Pie n Burger

Seize the opportunity...that's what I was thinking when I had a business meeting out in the City of Industry. I knew on he way back we would be passing through Pasadena and have a chance to finally try Pie n Burger.

This famous LA burger spot has been around since 1963 and not many things have changed. As you walk in you notice it's a long restaurant with a counter to the right and a few tables on the left. When I say it's "long", by no means do I mean big. The place probably seats 20 at the counter and another 15 at the tables. The original menu is still on the wall, the kitchen is right in front of the counter. We sat at the counter right in front of where the pies are kept. Looking at the menu on the wall, it's not difficult to figure out what to order. The hamburger is listed front and center. We ordered two cheeseburgers and split an order of fries, splitting the fries was recommended by the waitress.

While we waited for our food, we scanned all of the pies that were available, Apple, Pecan, Peach, Strawberry, Cherry, Custard, Lemon Meringue, Ollallieberry, etc...the list goes on and on. Our burgers and fries where delivered and I couldn't hold back, I dove right into the burger. Thankfully my co-worker had enough discipline to take a few photos before diving in. The burger is a quarter pound beef patty with lettuce, red onion, American cheese, housemade Thousand Island and pickles. The bun is a typical soft hamburger bun, that is toasted. Just looking at it brings back memories of the All American classic. With the first bite I understood why so many argue it's the best burger in Los Angeles. The combination of beef flavor, pickles, and dressing with the crunchy texture of the lettuce and bite of the onion was perfect. Another great thing about the burger was the size, not overwhelming, not too small, just a perfect size. The burger was delicious.

The fries were average, but definitely not seasoned enough. Surprisingly I was pretty full and didn't think I could eat another bite of food. But sitting in front of the case of pies was too difficult to bear. We split a slice of custard pie and it was perfect, not too sweet and a nice smooth texture.

Pie n Burger is a classic American diner with a delicious burger. Whether or not I think it's one of the best is yet to be determinded, there are still too many burgers I have yet to try. But it's definitely up there with the ones I've had so far.

Genwa Korean BBQ...and more.

This was my first visit to Genwa Korean BBQ. From the reviews I read, I thought it would be a good place to bring some Korean BBQ newbies. Genwa is located on Wilshire Blvd between La Brea and South Highland blvd. The first thing you notice when you walk in is the decor. It has a contemporary Asian feel and is very clean. It reminded me a lot of Gyu Kaku Japanese BBQ locations. The bbq grills are the same as Gyu Kaku as well, they are the circular grills and there are no overhead exhaust fans. The tables all seat four comfortably, but once you start ordering food, it gets crowded. With all the Panchan, appetizers and grill, there isn't much space for anything else.

The food came fast, we started with the Beef Mandu and Nakji Somyun. The dumplings were good, very similar to a steamed gyoza. The Nakji Somyun was described as a stir fry of vegetables, calamari and noodles, in a chili sauce. The portion was big and the dish had a nice spicyness to it. Immediately after we got our first entree, it was the Sizzling BiBim Bap, they mixed it for us and divided it into individual bowls. The Bibim Bap was good, nice mixture of vegetables and spices. But by dividing it up, it lost it's appeal and they did not have the classic egg mixed in.

Next up were the meats, we started with the Prime Galbi. The portion was nice and the meat was fresh. My problem with Genwa is the size and heat of their grills. With the circular grill, there is a lot less surface area and it didn't seem to get hot enough. I like a char when eating Korean BBQ. Genwa also offers duk bo sam, which are the rice wrappers and Daikon wrappers as well. The Galbi with the wrappers and a little Gochujang was good stuff. They also served the actual short rib from the kitchen, I always loved to gnaw on the meat off the bone.

Our final bbq item was the Bulgogi. Both of the marinated meats had a few vegetables that were also thrown on the grill. But a nice little surprise was the little pieces of duk that were also thrown on the grill. As with the Galbi, the grill just didn't get hot enough for the Bulgogi. The flavor was good, as was the portion. But nothing spectacular.

Genwa, is a decent option for Korean BBQ in Los Angeles. But with so many choices, it's probably in the middle of the pack overall. The one thing that sets it apart, is it's service. The staff was attentive and very accommodating. My friend brought a few bottles of wine, their corkage fee was $15 per bottle. The prices are reasonable, the total of our meal was $158. So another Korean BBQ restaurant marked off the list. I will be back, but it may be awhile since there are so many others on my list.

At the end of our meal we were still craving some food, possibly some dessert. We headed back toward home and stopped at the Aroma Bakery and Cafe in Encino. Open til 4am, it was midnight and we waited 30 mins to get a table. With an wide variety of food, this is a decent late night eatery. Another gastronomic adventure in LA.

Thousand Oaks Farmers Market

A nice article about the Thousand Oaks Farmers market in the LA Times last week.

Read the story

Fine Dining Fast Food

Found a clever site that takes fast food and converts it into beautifully plated fine dining meals. Obviously the taste is going to be an entirely different story.

Fancy Fast Food

The first post...

Experience Taste is a food blog based in Southern California. We will attempt to share all of our experiences in dining out, food trends, cooking equipment, recipes and cooking techniques.

We hope to update the site regularly with content, photos and videos.

For now, here are some upcoming events:

Tickets for The American Food and Wine Festival go on sale tomorrow July 1st.
Get more information

Luques 9th Annual Rib Roundup is happening on August 9th.


more to come.

Birthday...Lucques!

My friend Mike invited me to his birthday dinner this weekend. The dinner was at Lucques, one of LA's top restaurants. I had eaten at AOC, one of Suzanne Goin's other restaurants. I really liked AOC, so my anticipation for Lucques was really high.

The reservations were for 7:00PM on a Saturday evening. We arrived 15 mins late and the restaurant was bustling. There were nine people in our party and we were seated immediately in the area between the main room and the patio. The restaurant has a very comfortable atmosphere and the noise level makes it feel very casual. Lucques is famous for it's Sunday Supper, but the reason for it's success is based on the simple menu with top ingredients.

Lucques menu is a single sheet with a handful of starters and entrees. The meal begins with a basket of nice rustic bread, fleur de sel, oil cured almonds and the namesake olives. This was the first time I had ever had these olives and I can see why they named the restaurant after these olives. They were delicious. Mike is a wine connoisseur and he brought five bottles of amazing wine to be paired with our food. The starters all sounded very interesting and unique. I order the veal sweetbreads with grilled cornbread, wild mushrooms and pedro jimenez, the most popular starter at our table was the fried squash blossoms with manchego, marcona almonds and green romesco. When the starters were delivered, they had swapped the sweetbreads(SB) with squash blossoms (SB), the server said it would take 6-7 minsutes and apologized. So while everyone else ate, I waited for my dish and tasted everyone else's food. The green garlic soup with crushed potato and salt cod crostini was very good and the squash blossoms were incredible, the green romesco definitely gave the dish some pop. When my sweetbreads finally arrived, I dove right in. The grilled cornbread which was the base for the mushrooms and pan fried sweetbreads, was very soggy and had lost all of it's integrity. The overall flavors of the dish were great, but it was lacking in texture. There were some bumps in the service, but the meal was off to a good start.

For my entree I ordered the stuffed jidori chicken with hand-cut noodles, pancetta, asparagus and morels. Other entrees at our table included the alaskan halibut with black rice, sugar snaps, kumquat sambal and carrot-coconut broth, grilled lamb loin chops with turnip purée, citrus-glazed carrots, tamarind and dates, suckling pig with whole grain mustard, curly endive and warm artichoke-potato salad and tasmanian salmon with potato cake, cucumber salad, yogurt and pistachio aillade. All of the dishes had unique flavor profiles and ingredients, but the plating was simple and not pretentious.


My chicken my incredible and maybe the surprise dish of the night. The sauce was rich, the chicken was stuffed with a nice mixture of vegetables and the skin was nice and crisp. The hand made noodles really made the dish feel hearty. I sampled some of the other dishes the halibut and salmon were both very good.

We closed out the meal with several desserts including, churros y chocolate with cinnamon and dulce de leche ice cream, hazelnut milk chocolate cake with coffee and salted caramel, lemon curd and ricotta tart with blueberries and three cheeses with currant and walnut toast. The desserts were all delicious, my favorite was the hazelnut cake.

I thought Lucques lived up to my expectations and I think Chef Goin's dishes were all very inventive. I looked forward to trying the Tavern her new restaurant concept and coming back to Lucques for Sunday supper.

Golden Deli

Sorry for the delayed post. On our way back from Coachella, we stopped for lunch at the Golden Deli Vietnamese Restaurant in San Gabriel. I had heard alot about the food at this place and was excited to try it out.

We arrived just passed lunch time on a Monday. The restaurant was still very busy. My friend ordered the #1 and summer rolls. I ordered the Bun and some type sausage dish. The #1 at most Pho restaurants is the classic Beef Noodle Soup, with sliced rare beef, beef tendon and other beefy goodness. The pho looked great, but it's all about the broth. The sausage dish was very interesting, it was served with all kinds of condiments and summer roll wrappers. The peanut dipping sauce was delicious. My bun was also fantastic.


Overall the dishes we had were all very good. But in my opinion some of the Pho restaurants in the SF Valley are all just as good.