Archive for the 'Los Angeles' Category

Cha Cha Cha (Rating: 3/5)

Published by
Demosthenes
at April 15, 2007 in Food & Drink and Los Angeles. 0 Comments

656 North Virgil Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Tonight we decreed that we’d rather starve than eat Asian food again. And, since we chose not to abstain from dinner, we chose Cha Cha Cha as our destination. How apropos that our destination was west of downtown, west of San Gabriel Valley and its myriad Chinese restaurants. West. Alas, it was a poor decision.

Valet service in the meager parking lot is $5. I braved the shadowy, sinister streets and parked a block away, across from a make-shift street vendor selling victuals of his own. We were promptly seated and found that the menu could best be described as being divided into tapas, entres, and paella. Since the place is obviously not a Spanish restaurant, we stayed away from the paella.

We chose a selection of “tapas” including the jerk chicken pizza, the jerk pork, the vegetarian empanaditas, sopes de pollo, and crispy shrimp cakes. One word to summarize the experience. Mediocre. Mediocre to the fifth power. Apparently jerk flavoring is synonymous with sweet teriyaki sauce. The vegetarian empanaditas were flavorless, even when bathed in its supplemental salsa. The crispy shrimp cakes were more breading than shrimp. Of all the plates, I thought that the sopes de pollo were, perhaps, the least mediocre. Yet, being the least mediocre selection in no ways absolves it of being mediocre.

If you’re desperate for a departure from the norm, perhaps this is the place for you. However, you’d be avoiding one type of monotony for another. Next time, I think we’ll just starve. Maybe, we will appreciate the next meal a little more if we’re faminished and $50 wealthier.






Dos Burritos Review (Rating: 0/5)

Published by
Demosthenes
at August 7, 2006 in Food & Drink and Los Angeles. 0 Comments

300 S. Alvarado St.
Los Angeles, CA 90057

I’ve been to many Mexican restaurants and this place serves the absolute worst Mexican food imaginable. Our party ordered the chicken fajita combo, the chicken enchilada combo, and the carne asade plate. What we were served was an excessively salty, paltry portion of chicken cubes and green peppers, chicken tacos which included bones hidden away in the meat, and a thin slice of salted beef jerky with a salad. I do not exaggerate one bit. And, each order was $7.50.

The restaurant is located across the street from St. Vincent’s hospital which probably accounts for its meritlessly exorbitant prices — milking the physicians and hospital staff for their worth. How ridiculous that anyone should pay nearly $8.00 for refried beans, tasteless Spanish rice, and chicken bones to choke on, let alone an entre one did not order.

Furthermore, as a response to the growing popularity of Mexican food amongst non-Latin Americans, eateries are raising their prices to greater than $1.25 for a taco consisting of two hand-sized pieces of tortilla around cheap grade meat, onions, and cilantro and to greater than $4.00 for a burrito the size of your fist. My dear southern friends, let me remind you that the appeal of your comida was in its cheap tastiness. I hope the Mexican craze expires and you are left with nothing but patrons you have alienated with your belief that a taco or burrito is anything more than a simple, cheap treat.