Thanks to all THREE of you who entered the contest below. You ALL deserve a free dinner for two and I sort of wish all four of us could just go eat TOGETHER! Winner will get an email pretty soon. I just have to work up the courage to not make everyone a winner. It’s not easy.
If you forgot to enter the contest/are too shy to comment/are too good for free food, don’t worry. You can still get 15% off between now and May 31, 2010 with this coupon. Lemme know if you like the joint. I’m a fan.
For those of you that make fun of me for eating at the same 5 places, you have nothing against me anymore because I have officially added a 6th favorite to my list. Joining the ranks of M Cafe, Sante La Brea, RFD, Tender Greens, and Lemonade is…
LIBRA BY THE POUND.
LIBRA, owned by Marcelo Ahn of Churrascaria M Grill, is a new buffet style Brazilian restaurant in Culver City where you get to choose from over 40 Brazilian (and other) dishes and you get to choose how much you want of everything! Let’s talk about this…
First of all, any restaurant that has “by the pound” in the name is right up my alley. You better believe if I’m in charge of serving myself that I will pile farro salad upon tabouli upon grilled veggies upon refreshing cucumber tomato salads to no end. NO. END.
And that’s actually pretty much what I did last Thursday when I had the pleasure of joining them for a media dinner:
If you’re nice and clean, you wash your hands first cause it’s a buffet and it’s the right thing to do.
Then check the super reasonable prices and pile on serve yourself food accordingly.
Of course they have meat and chicken and homemade meatballs and chicken cacciatore and all kinds of things you expect from a Brazilian place. But vegetarians also have over 30 meatless dishes from which to choose.
Everything here is made from scratch without using canned or processed foods. Can I get an Amen?
Nice space, right?
Plus exciting, exotic soda and Brazilian sauces, best if not consumed together…
Here’s what I got and what I plan to get every single time I’m there which will probably be, if I’m estimating things about right, three times a week for the rest of my life.
Now I’m gonna do that thing that you’re not supposed to do and post a bunch of different angles of the same meal so you can truly comprehend all aspects of the deliciousness.
K, I’m done. Ha, I always say that after dinner. But then I want…
My food (not including the brownie) and a bottle of water, weighed in at .860 lbs. at $9.75/lb. If my plate were in a fight, it might lose to the plate I plan to eat next time.
You should try LIBRA. Again and again. Cause you can print this coupon to use over and over between now and May 31st, 2010 for 15% off your entire meal! That’s over a month to try over 40 different fresh dishes made from scratch at 15% off.
Remember in Clueless when Mel tells Cher to get her ass home from a party in the valley within the next 20 minutes and she says it might take longer than that and then he tells Cher that everywhere in LA takes 20 minutes? And remember how that was actually kind of true in the ’90s? Well Culver City sort of is the one city in LA that is still only 20 minutes away from you, no matter where you are. So you have no excuse not to use this coupon every night you possibly can.
If 15% off really good food isn’t good enough for you then I don’t think we should be friends I have another offer.
Leave me a comment on this post telling me why you want/deserve/need a free dinner for 2 at LIBRA and I will be a selective asshole use my discretion to choose the best answer. Winner, while still totally allowed to use the 15% off coupon over and over, will get to enjoy a free dinner for 2 people at LIBRA once any time between now and May 31, 2010. Winner will be chosen and notified by email the evening of Monday, April 26, 2010 after 8pm, so leave your comment before then. Might I suggest you appeal to either my humorous side, my soft side, or my dirty side in your comments? It’s just better that way. Good luck!!!
don’t be mad, but I don’t feel like talking. besides a picture’s worth a 1,000 words. So here’s some food from Akasha. The only thing the picture probably doesn’t say is “slightly under salted.” But I said it, so that’s enough. Other than that recurring issue, I’m becoming a pretty big Akasha fan.
About a year ago I had a not so great dinner at Akasha–service was very slow, food was cold, and under seasoned. I passed the restaurant over and over throughout the year on my way to other, more delicious eateries, and not once was I tempted to give it another chance.
But last Friday I realized–hey, a lot of people like Akasha and it isn’t like they pulled a Kassava on you. They, unlike Kassava, deserve a second chance.
We were late for our reservation and they were nice about it. Akasha: 1. Judgmental Lauren: 0.
Great vegan options on the menu and lovely wine and cocktail list. Akasha: 11. Judgmental Lauren 8.
If you’re not following my point system I just gave Akasha an extra 10 points cause I like quinoa and Prosecco and gave myself 8 points for being funny.
Now it’s almost a tie, isn’t it?
We split a bottle of a nice Spanish Cava.
Then started with a very tangy, Spanishy Spinach salad with dates, kumquats, smoked almonds, and red wine vinaigrette. Ok fine, at this point, Akasha, I take everything back I’ve ever said practically. This salad was amazing and I want it everyday for 4 months until I get sick of it and just order another amazing salad off your menu.
For the love of God look at this shit!
Then, Lillian and I both ordered the quinoa with market vegetables and tamari grilled tofu (can also be ordered with orange-soy glazed chicken).
Joanna had the Beluga Lentils and Greens with black lentils, butternut squash, roast mushrooms, braised greens, and jalapeño pesto.
Eating vegan there is certainly cheaper–both entrees were $14 compared to some of the steak and fish choices ranging in the $20s.
Highlight of the meal was undoubtedly dessert. I am SO sick of restaurants that only have sorbet as a vegan dessert option. Take your lemon, mango and raspberry selection and stick it where you don’t wanna get poked.
Akasha actually had vegan gelato on the menu. Hallelujah. Seriously.
We had some sort of banana, peanut butter chocolate rainforest, chocolate combination that was so. mother. fucking. good.
This time I revise my opinion of Akasha. I’d like to put it in medium to heavy rotation so I guess Tender Greens and M Cafe aren’t the only sheriffs in Culver City anymore. At least not for me. One complaint still remains–kinda under seasoned. Akasha, meet salt. Salt, make yourself useful.
Afterward we headed to Mandrake to watch me take my shoes off and get down to the business of dj’ing with Andrew.
Here’s me with Joanna, Lillian and Kim after dinner. Kim wasn’t at dinner with us, but she was at the bar, and is one of my favorite people, which qualifies her to be in this post.
If you’re about to ask me if I dj, I don’t. I’m terrible at it, I play reggaeton even though nobody speaks Spanish, and this is my version of turntables:
Old and good friends came out, though, and they didn’t shame me for playing this shit:
The moral of the story is that some restaurants deserve a second chance. (NO, Kassava, not you. Ever).
Akasha: 20. Lauren: Humbled. I’ll be back.
Let’s play a game where we name the top three restaurants I visit most. If your lineup looks like this:
1.) M Cafe
2.) M Cafe
3.) M Cafe
or some variation thereof, you win. Your prize is not redeemable in the state where you live.
Last Friday I had the pleasure of joining some of my favorite food homies (Sook and Sarah) and Vanessa from Wagstaff at M Cafe Culver City to talk, eat, and allow me the chance to prove I’ve already eaten everything on the menu.
What’s the big occasion?
We convened to discuss the Beverly Hills location launch of Little M.
Think about it–what’s your one gripe with M Cafe? It’s definitely not the food. It can’t be. But isn’t it just a smidge expensive sometimes?
Well M Cafe in Beverly Hills is debuting a new menu, not so different from the other two locations in terms of food options, but certainly more affordable and great for picking up food on the go.
We started off with some seasonal side salads, including lentils with radicchio, maple roasted veggies, and celery root remoulade.
We also had a variety of sushi (I stuck with the shitake avocado roll) –including spicy tuna, spicy shrimp, and fresh salmon.
Sushi and I had a showdown and I won:
Kinda scary, huh.
Some of the main courses we had:
The Gado Gado Salad–at Melrose it costs $11.45. In BH it’s $10.00
The Big Macro Burger–Melrose: $11.45. BH-$9.75 Both with one choice of side salad.
The Seitan Katsu Bowl, the Teriyaki Bowl with Black Cod and the Bi-Bim Bop (There is some variation of these bowls on the BH menu that runs a few bucks cheaper, especially if you get it sans fish):
The Panino Tuscano:
They have some different sandwich options in Beverly Hills–in general they run under $10 in price, whereas they are closer to $12 at the other locations.
BH also has some a la carte options (amen!) like BBQ Tempeh or Seared Tuna Tataki.
Sook is a hoarder and half way through the meal we discovered she was hanging on to more silverware than was really necessary:
Her bad behavior was rewarded like so:
and particularly like so:
Chocolate cake was a big, moist hit. Sarah hates the word “moist,” which is why I awkwardly injected it into that last sentence–because making your friends uncomfortable is funny.
You know what else is funny?
That after boxing the next morning with my friend Joy I ended up right back at the Melrose location for brekkie. There’s no shame in my game.
Scrambled tofu with tempeh bacon and sweet potato hash with grilled country bread:
Post-boxing knuckle sandwich:
Best blueberry pancakes with organic maple syrup and soy butter with tempeh bacon:
Both of those breakfast dishes are under $10 and were a good way to start the day.
If you are not familiar with macrobiotic cuisine, get with the program, specifically M Cafe’s program. It’s about energy and balance in your food and it makes you feel good when you eat it. Why else would I eat there every day? Besides the fact that it’s basically my office now.
Hopped in the whip yesterday and headed to Tender Greens in Culver City.
Maybe this will explain why I go here all the time:
Or maybe there’s just no excuse for it.