Nations

Image via en.wikipedia.org

So on my adventures in the Bay area I was told that there is one place that you should go for burgers. Everyone who comes to the Bay area must try them. NATIONS. Well needless to say I have been to Nations a few times and I thought I would let you know about the burgers and fries. I am from So Cal, Souther California for those who don't know that term, and we are known for our burgers. So I was a bit skeptical about how good these burgers were. Well after many conversations I thought I finally talk about Nations.

I got a Bacon Burger with chili cheese fries and Nancy got a Grilled Chicken Sandwich. The bacon burger had lettuce, tomato, mustard, ketchup, cheese,  and of course bacon. A Nation's burger is a pretty juicy burger that will fill you up. The burger also is a little sloppy and you must be mindful because the lettuce may cause your burger to slide all over the place. My bun did have grease spots on it probably from the person handling patty or they had the bun to close to the meat while heating it up. It was a little sloppy but still tasty. We also got chili cheese fries, and on this day I was craving these bad, and they seemed a little off of the mark today. Normally when we or I get them to go there is much more of an abundance of chili cheese and fries. Upon receiving our chili cheese fries first it needed more fries and second our slice of cheese had yet to be melted on our chili cheese fries which was a little odd, but they still hit the spot. Even though things seem to be missing the mark when you combine everything together  it flowed in harmony and all tasted good going down.

Overall Nation's is a great place to get a burger. Nations is 50's themed and works well with what you are eating. If you are in the Bay area stopping at Nation's may not be a bad idea.

Our Chili Cheese Fries and Burgers - Image by Nancy

Chili Cheese Fries - Image By Nancy

Bacon Cheeseburger - Image by Nancy

Chicken Sandwich - Image by Nancy

bistro laurent

Front of Building - Image by Nancy

This past weekend I took another trip to LA to go to my son's t-ball game and like always wanted to try a restaurant I had not been to before. I am a avid breakfast eater and LOVE French Toast. While driving around West LA, on Easter Sunday, I decided to Yelp from my Blackberry and look what popped up Bistro Laurent.

Bistro Laurent is located at 3936 Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City. I put in the address because when I was driving southbound on Sepulveda I actually drove right by the location without realizing it. Now I know you are saying it is a HUGE RED building how could you miss, but it isn't as large or bright red as you think.

Upon entering the restaurant we were greeted by the hostess who indicated to sit where ever we wanted, seeing that on Easter Morning at 9:15am not too many people were up and at it that early in the morning. Bistro Laurent had a cozy and modern feel to the space. On the sides of the restaurant there was bench seating, with individual silver chairs on the opposite side of the table. Going down the center of Bistro Laurent were two high brown tables with high seating silver chairs as seen in the picture below. There were individual portraits of people on the walls and a hand written menu near the register. They also had a fresh pastry case which was pretty empty but seeing that it was Easter morning it made sense.

My Fiance, Nancy, and I were really excited upon seeing the menu and whole ambiance of the restaurant. As we sat down and got familiar with the menu a couple next to us just happened to just fly in from France, and were telling us about their meal and what they thought were the delicious plates. They really sold us on the place and the food. So needless to say Nancy and I were thrilled to try the items on the menu. I decided to go with the French toast and Nancy decided to go with the Eggs Benedict with Canadian Bacon. The French toast is not your usual french toast, it was actually made up of three different breads combined into one. The French toast had, Traditional “Pains Perdus” or “Lost Breads”…chopped Croissants, raisins, cranberries in our sweet farm eggs batter(Description taking from their menu.) I was sitting at the table thinking this is going to be really really good or this is going to end up just awful. It was not the traditional way of having French toast and I LOVE French toast. But what the hell you only live once so I decided with the French toast and a side of turkey bacon. Nancy's Eggs Benedict with Canadian Bacon sounds like this A croissant, Canadian bacon or spinach, 2 poached eggs, our Hollandaise sauce (description from the menu.) The last peice of ordering were the drinks. Normally at breakfast I prefer a Mimosa while Nancy gets coffee or some type of juice. But on this journey down Mimosa lane I was told that they do serve Mimosa's but out of a premade bottle and for $10 dollars. I was pretty shocked that they were charging $10 bucks for a premade Mimosa so I passed and ordered a cranberry juice, while Nancy ordered coffee.

While we waited for our food to be cooked and served we received sourdough bread with butter. Normally I am against eating any free bread that is offered before your meal, unless its the cheddar biscuits from Red Lobster too tasty to past up on, because I believe bread is used to fill you up so you will not be able to finish your meal. Alas this bread was too soft and too delicious not to eat. It was nice and fluffy and just melted in your mouth. I ate close to four or five pieces before the food arrived. I found out all the bread is baked in house in there own bakery and the loaf was super fresh. I couldn't believe how good the bread was. Most times when you go to restaurant bread is offered and its not terrible but you can tell it was an after thought in the whole menu planning process and I appreciate when you start off my meal on the right foot.

Now that the bread love affair is over its time for the real meat and potatoes of the meal. The French toast and the Eggs Benedict. When our plates arrived I was a bit jealous of Nancy's dish, because it looked composed and well put together. The Eggs were flowing over the Canadian Bacon and Croissant with a small salad placed on the side. Once I looked at my french toast it looked like leftover bread that had just been heated up. Now I know looks can be deceiving so I decided to dive right into my french toast to let my taste buds be the judge of the dish. Upon the first bite I felt that the french toast was sweet enough where I didn't need to add any syrup. The outside edges of it were crisp and delicious. As I worked my self towards he center of the french toast it became too soggy to eat and started to fall apart and not taste like the initial first bites. The entire dish was still pipping hot from the outside edges all the way into the middle of the toast, so I did appreciate even heating. The Cranberries and raisins did add a sweetness to the french toast but the egg soaked batter took away from the french toast. I felt like it needed another 10 or 20 mins to soak up the amount of liquid it had stored in the all the breads made into one. But overall it wasn't a bad tasting french toast just it was one that would leaving me wanting it over and over again. The turkey bacon was the star of the dish. Normally when I have had turkey bacon it is either oven baked or pan fried. Either way it taste's amazing and I love to eat it, but on this day the turkey bacon was GRILLED! I didn't know what to do with it. It had the normally turkey bacon taste with hints of cedar that made all the flavors of the bacon stand out. By far best item on the table. Nancy's Egg's Benedict, was delicious from what she told me. Her only complaint would be to have the side salad on a different plate due to not wanting to mix her Eggs in with her salad.

Overall experience was a good one at the Bistro. I believe the couple next to us hyped us up a bit and had our expectations too high on this Easter Morning but I would be willing to go back and try more items on the menu. The price of all the food is moderately priced and worth your time effort and energy. So until our next food tasting Au revoir et en dégustant votre repas.

Part of Menu - Image by Nancy

Seating in middle - Image By Nancy

Pastry Stand and Menu - Image By Nancy

Eat CHOW!

Image By Jason

I stayed in Costa Mesa over the weekend and decided to play the wheel of fortune with Yelp and what to do for breakfast. Lucky for me I ran across a location called Eat Chow. When I initially saw the menu I was gitty about all of the items specially on the breakfast side. Yelp had some pretty high reviews for it, about 650 or so at 4 1/2 stars. On this journey of food and life I was able to have my son and nephew along for the ride.

Upon arriving to the location I was little lost to say the least. The address is 1801 Newport Beach Blvd, but when I walked up to 1801 Newport Beach Blvd. there was a retail clothing store at that location. So I walked up and the down the street a few times to make sure I was at the correct location. After walking up and down the street about three or four times I decided to try and peer around the corner to see maybe if the restaurant was on the side and maybe the address was a misprint. Just my luck I saw the same sign Eat Chow as pictured above on the side of the wall.

As you walk into the restaurant you see that same clothing store I walked pass multiple times,  it was just gated off due to the fact that the store is closed, with sleek wooden chairs fitted with red cushions. We were seated and greeted immediately upon walking in the door. So far the rating is living up to hype. I then looked at the menu and decided immediately what I was getting, but the hard part was what to get the boys to eat. I went down the menu starting at the top and only listed the items in which I knew the boys would eat, Steel cut Oatmeal, Fresh Fruit, Fresh Berries, Pancakes, either Plain, Blueberries, or my son’s favorite Chocolate Chip. My nephew Andre yelled out "OATMEAL uncle," while my son said Chocolate Pancakes. Now with the boys settled I then turned to myself and decided to go with a breakfast burrito called “GRINGO.”

All of the food looked, smelled, and tasted delicious. Donovan’s Chocolate Chip Pancakes came first, and normally when I think of chocolate chip pancakes I think of someone folding chocolate chips into the pancake batter and then made on the griddle. Which sometimes causes the chocolate chips to melt or just become chocolate blobs in your pancake. Well at Eat Chow they actually make a plain pancake and slight heat up the chips and spread them across your plate of pancakes. I really appreciated that touch on the pancakes and made them tastier according to my son. The smell of freshly made pancakes and lightly warmed chocolate almost made me steal of bite of my son’s breakfast. Andre had the Steel Cut Oatmeal, now I am unsure what enhancement this has over regular oatmeal, but let me tell you that this oatmeal was HUGE. It came with a side of brown sugar and freshly steamed soy milk, upon my request. When I mixed it all of my nephews ingredients you wasted no time in diving right in and finishing half of the bowl of oatmeal. I decided to have the Gringo, which was filled with eggs, sausage, tomatoes, potatoes, and cheese, as well with a side of salsa. I am a pretty picky eater, specially when it comes to eggs. I normally only eat eggs my fiancé cooks and they must be loaded with cheese in order for me to actually enjoy them to mask the taste, but these eggs were not bad and didn’t need to be masked at all. The all star of the dish was the salsa. There was fresh tomatoes, onions, cilantro packed into the salsa and it was just loaded with flavor that it was set my mouth on fire. I could not believe how tasty every was all together.

My overall experience here was great and would go back with my boys,just with my fiancé, friends or family. If you are looking for a great meal with a laid back environment this is the place to be. I strongly encourage you to go and try. Enjoy and EAT CHOW!

Gringo Burrito with Fresh Salsa - Image By Jason

Table Setting - Image By Jason

Andre Enjoying Steel Cut Oatmeal - Image By Jason

Donovan Enjoying His Chocolate Chip Pancakes - Image By Jason