to Sea Empress it completely deteriorated, so we actually haven't been there in six months.  Regal Palace was the standby. It was generally hit or miss, but there were always a few decent items for not that much money.  So we were quite surprised this past september when we stopped by and it all seemed quite different.  Many of the staff had suddenely been replaced by people we knew from PCH, another chinese restaurant in Lomita that used to be good.  They had a new ...

A friend sent me an email asking if I had been to a new place in Torrance called Rain.  40 wines by the glass, small plates, organic/sustainable, even a waterfall.  All of this AND in Torrance. OMG how could I have missed it? I was terribly embarrassed.  So I couldn't even wait until tonight (fri) to go.  I had to check it out that very night (thurs).  I called, and found out they were open for 8 months (?!) and serve dinner until mignight. It is in the Marriott near the mall. So we grabbed two of our foodie friends and headed out. We didn't even get there until 9:30. 

The first sign something was wrong was when all the cool interesting things on the online menu were missing.  ...

Went to a top 100 party the other night. Attendees were required to each bring a bottle from the top 100 list from any year. No top 10's showed up at the party, but there was a generous assortment from recent years. I had seen the 2007 list when it first came out and wasn't particularly enthused when I saw it contained such gems as Yellowtail Shiraz and Rombauer Chard, both horribly over-oaked and over-extracted high-alcohol fruit bombs (IMHO). It seems that Wine Spectator is really going for the big juicy stuff.

Have you heard?

Santa Barbara CHP grant targets drunken driver 'Sideways' effect ...