Andrew "Andy" H.'s Profile

I have mixed feelings about this place.

On the one hand, an enormous selection of wines in a comfortable, homey, urbane and stylish atmosphere. You can try many types of wines and beers and discover new ones. You might order a cheese plate with sliced bread and relax.

But......on two different occasions I came here, and was waited on by a bartender who focused her attention on only one customer and kept speaking to that customer, without interruption, for at least ten minutes. You could not get her attention to make an order. You literally had to wait for her to stop talking and then she would come over and help you.  

It was annoying the first time, but I gave them a chance and then when I returned a month later, the same server and the same behavior.

And two glasses of wine and one little cheese plate cost $35.  Too expensive for me and maybe that explains why, on a Saturday night, there were only four customers in the entire place.

The management needs to take this critique into consideration and instruct the bartender, or any bartender on good customer service.

I have been a big fan of the odd hours open Eagle Rock Brewery for a while, so yesterday, a hot Saturday afternoon in Highland Park, a friend and I wanted to go somewhere for a beer and ended up at Golden Road which was open in the early afternoon while Eagle Rock was closed.

I initially was a bit dubious about a brewery in Glendale. Just the word "Glendale" brought to mind black marble, chandeliers and cigars, Ella Fitzgerald tunes playing from hidden rocks around a fake sod park, golden Grecian columns, plastic flowers under an ornate fountain and many smoked glass, black Mercedes parked in handicapped spaces.

But I was wrong. Golden Road is located under the 134 Freeway, between the railroad and the river, parallel to San Fernando Road. It comprises three brightly colored old steel warehouses, one of which is a cavernous place with tall ceilings, acres of tables, a long bar, outdoor seating, and dozens of authentic, local and tasty beers to choose from.

A friendly and family oriented crowd, some with little kids, sat at outdoor tables. There were various ethnicities and styles, ranging from young post- collegiate professionals to bearded and tattooed men and biker women.   Nothing seemed too aggressive or too loud, there was a restraint in behavior and rudeness rare in large casual gatherings in the City of Angels.

We walked up to the bar, and a friendly blonde lady offered us samples of a dark rye beer and the IPA. My friend liked the rye and ordered that, and I had the IPA. I saw other tables with "flights" which are small glasses of four different beers.

We didn't order food, but what walked past me looked very basic and uninteresting: fries, white bread sandwiches, etc.

This place seems destined for success. It is bringing to LA something long overdue, the chance to eat and drink in a revitalized industrial area. All that is missing is something BBQ or Kansas City like to eat. If they added a large smoker it would be five stars.

Well after coming here for well over ten years, it seems that they have now instituted a CASH ONLY policy, meaning that you cannot charge or debit your meal.

Right up front, next to the register, they have an ATM that charges $2.50 to withdraw cash. It is expensive, tacky and sort of crass.

I still like the food here, but the new ATM, feeding fees to the restaurant, along with that dubious "cash-only" is an unwelcome addition.

My first reaction upon walking in here for the first time was "Chipotle".  That's right. Here was the assembly line of workers, assembling a pizza, just as they put together burritos and salads at the Chipotle.

Only here, one enters a tall ceilinged, big bucks, fancy space operation with sophisticated graphic art (pizza boxes),columns, arches and a very elegant, old world type of grandeur.

And the cooks pull apart fresh dough and lather it up with three basic types of pizza: with tomato, without and white. These basics are cheap, but then each ingredient you add, adds $1. So tomatoes, garlic, onions, anchovies, sausage would be $5 +$6=$11.  You walk to the end of the counter, cafeteria style, and pay and wait for your pizza to quickly emerge from the oven.

There are beers, wine and soft drinks to drink.  When you get your pizza you pray that there is an open table. Seating is tough because so many wait in line here.

There is no "saving" tables, that sneaky way of sitting down with your laptop and iced tea before your pizza is ready. You need your food in your hands before you can sit down, though I am sure some violate this rule. And this is Westwood and many who reside in this neighborhood do not wait in line behind others.  Just as every Mercedes in West LA seems to possess a handicap placard no matter the age or athletic condition of the driver.

So how exactly did the pizza taste? Well, we are told it is "authentic" and therefore quite thin and mushy. You don't pick it up, you cut it up with fork and knife and the cheese slips off your fork and back down on the plate.  There is a sign advising the complaining public that they can request crispy for their pizza.   And it's advisable if that is what you prefer.

I don't think I will come back here. There is something strange about pizza in Los Angeles that just never will appeal to anyone from Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston or NY.  Like brick houses, people who show up on time, and good tasting tap water, we cannot expect pizza to be pizza in the City of Angels.

And 800 Degrees is more of the same ersatz pizza.

Since I came here the first time last summer, they've broken through a wall and expanded the space. There is now a bright golden yellow room with an enormous hanging wood wall sculpture. A very large white audio speaker hangs by two thick chain and plays very loud old rock tunes.

Working here today were two guys, both hulking and inked, with enormous upper bodies.....  Adam and Hector may be their names. They might be another good reason to visit here if you care....

The food is still expensive. Two burritos and side order of Elote was $31.  This is not the place for a working class Mexican family on a budget.

It is however a great Mexican restaurant, suitable for an investment banker and his attorney wife who live in nearby Hancock Park to grab something cheap and affordable.

They have opened up a stylish, modern, slick and very attractive space inside an unlikely location: a Van Nuys mini-mall on Sherman Way. Add dim lights, candles, white tablecloths, many right angles, and mix it up with very sensual young waitresses and you have a place that looks like it has all the makings of a Thai style happy ending.

But the food we ordered last night was pretty bad. Chicken with ginger and onions was one of the dishes and the chicken was tough, undercooked, the onions near raw and the mushrooms barely cooked.  Pork in red curry was overly salty and also nothing to rave about.

The noise level was also on the high side with a group of four cackling women whose every laugh shook the rafters. When they left I was tempted to applaud, but refrained.

There are many good and even great Thai places to eat in LA and the SFV (Rustic Kitchen, Sanam Luang Cafe http://g.co/maps/v2tuk and Saladang in Pasadena http://www.yelp.com/bi...). I would not include Kinnara Thai on the "A" list.

I ate here today and had the $15 tuna albacore burger with a plate of fries and some iced tea.  And my friend had a cup of clam chowder and an appetizer of fried shrimp.

At lunch, this place fills up quickly and is mobbed with a loud, boisterous, very tailored, very design conscious crowd.  The noise is quite deafening at times, and at our table in the very corner near the window, we thought we trapped inside some gay madhouse of riotous laughs and people screaming "Oh, no you did not!"

We had a very difficult time tracking down the waiter who brought us our food and drinks and then disappeared for 20 minutes until I got up and flagged him down.

I would not make this a destination restaurant. It seems to exist purely as a convenient place to take a client to lunch or for people who work inside the PDC.

There are many beer places that serve burgers and they can be found everywhere around LA.  And there are burger places that serve beer, and they are also found all over the city. And Plan Check falls into the latter category.

Sawtelle has always been one of my favorite streets in Los Angeles. Narrow, in a city where streets are six lanes wide. Quaint, with nurseries, frame houses and old service garages, in a mini-mall metropolis. Japanese, with grocery stores and funny little shops selling little funny items and crazy t-shirts.  Yakitori, sushi, sashimi, ramen and later on, food trucks, cream puffs, grilled chicken, curry chicken.  There is usually nearby street parking on safe, quiet, homely residential streets next to Buddhist temples and topiary shaped hedges and rock gardens under a creeping fog.

But the slicksters are moving in. And Plan Check is very slick, built long and wide and industrial, with a facade of steel garage doors and a roof truss like an airplane hanger. There is a lot of outdoor seating on a sea of red plastic chairs and tables. And inside one sees an enormous investment of architecture and design in the wood tables, the mile long bar, the big graphic designs of the menu.

This is the place where people will go to eat $11 burgers and drink $12 martinis with artisanal rye and organically sourced, free-trade, carbon neutral bitters. They will drink local craft beers and drink hops raised free on the range of profit.

You can sit at the bar or you can sit at long tables on high stools or you can sit near the window, as we did yesterday, with beautiful sunlight pouring in and very attentive and very courteous waitstaff waiting on you.  You will see customers who are stylish, smooth skinned and skinny.

What Plan Check excels in, and its most unique feature, is very simply, exquisite courtesy.  If you remember "Mildred Pierce" (1946) at all, when they opened their first restaurant they greeted customers by name, and the restaurant was mobbed, and people were treated well and served promptly and this is just how Plan Check does it, as if Joan Crawford were managing the place.

But the food is that same food we have eaten at Father's Office, Laurel Tavern, Umami Burger and The Counter. It is some superb grade of beef with an exotic adjective attached to it, and it is served with lots of taste, lots of fat, and goes down well with two IPAs and a platter of stuffed mushrooms or crispy fries.

In all fairness, I had a fried chicken sandwich that was delicious. And I have never eaten one in LA before.  And it was good.

But, in the end, we ate two burgers and had an appetizer of a single mushroom stuffed with cheese.  And drank only water. And spent $34 or $17 a piece.

How much beef can $34 buy at In n' Out or at Albertsons?  Then again, there is no pink slime at Plan Check, only a lot of "thank you" and "my pleasure" and " come again".

Admittedly, this is not my favorite dessert. I am more of a chocolate-chip or dark chocolate fan.

But the reviews on here rave ecstatic about the macaroons so I felt compelled to drive down here yesterday and try out the cookies.

First off, the location is very out-of-the-way and hard to find. It is hidden inside a large, cavernous, windowless mall.

When you finally walk into the dark mall, which is filled with shops, you find Lette. It is decorated in bright colors with a glass counter, and the cookies are stacked up on stair-like shelves, by color and type.  The vibe here is young, Japanese and wired.

The cookies themselves are not cheap. Two cookies are $4, and six are $10. And they are almost as light and unfilling as a puff of air. Eat one and you are practically  unaware that you have consumed anything.

I tried a green tea one and my friend had an almond one. They were good. But I wasn't collapsing in pleasure.

And the people who come here, they tend to be very young, very skinny, very stylish. So maybe that is the attraction of this dessert.

It's just not that attractive to me.

Had a very enthusiastic, delicious and beautifully prepared lunch here last week. The Greek Salad was delicious. The owner came by and continually refreshed our drinks. Various eccentrics walked by and said hello. There was an atmosphere of conviviality and friendliness and warmth that reminded me of the Old West.