The Counter - Customized Burgers in the Valley

First thing I noticed when we walked into The Counter was how friendly everyone was. Even amid the chaos, we were still greeted and shown to a table within 2 minutes. Kudos to the staff for that.


The Counter's drawing point is customized burgers which is great for picky eaters like me. We were hungry so we ordered a ton of food.


Crispy onion strings: thinly cut onion fried to a golden crisp. It came in a huge, heaping portion. I think we should have got the half order. Very tasty!

Parmesan french fries: fries topped off with melted Parmesan cheese and mixed with parsley, rosemary and garlic aioli. Not bad, but way too heavy for me. I had a few bites and was done. 

Sweet potato fries: Pretty tasty, good choice for the health conscious.

All the sides came with different dipping sauces. My favorite was the roasted garlic aioli.

Now on to the burgers. I had the beef burger with mushrooms, avocado, red onion, mixed lettuce and roasted garlic aioli on a multigrain bun. It was delicious! Very juicy and great flavors. 

One of my dining companions had the buffalo burger with mushrooms and gruyere cheese on an English muffin. He liked it a lot and said the buffalo was cooked well and very tasty. 

My other DC had the beef burger with grilled onions, Swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato on a regular hamburger bun. She liked it as well.

I ordered a glass of Riesling to drink since I don't drink beer. The manager actually carded me. Oh yesss.. thanks for making my day! They do have a wide selection of wine and beer for you alkies.

Overall, a great dining experience. I would definitely come back when the burger craving hits again. 

4/5****

The Counter

12117 Ventura Blvd
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 980-0004

Cham Sut Gol - AYCE KBBQ

We were so excited for AYCE KBBQ at $16.99 per person. After reading some stellar reviews on Yelp, we couldn't wait to try the bomb ass chadol and sirloin and enjoy the awesome service.

Hmm.. did that happen? Well, 1 out of 3 delivered so you be the judge.

Our group of 5 sat at a table by the back, next to the serving stations. You would think that would help our chances of getting great service, but nope! We had to constantly ask for food and drinks. At one point, we were sitting there meatless, banchan-less and with no drinks whatsoever. WTF?

All of us were pretty annoyed by this fact and we had to ask for steamed egg a few times. They tried to tell us we already got it, but we weren't that dumb. One of the waitresses was cool and hooked us up with 3 steamed eggs (that's the limit per table). However, I did see that the table behind us got stellar service and tons of steamed egg. Hmm..

On to the food. We ordered pretty much everything off the $16.99 menu, except for the intestines (barf) and the pork belly.

Chadol: Weird. Not like typical chadol, too thick and progressively got more funky. We had about 4 plates of chadol. At one point, even the waiter couldn't tell if it was chadol or beef tongue!

Sirloin: OMFG. Winner of the night! This thick and juicy steak was delicious! There is a limit of 1 steak per 2 people. We had 5, but still got 3 steaks. Yay for some sweet talking from MC in our group. Definitely get the sirloin, you won't be disappointed. 

Sirloin

Kalbi: Pretty good, albeit kinda chewy. I've had better elsewhere.

Baby octopus: Really salty, but tender. Could have done without the intense salty marinade.

sirloin, baby octopus, spicy pork belly

Beef tongue: Not bad, but then again, I'm not a fan of tongue. Don't want my food tasting me back.

Spicy pork belly: I didn't like this at all. Very hard to chew and really salty. Skip this.

Salad was okay and very salty as well! I was so thirsty the entire dinner and for hours after. 

Salad + banchan

Banchan was lacking and small in portion size. Nothing out of the ordinary here. We had potato salad, daikon, fish cake, tofu, kimchee, rice wrappers, bean sprouts and pickled cucumbers. My favorites were the rice wrappers, potato salad and bean sprouts.

Overall, the food was about a 3.5 and service was a 2.

Would I come back? Probably not. But, you can't beat a $20 dinner and feeling like a stuffed cow. 

3/5***

Cham Sut Gol
3700 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 734-9292

The Waffle - Worth the Wait?

We saw this place featured on "Best Thing I Ever Ate" thanks to Susan Feniger praising the red velvet waffles. So, we came here last Sunday to see what the fuss was all about.

First off, be prepared to wait a good 30-40 minutes for a table. We got there around 1 and didn't get a table till about 1:35 pm. Then, be prepared to wait for your food. Our food took another 30 minutes to arrive. F that. We were starving! I seriously can't stand waiting that long to eat. But, I took one for the team.

The red velvet waffles come with cream cheese butter and truly taste like red velvet cupcakes. At $10.50 for 2 pieces, it will pretty expensive. But, I guess you pay for novelty.

I ordered a tuna salad sandwich as did my DC at $8.25 each. The sandwich came with waffle fries which made them worth the price. Actually, the sandwich was pretty good.

I opted for the bottomless cocktails option which is only available on weekends. You get your choice of mimosas, bloody marys or margaritas for $12. I started with a mimosa which was just okay. Then I progressed to a bloody mary which was very watered down and weird. I would skip the cocktails and just drink water.

Bloody Mary

Someone was still hungry after her waffles so she ordered the dip and chips. What a waste of $7. A pile of stale chips and some artichoke chip = fail. Don't get this dish at all.

Our total bill was $57 before tip! Wowza. That's way too expensive for the food we got, especially after waiting an hour to eat.  

3/5***

The Waffle
6255 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 465-6901