Georgian Hotel and Chef's Inc

Georgian Hotel: My second meal here, 1pm on a Sunday. A great time because there were a few other diners, but plenty of spaces available on the patio. Wonderful view of water, hills, sun, etc. Almost overshadowed by the food. Deep, slightly sweet French Onion soup...the gruyere was great. Mango and brie quesadilla appetizer with candied pecans and excellent guacamole with a touch of jalepeno. For a main course the salmon was recommended, with a salty crust, served over mashed potatoes asparagus and carrots. The potatoes and asparagus were fine (if a bit tasteless), and the carrots may have been slightly toothy at the core, but those are really just nitpicks so I have something to say...and the fish was so good. A bit of salmon flavor, extremely moist, perfect texture (especially when biting through the thin "crust"). A wonderful dish.

Also tried the Cobb sandwich. Like my previous visit (French toast/bread pudding), this is a reconstruction of another dish...so just imagine a Cobb salad on bread, minus the egg and much of the lettuce. The layering of flavors in a Cobb is key, and was pulled of extremely well (especially with the excellent bacon and avocado they used). I was excited to try it and very appreciative, but discovered that I really like the lettuce in a Cobb salad...it's the base that ties the flavors together and keeps it from being too heavy. On a sandwich without that bed of lettuce it's a different beast.

Oh, and the cappuccino hit the spot. It was a bit cool, perhaps, but had just that "edge" of coffee that you feel on the sides of your tongue, without being bitter.

Minor issue with soapy water glasses, but that was cleared up instantly and politely.

Chef's Inc: Took my first class of Beginner chef 101 at Chef's Inc. We made vegetable spring rolls with peanut sauce, chicken noodle soup (including the stock), rosemary chicken breast, herb roasted potatoes, caesar salad with pancetta, and apple crisp. An absolutely wonderful experience. Lots of fun in the kitchen. There were 17 students and four instructors. The food was excellent and easy. I learned several small things, including a different way to hold a chef's knife, a different honing technique, how to tell if meat is done by touching it, and that I need to get a non-slip pad to put my cutting board on. My highlight of the evening was being credited with saying that the peanut sauce would be better with more soy sauce, though really the whole time was entertaining and enlightening.

The Counter and Mariscos Chente

Mariscos Chente is still good, though it's really not in a good location, and the decor is really poor (compared with the quality of the food). Unfortunately they didn't have a 1 kilo of the snook so instead of going with the 1.5 kilo we got a grilled filet that was ok, but not as good...I don't recall the spices used but they didn't work for me. If they'd let us know they didn't have what we ordered soon after we ordered it I wouldn't be so miffed about it, but we didn't find out about the fish until after we'd already eaten the two shrimp dishes we ordered.

The Counter was excellent food as always. love their shakes and burgers. I wish they'd turn the lights up a bit and put in some sound dampening materials so it isn't so loud, but that's because I'm not hip like their main clientele. A very good experience regardless.

Broadway Deli

Broadway Deli: Good location (end of the promenade), fine food (patty melt on rye...reuben was good too), but the service was really bad...our drinks only got refilled if we flagged down the waiter from across the room. It also took a while to get the check. So not bad, not great. I'd go again if I had time to kill and wanted ok food.

The good news is that after you leave you can hop into Pinkberry across the street.

We were actually trying to get into La Serenata de Garibaldi for the second time this holiday but it was still closed with no info on when it will reopen.

Locanda del Lago and Mimi's Cafe

Locanda del Lago: Scurrying about the promenade around noon on January 1st we were disappointed by the number of closed restaurants. By process of eliminating all the closed restaurants and those without seating and those too far away, we ended up at this pasta/pizza place. Not recommended. Good location, but the bruschetta was cool, did not appear to be drizzled with olive oil, but was drizzled with flavorless lukewarm mozzarella. The pizza was pretty good, thin crust. The lasagna was unavailable so I had the carbonara...slightly mooshy linguine combined with a sauce that had the requisite ham, but lacked in that "gotta have more" quality. Too pricey to be enjoyed.

Mimi's Cafe: This is the second time I've been to a Mimi's Cafe. Spinach and artichoke appetizer, chicken brie dijon entree. Not bad, not truly noteworthy, except their carrot cake is quite good. I was expecting a strong dijon sauce (and doubting that it would work) so I was surprised by the not-so-intense creamy dijon sauce that didn't clash with the brie. Last time I think I enjoyed the French Onion soup and fish and chips. I heard that their blackened fish might be preferable.

Akbar Cuisine of India

Akbar Cuisine of India: A very tasty, rather inexpensive (for lunch) Indian restaurant on Wilshire near 26th. We tried the Chicket Kati Rolls, Palak Paneer, Lamb Vindaloo, and Chicken Tikka Masala, plus raita, roti, dal, onion/cucumber chutney, etc. All of it was quite good, with a wide range of spice heat levels. The paneer seemed homemade and was delicious. We sat at a table with a view of the chefs making roti and naan and working over skillets and pans, which was pretty cool. The raita (very thick) and vegetable chutney stole the show, but there wasn't a downside to the whole meal. I would certainly go again and take all my friends.

Novel Cafe, Damon & Pythias, Diddy Reise, K-Zo, N'Ice Cream

Novel Cafe: We've been to the Novel Cafe two or three times. The burgers have been excellent. The club sandwich was ok, but not special. The coffee has similarly been ok.

Damon & Pythias: We were in the area because of the mystery bookstore across the street, and stopped in here because it had pretty good ratings. Turned out to be a typical college town eatery. Nothing fancy, pretty good food, not too pricey. I had a cheesesteak. Pretty good, but I wouldn't drive over to UCLA just to go here.

Diddy Reise: The line was out the door, but the ice cream was pretty good. Their ice cream sandwiches are cheap. I don't think I need to go again, but it wasn't bad.

K-Zo: This is the second time we've been here. It's not the highest rated sushi restaurant in LA by a long shot, but the food is wonderful, fresh, tasty, and the staff are very nice/polite/efficient. This time the blue crab sushi stole the day, last time the fried calamari wowed us...and the raw scallops were quite nice. Oh, and I like their loose leaf teas (buckwheat today).

N'Ice Cream: On the lookout for ice cream and hunted down this gelato joint. The salted caramel was quite tasty, though chocolate orange was declared the winner. Vanilla was quite poor. Cherry mint didn't taste like cherry. Next time I think I'll just go next door to the Pinkberry.

Tandoor India and Cafe Tazzina

Tandoor India is a nearby Indian restaurant with lunch buffet. The only somewhat exceptional note is that they have whole wheat naan (roti), but you have to buy it separate from the buffet. Had a thoroughly enjoyable lunch here and will go back anytime I'm looking for a serviceable Indian meal.

Cafe Tazzina is a small little cafe on Wilshire. Stopped in to kill about half an hour. My chai (I chose black tea instead of green) was delicious. The chocolate croissant was filling, but a bit heavy and not as flavorful as some others I've had in the past few months. Most likely it would be great fresh, or even warmed up. As I sat, it seemed like the cafe rapidly filled with customers, each stopping to chat with the older couple at the next table over. Felt very friendly and I suspect it's a good place for community vibe.