Kay & Dave's (Santa Monica)

Kay & Dave's Cantina
262 26th St
Santa Monica, CA 90407
(310) 260-1355

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Here's pictures from when I went to Kay & Dave's in Santa Monica back in May. It was an odd visit and a couple things went wrong that I would guess don't normally go wrong so I'll reserve judgment on them until a future visit. Food was mostly pretty good. Has anyone else been there? If so, please leave a comment.

Free Chipotle Burritos Today - Puente Hills

17501 Colima Road
Puente Hills, CA

East L.A. Meets Napa

Here are some pictures I took at the recent East L.A. Meets Napa event held at Union Station and sponsored by Alta Med, provider of health services to the underserved population (that might be me right now in my unemployed/underemployed/uninsured state), where Latino restaurants from East L.A. had their food paired with fine wine selections to show that Latino food doesn't have to be served with just beer or tequila. Even as somebody who doesn't drink alcohol there was still a lot of great food, from spicy Oaxacan cheeses, to stewed lamb, to refreshing ceviches, and artisan flans and Jell-O's (from Attila the Flan, an online comic turned into a dessert; read their site for more info). Rivera Restaurant was also a big hit with their handmade tortillas with edible flowers pressed into them.

Also got to see some other food bloggers there, including Wandering Chopsticks, Javier the Teenage Glutster, and Bill of Street Gourmet LA).

CLICK HERE for a much bigger version of the slideshow.

Back to Attila the Flan, I have found that they have YouTube videos up of people emphatically declaring that they hate flan . . . until they try flan from Attila the Flan. Here's one such video:

Their YouTube channel is here.

Las Anitas (Olvera St.)

Las Anitas
W-26 Olvera St.
Los Angeles, CA
(213) 623-1153
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Went to Olvera St. a couple months ago with a friend who wanted me to try out his favorite Mexican restaurant. Well, it happened to be closed that day, so we ended up going to Las Anitas instead. In fact it was Ash Wednesday when we went and Olvera St. seemed almost deserted. We found out later Cardinal Mahoney was in town so that might explain where all the people were.

Las Anitas is built into what I believe used to be an Italian restaurant so some of the Italian decor remains. You have to walk down a few brick steps into the interior which is at basement level compared with the main part of Olvera Street.

Since this was during the period of Lent the restaurant was focusing on seafood dishes. I tried a dish that was basically shrimp blended up and fried into little patties. Not bad but not totally up my alley but I didn't mind trying it.

My friend got a very standard enchilada platter with rice and beans:

I finished off my meal with a very rustic bread pudding.

Great place for very home-style Mexican cooking. While the shrimp dish I had wasn't exactly my thing I don't hold that against Las Anitas and will be back to try more of their dishes . . . after I try the place that was closed that day.

Tito's Tacos (Culver City)

Tito's Tacos
11222 Washington Pl
Culver City, CA 90230
(310) 391-5780

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So now we come to Tito's Tacos, the infamous Tito's Tacos. Tito's Tacos has a huge cult following and a love-it-or-hate-it reputation on the Internet.

Tito's has been feeding crowds of hungry people since 1959. This is the type of place you don't go to alone; not because it's not safe but because it's more about enjoying the usually average food in the company of good friends. The whole menu can be seen in the next photo. The lines here are so long you will have plenty of time to peruse the menu and figure out exactly what you want when you finally get a chance to order.

Unique Item

A unique item at Tito's Tacos, as far as what Mexican restaurants usually have, is their Chili con Carne.

You get your food in open-faced cardboard boxes whether you're eating in or taking it with you and they always throw in some complimentary chips and salsa. You can see from the photo that the taco is in a crisp shell with shredded beef and a bunch of lettuce:

Cheese actually costs extra, so keep in mind you're not going to get cheese for your taco unless you pay fifty cents more. Maybe this is where they make their money. And here's an actual photograph of the people at the table next to my party's table:

Though people fight about its merits all the time I am fine with categorizing Tito's Tacos as good "picnic food." I'm pretty sure their recipes haven't changed since 1959 and with so many people buying their food why ruin a good thing?

Here's an enchilada and a tamale:

Parking

There's a couple different parking options at Tito's but with their popularity it can be a little hard to find a spot. There seems to be some metered parking and some free parking. Just make sure you don't park in a spot that is reserved for one of the other nearby restaurants or you may come out to find your car towed.

When you leave Tito's you can be as happy as this guy:

Del Taco Bowls

Drove through a Del Taco drive-thru the other day and saw that they are now offering, at least at this location, a new Chicken Enchilada Bowl and a Cheesy Chicken Bowl.

If you see these at your local Del Taco and/or have tried them let us know by leaving a comment. Also, you can read our extensive coverage of Del Taco/Naugles in Orange County here.

Lupe's Candy Shop (Olvera St.)

Lupe's Candy Shop
C-24 Olvera St.
Los Angeles, CA

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Welcome back for my first post in a while.

I'm eventually going to cover all the eateries that are on Olvera St. but I'm starting out small by focusing on Lupe's Candy Shop.

When my dad worked for the City of Los Angeles he would often bring the family to Olvera St. and I always wanted to stop at the candy shop and get one of the cone-shaped suckers that was part green and part red. Lupe's has all sorts of sweet mexican delicacies including the pumpkin and sweet potato candies. I got a thing that was like a peanut brittle cookie, a "red" cookie, a de la Rosa brand ground peanut wrapped candy, and a chocolate chip cookie that basically just has chocolate chips on the top, albeit a lot of them. When I asked Lupe what the red cookie was called she said she didn't know. In fact, I'm not even sure if it was really Lupe. The red cookie had just as much shortening in it as I remember. Same with the chocolate chop cookie. The ground peanut candy thing was just as rich as I remember.

Here's a quick YouTube video of Olvera St. which mentions Lupe's Candy Shop: