Restaurant Review #171: Boule - CLOSED

Fromage blanc cheesecake

Boule is an upscale bakery, chocolatier, and gelateria with an unassuming, even drab brown exterior that gives way to an incredibly sunny, high-ceilinged light blue paradise. It's the perfect place for some pampering: after your car dies in the middle of a major intersection during rush hour and you have to spend $360 to get it fixed, on top of the $650 you've already

Restaurant Review #170: Fina Estampa Authentic Restaurant, Chatsworth

Seco de Res

I'd never had Peruvian food before, though I think that eating all of the cuisines of Latin and South America really should have been a prerequisite for my degree in Spanish. Prior to writing this review, the extent of my knowledge of Peruvian food was that some of Nobu's dishes have Peruvian influences (specifically, the ceviche and tiradito, as I have learned). And that was it.

Restaurant Review #169: Angeli Caffe, West Hollywood - CLOSED

Fried calamari with arrabiata sauce

Update: This restaurant has closed. 

Since I'm a longtime fan of KCRW's Good Food, hosted by Evan Kleiman, I had long been dying to check out her restaurant, Angeli Caffe.

The restaurant consists of two rooms--it appears that the restaurant occupies two spaces that were not originally attached. In the main, more popular room, the tables are a little

Restaurant Review #168: Il Moro, West LA

Tortelloni d'Aragosta: lobster tortelloni in a creamy saffron sauce

I enjoyed my experience at Il Moro so much that I don't really want to tell anyone about it lest it become popular or crowded. However, I'd be deluding myself if I thought I had that much influence over the dining population of the world's sixth largest city. I can still get a table at Kiriko, after all, and I've done plenty

Restaurant Review #167: Bamboo Village, Sherman Oaks

General Tso's chicken

Though I can recognize that the deep fried, gooey-sweet orange chicken I unabashedly adore is probably a far cry from authentic Chinese food, my knowledge of what makes Chinese food authentic is severely lacking. I'm familiar with dim sum, but I know that eating cow stomach and pork buns served from a metal cart isn't the way every meal is done. So when I read that a

Restaurant Review #166: Mama Voula's, West LA - CLOSED

Greek salad and lamb gyro

Despite being a hole-in-the-wall-in-a-strip-mall, Mama Voula's, decorated in vibrant shades of peach, light yellow, and light blue, is surprisingly airy and cheery inside. The service is friendly, the food comes up fast (my takeout order was ready in just ten minutes), and they even have a parking lot where you can usually find a space. Yellow paint makes this

Restaurant Review #165: Original Tommy's World Famous Hamburgers, Van Nuys

Double cheeseburger, no chili

Tommy's is a chain, yes, but if you haven't lived in southern California for a while, it's probably not familiar to you. Like me, you might be wondering, "what's so great about these burgers that they think they can call them 'world famous?' "

As far as I can tell, the only unique thing about Tommy's burgers is that they all come with chili on them. So if, like