Café 50’s
11623 Santa Monica Blvd

Reviewed Entree: Fried Mac and Cheese

I have taken a detour from finding the best Mac and Cheese in town to just trying it wherever I go. One would be surprised to see the variety of Mac and Cheese offerings in LA. On a low key birthday celebration I found myself at Café 50’s in West losanjealous. This was one of my favorite spots in college; they have decent diner food, great shakes and board games to play while you wait. After this visit I still love this place, now four years after college.

My eyes grew large when I saw Fried Mac and Cheese on the appetizer menu. Of course I ordered it to share amongst the four of us. When the appetizer arrives at our table, we are greeted with triangular, battered and deep fried Kraft Mac and Cheese. Hmm… I proceed with caution. I have the triangle of fried Mac and Cheese on a fork and I observe all of its few caveats. As I bit into it, my mouth got a blast of very hot frying oil.
»continue reading Mac & Cheese Casefile #8-022272B: Cafe 50’s

i’ve heard good things about the kitchen, for their food in general and their mac and cheese. i went there twice to verify my food findings, and twice i was disappointed in the mac and cheese, but their other food was good.

their mac and cheese tasted more like macaroni with garlic, there was a faint hint of cheese. i prefer mac and cheese that is baked but still swimming in cheese sauce, the burned bread crumb topping is also a nice touch. the kitchen’s mac and cheese was on the dry side and not swimming in a creamy cheese sauce. i wonder if this could be expected because it is considered a starter and not a main dish.
»continue reading Mac & Cheese Casefile #732781a: The Kitchen

hey ryan,

a few of my coworkers went to pete’s last night and they said the mac and cheese was awesome. i described the mac and cheese i had to them and it seems as though we had two different pastas. one coworker who went a few months ago said they used big pasta, unlike my thin blue box kind, and they said it was so good they’d go back. we definitely had completely diferent dishes. i’m mad that i got the gross batch. well isn’t just pete’s cafe’s luck that they gave mac ‘n cheese mair the bad batch.

let me know if you would like me to make an additional statement.

k take care, are you still in boston? last night since i didn’t make the show, i slept from 8:30 til 8:30 this morning. i was one of the worst headaches i’ve ever had.

-mary

Pete’s Café
4th St and Main, Downtown

On the menu:
Macaroni and Cheese
Linguini with Prawns

I have to apologize by the infrequent cheesy pasta postings, I have seem to hit a plateau with eating good food in losanjealous. There have been a few mediocre Mac and Cheeses that I care not to write about. They were indeed mediocre, so mediocre I can not recall the name of the restaurants off the top of my head. Hold on, let me look into my food journal…
»continue reading Mac & Cheese Casefile #7229: Pete’s Cafe

Slide Bar
Fullerton

On the menu:
Appetizer portion of Macaroni and Cheese
Tuna Melt with Garlic Fries
Nachos with Carne Asada, no onions or salsa or cilantro
White Chocolate Crème Brule

So there is a band called Lit, they had a hit called “My Own Worst Enemy” or something like that. They opened a bar in Downtown Fullerton where the buildings look like a recreation of a small town Main Street. This bar has rock and roll and OC influence all over and even has an arcade with 80’s favorites alongside some driving games like Crazy Taxi.

Now on to the good stuff, the food. When the three of us first saw the menu I could not decide what to eat because it was hot and when it is hot I do not feel hungry. My two friends knew I wanted Macaroni and Cheese (because when do I not want Mac and Cheese?) but I would have been fine with a lemonade. At first I was hesitant because I had heard of this bar for it being a bar not for the food and I wondered if I was asking for trouble if I do order my favorite dish at a bar. I went against my initial prejudices and ordered a smaller portion of the mac and cheese.
»continue reading Mac & Cheese Casefile #34889-B2: Slide Bar

Urth caffe
Three locations in losanjealous: west hollywood,
beverly hills, santa monica

Urth Caffe is very losanjealous, but no one would be jealous of their Mac and Cheese because it just stinks. Not literally in the sense that it smells like bleu cheese, but it’s not good. I should have figured that Urth had nothing on Violet when I saw that the Mac and Cheese was on the kid’s menu, but come on, it is Urth Caffe, the purveyor of overpriced sandwiches*. I like eating organic food except when it has no taste.

The best part of the meal was the strawberry and banana plate which I gladly devoured, maybe they complement the bland and tasteless Mac and Cheese with fruit to cleanse the pallet and convince it to think that the sweet and savory combination only enhances the light (aka non existent) flavor of the food.

I don’t remember what the other girls ordered, but I thankfully ordered some Manhattan Clam Chowder which was better than the Mac and Cheese, but still was nothing special, the flavor and consistency of the soup was similar to canned minestrone. (minestrone:chowder? …ed)
»continue reading Culinary Musings: Urth Caffe

ryan,

i was thinking of starting with kate mantilini, but if i can squeeze, i’ll get all of the four reviews into one. i just hope it isn’t overkill. don’t publish anything yet, i need to check for typos. since i’m mac n cheese with lots of typos mair.

You got it, Mair.

Cliff’s Edge – Silver Lake: Baked Macaroni w/ four cheeses
Urth Caffe – Beverly Hills: Kid’s Menu Macaroni and Cheese
Lucky Devil’s – Hollywood: Baked macaroni
Kate Mantilini – Beverly Hills: Macaroni and cheese

June was a whirlwind macaroni and cheese traveling month for me, as you can see, I hit up four posts and as I expected, not as good as Violet. I wonder if you guys think I’m an undercover partner of Violet and I am not, that is why I spend a few hundred dollars in a month eating out.

Okay, back to the good stuff. June was indeed a whirlwind. Let’s start off with Cliff’s Edge.
»continue reading Mac and Cheese CaseFile #24877-B: Four-Cheese Log, Part One

Blair’s
2903 Rowena Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90039-2003
(323) 660-1882

On the menu:
Truffle Macaroni and Cheese Side Dish - $7
Tartar Appetizer – $10
Linguini with clams, chorizo and English Peas - $17

Dark lighting makes eating here feel more like nap time because we were trying very hard to stay awake and it was only 7:30 PM. Seth Green and someone from the Wonder Years was sitting behind us, but no one noticed but my older sister. Slowly, as we were finishing up our Mac, the restaurant got very crowded and noisy that I just wanted to live. (live, damn you! — ed) Small spaces with lots of seats make for lots of voices bouncing against the wall and a high decibel noise level. We found out from reading some reviews to avoid table #7 due to a problem with the air conditioner leaking on that table.

Now on to the good stuff: the food. We ordered one side order of Truffle Mac n Cheese each, which was enough food for a meal for each of us. I wanted the tartare or is it tartar? Because I read it was awesome on Chowhound. And for some reason we were we also added on a Linguini with Clams, Chorizo, and English Peas dish because we were letting our hungry stomachs order for us. I figured out I DO NOT like truffles because they are mushrooms and have a very strong scent and a harsh flavor. I did enjoy the fresh pasta they made for both their macaroni and linguini; especially cool was the square pasta that looked like wide linguini on four sides. It was softer and fresher than any pasta I have had lately; it makes me want to start making my own pasta. The linguini looked more like flat angel hair and I thought it was tasty but did not like the chorizo in the dish.

Overall, I probably won’t return to Blair’s, I heard someone say it was the best restaurant in Silver Lake and that makes me not want to try anywhere new in that part of town.

Give Silverlake another chance, Mair. Eastside boho mac and cheese sightings are a rarity. You have to seek them out. Like truffles.

Luna Park Kitchen and Cocktails
672 South La Brea (at Wilshire Blvd.)
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 934-2110

On our menu:

• Marinated Hawaiian Tuna “Poke” with Fried Wonton Chips
• Breaded Pork Cutlet Stuffed with Mushrooms and Gruyere Cheese with Mashed Potatoes, String Beans and Apple-Cranberry Sauce
• Oven Baked Macaroni & Cheese and Broccoli with Neuske Smoked Ham

Thank you to all of you readers out there for your support of my food column. I enjoy cheese and cupcakes, and I think that will be my focus until I’ve tried every place there is to try. Please share with me if you think you have had awesome mac and cheese, and I too will go and try it for myself.

Per reader Hilary’s comment on Luna Park’s Baked Macaroni & Cheese, I made a plan with my dining accomplice April to try LP this past Wednesday. The vibe of the restaurant is very hip and trendy especially for drinking, the music was loud and the lighting was on the darker side. It was also a bit crowded. Some menu items I enjoyed looking at were the Make Your Own S’Mores with a roasted marshmallow on top of a candle flame with melted chocolate and graham crackers (I love s’mores!) and the Goat Cheese Fondue with bread and apple slices.

We started with the Tuna “Poke” which is basically a tar tare. It was very tasty with a hint of ginger. I enjoyed the Fried Wonton Chips with the raw tuna and it was different from the tar tare from Violet, but still very good. I was starving and the appetizer came out right away which made a hungry Mair a happy Mair.

We shared the Baked Macaroni and Cheese as well as the Pork Cutlet as suggested by Ryan (actually recommended you try le monte cristo with a side of triple bypass — ed). I do not know if it is a good thing to have high expectations of food, but I was expecting LP’s Macaroni to be pretty awesome. When the two main plates came out, both looked great and smelled great.

The Pork Cutlet was very tasty, I usually shy away from pork because it can have a dark flavor, but this cutlet was light and resembled chicken more than pork. I could not taste the gruyere cheese I am used to from Violet’s Baked Macaroni, but the mushroom and cheese stuffed inside made the dish. And mashed potatoes are always a great side to have when you are eating breaded meat, and LP’s mashed potatoes did not disappoint. The cranberry-apple sauce was tart and not at all sweet, it did not add nor take away anything to the meal.

I was let down by their Macaroni. The cheese was too sharp and the ham did not add anything but a salty meat component. I did like the bigger pasta and broccoli, but taste and texture wise, Violet wins. I only had a few pieces before I decided I did not want anymore. I can’t wait for the next challenger to Violet’s supremacy.

Currently I have also been to the 101 Coffee House, Fred 62, Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles within the last year. I’ve had more Mac ‘n Cheese outside of LA though, but since we only focus on LA I am going to stick to that. I’ll review Coral Tree Café, Dalt’s, Rooms Café, and whichever others you pose for me to try. When I was in New York I went to a popular brunch spot and ordered New York Magazine’s Best Macaroni and Cheese for 2005 and I was disappointed. I am up for the challenge, for the love of Macaroni and Cheese, yes indeed I am!

Total Bill: $46 + $10 tip for two plates, an appetizer and a hot tea. Service was quick. There is valet parking, but after 7:00PM you can park at the meters for free. Not much else to do around the restaurant after you finish a meal. It is located about a half block north of Wilshire Blvd., on La Brea Ave.