** NOTE ** I do my best to keep this list updated, but restaurant, as you know, rise and fall faster than a cheese souffle. As you browse this list, if you happen to see any restaurants that have closed, please let me know with a comment. Also, I LOVE RECOMMENDATIONS from you, so if you have one for me, please let me know on Your To Dine List over here. Thanks! xo
Back when I was in school, semi-normal people recounted the mundane details of their daily lives or poured out their heart’s emotions and feelings by writing a simple expository letter every night to some invisible friend named “Diary.” Presumably, “Diary” did not mind at all reading about every single inconsequential, boring detail of your pathetically uneventful life or yet again, *rolleyes* about how that fu–king a$$wipe ex-boyfriend totally wronged you into never trusting men or yourself again, just-finally-get-over-it-it’s-been-six-years, okay? (Huh? Blog, what?) That’s semi-normal people who write to their invisible “Diary” friends. Normal people, of course, pay $175 an hour for a live friend named “Therapist.”
I, on the other hand, never had a diary. The therapist is another story, but don’t worry, I’m totally over that lying, cheating son-of-a…Instead, I had a book of lists. I had one of those annoyingly adorable notebooks from Artbox or some other Korean stationery/gift store that had a generic pudgy cute cartoon animal character that looked like Hello Kitty but wasn’t Hello Kitty, and what sounded like an English translation of a Korean haiku that made no sense whatsoever: “flower love make you pretty in my heart.” This notebook, with the pages in each section a different shade of the pastel rainbow from pink to peach to lavender, was my book of lists. On each new page, I would select some topic that captured my fancy and made an associated list. I even wrote the lists in full-blown technicolor with my eek!girlie! gel pens. Most of the time, it was some form of a To-do List or a ridiculous Top 10 Favorites list. Top 10 Songs I Love This Week. Top 10 Places I’d Go for My Honeymoon – was I stupid? Top 10 Characteristics in a Guy – omy, I was stupid! And yes, there were even many lists that were related to food. Top 10 Favorite Snacks. Top 10 Favorite Baked Potato Toppings. If ever I got really crazy, it would be a mad combination like Top 10 Favorite Things to Do with a Baked Potato. Whoa. I was so weird.
I was a weird, freaky freak about lists.
Was? I still am.
It doesn’t come out much on the final output to The Delicious Life, but I have an Excel workbook with more than a dozen worksheets filled with lists. Some of the lists are stand-alone, like an alphabetical list of every vegetable I can think of and a column to check off whether I have eaten it or not. Some of the lists cross-reference lists on other worksheets. Some of the lists are just so embarassingly nerdy to be lists that I will never disclose them. Didn’t I just mention the Lifetime Vegetable List? Crap.
One of the lists that I used to have in that pastel prissy pink princess book was a list of restaurants I wanted to try. The exact contents of that particular list, of course, have long since been outdated, but I still maintain a list of restaurants that I want to try. It’s my To-Dine List. Since one of my New Year’s resolutions was to make a few dents in my To-Dine List, putting the list here on The Delicious Life is a way to remind myself.
This is actually just a subset of highlights from the complete list (which is much longer and extends far beyond LA), and to be quite honest, I have no idea how some of the naughty restaurants even found their ways on to my list. I mean, come on, Bella is Geisha House’s Italian step-sister. But they are there, so I will try them, and I suppose come back here every once in a while to update the list with dates (mm/dd/yy, not guys’ names – LOL!). It would be pretty ambitious and very expensive to try all of these this year, but…who knows? It’s only January, and yes, I have sent my resumé out a couple of times, too.
Sarah’s Los Angeles To-Dine List
- Akasha – check! post pending!
- All’ Angelo
- Angeli Caffe – ever since I saw Chef Kleinman rolling ricotta gnocchi – check! post coming soon!
- Animal – check! post pending
- Anisette Brasserie – check. post pending.
- Auntie Em’s
- Baby Blues BBQ – check! post pending
- Bar Hayama (the old Sasabune on Sawtelle)- check! post pending
- Bar Pintxo – check! post pending
- Bastide – check! post pending!
- The Bazaar by Jose Andres at SLS Hotel – done!
- BLD – done!
- BLT Steak – done!
- Bluebird Bakery
- Bond St. – done!
- BottleRock – done!
- Cache – check! post pending
- Capo – check! post pending
- Chabuya Noodle House – check! post pending
- Charcoal – done! and close – now as BoHo not sure I want to go…?
- Celadon Galerie – done!
- Church & State – check! post pending
- Citizen Smith – done!
- Coast@Shutters on the Beach – check! post pending…
- Comme Ca – check! post pending
- Counter, The – done!
- Cube – done!
- Culina at Four Seasons Hotel
- Cut
- Dakota
- The Dive – done!
- Doug Arango
- Drago Centro
- E. Baldi
- Eva
- Fig at the Fairmont – done!
- Ford’s Filling Station – done!
- XIV – check! post(s) pending…
- The Foundry on Melrose – check! post pending…
- Fraiche – check! post pending…
- Gilbert’s El Indio
- Gjelina – check! check! check!
- Golden Deli
- Gonpachi – check! post pending
- Hamasaku – check! post pending.
- Hidden – now Cache…
- Huckleberry – done.
- Hadaka Sushi
- Happi Songs Asian Tavern – 460 south la brea avenue. 323.936.7622
- Hatfield’s – done!
- Holly’s West – check! post pending (and now it’s closed)
- Inn of the Seventh Ray
- Ita Cho – done!
- Ivy, The
- Izaka-ya by Katsuya – done!
- Jar – done!
- Jinpachi – on the recommendation of a wine friend
- Jinya Ramen
- Jitlada Thai – check! check! check! … post pending
- Josie
- Katsuya (Brentwood) – check! post pending
- Ketchup – okay, I actually don’t want to eat at ketchup after having drinks there.
- Koi – done
- K-Zo – check!
- La Botte Ristorante – check! post coming!
- La Cachette – check! post pending
- Langer’s Deli – check!
- Lares – check!
- Lazy Ox Canteen – check!
- Le Dome – waiting for BLT Steak
- Literati II – check! post pending.
- Little Dom’s – check! post pending
- Little Door and Little Next Door – check! post coming soon!
- Lobster, The – done. and done.
- Lodge, The
- L’Orangerie – closed. bummer.
- Lou – check! post pending.
- Lucky Devil’s
- M Cafe de Chaya – done.
- Mao’s Kitchen – check!
- Madeo
- Matteo’s
- Melisse
- Milk – check!
- Mozza – check!
- Murano – aaand closed before I could write about my dinner there…
- New Concept
- Nonna (9255 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, 310.270.4455)
- One Sunset – check! post pending…
- Orso
- Ortolan
- Osteria La Buca
- Osteria Mozza – check! post pending
- Pa Ord
- Palate Food + Wine
- Palmeri – check!
- Papa Cristo’s
- Paperfish. 345 N. Maple Dr (at 3rd), Beverly Hills, 310.858.6030
- Parc – another one, dust bitten before I could write…
- Patina
- Pecorino – check!
- The Penthouse – check!
- Petrossian – check!
- Piccolo
- The Pig
- Providence – check! check! check! posts pending
- R23
- Republic - done!
- Riva Fraiche, Santa Monica – done.
- Rivera, downtown LA – check! post pending
- Robata Bar – check! post pending…
- Royale at the Wilshire Royale Hotel
- Rustic Canyon – check!
- Saddle Peak Lodge
- Simon LA/Stone Rose Lounge – check! went to the Stone Rose Lounge!
- Skooby’s
- The Social – check! went for a Social social event
- Sterling Steakhouse
- Street by Susan Feniger – done!
- Sushi Ike
- Sushi Park
- 25 Degrees
- Sona
- South – check! post pending
- STK
- Sunnin Lebanese
- Sushi Gen- done!
- Sushi Ike
- Suzhi Zo – check
- Tasca
- Table 8 – done.
- Tart
- Taste on Melrose – check! post pending
- Tasting Kitchen – check!
- Tavern, Brentwood – check! check! check!
- Taylor’s Steakhouse
- Tender Greens – done.
- Tengu, Santa Monica – done. (and now, closed)
- Third Stop – check! post pending…
- Three Square Bakery and Cafe
- Tinto (7511 Santa Monica Blvd., 323-512-3095) – hellz yeah for Spanish tapas
- Toast – done! sort of. had a “delivery”
- Totoraku
- Tower Bar
- Urasawa
- The Village Idiot – check! post pending
- Vincenti – check! post pending
- Westside Tavern – done
- Wharo – done!
- Wilson – check! but post not pending since it’s closed…
- WP24
- Yabu – on the recommendation of Helen, for casual, neighborhood…
- Yakitori-ya
- Yatai – check! post coming!
- Yuzu, Torrance – done!
- Zankou Chicken – done!
- Zu Robata – check! post pending… (but now changed to Bar*Food, wtf?)
Sarah’s Orange County To-Dine List
- Bluefin Sushi – check! post pending.
- Charlie Palmer
- Marche Moderne
- Napa Rose
- Pizzeria Ortica
Lists. I love lists. See? I’ve never been into writing long expository pieces every day about myself and my experiences in a stupid diary. ;)
tags :: food : and drink : restaurants : reviews : los angeles
