Kitchen 24

Kitchen 24
1608 N Cahuenga Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 465-2424
www.kitchen24.info/

In the spirit of places to go eat at in Hollywood when you are piss drunk, Kitchen 24 has opened!  I have been meaning to eat here for the last couple of months after a night out but haven’t been able to make it out there till this past Monday.  The good part about Kitchen 24 is that you don’t have to be piss drunk to actually eat the food, because the menu has a good variety and tastes pretty good.  The prices are also reasonable which is great in these hard times, I think this place is going to be pretty popular for a long time.  The only problem is that the place is designed very poorly and doesn’t feel comfortable, but the service is very friendly and attentive to the diner’s needs which is more than I expected. I definitely plan on eating here again, drunk or not!

Mac N’ Cheese

Veggie Burger w/Spicy Garbanzo Patty and French Fries

Nickel Diner

524 S Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 623-8301
www.5cdiner.com

The Nickel Diner is part of a new wave restaurants hitting downtown Los Angeles, and for the most part this place is a winner.  The food is great if you are looking for a heavy All American traditional type of breakfast or dinner.  I went there for Saturday brunch and tried some great egg dishes, french fries and an item they called “Stuffed Avocado” but it was really sliced avocado’s with a salad, tasty nevertheless.  The good part about this place is that it is open till 3:30 AM, breakfast is served all days, and it doesn’t seem like you have to wait to long to get a table, but that might change as more people move into the neighborhood.  The weakness of the Nickel is that it has the usual poor service of downtown eateries and the Main street location has a long way to go for me to want to eat there past 7 PM.  The neighborhood is definitely still going through the gentrification process so I would recommend this place as a daytime eatery.

 
Shoestring Fries

Hangover Helper (scrambled eggs, pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, onions, avocado, salsa and potatoes)

Stuffed Avocado Salad

Church & State

1850 Industrial Street
Los Angeles, CA 90021
(213) 405-1434
http://www.churchandstatebistro.com

Los Angeles restaurateur Steven Arroyo hits a home run with his new french theme brasserie located in downtown Los Angeles at the bottom of the Biscuit Company Lofts.  The decor is great for a casual afternoon lunch or even a romantic evening dinner at their outside patio seating.  The vegetarian selection includes flat bread pizza, nice selection of cheeses, french fries, vegetable baguette and a tasty potatoes au gratin dish.  The tapas style food is very similar to his popular Cobra’s & Matador restaurant and has the same energy, great wine selection and friendly service.  This is much different than most restaurants in the area, including the Royal Claytons that is across the street at the Toy Factory Lofts.  It is definitely a must eat for downtown dwellers and workers that are looking for a more fun dining experience not yet found in Downtown. 

Flat Bread Pizza

Potato Au Gratin

Vegetable Baguette / French Fries

What does Barack Obama like to eat?

Check out this great article on the Obama’s favorite restaurants in Chicago and the types of food you can expect to eat if you ever get invited to the White House for dinner!

 Obamas enjoy fine food, wine, but hold the beets

 

Michael Mina XIV

XIV (Fourteen)
8117 W Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, CA
323.656.1414
Sun-Wed 6pm-11pm; Thu-Sat 6pm-2am

I have been waiting for this restaurant to open for many months and have been excited about XIV for so many reasons.  The first was that it is down the street from the hill I live on and second that it is the first Michael Mina restaurant in Los Angeles.  The design of this restaurant is modern and stunning, I have never seen a restaurant like this in Los Angeles and I have to commend Philippe Starck on his work.  Unfortunately for SBE this is where the amazement stops!!  I went to have dessert and tea around 1230 AM Saturday night with some friends, because we were going to the SBE  lounge Hyde down the street on Sunset, and let me tell you I was so disappointed.  First problem is that we had to wait 20 minutes for a table when the restaurant was half empty, the second problem is that this place is a bit of a rip off.  The way they charge is $8 per person per dish, so for example if you order one of the desserts everybody at the table gets the dessert so it costs the table $32.  We ended up ordering three dessert dishes and a couple of cups of tea and the bill was around $150.  Imagine if we had ordered a full dinner  with drinks our bill would have been over $500.  Normally I would not complain about the costs of a great meal, but the desserts were not even good, in fact my friends actually disliked them so much that after one bite that they did not even finish the remainder of the dessert.  They try really hard on making these creative dishes that are presented extremely well, but they forget the fundamental goal of a restaurant which is to make great food. 

To get a a different perspective of XIV check out Eater LA review http://la.eater.com/archives/2008/10/30/eater_inside_xiv.php

Picture from http://la.eater.com/

 
White Chocolate Ice Cube

Hazelnut Milk

White Single Needle Tea (The only good thing I had at XIV was the most amazing cup of tea!)

 

del.icio.us Tags: XIV,Fourteen,SBE,Sunset,Michael Mina