Pizzeria Ortica 650 Anton Blvd Costa Mesa, CA 92626 I had high expectations for Pizzeria Ortica, which, to me, resembles an Orange County rendition of Pizzeria Mozza. The restaurant serves a number of Italian specialties, focusing on pizzas and pastas. As always, I love an open kitchen and being able to the kitchen at work….
Gold Standard 2010 Petersen Auto Museum 6060 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90036 The second annual Gold Standard, hosted by LA Weekly’s own Jonathan Gold, is a sampling is some of Jonathan Gold’s picks for the best tastes in Los Angeles. A number of restaurants and wineries converged on the Petersen Auto Museum to offer…
Bottega Louie 700 S Grand Ave Los Angeles, CA 90017 Bottega Louie has been extremely popular since it opened up almost a year ago, just recently being called a “Best New Restaurant 2009” by many publications, including Los Angeles Magazine. This is a large restaurant, and the lines can be hours long, a testament to…
One of the best simple dishes I prepare is a Cantonese-style steamed fish. It’s pretty easy to make – it requires only a few ingredients, allowing the clean fresh flavor of the fish to stand out. I like to use a white-fleshed fish for this (I often use tilapia) and I strongly recommend using a…
LA Street Food Fest LA Center Studios 500 S. Beaudry Ave Los Angeles, CA 90017 The biggest recent trend in the Los Angeles food scene is probably the revolution of the food truck. Decoratively-painted trucks serving gourmet food has been a huge success. So, why not gather 35+of them in one place to offer sampling-size…
Church & State 1850 Industrial St Los Angeles, CA 90021 It’s been a while since my last post – unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of my recent dineLA excursions. The highlights were Jar and Chaya Downtown, Grace was pretty good, and both Morton’s and Ruth’s Chris were disappointing. Church & State has been one…
Craft is probably best known for being one of Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio’s restaurants. Tom Colicchio was a renowned chef before the TV show, making a name for himself in the New York restaurant scene with Gramercy Tavern. While many TV-celebrity chef restaurants are pretty underwhelming, I think Craft is one of the better ones. It’s located in Century City with a concentrated business crowd, especially during lunch. The interior is full of natural light, a slick and modern space.
Aziza is a Moroccan restaurant – the only one I know of that has a Michelin star. As a result, I thought this would be a pretty interesting place to try as I don’t eat Moroccan food too often. It’s located in a residential neighborhood in the Richmond District of San Francisco, an unassuming area where you would not expect to find such a highly-regarded restaurant.