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Kelly and I were really hungry one day, and this was close to her house, so we decided to try it, and we were quickly sorry we did. Now we did not try the ribs or pizza, but the sandwiches were atrocious!

This place is on the Northwest corner of Hollywood Way and Verdugo, and has ample parking, and is basically a covered stand with no bathroom (so go before you go, or you will be sorry).

We decided to each try one of the sandwiches, we got an Italian Beef with Green Peppers and hot giardiniera and a Grilled Italian Sausage with sauteed onions and sweet green peppers. Both had bread soggy with juice, and were a little too sweet without much great flavor. The beef looked grey and awful, and was just not good at all, and even the sausage was a let down. I would never try these again. What a waste.

Really I would never go back here, and I have no idea how this place has possibly kept open, because it is just not very good at all.

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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.

Hollywood, CA 90028

(323) 871-0888

Sun-Thurs 11A-9P, Fri-Say 11A-12PM

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Located in the Hollywood and Highland mall, this is actually a quit tasty french dip place. The food is high quality and good, and fast and they have a huge variety of condiments including lots of hot peppers and even habanero mustard, ketchup and hot sauce.

All 3 of us got Roast Beef Dips, Double Dipped (you can get dry, Dipped, Double Dipped or Submerged) and you can get Pastrami, Turkey, Pot Roast, Lamb, Pork or Veggie. And you get a huge vat of the Sip to dip your sandwich in.

I slathered mine in pickles, jalapeños, habanero mustard and dipped each bite. Delicious.

Maybe not quite Philipe’s, but still pretty damn good.

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I had been looking forward to this place, which bills itself as having the LEANEST BURGERS IN AMERICA for a while, since one of the producers I have been working with mentioned it to me. And I have to say I was very disappointed. I was not too impressed at all, though I did like the syrups and formulas you can add to your soda, though they can’t be good for you, and don’t make up for the unimpressive and borring hamburgers and fries this place serves.

I had a 1/2 lb. Black Angus Burger on Wheat Bread which includes leaf lettuce, onion, tomato, pickles and their secret sauce, and an order of their Aero Fries, which are air baked with sea salt, and have only 14g of fat, compared to 22 in their normal fries. You can also serve your own ketchup and mustard, as well mayo, and they also have a garlic ketchup I was quite excited about, but honestly it had too much garlic in it, pretty much killing the taste of the ketchup completely, might as well just be a garlic spread.

The burger was OK, but nothing special. With a name like topz, I was thinking I would get to chose toppings, something like Fuddruckers, but it has nothing of the sort, you just get to put on your ketchup and mistard. And yes the burger was OK, and I guess it was lean, but it didn’t taste that good at all.

The fries, they may have been low fat, but I am sure that is why they were so mediocre. These fries suck. What a waste! And the garlic ketchup was way too much, it overpowered them. I used some on my hamburger, but will stick to normal ketchup thank you.

Kelly, meanwhile got some sort of mini burgers order, which was very weird. They had cut a patty in quarters, and gave her 2 of the quarters, but on a strange bread. This didn’t look so hot.

They also had a Pepsi Soda machine with Dr. Pepper, and a few different syrups you could try and add, and on the wall they had some recipes to try. Personally I added vanilla and cherry to my Dr. Pepper and it was excellent, the best thing there, but with that much sugar it must have been absolutely horrible for me. And I was hoping for a plain soda to mix the syrups with, not already created sodas.

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Pretty much this place is a let down. Not very good. If you are going to go for the calories of a burger, why not get a better one than this. And hell most places are. I like Carl’s Junior burgers better than this (though I do know they are not low calorie).

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A quite large restaurant in what was obviously a strip mall at the North West corner of Victory Blvd and Clark Ave, this place has some great food, and is well worth checking out. In fact I can guarantee I will be going here again. Not only is this the best Philly Cheese Steak that I have had in Los Angeles, but the Pizza is pretty damn good thin crust New York style pizza. My only complaint is they seem to have forgotten my order, and so it took way too long, but I will give them a second chance.

I had the South Street Combo, for $8.50 which is a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich on a 9″ Italian Roll with American and Provolone cheese and saut

Monday – Thursday: 11:30 AM – 10:00 PM, Friday, Saturday: 11:30 AM – 11:00 PM, Sunday: 11:30 AM – 10:00 PM

A decent enough mishmash of a restaurant. Really not a pizza place, but a Fusion restaurant, will all sorts of different Pizza like products. Reasonable priced with huge portions, though not the best food. Decent enough for a chain, but not too impressive, but certainly good enough for a quick bite.

This time a I had a Tostada pizza with Grilled Lime Chicken, which is Black Beans, Sharp Cheddar and Monterey jack Cheeses topped with shredded lettuce, fresh tomato salsa, green onions, and crispy tortilla strips with a garden herb ranch dressing. Not bad, like a taco salad, though not at all spicy enough. Still not bad.

Kelly my lovely girlfriend had the Goat Cheese with Roasted Peppers Pizza with Mild Goat Cheese, Red and Yellow Peppers, Grilled eggplant, mozzarella cheese, caramelized onions, Italian Pasley and Tomato sauce. Also not bad, though still not a good pizza.

I really need to find a really good pizza place, since I was a gourmet New York style pizza chef for 2 years on Marthas Vineyard, as this isn’t really pizza, but a pizza like substance. Not bad, but not great.

Monday – Thursday: 4-10, Friday: 4-11, Saturday: 12-11, Sunday: 12-9:30

I had never been here, and went for dinner after work with my girlfriend, and must say I was actually fairly impressed. The steak was quite tasty and cooked exactly as I asked. Sure I was too stuffed afterwards, but this place is worth a try, because for steak it is pretty reasonably priced.

I had the 11 OZ Outback Special Steak for $15.99 Medium Rare, and as advertised it was bloody through and through, but cooked on the edges. Quite delicious and juicy. It came with 2 sides, and I got steamed broccoli, and excellent garlic mashed potatoes. The steak seemed bigger than 11 OZ and was so filling I thought I would pop, though if I wasn’t trying to lose weight I would have tried one of the excellent sounding deserts.

Also they had new england clam chowder that was actually quite good (well good for Los Angeles at least). Quite tasty and filled with clams. The spoon didn’t quite stand up, but it was good, and it had very little bacon in it, which certainly helps in my opinion.

The service was decent, and there is ample parking in the open air mall, though I would recomend parking across the road, where there is more parking and you don’t have to fight for a spot.

I was actually surprised that I liked this place. And it had a decent wine menu of inexpensive mostly Australian wines. I had a glass of the pinot noir and was quite impressed actually.

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This was always a favorite of mine since I was a kid. Just getting a burger on an excellent bun, and fries in a bag with vinegar and maybe some onion rings while chomping on some pepronchini peppers always made me happy, so we had to go. And the fries and onion rings were as good as ever, but I must say I was disappointed with the burger which didn’t seem too special at all.

This is inside the Kelley House Hotel right at the corner of Water and Kelly street, right under Water Street. It is a darkened New England Pub with a wooden ceiling and the old brick wall of the basement showing, as well as a fireplace and small bar. They have a cool menu which is made to look like a newspaper and also have many assorted beers you can sample but we couldn’t thanks to our mono.

The fries and onion rings were as good as I remembered, but the burger was a total let down. I think I have had better at Carl’s Junior. Damn. Oh well the fries were damn good.

Still worth a try, but not nearly as good as I remember.