Dough Box Pizza & Bread-Moved

Dough Box Pizza & Bread
2734 N Eastern Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90032
323-346-6811

Back in 2016 I went to Dough Box Pizza & Bread, when they were a take out only business, using a commercial kitchen.  They would open up a brick and motor restaurant a few miles away.  Recently I read on LA Eater, they were going to close by the end of the year. 

I always take these closing notices with a grain of salt.  In late 2017 to early 2018 they wrote that Twoheys would going to close.  Then they wrote they are going to move to South Pasadena.  Yet, here we are in 2019 and they are still at that same location.  The South Pasadena building, the last time I went by, looks at least 2-3 months away from being able to serve the public.

Anyways,  Dough Box Pizza & Bread is really, still a take out place.  There is one small counter with no seats, for people to eat.

On their Instagram page, Dough Box had a large cheese pizza for $20, to celebrate National Cheese Pizza Day!  This pizza is called the Soto on their menu.  I liked the crust, well balanced, flaky, and held up to the toppings.  There was plenty of cheese.  But, the sauce is still too tangy for me tastes.  They need to balance the sauce with some sweetness!

Sicilian slice special $5- mushrooms, garlic, and red onions.

One thing I didn't know, was that Dough Box Pizza & Bread had Sicilian slices!  I decided to give a slice a try.  This was terrible.  The trust was too hard and the sauce was so tangy.  The toppings were fine.

Service was ok.  They told me after I ordered, it would take 1 hour and 10 minutes for the pizza to be ready.

I won't go back to Dough Box.  I only went to see their brick and mortar location.  But, the pizza isn't good. 

Munchies Vegan Diner-Moved

Munchies Vegan Diner
515 N Main St
Santa Ana, CA 92701
657-699-3076

Yes, another Vegan Big Mac review!  I heard about Munchies Vegan Diner on Instagram.  I decided to give them a try during the Labor Day Weekend, after reading parking is hard to find at times.

It's located in McFadden's Public Market, along with four other food stands, and an arcade/bar upstairs.  Parking wasn't bad, paid street parking, but on a regular weekend, it would be tough to find.

Big Much, $17 with fries.

Munchies Vegan Diner calls their Big Mac the Big Munch.  They use the Beyond Burger patties.  This was a huge burger, good flavor, the pickles stood out the most, but their sauce was kind of bland.  Fries were ok.

Service is good.

I gotta say that the Vegan Big Mac at Doomies is still my favorite vegan Big Mac, with Plant Power being second! Munchies Vegan Diner is only the second place I've tried the Vegan Big Mac, where they use a plant based burger-either the Beyond or Impossible, Veggietize Me- Impossible, is the other. 

Uncle John’s Cafe-Moved

Uncle John’s Cafe
834 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90017
213-623-3555

I found out about Uncle John's Cafe on You Tube!  Uncle John's, located inside the Stillwell Hotell,  is part diner and part Chinese restaurant.  You can get both menus from open to close, which is 3pm.  At 5pm, they became Downtown LA's answer to Boiling Crab, it becomes a Cajun seafood place.  I knew this would be Americanized Chinese food.

The restaurant is a small galley-like setup- with tables in the front, a counter at the back, and the kitchen in the far back.  It's got an updated decor.

Spicy Shrimp lunch special- $13.50. This was terrible.  I originally order kung pao shrimp, but got this spicy shrimp instead.  I wasn't going to wait and said it's fine.  This is just an orange chicken sauce with shrimp.  The sauce was bland with little flavor.  The shrimp was deep fried and I'm betting it was frozen.  The rice was the best part of this dish. 

Shrimp fried rice- $10. As you can see, they put a ton of soy sauce into the rice.  There are green onions, and eggs in this.  A bit salty, but overall average.  I've had better, I've had worse.

Shrimp chow mein-$11.  Large pieces of onion, some cabbage, and about six medium sized shrimp were in this dish.  It was too greasy for me. I would rate this average, again.

Service was good.

I wouldn't go back to Uncle John's Cafe, for the Chinese food.  I am going to go back for their seafood. 

Update August 31, 2019

Butterfly fried shrimp, with lemon pepper fries, $12. This was frozen butterflied shrimp.  Some pieces looked as though they stuck together while frying.  Nothing special, but there were about 8-10 pieces of shrimp.  The fries were bland and flavorless! 

Shrimp with mild house sauce- mixture of Cajun, lemon pepper, and garlic butter sauces- $15/lb. The shrimp were fine, the sauce was pretty good, the garlic butter stood out the most. 

Service is good.

I was surprised when I walked in, there was nobody in the restaurant.  A group of three people came in about a minute after me.  Then two people came in about 10 minutes later.  Maybe people haven't gotten the word that Uncle John's Cafe has a seafood boil at night.  Or, since this was Labor Day weekend, everybody was going out of town!  I would go back for the seafood boil.  I thought the shrimp was fine.  I wouldn't touch the fried shrimp again.

Tacos 1986-Moved

Tacos 1986
611 S Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90005

Tacos 1986 is a very popular taco stand in Koreatown.  They became more popular after the LA Times recently wrote a story about them.  Located about a block north from Wilshire and Western, parking around here is terrible.  Take the Purple Line or a ride share.  Another block or two north is Monty's Good Burger, a vegan burger place.

About 8pm on a Saturday night, the line had maybe 10 people, but grew steadily, as we waited for the tacos.

Mushroom taco, $3 and mushroom vampiros, $5, grilled crispy tortilla with cheese, salsa and guacamole.  The only items a vegetarian or vegan person can eat is the mushroom tacos, assuming they do not use lard making the tortillas.  The tacos were outstanding.  The mushrooms are sauteed to perfection.  Lots of good flavor, but a bit rubbery.  Not sure if they used canned mushrooms or fresh.  If they are fresh, they had been in the warmer for too long.  The guacamole was outstanding.  Very good flavor, with a hint of heat.

The mushroom vampiros was ok.  The grilled crispy tortilla was too hard.  It didn't work well.  I didn't taste much cheese.  I should have tried the quesadilla instead.

Service is good.  The line moves quickly.

Tacos 1986 was pretty good.  Though I won't rush back, and I wouldn't wait more than 10-15 minutes in line.

Cruzer Pizza-Moved

Cruzer Pizza
4449 Prospect Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323-666-0600

Cruzer Pizza is located just off of Hillhurst, in Los Feliz.  It's a very small, most take-out place.  There is one table with two chairs and a counter with about four bar stools.  They do a huge take out business with many customers coming in to pick up orders.

It's 100% vegan, including the crust!  Some places forgot that if the crust has eggs, it is not vegan!  

Vegan Veggie Pizza-large 14 in., $17.99, with six veggies of your choice.  Dairya cheese, half olives, tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms, onions, and spinach.  The crust was outstanding!! Firm, holding up to the toppings, yet a good texture!  The daiya cheese isn't my favorite.  It's has a weird texture.  The sauce is just bland.  They need to add more spices to the sauce.  The veggies were fresh.  I should try the vegan meats!  The Philly Cheesesteak pizza will be my next order from here.

Service is good.

I wasn't blown away by Cruzer Pizza.  It was fine.  The blandness of the sauce still gets me.  But, I would go back because I think the crust is outstanding!

Happy Family Restaurant-Moved

Happy Family Restaurant
18425 Colima Rd Fl 2
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
626-965-9923

Happy Family is on the second floor of the shopping complex where Newport Seafood and, the now closed, Four Seasons Steak House, used be.  

It's a huge restaurant with tables covering basically the entire front of the house!  It's brightly lit and the clean. 

Beef and broccoli- $11.95

This was a very good example of veggie beef and broccoli, maybe a bit heavy on the pepper, but otherwise good.  The veggie beef was a bit chewy, but very flavorful.  If you eat meat, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.  The broccoli was fresh and well cooked.  This was cooked just a little longer than most Chinese restaurants, which I like.  Still crispy but not mushy!

Celery, bean sprouts, and mushrooms-$8.95.  I wasn't that impressed with this dish.  Pieces of celery sliced julienne style.  There were a few pieces of mushrooms, but not as much to justify the price.  Celery and bean sprouts are inexpensive.  A bit under seasoned.

Service was good.

Overall I liked Happy Family and would go back.  I wouldn't order the celery, bean sprout, and mushroom dish again.

The Vegan Hooligans-Moved

The Vegan Hooligans
4862 Eagle Rock Blvd N
Los Angeles, CA 90041
323-257-2229

The Vegan Hooligans is a pop-up restaurant that serves vegan fare at Abby's Diner on Friday-Sunday, usually from 6pm to 9pm. I found out about Vegan Hooligans on social media. Abby's Diner just a little south of Mediterranean Triangle, it's a small diner with about four booths and two counters.

The setup is different.  You sit down, then after you order you pay!  I have never had that happen before.  The only time I heard it happen was in the 1990's when Denny's forced black customers, including black FBI or secret service agents, to pay in advance.  They did that for every customer.  They should put it on their social media.

The Carnivore-$10- Bolillo with tofu meat, sauteed green and red peppers, cheese, chili, and spicy mustard.  Almost a good sandwich.  Why almost, because the bolillo needed to be toasted about 3-4 more minutes.  Instead I got a sandwich where the bread just fell apart!  If I wanted a dish that I needed a knife and fork, I would have ordered it. But, I ordered a sandwich. 

Anyways, the meat was good.  A bit chewy, but good flavor and texture.  The grilled veggies were fresh and cooked right.  The vegan cheese didn't melt all the way.  This sandwich had bold flavors and even non vegans would like this sandwich!

Hooligan fries-$8. Crinkle cut fries with house made chili, cheese and chives.  This was a good  example of chili-cheese fries.  The chili, same tofu meat, was good.  But, the beans could have been cooked for a bit longer.  Lots of gooey cheese sauce. The fries were perfectly done.  They have fries for $3 on the menu.  They should add with cheese sauce for $4, for those who don't want the chili.

Service is good but annoying.  First of all, it's a damn diner, not a concert.  The music was just blasting.  Turn the damn volume down.  The servers are friendly, but they are practically watching over you like a hawk.  As I mentioned earlier, the practice of paying after you sit down and order is strange.  The server then asked if I needed change.  Which is a pet peeve of mine.  If a server says I'll be back with your change, I will say 'keep it' if I forget to say so when she comes to pick up the money. And if I forget to say so, and a server has to make the long, uphill walk back to my table, well the server can get another job, since this job is too hard for the server.  But, I hate it when servers ask if I need change. It just shows how lazy they are!  Just get the damn change!

I wouldn't go back to Vegan Hooligans.  They missed the mark on both dishes, basically Cooking 101 stuff.  Plus their payment policy is dumb!

Twohey's Restaurant-Moved

Twohey's Restaurant
1224 N Atlantic Blvd
Alhambra
626-284-7387


After 75 years Twohey's Restaurant will close on Feb. 1, 2018, after losing their lease.  So, even though I did a review back in 2008, I wanted to go back to Twohey's one last time. The restaurant hasn't changed much since 2008.  It's a huge place with seating in every part of the space, including the counter.  There was a long line of people, many wanting to make one last visit.

There is talk that Twohey's is suppose to reopen in another location.  But, I'll believe that when I see it.  After the Tail o the Pup closed in 2005, it was suppose to reopen, but the iconic hot dog stand is now in a museum in Chatsworth!  I heard there is a Tail o the Pup food truck and a location was suppose to open in downtown LA, but that didn't happen!

Update Jan. 27, 2018.  Twohey's has found a new location.  They will move to South Pasadena and take over where the Carmine's used to be.  They will stay open at this location until they are ready to move into their new location. They are hoping for a Spring 2018 opening.

Lobster truffle mac and cheese, $18.95.  The only good part of this dish was the large amount of lobster!  There must have been maybe a quarter to half pound of lobster!  The macaroni was cooked well.  But the cheese sauce was like soup.  So thin and lacking flavor!  They need to add more flour to thicken the sauce.  Going to Twohey's may bring back memories, but I can see why some people today don't like it.  Using frozen items and nuking them in the microwave!  I mean come on!  Use fresh ingredients and actually good. 

Service at the counter was good.  But, when I went to pay the manager and the hostess were terrible.  I mean I walked right past them to go to the register.  If they didn't see me they must be blind as hell.  They weren't busy, they were just standing there doing nothing.

 I'm sure there will be people who will miss Twohey's, but it's just an average restaurant. 

Flore Vegan Cuisine-Closed

Flore Vegan Cuisine
3818 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
323-953-0611

A couple miles south of Sage, a terrible vegan restaurant in Echo Park, is  Flore Vegan Cuisine in the Sunset Junction part of Silver Lake.  A small restaurant with seating outside on the very busy Sunset Blvd.

BLTA-$12. Tempeh bacon, green leaf lettuce, tomato, avocado, egg-less mayo on sourdough with choice of salad or cole slaw! What a great sandwich!!  Full of flavor and well balanced.  The tempeh bacon was fantastic!  If I didn't know it tasted exactly like bacon!  Salty, crispy and a good portion!  The sourdough bread was fine.  The veggies fresh and the mayo and avocado made for a moist sandwich!  The side salad was good sized, with green leaf lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and sprouts.  The vegan thousand island dressing was great, a tangy yet sweet dressing made vegan!  This sandwich was well worth the price.

Service was good.  It wasn't that busy and only one server, but she dropped by often.  She didn't ask what I wanted to drink, but brought water a couple moments later. The menu I got was very dirty with crap all over the pages.  They need to do a better job of making sure those menus are clean!

I like Flore and would go back, but the dirty menu has me freaked about how clean their kitchen is.  They have an A grade from the healthy department, but if they can't keep their menu clean, how clean is their kitchen?

Grill ‘Em All-Moved

Grill ‘Em All
19 E Main St
Alhambra, CA 91801
626-284-2874

Grill ‘Em All has been on my list of places to try since 2013.  I finally made it to Grill ‘Em All, which is not far from Hot Red Bus, a mediocre and pricey fish and chips restaurant.   It's a very different restaurant.  You feel like you stepped into a Kiss/heavy metal concert.  Black paint everywhere, a few tables with chairs straight from a classroom, heavy metal music on the TV and the coming from the speakers, a different setting.

Winger aka the Stewart Burger – with a veggie patty, American, lettuce, tomato, pickle, thousand island, $10.  All their beef burgers are half pound.  But, you can get a veggie or turkey patty, no extra charge, instead.  Their veggie patty is made with black beans and corn, very tasty.  But, this burger is dry.  They need to put more thousand island dressing.  The bun was good and the veggies were fresh.  Besides being dry, this was a good burger.

Service is acceptable.  The girl who took my order was fairly nice and friendly.  But, when helping the customer before me, it took forever!  I'm not sure what the issue was, I saw three other people come help,  but damn, what the hell took so long?

I won't go back to Grill ‘Em All.  The burger is good and service is acceptable, but the entire theme-heavy metal, is a huge turnoff.  The burgers aren't so great that I can overlook the heavy metal theme.  If heavy metal is your thing, you'll love Grill ‘Em All!  It's just not my thing.

The Rookery Alehouse and Grill-Moved

The Rookery Alehouse and Grill
117 W 2nd St
Pomona, CA 91766
909-865-4400

Interesting!!  Sometime in 2018, The Rookery Alehouse and Grill moved to the space where The Burger House used to be!!

The Rookery Alehouse and Grill replaced Joey’s Bar B-Q.  The family that owned Joey's decided to change concept and turn it into a burger place.  David Allen reviewed The Rookery back in 2015. What is interesting that Burger House opened a couple doors down and just across Garey Ave., is Big D's Burgers!  So, why has Pomona exploded with a lot of burger places?  I think the credit goes to Gordon Ramsey!

On his Kitchen Nightmares show he featured Lela's-an upscale dining experience where the chef used mashed potatoes from a box! In the makeover, Ramsey felt an upscale dining restaurant in Pomona wasn't needed.  What was needed was a good burger place!  So, he introduced a new menu and it featured the Pomona Burger.  Lela's was so mismanaged it closed before the time they filmed Kitchen Nightmares to when the show actually aired!  I went to a restaurant that took the same of Lela's; Aladdin Jr.

The Rookery is huge, with a bar and same tables in the front room and long tables in the back room.  When I went there were only four other people in the restaurant at about 7pm.

The vegetarian house made veggie patty, red onion, tomato, swiss, garlic aioli, $10.  This was a lot of food for $10.  The veggie patty was black bean and house made, good texture and firmness.  The toppings were fresh, but there was only a very small amount of garlic aioli which made the burger dry.  I added some ketchup and it helped.  I would ask for more garlic aioli the next time.

The fries were very good, cut thick, well seasoned with the skin on.

Service was good.  I was greet by one of the two people working behind the bar when I walked in.  They answered my questions and were helpful.

I would go back to The Rookery, but I'm going to try the other two burger places nearby first.

The Meat Cellar-Moved

The Meat Cellar
665 E. Foothill Blvd Unit C
Claremont, CA 91711
213-999-9011

David Allen reviewed The Meat Cellar a few weeks ago, and I put  them on my list of restaurants to try!  After going though a very hot weekend, I decided to head out to The Meat Cellar and give them a try.

Located just north of Pitzer College and their McConnell Bistro Dining Hall, The Meat Cellar is a combination butcher shop, wine store, and restaurant.  There are good quality meats in the display cases and some wines on the wall to your right as you enter the restaurant.  They have about 15 or so tables set up all over the restaurant and there are even tables outside.  Meat Cellar is next to a Starbucks and there is a huge outdoor seating area.

You order at the counter and they bring your food to you.  Since I don't eat meat-beef, pork, poultry anymore, I knew my options maybe limited.  In worst case, I would order the fries!  But, they had two fish option, halibut and salmon.  But, they were out of salmon-guess they didn't get their shipment of salmon.  So that made my decision much easier.

 Halibut fillet with mixed green salad- $18.  The top picture is what was delivered to my table.  My first thought was I paid $18 for this?  But, the guy- who I think is the owner, said "I know the halibut is kind of small, so we have another piece already on the grill."  If they added about half the size of halibut I would have been happy.

Because the first piece was very thin, it was overcooked. It would have been better on a sandwich or as a taco.

About ten minutes later I got the second piece and it was huge!  I was more than happy and satisfied with the quantity.  Now the big question was quality!  The second piece was well cooked, moist throughout and something I really enjoyed!

The mixed green salad was fresh and had a light vinaigrette dressing.

 Fries- $5. Twice fried kennebec potatoes.

We waited a long time for the fries.  The table next to us, who came in after us, got their poutine-fries with gravy and topped with short ribs before we got our fries!  But, the fries came out lukewarm and there were too many small pieces!  They were well seasoned and tasted good, but would have been better served hot, right out of the fryer!

Service was good.  I liked how they noticed the small size of the halibut and on their own, more than made up for it with a huge second piece.  If you're a meat eater the tomahawk rib eye, even at $37/lb is the way to go for presentation.  Or you can get the ribeye for about $24/lb, you just wouldn't get that huge piece of rib bone.

I would go back to Meat Cellar, to try their salmon, and would take my meat eating friends here anytime.  But, I would ask them to make sure the fries are right out of the fryer.

Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana-Closed

Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana
625 E Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91101
626-765-9550

Having gone to DeSano Pizza Bakery recently, I remembered Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana, in Pasadena, has been on my bucket list of places to try.

As the name says, Settebello is a Neapolitan style pizza.  A fairly large restaurant with a huge bar to the right of the entrance and tables scattered around the bar.  The noise level is fairly loud for a busy Saturday dinner, but not so loud you have to scream at the person across the table from you. 

Margherita, $12, Crushed Tomatoes, Mozzarella, Basil, Parmigiano Reggiano, Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  The crust was almost great, but too many burnt areas.  The none burnt areas had a very nice texture-chewy yet very soft.  The sauce was balanced and flavorful.  They could have put more cheese on the pizza, but otherwise a very good pizza.  It would have been better if they pizza chef had moved the pizza before it was charred.

Service was quick but very inattentive.  While our server came by often, he didn't notice we needed refills.  At most restaurants you don't have to ask for refills on water or soda.   Yes, I could have asked, but a couple times when the server came by I was talking to my friend and just didn't ask for a refill. 

Overall my experience at Settebello was good, but not great and didn't live up to the hype.  For a place that has been open for a long time, they shouldn't serve charred pizza!

Hard Times Pizza-Moved

Hard Times Pizza
2664 Griffith Park Blvd
Los Angeles
323-661-5656

Silver Lake has some very good pizza places; see my reviews of other pizza places in Silver Lake-Tomato Pie Pizza Joint, Nicky D's Wood-Fired Pizza, and Garage Pizza. I've passed by Hard Times Pizza tons of times, in fact I ate at the Cafe Ravo that used to be next door.  So I was in the area and decided to finally stop in for a slice of pizza.

Hard Times Pizza is located in a small strip mall next to the now closed Cafe Ravo.  Parking can be tough to find with it's small parking lot.  It's a small place with a few tables inside.   One wall is filled with Polaroid pictures of customers.  Why?  Who knows.

Regular thin crust cheese slice, $2, and Sicilian cheese slice, $2 .  Normally I hate ordering slices because you don't know how long the slices have been sitting around.  Anyways the regular thin crust was a bit too well done when they reheated it.  You can see the char marks.  But, the sauce was pretty good, it's heavy on the oregano, but I like it.  The was a good amount of cheese on the slice.  Now the crust wasn't good.  They say thin crust but it's really a regular crust.

The Sicilian cheese slice had the same charred marks.  But, the crust was pretty soft and had a nice texture.  Of course it had the same sauce.  This maybe worth getting freshly made.

Service was below average.  The kid never greeted me.  I wish restaurants who properly train their employees on customer service.  Greet the customers is basic customer service.  "Hi, how can I help you?"  Simple and easy.  I mean a 70 year old is greeting customers are Wal Mart, a punk kid can't do the same at a restaurant?  He wasn't helpful or friendly.  I mean who owns this damn place and/or trains their employees?

I know I have tough standards for customer service but I don't apologize for them.  It's terrible that so many restaurants don't train their employees well and/or just don't care.

While the Sicilian slice had potential, the bad service will keep me from coming back.  I can go to Tomato Pie or Nicky D's and get better pizza and much better service.  Why would I come back to Hard Times?