House of Pies Restaurant & Bakery

House of Pies Restaurant & Bakery
1869 N Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 666-9961

I recently read a story about the Top 10 pies in LA. Two restaurants that I have reviewed were included in the Top 10, but I did order pie at Pie N Burger or Philippe The Original.

While House of Pies wasn't in their Top 10, the writer did mention them as a place they tried while doing research for the story. I have passed by House of Pies often, but never stopped in. But, I looked at their menu, which has a wide variety of items, and decided to stop in.






Broasted chicken, three pieces including breast, thigh and leg, with steamed vegetables, and two sides- salad, clam chowder, $12.95.

The two side options were potatoes or bread and I didn't want either them. So I was glad to hear they offered a salad and soup as the two sides. The salad was standard issue salad with iceberg lettuce, crutons, tomatoes. Fresh, chilled, nothing great or bad about it.

But, the clam chowder!! WOW, was it great!! The chowder was full of flavor, a rich hearty broth and filled with lots of clams, finely cut pieces of potatoes and just wonderful. I would order this again and I would put this clam chowder up against other seafood restaurant's clam chowder!!

I was excited to see that there was broasted chicken on the menu and I knew that's what I was going to order. But, this wasn't a good example of broasted chicken. The main thing was the chicken was very salty. They must put in a ton of salt. I couldn't get over the saltiness. The other thing I couldn't get over was the greasiness. This was very greasy, the skin was dripping in grease. The skin was fairly crispy but the more bites I took, I kept thinking I was eating Banquet frozen fried chicken. This chicken tasted exactly like it!! The breast portion was fairly juicy. I would not order this again!!

The steamed vegetables had been sitting on the steam table too long. They were dry and mushy and just bad.

The only thing I loved about my broasted chicken dinner was the clam chowder and the salad was fine. Otherwise, I would not order this broasted chicken again.



Since I was at House of Pies, I figured I would see how their pies are. I got the Dutch Apple Pie, $3.95. This wasn't good at all and I see why they didn't make the Top 10. The crust was too doughy and mushy, not flaky. The topping was too bland, not sweetness like other Dutch apple pies I've had. The apples were fine and there was a good amount of nut meg and sweetness in the filling. But, the doughy crust and lack of sweetness of the topping just ruined this pie for me.

Service was below average. The lady was all business, not friendly or warm. I felt like a number. I didn't really lack for anything, but I also didn't feel like she wanted to be there.

I was disappointed with House of Pies. The broasted chicken and pie were bad. If not for the great clam chowder, I would never go back to House of Pies. But, the clams chowder is great and I'll return soon.

Soleto Trattoria and Pizza Bar

Soleto Trattoria and Pizza Bar
801 S Figueroa
Los Angeles
213-622-3255

If the address looks familiar it should, this used to be the terrible Zucca Ristorante, which is now closed!! Shocking!! Zucca was part of the Patina restaurant group; where the restaurants are overrated, overpriced, and serve average food !!

I came here with a friend who recently moved to LA and she picked this Soleto for Dine LA Restaurant Week. Dine LA offers three course meals for $26, $35, and $45 during restaurant week.

Salad first-tomato, cucumber, carrot, red onion, mushroom, and soleto vinaigrette. This was a light salad, with lots of fresh veggies, but the dressing was flavorless and didn't add much to the salad. Most vinaigrette dressings have a tangy flavor but this was bland and flavorless.

Grilled Salmon Scallopini-grilled mushrooms, arugula, confit potatoes, red pepper dill vinaigrette.

The was very good. The salmon was cooked perfectly!! Moist, flaky, tender fish. The red pepper dill vinaigrette added a nice flavor to the salmon but didn't overpower the salmon. The confit potatoes were cooked perfectly and just melted in your mouth.

I got the tiramisu for dessert, which was pretty good. Sorry but I forgot to take a picture of the tiramisu.

Service was average. The server was nice but a bit slow. It took forever for our drinks to arrive, it took forever to get refills on drinks, but it didn't take long for our bill to arrive. Though it did take long for him to come back and take the money.

Soleto has been open for about a month and I was surprised it was a bit slow on a Saturday night. Maybe things will get busier in the fall when events at Staples Center start happening on a regular basis. I liked how Soleto completely gutted and renovated the space, no signs it was the terrible Zucca. They will need to improve service a bit. But, I was impressed with the salmon entree and would order it again.

The Boiler

The Boiler
4665 Chino Hills Pkwy
Unit I
Chino Hills
909-597-9098

I've heard a lot of good things about The Boiler and their steam kettle cooking and decided to go try it. Located in the less crowded half of a huge strip mall, not far from Pei Wei, which is located in the busier half of the strip mall, The Boiler is a unique restaurant in the land of chain restaurants!


For an appetizer I got the Cajun Calamari, $7.95.

This was nothing more than frozen calamari fried up and served. It was pretty good, thick pieces of calamari and a heavy batter that didn't taste Cajun at all. The batter has more of a fried chicken batter than something for calamari.

Fisherman's Chowder, $12.95. New England style chowder with calamari, clams, white fish, crab, shrimp and mussels, with lots of potatoes. This was a very heavy and thick chowder. They could make this a bit thinner and use a lighter roux, because it was more brown than white and I'm expecting chowder to be more white.

The amount of seafood is a joke. I got one mussel, one clam, a very small piece of crab that was still in the shell, two medium sized shrimp, a couple pieces of calamari, and a couple small pieces of white fish. The seafood was fine, nothing great or bad about them. But, come on, for that price this bowl should have been filled with seafood.

Service was pretty good overall. But, they took awhile to get our drinks, after we placed our order. There were only two servers and one was training to cover the 10-12 customers in the entire store. But, that's not excuse for us having to wait so long for water. Otherwise the servers were nice and friendly and they knew the menu. I asked if the Fisherman's Chowder had potatoes and she knew right away that they did. Many servers would have had to go ask.

But, the weird thing is the owner of the restaurant was more concerned about his family and/or friends who were sitting at the counter than paying customers. I rarely saw the owner leave the counter area where his group was sitting. If he really cared about his business he would have been greeting and talking to paying customers who were walking into his restaurant.

I wasn't impressed at all with The Boiler. For the portion size and quality of the food, it is overpriced. I would not come back here again.

Continental Gourmet Sausage

Continental Gourmet Sausage
6406 San Fernando Rd
Glendale
818-502-1447

I heard some good things about Continental Gourmet Sausage, but I also got some wrong information about them, so it affected my review.

I was expecting a place that sold hot dogs and sausages that were prepared and you could eat there. But, Continental Gourmet Sausage is really a butcher shop that sells cold cuts, hot dogs, and sausages for you to prepare at home.




They do sell a few sandwiches, but I wanted a sausage, so I got the Polish sausage Sandwich, $4.94. The polish sausage was ok, nothing great. A decent spice profile, decent quality meats, but not worth the price for this sandwich and I don't think it was worth their price per pound, which was about $4. The bread was pretty good, with a nice chewy firm texture.

Service is ok. They don't speak or understand much English. It was like pulling teeth trying to just get a damn polish sausage or hot dog!! Again it was expecting a restaurant or at least a deli that served food, instead I got a deli that had limited experience serving food.

I wasn't impressed at all with the polish sausage at Continental Gourmet Sausage and wouldn't by the sausage by the pound. So there is no reason for me to go back there.

BBQ Bistro-Closed

BBQ Bistro
16691 Gothard St
Ste K
Huntington Beach
714-842-8919

BBQ Bistro was the first stop on a two stop BBQ ribs taste test in Huntington Beach. My second stop was BT's Southern BBQ.

BBQ Bistro is located in an industrial area on Gothard St. There are many businesses in the area, that hopefully are keeping BBQ Bistro busy!! If you're trying to find BBQ Bistro, look for the red umbrellas on the west side of Gothard St, or if you get there early enough, follow your nose!!


Half slab of St. Louis ribs, $12.39.

I really wasn't expecting too much from BBQ in Huntington Beach. Most BBQ places in Orange County are terrible. But, I was pleasantly surprised at BBQ Bistro. These ribs were great!! They were huge, meaty, a nice bark, good smoke flavor, very little fat, and just wonderful. The ribs were smoked with hickory and apple wood and the pit master does a great job. The BBQ sauce is a tomato based sauce, pretty good but the ribs were so good, you don't need sauce at all!!

Service is pretty good. The guy who took my order greeted me when I walked in and was pretty helpful.

I would go back to BBQ Bistro anytime. The ribs were very good. They are not open for dinner, since they cater to the surrounding businesses, which, I assume, close about 5pm. My BBQ ribs taste test was off to a great start!!

BT's Southern BBQ-Closed

BT's Southern BBQ
7144 Edinger Ave
Huntington Beach
714-841-7016

After my BBQ ribs taste test in Huntington Beach got off to a great start at BBQ Bistro, my second stop was at BT's Southern BBQ.

BT's Southern BBQ is about a mile away from BBQ Bistro, right across Edinger from Golden West College. It's a bit tough to find, but it's the same shopping center as the Toys R Us-who knew they were still in business! Once you find it, you will see a small restaurant with about 10-12 tables and a bar area inside, and two tables outside.


Full slab spare ribs, $17.95.

After a great example of real BBQ ribs, I get a bad example of real BBQ ribs. The best way to ruin real BBQ ribs, is to finish them on the grill!! Come on, the best way ruin any real BBQ by putting them on a grill!! You took the time and effort to slowly cook the ribs, but now you ruin them by putting them on a hot grill! You can see the grill marks on the ribs.

The ribs were thin, dry, lacked flavor, and just not worth it. I got more meat from the five ribs from BBQ Bistro, than I did from these 10 skinny ribs at BT's Southern BBQ.

Service is pretty good. The girl who took my order was pretty nice and helpful. When she dropped off my ribs, she told me about all the BBQ sauces they had on the table, including two sauces that were in a yellow and a red squeeze bottle, I thought they were ketchup and mustard. After a little while, she came outside and asked how everything was.

I saw many people order BBQ sandwiches, so that maybe the way to go here, but when I go to BBQ, I get spare ribs. So, I wouldn't go back to BT's Southern BBQ, especially since BBQ Bistro is only a mile away.

Mario's Peruvian Seafood Restaurant

Mario's Peruvian Seafood Restaurant
15720 Imperial Hwy
La Mirada
562-902-8299

I enjoyed my first and only Peruvain dining experience at Choza Mama, so I've been on the look out for other Peruvian restaurants. I found Mario's and many friends told me it's a must try.

The Mario's I found was in Hollywood, but I soon found that they have a location in La Mirada, so I went there. Well, I tried to go there for lunch, but on a Tuesday afternoon they were closed for the day, due to renovations. I called about 10am and nobody answered and there was no answering machine, so I just figured they weren't opened until 11am. I head down there to find a sign that said closed for the day. I really wish they had an answering machine and they left a message about the closure.

Anyways, I'm not one to hold grudges, so I went there for dinner. But, this time I called, somebody answered, so this wasn't a wasted trip!!

Jalea De Mariscos $15, fried red snapper, shrimp, and squid with onion salsa and tartar sauce. The batter for the fish and shrimp was light, yet crunchy and well cooked. The red snapper was fresh and tasty. The shrimp still had the shell, which isn't what I expected, but the shrimp was fresh.

But the batter for the squid was too thick and heavy. The squid itself was good, pretty fresh, not too chewy. But, the batter ruined it for me.

Overall I liked this dish. But, only three medium sized shrimp? Come on, either decrease the size of the shrimp and increase the portion or tell us that there is only three pieces of shrimp.


Tallarin de mariscos-$12.25, shrimp, squid, octopus and pasta, onions and tomatoes. This was a very good dish. The pasta-spaghetti was cooked perfectly, the seasoning and spices were right on. The seafood was fresh. If I had one complaint, maybe the small portion.


Arroz Chaufa De Camarones-$13, shrimp fried rice, Peruvian style. I know that Peruvain food has a lot of Asian influences and I don't know what made this shrimp fried rice Peruvian style, because it tasted like any other shrimp fried rice I've had at Chinese restaurants. It was good, fresh seafood, rice cooked perfectly, well seasoned, but again the portion size was small.

Service was pretty good. It's a big restaurant, I'm betting it used to be a Coco's, and there were about ten tables filled with hungry diners. But, I had to ask for refills on water and our server wasn't around that often.

I did like the food at Mario's but I wasn't blown away. I thought that the prices were a bit high for the portion size and even the quality of the food. I won't rush back to this Mario's or their Hollywood location.