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Los Angeles Dining
Inside The Peninsula Beverly Hills, The Belvedere has a longstanding reputation as the area's best hotel dining restaurant. The see-and-be-seen vibe pulsates most strongly in the morning, when Hollywood's elite gather around for breakfast. Soak up the sunshine on the landscaped patio while perusing the "small bites" menu for smoked salmon pancake and the chef's famed truffle macaroni and cheese. If you're on your way to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, ask about the portable gourmet meals on the Pen-Air menu.
Likewise, even the smallest details get significant attention at The Dining Room, the most stately dining spot at The Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel & Spa, in Pasadena. You'll dine like royalty (and pay the price) on such exquisite and impressively presented dishes as Alaskan halibut with ginger crust and farm-raised rabbit loin wrapped in Parma ham. The chef welcomes you with an amuse bouche and later thanks you with la sorpresa, a little surprise.
Pleasant surprises of a different variety await at elegant Porter's Prime Steak House, across the lobby of the lovely Hilton Los Angeles North/Glendale & Executive Meeting Center. Posh decor characterizes the dining room, where skilled servers deftly tend to your every need. If your mouth doesn't water at the prospect of perfectly prepared USDA Prime steak, turn your attention to preparations of seafood and chops.
Steak also crowns the menu at 555 East, where you'll share the company of Long Beach's movers and shakers in a clubby dining room characterized by plush booths, marble floors and low lighting. Selections from the award-winning wine cellar complement the chicken, seafood and impeccably prepared USDA Prime steak dishes. Although the din of music and chatter may be distracting, you'll nonetheless experience a sumptuous outing here.
Succulent prime rib, served tableside from silver carts, deservedly gets top billing at Lawry's The Prime Rib. The Beverly Hills institution, which operated for many years from a location across the street, complements your food with flavorful sides including seasoned creamed spinach, asparagus with béarnaise and buttered peas. Only half of the tables are reserved, so don't hesitate to stop in on a whim.
Lucille's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que employs the secrets passed down to Lucille Buchanan from her Granny to kick your salivary glands into overdrive. Although meats smoked slowly over hickory wood merit pride of place on the menu, your tongue also will dance for pan-blackened catfish, center-cut pork chops, jambalaya and blackened chicken pasta. Southern folk art enhances the down-home feel of the busy Long Beach setting. Made-from-scratch desserts--including peach cobbler, bread pudding and Snickers ice cream pie--provide a great reason for you to linger.
Treat your senses to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica's The Lobster, a sophisticated spot for pepper-crusted yellowfin tuna, sesame-roasted black bass, grilled Pacific spiny lobster and jumbo lump crab cakes. If your tastes lean more toward turf than surf, consider New York steak, filet mignon or grilled chicken breast. Inhale the crisp sea air on the inviting patio.
For a more casual seafood meal, head to family-friendly Bubba Gump Shrimp Co at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach. Life isn't quite like a box of chocolates here, as you can pretty much count on what you're going to get: cozy charm, pleasant service and tasty food. Bubba Gump and shrimp--in such varieties as dumb luck coconut shrimp, shrimp shack pasta and Mama Blue's Southern charmed fried shrimp--go together like peas and carrots, but Forrest (and others, too) wouldn't hesitate to run here for Bourbon Street mahi mahi, Mama's Southern fried chicken and steak New Orleans. Movie memorabilia and Depression-era props lend to the decor.
Atmosphere also abounds at the Burbank Bob's Big Boy, where the era of carhops and hot rods lives on. Juicy burgers are the raison d'être at this oldest remaining link in the American chain, but if you crave a Belgian waffle or three-egg omelet in the middle of the night, your wish will be the upbeat staff's command. If classic cars rev your engine, be sure to visit on Friday night, when cool retro vehicles pack the parking lot.
Sink your teeth into savory pastrami on rye at another unpretentious spot: Ben's Delicatessen in Burbank. Yummy fresh sides--including coleslaw, potato salad and a rotating selection of soups--are made from scratch. Mind your manners at lunchtime, as you'll be surrounded by law-enforcement professionals from the police station across the street and legal types streaming in from the nearby courthouse.
Global influences come into play on the area's multicultural culinary scene. Chef/owner Akira Hirose's impressive curriculum vitae incorporates education in France and experience at a veritable "where's where" of fine California restaurants. The latest entry: the eponymous Maison Akira in Pasadena. Evidence of an Asian influence marks his French creations, including miso-marinated grilled Chilean sea bass and roasted rack of lamb in rosemary sauce. Treat yourself to one of the sublime pastries, which stun in their exquisite visual appeal.
JiRaffe derives its name from the clever combination of the names of Josiah Citrin and Raphael Lunetta, the longtime friends who founded the place. Citrin has since moved on, but Lunetta continues to share his talents as sole executive chef. French influences dominate in such dishes as crispy salmon, Channel Island spiny lobster and caramelized pork chop with wild rice, smoked bacon, apple chutney and cider sauce. With dark wood furnishings and green and brass accents, the dining room achieves an edgy, stylish feel devoid of pretense.
Pasadena's El Cholo boasts that the number of tortillas it has sold would circumnavigate the globe three times over (and then some) if laid end to end. Don't be surprised if you have to wait at this bustling cafe before you get your chance to slightly extend that distance with your enchilada, taco or chimichanga order. Splurge on a margarita and dig into guacamole as you get caught up in the festivity of the dining room, where affable staffers in traditional Mexican attire punch up the mood.
After pounding the pavement to find deals in the Marketplace area of Glendale's shopping district, take a load off your tired tootsies at Fortune Inn. Both your wallet and taste buds will thank you for such choices as Mongolian beef, twice-cooked pork, black bean scallops and pot of fortune, a garlicky stir-fried blend of eggplant, chicken and bell peppers.
Family-owned Divina Cucina in Montrose has caught the fancy of locals, which means you'll be shoulder to shoulder with many of them as you eagerly wait for a table in the dining room or on the covered porch. Bruschetta con pomodori whets your appetite for such dishes as linguine al pesto, pollo alla Gorgonzola, filetto con porcini and the signature tortellini Divina. Most of the wines bear a Californian or Italian label.
Walk on water over the in-floor koi aquarium that curves through Crustacean in Beverly Hills. Vietnamese/French delights include a "secret kitchen" menu of closely guarded family recipes, most notably the specialty garlic noodles and Dungeness crab roasted in pepper-garlic sauce. The luxe design re-creates a French Colonial plantation in Hanoi.
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