Yelp: Making my way through LA's highest rating restaurants.

Los Angeles boasts literally thousands of restaurants. In Edmond and in Lawrence, I would find my favorite restaurants and rarely venture to new ones. When I first moved to Los Angeles, unfortunately this mentality stuck with me for a while. After about six months though, I realized I wasn’t taking full advantage of the city I live in. Now I can spend hours scouring Yelp reviews to find hidden gems around the city. My friend Jessica has been nice enough to accompany me on these adventures to see if Yelp got it right.

First on my list was Blu Jam Café on Melrose in West Hollywood. I am absolutely obsessed with brunch and couldn’t wait to try this place out. We met on a Sunday morning around 11:30. There was about a 30-minute wait, but it went relatively quick. The café is super quaint but doesn’t feel overly crowded because of the high ceilings. My normal brunch debate settled in as I scanned the menu- sweet or savory. If I could, I would order one of both, but I don’t have the stomach or wallet for that option! My sweet tooth won the battle, and I ended up selecting the weekend crunchy French toast. When it came out, the portion was huge! There was a least eight halves of toast. What set the restaurant’s weekend French toast apart is that it is encrusted with corn flakes. Yes- the cereal. While this may sound weird, it is what made this dish stand out for any ordinary French toast. When you bite in, you get the crunch from the corn flakes, but the inside of the toast is still moist and flavorful. The dish was topped with fresh strawberries, blackberries and bananas. I was a little nervous about the vanilla bean sauce that came with the toast, but after a taste I drizzled it all over. It wasn’t overly sweet, and the vanilla paired well with the hints of cinnamon in the toast! Jessica ordered the Salmon hash, which also looked delicious. We can’t wait to come back to try more dishes. Another big plus, unlimited coffee refills!

Our next experience took us from brunch in WeHo to dinner in Santa Monica. Just a couple blocks from the beach sits Fritto Misto. Upon entering this small restaurant, I never guessed I would be having some of the best Italian food I have ever tasted outside of Italy! From Yelp I knew the restaurant had an inexpensive corkage fee, so we brought our own bottle of wine. Our server quickly uncorked it for us and brought out complimentary bread. Everything on the menu looked delicious, and I was having more than a little trouble selecting my dish. Sometimes when this happens, I like to seek the help of the waitress. She suggested the jumbo ravioli and the artichoke shrimp gnocchi, and we ended up ordering both. When my ravioli arrived, the portion was huge. There had to be at least 10 jumbo raviolis stuffed with prosciutto, mortadella and chicken served on top of a garlic cream sauce with caramelized onions and sun-dried tomatoes. I only had a bite of Jessica’s gnocchi, but it was so decadent. The gnocchi was made with mascarpone cheese that gave it an extra fluffy consistency. This is the perfect spot for dinner and then a stroll on the beach to burn off some of the calories you just consumed.  

Our most recent adventure was for a late night happy hour and appetizers at Palomino in Westwood. I hate that most happy hours end at 7 pm, so I was more than excited to find out Palomino’s happy hour lasts all day! After a long day, there is nothing like a drink and some appetizers. We started with a round of drinks, while we perused the bar menu. Thanks again to Yelp, I ordered the cranberry mojito and was not disappointed. It reminded me of the cranberry limeade at Sonic but better because of the rum!  Jessica tried the lemonade but ended up swapping it out for a mojito. I tried a sip, and it wasn’t for me either. It tasted kind of like straight Bacardi lemón. For appetizers, we tried the Roma tomato and basil pizza and the potatoes gorgonzola. The pizza had a nice thin crust and was pretty good. If you don’t mind risking the health of your arteries, get the potatoes! Waffle cut French fries over a cream sauce base with Gorgonzola crumbles on top. Yum! After a second round of drinks, we wanted to try out the desserts. Ginger apple crumb cake was more like an apple tart, but I am not complaining. Hints of cinnamon and ginger made this dessert, along with the crème fraiche ice cream.

So far Yelp is three for three for delivering amazing restaurants as promised. I will keep you posted on more of Jessica and I’s dining experiences.