How does it compare with, say, Howlin’ Ray’s?
The line at Howlin Ray’s is about 3 hours longer…
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Friday lunch @ Providence (belated company holiday lunch): We indulged and did the 4 course tasting menu w/ wine pairings. Overall delicious.
There were 3 amuses–all great (I didn’t take notes or photos) although I wish they had a wine pairing to go with them as a group or we had ordered some sparkling wine which would have worked with all of them. The presentation of each was fun and creative.
First course was geoduck (brightly flavored), then a white fish (rockfish?) which was delicious and perfectly cooked, the eggplant puree was surprisingly tasteless. For the next course (main) I had duck which was served with a piece of duck sausage wrapped in cabbage and a slice of yellow squash topped w/ foi gras—enjoyed it all. Some of my colleagues got the A5 Wagyu supplement and loved it. The dessert was (I think) a sweet potato beautiful crunchy item with sweet potato salt-caramel ice cream. The wine pairings were all very good. Yummy parting gift of an apple-something “muffin” that was great yesterday for b’fast w/ coffee.
Nice way to start the year (I’d love to be able to have lunch like that again sometime soon 
)
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https://www.instagram.com/p/BXWm4Z5jE-D/
Nate N Al- brisket sandwich, cole slaw and potato pancakes. Not shown- 2 sides of half-sours already eaten 
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Haven’t been to Sotto or Gjelina in quite some time…and had excellent meals at both this weekend.
Also, Canter’s Pastrami Reuben is pretty damn good…
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Took a friend to Pasta Sisters. Been too long since I last been. The kitchen staff has easily doubled. No empty tables. Was lucky to score some counter seats and talk it up with one of the managers (from Rome!).
Tagliatelle Bolognese,Penne Arrabiata, Pesto Gnocchi were all really ridiculously good. The tiramisu and this pastry with ricotta and orange (straight from Naples via LAX) was so good I wanna cry tears of joy.
Busy as ever but still knocking it out the park.
New Culver location will be 7 days and longer hours.
This sweet and nice Italian family is a gift to us! I think a higher power specifically destined us to eat here
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VaKa Burgers (Whittier)
I’ve been on a burger kick lately ever since our trip to Burger Parlor a couple of weeks ago. Decided to drop by VaKa Burger while I was out running errands. The menu looked interesting with twists on variations of burgers I see on various menus around the greater LA/OC region.
The staff was very nice…super friendly and knowledgeable about the menu. They were also super excited to let me know that chef was in the house so that the quality should be on point today. Drinks here are bottled Mexican coke and cane sugar based drinks…no fountain drinks here. They just got approval for beer and wine, so that’s coming soon.
The menu is a tad overwhelming…a lot of good options. I opted for the off-menu “Frenchy” which was a grass-fed, organic beef patty cooked to a perfect medium with frisée dressed in a honey mustard vinaigrette, goat cheese, and French-onion soup braised onions on a house-baked brioche bun.
Sounds really good, right? It was okay…I appreciated the cookery of the beef patty…seared and perfectly cooked, but it wasn’t seasoned. In fact, it was overpowered by everything else. The honey mustard vinaigrette is supposed to be the acidic component to help cut through the richness of everything, but it overpowered the burger. The goat cheese was plentiful, but super cold when I bit down the first bite…a weird contrast with a hot burger patty that now seems lukewarm instead of hot. I don’t think I got much French onion flavor…in fact, it was untraceable…and I looked. For chef being in the house, I don’t get a sense of much quality control because (while I was there) he spent his time outside of the kitchen hanging out with his buddies.
The fries, however, were excellent. Twice fried, seasoned well, super crispy on the outside and pillowy soft in the middle…they were so great that the leftovers I took home for my son were still perfect and not soggy.
The menu is inventive, and I’m willing to give this place another shot since it’s a lot closer than Burger Parlor.
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Hi @attran99,
Sorry to hear you had the same experience we did as well: know that the burgers we had at Vaka were the same. We really have no urge to go back. 
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Thanks, @Chowseeker1999! This is helpful…I may save myself a trip uptown for something else then. Bizarra Capital is across the street. That place is so good.
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Love the kimchi dumplings here! I am biased because I have a Shandong Grandma on my maternal side so the kimchi dumplings were different from what I grew up on. Koreans seem to make/prefer the filling to be more bland in comparison, and I don’t mean that as an insult as I enjoyed everything. Or maybe nothing beats Grandma?
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More of a workspace coffee joint. No outlets. More cramp seating. Nothing But Coffee is a better experience and the house latte over there has a more distinct taste.
It can be, depending on use/context. People of my parents’ age (early 70s), though, have the attitude of “Ohmigod, who the h*ll cares???” Or maybe it’s just my parents? 
Sfogliatelle. And, yes, I agree it’s delicious.
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https://www.instagram.com/p/BeOVfGKBeyg/
Pork Chop Fried Rice at Din Tai Fung SCP. My first visit (was giving them time to work out the kinks 
).
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I still haven’t popped in here (even though it is pretty close). How were the non-kimchi dumplings (and steamed vs fried)? I have nothing against kimchi dumplings, but curious as to the other items. Thx!
Verdict?
They were all fine, as far as taste and texture. The pan fried could have been just a little more crispy for me personally.
I forgot to mentioned I really liked the steamed shrimp dumplings.
It’s a fine place ran by a really sweet couple.
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Did they present it as such/give you any backstory?
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sounds like I should make the effort to get there for lunch (I remember Barry C checking it out when they first opened)!
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