Showing posts with label pancakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pancakes. Show all posts

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Brunch at LA Spice (Culver City)

LA Spice is a catering veteran in Los Angeles, having catered some of the biggest events in town (and outside of town). The owner, LeAnne Schwartz, started missing the daily interaction with customers, though, and decided to open a small cafe in Culver City. LA Spice Cafe is mainly open for lunch and brunch (from 8am-4pm daily).

There's a cornmeal-crusted fried green tomato sandwich with jack cheese, avocado, pickled red onions on a demi baguette ($10.50)

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I added bacon to this to make it a BL-fried-T sandwich! Crisp, fresh green tomatoes encrusted in crispy cornmeal batter, add to that the creamy avocado for a satisfying bite.

The eggs benedict is served on housemade biscuits with oven roasted tomatoes, goat cheese and avocado hollandaise ($12.95)
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The avocado hollandaise is a nice touch and brings the dish together.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Brunch at Lazy Dog Cafe (Torrance)

Usually my trips down to Torrance only involves Japanese restaurants and bakeries, but I broke the pattern on my latest trip with brunch at the Lazy Dog Cafe.

Here is what you need to get at brunch:
Sunny Side Up Pizza: white pizza with Spinach, Sundried Tomatoes, Bacon, topped with three fresh Eggs, baked until golden brown ($9.25)

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Fellow blogger LA OC Foodie ordered this, but luckily he was generous enough to share. It was my favorite thing I had at Lazy Dog, especially the slices with the egg yolk on them. It's breakfast on a pie! Hmm, maybe they should put six eggs instead?

IMG_8435For sweet potato lovers, get the sweet potato tater tots with roasted jalapeno-lime aioli ($4.75)

The bacon lovers should try the Bacon Bloody Mary (Vodka, housemade crispy bacon infused bloody mary mix, pepperoncini, pickled cherry pepper,olive, bacon-corn nut salt, $7.50). I'm not a huge fan of savory cocktails and bloody marys so I didn't order one. I tried a sip of someone else's and it's got quite a kick to it! Bloody Mary lovers should enjoy this one.
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Lazy Dog Cafe has their own house brews, made by the brewery Firestone Walker and you can get a taster of six for $6.95. The taster includes the Lazy Dog Honey Blonde, Lazy Dog American Hefe, Lazy Dog Bavarian Hefe, Lazy Dog Pale Ale, Lazy Dog Red and a seasonal beer (which happened to be the Firestone Velvet Merlin the day we went).
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Out of the Lazy Dog beers, we liked the red ale the best, and I also liked the Bavarian Hefeweizen.

You can also get a sampler of their three house-made Sangrias: White Peach, Black-Currant Rose, and Pomegranate Red ($8.25)
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The three have pretty distinct flavors. I liked the white peach and black-currant rose, but if you've never had them, the sampler trio is definitely the way to go.

It's rare to see fried rice on a brunch menu, especially at a western restaurant, so I was intrigued enough to order the Hawaiian Fried Rice: Stir-fried steamed rice with hickory-smoked bacon, pork sausage, cabbage, veggies and eggs ($7.95)
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I wished they had put a sunny side up egg with runny yolk with this instead of the frittata-like egg. It's an enormous amount of food for the price-I could barely eat a third of it - but I much preferred the breakfast pizza.

We had to try the pancakes for dessert, especially one with a bacon butter, no?
Wild blueberry pancakes and maple bacon butter: Three large buttermilk blueberry pancakes, topped with blueberry compote, housemade maple bacon butter and syrup on the side ($7.75)
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The maple bacon butter actually had chunks of bacon in them! This made me be picky when I spread the butter, as I had to look for the parts with the chunks. The small, wild blueberries are sweeter than the big supermarket kind and thus worked better as a pancake topping.

When you live far from Torrance, it's hard to go there without stopping at at least one Japanese restaurant or bakery, but Lazy Dog Cafe should certainly be a spot for the locals. The menu is a good value, they have their own brews plus a few more local craft beers on tap, and that addictive sunny side up pizza!

Lazy Dog Cafe
3525 W Carson St
Torrance, CA 90503
(310) 921-6080
lazydogcafe.com
 The Lazy Dog Cafe on Urbanspoon

Friday, April 17, 2009

Cecconi's: My new Brunch spot

Feeling sinful, Cecconi's Ricotta Hotcakes sounded like the perfect solution to Easter Brunch. When I called they said they were booked until 4 PM but walk-ins are welcome at the bar. So off we went. The bar was almost empty when we arrived (11:30 AM ish) and there were quite a few tables empty, actually. Anyway. We were seated without a wait.
With no drink menu on hand and sitting at the bar, I just asked my server/bartender if they had fresh squeezed blood orange juice on hand. The answer was YES!

A big glass of fresh (but pulp-less) blood orange juice - $5.
My god ... you have no idea how long I've been craving this! So good. There's no brunch for me without fresh squeezed OJ! And blood orange juice just takes that up a few notches.

I got what I came for. Ricotta hotcakes with preserved blueberries ($8)
Amazing hotcakes! Fluffy enough yet retained some density due to the ricotta. The preserved blueberries actually tasted something reminiscent of dates, especially the 'syrup'. A much better alternative to maple syrup! I'll be getting this again very soon.

The portions here were small (remember your size comparison up there are blueberries) but I thought the prices were quite reasonable. What's the point of spending a couple of extra bucks to stuff yourself ? The size of the portions was just right for me ... to have two dishes instead!

Having finished the "br" portion of brunch, I moved on to the "unch" with some crab ravioli with peas and mint ($12)
Not enough crab, but otherwise delicious. A nice and light tomato-based broth. I loved the subtle kick that the mint leaves added.

Eggs Royale (english muffin, smoked salmon, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce - $11)
Interestingly Cecconi's poached eggs were more well-done than other places. This is probably an individual preference, but I liked it better less runny since I usually have a hard time eating the runny ones other than sopping it up with the english muffin. They're also pretty generous with the salmon, which is great.

Our meal ended on a light note. Chino Farms beets, buffalo mozzarella, and endives ($11).
A very well done dish with great ingredients! I also loved the buffalo mozzarella in this dish.
This might in fact be the best dish of our meal today. Do give it a try, it's light anyway!

The stools at the bar were heavy and not the most comfortable. Doesn't matter. Food's great with great ingredients, prices are right. I'll be back.

Cecconi's
8764 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(310) 432-2000
www.cecconiswesthollywood.com
Cecconi's on Urbanspoon

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