la.foodblogging

Earlier this year – actually, during summer – I made my way down to Santa Monica to try a restaurant that I’d heard rave reports about. A young, new chef, Evan Funke, had just taken over the kitchen at Rustic Canyon Wine Bar. Word on the street was that he had studied [...]

[photo by Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times]

After learning from Daily Candy and Chowhound about this hot new watering hole in my ’hood (that had replaced the rather cool Sapphire lounge) we strolled over to Laurel Tavern one Thursday, just over a week ago, to see what the fuss was about.
We sauntered in around 6.30pm [...]

Step inside this restored 1928 Spanish mission-style cottage, located on Riverside in Toluca Lake, and you might think you’ve been transported to somewhere in the exotic Spanish or Latin American countryside. D’Caché is a lively restaurant where they serve modern Latin-fusion cuisine, tapas and fine wines and great drinks. Try a fresh Columbian mojito made [...]

[photo from their website]
I occasionally like to imbibe a cocktail or dine in a hotel. It feels extra glamorous and I can pretend I’m a traveller in a foreign land. So when a visiting friend suggested we meet for lunch at the Hotel Intercontinental, on Avenue of the Stars, [...]

Celadon is a beautiful restaurant and bar/lounge that offers a unique experience. This is definitely the kind of romantic venue you could take someone special to, though the menu is actually skewed towards shared plates, hence ideal for groups of 4-5 or more.
Adjacent to the main bar are a few lounge rooms, [...]

For over a year I have driven past a nice-looking venue (at 11334 Moorpark, just east of Tujunga) where a posted sign promised “ZenChi – Coming 05.â€? Eventually the sign was changed to read “Ok….2006.â€?
Funny! At least these restaurateurs have a sense of humour.
Well at long last ZenChi Cafe [...]

Malo
4326 Sunset Blvd.
Silverlake, CA
I like Malo despite it’s many flaws. He’s rather like the super good friend you have that’s always flubbing meet-up times and inserting foot-in-mouth, but you see his goodness, so all is forgiven. Actually, wait, no - Malo is like that friend that screws up on a regular basis but looks adorable [...]

The Whisper Lounge
189 The Grove Dr.
Los Angeles, CA

So there we were, two girls all jazzed for a free screening at The Grove’s theater of Little Miss Sunshine, and wham-bam, they ran out of seats. De-va-station.
What to do?
Drink. Heavily. We felt we were forced into it, after all.
We shimmied our butts on down to an oft-thought-of [...]