My 5-cents on Nickel Diner

I've read so much about Nickel Diner and in particular its bacon donut, so I made my way to downtown LA for brunch one Saturday afternoon.

After parking on the street about 2 blocks away and walking through dilapidated hotel-turned-apartments, we found the place and put our name on the list. The decor and the people are retro-hipster cute, which is kind of fun.We waited about 15-20 minutes before finally getting a table.

When we sat down we were served these tiny red velvet donuts.
Didn't taste much red velvet and wasn't too crazy about the icing. It was not bad.

Apparently Nickel Diner doesn't do fresh squeezed juices - my default 'brunch' drink. Boo. But they do have a selection of interesting sodas.

I ordered the 5th and Main, which is a "spicy pork bbq hash"
The pork was tender and the sauce was only slightly spicy. I wish there had been more sauce though, as the meat itself without the sauce was rather bland and there wasn't enough sauce to go around. The dish definitely has potential though, maybe ask for extra sauce.

My companion got the vegan ranchero (tofu ranchero)
It tasted ... vegan and healthy. Don't know why he ordered this ...

He also got the vegan chili.
It was okay, didn't do much for me. A bit spicy, but it needed something extra (like meat? not necessarily meat, but something :P ).

Moving on. Naturally I had to try the iconic bacon donut.
Yeah, it was good. That's about it, though, it didn't do much more for me. The donut itself was a bit heavy and super sticky and sweet that the bacon flavors didn't come through as much. I would've liked it better if it was a lighter fluffy donut.

To get another shot at a satisfying dessert, we went with a ding dong.
This was more like it. This reminded me of Cake Monkey's. Rich chocolatey cake with icing dipped in chocolate - yummy!

Overall, Nickel Diner was not bad. But not great enough to make me do this drive for brunch regularly. I think it's more of a neighborhood place, and if it's in my neighborhood, then yeah, I probably will frequent it. As it is, I have John O' Groats/Hugo's or Auntie Em's and many other places near home/work, so I don't really see any reason to trek down to downtown. Thought the bacon donut would be a reason to, but it really isn't.

Nickel Diner
524 S Main St
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 623-8301
www.5cdiner.com

South Coast Dining Deals: March 20-29

Don't cancel that hot date because of the recession just yet!
For 10 days on March 20th-29th, the restaurants in South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa are offering prix-fixe $20 3-course lunches and $40 4-course dinners for a promotion they're calling Fashion Plates.
We're talking the fine dining establishments here, and these ten days span the weekend also - sounding better than DineLA already here ...

Participating restaurants include:
Pizzeria Ortica (David Myer's new restaurant)
Marche Moderne (Lunch only - but their lunches are always $20 weekday, $25 weekend anyway ..)
Morton's the Steakhouse
Leatherby's Cafe Rouge (dinner only)
Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's
Pinot Provence
Hamamori
etc.

For more info, visit http://www.southcoastplaza.com/ or just call up the restaurants directly! :)

Eat Greens with Salads at Green Street Restaurant

Even I sometimes crave salads. In particular, when I do, I usually crave the Dianne salad from Green Street Restaurant, a family-operated comfort food place on Shoppers Lane in Pasadena.
Since the place is only 3 blocks away from my home/school, it has become a pretty standard go-to place for me.

A lot of the salads/entrees come with their famous zucchini bread.I absolutely love this zucchini bread (which as usual doesn't taste like zucchini ... weird). I can eat this all day, 7 days a week. Forget the butter, you don't need it! Moist and buttery enough as it is, this is close to a dessert.

Before I would get the Cornucopia salad which has chicken, cranberries, apples, almonds, blue cheese crumble, etc.

Nowadays I always get the Dianne salad (chicken, shredded lettuce, 'crispy Asian noodles', toasted almonds and sesame seed, with their famous Dianne dressing) - pictured below is only half of the portion since I split it w/ a friend:
Sounds like a chinese chicken salad? Well it pretty much is, but it's the best chinese chicken salad ever. The dressing is excellent and it is always tossed perfectly. The dressing flavor is never overbearing, the chicken moist and tender even though it's white meat :P
I also like how everything is already shredded, it makes eating it so much easier, and hence, better.
The portion is huge, I was sharing with a friend for lunch and we were both stuffed at the end. This salad is delicious and always makes me feel good (healthier)!

The desserts here change seasonally, but for the most part you can get it with Dr. Bob's ice cream from Pomona (flavors also change seasonally). Adding the ice cream costs a pretty penny though. The desserts are always well-done, simple, comfort food. This time around we got the apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. Nice crust, nice filling. Again, it's simple, but quite delicious.

Offering solid comfort food (I can't say much about their steak/entrees, but their salads are definitely getting my thumbs up), Green Street is a good place to check out if you're in the area and looking for a place to eat.

Green Street Restaurant
146 Shoppers Ln
Pasadena, CA 91101
(626) 577-7170
www.greenstreetrestaurant.com