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 spinach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spinach. Show all posts
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Ports O'Call Restaurant, San Pedro, CA
Ports O'Call Restaurant
Ports O'Call, Berth 76, San Pedro, CA 90731
http://www.portsocalldining.com/
Located near the southern end of the Ports O'Call. Plenty of free parking.
Higher end. Reservations recommended for holidays, brunch and weekend evenings.
Visited: December 2009, Lunch, Dine-in
The Ports O'Call Restaurant is located on the water with a lovely view of the boats, tugs, cruise ships, and freighters that enter and exit the Los Angeles Port. It's a great special occasion restaurant, and also has a lovely Sunday Brunch.
We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch - it was a beautiful day to watch the waterway and its various birds, and the food was great as well. The menu is pretty stable, but may change around the holidays for special treats.
To start, the restaurant serves warm crispy baguettes with butter and a pesto parmesan dip. I'm such a sucker for warm bread, and the pesto was a nice touch.
I started with the special Lobster Bisque that came with two shrimp. Because the broth was based on cioppino, it had much more depth than your usual bisque. Rich and amazing. Great with the baguettes.
The Stacked 10 oz Prime Rib Sandwich ($12.00) served au jus was amazing. It comes on a lovely toasted baguette and topped with crispy onion rings and a garlic-cream cheese spread. Served with a choice of side French Fried Potatoes, Creole Cole Slaw or Mashed Potatoes, and we chose the Fries, a generous serving. The meat was super tender, and it was a very satisfying and filling sandwich.
Another very satisying entree is the Seafood Combo Tempura ($11.00), a lovely lightly battered combination of 2 shrimp, 2 scallops, fish, and a mountain of fries. The combo is served with the House Tartar Sauce and ketchup.
A holiday seasonal special was the Grilled Halibut served with shrimp with a light beurre blanc, roasted corn mashed potatoes (little bits of roasted corn kernals mixed with the potatoes) and asparagus. This really was a heavenly mixture.
We also ordered a couple sides to share (not that we needed them; the entree portions were plenty): the special Macaroni and Cheese and the Spinach with Bacon. Both were very tasty, and we would definitely order them again if offered.
It's been a long time since we attended the brunch, and that will be on our agenda soon.
Ports O'Call, Berth 76, San Pedro, CA 90731
http://www.portsocalldining.com/
Located near the southern end of the Ports O'Call. Plenty of free parking.
Higher end. Reservations recommended for holidays, brunch and weekend evenings.
Visited: December 2009, Lunch, Dine-in
The Ports O'Call Restaurant is located on the water with a lovely view of the boats, tugs, cruise ships, and freighters that enter and exit the Los Angeles Port. It's a great special occasion restaurant, and also has a lovely Sunday Brunch.
We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch - it was a beautiful day to watch the waterway and its various birds, and the food was great as well. The menu is pretty stable, but may change around the holidays for special treats.
To start, the restaurant serves warm crispy baguettes with butter and a pesto parmesan dip. I'm such a sucker for warm bread, and the pesto was a nice touch.
I started with the special Lobster Bisque that came with two shrimp. Because the broth was based on cioppino, it had much more depth than your usual bisque. Rich and amazing. Great with the baguettes.
The Stacked 10 oz Prime Rib Sandwich ($12.00) served au jus was amazing. It comes on a lovely toasted baguette and topped with crispy onion rings and a garlic-cream cheese spread. Served with a choice of side French Fried Potatoes, Creole Cole Slaw or Mashed Potatoes, and we chose the Fries, a generous serving. The meat was super tender, and it was a very satisfying and filling sandwich.
Another very satisying entree is the Seafood Combo Tempura ($11.00), a lovely lightly battered combination of 2 shrimp, 2 scallops, fish, and a mountain of fries. The combo is served with the House Tartar Sauce and ketchup.
A holiday seasonal special was the Grilled Halibut served with shrimp with a light beurre blanc, roasted corn mashed potatoes (little bits of roasted corn kernals mixed with the potatoes) and asparagus. This really was a heavenly mixture.
We also ordered a couple sides to share (not that we needed them; the entree portions were plenty): the special Macaroni and Cheese and the Spinach with Bacon. Both were very tasty, and we would definitely order them again if offered.
It's been a long time since we attended the brunch, and that will be on our agenda soon.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Maggie's Pub, Santa Fe Springs, CA
Maggie's Pub
11900 Telegraph Road, Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
562-944-5399
http://www.maggiespub.com/
Open Monday-Friday (i.e., closed weekends)
Plenty of free parking in the lot.
Visited: Thursday, March 05, 2009, Lunch, Dine in
As soon as you walk in, you know that Maggie's is a British Pub. The smell of malt vinegar hangs in the air. But you soon get acclimated, and once you open the menu, you start to chuckle. I've been there several times in the last 6 months, so below is a description of several menu items eaten there since last fall.
Sherlock Holmes ($9.95): a very large piece of fish and a large serving of chips (er, fries). Everything is fresh and the fish is quite filling. Comes with cole slaw, tartar sauce and lemons.
Winston Churchill ($9.95): the same tasty batter fried cod with a fritters. What are fritters? Ah yes, I had the same question. Think of a very large potato that is cut into long thin slices, then coated in batter and fried. These really do make the chips seem ordinary.
John F Kennedy ($12.95): the fried seafood combo. JFK comes with fish, shrimp, oysters, scallops, fritters and cole slaw. This is quite the value at $12.95 - two people could easily share this entree.
Sweeney Todd ($9.95): aka Shepard's Pie. Okay, so the beef and gravy mixture is pretty tasty and covered with mashed potatoes (and a bit off cheese, odd). It comes in a little dish, but the veggies are on the side. I like to have the beef, gravy and veggies all together. Tasty, but a bit too dissambled for my preference.
Benny Hill ($9.95): Bangers & Mash. Two very tasty traditional bland bangers, lots of cooked onions, and the mashed potatoes with a very nice brown gravy. Very filling (as are all of the plates here, actually).
The Lodger ($9.95): Open Faced Roast Beef. The meat, the mashed potatoes, gravy and white bread just melt. A nice meal on a cold wintery day.
Dutchy ($7.95): Banger Sandwich. This also comes with two very tasty traditional bland bangers (quite a lot of meat) on a large French roll. It's rather too big to eat as a sandwich. It also comes with mustard, onions, and strangely, Cheddar cheese. The cheese just kinda melts and becomes creamy with the onions.
Abe Lincoln ($7.95): Patty Melt on Rye. So did Abe like patty melts? Anyhow, this is a great sandwich. Very nicely grilled, plenty of onions, 1000 island, and cheddar.
Note - fries or fritters with the sandwiches are $1.25 extra. Aka the Stanley & Livingstone combo option.
They also offer what they call Afternoon Tea-time Favorites. They mean it when they that they're only available tween 3pm and 6pm. I've never been able to order these at lunchtime or dinnertime. They're also not what I consider traditional afternoon tea fare, but tasty, nonetheless.
I've had the Garden Vegetable Combo ($8.95). It's a fried assortment of mushrooms, zucchini and cauliflower. It's a huge appetizer, and pretty tasty.
And the Spinach 'n Artichoke Dip ($7.95) is quite good. Again, a large portion of dip served with tortilla chips.
They have a full bar, including traditional British beverages.
Maggie's is quick at lunch, and they do quite a brisk business. This is their main clientele, as you can see, they're closed weekends.
--T
11900 Telegraph Road, Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
562-944-5399
http://www.maggiespub.com/
Open Monday-Friday (i.e., closed weekends)
Plenty of free parking in the lot.
Visited: Thursday, March 05, 2009, Lunch, Dine in
As soon as you walk in, you know that Maggie's is a British Pub. The smell of malt vinegar hangs in the air. But you soon get acclimated, and once you open the menu, you start to chuckle. I've been there several times in the last 6 months, so below is a description of several menu items eaten there since last fall.
Sherlock Holmes ($9.95): a very large piece of fish and a large serving of chips (er, fries). Everything is fresh and the fish is quite filling. Comes with cole slaw, tartar sauce and lemons.
Winston Churchill ($9.95): the same tasty batter fried cod with a fritters. What are fritters? Ah yes, I had the same question. Think of a very large potato that is cut into long thin slices, then coated in batter and fried. These really do make the chips seem ordinary.
John F Kennedy ($12.95): the fried seafood combo. JFK comes with fish, shrimp, oysters, scallops, fritters and cole slaw. This is quite the value at $12.95 - two people could easily share this entree.
Sweeney Todd ($9.95): aka Shepard's Pie. Okay, so the beef and gravy mixture is pretty tasty and covered with mashed potatoes (and a bit off cheese, odd). It comes in a little dish, but the veggies are on the side. I like to have the beef, gravy and veggies all together. Tasty, but a bit too dissambled for my preference.
Benny Hill ($9.95): Bangers & Mash. Two very tasty traditional bland bangers, lots of cooked onions, and the mashed potatoes with a very nice brown gravy. Very filling (as are all of the plates here, actually).
The Lodger ($9.95): Open Faced Roast Beef. The meat, the mashed potatoes, gravy and white bread just melt. A nice meal on a cold wintery day.
Dutchy ($7.95): Banger Sandwich. This also comes with two very tasty traditional bland bangers (quite a lot of meat) on a large French roll. It's rather too big to eat as a sandwich. It also comes with mustard, onions, and strangely, Cheddar cheese. The cheese just kinda melts and becomes creamy with the onions.
Abe Lincoln ($7.95): Patty Melt on Rye. So did Abe like patty melts? Anyhow, this is a great sandwich. Very nicely grilled, plenty of onions, 1000 island, and cheddar.
Note - fries or fritters with the sandwiches are $1.25 extra. Aka the Stanley & Livingstone combo option.
They also offer what they call Afternoon Tea-time Favorites. They mean it when they that they're only available tween 3pm and 6pm. I've never been able to order these at lunchtime or dinnertime. They're also not what I consider traditional afternoon tea fare, but tasty, nonetheless.
I've had the Garden Vegetable Combo ($8.95). It's a fried assortment of mushrooms, zucchini and cauliflower. It's a huge appetizer, and pretty tasty.
And the Spinach 'n Artichoke Dip ($7.95) is quite good. Again, a large portion of dip served with tortilla chips.
They have a full bar, including traditional British beverages.
Maggie's is quick at lunch, and they do quite a brisk business. This is their main clientele, as you can see, they're closed weekends.
--T
Friday, February 27, 2009
Union Cattle Company, Hermosa Beach, CA
Union Cattle Company
1301 Manhattan Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254, 310-798-8227
http://unioncattlecompany.com/
On the northwest corner of Pier and Manhattan. There's metered street parking and validated structure parking under the restaurant.
Casual nice. Large dining room on several levels. Full bar.
Visited: several times for Happy Hour
Most recently: September 2009
This is a great place for happy hour! All of the appetizers are half price, and there are many drink specials ranging from beer and wine to cocktails. At this time of year, there's a great view of sunset during happy hour - a little bright at times, but stunning. Happy hour lasts from 5p-7p.
Here are the treats we had:
Parmesan Spinach Dip ($4.95): comes with red and green corn tortilla chips. This was so good we ended up ordering two of 'em! We did run out of chips at one point, but they were so gracious to bring us more.
Thai Chicken Rolls ($3.95): My expectations of these rolls did not live up to the product. It was a large plate - plenty of food, but I wasn't quite sure what was Thai or chicken about it. The best parts were the fried wonton strips and soy dipping sauce that were garnish.
BBQ Chicken Lettuce Wraps ($3.95): now these little guys were good! I'm not sure what all was in the filling, but it was very tasty. The BBQ sauce was sweet and smokey; very nice. There is plenty of filling - we even got extra lettuces and were able to split the filling between them.
The service is really nice; they are very sweet. They're also accomodating to groups.
1301 Manhattan Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254, 310-798-8227
http://unioncattlecompany.com/
On the northwest corner of Pier and Manhattan. There's metered street parking and validated structure parking under the restaurant.
Casual nice. Large dining room on several levels. Full bar.
Visited: several times for Happy Hour
Most recently: September 2009
This is a great place for happy hour! All of the appetizers are half price, and there are many drink specials ranging from beer and wine to cocktails. At this time of year, there's a great view of sunset during happy hour - a little bright at times, but stunning. Happy hour lasts from 5p-7p.
Here are the treats we had:
Parmesan Spinach Dip ($4.95): comes with red and green corn tortilla chips. This was so good we ended up ordering two of 'em! We did run out of chips at one point, but they were so gracious to bring us more.
Thai Chicken Rolls ($3.95): My expectations of these rolls did not live up to the product. It was a large plate - plenty of food, but I wasn't quite sure what was Thai or chicken about it. The best parts were the fried wonton strips and soy dipping sauce that were garnish.
BBQ Chicken Lettuce Wraps ($3.95): now these little guys were good! I'm not sure what all was in the filling, but it was very tasty. The BBQ sauce was sweet and smokey; very nice. There is plenty of filling - we even got extra lettuces and were able to split the filling between them.
The service is really nice; they are very sweet. They're also accomodating to groups.
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