This architecturally dramatic space—a small glass-walled dining room and larger open-air patio set off by fifteen-foot-tall laser-cut steel panels modeled on Thai fabrics—is perfectly suited to the wonderful Thai street food, which is, after all, intended to be eaten outdoors. You’ll find dishes you won’t find elsewhere in town, like the crispy, addictive corn cakes, [...]
A globe-hopping selection of coffee (including organic choices) is sold by kindly people in a warehouse space filled with giant roasters, an espresso bar and a funky collection of tables and chairs. The prices are more than fair (a cup of brewed coffee is just 99 cents), and if you order five pounds or more [...]
Set up in a parking lot behind a Duarte motel just off the 210 Freeway, Pondok Kaki Lima is one of greater L.A.’s brightest beacons of Indonesian cooking. The weekly food fair is a collection of about a half-dozen vendors, most of which specialize in a single dish but nonetheless serve many. Some focus on [...]
The food (by the swank Patina Group) is pre-packaged at this order-at-the-counter café, but with the exception of the sometimes-soggy wraps, it’s tasty and inexpensive, and you get to eat at umbrella-shaded teak tables in the Norton Simon’s lovely rear garden. It might get noisy if a school group troops through, but otherwise, this is [...]
Wedges of iceberg lettuce drenched with blue cheese, cold martinis, red Naugahyde booths and generous, perfectly cooked prime steaks for less than $30 . . . forget all those new poseur steakhouses, because Taylor’s is the real thing. The only branch of the beloved 1953 L.A. mothership, this clubby, windowless joint is packed every night, [...]
Just when you thought it was time to diet and swear off three-course meals, along comes DineLA, the ever-popular prix-fixe-a-thon that gives budget-conscious diners a chance to try new restaurants for less. The city-sponsored DineLA Restaurant Week is in fact two weeks, from January 31 to February 5 (excluding Saturdays). To participate, restaurants offer three-course [...]
Warm and welcoming, this little family restaurant has an open kitchen, a tiny patio out back, about eight tables – and some of the most delicious guacamole ever, chunky and fragrant with cilantro and limes. Fresh-squeezed juices of all kinds – check out the carrots in the fridge! – accompany breakfast, lunch and dinner. The [...]
One of the most anticipated restaurant openings in Pasadena is finally coming to pass: Elements Kitchen, the very fine caterer and café tucked into a tiny space on the south end of Old Pasadena, is taking over the large and beautiful restaurant space adjacent to the Pasadena Playhouse. The site has been the graveyard for [...]
Hearty, tasty Salvadorian specialties—pupusas, meat-filled pepitos (like empanadas), savory chicken sautéed with onions and potatoes, carne asada—are served in a handsome room decorated with plush booths and Central American art and woodwork. It’s a much nicer dining experience than the shabby block it’s on suggests. 1306 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena, 626.791.7378, Salvadorian. L & D [...]
South Lake Avenue is going through some tough times, with empty storefronts abounding, but things are looking up on the block between Green and Cordova. The Counter‘s customized burgers are proving a hit, Crocodile Cafe has been reborn as Café 140, and now there’s a new spot in the Commons that people are talking about: [...]
