Diana "Garlic Breath" G.'s Profile

I love Tudor House! I hadn't eaten in the restaurant in years, but I always stop by the little British grocery when I'm in the area to pick up a meat pie or two to take home. (As far as I'm concerned, American cuisine is seriously lacking in the meat pie department.)

But yesterday some girlfriends and I met there for lunch. All but one of them had never been there before and were excited to try it. I was hoping we wouldn't be disappointed since I had talked up the place and told them how great it was... and we weren't! We had such a fantastic meal and excellent service, we all vowed to do it again soon.

Three of us had meat pies with a side salad and the other two had the Cornish pasty with salad. The meat pies and pasties are delicious: what could be better than a tasty filling inside a flaky crust? The salads were fresh and served with yummy "salad cream." Then we all had tea and scones. The scones are perfect--not the hard little hockey pucks you get at Starbucks, but soft and tender, like a Southern biscuit. Served with Devon cream and jam, they're heavenly.

Our waitress was the only one working the entire dining room, which was full by the time we left, but we never felt neglected. She was very nice and super-efficient. She even took the time to go ask a co-worker and report back to us when we asked her how clotted cream is made! (We never did get a good answer.)

On the way out I bought a couple of items from the bakery case to take home, since you can never have too many meat pies. I resisted the urge to stock up on Cadbury's, McVitie's and teas. I think Tudor House would be a great place to get a traditional English breakfast too--it's served until 1:00 pm.

I agree with the person who said they weren't going to review this place since it already has so many reviews AND is so well-known, but decided to do so after seeing all the 1- and 2-star reviews. So I'm adding my 5 stars to weight the score back towards the end of the scale where it belongs!

All I can say is, I lived in Ann Arbor while I was in grad school at the U of M, and Zingerman's was my hands-down favorite thing about the place. Ten years later, I still dream about their sandwiches, their brownies and their cherry-chocolate bread. I was such a Zingerman's groupie that I took their breadmaking class at the bakery and I took their tea-tasting class. I even worked in the mail-order department one holiday season to make some extra cash.

My favorite sandwich is #22, Jenny's Fix: Zingerman's pastrami, Switzerland Swiss, coleslaw & Russian dressing on grilled rye bread. I don't know who Jenny is, but damn does she know how to put together a sandwich. I've tried ordering a grilled pastrami, swiss, coleslaw and Russian dressing on rye at other restaurants over the years and it's never the same.

Yes, Zingerman's is expensive. But what world-class restaurant isn't?! You wouldn't walk into The French Laundry or Chez Panisse and complain that you could get a cheaper meal down the road at some diner. You pay for the ingredients, the superior product, the excellent service, and yes, even the atmosphere. All those people eating the best food in the world makes for a very happy place.

Also, the bread is amazing. And they make the best brownies in the world.

OK, full disclosure: my aunt owns this diner, so I may be biased. But if I didn't think it was good, I just wouldn't bother to review it! The truth is, this is an amazing little place, and if you don't believe me, just ask any of her dozens of regular customers who come in every week. Some of them come every day! Now that's loyalty.

The reason they're so loyal is that my aunt greets everyone by name and knows what they like. Usually, she'd have their food cooking before the waitress even made it over to the table to take their order. She treats everyone like family. Also, the prices are ridiculously low and the food is amazing.

Prapai Eshelman, known as "Pai," not only owns the Coffee Cup, but she runs it and does almost all of the cooking. She opens at 6 am Monday through Saturday and closes at 2 pm, so it's only open for breakfast and lunch. She makes a point of cooking from scratch using fresh ingredients whenever possible. For instance, every day they boil a giant batch of fresh whole potatoes, then peel and slice them for the fries and hash browns.

My favorite breakfast item is "The Mess," a pile of homemade hash browns topped with grilled onions, peppers and ham, and then smothered in sausage gravy. I could only eat half an order, it's so huge.

There are breakfast and lunch specials every day, and one of the lunch specials is always a Thai dish. My aunt, like my mom, is from Bangkok and decided to start offering Thai food a few years ago. Now she has customers who come in specifically for her homemade curries and pad thai. There are no Thai restaurants in Hillsdale, and you'd have to drive to Ann Arbor (2 hours away) to get any other Thai food.

The diner is in a converted 1920's train car, so it's tiny but adorable. And it's always full, but there's never a wait for a table.

I recently visited my aunt for a week and ate at the diner every day. I haven't eaten so well since...well, since I left home! The burgers are great. The waffles are amazing. The Thai food is delicious. And the service is personal and friendly. I wish I didn't live so far away--I would take all my friends to eat there too!

This past Saturday I went to the annual belly dance festival at the Santa Anita racetrack. On my way in at 9 am, I passed by this place and thought it looked cute. So, nine hours later, when my friend suggested we go get margaritas somewhere, I said I knew just the place!

It was a gorgeous evening and the outdoor patio looked inviting, but it was full of a large group celebrating a birthday. So we went inside. The bar is definitely sports-oriented, with huge team banners and big-screen TVs, but the dining room is very charming.

Service was great and the food was even better. My friend and I both had margaritas and the enchilada verde with pork, which was out of this world! Stuffed with the best carnitas I've had in a while. I also had a shredded beef taco, which was disappointing. Deep-fried, it was dry and chewy. But I had a bite of my friend's chile relleno, which was pretty good.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this place and plan to go back the next time I'm near the Santa Anita Racetrack!

I've only been to this restaurant twice, even though it's just down the block from my bf's tattoo shop. The first time was over a year ago; I sat in the bar area with a couple of girlfriends and had drinks and appetizers. The atmosphere was upscale yet casual, and I could see why it was popular  with the happy hour crowd.

I was still curious about the dinner menu, though, and finally got my chance to check it out recently. The bf and I had dinner with another couple on a Friday night. We walked through the packed bar area to our table in the surprisingly elegant dining room. We had to wait a bit for our waiter to arrive with our menus, but after that initial annoyance, the service was impeccable the rest of the evening.

I have to say, this was one of the best meals I've had in L.A. in recent memory. Maybe it's because my entre involved three of my favorite foods all wrapped up in a corn tortilla: blue crab, spinach and wild mushroom enchiladas. I was almost afraid to order it, sure that there's no way the reality could live up to my gustatory expectations.

But I was in for a happy surprise: the enchiladas were perfect. Stuffed with big, meaty chunks of sweet crabmeat, fresh spinach and tender mushrooms, they more than satisfied my dreams of what a crab enchilada could be, done right. The sauce complemented the flavors of the other ingredients, and the cheese was a final touch, not a smothering blanket of grease used to disguise the inadequacy of the dish as is often the case.

The waiter brought us a dessert platter, compliments of the manager, who recognized my bf as a repeat customer. We four dug into the flan, ice cream sundae with bananas and crumbled toffee, and brownie topped with a kind of chocolate custard and didn't stop until it was all gone. It was impossible to choose a favorite, they were all so good.

And the truth is, free dessert platter = 5 stars in my book.

If you're looking for good food and good service in an elegant yet unpretentious environment, look no further. I will definitely go back, for dinner or just for drinks--you can't go wrong either way.

I've been shopping at the Trader Joe's across the parking lot for over a year and somehow never stopped in here, until my friend Maureen finally took me by the hand, after we ran into each other in said parking lot, and dragged me through the door.

Finally, a solution to the Trader Joe's overpackaging problem! Here you can get your apples and artichokes without a plastic container around them... without making a separate trip to Ralph's.

But there's so much more than produce: fresh flowers, a guy making sushi to go in the back, and best of all--self-serve frozen yogurt with fresh toppings by the ounce.

There was a cluster of women loading up large styrofoam containers with plain fro-yo when I was there. I opted for a small container topped with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries AND chocolate sprinkles. Delish! This could get to be a habit.

Tried this place the other night on the recommendation of my fellow Yelpers, who seem to have given it almost all 4- or 5-star ratings. Unfortunately, I can't quite bring myself to give it 4 stars. Three and a half maybe.

Some of the food was truly wonderful, but overall it was a pretty mixed bag. The decor is lovely and it's certainly the most attractive  Indian restaurant I've seen in Los Angeles.

Service, however, left a lot to be desired. Our waiter forgot our aloo gobi and then seemed perplexed when we asked for it, despite the fact that the repeated our entire order back to us when we placed it! It was also hard to get anyone's attention, even though there seemed to be a lot of staff wandering around.

A shrimp appetizer came with about three small, overcooked shrimp cut into pieces, but the sauce was so good that we kept it on the table to dip our naan into. The lamb with yellow lentils and the aloo gobi were both delicious, but the saag paneer was strictly mediocre. The rice was rather tasteless and clumpy.

I didn't mind that the food wasn't spectacular because the prices were so reasonable and the portions were huge (aside from the appetizer). One meat dish, two veggies, a biryani and two naan were more than enough for 4 people. I would probably give them another chance!

I have some vague memory of Cracker Barrel from my East Coast childhood, but I hadn't been to one in decades. There are no Cracker Barrels in Los Angeles, where I live, or anywhere on the West Coast for that matter. Which is just sad.

Last year, on a road trip to Arizona, some friends and I were looking for a place to stop for lunch. When we spotted the Cracker Barrel right off the 10 freeway, my pals got VERY excited about going there, since they're all from the South and all had fond memories of Cracker Barrel. The four of us had a delicious meal of Southern cooking and then amused ourselves in the kitschy gift shop.

This year, we knew we'd be stopping there again on our way home from Arizona, and we had two more people in the group who were only too happy to join us in our gustatory pilgrimage. I had the "chicken fried chicken" (a breaded breast fillet served with white gravy) with fried okra, green beans and cornbread stuffing, followed by blackberry cobbler and ice cream. Plus the best biscuits I've ever had anywhere. Heaven!

The service was friendly, timely and attentive. My sweet iced tea glass was always full. Everything on the table was perfectly prepared and exactly what the person wanted. There wasn't a single disappointment in the entire meal. We all left full and happy. I know we'll be back again next year.

There needs to be a Cracker Barrel in L.A.

I used to go here all the time when I lived in Silverlake. Clean, efficient and really cheap. The place is always busy, especially on weekends. I'd get a spa pedicure, a bikini wax and an eyebrow wax for about $40.

In fact, I haven't been quite as well-groomed since I moved to the Valley because I haven't found a place like this where I live! Where are the cheap Vietnamese salons in Valley Village?

I was just introduced to this establishment by a co-worker who suggested it for lunch. It's one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it, hole-in-the-wall places, directly across the street from the Sony lot. I loved it as soon as we walked through the door--it's all yellow walls, red vinyl booths, garish South o'the Border paintings and vintage wrought-iron and glass chandeliers.

The food here is really good. Maybe some of the best Mexican food I've had in this town. Everything came out piping hot and not from sitting under a heat lamp--freshly cooked and homemade-tasting. My chicken enchiladas were meaty, cheesy and delicious. My lunch companions had the shredded beef tacos (crunchy) and the fish tacos (soft), which they assured me were great. They looked so good I can't wait to go back and order what they had!

We also shared an order of the Salvadoran empanadas--little fried balls of plantains with a creamy filling. Quite tasty.

Service was less than stellar. It was difficult to get anyone's attention and no one ever refilled our water glasses or asked if we wanted more chips (we did). They get an extra star just for how good the salsa is!