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The LA Original, established in 1908 that created the French Dip in 1918, and has been owned b y the same people since 1927, and in this location since 1957, and home of the 9¢ cup of coffee, is an LA classic that everyone needs to try! This time I took Kelly because she likes French Dippe sandwiches, and had never been, and we had a wonderful time! The sandwiches are always good, and we tried some sides. There is also 2 ample parking lots on Ord, though if you are going on a week day at lunch, expect a long wait (and you will always wait in line along the sawdust strewn floor. Philippes is always good, and always tasty, and quite inexpensive as well.

Philippes “French Dipped” Sandwiches are freshly roasted meats on a french roll dipped in Jus created from teh meats. You can get “single-dip” “double-dip” or “wet,” and you can get beef, pork, ham or turkey for $5.35 or Lamb for $6.50, but the beef is the classic, and is tender and delicious, with some of Philippes hot mustard, they make on site! The sandwiches are juicy and amazing.

We also got a side of the tasty pickled egg, which is a bit dry, but tasty, and seems to be pickled in beat juice, and which comes with some spicy peppers. I also got some chips and and ice tea.

You might have to fight for seating though, as their is not too much, but the French Dippes are perfect are delicious!

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My dad and I went here for lunch when he was in town off the recommendation of my uncle (something about cute waitresses is what I think he told my dad), and I have to say I am glad we went because the food is actually quite good, and has quite an eclectic menu. They also have some interesting looking drink concoctions, but we stayed away from those as it was lunch time. This is a delicious Montana eatery, just watch for parking enforcement.

I went for a chicken sandwich and a side salad, and it was quite delicious. Good bread, and tasty dressing made this sandwich well worth it. I could have gotten fries as well, but I need to start losing weight for the wedding or I will look like a whale!

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I would certainly eat here again, and would like to try both their breakfast and their dinner. Quite good.

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For some reason I always thought this place was called the Beachwood Cafe, but I guess not. This is what I would call a very rustic coffee shop with breakfast and lunch. The decor is early 20th century America, and the wooden tables and chairs all wobble, and the register is about as old as can be. I actually think the place has better atmosphere than food, but it is alright to visit once in a while.

When I saw they had a Rueben I just had to try it, and I must say I was pretty disappointed. Not only is this a fairly small ruben without enough sauerkraut, but it is the corned beef that I didn’t like. The corned beef is very fatty and stringy and honestly hard to chew, and it got stuck in my teeth, and while I ate it, I wouldn’t eat one again. Perhaps I will stick to breakfast food if we go here again.

Kelly got the pancakes with scrambled eggs and ham. She though the pancakes were decent, and the Ham, damn that is one huge, rustic looking slab of ham.

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Certainly not the best breakfast in the area, but it does have an interesting look to it, so it is worth going once in a while, and it does have pretty reasonable prices.

1650 N. Highland Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 465-2111
Sun-Thur 6:30 AM- 3AM
Fri-Sat 24 Hours

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I actually didn’t realize this was a chain until I looked at the web site, I had just passed this 50′s style diner so many times, that Kelly and I finally decided to go. The service was decent, and so was the food. The place is kind of fun, and their is a little museum attached even, and there are jukeboxes at each table, but they are 25¢ instead of the 5¢ at Johnny Rockets. Still this place was not bad.

I had a Famous Melburger with Fries, a 1/3 lb groudn chuck with a sesame seed bun, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo and pickle chips. A decent griddle burger, and tasty fries, though neither was amazing.

Kelly got the Old Fashioned Buttermilk Pancakes with an egg and ham. And look at that slab of ham! Wow, that was some thick and tasty ham. And the pancakes were good and fluffy. Not amazing, but decent.

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Decent enough, though nothing too special.

6255 Sunset Blvd
Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 465-6901

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Located in the high rise at Sunset and Argylle, you park in the structure on Argyle, and be prepared for a wait. This place is new, and excellent and quite popular, so we had to wait for a seat. The place looks as hip as can be, and there is seating inside and out, and they spent time on design. And the food is great as well. We just had waffles, but I might even have to try a burger sometime, and they have a very large breakfast menu, sandwiches, soups, salads, burgers, vegetarians dishes, sweets, shakes, beers. Damn this place has a lot to offer, and the service is top notch. They filled my ice tea at least 7 times!

Wow they have a lot of delicious sounding waffles.

I was so surprised Kelly didn’t go for this, but I had the Chocolate Waffle, with fresh berreis and whipped cream, and it was amazing. Wow was it good! So amazing!

Kelly had the carrot cake waffle, which is a mutli-grain waffle with crushed pineapples, grated carrots, walnuts, raisins and served with a cream cheese icing. Wow. This was good as well, though a little too sweat for me maybe, but still delicious, and Kelly preferred it to the chocolate, which says a whole lot!

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Between the delicious food, reasonable prices and amazing service I have to say that this place is just going to get bigger and bigger!

88 W Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 396-0956

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I didn’t realize this was an international chain restaurant, but to me it seems a pale imitation of the Alcove Cafe, with interesting looking food, small portions and an overall disappointing experience. The menu made it sound wonderful, but Kelly and I were so disappointed and the portions so small, that we went to Johnny Rockets afterwards.

We both went for sandwiches, I had the Dinde Rotie et sauce auc herbes, which is roasted turkey with herb dressing and Kelly had a sandwich with ricotta cheese, figs, black pepper and honey. All their sandwiches, are a bottom piece of bread, cut into strange and tiny little triangle shapes, with the ingredients on top. The Turkey was bland and dry and very unimpressive. And Kelly’s had a lot of cheese, like 2 dried figs and a little bit of honey. They sounded good, but were so unimpressive, with such small portions. And too artful for their own good, on a little plastic plate shaped like an artists pallete. I mean come on, they try too hard.

The place was pretty packed, so the service was pretty slow. The one thing I did like was the Organic Lemonade, which was sweetened with agave, and it was actually too sour, but still damn good.

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I would not eat at this place again, the food was way too unimpressive overall.

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We had breakfast here, and were quite impressed, though it’s tagline is “Famous for Roast Turkey” so I assuming it has a different lunch and dinner menu, but they have a huge selection for breakfast. From a ton of different types of omelets, pancakes and even cinnamon bread english muffins! Wow, never seen that before.

The service was fast and the food was pretty good. I would certainly eat here again.

Both Kelly and I had the healthy choice omelets, though she got hers without chicken, and I got it without tomatoe. It had egg whites, and a ton of veggies as well as avocado, and was quite tasty, and came with a nice side of sliced fruit, and either bread (I got sourdough) or a muffin (kelly got a carrot muffin, which she quite enjoyed).

A very tasty diner.

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On the way to the Ferry we had time to kill because of our 10:45 Ferry (going back from MA to CA you always have to take a late flight because you need to take the Ferry and Bus to get to Logan) so we went into Oak Bluffs for breakfast. My mother says this was another place locals go because there are not that many breakfast places on MV. And we had a wait, though not too long, and they have those vibrating things to inform you so we walked around Circuit Ave a bit. The place has a great menu for breakfast food, with some great looking pancakes, waffles, and a huge selection of breakfast meats. Quite tasty with fast service and good prices.

Kelly had eggs with pancakes and sausage. My mom and I each had Eggs Supremo, which are eggs benedict, but without the Ham and with Asparagus substituted. This was quite good, and filling.

I am not a breakfast person, but this place is tasty and well worth checking out for breakfast. Yum!

The breakfast was excellent, with good scrambled eggs with your choice of additions, 2 toppings and one cheese, and you can add avacado, prosciutto or smoked salmon for an adidtional charge (I had avacado, goat cheese, mushrooms and spinach). On a second visit I had their amazing huevos rancheros, with 2 crispy tortillas, topped with black beans, fried eggs, tomato salsa, avacado and sour cream with oven roasted potatoes. The tortiallas were red and blue, and this was huge and fantastic. I also have tried the Alcove Burger, which has tomato, carmelzied onions and arugla, with either delicious fat yukon gold french fries, or monstrous onion rings or a side salad, and was also quite delicious. The portions are good, and the prices fairly reasonable. This place is great.

The Huevos Rancheros. Damn they are tasty. The little metal container has a tomato based hot sauce, that is pretty mild, the plastic has sour cream.

The Chicken Quesadilla. Damn are the portions big, and tasty too.

The only thing that was a little too much, was my girlfriend Kelly got the brie and apple panini with carmelized onions, and honestly it had too much brie on it, which is not something you would normally have to complaing about. Not bad, but a bit much on the cheese side.

To drink I always go for one of their amazing fresh fruit smoothies, which are not up on the menu, but on the always changing chalk board with their specials. They also have some amazing looking deserts and baked goods, different coffee’s and espresso, and fresh squeezed OJ. This place has some great selection.

Lately I have been getting the Juevos Rancheros, which are actually a variation with black beans, colored tortillas and a side of potatoes, and are so damn good I love them. They are amazing!

I have taken many friends from out of town here, and they all loved it. This place is really special and I couldn’t be more glad that I found it. I have actually been back many times, and liked everything that I have eaten.

There is really nothing to complain about this place, except the uncomfortable and sometimes broken chairs. I actually saw one family have their kid fall through the back of one of the chairs twice before they decided to change their chair with their small child’s. And the tables are old as well so they are not all levelled very well.

Parking is Valet in the back, and their is Village Gourmet Cheese & Wine Shop in the back, which i have to try out sometime, as I have been in the shop in the front (which is attached the restaurant) and everything looks amazing, so the rest of their wine selection is probably pretty good, and they also have wine tastings.