Efrain "shweet!" g.'s Profile

Best Falafel I've had in years. Tender and juicy with fresh toppings!

I had the Falafel Grigorio(sp?) style. I loved it. Great flavors, sauces, textures.

I'm looking forward to visiting Yalla again.

Wow. Best waffle I've ever had.
I had a traditional waffle with speculous and banana slices - i loved it. Chewy, sweet, delicious. Nice little spot and decent staff.
I sat at the counter, ate my waffle with a poached egg and had some coffee. I was well-pleased.

One major flaw that I will overlook because I liked the place so much:
Other than the waffles which are made in the irons, they don't cook anything on griddles or ovens... they microwave (gasp!) their eggs and meats.
So the eggs are only made 'poached' style in those little microwave mechanisms. The meats (bacons, etc) must be pre-cooked and then microwaved.

This possibly will weird people out.

The coffee is made Americano style and tasted very good. But they don't seem to have brewed coffee available.

***IMPORTANTish NOTE***
They don't process tips on credit/debit cards. So tips are CASH ONLY.  

I wish they'd update their logo (and possibly name) to be more visibly intriguing, but I loved Shaky Alibi

This place is an oldskool burger stand with a fun little happy lady running the joint. The tables and chairs are low-grade, but it's part of the charm of Irv's. I use the term 'charm' loosely because I've seen at least a dozen of these types of semi-run-down-loved-by-a-community-mostly-ironical ly-and-therefore-trendy food spots in my travels.

Based on all the reviews I had read, I imagined the food to be surprisingly spectacular, but unfortunately, the burgers and fries were below-average. The burger was bland, the fries were the typical frozen kind, and I was not impressed.

I think it's a fun spot to visit and give money to because of it's friendly staff and history (which you can catch up on via the countless articles and photos on the walls).

I suppose I may come back for the heck of it, but really, it's like politely eating a friend's mom's 'famous' dish, only to be achingly underwhelmed.

Standardly friendly. Decent pastries. Decent coffee. Okay location.
They look like they have some fun food items to try. Perhaps on my next visit.
Until then, a-okay ;)

Super cool staff.
Conveniently opened 24 hrs/day, except Sunday.
Cash only.
Decent donuts (i really only like the cinnamon roll, warmed up).

They also have various bottled drinks, coffee, boba, breakfast and lunch offerings, a bit of seating, and parking lot!

New review with 'meh'.

I've been to Short Order several times and each time I hope it to be better. Nope.
Self-involved hosts; robotic, if not awkward servers; 'okay', overpriced, fatty burgers (100% grass-fed or just 'grass-fed-before-they-are-slaughtered' beef?); good shakes; overall 'meh'.

And lastly, I know how to cook a burger. I know it's possible to make a juicy, tasty grass-fed burger that is COOKED through, not bloody. I take issue with any great chef that thinks otherwise. Bloody meat is not better meat.
So, I'm not a big fan of Short Order's little chart that attempts to educate the masses on how "grass-fed" ground beef is supposed to taste and be cooked.

Alright, alright, I'm getting a little personal...

Short Order seems to do one thing right - Single Origin / Short cake (they're cafe/pastry shop little buddy in the Farmer's Market.

It's an okay spot to take family/friends who haven't been there, but that soon may be a thing of the past. The Umami cometh.

A friend and I noticed Planet Dailies had opened and we decided to give it a try.

First bummer:
We walked toward the staircase under the sign and I thought the greeter girl was just a random 'will you sign my petition' person holding a clipboard. It was a cold night, so I understand the not-coolness of standing in front of a staircase holding a menu for hours. That being said, she should have been more inviting and smiley, to let us know that Planet Dailies was right up the stairs.

As we approached her and had some questions about the menu she was holding, it was evident that she knew little about the restaurant's food. She hadn't tried much. She should have lied to us. She did, however, suggest the southwest rolls. She directs us up the stairs where another host/greeter smiled at us, friendly possibly because it was much warmer up there. and led us into the foyer/entrance area where more staff seemed to be standing around.
I think a third host girl then led us to a table, but my friend preferred another area/table. I now know he wanted to move because he wanted to face a TV, where hopefully a hockey game was on.

The TV situation bothered my friend because he asked if he could get the TV changed to the hockey game on FOX sports, and the staff/manager never changed it. My friend did ask repeatedly, and the servers apparently did their best to let their manager know to change it, but for some reason, they couldn't find the channel.
After our meal, when we were leaving my friend demonstrated to our server that he simply googled the channel on his phone and found it immediately.
Granted, my friend could have let it go, and perhaps the policy is to leave it on glitzy-fluff reality bravo programming (Planet Dailies seems to refer to gossip/celeb/movie newsrags), but I understand my friend's frustration. There are a bazillion TVs in this establishment.

Really though, the TV Situation didn't affect my opinion/review of Planet Dailies because I don't care about watching TV or sports games at restaurants.

Okay, so Chapter 2....

The menu is like New American with a selection of pasta, burgers, sandwiches, salads, pizza, appetizers, and drinks. There are a lot of choices. We ordered:

Bacon Cheddar Burger
I ordered it medium well. Yes, I'm one of those. But surprisingly, it was cooked nicely and properly, the way a MW burger should be cooked. And yes, it was still relatively juicy.  The beef was ok, nothing special, and the bacon was chunky and crispy.
The burger was large and overall was just okay, and it's great that it comes with fries. It's a bummer that it's 14 bucks.

Turkey Club
My hockey-loving friend ordered this. It was a very large sandwich, with a hefty portion of deli-style turkey. I tasted a bit of the turkey meat; tasty. Still I think a turkey club is a boring order. Then again, I got a burger. The sandwich came with some tasty homemade wrippled potato chip/fries.

Our server was pleasant (in the LA server fashion), quick to refill our (soft) drinks, and sufficiently helpful when we had menu questions or asked for suggestions.

While we were there, there seemed to be a ton of staff walking to and fro for some or no reason. The bonus is that the staff is generally attractive, as if the managers asked for photos with resumes.

The place was pretty empty (a guy on his laptop?), but it was a Monday night.

We were both too full to try dessert, but it looks like they have some fun options.

I wanted to give this place a 2 star rating because yes, I have experienced better, but I'm giving it three stars because it's fresh, new, clean, and trying to be cool. There's something very L.A. about the place; goodlooking and glitzy, empty and unfulfilling, but you gotta believe it gets better.

Whoa, that sounded harsh.

BONUS: they validate for the Farmer's Market parking lot

I may be insane, but I tried five guys and they taste like the average burgers you get at a church BBQ. Boring grocery store buns, bland meat, decent fries.

Prices really aren't special. It shouldn't be compared to in n out because 1) its slow.  Not in and out... 2) Burger style is different and inferior ... and 3) in n out is just incomparable ;D

they recently opened one around the corner from where I live. Im not opposed to going back but if I never went back, I'd be okay with that too.

It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's so 'meh'.

I've been to Simplethings twice now, and I've tasted a smattering of their mini pies, and I've had a basic sandwich and tomato soup. I liked my in-house dining experience. A lot of clean lines, friendly service, decent food.

The pies, however, have not wow'd me. The flavors of the blueberry and the chocolate cream were okay, but not better than an average Coco's pie. I also didn't like that the pies on the crusts were a bit gummy.

I want to like this place more than I've experienced so far, but for now, it's just a-okay to me.

They have cutesy just-above-grocery-store mass-produced cupcakes. Yes, I'm harsh when it comes to cupcakes and pastries from franchise shops that don't usually make everything on-site.

The cupcakes are too sweet and too pricey in general. And a few of their other items are just okay. I think they're trendy or touristy or something, because there's no reason they should be so popular.

Yes, I do believe I make better cupcakes.

So, overall = meh. I've experienced better.