los angeles, i’m yours (for now)

animal

remember two dudes catering?  animal is exactly the kind of restaurant one would anticipate from those guys.  glorified stoner food for hipsters, animal seems to aspires to be the west coast answer to momofuku–fine dining-quality food made affordable and casual.  suffice it to say that they don’t come anywhere near touching david chang.

the food isn’t bad.  sweetbreads, far too small, are deep fried to high hell and served with panchetta viniagrette.  i waited about a half hour for this dish.  next came foie gras on a biscuit with maple sausage gravy.  my piece of foie wasn’t particularly well cooked but still delicious (such is the nature of the greatest food on earth) but the biscuit was at once light and dense, very buttery and the maple sausage gravy, i could’ve had in a bowl and eaten as a soup.  it would’ve been great as a simple biscuits and gravy dish.  the foie seems an arbitrary indulgence that only sets forth expectations that the dish doesn’t meet.  for dessert, a pound cake with macerated strawberries and whipped cream and a bacon chocolate crunch bar.  pretty self explanatory, both decent.

not bad, but certainly not worth the time or money it took and cost for me and my friend.  few things are worse than getting the check after a meal and wondering why it costs so much.

animal
435 n fairfax ave
los angeles, ca 90036

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house of pies

everything great about food in l.a. is epitomized at this restaurant.  radiating with its fluorescent illumination, the dingy, dilapidated coffee shop interior seems a microcosm of the city itself.  it was love at first sight.

i only ordered pie and a lemonade, which for some reason was addictive beyond reason–way too sugary, a slight effervescence from god knows what, and i couldn’t get enough of it.  pecan pie a la mode may have been the best pecan pie i’ve ever had.  the menu itself is pretty standard fare.  my friend ordered a hypnotic monte cristo sandwich, a true gastronomical abomination that i wanted to bathe in.  sugar overload left my stomach unwilling to take on a bite of it.  next time… next time.

house of pies
1869 n vermont ave
los angeles, ca 90027

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