Dining review: Ramen that will do in a pinch

By the time I got to Orochon Ramen, my dinner mates were like grumpy bears. The table was cramped and they’d ordered drinks that never materialized. I was undaunted. Parking was easier than I thought it would be in Downtown Burbank, and I liked what they’d done with the place. Their...

Dining review: Larkin's in Eagle Rock has a southern soul

Tucked on a corner in Eagle Rock, across a side street from a pink diner with its own towering billboard, the brown bungalow doesn't look like much. Its roof is beginning to tatter, there's nearly no parking, and the few tables outside are made from old doors painted and put on their sides in one...

Dining review: Burbank's Prizzi's is food with a mom-and-pop heart

According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, independent restaurants are struggling. Since the start of the recession, American consumers increased their patronage of larger chain restaurants and decreased the number of meals at mom-and-pop businesses, forcing more than 7,000...

Dining review: Pasadena's StillRoom Seafood

The StillRoom gets its name from the so-called area in grand homes of yore where liquors, medicines, oils and the like were distilled, infused and brewed. It is a fitting name for this charming new addition to the Pasadena fine dining scene not only because it serves cocktails bordering on alchemy...

Dining Review: A dip into Argentine culture

Most Americans don't know much about Argentine culture. Our enduring image is of the gaucho, the cowboy of the pampas, wearing a bright scarf and a small version of a Stetson. It's an image cherished by the Argentines themselves, but it's about as representative of their culture as cowpokes are of...

New location, same flavor

Most aficionados of Indian food living in the Verdugo corridor know and love India's Flavor, a cozy restaurant in Sparr Heights near Montrose. The food at this family-run eatery is consistently delicious. Only problem is people are often bumping elbows with neighboring diners in the tiny dining...

Nothing fancy, but good fusion

When a menu ranges from Mediterranean to Mexican to seafood to burgers, you can usually expect at best mediocre food. It’s like going to a movie starring Jim Belushi, Eric Roberts and Carmen Electra. Gerlach’s Grille in Pasadena is the exception.

A near-perfect taste of Italy

Going to Briganti, I learned an important lesson: Don’t be fooled by first impressions. With so many charming restaurants in historic buildings in South Pasadena, why go to a place with prefab windows and faux distressed bricks? Because the food is incredible, that’s why.

Welcoming café offers simple, creative fare

Robert Downey Jr. stared at me all through my lunch. I was eating at Studio Café Magazzino, a tiny, home-spun café across from the massive Warner Bros. complex, enjoying the homemade soup and sandwiches, when I noticed that Sherlock Holmes himself was looking right through the window,...

El Metate is hard to find, hard to forget

On a quiet, one-way Pasadena street, a few doors down from a comedy club and where you must take caution not to get run over by little old ladies trying to parallel park in front of a medical marijuana store, El Metate Café is a family-run Mexican restaurant that's not so easy to find, and...

A fine set of 'Luggage'

There are many things to love about Pasadena, but what I love most is how history meets modernity. This town values the vintage and welcomes the new. Such is the case at the Luggage Room, a nifty pizzeria and cocktail bar where old bricks meet new flavors.

Plan B pays off for chef

When Chef Nadav Bashan’s boyhood dream of firefighting didn’t pan out, he went to plan B: the Southern California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena.

A comfortable taste of Colombia

Café Colombia opened in 1999 to serve transplanted Colombians. But the Burbank restaurant has plenty of rich comfort to go around.

Anthony's earns its 'Fine' name

Perigord duck fillete, Tasmanian smoked cheddar, wild fennel vinegar, Spanish Arbequina olives, French white truffle butter. Kids, you can keep your candy store. Give me the goodies on the shelves and in the chilled case at Anthony’s Fine Food & Wine.

Churros at a new level

A cavernous corner of a shopping mall is probably one of the last spots in which you'd look for creative confections, but it's all happening next to a wacky sock shop on the third floor of the Glendale Galleria. Xooro recently opened its second Los Angeles location here, no doubt an unlikely spot...

The wrap gets sophisticated

East meets West meets Continental at Wrap Express, the latest addition to the cluster of quick eateries across from Glendale City College. The name implies fast food, but the culinary output is actually more sophisticated. The prices, while not rock bottom, are within a student’s budget and...

Tasty tahini chicken and lots more

I don’t know about you, but anything called a tahini chicken salad sandwich piques my curiosity. So I made my way down to the recently opened Tanya’s Lunch Box on Glendale Avenue to try one.

Dishing up a spicy tradition

The Loguercio family has seen good times and bad from behind the 24-seat counter at Chili John’s in Burbank since 1990. They say they are better people for the experience, but with rising food costs and the loss of a patriarch, the family faces a big decision deadline that has come and gone.

Restaurant automation has arrived

It's official. The future has finally arrived. Just like in "The Jetsons" cartoon, you can now push buttons on a computer and the meal of your choice slides out on a tray. OK, maybe not immediately and certainly not for free, but at the new Specialty's Café and Bakery on Brand Boulevard in...

Dining Out: Hard to beat for charbroiled fish

If you are searching for an eclectic fish menu, you would be hard pressed to find one more appealing than Fish Dish Grill Burbank.