Breakfasts in LA – Huckleberry, Ugo – An Italian Bar And Flake

6 restaurants visited in the 2 1/2 days in LA – not bad!! Only thing by the end of it, we were a little tired of it and wanted to just eat from Subway or something, where i will not have to take a picture of the Sub or think about how it tasted and then remember it or make sure I have a copy of the menu so that I know what we ate. It is not that I did not enjoy it, I totally did!! But this is the first time that we were trying out so many restaurants in such a short span of time.

The planning for all this started a couple of weeks ago and then finally the day before we were leaving, I shortlisted the restaurants that i wanted to go to and also had some backups – in case we did not feel like a particular kind of food that day or something like that. But what I did not expect was for some of the restaurants to be closed and hence using the back up options. I do not want to put all of them in a single post and make it really really long. So, I decided to split them into two posts – one for the breakfasts we had and the other for the 2 dinners and one lunch. I have tried not to make this post very long, but pls do bear with me if you find it so. Even if you dont read this now, you can always come back to it later if you are ever taking a trip to LA Enjoy!!

Huckleberry, Santa Monica, Los Angeles

On our first day in LA, we were to have breakfast in this sports bar and lounge called Oliver Café and Lounge on Wilshire Blvd. Their website said that they open for an early breakfast at 7 am but when we went there at 10 am it was still not open. I was a little disappointed that my well-planned eating out started off like this. But thankfully, I had backups planned and we went to this nice breakfast/brunch place Huckleberry also on Wilshire Blvd but in the Santa Monica Area. We were already a little behind our schedule for the day and were not that happy seeing the crowd at Huckleberry. To set our luck a little better for the day, we realized that many of them were waiting for take-outs. I was also praying for a seat outside and we were lucky to get one too. The menu had soo many interesting items that it was a little difficult for us to decide, well, just for AJ, I already knew what to eat So we finally made up our mind and ordered our food, but while we were waiting to make the payment (it’s a “order and pay for your food and then wait at your table with the order number” kinda place), the various breakfast desserts that were kept at the counter tempted us so much. There were absolutely delicious looking bread pudding, nice moist banana nut muffins, loaves of pumpkin tea cakes and coffee cakes, sinful chocolate cake, chocolate filed croissants and more. So, of course, there was a last minute addition of chocolate filled croissant as well.

Our breakfast at Huckleberry – Roasted Asparagus with sunny side up eggs, toasted bread crumbs and parmesan cheese ($11.50); Niman Ranch Steak Sandwich with garlic aioli, parmesan, arugula & tomato on ciabatta ( $14.50); a side of house made English muffins with butter and house made blueberry jam ($2.75); Chocolate filled croissant ($2.50) and freshly squeezed orange juice. It was definitely one of the best breakfast / brunch I have had in a very long time. The asparagus was grilled to the right level of crispiness and the eggs with the breadcrumbs and parmesan was a great combination with it. I was sure that I will be hungry after a while if I eat only the asparagus and the eggs, so I had the english muffins with butter and very delicious housemade blueberry jam.  The steak sandwich was also done to perfection and the arugula with the garlic aioli especially gave a very special taste to it. The croissants were wonderfully buttery and flaky with just the right amount of melted bitter-sweet chocolate filled in it. It was purely divine! The service was also very friendly and quick inspite of all the crowd.  Altogether the breakfast at huckleberry more than made up for the disappointment we had earlier with Oliver Café. 

The Niman Ranch Steak Sandwich, Roasted Asparagus with Eggs and the Chocolate filled Croissant

Ugo Italian Bar / Cafe, Culver Boulevard, Los Angeles

Second day at LA and our luck doesn’t seem to be getting any better. The restaurant in the list for breakfast on Sunday Morning was Tender Greens on Culver Blvd. We reached there at around 9.30 but it was closed and there was no one around for us to ask when it will open or whether it is going to open at all. We were slightly disapointed but there was this slightly better looking Italian café right next door, Ugo. There was a lot of outdoor seating and it was slightly secluded from the road as well, so it was perfect. We just took a quick peek at the menu to make sure that there was something vegetarian for me to eat and took our seats outside.  I found the Primavera Omelet- A Healthy and Tasty Egg White Omelet prepared with Broccoli, Carrots , Asparagus, Zucchini and Green Peas($9.95) interesting and ordered that. AJ had the Frittata della Campania – A Hearty Frittata of Chicken Risotto, Roasted Red Peppers and fresh Basil ($9.95). We had them with sides of toast and fresh fruits. And of course, there was some good orange juice to wash it down. The service was quite curt and not too friendly but not so bad to bother us. The food arrived pretty quickly and it was delicious too. The omelet was pretty standard with the veggies in it, I felt the need for a little more salt on it, but probably it was just me. I had a taste of the frittata AJ ordered and I found it to be quite delicious with all the roasted red peppers and basil, eventhough AJ thought it was pretty ordinary. Ohh yeah, I also ordered a banana nut muffin to munch on as well. So, overall the food was pretty good, nothing out of the ordinary but what I totally loved about this place is the curb side secluded seating area with the shade from this huge tree in front of the restaurant. It is definitely a good place for a relaxed Sunday brunch.

The Primavera Omelet and the Frittata della Campania

Flake, Venice, Los Angeles

This was the most disappointing in the whole trip. We have been having and spending so much food during the last couple of days and wanted to eat something very light and not expensive, which was the reason behind me choosing this place, besides the fact that we were going to Venice beach that morning. I ordered the Sambazan Acai Bowl – Frozen blended acai with vegan hemp granola, topped with banana ($6.50) and iced tea ($1.75) and AJ ordered the Croissan-wich Jones – Scrambled Eggs, cheddar cheese and applewood smoked bacon on a toasted bagel ($5.75) and a glass of orange juice. I didnt quite like the frozen acai part, the granola with the banana was good, so I had something to fill my stomach with. The iced tea was worse than the most ordinary of iced teas that i have had! Thankfully, AJs croissan-wich was tasty but it was as tasty as if anyone would put all those ingredient together. I mean, it is just impossible to make that combo taste bad! The location of this restaurant was not all that great and on top of that the tables and chair outside were a little rickety with hardly any space for you to move the chair around a little bit and where we sat was next to a garbage bin on the road. On top of all this our total came to $21 and we were wondering how that happened, only to know later that our orange juice was $5.00. We wouldnt mind paying that much for a good glass of freshly squeezed orange juice but it was not and we were definitely not happy about that!!! I think its just that a lot of things happened together which made our visit to Flake very flaky. One good thing about this place is that the service was very friendly.We may probably like it if we go there one more time, but it failed to impress us in our one visit!

The Acai bowl and Croissan-wich Jones

The dinner and lunch reviews at Tantra, Kavikas and Pizzeria Mozza, coming up soon!!