Category Archives: Restaurants & Cafes

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Work Break at the Park & La Creperie Café

08/13/2011 – 2:49 AM

I’ve just settled down in bed after getting home from watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. The Perseid meteor shower was supposed to peak sometime after midnight, but unfortunately any plans to watch said meteor shower were impeded by the fact that the sky was just too cloudy. And so the last segment of Harry Potter was the replacement. But more on that later…

Let’s back track a little bit to about 12 or so hours ago, when the sun actually decided to come out. Work’s been rather busy lately as we are in the crunching period of our recent project, but the good weather that happened to emerge around lunch time was too good to pass up. BeiBei, Allan, and I decided to walk over to the nearby park and eat lunch there while enjoying the fresh air.

chiffon top – H&M, jeans – Verdugo jegging by Paige Premium Denim, bag – Marc by Marc Jacobs, high-heeled clogs – Sam Edelman

“Is that the obligatory pose?”

Our current obsession is Mexican soda, sold in glass bottles. Nothing beats soda packaged in the old-fashioned way. I’m not a fan of carbonated beverages, but I must admit the real sugar (as opposed to the high-fructose corn syrup found in most sodas manufactured here in America) highly improves the drink, reducing the overly artificial sweetness typically found in American sodas. I’m still not too keen on Coca Cola, but Sprite will do just fine, thank you.

Fast-forward to post-work time, considering how the sky was not being too friendly to us for meteor shower watching, Allan, BeiBei, Tony, and I decided to go with Plan B – finally watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. Our theater of choice – AMC Marina Pacifica 12 in Long Beach. Tony had two free AMC tickets, and I figured we could easily find some good eats around the Belmont Shore area.

Hungry and determined to eat something delicious prior to our 10:10 PM movie showing, our trusty good friend, Yelp, once again came to the rescue. We found La Creperie Café, located on action-packed 2nd Street in Long Beach. This French restaurant has four stars at a whopping 1082 reviews on Yelp. I love the 2nd Street area and I love French restaurants, so you can only imagine my delight at discovering this venue.

Their menu is extensive, filled with breakfast, lunch, and dinner items all at reasonable prices (they have a $$ price range on Yelp). It is no surprise that the majority of their menu is crepes – sweet and savory. Not to worry for those who aren’t too keen on crepes – they have a great selection of non-crepe foods as well.

Menu aside, I found their interior to be well-decorated to the theme. I was especially delighted to find that they had live music! This restaurant definitely gave off that cute, romantic type of ambiance.

After oo-ing and ahh-ing to myself about the interior of the restaurant and attempting to take decent photos with my point-and-shoot camera in the dimly lit room, I finally decided to pay attention to the menu in front of me. Choosing a dinner item was tough, but I eventually settled on the Dipollo savory crepe – fresh wild mushrooms, herbs de provence and mozzarella with chicken in a sherry cream sauce. I was pretty much sold upon reading “fresh wild mushrooms” and “sherry cream sauce.” I’m a huge fan of food with alcohol-based sauces – love the flavor the alcohol infuses. Tony chose the same dish. BeiBei ordered a side of garlic fries, which comes with three sauces – chipotle aioli, ranch, and ketchup. For her entree, she decided on a savory crepe that consisted of lobster and had a lobster-based sauce. I have unfortunately forgotten the name of the dish, and I can’t seem to find it on their online menu. The presentation of her dish was interesting. Instead of one whole crepe, it was served in mini crepe medallions. Allan ordered the steak sandwich – marinated rib eye, romaine lettuce, chipotle aioli, provolone cheese, tomatoes, red onions and avocado on toasted ciabatta, served with garlic French fries and a Caesar salad.

Pictured above in descending order: Garlic fries, sauces for the garlic fries, BeiBei’s lobster crepe medallions, Dipollo crepe, Steak sandwich. I took a taste of every single item we ordered, and I must say that each item on our table was delicious! I’m not a huge fan of lobster, but BeiBei’s dish was pretty good. You can definitely taste the lobster. I absolutely loved my dish. The Dipollo was infused with the flavor of the wild mushroom and sherry cream sauce, much to my enjoyment. Allan’s steak sandwich was tasty – not your average steak sandwich. The steak marination deserves two thumbs up.

I would definitely visit La Creperie again and give their other menu items a try.

Following our dinner, we headed over to the AMC Marina Pacifica 12 to watch Harry Potter. It was a long movie, as expected. The awkward kissing scenes they put into the film still weird me out. Overall, I suppose the movie was alright. I’m not a huge fan of Harry Potter, really, and the whole time I kept thinking “Why? Why? Couldn’t they just do this? Couldn’t they just do that?” Regardless, the movie was still entertaining.

Summing up the day, I’ve arrived at a few conclusions: (1) I definitely would like to spend more time around 2nd Street in Long Beach and try out all the different little restaurants around there. (2) I love French restaurants. (3) Harry Potter will always just be “alright” to me. (4) I am extremely exhausted.

And with that, I bid you adieu.

Tags Allan Chiou, AMC, BeiBei Chen, Coca Cola, Coke, Crepes, Fashion, Food, French, French restaurants, H&M, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Jeans, jeggings, La Creperie, La Creperie Cafe, Long Beach, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Marina Pacifica, Mexican Coke, Mexican soda, Mexican Sprite, Movies, My Outfits, Paige, Paige denim, Paige premium denim, Restaurants, Restaurants & Cafes, Sam Edelman, Soda, Sprite, Tony Huynh, Verdugo jegging | Comments (3)

Birthdays Coffee Drinks Food Friends Restaurants & Cafes

Happy Birthday, Limzer!

07/30/2011 – 11:05 PM

Yellow Polka Dot Top – H&M, Sunglasses – Prada

Okay, so Limzer’s birthday was actually some time this past week, but his birthday party was today. He had a combined birthday celebration along with a few of his friends, kindly hosted by another one of his friends. BeiBei, Allan, and I hit up Limzer’s friend’s house in the LBC (Long Beach) sometime in the afternoon. Their little shindig was complete with DJ, bar, and a ghetto dog/taco cart! Sweeeeet.

When we arrived, Limzer was standing in as DJ. It was definitely nice seeing him as we hadn’t seen each other in a while. He used to work with us, and we haven’t really hung out since he left the company. He’s an awesome dude – I think we should definitely hang out with him more often.

The party was filled with fellow Filipinos (I’m half). Most of the highly-Filipino populated parties I attend are family occasions, so it felt a little strange for me to be surrounded by so many Filipinos at a party yet only knowing one of them. (Haha). In any case, the party was good. I only regret that I didn’t try a ghetto dog or taco because I was just too full from the food and drinks I had earlier.

I hadn’t had any coffee yet when we got to Limzer’s friend’s house, so I decided to look up coffee shops around the area. I figured we could stop by to grab some coffee while we waited for the taco cart to arrive – it was scheduled to arrive at 4PM! I used my handy-dandy Yelp app on my phone and found Portfolio Coffeehouse on 4th Street. Luckily, we were very close to 4th Street – only a few blocks away!

What struck my interest were the number of stars this joint received on Yelp (4 stars!) and the fact that they were supposedly voted the “Best Coffee House in Long Beach.” It was a short walk from the house to the coffee shop, but I still wished I had my bike with me so I could have gotten there faster; it was a hot day!

I opted for a regular latte and indulged in a slice of Oreo cheesecake. BeiBei got an iced Mexican mocha and a Napoleon. Allan purchased a paradise iced tea. Everything was pretty good, though nothing really stood out to me in a special way. Walking over to Portfolio did remind me of how long it had been since I had visited 4th Street. That street is known for its plethora of vintage shops. I think I’ll just have to visit 4th Street again sometime soon and do a little bit of shopping.

Tags Allan Chiou, BeiBei Chen, Birthdays, Coffee, Friends, Limzer Lagrimas, Long Beach, Parties, Portfolio Coffeehouse | Comment (0)

Coffee Drinks Food Museums Restaurants & Cafes

Dinosaur Hall Member Preview at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

07/10/2011 – 11:59 PM

Today was the members-only preview of the new Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Fortunately, I am indeed a member. My Sunday afternoon was well-spent with the dinosaurs!

Upon entering the dino hall, you are greeted by a triceratops and a brontosaurus (I believe it is a brontosaurus. Please correct me if I am wrong). The long neck of the brontosaurus left me awestruck!

I tried tweeting a photo of the fossils upon entering, but unfortunately, I had no signal in the hall.

This exhibit seems to love T-Rexes. It seriously seemed like they were everywhere!

These little guys are oddly cute, despite how strange they look.

Apparently no blog post about a museum visit is complete without obligatory photos of me looking at some type of interactive display or looking at my cell phone. Alas, I am doing both in the above.

The sizes of some of the fossils are amazing. Can you believe this is only half of a dinosaur’s leg? It’s as big as I am!

This dinosaur was found with an unborn baby inside! If you look closely, you can see the fossilized fetus in the center, through the bones on the bottom.

I fell in love with this quote upon reading it. I completely agree with Proust. I am a sucker for quotes.

I was very pleased to find that the Dinosaur Hall actually extends into two halls for more dinosaur fun.

The second hall is home to the Tyrannosaurus Rex family – adult, teenager, and child!

Overwhelmed by all the awesome displays, I had almost completely missed this guy! This stegosaurus is definitely one of the exhibits I found most interesting. The poor stegosaurus has to fight off the T-Rex, who is about to attack him from behind! It is amazing how this stegosaurus display consists of mostly casts of fossils, with a few actual fossils connected. Apparently a T-Rex fossil was found with a stegosaurus’s spike (from its tail) stuck into it. Defense!

Overall, I was very impressed by the Dinosaur Hall. I wish I had more time to read each and every description for all the displays. That shall be my goal on my next visit!

With a few minutes to spare and having never seen the Butterfly Pavilion yet (even though I’m an NHM member!), we headed over to catch a glimpse of some butterflies before closing!

I have never been very intrigued by butterflies and moths, but the two above were pretty interesting! Butterflies attempting to make butterfly babies? Oh, my!

Dress – Banana Republic, tote – One Language “Moi” Tote

The great weather and beautiful natural sunlight was too good to pass up!

I love the grassy park area right outside of the Natural History Museum, and I apparently also loved this tree.

Right before arriving at the Natural History Museum, I was on a quest to find good coffee close by. I hadn’t had my coffee fix for the day yet! Using my handy-dandy smartphone, I was pleased to find Spring for Coffee. Granted, Spring for Coffee is a few miles passed the Natural History Museum, but it was totally worth it. Spring for Coffee is a tiny little coffee shop on Spring Street that serves a wide array of different coffees, including Blue Bottle! Apparently the owner of Spring for Coffee has exclusive rights with Blue Bottle, and only his establishments can serve Blue Bottle coffee in the Los Angeles area. Blue Bottle Coffee is a small chain of coffee shops available in the San Francisco Bay Area, with, I believe, one location in New York. I absolutely loved my latte at the Blue Bottle location at SFMOMA on my last visit to San Francisco! Back to Spring for Coffee, I don’t think they used Blue Bottle coffee for my order, but regardless, my latte definitely goes on the list of one of the best lattes I’ve had. Remember to order a “regular” size as the “small” is seriously quite small.

Tags Banana Republic, Blue Bottle Coffee, Coffee, Dino Hall, Dinosaur Hall, Dinosaurs, Drinks, Museums, Natural History Museum, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, NHM, NHMLA, One Language, Restaurants & Cafes, Spring for Coffee, YL | Comments (2)

Coffee Drinks Food Friends Restaurants & Cafes

Thanks for the Coffee, Grande!

04/28/2011 – 10:54 PM

If you’ve heard of The Conservatory for Coffee, Tea, and Cocoa, located in Culver City, then you’re probably aware that this joint has a wopping four-and-a-half star rating on Yelp. I had heard of this place from Johnny (a.k.a. Grande), a friend from work. I have been wanting to try out their coffee but unfortunately haven’t had the time to drive over to Culver City and pay them a visit during the Conservatory’s open hours. Grande was nice enough to surprise me with a bag of Guatemala Antigua to try out!

Jeremy (pictured above, behind the French press), Grande, BeiBei, and I each tried a cup and were pleasantly delighted to find that the coffee was smooth and easy to drink completely black. Take note that this coffee, Guatemala Antigua, is supposed to be low in acidity.

I must say that I’m pretty satisfied with their coffee from trying out this particular bag, but I’d still love to pop into the actual coffee shop and give their Mexican mocha a taste. The Mexican mocha happens to be all the rage on Yelp.

If you’d like to give the Conservatory a visit, head on over to 10117 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232. Be sure to bring me back a Mexican mocha!

Tags Coffee, Culver City, Drinks, Guatemala Antigua, Jeremy Nissen, Johnny Grande, Los Angeles, Mexican mocha, Restaurants & Cafes, The Conservatory for Coffee Tea & Cocoa | Comments (2)

Food Restaurants & Cafes

Rustic Canyon

04/25/2011 – 11:09 PM

As part of our goal to get through the entire list of burgers on The 10 Best Burgers in Los Angeles: 2011 Edition from LAist.com, Allan, BeiBei, and I decided to give Rustic Canyon a visit. Unfortunately, Tony, our other burger buddy, was unavailable to join us for dinner. :[

Rustic Canyon is listed as number one under the “Best Gourmet” burger section of the list.

1. Rustic Canyon, 1119 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. When you name your standard burger the Niman Ranch burger, you have to assume it’s good. When you add a perfect slice of sharp white cheddar, onion fondue, and an exquisite crust on a juicy, medium-rare patty, you know the burger is something special. When they start sponsoring full-on burger nights (where they create unique burger concoctions) while still locally sourcing their produce? You know you’ve found the best burger in LA. – Excerpt from The 10 Best Burgers in Los Angeles: 2011 Edition

We were each extremely excited to indulge ourselves in some overpriced gourmet burgers from what is supposedly the best gourmet burger joint in Los Angeles (in 2011).

I love the minimalistic tree logo and restaurant name sign combined with the contemporary, almost-all-glass facade. The dim lighting and rustic decor created an ambiance designating of “gourmet.”

Rustic Canyon’s food offerings change daily, as you can see from the dated menu above. Might I add that specialty burgers are only available on Mondays, as Mondays are burgers & beer nights.

I love the look of their wine menu, which has a wooden cover embossed with their tree logo and “wine.” I must say that Rustic Canyon sure has design down.

Every table is served a small plate of olives as an appetizer. I’m not too keen on olives, but I gave these a shot. To me, they were basically olives, although I still ate a few of them. BeiBei tried a couple too. I don’t believe Allan had any.

For our appetizers, we ordered the Niman Ranch hangar steak and the fried cauliflower. We chose the latter per a Yelp reviewer’s recommendation, plus it looked delicious in said Yelp reviewer’s photo.

Niman Ranch Hangar Steak

Fried Cauliflower

I very much enjoyed the fried cauliflower. I think that was the favorite at the table. The hangar steak was alright; nothing too spectacular. The serving size is very tiny, but I suppose that is understandable for a hangar steak appetizer. If ordering the hangar steak, keep it mind that it is served pretty rare – definitely very pink and slightly bloody inside.

And finally, we get to our main course – the burgers! Seeing as it was specialty burger night, we opted to order from the specialty burgers menu. Since we both love mushrooms, it was no surprise that BeiBei and I both chose the mushroom burger. Allan decided on the American burger.

Upon first bite into my mushroom burger, I was pretty satisfied. However, as I proceeded to eat this burger, I found the patty to be to salty. The bun was also extremely oily; I suppose that adds some extra nice shine to the bun, but I definitely did not enjoy the oiliness on my fingers as I ate. The flavor of the burger as a whole isn’t anything amazing, simply just “alright.” I probably enjoyed the fries the most off of this plate.

BeiBei’s mushroom burger experience was similar to mine, except quite possibly worse. Her burger was extremely oily. In fact, hers was dripping with oil. Not only were her fingers drenched, but her entire hands were covered in oil by the time she was done eating. Her plate was also swimming in the oil that dripped from her burger as she ate. My burger was oily as well, as I had mentioned earlier, but not quite as oily as hers.

You can read more about BeiBei’s experience and see photos of her oil-drenched hands over at her blog.

Allan’s American burger was exactly what you’d expect from a typical burger. His patty was just as salty as BeiBei’s and mine were. The only aspect that basically saved his burger was the inclusion of fresh vegetables. BeiBei and I each tried a portion of Allan’s burger, and all three of us agreed that the vegetables they used were definitely of high quality and extremely fresh-tasting. If anything, while eating the burger as a whole, the fresh taste of the vegetables helped cut the overly salted patty.

And our general consensus? All three burgers were “alright.” We all thought the patty was way too salty. BeiBei’s oily burger experience prevented her from being able to eat more than half of her burger.

Sure, we didn’t try their standard Niman Ranch burger, but that aside, the experience probably would have been the same, given the fact that all the burgers contain Niman Ranch patties which are all most likely marinated the same way. I’d expect their Niman Ranch burger would have been just as salty as the burgers we had tried.

The three of us didn’t agree with Rustic Canyon’s standing as the number one best gourmet burger in Los Angeles at all. In fact, from our previous experience eating at Father’s Office, we each thought the Father’s Office Burger was better than Rustic Canyon’s burgers by a landslide. Funny thing is, Father’s Office is listed in fifth place on the LAist’s list of best gourmet burgers.

Maybe it just wasn’t a good night for Rustic Canyon. I’m willing to give it another shot some time, perhaps after getting through the entire LAist top 10 list first. One thing is for sure: we definitely walked away unimpressed and with each of our wallets feeling a lot lighter.