Umami Burger

We went to “Umami Burger” for dinner on the 6^th day of our California vacation. This restaurant was mentioned on the Food Network for having one of the best hamburgers. Mike loves to eat hamburgers. In fact, out of the all the restaurants we had eaten at during our vacation, this was the one that he expressed that he was the most excited to eat at (my man loves to eat his meat). We ordered thin fries, sweet potato fries, tempura onion rings, and 3 Umami Burgers - high quality beef with shitake mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, carmelized onions, house-made umami ketchup, and a parmesan crisp on a truffle-oil brioche bun.

Everything was awesome! I honestly wished we had more stomach room so that we could have tried some of the other burgers on the menu that sounded good, but alas, God only put one stomach in each of our bodies…. The kids enjoyed eating the side dishes the most and obviously Mike enjoyed his burger with a cold bottle of coke (a glass coke bottle, which added a little “class” to the meal). If I had to pick one thing not to pass up on the menu it would be the sweet potato fries; they are definitely a yummy side that you will want to have with whatever burger you order.

The Griddle Cafe

On the morning of the 6th day of our California vacation, we made the extra effort to wake up early and drive into LA to eat breakfast at “The Griddle Café”. I had seen this restaurant mentioned on the Food Network for having delicious Red Velvet Pancakes (I love anything Red Velvet). We arrived at the restaurant around 9:00 and only had to wait 5 min. for a table (What a relief when you are waiting with kids). Once seated, we ordered breakfast like it would be our only meal of the day. We ordered:

• Strawberries and Cream Waffle
• Red Velvet pancake
• Bagel with Cream Cheese
• Bacon
• Cottage Cheese
• Brown Sugar baked Bananas

I remember when looking at the menu thinking that the prices for the pancakes looked a little on the expensive side. It was not until they brought out my Red Velvet pancake that I realized why….The pancakes are HUGE! My pancakes were the size of my entire plate! No matter how I tried to convince myself that I was eating “breakfast” while enjoying each sinful bite of my Red Velvet pancake, Mike was there to “bring me down to earth” and keep reminding me that I was basically eating dessert for breakfast (probably why “The Griddle Café” writes it on the menu as the “Red Velvet panCake”). Even Aidan said, “Can I have another bite of Mommy’s cake?” Breakfast, dessert, whatever it was, it was yummy along with a cup of black coffee that morning :) On a side note, everything else we ordered was good too. Thanks Food Network another successful restaurant!

Luna Park

On the 5th day of our California vacation we drove from San Dimas to Santa Monica and checked into our hotel there. When we checked into our hotel, I was so excited to find out that our hotel had a Starbucks in it…SCORE! We spent the rest of the morning unpacking, walking to Whole Foods to buy some drinks and healthy snacks, and then napping. Later that evening we drove into LA to eat dinner at another restaurant that I had seen on the Food Network called “Luna Park”. Food Network mentioned that “Luna Park” had a wonderful “S’mores” dessert. Aidan had been nagging us for a couple weeks about making s’mores again at home, so we were excited to surprise him with this restaurant on our vacation. Luna Park was a nice casual restaurant that even had paper mats and crayons for the kids to color with, Yay! Honestly, I can’t remember what we ate for dinner there because all I can remember is how GOOD that “S’mores” dessert was! It was a lot of fun to assemble our s’mores using Luna Park’s house-made crisp graham crackers, toasted mini marshmallows, and dark chocolate sauce…YUMMM! In fact, we all enjoyed it so much that we ordered it twice! I’m seriously considering baking my own graham crackers and using dark chocolate sauce if we make s’mores at home again someday….

The Foundry on Melrose

On the second day of our California vacation, we spent the day at the California Science Center, followed by dinner at the “Foundry on Melrose”. For a while now, I have been making a list of restaurants that I have seen on the Food Network that I would like to eat at. The “Foundry on Melrose” was mentioned on the Food Network as having the best grilled cheese sandwich. I was excited to try this sandwich with Mike because it sounded so unique.

Normally Mike and I prefer not to go to nice restaurants with our boys (I would say casual elegance looked like the appropriate attire for this restaurant), but since we were on vacation with no one to babysit them, this could not be helped. I really wanted to try this restaurant, and was determined that if they wanted us to leave because we brought our kids, then they would need to say it to my face! Luckily, we brought our iPads with us to keep the boys still and silent (hey, whatever works….), so even though the staff looked a little surprised that we brought our kids with us, they did not ask us to leave. In fact, they were super nice and friendly to the kids during dinner and offered us a table outside on the deck.

Mike ordered his grilled cheese sandwich with the short ribs and I ordered mine without. Both sandwiches were delicious! In addition to the grilled cheese sandwiches, the two other dishes that we ordered that did not fail to disappoint our taste buds were: the “Potato Soup” and the “Pan-seared Scallops”.