Bag of Cakes (Placentia)
@js76wisco is right. This bakery/coffee shop is a delight.
Picked up some treats for my team recently and treated myself to this lovely egg salad stuffed in their sea salt bread. Great egg salad…wish the egg was a little more jammy and there was a touch more seasoning, but it’s perfectly egg-y.
Baked goods are lovely here.
First time at Courage. 15 min wait to order and another 20 to get our food. Is this a bagel? I don’t think so. Too crunchy airy light and not dense enough but it’s damn delicious. I’d eat these often if we lived nearby and the wait was only 30 mins. $6 for an 8 oz OJ was a bit much.
perfect weather for Saturday & Sunday. Griffith Observatory and some deco / streamline sightseeing around Silverlake.
Burgers Never Say Die.
I’m not a big smashburger guy, but this was good. Nicely proportioned.
Antico Nuovo
Overall pretty good. Good and efficient service. For the price I’d probably rather go to Funke, though I can imagine a good meal here depending on the order.
Small annoyance, but the champagne was mislabeled on the menu as Clos Cazals when really it was just Claude Cazals. Still fine though, drank decently and I had no problem with it at the table even if it was a little bit pricey for the latter (and would’ve been a pretty good price for the former).
Foccacia with duck liver and saba. Excellent pate - very airy, fine, and sweet.
Found Oyster
Very good oysters, nicely shucked. Small Sicilian crudo was OK - salmon cuts were little strips.
Damn I gotta get out to courage I’m not a bagel purist and that your description sounds right up my alley!
I think we should start thinking of bagels like we do pizza as something with regional styles. Light and crispy seems to be the LA style. For the NY bagel is very different
I dare someone to go to Courage Bagels and proclaim to the employees that what they are serving are not bagels.
That would take courage.
Apollo Bagels in NYC is one of the most popular bagel spots right now. Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?
Yep! I love Rabano!! The do really tasty rice bowls. Healthy and full of flavor. The Lomo bowl is legit.
SGV food run - yama sushi marketplace for the sushi/sashimi, hui tou xiang for a lil fuel!
I need to come back to pick up some of their frozen dumplings
As good as it gets for Chinese American takeout but VEGAN!
As you can see plates are loaded up hood style and got the classic combo. Orange chicken, beef and broccoli, half chow mein half fried rice. I wish I brought some chili oil/crunch with me.
Taco Station in Tustin. Very close to Roger Dunn for a different type of bang bang. Mexican food in gas stations is such a SoCal type of thing. Very good carne asada fries and crispy quesadilla. 3 types of salsa. Spicy avocado salsa was the best. Parking lot was full and lots of people coming for both the Mexican food and the grilled chicken.
Gotta come back on another weekend for the chicken. Don’t shower before coming here.
8 November @ UKA
First time visiting UKA. Mood and ambiance was great, but the operational aspect seemed to need some more work. Servers seemed to be a little unorganized in my opinion, and having been seated at the seat next to the passage that goes into the kitchen, it was a little bothering. Food was great - I would agree to its one Michelin star accolade for the food. Chef tried to add some interactive elements like passing around the sharkskin wasabi grater or the whole dried katsuo that looks like a super hard and ripe banana, which I thought could help with customers relate to the process and origin of the foods they are being served. Anyways, I thought UKA was overall a good dinner, but that was it. Might revisit after a while.
16 November @ Vespertine
Definitely a step up since my visit in June after reopening, and definitely after their having received the two stars for this year’s Michelin guide. My last reservation was at 6:00PM in the summer, so it was bright but this time we started dinner when it was already dark. This was a huge difference in ambiance for me - not sure if it also impacted my thoughts on the presentation and overall satisfaction of the dishes as well. Menu was quite identical to last time, but there were many detailed adjustments to every single dish that they appeared as a completely new course. With an obsession to detail, with the chef’s intention beautifully orchestrated throughout the whole experience - I found Vespertine to be qualified as an iconic Michelin 2-star LA restaurant. Maybe would revisit in a year.
A quick scan says the only mention of Sofra Urbana on here is by @hungryhungryhippos ! I actually think they undersold it!!!
The cevapi here is spectacular. Took me straight to my fav spot in Split, where I spent a glorious summer before grad school writing and deep water soloing and eating an ungodly amount of cevapi.
I’m sure the bureks were good but I came with one intention and that was to eat cevapi. It’s a great place to do so.
sasabune / zhengyalov hatz back-to-back. reasonable minds can differ on just how great the middle part of the zhengyalov hatz is. but those ends are perfect.
Glad you enjoyed it I have to go back!
I think you put it on my radar so thanks 
