We've spent the last two weeks critiquing the DineLA restaurants. Last week I just happened to run into a restauranteur who was participating in DineLA. Being the ever-prepared girl reporter that I am, I whipped out my digital recorder and did an on-the-spot interview. It seems only fair that the restaurants get the last word. (Names of specific dishes have been omitted to help protect the innocent). How has DineLA changed the type of......

For my final DineLA menu, I thought I should try something in my home town. For years, Redondo Beach was known for fantastic breakfasts and Mexican food, but not much else. For fancy dining you were looking at standard surf-and-turf - Tony's The Chart House, etc. Only in the early 90s when the Westside had filled up did gentrification move down the coast, bringing nouvelle cuisine along for the ride. Sometimes it seems like......

Cobra Pork Sushi The second location of Cobra & Matadors is a warm, inviting restaurant that invites lingering. Diners share small plates and feed each other delicious bites that are exotic, yet comfortingly familiar. It is hip enough for your most fashionable friends, but cozy enough that you always feel at home. The DineLA menu provided a wealth of options that made it difiicult to choose. My companion decided to order from the main......

Many of LAist's contributors have been checking out L.A.'s dineLA Restaurant Week -- and we've discovered that some experiences definitely offered more value than others. I decided to close out my own Restaurant Week experience with a casual lunch and a more upscale dinner: for the former, I took LAist editor Zach out to lunch at eat. on sunset, while I saved the fancy hotel dinner at Circa 55 for my special guy. Both......

The sirloin at The Palm was red, tender and juicy -- a vegetarian's nightmare. After a rocky start, my DineLA restaurant experience last week at The Palm Downtown had a happy ending. (Unlike my fellow LAisters who, unfortunately, didn’t.) When The Palm was first listed on the restaurant week website, a friend noticed that they only served lunch. Fine. The best restaurants on the list probably didn’t need to entice a dinner crowd. But......

The Happy Ending is the perfect place for your bachelor party to grab a bite to eat on the way to the strip club. It's also the perfect place for your divorced dad to park you in front of the video trivia game while he drinks too much and hits on a waitress half his age. I couldn't believe it the first time I saw the name of this restaurant. I thought perhaps it was......

Last week I put on a fancy dress and hit Ciudad. Of all the DineLA restaurants so far, this was the highlight. The open expanse of the room seemed a little chilly and impersonal at first, but little touches like homestyle drinking glasses and retro 1950s accents warmed the room. This restaurant runs with Disneyland-like efficiency. You know those musicals with dancing waiters twirling through the room in perfectly choreographed symmetry? That is what......

Mayor Villaraigosa serves the city / Photo by Elise Thompson dineLA Restaurant Week kicked off in style yesterday at Neal Fraser's Grace on Beverly Boulevard. Neal Fraser is the only Angeleno ever to have won Iron Chef, against none other than Cat Cora. The Two Hot Tamales, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, were the belles of the ball. I just had a moment to chat with them regarding a funny story they had......