Peony: [declined to review because she thinks today’s meal is not a good representation of Cafe Gratitude].
Warrior: 6/10. Cafe Gratitude is a reliably good delivery option for healthy, vegan food. It’s hard for me to be too enthusiastic about dishes like tonight’s kale and seaweed salad. I think their best dishes, which we didn’t order tonight, are their sandwiches and wraps. But I do enjoy all the dishes, and I never regret having ordered from Cafe Gratitude. The ingredients are good quality, and the dishes are well prepared.
Warrior: 7.5/10. I remember back when Yxta opened in 2009. It had lots of buzz and positive Chowhound reviews. Deservedly so. It was truly one of the best restaurants in DTLA at the time. I don’t think Yxta has changed much if at all, but the DTLA dining scene has since exploded. Still, Yxta is surprisingly good. They have excellent side dishes. The chunky mashed potatoes with rajas poblanos and pieces of cabbage has terrific taste and texture. The rice is the best Mexican rice I can recall tasting in LA. Likewise for the chiles toreados—perfectly cooked, perfect salting. The calabacitas (zucchini) are pleasantly crunchy and juicy. The only downer for me tonight was the bland and chewy farm-raised salmon cooked medium well, but I sympathize from a price and customer relations perspective, and I’ve had much worse.
Peony: 6.5/10. I like most of the dishes tonight, particularly the vegetable dishes. The potatoes cooked with other vegetables are very tasty, and the flavors worked well together. I also like the guacamole; it’s light and not too acidic. The rice and zucchini with the salmon dish are quite tasty, although I didn’t find the salmon itself too interesting. So overall, it’s a comforting and light-flavored (if you don’t eat the chiles) meal.
Warrior: 8/10. Ten years ago, I probably would have gone all in with a rave review of this meal. I think my tastes have changed. Today, this food seems too heavy with olive oil and garlic. But the quality of the cooking and ingredients are exceptionally high, especially for delivery. And I still find the food delicious. Maybe the real problem is I liked it so much that I ate too much tonight!
Peony: 7.5/10. I loved everything tonight. The burrata was really creamy and tasty. The tomato dipping sauce for the garlic knots was just right. The vegetable and yogurt dipping sauce combos were refreshing and tasty. The pizza was flavorful, yummy, and super luxurious with the shrimp topping. Very high quality dishes for delivery.
Peony: 8/10. I think this is one of the best deliveries that we’ve reviewed so far. The escolar crudo with pine nuts has bright and rich flavor and a good texture combination. All the other dishes are aesthetically pleasing, have the right amount of seasoning, and are cooked beautifully.
Warrior: 6.5/10. Alimento is a solid restaurant. The basic quality of all the dishes tonight is good. But with the exception of the excellent polenta toasts with baccala and ikura, none of the dishes seems quite right to my tastes. I find the sauce for the escolar crudo too strong. I think the farro salad has too much cheese and other stuff, and it has lost its farro essence. I feel the white bean and almond mix is too heavy for the delicate orata. I’m not convinced by the broccoli with browned hazelnuts either. Still, we’re fortunate to get delivery of this quality.
Warrior: 6/10. Solid Mexican seafood. Reminded me of Mariscos Jalisco. Good vuelve a la vida with lots of seafood for the price. Really good green and red salsas. Pretty good marlin tacos, but I prefer versions at other places. The guacamole was too bland.
Peony: 6/10. This is a good choice for not too spicy Mexican food. The dishes are decent. Nothing impressive.
Peony: 6/10. I thought the food tonight tasted good. The overall flavor is light. My favorite dish was the mushroom stew, which was more special than the other dishes. All the other dishes were fine.
Warrior: 5/10. I gave a highly positive review for Orsa & Winston recently, so I am going to be unrestrained with my criticism tonight. I haven’t enjoyed the bold-flavored cooking at any of Josef Centeno’s other restaurants. I didn’t like Lazy Ox, Baco Mercat, or P.Y.T., and I give thumbs down to Bar Ama as well. The flavors are muddy, and the dishes are discomforting. I would actually prefer to eat ordinary Tex Mex like El Cholo. It is hard for me to believe this restaurant has the same head chef as Orsa & Winston, which is light years more sophisticated.
Peony: 6.5/10. I don’t know a lot about Shanghai food, despite being Southern Chinese. Based on my tastes, I like the roasted wheat gluten (烤麸), the snow vegetable (雪菜), and the loofah (丝瓜) with whitebait (银鱼). After discussing with Warrior, I discovered whitebait is not a common fish in the U.S., and most people have not heard about it. These whitebait (pictured below) are known as little silver fish in China. They are from big freshwater lakes. They are considered a delicacy that is highly healthy and nutritious, and I’m glad to see this ingredient outside China. For the fish and shrimp dishes, I find the flavor is not very balanced. The fish is too sweet, and the shrimp is a little too bland.
Warrior: 5/10. I like Shanghainese food, and it’s one of my favorite things to eat in the SGV. Unfortunately, I can’t rate this meal highly. The cooking quality was good across the board. But the fish and shrimp didn’t taste fresh. I feel like the chefs did the best they could (lots of white pepper rubbed on the fish), but ultimately the quality of any meal is limited by the ingredients.
Whitebait is a highly prized and expensive delicacy in New Zealand. We cook them into a “fritter” which should be mainly whitebait with just a little bit of egg or starch to bind it together. If served in a sandwich, it must be with thin white bread and nothing else.
Peony: Thank you for sharing! Super helpful! One time I might’ve had something similar in Japanese food but wasn’t sure if it was whitebait or not. Next time I can check for “Shirasu” !
Warrior: 7.5/10. A good delivery dinner. Everything is prepared well and tasty. The highlight for me is actually the roasted cauliflower. This dish has become a bit of a culinary cliché—you see it everywhere—but Hippo’s rendition may be my second favorite behind Bavel’s.
Peony: 7.5/10. Really good food. Super tender, juicy, and flavorful chicken. The scallops were tender too. Wonderful combination of beet and burrata. Overall, quality ingredients and beautiful flavor.
Warrior: 7.5/10. This food is delicious. The spicing is refined and distinctively Bengali. I like that they used the native Hilsa fish. It has the perfect flavor and texture to accompany the mustard-oil-based sauce. I love the bitter and mustardy flavors in the bitter melon, spinach, and okra side dishes. The pilaf of aromatic basmati rice, ghee, cinnamon, and Indian bay leaf tastes just right. Both the paratha and the roti are very good too. My rating doesn’t factor in the prices, which are so low that I feel guilty for not paying more.
Peony: 6/10. I think this is the first time I’ve had Bengali food. I find it’s very similar to Indian food, except they use less spice, so it’s not as pungent as Indian. The fish is similar to the river fish I grew up eating in inland China, but not as tasty, flavorful, and delicate as the ones in China, which I prefer (maybe because it was frozen). My favorite dishes tonight were the lentil soup and okra, which were just to my taste as they contained less spice than Indian versions.
Warrior: 7/10. This is the best Jamaican food I’ve ever had. The ackee with saltfish is definitely the best I’ve tasted. I loved the contrast of the creamy ackee with the chewy saltfish and the flavors from the spices and (coconut?) oil. I am also fond of this restaurant’s thick, strong jerk sauce, which was good on salmon tonight, and which I’ve enjoyed on chicken and shrimp in past tastings. (I agree with Peony that the salmon was well-prepared, despite being cooked through.). The curry chicken was decent but undersalted. The rice and peas had good flavor.
Peony: 7.5/10. Wonderful food for delivery. My favorite dish tonight was the salmon. It has a super-soft and juicy interior and really good seasoning. Even the cabbage served with the salmon tasted really good. I’ve had really good experiences with Jamaican food in LA. I wonder if Jamaican food in general is that good or we just happen to be lucky and are only ordering from good restaurants.
I think Jamaican food is just flavorful, and even average versions will be tasty.
But LA is not really very good - compared to East Coast. For example, I have never had a decent Jamaican beef patty here, but you can get them all over the place in NYC, especially Brooklyn. The jerk flavors are vibrant but toned down. Curried goat and oxtails, at Wi Jammin on Pico, are pretty solid versions, but I don’t love the jerk chicken there.
Man I’d kill for a good version like we had growing up. Even some of the pizzerias in Queens would have good versions of beef patties. I distinctly remember some heathens would slice open the beef patty, add mozzarella cheese and pepperoni and put it into the oven for a few mins.
Peony: 7.5/10. I like all the dishes tonight. The topping of the pizza has good texture and flavor. The side dishes were all well-made. They are not just simply prepared vegetables; they have a certain level of complexity. For example, the brussel sprouts have several layers of flavor and are mixed with a red, sweet, crunchy vegetable that I could not identify.
Warrior: 7/10. The escarole pizza has excellent flavor and good crust, though I found it slightly too chewy. I preferred the pizza delivery from Mozza. The anchovy salad was good. The roasted brussel sprouts were ordinary. The eggplant is a great dish at Rossoblu, but too small and delicate for delivery. Overall, I think there was a loss of quality from the delivery.
