DINING IN LA, DAY 2:

I was trying to decide how to organize these posts, after having eaten so much at home. At first, I thought of organizing it by the place that I ate, but then I'd have too many posts since i'd have multiples dining experiences in a day. So i decided that organizing it by day would be the best way. On day 2 at home, we had dinner to celebrate my and my older sister's bdays. (yes, we have the exact same birthday, just 2 years apart.) And since it was a double birthday, i got to pick the restaurant and so chose Lucuqes on Melrose and La Cienega in West Hollywood. I chose Lucques because the author has just come out with a cookbook, and it seems that her restaurant is a pretty well known one, so off we went, with the entire family in tow.

Ok, tip number one when dining at Lucques. If there is street parking with meters that are free after 6pm, don't park at valet and pay $4.50. (Something that neither of my parents observed). Tip number 2. If you have a 6pm dinner reservation, don't arrive early, cause they'll keep the doors locked until exactly 6pm (as you stand outside in the cold, and we weren't the only ones).

When we were finally allowed in , we discovered a lovely, dimly lit dining room with a small bar to the right. There was exposed brick and lots of comfy booths. I would call it romantic, though someone else i know had described it as "sexy." We were led through the dining room to a back area, which in the summer and warmer months served as an outdoor garden. But since it was january, they had erectecd a tent and added heating lamps to make for an indoor patio space. I liked it.

Lucques serves Mediterranean inspired cuisine, and so we were started off with these little plates of olives and almonds. And there were these little sides of salt (you can kinda see it in the background) that you could dip the almonds in. very yummy.Oh wait, let's take a quick break and look at a pic of my adorable cousin, Claire. She's happy because she got lots of presents at dinner, including a pair of Elmo shoes.
Moving right along. Here's a pic of my starter, heirloom pumpkin soup. This wasn't my favorite soup. I'm sad to say that I enjoyed the squash soup at eastern standard more. It just lacked flavor and salt. Maybe if there'd been a little nutmeg in it, I would've liked it more, but oh well.

For my entree, I got the grilled scallops. I was pleasantly surprised that the scallops were still in the shell. Almost no one serves them like that. They were tender and yummy. And served on a bed of polenta, which didn't seem very polenta like due to the large amount of liquid that was surrounding it. Still, I was happy with my choice.For dessert, I tried to be less predictable (there was a chocolate dessert on the menu) and ordered this tangerine sundae:Ok, this wasn't may favorite dessert. I did like the chunks of tangerine that were mixed into the ice cream, but the ice cream itself just didn't do it for me. I did, however, fully enjoy that sesame tuille that you see to the left of the sundae. Tasty and crunchy, too.

Over all, I enjoyed our dinner a Lucuqes. It was a lovely setting with pretty good food. And here's the great part, it cost a whole lot less than what a meal like that would've cost in Boston. I'm not saying that it was in any way a cheap dinner. No. But here's what's important, and something that I comment on all the time, the quality to price ratio. For Boston, in general, the quality of the food your getting and the entire dining experience is can be pretty low while your prices tend to be sky high. while in many other place (LA or NY or SF), diners tend to demand and expect more. Therefore, you often get better quality at lower prices. Or at least you don't feel like you're getting ripped off everytime you have an expensive dinner. And for me, that's pretty important.