Good Eats in Southern California (Part Two)

As I said, in Good Eats, Part One, ( http://kim1champ.blogspot.com/2006/11/good-eats-in-southern-california-part-1.html) I travel around SCAL and Phoenix and am often treated to great places to eat. Below is part 2 of this 4 part feature of great restaurants. (With recent changes at work this feature will probably end up exceeding 4 parts) Part One included great places to eat from the Central Coast, Oxnard and San Fernando Valley. Here is Part Two:

Glendale Area-The whitefish/asparagus tempura at "Sushi on Brand" is unbelievable. It is only served at lunch and you can only order it via a sushi combo. It is sooooo good, the tempura sauce is perfect and this odd combination just works. When I was the lead responsible for the Glendale CBO, we ate here all the time. They are closed on Sunday, so, if you have a Saturday or are working near Glendale, check out "Sushi on Brand". Another great restaurant near Glendale is Ribs USA. It is actually located in Burbank right across from NBC and you can usually see some actors there. Suffice to say, they have the best ribs ever!

Pasadena Area-Marston's in Pasadena has to be one of my favorite breakfast and lunch spots. I typically take my out-of-town guests to Marstons for breakfast. The last person I took there was Bev and we split the French Toast rolled in Cornflakes...mmm. I love the place because it is cozy and cute. If I didn't work, I would go here every morning and have coffee on the front porch. Anything that you order will exceed your expectations. http://www.marstonsrestaurant.com/index.html?v=1 The next stop in Pasadena has to be Green Street. Their famous Diane salad (basically a Chinese Chicken) is fabulous. Make sure you order the half salad because the full salad is gigantic. (Maybe I'll go there next week and take a picture of it with my Treo so you can understand the enormity of the salad). Of course, being from Pasadena, I could go on...and on....and on....Pasadena is a great place for shopping, food etc. I will mention one more item here before moving onto another location. The Mediterranean Cafe (across from my office) has to be the most efficient restaurant I have ever been to. The guy who runs the place is seriously like the "Soup Nazi from Seinfeld" literally you can order kabos, salad, combos, my favorite, the Chicken Shwawerma plate and it is ready 10 seconds later. A couple of weeks ago (during the Treo crisis) Dawn and I ate food from there everyday. The garlic sauce is to die for and of course I appreciate the efficiency. This place is typically extra efficient for me because Dawn usually brings me my food so I don't even have to get up from my desk to enjoy it. LOL (Thanks, Dawn)

San Gabriel Area-Clearman's Galley, "The boat" is a very unique place. http://www.clearmansrestaurants.com/galley.html The food is messy, American, bad for you but the cheese bread is so good that they sell the spread in the grocery stores in SCAL. It is the best tasting cheese bread ever.I typically order salad and thanks to Elsie" (http://kim1champ.blogspot.com/2006/10/elsie.html) I mix the two favorite salads together and it is quite a good flavor. The two salads are "Bleu Cheese" and "Red Cabbage". OK they may not sound good together but believe me, they are. The salad, comes with two pieces of cheese bread. YUM! Also located in San Gabriel, Pizza Place, California is awesome. You will be hard pressed to find a dish on the menu that I have not tried so I will just highlight some of my favorites: (1) Turkey Ravioli with Tomatillo Salsa, (2) Seafood Linguini, (3) Chicken Ravioli. I would be chastised if I did not mention the "Angel Hair Pasta". Mark liked the Angel Hair Pasta so much that when we were getting outsourced there were about 10 of us that used the code word "Angel Hair" to convey that we had updated information and should meet here for discussion over lunch. Thinking about it now, I am dying of laughter.

Coming up in Good Eats in Southern California (Part Three): Downtown Los Angeles, Long Beach and if I can think of anyplace good to eat in the Inland empire, I'll mention it. (LOL)