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)

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!

Jerry's Famous Deli

Jerry's Famous Deli
12655 Ventura Blvd
Studio City, Ca 91604
818-980-4245

21857 Ventura Blvd
Woodland Hills, Ca 91364
818-340-0810

Yet another Los Angeles area landmark - Jerry's Famous Deli has been around for 30 years with multiple locations. It offers up typical deli fare - sandwiches hot and cold, soups, salads, breakfast anytime. Jerry's is good food, but not great. We went there for dinner the other night and I was kinda shocked at the prices. Maybe I'd never paid attention to them before, I'm not sure. I wanted something lunch-y and cheap so I narrowed it down to a grilled cheese or the corn dogs for just under $9. I went with the grilled cheese and while it was good, that's about $4 too much for any grilled cheese. For a shocking $3.50 extra, I could add bacon. $3.50 for bacon! A quick browse of their online menu also turns up a club sandwich for $15.50 or a ham and cheese omelette for $10.45 just to give other examples of prices. Get real, Jerry's.

As with most delis, Jerry's serves up a really great bowl of matzo ball soup, so I can definitely recommend that. While I've never had a bad experience at Jerry's Deli I don't think I've ever had an exceptionally great one, either. If your wallet can afford it, give it a shot.

The Pantry

The Pantry is one of those Los Angeles institutions that has been around forever and a year, and with good reason! Open since 1924, it's a cash only diner open 24 hours a day (rumor has it that the door doesn't even have a lock). In the heart of downtown Los Angeles, it's a popular lunch spot for politicians from City Hall and Convention Center-goers, and at night becomes a mecca for the post-concert & club crowd and the many insomniacs that haunt LA.

Details:

The Pantry

877 S Figueroa Street (Figueroa and 9th)

Los Angeles, CA 90017

tel: (213) 972-9279

http://www.pantrycafe.com/

We recently went to The Pantry after my sister's high school graduation. We were a party of seven, but would have been seated right away had my parents gotten there at the same time we did - instead we waited at the counter with mugs of delicious coffee until they arrived and we were seated. Our waiter came quickly, only to be sent away because we weren't ready. It took him a while to come back, but when he did it was with our drinks as well as a giant plate heaped with sourdough bread. It was soft and chewy and seriously hit the spot while we waited to order.

We mostly ordered dinner-type items: BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, clam chowder, the Pantry burger - with the exception of Sean who ordered an omlet. I think that breakfast and meat/steak are the ways to go at The Pantry - our food was good, but other tables had some amazing looking stuff!

Most meals come with coleslaw, potatoes, and veggies - ours came with only coleslaw, and I'm not sure if it was because they ran out of everything else, or what. Maybe it was because we all had sandwiches?

Nina got a piece of lemon cake to take with her, so I'm not sure how that worked out for her. We ordered custard, which I will not do again. It was too close to flan for my taste, and I'd been expecting something closer to pudding.

The prices are reasonable for a diner - we had some of the cheaper plates which were all under $10, but if you want to go big, they do have a giant steak plate for $22.50.

This is NOT the place to go for "gourmet" food, or "healthy" food. The Pantry is a great greasy spoon diner to go to when you need something heavy in your stomach after a night on the town, or to help cure a hangover. It's the place to go for a slice of LA history and interesting characters. If I had had more time and guts, I would have been photographing much more than our table and the menus on the wall!

Good for:

- good coffee and breakfast items
- LA history
- out on the town wrap up
- 24 hour service

Next time I go, I will order breakfast, the mac & cheese, or a grilled cheese sandwich. And try the lemon cake or cheesecake for dessert!

Tips:

- Lines can be long or short at any given time of the day - no reservations are taken and you will only be seated when your whole party is there.
- They only take CASH, so don't forget to stop at the ATM on your way over.
- Park across the street in the lot on 9th, it's only $2 with validation and everywhere else will be much more, or illegal.

Addy's rating: 8/10

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