Hill Street Cafe

Yesterday was my sister's birthday. In celebration, we went to this restaurant that my other sister works - Hill Street Cafe in La Canada. I was a little underwhelmed with this place, which is unfortunate because they had a lot potential.

Details:
Hill Street Cafe
1004 Foothill Blvd.
La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011
tel: (818) 952-1019

All of us got breakfast at Hill Street Cafe, and the food wasn't bad - it was just... uninspiring. The coffee was good, and the bread they serve is decent - but very sticky because of the sweet onions they put on it, which is not a huge plus for me. I prefer not-sticky bread.

I got my standby for a new breakfast place - two eggs over medium with corned beef hash. I know it's not all that creative, but it's a good dish to judge how well a place does other dishes. I asked for the hash browns and corned beef hash to be made crispy, but you wouldn't have known it from how my meal came out. My eggs were a bit watery, which I hate (and why I order them over medium instead of over easy), and they had butter all over them. And my hash browns and corned beef hash were not crispy. The flavors were fine, I was just rather disappointed in the execution.

My dad had Eggs Benedict which he said was ok, except that the hollandaise sauce was not very awe-inspiring. My stepmom had a "fruit" crepe that had bananas and canned peaches on it. My sister had a giant California omelet, which seems to be one of the things they do correctly. And my sister's boyfriend had a crazy spicy chorizo scramble that came with tortillas that were on their way out of life. Overall, we were extremely disappointed, even in the free dessert they brought for my sister. It was this apple cobbler type thing, only the cobbler layers were vanilla cake mix, basically raw.

On top of everything else, it was all pretty expensive. There were six of us eating breakfast and the bill was almost $100. Crazy.

They're supposed to have good lunch combos - soups and sandwiches and salads, etc. I don't know much about the restaurant in general, and I would be open to trying it again for lunch. But I highly doubt this place will ever be one of my favorites.

Good for:

- not entirely sure yet

Bad for:

- bang for your buck
- breakfast

Adriana'a overall rating: 4/10 (and 1 of those points is due to my sister working there)

Max's Chicken

Mmmmmm mmmmmmm delicious. We went with friends to a Filipino chicken place called Max's Chicken. It's a popular chain in the Philippines, and they have a location in Glendale California next to the Galleria, so we decided to try it out. The first time we went there, many many years ago, the service was terrible and the food pretty bad as well. So I was willing to give it another shot. I became a bit more nervous when I saw a pizza being delivered to the restaurant. I mean, where do you see pizza being delivered to a restaurant? But the place was packed on a Friday night and there were many groups of people there willing to wait for a table, so I was hopeful.

As we were seated, we walked by lots of packed tables with lots of yummy looking dishes. There's also a karaoke/sports bar within the restaurant so I may have to go there for my next birthday. We had excellent fast service from a nice friendly waiter, so obviously they had very much improved since the last time I went. Anyway here's what we ordered.

Max's whole fried chicken - OMG delicious! We had leftovers and on the car ride home it smelled like peanuts so I think their secret is they cook it in peanut oil - so beware if you are allergic? ask. But yes the food was amazing yum! Definitely better than Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles - and I may even say it quite possibly is better than KFC and El Pollo Loco, some of my favorite chicken places.

Lumipa Shanghai - that's the meat lumpia aka little taquitos that Filipinos are famous for and yes every white person I know loves them. Filipinos love them too - but the most popular white boy food. The ones at Max's were yum!

Lumpia Ubod - vegetable lumpia with peanut sauce all over it and filled with hearts of palm and other veggies in a cold crepe like wrapper. One of my favorite foods, but the one at Max's was "ok". Not bad, still alright, but not great.

Pancit Palabok - it's a noodle dish topped with an egg sauce, pork cracklings, green onion, shrimp and shrimp sauce, etc. It's a traditional Filipino favorite, and my personal favorite type of pancit. I actually really enjoyed it, but it does need a squeeze of lemon to make it tastier.

Garlic Rice - OMG! :) As a Filipina, rice is amazing and so yummy and I hardly ever cook garlic rice at home so when I do have it, I have to mmmmmmmmm. So I really enjoyed the garlic rice. May not be for everyone, but it's definitely one of my all time favorite foods. Max's made good garlic rice - very good :)

So that's my review of Max's chicken. Great service, great food, and prices about average. We're definitely going back there soon, and we'll try other things so the bloggers can get a nice view of all the different dishes. Mmmmm.