Pickwick's Pub

Pickwick's Pub
21010 Ventura Blvd
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
(818) 340-9673

I never went to the old Pickwick's but my fiancee and I are big fans of how it is now. We met up with a few friends for dinner and drinks one night and have been fans ever since.

We love the small, cozy feel of the place and we have loved every dish we tried. They serve British pub food - fish and chips, shepherd's pie, bangers, English breakfast complete with English bacon and beans. Everything is delicious. They serve other food such as burgers and tacos but we stick with the British food.

Service can be a bit slow at times and it can be hard to find a table on certain nights, but for a cozy, fun, yummy place where we always feel welcome, Pickwick's is our choice.

Cowgirl Cafe 2

Cowgirl Cafe II
2859 Hamner Ave, Norco, CA 92860
(951) 371-5465

Ok this place is AWESOME! It's on my favorites list and i've only been there once. Maybe it deserves to wait longer to get on that list, but i'm eager to put this on there.

This place is located in the little western town of Norco (short for North Corona) in the Riverside area. Norco has large sidewalks built for horses, and you can regularly see cowboys riding past. In fact we saw a large gang of men in sombreros riding by, something like the 3 amigos only authentic and cool, but with 20 or more people. Anyway, where do you see that these days? Norco is a great little town, feels like an old west town in today's modern age. It's the neatest little place on the 15 freeway.

Anyway there is an original Cowgirl Cafe in Mira Loma that I will try if i'm ever out there, but we have a friend living near Norco so we'll probably only ever visit this one.

This place is amazing. Only open for breakfast and lunch, they have dishes called the "Kitchen Sink" which includes all breakfast items except, the kitchen sink, so it's an all inclusive buffet like dish that manly men have trouble finishing. It offers great value food, large portions and hometown taste. They serve all drinks out of various mason jars - SO COOL, and the ambiance is very, well, country like.

You will wait for a table, especially on Sunday mornings, but it's totally worth the wait. The staff are friendly, nice and accommodating.

I ordered the half platter of biscuits and gravy, with a side of home fries. I am not a huge fan of bell peppers but the way they make those home fries, oh so yum! And those biscuits and gravy - GIANT portion and oh oh oh oh OH so yummy. Maybe I was hungry, maybe, but that place had such a great hometown southern feel to it. Friends got a variety of other things, BLTs, Sausage and eggs, french toast, and all said it was delish. The place is a local favorite so you know it's great.

I got to eat a few bites of their breakfast burrito as well - YUM YUM YUM! That's all I have to say.

Go eat there! This place is so divey and local that I couldn't find a photo of it online - crazy huh? But alas whenever we go back i'll take a photo and post one here :)

Good eats, no, GREAT eats! :) It's places like this that this blog is made for! Mmmmmmm Thank you Norco!

Quincy's

Quincy's
The best BBQ under one Woof

Plaza de Oro
17201 Ventura Blvd
Encino, CA 91316
Tel: (818) QUINCY-2 (784-6292)
Fax: (818) 986-4097

Ok the tag line is cheesy but it comes from a sweet story. They named the restaurant after a beloved family dog and the place is dedicated to their pet but also is a dog friendly place. There's a dog hall of fame and it's very friendly and family run. We regularly saw dogs hanging out in the outside patio eating area with their masters. The place has a homegrown country feel with picnic tables and red checkered tablecloths. There are barrels of roasted peanuts and piles of dog bowls that you can self serve yourself peanuts and put them and the scraps in the dog bowls. The place has doggy biscuits the waitresses feed the dogs, along with water bowls and other doggy toys and treats. A very lovely feel to the place.

The food isn't quite "Bang for your Buck". Meals range from $7-$15 per person, and they're not gigantic to where you can't finish a meal, and we've seen better deals. It's not cheap, but it's not pricey either, quite average but I expect more from my $9 at restaurants these days. Go there for the family feel and a nice night out.

Great Food

Chicken BBQ - YUM! Excellent stuff. Moist and falls off the bone. Well flavored and not overly sweet sauce, more savory. Great flavor and texture.

Cornbread - looks like a pancake as it's flat, but really really tasty. Plus it comes with this brown sugar butter that is absolutely divine. I would go just for the cornbread and chicken.

Fries - Yum yum yum. Crispy and well done.

Bordering Great/Good

Sweet Potato Fries - I have to give kudos to this restaurant for having this item on there and doing it really well. Crispy and good, with a nice change of sweetness to fries. Although I prefer salty french fries, the sweet potato fries were excellent for those people who would prefer it.

Tri Tip was good - on the border of good/great, although I thought the chicken was better. So if you're in the mood for tri tip this is a great place to go. BBQ flavor also excellent.

Good Food

Mac and Cheese - Good but relatively small portion. Appropriate portion for one person, but if i'm spoiled and when i'm used to paying for a side, I'm used to the side being gigantic. This was just a good portion so good for dieters and non leftover types.

Creamed Spinach - Good stuff :) Sorta watery and not too much flavor but good. But small portion size as well.

We're not itching to go back right away but we probably will go back to try their ribs, coleslaw, corn dogs, wings, potato skins and a ton of other items. It has a great variety. Overall it looked like a local favorite, very southern and home cooking type, and overall yummy. Pricey for "dive" but it is on Ventura Blvd. I'd enjoy it for Lunch I think more than dinner, although it's great food for both probably.

It gets great points for character and charm though, and with some tasty fresh new items on there. I love the fact that it's dog friendly and there are dog bowls and barrels of fresh roasted peanuts. It's the kind of place that I think the more we go there the more we may like it and over time it may get bumped into my "favorites" category. Will definitely go back and reorder the chicken and cornbread and maybe take some to-go for home. Good eats definitely.

Pho So 1

(818) 996-6515
7231 Reseda Blvd, Reseda, CA 91335
Crosstreet Sherman Way

Pho So this place is awesome! It's a local Vietnamese dive which is delicious and you get giant bowls of soup and food for about $6 each. The service is fast and friendly, and their menu consists of like 100 items, of which the #45 beef or ham and eggroll with cold vermicelli noodles and #18 appetizer rare steak are popular and delicious. The shrimp pho #22 is pretty good as well.

I took a chance and got the #52 which was AMAZING. It was a duck curry with rice noodles. It came with some flavored salt and lime which I poured in and it made it extra tasty. I only managed to eat half the dish and had leftovers as usual, but that means twice the enjoyment! In my opinion, the most delicious dish and i'll have to try hard to order something else and try something new next time I go.

They always serve you a small saucer of other spices and sauces so I've been told just throw the whole thing in with your bowl, but be sure to taste it for spiciness or flavor preference, in case you want to temper the amount. But overall good food :)

Great value, great atmosphere. Some tables had hot pot type cooking things and other various steaming bowls. We took some white boys there and they enjoyed it. We saw some white families along with Asian and a variety of people there, so there's something for everyone.

Oh and don't wait around for a check. It's a Denny's style, take yourselves up to the counter and pay thing. We sat around for awhile waiting for a waiter and/or to-go box, but we had some great conversation in the meantime.

It looks like the place is popular and has been around for awhile, so it has potential for becoming a local legend, if it isn't already. So go try it :)

California Wok

818-386-0561
16656 Ventura Blvd. (Petit Ave.) Encino, CA 91436
California Wok

This place is ok. We drove down Ventura Blvd. and saw a sign for "California Wok, healthy Chinese food". So we decided to try it. They have a large array of dishes, but no Pork - booooo! We had dinner there although their Lunch menu looked like it had the most food for the best value. Approximately $6-7 for a dish with a side of rice, salad, soup and fortune cookies. I was actually sad I couldn't order the lunch menu for dinner. Zagat rated well, so overall the restaurant was well liked and safe. Plus a lot of healthy options that you may love.

They have regular family size portions for about $9-11 and personalized half size portions about $5-7. Although you could still take home half of the half size portions after eating. I ordered Sesame Beef which I think was too sweet but boyfriend said they tasted better as leftovers. Personally I think Panda has better sweet beef and pork. We chose brown rice on the side, delicious well cooked with great flavor and texture.

Boyfriend got the Moo Shoo Chicken which was very tasty and good. It came with tortilla like things and spicy sauce which you could wrap it in like a burrito or wrap or whatever. The combo of the sweet Sesame beef and Moo Shoo complimented each other well. I think multiple dishes might enhance the flavors and experience. Overall good stuff, although I wouldn't call it great.

There are a million other items on the menu so perhaps there are "great" dishes out there, but we have yet to try them :) Will keep you updated. We'll probably go back eventually and try something new.

The Meat Locker

The Meat Locker in Thousand Oaks
2684 East Thousand Oaks Blvd.
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
(805)495-3211

Drive by The Meat Locker in Thousand Oaks and you'll probably miss it. Drive by once more and you might miss it again. The Meat Locker is one of the oldest eateries in Thousand Oaks but definitely worth checking out. There isn't much decor to the place, but the food is fantastic. They grill their meat outdoors and serve it up inside. It's pretty typical barbecue fair - sandwiches, ribs, chicken and chips, potato salad, garden salad or macaroni salad as side dishes. You can never go wrong with they lunch specials - a tri-tip sandwich and choice of 2 salads plus a drink for 8 bucks. The barbecue sauce they have is excellent. Seating is outdoors on picnic tables or inside on a bar counter, underneath the autographed celebrity photos. I always get the tri-tip sandwich but everything else I've seen and tried here as been nothing short of great.

My Hero

My Hero
9514 Reseda Boulevard
Northridge, CA 91324
(818) 349-4255

A local legend in the San Fernando Valley serving up the best submarine sandwiches around. They add a legendary tomato salad to most subs and it's a great dive for local starving college students, baseball teams and overall sub lovers. I actually went to CSUN and only discovered this place after I graduated.

Look for this gem on the corner of Plummer and Reseda in the same parking lot as the Baskin Robbins and hidden behind the Jiffy Lube. They only accept cash and as long as you have a $20 you can feed 3-4 people, subs costing about $5-8.

The owner Rosie has worked there countless years and took over the business from the original family owners and now it belongs to her family. You'll most likely see Rosie with tons of elephant jewelry at the cash register taking your order and serving up some sweetness and hospitality. It truly is a family owned and family run business, so go visit and make sure they stay in business for a long time.

Make sure to order Rosie's Special - its the BEST :) We've tried other subs and personally they're not worth mentioning as they don't compare to this one. Although in hopes to be a good food critic I will go back and try other subs to give people a better selection of the menu.

This place has a lot of character so make sure to chat up the people there and check out the walls. The wall of fame has interesting things such as local celebrities that have signed their names along with, news clippings, info on local teams and personal messages from loyal fans.

Friends Cafe - Port Hueneme

I was a little hesitant to blog about this place, since it's one of our favorite places for breakfast and I almost wanted to keep it a secret... But it's out of the way enough that only true Ventura County-ers will go, so here you are!

Details:
Friends Cafe
429 E Port Hueneme Rd
Port Hueneme, CA 93041
tel: (805) 271-9641
Open for breakfast and lunch

There is a very beachy and family owned feel to this little cafe. It's small, but clean, and in the several times that we've gone, we've never had to wait for more than a minute or two to be seated. It can get crowded with familys later on the weekend mornings, but the food is worth it. Best Eggs Benedict I've ever had, perfectly poached eggs, perfectly toasted English muffin, and surprisingly fantastic hollandaise sauce. I was actually shocked that it was so good - the cafe does not seem like the place for gourmet Eggs Benedict, but there it was!

They also have decent "combos" and good omlets, and we have also enjoyed the breakfast burrito there.

Good for:
- Early morning breakfast
- EGGS BENEDICT
- Great coffee and tea

Addy's Rating: 9/10

Acqua Al Due - San Diego

Details:
322 5th Ave.
San Diego, CA
tel: (619) 230-0382
Open for lunch & dinner
general site: http://www.acquaal2.it/
San Diego site: http://www.acquaal2.com/index.php

This place is probably in my top 5 restaurants in the world. There are two Acqua al Due restaurants - one in San Diego's Gaslamp district, and one, the original, in Florence, Italy. The one in Florence is located at 2 Via del Acqua... thus the name Acqua al Due ("two" in Italian).

They have the most amazing menu (yes, menu, not menus, it's the same menu in Italy or San Diego!) and my favorite by far is the pasta sampler. It's a sampler of 5 different pastas, and they are "chef's choice," so you get slightly different dishes each time you go. (No worries, though, the dishes are 90% vegetarian)

It's on the fancier side dress-wise, but it's not formal, and dishes range from $10 - $25.

Get the pasta sampler, the filet mignon marinated in balsalmic, and be sure to follow it up with the panna cotta (sublime) and the tirimisu. Amazing food, amazing staff, and amazing atmosphere = the perfect dining experience.

Addy's Rating: 10/10

Pearl Vietnamese - Hong Kong

Details
(852) 2524 9435
G/F 7 Wo On Lane, Central, Hong Kong

Vietnamese restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong serving Vietnamese food as well as fast food variations. Favorite for local businessman and this place has the best sweet/sour/tangy spice sauce that it serves up at each table in pitchers as everyone douses their food with it. I could eat here for days and still want to come back for more.

Very very much a local favorite and hole in the wall. Warning - potentially very scary to newcomers but worth the adventure.

Spring Rolls - The BEST! Just order them and eat. If you don't like them, there's something wrong with you.

Frogs Legs - Tastes like chicken - ok but messy and lots of bones.

Ketchup Rice with Beef cubes - Good stuff. Not terribly healthy but great filler. The ketchup rice is red with a sweet tomato flavor and the beef cubes are seasoned with a Worcestershire flavor. It also comes with a dollup of mayonnaise which tastes quite good mixed around in even amounts with rice and beef cubes. Again not so healthy but good.

Shrimp crackers - Really yummy stuff. Wonderfully topped with a sort of taco mix of onion, seasoned chicken, diced peanuts, parsley, and of course you must douse it with the house sauce. I love the texture, crunch of the cracker with the soft topping and soggy addition of the sauce.

Small Island, Northridge

Details
(818) 341-1884
9545 Reseda Blvd, #16, Northridge, CA 91324

Great food and Great Prices :)
Dishes range from $5-$15

A small Japanese restaurant, clean and very cozy. Great sushi dishes and overall GREAT value for your money. Go eat there and make sure the place stays in business.

Note - they are closed one day of the week - can't remember which, but warning - FYI :)