🚀 go-pugleaf

[x-posted between la.eats and ba.food, followups to la.eats]

Last weekend was the tenth anniversary for me and one of my secondary
partners; part of the celebration involved going to a science fiction
convention in Burbank (because we met at a con ten years ago), so our
anniversary dinner was down there instead of in the Bay Area where we
live.  Thanks to the recommendations from la.eats, we had an excellent
dinner, and to pay back for the excellent advice, I'm posting a review.
I'm x-posting to ba.food because that's my home newsgroup for food, plus
there are plenty of Bay Area people who make regular trips down south.

I'm actually posting reviews of two restaurants:

* The Place For Steak was where my partner and I had our celebration
dinner

* Picanha (a Brazilian restaurant) was where I had a family dinner Sunday
night after the con

After looking at all the recommendations from la.eats, I ended up having
to throw out most of them because my partner has recently become
allergic to corn in addition to zir long-standing allergy to wheat.  The
two options left were The Place For Steak and The Steak Joynt, since
meat and potatoes are hard to mess up.  I picked The Place For Steak
because it's closer to the Burbank Hilton.

I have to say that The Place For Steak doesn't look like much on the
outside (it's on the corner of Burbank and Mariposa).  The sign outside
makes it look like a low-class diner.  Inside, though, is quite
pleasant, if not exactly elegant (glass over tablecloths).  The TV in
the main dining room made us glad we were in front.  At 6pm, we were the
only people there; by the time we left at 8pm, the place was about half
or 2/3 full (something like 20 tables).  I imagine it's pretty hopping on
non-holiday evenings, but even half-full, it was quiet enough for me.

We had a bit of trouble with the menu; the waiter/maitre d' rattled off
specials for a couple of minutes until I finally asked him, "Do you
really expect us to remember all that?"  He had the grace to look a bit
sheepish and handed us a printed list of specials where he pointed out
three or four items that weren't available.

We ordered the stuffed mushroom caps, which were truly excellent; the
stuffing was ground beef and cheese, with garlic and one or two other
spices I couldn't identify, fried in olive oil.  They were served
blistering hot.  The spinach/bacon/vinaigrette salad got a shrug from
both of us; nothing wrong, but very definitely nothing special.

For entree, we both ordered filet mignon, medium rare (comes with a
mushroom/cognac sauce); my partner ordered the surf'n'turf to get a
lobster tail with it.  I got garlic mashed potatoes; my partner got a
baked potato (served with a cute little tray of piped sour cream, plus a
couple of little bowls with chives and butter).  Both dishes came with a
medley of vegetables that had been waved in front of heat -- extremely
crunchy, that is.

I've eaten in more high-end restaurants than my partner has, so I wasn't
quite as rhapsodic over the filet as zie was.  Nevertheless, it was
certainly one of the better ones I've had.  The lobster tail was *huge*;
had I been a bit less hungry, I certainly could have made a meal of it.
It was also fresh and tender, and glazed with butter and paprika (and
possibly cheese -- I didn't eat enough of it to be sure) instead of
being served with the usual bowl of clarified butter.

Service was competent and mostly unobtrusive, though I'd wish for more
frequent refilling of water glasses.  We shared one glass of the house
pinot grigio; the spiciness went well with a heavy meat dinner despite
it being a white wine.  The basket of bread had two kinds of rolls, one
white with poppy seeds, the other some kind of whole what roll I didn't
try.  We skipped dessert because we were stuffed and because none of the
desserts worked with my partner's allergies.

Total for the meal including tip was $120, which I thought was quite
reasonable for what we got.



Picanha (Palm near 3rd) got recommended by several people at the con in
addition to the recommendation of la.eats.  It certainly meets the
description of "meat, meat, meat, and more meat".  It's a buffet, plus
they bring skewers of meat to your table and either drop pieces or carve
off chunks: sausage, chicken wrapped with bacon, chicken with pineapple
glaze, leg of lamb, filet mignon, and a couple of others I can't
remember.

The buffet warranted a shrug, mostly, though it seemed pretty fresh.
You're there for the meat, remember?

It was moderately noisy, but not too bad (it was about 3/4 full).
Service was attentive.  They give you a little colored block with three
sections, red/yellow/green.  Turn the green end up to get more meat;
turn the red end up to stop.

Costs $24/head, and all of us thought it was worth it.  Go meat!
-- 
                      --- Aahz  <*>  (Copyright 2001 by aahz@pobox.com)

Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6                 http://www.rahul.net/aahz/
Androgynous poly kinky vanilla queer het Pythonista   

"And isn't there a paradox in making a film version of a book that has
somehow managed to get kids interested in reading after rotting their
brains with bad television, video games and internet porn?"
--Jon Popick on _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_