Angelini Osteria

Enjoy super authentic Tuscan cuisine here with the non pretentious décor and staff. This place is all about food and won't be as impressive in presentation like a Valentino. But you can't argue with the quality. I’ve never had a bad meal here and have almost had every thing on the menu, for real. It feels like the food gets better each time: the Branzino is sweeter, the pork chop more tender, the pasta perfectly cooked. It’s the perfect size restaurant with very minimal décor and busy almost every night so make reservation ahead of time.

When you look at the menu, it might be overwhelming because there’s so many things that you looks appetizing. If you want the perfect meal, do exactly as I say. When you first sit down, order the Italian cold cuts to start- it’s something you can eat while you look at the menu and wine list. Order a bottle of Seasmoke Southing Pinot, and enjoy with your prosciutto and fresh salami. For your starter course, order a pasta. I prefer the seafood pasta, a tagliolini cooked al dente with fresh lobster, clams and mussels in a non invasive red sauce. Take a sip of wine. To finish if you’re hungry get the pork chop or steak. If you’re into something lighter, then definitely try the Branzino which is a great and tasty fish that is incredibly tender and juicy. Finish your wine. End dinner with a lemoncello if you’re ambitious or a latte. Kiss your date. Enjoy life.

Guaranteed to be a memorable dinner; you can contact me directly if you are unhappy and I will slap you thoroughly and tell you don’t know a damn thing about eating. Highbrow for real.

Pictures to come!

Pizzeria Mozza

The much anticipated arrival of Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton’s collabo restarant is, as with most things in LA, over hyped. Although most human beings wouldn’t eat at 10pm, I was taken in with the ridiculous buzz of this restaurant and decided to try it out.
At first glance, Mozza seems like a relaxed neighborhood restaurant. However, upon further review, I realized that most of the people in there were young Hollywood hipsters who were on the latest craze in Los Angeles.

Batali’s pizzas are supposed to have the quality and flavor from his teachings with an old woman who he lived with while training in Italy as a youth. I learned this from reading Heat by Bill Buford which was an over detailed story about Batali’s culinary training. And indeed, the pizzas were met with very distinct Italian recipes and ingredients. The dough which is always the key part to making a great pizza is Silverton’s recipe and definitely the best part of the pizza. The dough was light yet crunchy enough, probably due to her expertise from her first restaurant, Campanile. The toppings, which I’m guessing was Batali’s contribution to the pizza was less than inspiring.

The wine list was very good, as it had a lot of options with younger, drinkable Italian wines. Pizza and booze, I guess you really can’t go wrong with that.

The best thing about the restaurant was the fact that Silverton was still putting the final touches on the pizzas which gave me some more reason to go back a second time. It gave me hope the Silverton and Batali weren’t simply in it to sell there name brand. The chicken liver bruschetta and the squash blossoms are the things to try for appetizers and probably the lardo pizza. If he was thinking about an expensive pizza joint with high quality ingredients, why not go all the way? Why not serve a duck confit with truffle cheese pizza? Why not have the seasonal truffle pizza like Angelini Osteria? When you end up serving sausage pizza with fennel or eggplant pizza, you lose the credibility from charging $10 pizzas. In all honesty, I prefer Angelini Osteria’s pizzas more than Mozza’s. People might try it once, but with the impossible reservation list, I would wait until the buzz dies down. Batali’s first trattoria in LA opening right next door in the next few months might be worth the wait though.

Cut

Trust me when I say that you should enjoy every meal that you eat. Never rush through dinner and always have a little wine with a meal. Learn to enjoy food and go to restaurants that you like and not because Los Angeles magazine and US weekly are telling you that it’s the hottest restaurant in Hollywood now. That is why we will never review restaurants like Dolce and Geisha House on this website. We’ve eaten there several times and don’t go there for the food. Anyhow, let’s talk about Cut. Now this is a serious steakhouse with top quality steak in a very unsteak like setting. Décor is designed by Phillipe Stark. If you like real Japanese Wagyu beef this is one of the few placest you can get it in the United States. It is definetly something to try, but I would recommend sharing a piece with people at your table. If you’ve never had Wagyu before, it is Japanese hand fed and hand massaged beef which creates an extremely marbled cut of beef. For me, a whole piece of Wagyu beef is too fatty and oily and it will almost melt into your mouth. I like some texture in my steak so try to Rib Eye or New York when you’re there. You’ll probably never get a reservation at this restaurant for a couple of months because the celebrities in LA are still working through the tables. However, if you are into high quality steak this is a place to try and is actually better than the other LA steak standard Maestro’s.

Toast Bakery Cafe

Taking a break from the SF eats, I thought I'd talk about my little excursion over to Toast this morning for brunch with my buddies Ryan and Joy. A little pre-game before our hike up to Griffith Observatory. Sunday is Funday after all.

If you've ever heard anything about Toast, you know this place is THE place for celebs/LA to eat breakfast. You always see someone "famous" here. At least I do. I mean shit, the guys from Entourage eat here all the time. Gotta be poppin'. I think it's one of the few places that has a valet service on a Sunday morning as busy as a club from the night before.

With all the hype this place gets, don't expect to eat here without paying your dues. Normally the wait is at least 30-45 minutes long, which is why you'll always see a horde of people hanging on the corner. We lucked out this time and only had to wait 15 minutes. Definitely a first here.

Yet along with all the hype, this place is, I believe, worth the wait. We did breakfast this time around, and this is what we had:

The Open Face - An opened face croissant is topped wth smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, scallions and hollandaise sauce

Eggs Benedict - Poached eggs and Ham served on a toasted English muffin covered in hollandaise sauce

Eggwich - Eggs over-hard with lettuce, tomato, avocado, turkey bacon and mozzarella on toast

So if you're around Beverly Center or Third Street Promenade, you definitely have to do breakfast at Toast if you haven't already. However, if it's already lunch or you're not feeling like breakfast food, cruise a block down to Doughboy's (read past review) for a much better lunch menu in my opinion.

Btw, I saw Katherine McPhee this time around. Slammin'.

Toast Bakery Cafe
8221 W. 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA
www.toastbakerycafe.net

Cheers,
Opie

San Francisco Trip Part 2: Ferry Building Marketplace

Second day of my SF trip involved a lot of walking. My tourguide Ms. Kathy Fang decided to walk us through Little Italy (where we got some phenomenal foccacia from a mom-n-pop shop something like 80-90 years old), continued down to the harbor and down the Embarcadero before finally arriving at the Ferry Building.

Apparently the Ferry Building is the center of a transit hub that connects all of San Francisco's neighborhoods and the surrounding bay communities, where in the past anyone coming from the East across the bay would have to pass through before entering the city. Now it's been renovated into more or less a high-end farmer's market, with all sorts of great food from great chefs. It was definitely worth the walk, and it also worked up a pretty solid appetite. Here's what we had:

We started lunch off with a quick round of oysters at the Hog Island Oyster Company. Pretty solid oysters, but I think the ones harvested down south in Carlsbad are much better, and by that I mean fatter and sweeter.

Clockwise from the bottom: Kumamotos, Sweetwater (the best!), Atlantic. The last two might be mixed. Can't remember. Lost in the moment.

After the first stage of our lunch, we moved on to a little French pantry/restaurant called Boulette's Larder. We got there kinda late, so instead of seating us outside on the patio, they put us at the main dining table right next to kitchen. Not a bad trade-off. Because we were the last seating, we basically got to watch the entire kitchen cook us our dishes.

Banquet table seating next to the kitchen

Pulled pork cuban sandwich

Hearts of romaine w/ pine nuts, goat cheese, etc.?? Can't remember this one, but it was good.

Soft-shelled crab (not the kind you'd expect in your sushi roll)

If you get a chance, definitely make a stop here. There are so many places to eat and all types of food that you really can't go wrong. If I wasn't full I probably wouldn't have left.

Ferry Building Marketplace
One Ferry Building
San Francisco, California 94111

All major public transportation takes you here, so you're set even if you don't have a ride.

Part 3, the best of the SF series, coming soon.

Cheers,

Opie