Portofino Trattoria (Brea)
I was a bit tired of eating holiday leftovers, so we headed out to one of our favorite Italian places. The chef and his family are from Naples…I have no idea why they selected Portofino as the name. The menu is wide to cater to the neighborhood. I usually order cioppino, linguini frutti de mare, or their vongole pasta…all of those are great. But I was looking for less pasta, so the owner’s uncle suggested sole piccata. The sole was perfectly cooked and crispy underneath the vibrant piccata sauce…I rather liked the fact that their piccata sauce was a bit thicker so I could dip my al dente vegetables in it. My side of rigatoni was also al dente and tossed in their house meat sauce. Dinners come with soup or salad and housemade fresh baked bread. It was a nice change of pace of holiday prime rib, ham, and tamales.
The chowpups ordered the mostaccoli, fettuccine Alfredo, and housemade ravioli in tomato cream sauce. They devoured half and then took the rest home as leftovers. They love coming here for the friendly service (the owners are cousins of our friends and we come often enough for them to recognize us) and San Benedetto iced teas (lemon and peach)…it’s one of the best bottled and flavored ice teas we’ve ever had.
Sotto is reliable as always. I can’t believe that I didn’t really appreciate the place the first couple times I’ve gone, but I am really glad we can get this level of Italian cooking in this part of town.
Didn’t take a picture of it, but the linguine bottarga and the paccheri are our favorites for pasta. This time, we also ordered the olive oil poached cod - it’s a different preparation from the fish we had last time, which was grilled with skin-on.
Hit Langers for lunch. The line looked loooong but moved quite quickly. We got the #19 and the #44 (Hot pastrami, Sauerkraut and Nippy Cheese Grilled on Rye). The #19 was irresistible as always.
Had a great lunch here, not sure why there’s so much hate for this place. Everything I had was super fresh, bright, and full of flavor. Reminds me of a poor man’s carbone.
la woman - local burrata, basil, olive oil, sea salt
One of my favorite pies in la.
point judith fried calamari, arrabiata, aioli
Great. Fresh and tender squid fried and seasoned to perfection. Pro tip: save some of the spicy, garlicy arrabiata sauce for a crust dip.
Special Tacos arabes - We have the soft and airy handmade pita bread style tortilla acting as the perfect vehicle for the Shawarma like pork. To top them off, we have stringy cheese, creamy avocado, and a killer chipotle sauce with just the right amount of kick.
Originally went to the Hammer to see my boy Vincent but that part of the museum was closed. So I went up to Sepulveda. Freakin almost 1 hour to get in!
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