March 7, 2013
Nom Adventures blue stove, dineLA, jambalaya, nordstrom, nutella, restaurant week, santa monica, third street promenade Leave a comment
For dineLA Winter 2013 (I know, I’m playing catch-up with my entries), C and I decided to check out Blue Stove for lunch. Blue Stove offered a two-course lunch with a tasting pour for only $15/person. Situated among the clothing racks inside the Nordstrom at Santa Monica Place, the restaurant had a quaint wine bar sort of theme going on. We were seated immediately and received prompt, friendly service from our server.
Blue Stove
February 18, 2013
Nom Adventures dineLA, la farm, lantana, restaurant week, santa monica, stefans, tasting menu 2 Comments
Oh, DineLA – some of our favorite weeks of the year. Every year, the winter dineLA falls around early February, just in time for Martin’s birthday! This year, after much scrutiny of the posted offerings from the MANY participating restaurants, he selected Stefan’s at LA Farm, recently renamed to Stefan’s at Lantana (for its location at the Lantana campus in Santa Monica). His main reasoning? We’ve always wanted to check out this restaurant owned by Top Chef contestant Stefan Richter. His secondary reason? DineLA dinner here is rated $$$ ($45/person) for a 6 course tasting menu (SIX!), definitely one of the better deals available!
One of the 6 courses is dessert! (As the years pass, dessert on a dineLA menu seems to have become a scarcer and scarcer commodity…)
When given options, we generally try to order different things so we can effectively sample the entire menu. We were able to do that for all but 2 courses — that crudo and pumpkin soup just called out to both of us and neither was willing to back down! (On the flip side, our friends Helen & Edmund made it easy on our waiter — one of each, all the way through~)
Without further ado….
July 25, 2012
Nom Adventures chicken hearts, churrascaria, churrasco, culver city, dineLA, libra brazilian steakhouse, Marcelo Ahn, meat, restaurant week 6 Comments
Some of the best Restaurant Week opportunities have to be the Brazilian churrascarias that offer their usual all you can eat fare at the discounted pricing. We’ve taken advantage of Fogo de Chao’s deal a few times, but our friends Helen and Edmund invited us to double date in Downtown Culver to check out a pretty awesome churrasco joint in our backyard — Libra Brazilian Steakhouse. During DineLA, Libra is rated $$ for dinner – only $35/person for the salad bar, hot bar, endless meat, and dessert!
Pao de queijo!
First, the cheese bread! I love pao de queijo; they are such wonderful little balls of cheese dough that’s crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The ones here, while not quite as amazing as the ones at Fogo, did not disappoint. On to the salad bar! Martin walked right past the entire setup, but I snagged some small portions of shrimp cocktail (chilled and sweet), grilled asparagus (nice char and good to pair with the meat), smoked salmon with creme fraiche and capers (arranged in cute little flavorful bundles), and prosciutto (a bit dry). Somewhere along the way, the salad bar ends and the hot bar begins. We only tried the caramelized bananas, which were literally bananas in a caramel sauce; it was a bit too sweet for us and a different style of preparation than we’re used to. Helen remarked that the “mashed potato wannabe” (mashed yucca) was good, although she got it on two separate occasions and it was a different texture each time… how peculiar.
July 21, 2012
Nom Adventures braised short rib, dineLA, prix fixe, restaurant week, restaurants, santa monica, sticky toffee pudding, wilshire restaurant 4 Comments
This year, DineLA Restaurant Week moved up from fall to the very first summer DineLA, weekends inclusive! While I’m a little bummed that there won’t be a DineLA during my birthday in October anymore, I still love checking out new restaurants at discounted rates any time of the year. Cassandra and I took this opportunity to try Wilshire Restaurant, not one mile away from the office. The food was fantastic, the price (rated $$$ – $25/person) was great, the service was friendly, and the ambiance was relaxing (albeit a little too leisurely for weekday lunch break).
The outdoor patio
Martin
Alice @ Nom Nom Cat
