la.foodblogging

As a jogger, I sometimes pass by little restaurants and I tell myself, gotta try that one sometime. If it weren’t for the big sign, I wouldn’t have guessed that little hidden place is a delightful little restaurant.

Tucked away on Wilshire Blvd. near Stanley is Pistachio Grill. The Google search gave that just described link at Citysearch so the restaurant is on the radar of some people already. It has made it into this ethnic restaurant directory as well.

As I entered the restaurant and looked around, I noticed their Zagat rated sticker. If you look real carefully, you could see the familiar brown sticker on the window in the photo to the left. I guess good restaurants get discovered even if this stretch of Wilshire Blvd doesn’t leap out as a prime drive-by-traffic restaurant location.

The inside seating looked nice, clean and intimate but since the sun was still up and the air warm on this beautiful early evening, I opted for the patio seating. Other diners also took that option.

The waitress with a friendly smile and welcome left me a menu, a glass of water with a lime slice, pita bread and red cabbage. The pita bread was nice and warm. The purple cabbage was tasty. My previous experience with red cabbage was limited to this household science demonstration project. I enjoyed the cabbage and wondered what the seasonings were? I detected some cumin, black pepper and a light just right amount of vinegar. I’m guessing there were some other spices but I’m not enough of a foodie to figure out what they were or to describe the flavor. Bottom line, it was good!

I chatted with the waitress a bit and she told me the place was very popular among the office workers nearby so their busiest times are lunch hours. She said they can get a bit busy during the dinner hours on the weekends.

I then asked for an entree suggestion and she pointed me to the lamb kabob which included soup or salad. I choose salad.

Upon delivering the dish to me, she asked if I was familiar with how most people eat the dish. I said, please share with me what to do.

She said, many people like to put a pat of butter onto the rice melting and mixing it. Also, she suggested I mash the tomato and mix it with the rice. She also pointed to the third spice shaker on the table. Next to the salt, next to the pepper was a shaker with a brownish-purple powder. She said it was their special seasoning and I should try it. I did. It was a mild flavor slightly sour but quite good.

$18 tax and tip.

All in all, a very delicious meal!

Tasty food with friendly service and a nice atmosphere, life is good!

Pistachio Grill
8560 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
310-854-1020 (tele)
310-854-1080 (fax)

By Rene (see more of his posts). You can find more of Rene's writing at his own website Rene's Ramblings