Tudor House
1403 Second Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-451-4107
http://www.thetudorhouse.com/
Bakery, breakfast, lunch, and tea room. Not open for dinner.
Plenty of surface and structure parking nearby for 3rd Street Promenade.
Visited: February 2010
This review is of the numerous pies that you can buy either in the Bakery or have served in the restaurant for Lunch. They're quite the value when purchased in the Bakery - prices range between $2.95 -$3.95. In the restaurant, they're $8.50 and served with Tudor House Salad. They're easy to reheat in the oven or toaster oven, 350*F for about 10 minutes.
All of the pies have a very rich crust, and are quite filling.
Cornish Pastie - ground beef and veggies in a nice gravy. This was one of our favorites with a great flavor.
Beef and Onion - a very fine ground meat and onion filling; almost felt like mushroom duxelles. This was a little salty, and you definitely need the crust to help cut the saltiness. Overall, though, this was one of our favorites.
Beef and Potato - a nice mix of meat and potatoes. This also was a good choice.
Steak and Kidney - chunks of steak and kidney. Rather bland.
Lamb Vindaloo - it was definitely a lamb curry of some sort, but did not taste like vindaloo.
Lamb and Mint - well, I wanted to try this one, but it confirmed that I don't like mint with my lamb. I ended up picking out the meat chunks - those were tender and tasty.
Vegetable Curry - A nice mix of potatoes and veggies. A different texture than some of the pies in that you could feel chunks instead of the feeling being smooth. Nice spice flavor.
Chicken Curry - a soft mix of chicken and veggies. It has a nice little spicy kick.
Chicken and Mushroom - a nice blend of chicken and mushrooms in a creamy sauce. But like all of the other pies, there's just enough sauce to hold it together; no need to worry about any gravy spilling out.
Spinach and Cheese - very very cheesey (a bright orange kinda cheese). Too salty and rich.
Spinach Artichoke - also very cheesey. I ended up picking out the artichokes.
Pork Pie - plain, and the chunks of pork were rather firm.
Scotch Pie - a mixture of ground beef and spices. This was also a very tasty pie.
I'm glad we took the opportunity to try all of the pies. It was interesting that some were so tasty, others bland. Some I would definitely get again, others definitely not. Overall, I would choose to purchase them in the bakery to take home instead of being served in the restaurant.
Showing posts with label santa monica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label santa monica. Show all posts
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Ye Olde King's Head Afternoon Tea, Santa Monica, CA
Ye Olde King's Head
116 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-451-1402
http://www.yeoldekingshead.com/
Plenty of nearby lot of structure parking.
Casual dining and pub.
Visited: Afternoon Tea: February 2010
Visited: Pub, several times
Ye Olde King's Head has Afternoon Tea every Saturday from 2-5. We're always looking for a fun place to have English Afternoon Tea, so we were glad to be invited here for a special event.
There is one set Traditional Afternoon Tea menu (meat or vegetarian) for $15.95 meaning that you don't have a choice between how large a tea meal you want or any options within the menu.
You do have a choice of tea: Earl Grey, Darjeeling, or a House Blend of black teas. Each person gets their own pot with a shared tea leaf strainer. Milk and cute little sugar cubes are on the table. They do refill your pot with hot water if desired, and that was a nice touch.
On to the meal...Because we were a large group, the tiered trays were brought to be shared between 2 or 3 persons, which was nice to conserve space. However, we did end up with quite a number of tiered trays on the table and after a while it was hard to see each other.
The top plate of our tea tier was a scone with what looked like currants but tasted more like raisins. The scone was served with a dish of jam (to share) and what I thought was a dish of Devonshire cream but was in fact cream cheese! Quite shocking, I say. A nice dish of butter would have been better. But since I don't like either jam or dairy spread on my scone, I thought the scone was rather plain and dry.
Also on the top tray was a mini quiche and a slice of a sausage roll. Both of which were warm and very tasty. It would have been nice to have a full sausage roll, as that is something uniquely British and would have been a great treat.
The next tier down were our sandwiches. Overall, the ratio of bread to filling was very high on the fluffy bread side. The sandwich flavors were cucumber-cream cheese, egg salad, and something called Indian chutney with grated cheddar cheese (I thought this was very odd, kinda sweet and salty, but some others seemed to really like it).
The bottom tier was dessert. There were two different types of sliced cake. Very tender cake with cream fillings.
Overall, it was fun to try out their Afternoon Tea, but I won't be back.
116 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-451-1402
http://www.yeoldekingshead.com/
Plenty of nearby lot of structure parking.
Casual dining and pub.
Visited: Afternoon Tea: February 2010
Visited: Pub, several times
Ye Olde King's Head has Afternoon Tea every Saturday from 2-5. We're always looking for a fun place to have English Afternoon Tea, so we were glad to be invited here for a special event.
There is one set Traditional Afternoon Tea menu (meat or vegetarian) for $15.95 meaning that you don't have a choice between how large a tea meal you want or any options within the menu.
You do have a choice of tea: Earl Grey, Darjeeling, or a House Blend of black teas. Each person gets their own pot with a shared tea leaf strainer. Milk and cute little sugar cubes are on the table. They do refill your pot with hot water if desired, and that was a nice touch.
On to the meal...Because we were a large group, the tiered trays were brought to be shared between 2 or 3 persons, which was nice to conserve space. However, we did end up with quite a number of tiered trays on the table and after a while it was hard to see each other.
The top plate of our tea tier was a scone with what looked like currants but tasted more like raisins. The scone was served with a dish of jam (to share) and what I thought was a dish of Devonshire cream but was in fact cream cheese! Quite shocking, I say. A nice dish of butter would have been better. But since I don't like either jam or dairy spread on my scone, I thought the scone was rather plain and dry.
Also on the top tray was a mini quiche and a slice of a sausage roll. Both of which were warm and very tasty. It would have been nice to have a full sausage roll, as that is something uniquely British and would have been a great treat.
The next tier down were our sandwiches. Overall, the ratio of bread to filling was very high on the fluffy bread side. The sandwich flavors were cucumber-cream cheese, egg salad, and something called Indian chutney with grated cheddar cheese (I thought this was very odd, kinda sweet and salty, but some others seemed to really like it).
The bottom tier was dessert. There were two different types of sliced cake. Very tender cake with cream fillings.
Overall, it was fun to try out their Afternoon Tea, but I won't be back.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sonny McLean's, Santa Monica, CA
Sonny McLean's
2615 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90403
310-449-1811
http://www.sonnymcleans.com/
A few parking spaces out back, otherwise you're on your own finding street parking on Wilshire, 26th Street or Princeton.
Casual. Full bar.
Visited: Friday, March 06, 2009, Lunch, Dine-in
Sonny McLean's is an Irish Pub and Restaurant with a definitive Boston slant. If you are a Bostonian in LA missing your roots, this is the place to come. They feature Boston sports, lots of memorabilia, even some seats from Fenway. They also have pool tables and darts.
This used to be Red Setter; if you've been there, you know where Sonny's is.
So we just had a few things...
The appetizer portion of the Fried Clams ($12.00) - these are amazing. Super fresh and plump. Not those chewy things you usually get. It comes with coleslaw and tartar sauce. This portion is huge, and enough for a meal. But they also have the Fried Clam Dinner for $16.95 that includes fries.
The basket of Sweet Potato Fries ($4.95) were plentiful and very tasty. I just love sweet potatoes this way - crisp on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside.
And the Hamburger ($7.95) was huge! It's a half pound burger on a potato roll served with fries. It comes with the usual lettuce, tom, onions, pickle and regular potato fries. Quite a meal.
They have 30 beers on tap, plus more bottled, and a full bar. A quiet place to come for happy hour; a bustling place to come on the weekend.
--T
2615 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90403
310-449-1811
http://www.sonnymcleans.com/
A few parking spaces out back, otherwise you're on your own finding street parking on Wilshire, 26th Street or Princeton.
Casual. Full bar.
Visited: Friday, March 06, 2009, Lunch, Dine-in
Sonny McLean's is an Irish Pub and Restaurant with a definitive Boston slant. If you are a Bostonian in LA missing your roots, this is the place to come. They feature Boston sports, lots of memorabilia, even some seats from Fenway. They also have pool tables and darts.
This used to be Red Setter; if you've been there, you know where Sonny's is.
So we just had a few things...
The appetizer portion of the Fried Clams ($12.00) - these are amazing. Super fresh and plump. Not those chewy things you usually get. It comes with coleslaw and tartar sauce. This portion is huge, and enough for a meal. But they also have the Fried Clam Dinner for $16.95 that includes fries.
The basket of Sweet Potato Fries ($4.95) were plentiful and very tasty. I just love sweet potatoes this way - crisp on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside.
And the Hamburger ($7.95) was huge! It's a half pound burger on a potato roll served with fries. It comes with the usual lettuce, tom, onions, pickle and regular potato fries. Quite a meal.
They have 30 beers on tap, plus more bottled, and a full bar. A quiet place to come for happy hour; a bustling place to come on the weekend.
--T
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