Restaurants | fabliss

Roti Buns @ Papparich | Pasadena, CA

we have been hearing about this craze around roti buns. trust us. we didnt get it. since (i) we heard that papparich had the best roti buns in los angeles, (ii) our friends have cravings sometimes, AND (iii) since jonathan gold thought it was pretty heavenly himself, we tried it! our verdict: loved it!

i now understand why it was hard for people to describe what a roti bun was. when people tried to explain it to me…my reaction was… so its just bread. i’ll do my best but this is just something you have to have yourself. so its a bun… baked fresh with a buttery center and a mocha/maple crust surrounding it (the “original”). simple concept, huh? note that we tried the vanilla one…and liked the “original” the best. nice combo of salty and sweet (probably more salty because of the butter). it’s pretty freaking amazing…(says the girl who loves butter).

we also tried a milk tea. definitely get something to drink. you’ll be thirsty. the milk tea goes nicely with the bun. you just need to try it for yourself!

if you find other roti bun places, please let me know! i’m officially on the hunt!

Papparich
100 W Green St
Pasadena, CA 91105
Neighborhood: Pasadena

By vivilinh | December 28th, 2012 | Dessert, Food, Restaurants | 4 Comments

Dim Sum @ Ocean Seafood | Chinatown Los Angeles

i have been going to ocean seafood in chinatown since as long as i can remember. my family and i have tried other dim sum joints up and down the street but always end up coming back to this one. my favorite things to get:

shrimp shu mai ($3.38)
house special har gow ($3.38)
shrimp rice noodle ($4.58)

food comes out hot and fast. tastes delicious. what more can you ask for?

keep in mind… service here isnt great. to their defense, a lot of the workers dont speak english and their job is to push you to buy items from their cart. i normally hate this stuff but to be honest… you’re in, order, eat up, and out within 15-20 minutes. so i dont really mind.

Ocean Seafood Restaurant
750 N Hill St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Neighborhood: Chinatown

By vivilinh | December 11th, 2012 | Food, Restaurants | 0 Comments

Son of a Gun | Mid-City Los Angeles

one of our favorite restaurants in la right now is son of a gun. we went there a year ago not thinking much about this place since we had to wait two hours to sit at a communal table (didn’t eat until 9:45pm. one word – hunger). after this incident, we learned our lesson and made a reservation this time.

our absolute favorites:

lobster roll, celery, lemon aioli – delicious! (pictured below)
shrimp toast sandwich, herbs, sriracha mayo – i’m pretty much in love with the shrimp toast. its very small (smaller than my palm)… so i would recommend ordering at least one for yourself. (pictured below)
fried chicken sandwich, spicy b&b pickle slaw, rooster aioli – when we tried it the first time, we thought “is this the best fried chicken sandwich ever?!” second time we tried it, we thought “yep, this is the best fried chicken sandwich ever!” (pictured below)

other things we have tried:

linguine and clams, uni aglio-olio, chili, breadcrumbs – i wasn’t too excited or impressed with the linguine…sorry.
oysters on the half shell – these were okay. i have had better oysters before. (pictured below)
dungeness crab, daikon, apple, yuzu – good but very, very small. its on the sweet side. (pictured below)

ambience: small, nautical-themed. gets pretty loud (especially at the communal table at dinner time) but then again, i loved the vibe.

service: very knowledgable about the food and have really good recommendations.

thoughts: son of a gun has pretty outstanding dishes (i.e. shrimp toast, fried chicken sandwich, and lobster roll). we compare a lot of what we eat to these dishes because they are that good. (yep) the other dishes we have tried are okay but because they have such a relatively large menu, we continue to be excited about trying all their other dishes (lobster blt and peel and eat shrimp). this place is on the pricey side and plates are small…but discovering the most delicious thing ever? all worth it.

tips: there are no substitutions.

Son of a Gun
8370 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Neighborhood: Mid-City West

By vivilinh | November 24th, 2012 | Food, Restaurants | 2 Comments

Komodo Cafe | West Los Angeles, CA

our awesome friend stella visited this past weekend. obviously being the food addicts that we are, we took her on a food adventure (after football, of course). our destination: komodo!

kyle had been raving about this place for a week now since he discovered it while at work.

what we ordered:

komodo 2.0 bowl – seared top sirloin with jalapeno aioli and southwest corn salad
blazin’ shrimp bowl – spicy singaporean-style shrimp with sour cream salad and cilantro
loko modo bowl – hawaiian-style grilled ground sirloin with island sweet sauce and eggs
fountain drinks – citrus mango drink and lychee lemonade ($2.50)

so everything on the menu you can order 3 ways: taco ($3), burrito ($8), and rice bowl ($9).

this small restaurant started off as a food truck. cool, eh? you can see pictures of the food truck on their wall as you walk in. we came at the perfect time on that sunday since there were only a couple of people in line. after we ordered, the place was packed. so just keep that in mind.

food: so delicious. we were huge fans of the komodo 2.0 bowl! if you eat in, they have this special komodo sauce (in an unlabeled squirt bottle) available. between the five of us, we devoured 85% of a full bottle! is it weird to be in love with a sauce you know nothing about? all i have to offer you is that it looks like a salsa…but does not taste like it. trust us (all five of us), your taste buds will thank you for the introduction.

the blazin’ shrimp bowl was also very good but it is very, very spicy. the loko modo bowl according to my friend was also good!

on top of the food being great, two things that definitely stand out about this place: (i) their presentation is really nice! all our ordered looked amazing! the pictures taken with my iphone do not do it justice. (ii) their drinks are delicious and are a must get! we got the citrus mango and the lychee lemonade. so good.

service: pretty good. 4 people working at the time we walked in. all orders went in and out pretty seamlessly.

location / parking: it was a little difficult to find parking on a sunday night. its all street parking so good luck. the restaurant itself is small with an oddly shaped eating area. i want to say there are only two normal 4 seaters and the rest of it is wall stool seating.

verdict: i am excited to come back here and try more things on their extensive menu! they have a bunch of sides on the menu that i eyeballed. food is good, prices are good, and service is kind and efficient. this place impressed us and we hope it impresses you.

tip: no substitutions allowed.

Komodo Cafe
8809 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Neighborhood: West Los Angeles

By vivilinh | November 18th, 2012 | Food, Restaurants | 1 Comment

La Cabanita | Glendale, CA

it was one of those days. we didnt know what to eat for lunch so decided to let our restaurant wish list lead the way. we ended up at la cabanita in glendale (montrose). based on the reviews we read, a ton of people raved about this restaurant having the best mole (i’m a huge fan of mole despite not liking chocolate. weird, i know) and excellent home made tortillas!

lucky us, there were lunch specials! for $8.50 each, we got:

enchiladas de mole plate and horchata – everyone was right, excellent mole! perfect combo of sweet and savory. i got my enchiladas with chicken, which was very moist.
carnitas tacos plate and horchata – again, everyone was right! tortillas are homemade and very yummy! these tacos came with a habanero salsa (pretty spicy. good thing we had horchata).

great deal right? we really liked the chips and salsa. the roasted salsa was our favorite.

service: very helpful. we told our waiter it was our first time! he was uber excited and made excellent recommendations (he recommended the lunch specials which was the same size food for a fraction of the price. i love informative waiters).
location / parking: we had no trouble parking on the street. we came at lunch time on a monday. it was packed but were seated right away.
verdict: for sure we are coming back here…especially for the mole and the price!

La Cabanita
3445 N Verdugo Rd
Glendale, CA 91208
Neighborhood: Glendale

By vivilinh | November 13th, 2012 | Food, Restaurants | 2 Comments

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