Live Culture

I had a great time at this place, drinking my ass off.

Well, I didn't actually drink THAT much. I had 3 or 4 mimosas and a white wine. For me that's pretty average.



The owner, Derek, was really cool and even gave us free cheese and wine samples. He came by to check on us several times, made small talk and was overall a fun, chill guy.



We ordered a cheese and bread plate to accompany our wine. I'm an alkie! Nothing beats a nice afternoon with good wine, good company, live music from the guy on guitar, and a chill cafe in Santa Barbara.



Next time I come back, I'll have to try the froyo. Was too full from mimosas this time.



Live Culture
Paseo Nuevo Mall
11 W De La Guerra
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 845-8800

Mao's Kitchen

After walking 2 miles from Santa Monica to Venice and getting a nice sunburn, we decided to stop here for lunch.

I had the mapo tofu again. What? I love mapo tofu! And I got it with fish, since I am doing no land animals diet again.



YUMMMMY!

It was quite tasty this time. Lots of spicy flavor, big chunks of tofu and medium size pieces of white fish. The tofu came in a huge bowl which I was unable to finish, even though I tried really hard. Oink.



He had the wonton soup which was meh. Broth was too salty and the wontons were huge but the wrappers were too doughy. Not my thang.



3 stars because service was good. Food was aite. Price - $30.

Mao's Kitchen
1512 Pacific Ave
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 581-830

Revolution Fitness

Due to all the eating out and drinking lately, I've put on a few pounds. So, I decided to check out spin class at Revolution.

-----------

I'm high!!

OK, not THAT kind of high. Natural high.

As in, I got an insanely awesome workout today in Spin class high.

Yep. You heard me. Spin class.

50 minutes of intense cardio, pedaling on a stationary bike, sometimes while standing on the pedals. Woo hoo!

Granted, my ass is in a lot of pain now. But, I sweated profusely and burned a ton of calories, so I am now able to eat more!

I signed up for the 2 week unlimited deal for $30. Hoping to go again tomorrow.

Everyone was really nice and helpful. Kim, the manager helped me set up my bike and explained how to use it. She even checked up on me after class to see how I liked it. Bobby, the instructor was great and played some pumpin' music.

So, all you lazy people who want to get in shape and don't know how, well, here's a great starting point. I can say this, cuz I am super lazy. Working out for me is basically doing some crunches and pushups at home.

Not anymore! Well, at least for the next 2 weeks.

Man, I'm sore. I think I'll hobble to bed now.

Revolution Fitness
1211 Montana Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 393-6399

Mishima

Pretty decent place in a strip mall. I found this place through Yelp of course.

We were at the Beverly Center and craving some noodles, so we walked over here.

At first glance it doesn't look like anything special, almost looks like a fast food place. But, the service was good and that made up for it.

Wow, the portions are ginormous here!

I ordered the san sai veggies over rice combo with cold soba. It was seriously like 2 meals in one. The rice and veggies were good and flavorful and very filling. Cold soba was good too, but I think the soba at Taiko is way better.



He had the chicken curry with rice combo with hot udon soup. The chicken was not very good and too chewy. Bleh. Also, since the curry was the main dish, one would expect it to be bigger than the udon. As you can see from the pic, the udon was way bigger. Udon was alright, kinda bland though. Meh.



My daughter had the tempura udon. It was bigger than her head and came with a huge plate of tempura. Score! She didn't eat it all, but I had some of the tempura and liked it. Well, it's fried veggies. You know it tastes good, even though it's bad for you.



Very affordable, meal was around $40 for all 3 of us.

At the end of dinner, they gave us 3 free packages of instant brown fried rice. Random, but cool. I still haven't ate them yet. It's too EFFEN hot in LA to eat anything!



Mishima
8474 W 3rd St Ste 108
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 782-0181

Ulysses Voyage

Despite all my Asian restaurant reviews, I LOVE Greek food. Surprise surprise!!

We came to the Grove the other day for some good ole Greek.

Ulysses Voyage is located by the Farmer's Market next to the trolley stop. It was a semi-nice day so we sat outside on the patio.



Caviar Hummus: OMFG!!! This was soo damn good, I almost licked the plate. It came with tons of warm pita bread. MM Mmmmm.



I ordered the grilled octopus with rice. Disappointment! The octopus was burnt! Like straight up inedible. I was close to sending it back, but didn't want to be a biatch. So, I ate some of the non-burned pieces, but it was just BLAH. The rice was okay, nothing special. My dish came with a spinach salad which was alright as well. What's up with all that cheese? They should ask if we want cheese on a salad, some people could be allergic or what not.



This would have been so much better with just a bit of olive oil.



He had the lamb gyro with french fries. Damn it. I should have just got a gyros! I was trying to be all healthy and shiet. Whatever. The gyro was good, but we had to remove most of the sauce cuz it was D-R-I-P-P-I-N-G with it. Fries were yum and topped with minced garlic. Double YUM.



Kiddo had the kid's pasta, basically penne with white sauce and cheese. They love their cheese here!



I'd come back only for the caviar hummus. Service was a tad slow, had to ask for water refills twice. Eh, it was decent. Just nothing extraordinary.

Conclusion: Get the caviar hummus TO GO!

Ulysses Voyage
6333 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 939-9728

East West Lounge

I had a good time here last night, but it wasn't amazing. Our first waiter had a bit of an attitude. The second guy was much nicer and way cool.

Duuuuude! You MUST try the key lime pie martini!! It's to die for. I was in key lime heaven.. mmm mmm... I had 2 and they were equally delicious. My friends ended up ordering some for themselves. I believe they were $12 each.



The bathroom situation is unisex, which was a bit weird since I saw a bunch of urinals and a bunch of guys, but no regular toilets. One guy was looking at me weird and asked me if this was a unisex restroom, to which I replied YES. Then, I asked another guy where the actual toilet was. He pointed to a stall in the corner.

So yah.. that was an experience.



Music was a mix of top 40, house, funky stuff and random songs. Good place to get started for the night.

East West Lounge
8851 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 360-6186

The Grove

Yesterday, we headed to the Grove to nosh on some Greek eats.

Afterwards, my kid wanted to ride the trolley.

Good times. For kids. I managed to snap some candids. Hehe.



Feet!




The Grove
189 The Grove Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(888) 315-8883

Pierre Lafond Bistro

On Easter, we drove up to Santa Barbara to eat and relax. It was such a nice day and perfect for some outdoor dining.

Enter: Pierre Lafond. A charming French bistro located on the busy and popular State Street, AKA drunk street for UCSB students.



We waited for 5 minutes before being seated on the patio. I noticed that service was pretty damn slow. I'm not sure why, but based on other people's reviews, that seems to be normal here.

We order 2 bellinis, lobster putanesca for me and salmon club sandwich for him.



Bellinis were standard, but hit the spot. I mean, gave me tingles in my head.

Lobster putanesca was good, except for the lobster itself. Booo. It was too hard an chewy. I did like the angel hair pasta and the sauce though.



S had to send his sandwich back because the bacon was not cooked fully. He likes bacon crispy and not fatty like it came. Can't blame him!



We had another bellini each to finish off the meal!

Overall, I'd come back. But, I would order something different, along with a mimosa next time.

Side note: An artist was sitting behind me and sketched a caricature of us. It was a cute touch to lunch, although he just got my back, but it still looks like me! Didn't really look like S' face though. Oh wells. It was Easter, so we bought it off him for $10.

Pierre Lafond
516 State St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 962-1455

Empress Pavilion

Wow, it's been a year since I last came here. Reading my previous review, I know why.

We came here yesterday for dim sum and it was a 2.5 overall, but because I found a HAIR in my steamed dumpling, it goes down to a 2.

WTF. A HAIR?!!!

There I was all happy, eating my steamed shrimp and chive dumpling when I saw this nasty ass hair. OMFG. I almost barfed. I immediately threw it to the side and stopped eating. UGH. What a buzzkill.

Besides all that drama, the rest of the food was decent.

- Har gow: decent, nothing that great


- shrimp with long noodles: meh.. my kid said the shrimp was too chewy. I agree.


- steamed BBQ pork buns: this was pretty good, kiddo had 2.
- yellow bean bun: S and K both loved them. I don't eat dessert, so I didnt try


- sticky rice: great texture and perfectly cooked



- Chinese broccoli: one of my faves! I love greens, especially with my new "diet"


- tripe: yummy!! Me likey tripe-y!!!! Yes, it's gross.. but whatever, I'm Asian, I eat weird stuff


- turnip cake: pretty good, but I like it better when it is soft and not so hard



OINK OINK OINK!


So, if I hadn't found that hair, I might come back. But, now, no way. BTW, it did get a B rating, so there.

Empress Pavilion
988 N Hill St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 617-9898

The Association

While bar hopping on Friday night, we stopped in here for a drink.

Upon entering this underground bar, the first thing I notice is how DARK it is. It's hard to see anything, much less anyone.. I kinda felt like a blind bat.

I guess this would be good, but once they turn the "ugly" lights on, then THAT could be a downer.

Drinks were well made and moderately priced. For 3 drinks it was $25. Not bad! Definitely cheaper than $15 martinis at the W Hotel.

However, they did not carry Red Bull. Booo. And, not enough alcohol to make Long Islands. Double Boo.

Music was.. different. Not really my style, but it was decent and had a good beat. I wasn't too keen on the carpet though. It's hard to dance on carpet. I should know, I got rug burn from the carpet at the Mayan and I wasn't even doing the nasty.

So.. overall, this is a good bar to chill at before you go to another bar.

Randomness: Some girl in the restroom offered us a slug of whiskey from her flask. We politely declined.

The Association
110 E 6th St
Los Angeles, CA 90014
(213) 627-7385

The Farm of Beverly Hills

With such a name, one would think of animals and hay. But, this place is just a simple, down home, casual restaurant.

I frequent The Farm quite often. Tonight I was craving their pasta, so we ended up here for din din.

One plus is the al fresco dining. Only in LA, in mid April can you enjoy dinner outside. It was a tad bit chilly though, so we had them turn on the heater.

We started with the calamari appetizer. Love calamari! Something about those tentacles makes them so appealing to eat. They were crispy and tasty. Perfect with the mayo based dipping sauce.




I ordered the capellini pasta which came with capers, olives, artichokes and tomatoes. Loved it! It was tasty, seasoned well and had great flavors. The only thing that I didn't like was that it was way too oily. When I was done with my dish, there was a pool of olive oil sitting at the bottom of my plate. Ew.



S had the cobb salad. It tasted fine, but since I am not really into eating salads as my main course, I can't say more than "fine". He liked it though. I liked that it came with a hard boiled egg on top of all that lettuce.



My daughter had the mac n cheese. Yum! She loved it. It was creamy and tasted like 500 calories per bite. Oh wells. She could use the extra fat.



Service was good and prompt. Oh, we had a celeb sighting. Abigail Breslin from "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Nim's Island" was celebrating her birthday there. Pretty cool cuz my kid got to see her. She was stoked.

I think everyone should check out The Farm if you are in the Bev Hills area. Good stuff!

The Farm of Beverly Hills
439 N Beverly Dr
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
(310) 273-5578

Review of the Day!

Wooohooo!! My 3rd ROTD on Yelp so far!! :)

Little Hong Kong Cafe

We were craving Tofu-Ya for Korean soondubu, but I forgot they were closed on Thursdays! So, my friend and I walked down to the plaza to get some Chinese grub.

Since, I was really looking forward to some tofu, I opted for something similar.. MAPO TOFU! $8.95 for the special and it comes with soup and an eggroll.

My buddy had the beef noodle soup with wontons. It was alright. Kinda bland and not spicy at all. Well, I guess I was expecting it to be like the Taiwanese style, but alas, it wasn't. At $8.45, can't really complain. She still ate most of it. Oink!



If you are craving Chinese, this is still my go-to for authentic food. Every other place on the westside just doesn't even come close. Of course, it still doesn't beat Mandarin Noodle Deli. Too bad they are in BF Egpypt.

Little Hong Kong Cafe
2129 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 478-7329

Hae Jang Chon

I am on a KBBQ overload. Last week I had Chosun and last night my friends and I came here for AYCE.

I was the one who suggested this place based on the reviews on Yelp. But, honestly, the quality of meat wasn't all that.

We had the AYCE and it came with tons of food. I think there was at least one cow on that platter, along with some chickens and half a pig.



Personally, the chadolbaegi was way too fatty. I had to cut off all the fat before eating it and soon after, I got tired of working for my food. So, we grilled up some galbi. That was tasty, albeit a bit too chewy.

Chicken was alright. I don't come to KBBQ to eat chicken, but we had some non- red meat eaters in our group so we had to order that.

The pork belly was way too big and by the time it was done cooking, I just wasn't hungry anymore. My friends had a few bites and said it was way too hard and not good. Bleh.



At least it was $16.99 which came out to $20 per person.

I guess this is what happens when you go to AYCE. You have to sacrifice quality for quantity.

I didn't much care for the stone grill, since it took forever to cook meat and the grease just piled up everywhere.



As far as service, it was hit or miss. Sometimes they were around, other times we had to ask for things over and over again. It wasn't even that busy.

If you want banchan, this isn't the place for you. I saw bean sprouts and rice paper wrappers. That was it. The kimchee pancake was good, but they did not replace it.

Oh wells.

I'll stick to normal KBBQ places, but I'm refraining from meat for a while. I was up half the night due to too much dead cow in my system.

Hae Jang Chon
3821 W 6th St
Los Angeles, CA 90020
(213) 389-8777

Rain Nightclub

My friends and I hit up PERFECTO while in Vegas a couple weekends ago. We are huge electronica fans, so this was the place to go. Or so, I thought.

There was a huge ass line, but the girls in our group got in for free. Thanks to MA's boobies. :) Guys had to pay $40.

Once inside, the music was really loud, almost deafening. The dance floor was really small, as most of the other Yelpers have mentioned.

I fell down the stairs coming down from the upstairs area cuz there was no light AT ALL in that area. And no, I was not drunk, in fact I was sober. It hurt like a bitch and I bruised and scraped my left arm and leg really bad, but being the trooper that I am, I stuck it out. Good thing the lady in the restroom had band-aids. BTW, the wounds are still healing.

Ya'll need to put some lights by the stairs!! Someone could fall down and break something!

So. We came to see Darude ( Sandstorm DJ) and he was awesome! He had some bangin beats and got me outta my chair to dance. Thank god they had couches so I could rest my ass.

Crowd was mixed. No fights. People seemed to be having a good time, so I can't complain.

I loved the dancers in the glowing outfits and the fire show. Only in Vegas.

Doubt I will come back though. Unless a really awesome DJ was spinning here. Rain was way better when it hosted Pimp N Ho back in da day.



Rain Nightclub
4321 West Flamingo Road
Las Vegas, NV 89136
(702) 942-6832

The Abbey

I've never had a bad time at the Abbey. It's always got a good vibe goin' on and no one is trying to get up in yo biz. Maybe I should frequent gay bars more often.

I came here for lunch the other day and was pleasantly surprised they had a good selection.

The mocha was damn frickin tasty and I could have had 2 more, but opted to stay un-cracked out.



I had the ahi burger with a side of fries. Why would I get fruit with my burger? I'm not watching my weight. Anymore. Hahaha.. Ok, maybe I should. But, whateves. I choose to eat what I want to eat as long as I don't gain any weight and so far Mother Nature has been to good to me. Let's keep the fingers crossed.



Side note- they do have lighter options for those wanting healthier food. My DC had the egg white omelette with mushroom and tomato.



So, the burger was tasty and huge which meant more food for later! Fries were crisp and golden and tasted yum with the ketchup and Tapatio. I wish they had the green Tabasco though.

Oh wells. Can't complain. I was well satiated after that meal. *rubs tummy*



The Abbey
692 N. Robertson Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069