Tag Archives: Restaurants

Work Break at the Park & La Creperie Café

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.

ARTDAMAGE IMG_7330.jpg ARTDAMAGE IMG_7342.jpg
chiffon top – H&M, jeans – Verdugo jegging by Paige Premium Denim, bag – Marc by Marc Jacobs, high-heeled clogs – Sam Edelman

ARTDAMAGE
“Is that the obligatory pose?”

ARTDAMAGE IMG_7322.jpg

ARTDAMAGE IMG_7321.jpg

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.

ARTDAMAGE IMG_4799.jpg

ARTDAMAGE IMG_4802.jpg

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.

ARTDAMAGE IMG_4806.jpg

ARTDAMAGE IMG_4803.jpg

ARTDAMAGE IMG_4808.jpg

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.

ARTDAMAGE Garlic Fries

ARTDAMAGE IMG_4827.jpg

ARTDAMAGE Lobster crepes

ARTDAMAGE Dipollo Crepe

ARTDAMAGE 600

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.

Annum: Redondo Beach Pier

On this lovely day, I found myself at Redondo Beach Pier, just in time to see the sunset.

IMG_3631.JPG
IMG_3632.JPG
As a side note, Redonde Beach Pier was also used multiple times in the no-longer-running TV show, The O.C., as the “pier in Newport Beach.” How funny. For those who are not aware, Redondo Beach is definitely not Newport Beach. In fact, they aren’t even in the same county. Redondo Beach is in Los Angeles County while Newport Beach is in Orange County.

IMG_3635.JPG IMG_3636.JPG
3/4 sleeve camel trench coat – Zara, Lace dress with bell sleeves – independent boutique in Manhattan Beach, shoes – Michael by Michael Kors, bag – Marc by Marc Jacobs, sunglasses – Prada

In my attempt to have a complete outfit shot taken, of course I failed and felt like I looked absolutely silly. As usual, I had to end the shoot with a silly face. At least the background looks nice. As for the outfit, I absolutely love these shoes. I love the style and they are extremely comfortable. Hurray for comfortable heels.

IMG_3642.JPG

Redondo Beach/Redondo Beach Pier isn’t necessarily part of my list of favorite beach areas, but it was still a great day with a great sunset. I loved watching the pelicans dive straight into the water to catch fish. Those birds are crazy!

IMG_3645.JPG

Please ignore my tired looking eyes and direct your focus onto the area in the background. Redondo Beach Pier has an interesting triangular design. Pictured above in the background is one side of this triangle, with restaurants along the waterfront. The one with the second-story pagoda-looking structure is Old Tony’s.

IMG_3646.JPG

IMG_3648.JPG

The cemented portion of the pier has these awesome sea-life related embossments. By the way, if you’re familiar with The O.C., this portion of the pier may look familiar: note the trees in planters and the circular logo on the barriers.

IMG_3659.JPG IMG_3660.JPG

I love me some giant ice cream. Over by the older region of the pier, where the walkway is made of wooden planks instead of the newer cement, there is a nice little ice cream shop with this awesome giant effigy of an ice cream. They serve many different kinds of desserts. Although I didn’t try any of them myself, this place seemed pretty popular, so I would assume their stuff is tasty – and for a good price too!

IMG_3667.JPG

This here is my little seagull buddy, who decided to stop on the barrier and pose for a camera shot! I love the lighting in this photo, by the way.

IMG_3669.JPG

IMG_3668.JPG

Dinner venue of the night: Kincaid’s Fish Chop & Steak House on the pier. I wish we had gotten a window seat, which has a view of the ocean, but those filled up rather quickly.

IMG_3675.JPGOven-roasted dungeness crab and artichoke dip

IMG_3677.JPGSole (fish) stuffed with dungeness crab, served with truffle mashed potatoes and greens

IMG_3679.JPGSmoked steelhead (fish), served with roasted potatoes and greens. This had an excellent woody flavor.

IMG_3681.JPGCheck out the giant trout on the wall!

IMG_3685.JPG

IMG_3687.JPG

Finished the meal off with a latte and warm bread pudding topped with vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. The consensus was that Kincaid’s isn’t anything special, but there was nothing necessarily bad about it. The food is good and reasonably priced, and the atmosphere is nice. My only complaint would be how long it took for us to get our food. Even the starter bread took forever to get to our table.

IMG_3690.JPG

The pier looks amazing lit up. It was overall a great night. Anno bene.

Royal Cup Cafe: Gourmet Coffee and Tea House

After adding it to my bookmarks on Yelp upon noticing the quaint cafe across the street from Dean’s Pizza (see Lent, North End Caffe, The Dears, Eulogies, Viento y Agua, and Dean’s Pizza) and seeing that it had a four-star rating on Yelp, I finally had a chance to have dinner at the Royal Cup Cafe in Long Beach.

IMG_3565.JPG

IMG_3576.JPG

Upon entering the cafe, you are immediately greeted by a room filled of random trinkets, furniture, and various artwork – many paintings cover the walls. Looks like someone did a lot of garage sale shopping. Observing the floor plan and general design of the building, this venue looks to be an old Long Beach house-turned-cafe. There was musical entertainment this evening as someone was playing the piano, which is located in front of the register counter.

IMG_3558.JPG

IMG_3563.JPG

The cafe is dimly lit to create a more homey ambiance. Unfortunately, the lack of light also resulted in dark photos (the flash made it too washed out) and more emphasis on how tired my eyes appeared. This place seems to put emphasis on their home-like atmosphere. They even have an area that looks like a living room – complete with antique couches and a television. In fact, this place was filled with antique furniture.

The Royal Cup Cafe has a diverse menu of food and beverages.

IMG_3592.JPG

Here we have the natural mango iced tea. The flavor reminded me of that of dried mangoes. I did not find this drink super tasty though. I wish it had actually tasted more like natural fresh mangoes other than dried mangoes. They most likely used unripe mangoes, thus the flavor. I did, however, enjoy the fact that they used a large jar to serve this drink.

IMG_3595.JPG

I ordered the triple caramel latte. I found it to be the perfect sweetness, which was good considering I am usually worried to order coffee drinks with syrups since I tend to find them too sweet. This drink probably would’ve been better had I ordered it after my meal as a dessert rather than ordering it with my meal. By the way, both the natural mango iced tea and the triple caramel latte are marked on the menu as Royal Cup specials.

The most extensive portion of their menu, aside from the coffee drinks, is the gourmet panini sandwiches. I definitely had to try one of these.

IMG_3599.JPG

The roast beef French dip (roast beef marinated in au jus sauce, provolone and Swiss cheese, au jus sauce, and mayo), with an addition of portobello mushrooms, was absolutely delicious. The sandwich was juicy, perhaps even tastier and more delectable than that at Champagne (see Champagne French Bakery Cafe). I also enjoyed the small pickled pepper that is served with their sandwiches.

IMG_3603.JPG

The chipotle chicken sandwich (grilled chicken, chipotle sauce, tomato, provolone, light ranch, and mayo) was delicious as well, full of flavor. This sandwich is definitely more rich than the roast beef French dip, but if you’re in the mood for something more creamy and flavorful, this is the sandwich for you.

Aside from the prices, which I found to be slightly high for sandwiches like these, I really enjoyed my meal. I love a good French dip.

IMG_3606.JPG

After finishing my meal, I perused their random furnishings. I found this giant chess set rather amusing. There’s a book and my latte mug for size comparison.

IMG_3620.JPG

IMG_3622.JPG

IMG_3623.JPG

Yes, I really loved that giant chess set. I wish I could have taken it home! By the way, I was wearing my new Sam Edelman high-heeled clogs. ;] These are indeed taller than I am used to, but they were pretty comfortable to walk in all day. Great with skinny jeans!

IMG_3626.JPG

I noticed they had replaced a couple of the knights with these makeshift wooden horses (on the right). There was only one original knight left (on the left). The poor thing was injured – its head was all taped up. I suppose the other knights took a beating as well or were perhaps misplaced.

IMG_3629.JPG

A perfect ending to this evening was finding this giant metal installation of a coffee cup, complete with steam! This must be part of the series of installations (flowers, bicycles, etc.) that are all over Long Beach, as I mentioned toward the end of this post. Could I take this home along with the giant chess set please?

 

 

Happy Birthday, Tony!

BeiBei, Allan, and I joined our friend Tony to celebrate his 25th birthday. His birthday was actually on Friday, but we decided to have our own celebration and festivities on Saturday. Since we had continuously postponed watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 for many months now, we planned to watch it as part of Tony’s birthday festivities. We met up at Allan’s house and proceeded with the film.

This movie is by far the cheesiest of the Harry Potter series, putting more attention on the romances in the story. I cringed several times and even covered my eyes to save myself from the awkwardness that the scenes on the screen were sure to cause me to experience. It’s the usual Harry Potter movie length – long.

I find it necessary to see Harry Potter films with the company of others, so you have someone there with whom to comment on scenes, whether it be due to a scene’s awesomeness or absolute cheesiness.

After finishing Harry Potter and feeling slightly drained from such a lengthy film, we played a little DJ Hero 2 while we tried to determine what to eat. After driving to Outback Steakhouse and Claim Jumper, only to be deterred by the excruciatingly long wait times, we proceeded to Old Pasadena (for some reason, colloquially known as “Old Town Pasadena”) and chose The Cheesecake Factory. Tony had apparently never been to The Cheesecake Factory before and the rest of us hadn’t had it in a while, so it seemed like a reasonable choice. We placed our names on the waiting list and were delighted to discover that the wait time was significantly less than that at Outback and Claim Jumper – 45 minutes!

45 minutes was a perfect wait time, leaving us with more than enough time to grab some coffee at Intelligentsia. Intelligentsia (@Intelligentsia) is definitely at the top of my list alongside my favorite places to grab a nice cup of java. I’ve been to all three California/Los Angeles-area locations, with Pasadena being home to one of them (@IntelliPasadena), lucky enough. The other two locations are in Venice and Silver Lake. Allan, Tony, and I opted for the latte with Black Cat espresso. This is my usual drink, and none of the Intelligentsia locations have failed me yet with this choice. BeiBei got an iced Angeleno.

IMG_3500.JPG

IMG_3506.JPG

One of the things I love Intelligentsia, besides the amazing flavor of their lattes, is the coffee art. I am a sucker for coffee art (one of the reasons why Urth Caffe is at the top of my favorite coffee venues as well).

IMG_3508.JPG

This particular location uses Erlenmeyer flasks as water pitchers, which I absolutely love. Awesome idea. My future kitchenware in the making: beakers for drinking glasses and Erlenmeyer flasks for pitchers.

After grabbing our coffees and waiting around some more, we were finally seated at The Cheesecake Factory!

IMG_3510.JPGHere’s Tony perusing the menu.

IMG_3516.JPGAllan and Tony

IMG_3509.JPGBlurry photo of BeiBei playing Unblock Me on her phone

IMG_3524.JPGI am making a strange face, but I do love me some bread. The brown bread from The Cheesecake Factory is the best!

IMG_3527.JPG

IMG_3530.JPGThe little crocheted Android that my boss’s mom made joined us too!

IMG_3538.JPG

Allan and Tony both ordered the Chargrilled Coulotte Steak, originally served with French fries and crispy onion rings. Both of them substituted the French fries with mashed potatoes.

IMG_3535.JPG

BeiBei and I both ordered the Hibachi Steak with Shiitake mushrooms, onions, bean sprouts, wasabi mashed potatoes and tempura asparagus.

The general consensus is that when ordering steak from here, request it to be cooked less than how you desire because they tend to overcook. For example, if you like medium, you should probably order it medium rare. Better to have it undercooked than overcooked since you can always request to have your plate sent back to be cooked a bit more.

Anyway, the boys seemed to enjoy their steak, and BeiBei and I enjoyed ours. I typically order the Hibachi steak when I go to The Cheesecake Factory. Each time I find the sauce to be too sweet for me, so this time I requested for it to not be too sweet. Next time, I will most likely put more emphasis on that request, or perhaps see if I could just get the sauce on the side. I am a huge fan of their wasabi mashed potatoes, so that’s always good.

IMG_3542.JPG

After finishing with our meals and while waiting for the dessert we ordered to be served, I folded my napkin into an origami crane. It managed to stay upright for a while before flopping over on one side. I think it looks pretty awesome in this photo!

IMG_3543.JPG

Since we were celebrating Tony’s birthday, of course we had to embarrass him in public! I made sure to let the waitress know we were here for his birthday. Several waiters and waitresses came out with our Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, birthday candle in tow, and sang “Happy Birthday” to Tony.

IMG_3547.JPG IMG_3544.JPG

IMG_3549.JPG IMG_3551.JPG

IMG_3552.JPG IMG_3553.JPG

Needless to say, we all enjoyed that cheesecake! It was so rich, we barely ate any, and Tony had plenty to take home and enjoy for himself.

A perfect ending to a perfect evening with friends – Happy Birthday, Tony!

Ikea’s Herb Roasted Chicken & Hubert’s Lemonade

On Thursdays, Ikea has herb roasted chicken with mashed potatoes for only $1.99. Since BeiBei and I had wushu, we decided to drop by the Costa Mesa Ikea on the way to try out this $1.99 special.

IMG_3480.JPG

So this plate sure doesn’t look like much. I must admit, I was salivating as I watched people walk away with plates full of Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, and lingonberries. Do not be fooled, however. This seemingly small plate of chicken and mashed potatoes was more than enough for me for dinner. I found the chicken to be juicy, with a delicious herb marinade. The mashed potatoes, as usual, were good. I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of this particular meal (it’s definitely no Swedish meatballs), but for $1.99, this is definitely major bang for your buck.

IMG_3481.JPG

Everytime I go to Ikea, I am always tempted by all their random items they have for sale. This particular trip, I picked up some ginger thins, Singoalla raspberry filled cookies, and a bar of hazelnut chocolate. I’ve always been a fan of their Anna’s ginger thins and their hazelnut chocolate bars. Actually, I’m a huge fan of hazelnut-chocolate combinations in general. I thought the Singoallas looked pretty good, so I decided to pick up a pack to try them out. My instincts were right. The ginger thins and the chocolate bar were just as good as I remembered, and the Singoallas were yummy as well. They remind me of the Knott’s brand raspberry filled cookies, except with a better, slightly softer texture.

In conclusion, the chicken was good. I don’t think I’d plan to try to grab this meal on Thursdays, but it’s a good fall-back if I want quick, cheap food and Ikea happens to be nearby. Ginger thins, Singoallas, and hazelnut chocolate are perfect if you want some slightly sweet foods to snack on.

After wushu, BeiBei and I dropped by Ralph’s. We spotted this new item, Hubert’s Lemonade, and decided to try out this beverage. I opted for the original while she opted for the mango flavor.

IMG_3485.JPG

IMG_3487.JPG

I mostly found the bottle amusing, with its cute logo and shape and the fact that it’s made of glass. The quote under the cap topped it off: “Consuming this product may cause joy.” I found myself highly disappointed, however, upon taking a sip. This lemonade tasted very artificial. It didn’t seem any different from the lemonades you’d be able to get at vending machines. Ironically, the bottle reads “All Natural Since 1935.” Definitely did not taste all-natural.

I washed and saved the bottle upon finishing this drink, but I highly doubt I will find myself wanting to purchase it again.