Phil D.'s Profile

I will give this place a bit of break -- as it just opened -- and will likely go back but my experience there was more akin to a 2 star.

A nice spot, the type a establishment that is well needed in Glendale; with really reasonable prices and the rare ability to get a Benedict until 5pm Monday through Friday in a nice, casual atmosphere.

That being said -- the lemon thyme hollandaise was so light on flavor it was fairly inconsequential... A detail that was less forgivable as the eggs were cooked OVER HARD, a cardinal sin!

I was eyeball f'ing my neighbor's sandwiches that looked pretty darn good but...

There are clearly some kinks to work here out but there could be a glimmer of hope, maybe... they had a pretty intense fly party going on when I was there and their credit card receipt did not allow the ability to tip, which left an added guilt component to the meal.

I will go back in a month or so.

Closed. Sad it never caught on.

Really one of the stronger slices of NY style pizza in the city, actually, maybe the best. With a very bold sauce and a crust that straddles a perfect balance between crispy and doughy, this a truly tasty, no nonsense, slice.

It also strikes a nice balance between a gourmet NY slice and the cheap guilty pleasure of a Peter Piper Pizza.

Here is the thing. You can usually smell if before you approach. Cecconi's reads as the kind of place that, no matter if there's 30 tables open, they always ask if you have a reservation because they are insecure of their swankiness. It's forgivable, for example at a restaurant like AOC, specifically because their food is some of the best in the city, but Cecconi's takes this sort of attitude to a new level, with an almost prescreening selectivism.

I'll explain. Upon approach, a dapper 40+ gentleman with skin as taut as a drum stops us before we reach the hostess stand like a bouncer at a club. He informs us we can maybe get a seat at the right side of the bar, that from where I am standing I can glean at least six open spots. I pretty much ignore his suggestion and move to the hostness stand with its dueling laptops that make it look more like a control center.

"Two Please"
"Do you have a reservation?"
"Nope"

Then this woman utters the most patronizing statement one could imagine hearing from an establishment you are choosing to patronize:

"I guess we could make it work for you"

Oh, You Guess? Oh bless your heart dear for making that work for us. Mind you the rest of the evening there about 5-6 empty tables in our section for the duration of the evening and I doubt they were cancelled reservations...

Things picked up a bit with food fortunately. I had a wonderful summer salad that wasn't particularly my taste but incredibly refreshing. My dinner companion had a grilled chicken salad with crispy panchetta and an almost overly bold gorgonzola which was also quite good. Also they put these crispy bread sticks on the table that are better than the ones at Mozza, which isn't say too much really but they were quite good.

The side of meatballs was just fine. The sauce was lovely, and was mixed with the same sort of a gravy I had on top of my veal chop but the meatballs themselves were a bit bland and borderline squishy.

The Veal Chop was very good albeit hard dish to mess up but the accompanying Fontina and Potato Cake was underwelming.

I really wish I could give this place 2 1/2 stars which I think better reflects my experience there but I usually air towards rating the food which was was closer to a 3 1/2 so 3 is compromise. The service was good but the swanky pretension of the hosting area was suffocating. Cecconi's feels more like the club of the moment than a great restaurant and you are better off going somewhere like Osteria Mozza for this kind of food.

Coming here reminds me why I love the lack of pretension of restaurants like The Hungry Cat, which not only serve better and more inventive food, but care that you will come back.

Side note: I do appreciate the hours though, and may come back for breakfast at some point down the line, maybe...

I have never really had a Torta that I was in love with. Generally my problem is that the bread, whether it's high quality of not, never actually fits the type of sandwich it is-- normal sandwich bread and a filling more akin to a burrito has  just never jived with me. But the torta I had at Cooks was nothing short of perfection.

I opted for the La Diabla (Grilled Chicken, jalapenos, chile de arbol, habanero guacamole, grilled cheese, black beans) and a side of potato salad. As I said before, the bread perfectly compliments the ingredients, thin and well toasted, yet also somewhat doughy. Their bread is reminiscent of a ciabatta roll but with elements of a tortilla and honestly, albeit simple, is like nothing I've ever had. The roll tightly encloses the filling and the  sandwich itself is unreal-- delicious and spicy as all hell with well prepared ingredients that at least tasted high quality.

The flavor of the potato salad was fine, nothing amazing, but I was impressed by the freshness of it and it although I love spicy, thank god I got the potato salad to cut the spice on that sandwich, as I was working up a bit of a sweat.

I enjoyed the La Diabla so much I imagine I won't be trying anything else for a little while but I am excited to return. Cook's along with Bollini are helping to make Monterey Park a food destination outside of its celebrated Chinese food. A Must try.

Admittedly I have yet to be sold on vegan cuisine. Albeit a respectable lifestyle choice, when it comes to taste, it just does not match its animal counterparts. Usually when I go vegan or vegetarian getting something mexican is always the safe bet, but after consulting my dinner partner we agreed that in order to truly experience the macrobiotic vegan fare i was going to have to branch out. I knew that the seitan, tempeh, or tofu products masquerading as meat were going to be a disappointment (which was confirmed by a taste test) - so i went with what sounded like the most all encompassing of what RFD offers, the "Real Food Meal"  which is "Based on the principles of macrobiotics, ...a balanced selection of foods representing the five elements of Eastern health philosophy." and not pretentious at all.

Sounded about right though. I also got a cup of the miso, which is a hard soup to mess up but their incarnation tasted like a mix between miso and cafeteria style chicken noodle soup sans the chicken, noodles, and flavor.

The "Real Food Meal" itself  was bland and dissatisfying and seems to be heavily reliant on pouring mass amounts of sauce to make it relatively edible. If I didn't dig the macrobiotic cooking over at M Cafe I would be convinced that the appeal of the macrobiotic diet is that the food is so tasteless that it makes you want to eat less of it. Unlike M Cafe, RFD seems more concerned with the theoretical constructs of macrobiotic cooking than making anything taste good.

I'd be willing to try it again but I am more likely to have this Real Food Yearly.

Best Potato Salad on the Planet. Period. Unreal. Tangy, served warm with Bacon, corn and peas, it is incomparable. Nothing like it.

You have got to hand it to place for having such a blatant disregard for any semblance of human health.

The menu is limited to items that are decadent to begin with, then are amped up to be much worse for you. The Hickory Burger was smaller than I expected which was actually welcomed as the size of burgers at places like The Counter require your mouth to open up like those bird heads in Super Mario Bros. 2. Although fairly tasty, the burger was just too greasy, most of the flavor was masked by a slick confection of grease that even appeared on the surface of the bun.

I thought I should take my indulgence to the next level by ordering the Pepper Steak Fries drizzled in Pork Fat - which really sounds like a satirical jab at something Carl's Jr might do, more than an actual menu item. While the fries themselves were cut and cooked to perfection - the pork fat added less flavor than I would have anticipated. If it added some delicious flavor it might have been worth feeling my arteries move in slow motion but as it stands it seems like nothing more than a novelty. So at least in terms of those two items - the grease overwhelmed any potential taste.

I doubt that Marrow Bones, Chorizo Fondue, or the Pork Belly Skewers (which do sound delicious) would sit any differently.

As for the space, it's quite nice especially for the Valley, a little contrived in its industrial gastropubiness, but a fine place to get a drink nonetheless. But unless you are trying to slick up to get into a wet suit you might want to avoid the food.

I want to start out this review by saying I view myself as a connoisseur of the French Dip sandwich, I even have had an article published on the subject (full disclosure: for Frontier Airlines In-flight magazine). Cole's has been one of my most anticipated [re]openings. I always viewed Cole's as an underdog and because of that I had some affection for it. When it was the P.E. Buffet there was no affection though for the buffet items - but the sandwich itself was quite good. The hand-carving of the roast beef and the side of au jus were a plus but its hard to romanticize past the strange perfection the Philippe's sandwich embodies - specifically the lamb and blue cheese.

That being said I have always been a fan of 213 and think Seven Grand and Golden Gopher are two of the best spots in town to grab a drink so when I heard they were renovating the place I had nothing but positive expectations for the results.

Cole's was always in need for just a bit of refinement - someone to take what was there and tweak it ever so slightly. Cole's was the type of place where the patron's got phone calls at the bar and despite its location I imagine they will no longer see Cole's as home because they probably can no longer afford to. The gentrification aspect doesn't bother me in the slightest and even though this isn't the best of reviews I am still glad they made the decision to renovate, and in that regard they did a wonderful job. The space is reminiscent of Criterion's restoration work on John Cassavetes' Shadows - improve upon what is needed but keep the rough edges.

That being said I was a little taken a back by the fact that I had to be seated and served. The menu, which is bare bones as it gets, does not necessitate this arrangement and although it doesn't factor highly in the review - I think it is a poor attempt at classin' up the joint that really just comes off as unnecessary and pretentious. Still I am willing to ignore things like that - particularly when the food speaks for itself.

They were out of roast beef (at around 2 in the afternoon) which was fine because I was leaning towards the lamb with blue cheese anyhow. I also order a side of mac and cheese. Simply enough the sandwich has two glaring issues:

First and most important - the au jus. The new au jus at Cole's, which is clearly part of the menu refinement, is borderline sweet, the coloring of which is light to the point of looking like a chicken broth. It's like making a ham-hock soup with a honey baked ham - its supposed to be savory dish. The au jus is supposed to be the juices of meat, not a sweet concoction to dip my sandwich in. This decision to sweeten up the au jus seems like a very calculated one to differentiate themselves from Philippe's as opposed to trying to beat them at their own game. After the first half of the sandwich I stopped dipping and started drenching it in the atomic mustard and though sometimes the hot mustard is a lovely accompaniment - the au jus is what defines the sandwich. Plus the portion, as other reviewers have pointed out, is quite small and requires a Fee for any extra.

Next was the bread. I read somewhere that they were using La Brea Bakery bread - well get something else. Either it was just on the stale side that day or the bread is indeed that crumbly. I am not trying to put Philippe's on a pedestal here but what works so well with their bread is the crisp crust and soft doughy center - so no matter how soaked the bread is it doesn't fall apart or become overly mushy. The Cole's bread on the other hand is more grainy sponge and once the au jus soaks the bread it breaks apart and becomes more like liquid bread then the bread absorbing the au jus. Point is, this bread is not made for dipping.

By the end of the second half of the sandwich I just pulled out and ate the contents that were fine on their own - which leads me back to their initial problem.

The Mac and Cheese was fine, but it was way too bread-crumb heavy and dry - it lacked the cheesy goodness that I think is imperative.

The sad thing is I know they really tried to do a good thing here and I laud them for their effort and attempt at both restoring Cole's and trying to give Philippe's some competition - but the sandwich does not rise to the occasion and I think with some extremely necessary changes - Cole's can really be an amazing place.

Its the oldest restaurant to be continuously run from the same location and its not only a piece of history but part of the fabric of the city. I will go back again in a bit for the roast beef and try the potato salad as well and I have confidence and hope that the sandwich will improve but if not I would strictly go there for drinks.

If Cochineal were in any "foodie" city in the country - be it San Francisco or New York - it would not only be comparable to the best those cities have to offer, but it towers above some that are considered among the best. The fact that a restaurant of this caliber and creativity is in Marfa is fitting to sort of randomness the town embodies.

During my three week stay in Marfa I probably ate at Cochineal 7 times. With a menu that changes everyday (with some returning favorites) and one of the most beautifully designed spaces I have encountered in recent memory - you will immediately be transported out of the high desert of West Texas and into a high class but extremely comfortable and warm dining experience.

Almost every dish I had was nothing short of profound, and the Chicken Chilaquiles  - served in a clay pot with delicious cheesy goodness - was maybe one of my favorite dishes ever. Overwelmingly good to the point where it literally made me smile with surprise and delight over how wonderful it was. Also they get their fish shipped in roughly 12-14 hours after its caught - and the freshness is very apparent.

Tom and Toshi were great and very much appreciated my return business - but not as much as I enjoyed the food. If you go to Marfa you must eat at Cochineal.

One important detail that isn't listed here is that they are, as of now, only open Friday-Tuesday.