Restaurant Review (Lucky Baldwin's Delirium Pub & Cafe)

Stop the presses... hold the phone... get grandma and the kids out of the room because I'm talking about food porn today!

The other morning I had breakfast at Lucky Baldwin's Delirium Pub & Cafe in Sierra Madre, California, and it was amazing.

http://luckybaldwins.com/

First a little history.  The original, Lucky Baldwins British Pub & Cafe, was opened in 1996 in Old Town Pasadena, California by a couple of Brits, David Farnworth and Peggy Simonian.  Lucky Baldwins Delirium Pub & Cafe in Sierra Madre opened in 2005.  And just last year Lucky Baldwin's Trappiste, opened also in Pasadena.

Why I hadn't heard of them is beyond me because this is my kind of place.  I say that because I just walked in and felt comfortable.  It has the feel of the pubs I've been to in the UK.  It has a friendly family environment and a full kitchen serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

But let's start with the bar.  They have 46 beers on tap plus an array of unique bottled beers.

I stood before the bar, heard the angels sing, wiped a tear from my eye, and ordered a pint of Guinness.  Bliss.

From their breakfast menu I ordered the "Traditional Full English Breakfast- Famed throughout the Colonies for Sustenance & Flavour!"

This is the food porn section I mentioned earlier.  Bow chica bow wow. 

I mean, just look at it.  Two Eggs, a slice of Irish bacon, an English banger, fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried potatoes, and some Heinz baked beans.  I inhaled this.

If you're more of a traditionalist they have baked beans on toast.  Now that's old school.

I'm going back soon because for lunch and dinner they serve Fish & Chips, Meat Pies, Cottage Pie, and Bangers & Mash.  Plus I have 45 other beers to try out.  Something tells me I might end up face down in the gutter in front of this place on St. Patrick's Day.

Oh baby, oh baby.

Restaurant Review (Carmine's)

Last night a bunch of us from work went out for a holiday dinner at Carmine's Italian Restaurant in South Pasadena, California.

www.carminesrestaurantandbar.com

They describe the restaurant as being "set in a comfortable, romantic atmosphere with the bustle of a New York City trattoria.  Our cuisine is a fresh, contemporary take on robust old world Italian dishes from the central and southern regions of Italy".

I started out with the Minestrone Soup as a starter.

I liked this a lot.  It was different. 

There are two types of Minestrone soup.  One summer and one winter.  This tasted like maybe a combination of the two recipes. 

The difference is summer Minestrone is traditionally made with a chicken stock and heavy cream base with a basil and mint pesto, plus asparagus, young green beans, English peas, marjoram, toasted pine nuts, onions, a bay leaf, celery, garlic, and Parmesan or Romano cheese.

The winter Minestrone is a beef stock base with cannellini beans, rosemary, basil, Swiss chard, pancetta, russet potatoes, diced tomatoes, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and Parmesan cheese.

So far, so good.  Let's move on to the three main dishes that I tasted.

The first was the Chicken Marsala with mushrooms.  This didn't do much for me.  It was okay but bland.  I'm not a big fan of bland food. 

Let's start with the usual seasoning for this.  Aside from salt and pepper there's typically paprika, garlic powder, onion powder,  dried cayenne pepper, oregano, and thyme.  All I could taste was the salt, pepper, and a hint of oregano.  Zzzzzzzz.

Another thing is that you are suppose to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are cut in halves and pounded thin.  Somebody in the kitchen forgot and the pounding thin part.   I also would have preferred either thinly cut cremini or oyster mushrooms as opposed to the whole white button mushrooms that they used.

Lastly, when you cook anything you never use very expensive wine but if you use a low grade Marsala you get boring food.

The Chicken Marsala came with a side of spaghetti marinara.  This might as well just been a plate of spaghetti topped with ketchup.

Second came the Linguine and Clams in a white wine garlic sauce with grated Romano cheese. 

Cooking this is real easy.  That's why I was surprised that they managed to screw it up.

Linguine, like all pastas, should be cooked until al dente.  That means firm but not hard.  Interestingly enough, it's said that pasta cooked al dente has a lower glycemic index than pasta that's cooked soft.  But I digress.  Anyway, it was over cooked and too soft.

Like I said it's an easy recipe.  You steam a few little neck or Manila clams.  In a saute pan you heat up some butter, garlic, white wine, parley, red pepper flakes, and a little lemon juice.  Then you pour everything over the Linguine.  Done.

This plate was almost overdosed with chopped clams that I think came out of a can.  I also tasted no garlic or red pepper.  Again, I'm falling asleep.

The third and final dish was the Pasta Rosa.  This was the hit of the night.  I would go back for more of this.  You also have a choice of how spicy you want it.  We went for the high octane.  Can you have too much garlic or red pepper flakes?  I say no.

For this the penne pasta was perfectly al dente.  Added to that was some cubed boneless chicken breasts, florets cut broccoli, a little spinach, Italian style diced tomatoes, a nice Alfredo sauce, some green onions, plus a little basil.  And let's not forget the garlic and red pepper flakes.  They also served a lot of it so it could easily be a meal for two. 

So, once again, a good start and a good finish, but nothing impressive in between.

Chocolate

Restaurant Review (The Derby)

The other night my wife and I had dinner at "The Derby".

www.thederbyarcadia.com


I was looking forward to it because Zagat had given it a "Very Good to Excellent" rating.

The restaurant is located in Arcadia, California just up from the Santa Anita racetrack.

The motif is horse racing and has a very old school look to it with dark wood, dimmed lighting, and Seabiscuit memorabilia.

The menu had a lot to choose from.

For the appetizer we had the French Onion Soup Gratinee.

This was terrific.  Served with traditional crouton crisp and Gruyere cheese.  Plus it was not overly salty like a lot of French Onion Soups are.  So far, so good.

For an entree I ordered the Prime Rib.  I know, no surprise to anyone who knows me, but hey, that's why they make Lipitor. The menu stated that it would be perfectly seasoned and slow roasted to juicy perfection and came with garlic mashed potatoes, string beans, au jus, and creamed horseradish.

Red meat and garlic mashed potatoes?  Yes, please.

I was served a 14 oz cut that was nicely plated and rare just like I ordered it.  Not much of a crust on the outside however.

Maybe I have a different idea on what is "perfectly seasoned" Prime Rib.  Many chefs use ingredients such as garlic powder, celery salt, onion powder, fennel, coriander, caraway, rosemary, and thyme.  All I could figure out was that that had used was salt and pepper.  I guess for the money I was expecting something out of the ordinary.  This wasn't.  Plus they apparently forgot to add any garlic to my garlic mashed potatoes.  Really?

My wife ordered the Alaskan Halibut Filet.  It was suppose to be pan broiled with a delicate tomato and caper Beurre Blanc sauce.

Again, a very nice presentation but no taste and dry beyond belief.  I had it sent back.  In place of it she ordered the mushroom ravioli but it wasn't anything to write home about.

Finally to desert. 

My wife ordered the "The Derby's Famous Baked Alaska" which had vanilla bean ice cream covered in raspberry meringue and served flambe.

Doing things flambe is always a crowd pleaser.  The ice cream was great but I didn't taste any raspberry in the meringue.

I had "The Derby's Famous Bread Pudding" with a warm whiskey sauce.

This was so good I wanted to lick the plate.


So all in all, a good start and a good finish... but everything in between was nothing to get excited about.  My suggestion is that you save your money and go elsewhere.