Great Maple

Great Maple is located at the newly renovated Del Amo Mall in Torrance, California. Their other locations are in Newport Beach and San Diego. My long time friend and hairdresser, Jody took me and Sandi for lunch yesterday. It's a nice size bright and airy place with some outdoor seating.

As usual we all wanted to try too many items on the menu. The only wise solution was to split everything 3 ways. Jody has had the Barley Salad and thought it would be good to share one of those. It was to be my vitamins and minerals for the day. The special of the day was Smoked Pork Belly flatbread; peanut butter and sweet soy glaze, red onion, goat cheese and cilantro. This took center stage. It was unbelievably *#*#*#*#(fill in the blank) delicious! The other item we ordered was their famous Burger. We had it with Gruyere cheese and caramelized onions, tomato, aioli on their freshly baked bun. You had a choice of sides to go with the burger; mixed greens (who needs more greens), pommes frites or for an extra $1.95, Parmesan Truffle Fries. This was a no-brainer....had to be the truffle fries. The burger was very good. We did not want to add bacon or any more items that would have taken the taste away from the good old pure hamburger meat. The fries were almost fantastic. I say almost because some to them were overdone. When thin ones are overcooked, you lose the flavor of the potato; almost like eating "pik-nik"shoestring potatoes. The fatter potatoes were wonderful!

Dessert was almost a problem. We all like Rhubarb Pie which they had, but they also had Beignets. When we heard that they were served with Lemon Curd, we were torn between the two. Since we all like lemon curd, we finally decided to order that. There were 9 in one order. Perfect.....3 for each of us little piggies. They were of course unlike Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans but it was not bad at all. Sandi could only eat 2 of her share and Jody could not eat another one, so guess what....I had to sacrifice and eat the extra one. I also had to ask for more lemon curd as one tiny cup was not enough for 9 of those little wonders. Moe, the manager came to our table to ask how everything was. I strongly suggested they keep the Flatbread on their menu and make it one of their signature dishes.

Before we left the restaurant, we headed to their restroom to freshen up. Jody insisted I take a picture of the nice, clean and cute restroom; we were impressed. After lunch, we decided to do a little window shopping at the mall for exercise. It was a fun afternoon with the girls. I thank Jody for opening our eyes (and mouths) to a new place of interest.