Not sure what percentage of patrons walking through the doors of a glitz palace like Mastro’s have qpr on their minds…
Back in the day the pretzel rolls, steaks and butter cake were fantastic. My last experience about 3-4 years ago was about the same as others on the board. If you’re going to spend that much you can get a much better steak at Cut (a little more expensive) or the Ranch in Anaheim.
You can also go to Steakhouse 55 at the Disneyland Hotel. Since Andrew Sutton took over, it’s excellent.
Plus, you are served good, warm sourdough bread, an amuse and the steaks come with bone marrow.
Killer sides and their risotto of the day for $15 many times is lobster. And lots of lobster.
Went there about 7 years ago and had an amazing australian waygu bone in tomahawk (30 or 40 oz don’t remember exactly). Super delicious, lots of rich melty unctuous fat and great beefy flavor, bread was delicious, the sides were meh. Haven’t been back since but still have very fond memories of that tomahawk.
Yep, as long as they can make their car lease payment and minimum credit card payment.
So a bunch of female cyborgs? 
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O Young’s Rock Pot in Gardena
Short Rib Rock Pot (napa cabbage, rice cakes, carrot):
Lamb Rock Pot (napa cabbage, bean noodle, shiitake mushrooms added):
I don’t know if this place is up to FTC standards, but I always enjoy their hot pots.
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Kimukatsu (delivered by UberEats).
Pretty good considering it was delivered. The boy’s chicken was very juicy and chickeny, and I really liked the pickle (radish? with a strong bonito flavor), which was perfect with the very good rice. Next time I’ll tell them to not send any sauce, though. Too sweet and thick. I instead used some tsuyu I had made yesterday for dipping.
We were pretty darn happy with this. The boy and I went to the homecoming game last night, he with his friends and I with mine, then neither one of us got home until pretty late. College football on tv, and katsu delivery makes for a nice lazy Saturday.
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Happened to be in Riverside and decided to try some Puerto Rican food at San Juan BBQ. I had bookmarked it a while ago thanks to @A5KOBE who recommended it in the Riverside thread.
Mofongo carne frita:
Rotisserie chicken with tostones, and yucca with onions & peppers:
Papas Rellenas:
Everything was very good and the people who work there are the nicest! I’ll definitely go back when I’m in the area again.
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Glad you liked it. I enjoy the mofongo as well as the tripleta and alcapurria.
My weekend consisted of a really good chicken biryani and chicken curry at Biryani Pot Express in Irvine. Holy crap was this good. Nipping at the heels of Zam Zam good. Also had garlic naan which was good, fluffy and slight chew.
Definitely one of the better eats in Irvine.
Chicken biryani 
Chicken curry
Just enough heat to make my head sweat, but not too much to make shoveling food down my gullet unpleasant.
Bang banged with Sidecar pumpkin pie donut. The donut was still warm from the fryer and the whipped cream on the side was cold. The dough was a tad gummy but the flavor was spot on. Also got some donuts to go cuz YOLO.
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You biryani fans should check out Kruang Tedd/KT in Thai Town. The “buried” chicken/Khao Mok Gai is a Thai version of biryani. Comes with this green sauce (I think mint based) that is insanely good along with very flavorful rice and chicken. This might be the only place that does this dish in Greater LA.
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Otium
Brunch after infinity mirrors at the broad, spoiler alert: it goes on forever
hamachi
little gem, bottarga, parmesan, croutons
mole, eggs, corn tortillas, cotija, cilantro
hoe cake, fried chicken, kale, maple butter
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Thanks for the pics @PorkyBelly. 
Has Otium improved? How were the flavors in the dishes? Thanks.
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Thanks @Chowseeker1999. Otium hasn’t changed much, the food is fine, not great, and the service is still apathetic. The highlight was probably the hoecake, really nice and light and fluffy.
However, the hamachi - which was described on the menu as “hamachi, nori, avocado, bonito, tomatoes” - was clearly not what was described. They were either too lazy to update the menu or the server failed to mention that we would be getting an entirely different dish when we ordered it. When I pointed it out to the server he said to keep it and it would be removed from the bill but of course when the check arrived it was still on there.
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Guerrilla Tacos: Sweet potato taco with almond chile, fried corn nuts, scallions and feta cheese --always solid. Eggplant taco with pomegranate salsa, chile del valle, pistachios and chives. Great flavor combo, with the pomegranate seeds really adding a sweet, but slightly acidic note. Chorizo and potato taco with Birds beak chile, fried egg, queso fresco, cherry tomato and cilantro. Terrific breakfast taco --the egg was perfectly cooked.
Topping it off – Garlic Shrimp quesadilla with chile morita, oaxacan cheese, aged cheddar and avocado. Not very garlicky, very dense with cheese, but excellent shrimp and a terrific tortilla.
A lot of very tasty food for $26. Love the flavor combos at Guerrilla Tacos. I think I could eat almost anything with their chile morita salsa.
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That looks delicious, thanks for the report back @BHAppeal. Yah I love their Chile Morita Salsa as well.
I probably find myself during the day at Otium more than I can explain, and probably more than I care for, but I will say this. Their caramel corn ice cream sundae with salted caramel tastes eerily like cold movie theater popcorn. Strangely addictive. I would go back just for spoonfuls of that dessert.
Surprise kebab pop-up at Tabula Rasa.
She gave me extra lebneh for knowing a bit about Persian cuisine.
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Found myself in Westchester again on Friday, so I had lunch at Ayara Luk and picked up some food for dinner at Al Watan.
The green curry with beef at Ayara was excellent. Not as spicy as I usually like Thai food to be, but still flavorful and filling.
My plan was originally to hit Zam Zam for some lamb pulao, but I realized they only serve it on Saturdays, and so decided to try the Friday special lamb pulao at Al Watan instead for comparison.
Despite looking similar, they actually taste very different. The Zam Zam version skews more toward cinnamon and clove, while the Al Watan version tastes strongly of fennel seed and lemon rind.
Al Watan’s pulao was well prepared but I personally prefer Zam Zam’s version. Lemon and lamb are a classic combination, but not one I love. It also didn’t help that I took a big bite of lemon rind before I realized what it was.
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