Local Dining Scene:
Citysearch: Imagine the city and everything interesting in it food-wise was lifted onto a webpage - that's City Search!
Chowhound: The consensus for what is good, what is average, and what is mediocre food-wise. If you want to stay in-the-know on food in L.A. (or anywhere in the U.S.), this site's message board is the site to visit. These foodies are the real thing, people who have an authentic love of food and a desire to share their knowledge!
Gayot: This website is the bottom-line on freely accessible restaurant food rankings.
OpenTable: This is a convenient way to suss out restaurant reservation availability. The stats are also a good way to see which restaurants are hoppin' in our area!
Urbanspoon: I love the iPhone app: the slot-machine selector is native to the iPhone - what's fun is the ability to select amongst location, cuisine, and price by "shaking" the phone - a whimsical place to choose where to dine! This is also a great starting point that takes you easily from research to reservation via one convenient site!
Yelp: This site is great for discovering word on the streets when it comes to closing the deal on where to eat!
Movie Theaters:
Regency Theatres: This theatre plays second-run movies. Whoever selects the movies they play does a good job - the principles behind the selection process seem to be critical acclaim and financial success, every once in a while peppered by a totally random, totally welcome, off-the-wall selection. It's an affordable "in" if you don't have the cash for other theaters but like/love the movie theater viewing experience.
ArcLight Cinemas: This is a nice middle ground between high-end and budget movie-viewing. You can still make a night of it at the theater itself, as there is food served in a fairly upscale, pleasant setting. If not, there are plenty of restaurants at El Paseo, where the theater is situated. Or drive a bit and access all the restaurants in Old Town Pasadena!
Gold Class Cinemas: Viewing from first-class, the highlights are comfy chairs and placing food/drink orders from those comfy chairs - plus there are no bad seats in this house. Of course, you have to pay quite a bit to enjoy this premium environment....
Laemmle's Playhouse 7: The name Laemmle is synonymous with independent, foreign, and/or critically acclaimed films (not movies!). It's a great chance to weigh-in on which kinds of movies are worthwhile to make and/or watch by affecting box-office earnings.
Restaurants:
Bhanu: Great little Indian restaurant marauding as a hole-in-the-wall next to the Trader's Joe at the corner of Huntington & Rosemead.
Cafe Fusion: Try this authentic Taiwanese restaurant. Savor, among other things, the lamb chops, the fish baked in salt, the fresh shrimp, and the fresh lobster.
Chang's Garden: Great restaurant in a hoppin' plaza. Try the pork-rib rice wrapped in lotus leaf, the stir fried fava beans, any one of the various soups, and, in the dead of winter, the savory, rejuvenating lamb stew.
Din Tai Fung: This is a Taiwanese international restaurant chain famous for its juicy pork dumplings. For those who don't know, the dumpling gets its name because when one bites into a dumpling, a little bit of soup juice squirts out! Most everything else on the menu is tasty, too.
Euro Pane: Try the egg salad sandwich, the brown butter tart, and any of the macaroons.
Jones Coffee Roasters: The coffee here is revelatory.
Hot Stuff Cafe: The use of various powders and the sous vide technique at this understated restaurant lead one to believe that Chef Jimmy Wang is part of the molecular gastronomy movement; he, however, professes his commitment to French culinary techniques. Whatever his school of thought when it comes to food preparation, he is a talented fellow, consistently turning out sophisticated food in a low-key environment.
Luscious Dumplings: Small restaurant that always has a line out the door. Small menu, too - but what they do, they do really well. From their dumplings to their pan-fried dumplings to their noodles with soup on the side, you can't go wrong!
Machi: This restaurant always smells slightly of beer, as they hold happy hours regularly. However, what they are particularly good at is serving up a lunch-time menu that includes all sorts of super authentic dishes that involve animal parts typically ignored at other restaurants. Their kidney with a thick alcoholic brew and noodles on the side, to be dunked into the brew, is particularly nice.
Maison Akira: This restaurant offers fine dining in an upscale environment. It is consistently reliable, and Chef Akira recently made a few changes to his menu, including to his signature dish, the Miso Marinated Grilled Chilean Sea Bass. Thumbs up there, as well as for the Baked Alaska!
Michelle's Pancakes: This restaurant primarily serves yummy pasta products, with an imprecise English restaurant name. The menu includes a hockey puck-sized, pan fried pasta product with a beef filling, which gets close to the eponymous name, but then a great sour cabbage pork rib soup, which does not. Dumplings and pan-fried dumplings are also excellent.
Noir Food & Wine: Chef Claude Beltran is turning out, on his good days, food worthy of the best L.A. restaurants are offering. Try the gumbo, the charcuterie/formage plates, and anything with burrata, chicken, or foie gras!
Oto-Oto: This Izakaya restaurant in Monrovia is one branch of a high-quality, international chain that specializes in Japanese small plates. Try their all-star dishes: the Oto-Oto Signature Tofu and the Seared Mackerel (seared at your table). Also, sample their Yakitori, which are uniformly excellent - don't miss the Tomato Bacon Wrap or the Quail Eggs skewers.
The Raymond: This is another place with decent food but an excellent atmosphere. There is outdoor seating in the front and back; the back seating is particularly nice in warm weather.
Roy's: This food is tasty and easy to appreciate, and the restaurant concept, including cooking classes for interested patrons, is easy to get behind.
The Royce at The Langham: This is fancy dining with top-notch food. Splurge on a special occasion!
Saladang Song: The food's on the sweet side, but the outdoor seating is beautiful: high cement/wraught iron structures that block out the traffic on Fair Oaks, and, inside the walls, the play of lights on water.
Shaab: Named after shabu-shabu, this restaurant consistently procures the best cuts of meat for this time-honored Japanese culinary tradition. But try sitting at the bar and ordering omakase. Try the steamed egg and uni, try the pork – try whatever sashimi is up for grabs!
Shiro: This South Pasadena establishment is rightly well-known for its whole fried catfish, but many other items on the menu are well-worth eating. Try the Wednesday prix-fixe, which is usually a terrific deal.
Sin Ba La: This is a bit of a theme: authentic Taiwanese food in the San Gabriel Valley! Order their sweet pork sausage rice plate. Order their egg/oyster pancake. Order their fresh grape juice. Order their 5-item ice slushee dessert!
Zankou: If you want tasty, authentic rotisserie chicken, come here. N.B., The garlic butter with pita bread is heavenly.
Shopping:
One Colorado - This commercial space is squat in the middle of Pasadena's hoppin' Old Town. With a courtyard where movies are shown outside when the weather is nice, and housing, among others, GAP, Juicy Couture, and Kate Spade, this is a vibrant part of Old Town. A newer addition is Gold Class Cinemas, which provides a first-class movie-viewing experience!
Old Pasadena - There's not really a hip yet relatively accessible place to spend money that isn't represented in Old Pasadena. American Apparel, J. Crew, Urban Outfitters, and 21 Choices (for fro-yo) are all popular stops.
Paseo Colorado Pasadena - Part outdoor shopping, part living quarters, part restaurant space, this is a newer, vibrant contribution to Pasadena's commercial landscape. Stores include MAC and Sephora. Dining includes Porto Alegre Brazilian Churrascaria for Brazillian BBQ.
Santa Anita Fashion Park - They just keep on adding to this shopping complex.... It's got a lot of popular stores. Banana Republic, Teavana, and Williams Sonoma are among the newer additions to this shopping mall's outdoor area.
© Copyright Ruthann Chou