The Blvd at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel

This is by far the best Travelzoo deal I have encountered. For $99, we got a 5 course dinner for
With wine pairings.

It was a Friday evening. The bar was bustling with people from work celebrating TGIF.  We were early for our 7:30 dinner reservation but they happily accommodated us. We had a nice spot, by the window; our view was of people of all kinds; dressed to kill, people in shorts, and some with designer shopping bags on tow. The restaurant had a mix of people. Friends, families, business people and the occasional man on the corner with a young attractive lady clearly not his wife holding hands.

Our first course was a Summer Melon Salad. This had a watermelon-gel base that looked so pretty with pickled cantaloupe, honeydew, vanilla vinaigrette with jalapeno salt. This looked better than it tasted but it was still quite good and very refreshing. This was paired with Louis Roederer Brut Premier from Reims, France. Not bad at all.

The second course was a Sweet Corn Soup; ratatouille stuffed zucchini blossom, brioche tuile. This was excellent. We both loved this wonderful soup. Creamy and just yummy. We both could have had half a gallon of this with some bread!

The third course was Pan Seared Halibut with fava bean puree, english peas, baby green beans and lemon thyme emulsion. The fish was tender, flaky and delicious. This went well with Dr. Hermann, a Riesling from Mosel, Germany. Those Germans make the best Riesling!

Our fourth course was our main entree: Pan Seared Skirt Steak with sauteed chanterelle mushrooms, fingerling potatoes, swiss chard, braised oxtail with bone marrow crust. That bone marrow crust made the steak; it was full of flavor. We could have upgraded our steak to a filet mignon for $13 a person but chose not to. There's always a next time.  Summerland Syrah from Santa Ynes Valley accompanied our meat.  I was not too crazy about the wine but that's just me.
Couldn't really complain as everything was going great including the service.

Dessert was a Chocolate Experience.  Sacher torte, warm fondant with vanilla ice cream, peanut and milk chocolate parfait which Sandi happily consumed by herself since I don't like peanut butter desserts, and a creme brulee. That was a lot of chocolate. They gave us their house made barrel aged Orangecello which failed to excite me only because my friend Ana has made her own orangecello in the past and her's is truly amazing.

Before we left, I spoke with the nice looking manager who was not part of the Travelzoo special, Mr. Benjamin Kam who had just moved to Beverly Hills from Europe.  He asked how everything was and we told him how we enjoyed the whole experience. Everything seemed to fall into place last night.  It was a fine dining experience indeed.

Don't Forget Dominique's Kitchen

It is true that there aren't many good restaurants in South Bay area. Dominique's has only been around a year; in fact they are celebrating their first year anniversary this month. I am so happy for them as they are doing very well. The reason is simple: Very good food at reasonable prices and Lisa and Dominique who are always happy to please their customers.

A friend of mine whom I have not seen since I celebrated my birthday at Dominique's  last April wanted to go back and have the special chicken they are known for.  I tried to talk her into trying something else as you really can't go wrong having the short ribs, the sole, mushroom risotto, scallops among other things. She would not budge. She did order her chicken with the fries and I had the short ribs with the pureed mashed potatoes. Before that, I told her we HAD to order the cheese fondue which is just divine!

Our server Murray is new to the family and in my book, fits right in. He was attentive, crazy in a good way but still professional. He brought us our fondue for 2 but easily could have fed 3 people as an appetizer. When we could not eat anymore, our entrees were served. Those fries that accompany the chicken are so addicting! She shared some of the fries with me. The chicken was naturally delicious, like she remembered it when she first had it. My tender short ribs were just as delicious with the smooth and velvety mashed potatoes which reminded me of baby food....not your regular baby food but Gourmet Baby food. (Lucky baby).  I was surprised that I was able to finish everything in spite of the ton of fondue I consumed. Mary could not finish her chicken so she took the rest home.

After our plates were cleared, Murray thought he saw my credit card on table that he brought us our check.  I told him I NEEDED to order a dessert.....he thought it was funny, after apologizing... We were full but we had to end the meal with something sweet so I ordered the Baked Alaska.  Murray came back and ignited the top of our baked Alaska.  We showed our appreciation by consuming all of Alaska!

Don't forget to make your reservation soon. Remember their very reasonable corkage fee is $9.00.
Dominique's Kitchen is located at 522 S. Pacific Coast Hwy. in Redondo Beach California.

To Dominique and Lisa:  Happy Anniversary and keep up the GREAT work!

Introducing Croque Jeune Homme

This is a new addition to the Croque family served at L'Amande Bakery in Torrance. You might have had Croque Monsieur or the Croque Madame and now comes Croque Jeune Homme which means "Young Man".

What's not to like about this "young man"; scrambled eggs with applewood bacon inside a pain de mie bread topped with Gruyere and Parmesan cheese, broiled then topped with more bacon served with a side of salad with a light dressing.

Another specialty of this bakery is their hot chocolate. They have the regular, the orange and the thick one (haven't had the thick one). They are served with the chocolate on the side and the server can pour it for you or if you feel artistic, you could do the pouring yourself and create a design.

If you haven't had any of the Croques, I suggest you try them all........maybe not on the same day.

Mama Terano

I have only been to this restaurant once until last night.  The first time was lunch with a friend.  I remember ordering one their specials for the day which happened to be a pork dish.  We also ordered a pasta special for the day.  The pasta didn't leave an impression though edible but the pork was tasteless and just not good. We left most of it on the plate and when the our waitress asked how everything was, we told her the truth. It clearly didn't bother her that we didn't enjoy it. She didn't bother to apologize or ask if she could exchange it for something else. This being a sign of a good restaurant eager to please their customers.

They say, time heals.....so last night my friend and I decided to give it another chance.  Shortly after we sat, they brought a dish with a variety of olives. That was good.

We ordered some calamari for appetizer. The calamari was fresh and tender but was not crispy. It was also very bland, even with the marinara sauce that came with it. I had to ask for salt. Not a good way to start the evening.

We decided on 2 pasta dishes. A Penne Bolognese and Spaghetti with Anchovies. They both looked promising. The penne Bolognese was really aldente but it was not very good, also on the bland side. Even the ton of Parmesan failed to excite either of us. The spaghetti with anchovies was a bit better though we were disappointed first of all because the pasta was not hot. Everyone knows that pasta especially when it has a lot of oil has to be served hot.

Needless to say, I don't think we will be visiting this restaurant in Rolling Hills anytime soon.  I am curious how they will stay open especially if the new restaurant next door, Giorgio's does well.

Banana Salted Caramel Cream Pie

The best banana cream pie you could possibly have.  I didn't get to try these when they first sold them 2 weeks ago. I was happy that  L'Amande Bakery decided to make them again for the ones that missed it the first time.

Just imagine the flakiest crust with a bit of custard which is not too fattening since they use 2% milk, then a layer of gooey salted caramel, fresh bananas topped with only a teaspoon (but aerated) whipped cream and finished off with a low caloric chocolate. The reason I say low caloric is because you will notice the dark chocolate has lots of holes in them. The chocolate is crisp to the bite and tames the whipped cream. All these ingredients comes together like a happy family on vacation.

If you are lucky enough to read this blog tonight, Sept. 28, 2013 then head on over to L'Amande Bakery tomorrow as they had planned to have it just this weekend.  If you miss tomorrow, don't despair...I am sure they will bring back the happy family soon enough.

L'Amande is located at 2553 Pacific Coast Hwy. in Torrance, California.

Making Crepes

A chef friend of mine insisted that making crepes is very easy and that you don't need the special pan; any non-stick pan would do. To prove it, she had me and my niece over her house 2 weeks ago and showed us just how easy it was to do.
Of course, the first few we did were not easy as my niece and I were so tense. My niece even made a comment that performing surgery was less stressful.  The good news, is after flipping the 2nd crepe, it did get easier.

The real test was if I could make it on my own. Four of my friends wanted me to show them so I had them over yesterday.  I even bought the same plastic bowl and spatula my friend had. I figured that if I use the same everything.....it will turn out the same way. When they got to my house, I served some hors d 'oeuvres and we had champagne. That was probably not the greatest idea because no one felt like cooking after the champagne. We started with a salad and continued with the champagne....... it was then time to start with the crepes.  I had prepared everything in advance so all we had to do was cook the crepes.  The first one looked like a disaster but was to be expected since the first one almost always is a disappointment; at least in looks. It had the most butter though as I put too much in the pan. The second one was "perfect". So everyone tried their luck with the cooking and flipping. We had some burnt ones and some really good ones. The burnt ones turned out to be more of a toasted tortilla instead of a crepe but soon, everyone got a passing grade. My husband got an F as he didn't even try to do one.

The choices for stuffing crepes are endless.  To make things simple, I opted on just plain Gruyere cheese. It was quite filling.  We waited a bit before we had dessert which was Crepe Suzette.  That was very good though it was too strong for a couple of my wimpy friends but the rest of us loved it. It had a lot of Grand Marinier and at the end was flambed with Brandy.

So, to my friend Ana.....you would have been proud but I must say, it is better to have someone else make it for you so one can just sit and enjoy.

Here are the happy friends shortly before getting too drunk to cook!

The Belvedere

This prestigious restaurant was always  known for it's good food and excellent service. I looked forward to last week's invitation for dinner at the Belvedere restaurant located in the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills.

There were 8 in our party.  We all got there earlier than our reservation so we sat at the bar and ordered cocktails. Our host asked the lady that sat us if they could take us earlier and they could not accommodate us. What was disturbing about that was there were hardly any people at the restaurant on this particular Sunday evening at around 7:00 p.m.  When we finally got to our table, we noticed an abundance of servers eagerly waiting to do their job.

I was given the honor of ordering the wine; I ordered a nice bottle of Far Niente Cabernet which was excellent. For my appetizer, I ordered the oysters which were tasteless considering there were condiments on top of them. My son had the smoked salmon on a potato scallion pancake with chive crème-fraiche. That was very good.

Someone had the truffle macaroni and cheese and he was not impressed. They had some specials that evening and my son and I ordered the same dish; chicken with lobster. When his order came, it looked slightly different from mine....his lobster was MIA (missing in action).  We called the waiter and he first insisted that my son ordered the chicken from the menu and not the special.  Then all of a sudden he (the waiter) had a change of heart, as if to say: " O.K. I guess the customer is sometimes right." He offered to bring him a side of the lobster. The dish was not terrible but surely one would expect it to taste better than something you would get at a Coco's.

One of us was a vegetarian and had the ravioli. She later confessed that it was not good.  We later wanted another bottle of wine and it took some time for us to flag someone....  it looked like they were all confused.  Another entrée was the duck with lentils; that was edible. The rest of the party ate their food but no one really commented on the food as we were all busy catching up and after cocktails and 2 bottles of wine split among 5 people, we were what you would call a lively bunch.

Dessert was not any better. They all looked good but nothing excited any of us. Someone ordered a pistachio ice cream and it took a while for her to get it. I have to reiterate that it was not a busy evening even towards our dessert.  Another observation was as soon as the waiters set the food on our table, they seemed to vanish like they were in a hurry to watch a game. Was there a game that evening?

It was not until 2 days after our dinner that I asked everyone what they thought of the food and the majority of our party (7 out of 8) did not like the food.

This was not The Belvedere we used to love. We could always count on very good food and excellent service. Gone are those days.