we recently dined at union in old town pasadena, which serves northern italian cuisine using locally sourced ingredients.

not only did we keep hearing amazing things about the food at salazar, but everytime we drove by, it was packed, and the patio looked amazing.

in the last couple of weeks before we (almost) left for china, i really wanted to go to a curtis stone restaurant. the remaining available reservations at maude didn't work with our schedule, but were able to get a good time at gwen.

providence is arguably one of the best restaurants in the city. we went and it was so so good and exceeded all expectations.

i had the opportunity to go to charcoal for a work event recently, which was great because i got to try a lot more dishes than i normally would be able to when it's just the two of us.

one of the foods we ate a lot of when we thought we were leaving LA? TACOS, of course. wemade a special trip down to costa mesa just for TACO MARIA; we specifically went at lunch time so that we could eat all the tacos.

i haven't been to animal in years and james had never been. i definitely had high expectations after so much time, and the experience did not disappoint!

one of our favorite coffee shops just opened up a heckuva lot closer to us!

pelican launched last night with a pop-up at pine & crane in silverlake! pelican is "taiwanese popup dinners focused on familiar southern taiwanese flavors, presented in new ways."

i hadn't heard of kinjiro before my brother made reservations, but i'm so glad he did because we had an amaaaazing izakaya dinner.

my family has always like going to steakhouses for a nicer dinner or special occasion. there are several we usually frequent, but we were looking to try something new and reserved a table at alexander's steakhouse

brooklyn's popular weekly smorgasburg market opened in LA at the alameda produce market! the weather was over 100 degrees, but there were still lots of people out to get their bagels, lobsters, pizza, ramen burgers, coffee, noodle bowls, tacos, banh mi, hot dogs, poke, popsicles, etc!

we are already huge fans of b.s. taqueria, and couldn't wait to try broken spanish! the food was ridiculous. comforting, flavorful and a whole new experience with mexican food for me.

i was quickly enamored with howlin' rays when they first started serving nashville-style hot chicken out of a food truck last year. now BACK with their own storefront in chinatown's far east plaza!

as a treat to myself, i booked dinner for us at Q sushi in downtown LA. it's omakase only, and a set price of $165 per person. it's unique as one of the very, very few places outside of japan serving edo-style sushi.

our meal here was utterly amazing. i loved every, single bite. and we even spotted gordon ramsay! definitely one of the more memorable meals we've had so far this year.

portland's famous pok pok came to LA before i could get to portland, and i'm A-OK with that. and pok pok LA is most certainly part of the amazing chinatown resurgence that is happening right now.

wanting to try something a little different for valentine's day this year, we bought tickets for roomforty's annual valentine's day winemaker dinner.

we recently made the trek out to santa monica to finally eat at belcampo meat co's restaurant with some friends.  i already have much love for belcampo as they are my favorite butcher shop; i was very excited to see what they could do with a full bar and kitchen! 

this cold, drizzly LA weather is wondrous. and you know what pairs wonderfully with it? a delicious bowl of ramen, and ramen champ in chinatown is a damn good choice.