Triangle Trip

As a follow up to our previous Pasadena restaurant review post which ranked 15 restaurants, Statusmonger, Big A and Captain G have since visited a few more restaurants in Pasadena, CA. We found Pasadena restaurants are a bit overrated. Nonetheless, we feel obligated to share our experiences with our readers.

Below is a list of our experience and ranking.

1.  Langham Hotel Dining Room – The only restaurant inside a hotel in the greater LA area to have a Michelin star! Dining experience was worldclass and worth the price. Great wine selection and dessert. Located inside the Langham Hotel, the Dining Room is kind of hard to find as it’s in a residential neighborhood. There is another restaurant called “The Terrace” which does not have a Michelin star. Make sure you tell the reservation specialist that you want the “Dining Room” if you want to experience real fine dining.

2.  Sushi Roku – Japanese restaurant nested in between Colorado and Union (near the corner of Colorado & Fair Oaks) — near Crate and Barrel. Very trendy restaurant with lots of young people. Service was excellent. Great sake selection as well. It’s fusion Japanese so do not expect anything real authentic.

3.  Tani – Japanese restaurant on Colorado Blvd and Raymond. Tiny looking restaurant on the outside but Tani has a pretty sizeable patio area seating on the outside. Good food selection as restaurant offers both cooked and raw Japanese food. Poor sake selection.

4.  Malagueta – A Brazilian joint located on Colorado (down the block from 1812 but 20x better). Has wide selection of Latin American wines. Mostly meat dishes. Avoid if you want veggies.

5.  Trattoria Tre Venezie – Little snobby Italian restaurant with one Michelin star that opens Wednesday to Sunday. We do not think this restaurant is worthy of the Michelin star. Food was mediocre at best. We were there on a Wednesday and the restaurant was not crowded at all. Wine list were all from Italy. The bright spot is they have authentic Italian soda.

Trattoria Tre Venezie6.  Yard House – Usual chain, American beer place.  It is usually packed with younger college kids.

7.  City Thai – Typical Thai food, nothing special.

8.  Tokyo Wako – A pricey Teppanyaki steakhouse. The show was typical of a Teppanyaki place but the waiters/waitresses provided excellent service. Portions were huge. Sake was good. However you’re paying for $30+ for Teppanyaki.

9.  Cafe Santorini – Mediterranean food inside an alley near Colorado and Fairoaks (by Roku). This restaurant has great ambiance. The restaurant is actually located on the 2nd floor of a building with outside seating. Service was horrible. Waiter could not recommend any dish — all he said was “pick whatever you want.” Food was very salty. The bright spots are: large portions, good dessert and great fresh bread. Perhaps the portions and dessert is what drive people to come to this restaurant. We were at Cafe Santorini on a Monday night and it was packed.

10.  Mojito’s – Cuban place on Raymond. They served great Mojitos as the name suggested. Food was so so at best. It was not memorable so it’s at the bottom of our list. Menu items were not too expensive.

11.  Central Park – Located on South Fairoaks and across the street from Pasadena’s Central Park. It’s an American style restaurant with seafood and meat on the menu. Nothing special. Just an over-priced restaurant that serves typical diner food.

12.  JJ Steakhouse – Steakhouse on the 2nd floor of a shop on Colorado. JJ Steakhouse is probably the worst steakhouse in Pasadena. For the same price, you are better off at Arroyo’s or Ruth’s.

13.  Kansai – Small Japanese restaurant on Fairoaks near Colorado. Kansai has a huge variety of Japanese dishes on its menu – perhaps too much to choose from… Setting is kind of ghetto. Food is so so. We will probably not visit them again.

14.  Nepal Tibet House – Located on Holly Street which was kind of out of the way… The restaurant marketed itself as Himalayan food but it was actually more Indian food than anything. We were disappointed and the meal was pricey.

15.  Cafe Bizou – We attempted to go to this restaurant 3x but couldn’t experience it. The first time they were closed after 9PM. The second time we were seated by the host and sat for 15 minutes without service. Furthermore, the patrons that night were at least 65 and up – crowd was definitely not hip. We gave Cafe Bizou one more chance on a Monday evening and they were closed for Monday’s.

With this list and our previous post, we have evaluated 30 restaurants in Pasadena, California. I don’t think you will find a better place with a more candid review of each restaurant at a particular location.

Big A | Captain G | Statusmonger

Following my previous post in regards to SPG Free Weekend Night promotion status, I emailed SPG to reconfirm my phone conversation. For the record, Starwood’s customer service center is truly world class. You are almost guaranteed to get an email response from a native English writer in 12 hours or less. Below is SPG’s standard response:

“I would like to inform you that you will not be able to see your free weekend online. To redeem a Free Weekend Night Award, Preferred Guest members in the U.S. or Canada should call 866-539-0059. Elite members should call their dedicated Gold or Platinum Members residing outside the U.S. and Canada should contact the Starwood Preferred Guest Customer Contact Center for your region. Advanced reservations are required and all members please mention Award ID 9FWFN when you call to book your reservation.”

In summary, here are our findings:

• The entire SPG Free Weekend Night promotion is done offline.
• You will have to keep track of your own stays to make sure you get free weekend night credit.
• You will have to ring customer service directly to make each booking.

SPG could have saved a lot of money and hassle (dealing with customer calls and emails) had they listed the above bulletpoints on their FAQ site.

Given our 6+ months of experience dealing with Los Angeles traffic on a weekly basis, we would like to share with you a key route to avoid rush hour traffic traveling from the Valley to Los Angeles International (LAX). There are plenty options that takes you from the San Fernando Valley (Burbank, Glendale, Hollywood, etc.) to LAX. The options are:

1. CA-134 West to the US-101 North to the I-405 South — This is the worst option because the US-101 to I-405 merge is the worst traffic junction in the US. The 405 South is a disaster from the hill to the I-10 connection (probably a top 5 worst traffic bottleneck in the US).  Going through two of the top five worst traffic junctions is not a good idea.

2. US-101 South to I-110 South — US-101 South is generally bad when heading downtown. The merge from US-101 to I110 is located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles which is one of the worst connectors in the US.

3.  I5 South to I-110 South to the I-105 — You will need to merge twice with downtown traffic. The first merge is the I-5 to the I-110. The second merge is the I-110 with US-101.

ALL the options listed has its major bottlenecks. We have figured a way to modify Option 3 and cut our commute time from the Valley to LAX by 30 minutes compared to the normal bumper to bumper route.

Here are the step by step directions:

1.  Take Interstate 5 South which is normally clear until you get to Los Feliz Exit (Griffith Park).  Right as traffic is building up, you will see CA-2 the Glendale Freeway.

2.  Get on CA-2 (Glendale Freeway) South. CA-2 South ends in about a mile and turns into Glendale Blvd. Stay on your left when you hit Glendale Blvd (after the freeway ends). Go on Glendale Blvd for about 1.2 miles through local streets (passing Echo Park which is to your right) until Glendale Blvd ends.

3. When Glendale Blvd ends, you will see West 1st and West 2nd Street (see map). Make sure you bare left and go onto W2nd Street.

4.  Stay on West 2nd Street until you have passed an underpass (which is I-110) and make a right at the light onto Figueroa Street.

5.  Once you’re on Figueroa, make a right on the next light which is West 3rd Street.

6.  On West 3rd Street, you will see the on-ramp for I-110 (Harbor Freeway) South.

7.  Take I-110 Harbor Freeway South until you see I-105. There will be plenty of signs pointing you to LAX. The I-110 Harbor Freeway also has a bonus: the carpool lane.

8.  Take I-105 West and exit Sepulveda which will take you straight to LAX, rental car return facilities and long term parking garages.

The above driving directions help you avoid the I-5 to I-110 merge as well as the I-110 and US-101 merge in downtown Los Angeles. These two junctions are one of the worst in America.

We hope you find these directions to be helpful. Feel free to leave us your comment or suggestions of better routes.

Captain G & Statusmonger