Royal /T Cafe

8910 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA

(310) 559-6300
http://www.royal-t.org/

I was fascinated when my friends who came back from a vacation to Japan told me things about maid cafes. Basically they are cafes with waitresses dressed up as maids and they feed you food and mix your tea and add cream to your coffee until you say stop. They treat you as their master or boss. It sounded degrading but fun at the same time.

So one of my friends to whom I went to a Southern California trip with found a cafe that is similar to maid cafe. The cafe is called Royal /T Cafe. Get it? Royalty! Anyhow when we got there, there was a long line outside the cafe. We immediately thought they were lining up to eat, but no, they were lining up for a Hello Kitty exhibit and store that is taking place at the cafe gallery. We went straight into the dinning area, but there was a wait also. But it was okay because we were just looking at the exhibit while we waited. It took an hour until we were seated.

Royal /T Cafe was having their special Hello Kitty menu to go with the exhibit that period of time, so we just ordered from it along with their famous royal milk tea.

Royal Milk Tea - Black tea brewed with rose and soymilk

I love milk tea especially milk tea made with soymilk. Most royal milk tea I tried before are made from powder, and I could usually tell if it is made with powder or not. But this one at Royal T was brewed fresh. Like most soymilk that was brewed with soymilk, it was very light but good. I couldn't taste the rose but it does taste different from regular black milk tea.

Kawaii High Tea Platter - Hello Kitty sugar cookie topper, a mini vanilla cupcake, a mini red velvet cupcake, two mini panini sandwiches, two vegetable maki, a cookie, a brownie bite and fresh berries.

The cookie was very hard, the cupcakes weren't moist, and the maki was tasteless. The only thing I like out of this platter was the sandwich because it actually had taste and the right texture. It was quite disappointing but at least the presentation was very cute.

Hello Kitty Waffle - Four mini Hello Kitty characters shaped Belgium Waffle with fresh berries, whipped cream and maple syrup

Again it was very cute presentation, but tasted very ordinary.

Assorted Cupcakes

I did not buy any of the regular sized cupcakes from Royal T after tasting the ones that came with the platter. I think the mini ones are dried because it is harder to control the moisture of mini cupcakes since they are so small and could only retain so much moisture. So I can't say these bigger ones will be dried either, but they sure look very cute.

The service from Royal /T Cafe was nothing like the Japanese maid cafe that my friends described. The maids at Royal /T act just like regular waitress because this is America! Having waitresses feed you food and pour milk in your coffee and such probably seems too degrading here. So...the maid costumes are just the waitresses' uniforms. They will only bring you your food and pour water for you, they do not feed you, mix your coffee for you, etc etc. So do not order them around when you are there. =]

Imitation Avocado

I opened the refridgerater earlier today and guess what I found? Green tea ice cream, coffee ice cream and avocado!

There are many misconception that avocado is fattening. About 75% of the avacado's calories comes from fat, but from monosaturated fat, which is good kind of fat that plays a role in lowering cholesterol. It is also rich in potassium, vitamin B and fiber. Ice cream on the other hand is a different story. It contains bad fat but rich in calcium due to its milk and cream content.

I want to eat them all, but I don't feel like slapping them all into a bowl. So I decided to put them together...in a quick, easy and nice way.

Green tea avocado ice cream with coffee ice cream and oreo crumbs.

Combinding green tea ice cream with avacado and putting them back into the avocado skin. Scoop out some of the green tea avocado ice cream. Add the coffee ice cream, and crumble some 100 calories oreo crisps...viola!

Yummy in my tummy.

Bistro Luneta

615 3rd Ave, San Mateo, CA

(650) 344-0041
http://www.bistroluneta.com/

I always wanted to try a Filipino restaurant and just so happened to stumble upon Bistro Luneta online. It serves Filipino inspired Asian fusion cuisine.

Luneta Sampler - Shanghai Pouches, Manila Pork BBQ, Crispy Tokwa, and Bangus Maki

I am a sucker for variety, so it was nice to order a sampler to tried four of the many appetizers Luneta has to offer. The Shanghai Pouches are crispy minced pork pouches with sari-sari sauce. It reminded me of fried wontons. It was okay, nothing too unique about it. The Manila Pork BBQ is street-style marinated pork skewers with pickled green papaya. The pork is quite tender and flavorful. The Crispy Tokwa are crusted soft tofu soy-vinegar sauce. This appetizer reminded me of lightly battered Japanese's adagashi tofu. But different  in that it comes with a thicker saltier sauce. I really liked it. The size of the tofu was a perfect bite. Bangus Maki was the most unique of all. It consists of milkfish with diced tomato, onion, and salted duck egg sushi roll. Even though it sounded unique, it tasted just like deep fried sushi with fish in it. I could taste the deep fried seaweed and fish but couldn't really taste the salted duck egg.

Escabeche - Seared Tilapia with julienned vegetables in sweet tangy sauce

I ordered fish because I love fish. The fish was seared nicely, golden brown outside and tender inside. The sweet tangy sauce was indeed sweet and tangy, but very thick and salty at the same time. I had to scoop some to the side of my plate, and a lot of it got onto the fish already, so it was hard to get rid of. I could not have be able to eat it if it wasn't for the rice.  

Chicken Inasal - Vinegar marinated grilled chicken with greens and pickled-papaya

I had a little bit of the Chicken Inasal, and it was okay. It was cooked perfectly, very tender and juicy, but again, it was very salty.

Rib Eye Salpicao - Grilled Rib Eye with Deep Fried Potato

Usually diced up beef tasted very rough, but this wasn't the case. It was very tender and delicious. Though, I think it would be nice to serve this with rice or mash potato instead because beef and fried potatoes are both very heavy food.

Luneta Chicken Adobo - Whole Poussin chicken with roasted garlic and mashed potato

I never tried chicken adobo but I always wanted to. I know it is braise diced up chicken with onions and herbs served over rice. But knowing Luneta is a fusion place, I did not complain when I see a whole chicken. What I need to complain about though is...one word...salty.

Bistro Luneta is a very nice restaurant interior design wise and service wise, but I did not enjoy most of the dishes I had because it was so salty. The waiter had to keep coming back to fill my glass of water. Maybe it's just the night I went or maybe that's how it usually is. But yes, with my curious, I yelped the place afterward and realized a lot of the yelpers thought their dishes were salty too. After that, I don't know if I want to come back to this place...maybe.

Old Fisherman's Grotto

39 Fishermans Wharf, Monterey, CA
(831) 375-4604
http://www.oldfishermansgrotto.com/

Oh! I heard so much good thing about their clam chowder and how the restaurant is one of the best around Monterey, CA. When my boyfriend and I was walking down the wharf, we were given numerous numbers of clam chowder samples. The wharf was like a clam chowder heaven. After many samples, I like two of the clam chowder samples there, one being Old Fisherman's Grotto.

After staring at sample platters and menu outside restaurants, my boyfriend and I decided to go into Old Fisherman's Grotto since the samples platter outside the restaurant look so attractive. Yes, visual is very important!

I wasn't too hungry after all the samples, so I ordered a salad while my boyfriend ordered some shrimps. Both our orders were from the specials, so they weren't listed on the regular menu.

Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato, Avocado and Grilled Shrimps Salad - Just like its title, mozzarella, tomato, avocada, asparagus and grilled shrimp.

This salad is not one of those healthy salad. It was cheesy good! The tomato were huge but it tasted very delicious with the cheese and shrimps. This is similar to italian style mozzarella and tomato salad. Very simple, so it is hard to go wrong. I find this to be very delicious but it has so much mozzarella that I couldn't finish it. Also it was a bit too oily.

Coconut Fried Shrimps and Macadamia Nuts Crusted Halibut - Coconut crusted shrimps. West coast halibut crusted with Macadamia nuts toppe with a tropical salsa made with mangoes and a citrus sauce. Plated with sweet potatoes and vegetables.

I took a few bite of this. I was surprised nothing was too oily since it is fried. I think the vegetables and sweet potatoes really help balance the fried food. The salsa was interesting but too sweet.

The food is pretty decent overall. The place definitely likes to fill the plate until full and has great presentation since they seem to like to use colorful ingredients.

Ad Hoc

6476 Washington St, Yountville, CA

(707)944-2487

www.adhocrestaurant.com

I'm not sure how many of you have heard of the famous Thomas Keller, the legendary chef who opened amazing restaurants like French Laundry, Bouchon and one of my favorite, Ad Hoc. Ad Hoc, which means "for this purpose" was originally opened as a temporary restaurant. But with blooming customers, Ad Hoc became phenomenon.

The thing I like about Ad Hoc is that unlike its fancy and expensive brother restaurants, Ad Hoc serves four courses family style meal that is unique, delicious and affordable! It is just a set price of $49/person. So, you get a taste of Thomas Keller's food around $50 instead of say like $300 at the French Laundry. Also, Ad Hoc uses local produces that taste very fresh!

I'd been to Ad Hoc two times so far, and each meal I had there was very memorable. One of the courses that I always look forward to is their salad. I know! Salad sounds so simple, but not Ad Hoc's. So far, they "wow" me with interesting ingredients that surprisingly taste good together.

Black Mission Fig Salad

I love this salad so so much! How come? Well they have the basic lettuce, and then they add bunch of really sweet black mission figs, cooked and marinated broccolini, and sunchokes! Now, sunchokes made this salad super interesting and delicious. I love it so much, I asked if they sell their sunchokes separately, but the waiter said no.

Marinated Beef Skirt Steak

First look at this, and I was like why did they cut the beef that way? The pattern on the meat made me think this skirt steak is going to be really tough to chew. That wasn't the case. The beef was so juicy and tender, and it was cooked to medium rare. The scallion with it tasted super good too even though I usually don't eat it.

White Grite and Tomato Marmalade

This side dish came along with the skirt steak. I never had grite before, but one bite of this, I was addicted! The tomato marmalade added so much flavors to the creamy grite even though the grite already had some taste to it. The creamy texture and subtle taste of the grites and the pasty texture and refreshing tomato paired well with each other. This side dish was pretty simple again, but it was blasted with flavors.

Boere Kaas Gouda and Currant Caper Relish

The cheese plate came after the entree. The flavor of the Boere Kaas Gouda was so strong and overwhelming. Its flavor lingered on my tongue even after swallowing it. I had tone down the flavor by eating it with the caper relish or the honey that came with it. The caper relish was very sweet. It was very enjoyable just eating the caper by itself.

Chocolate Brownie with California Strawberry Ice Cream

The meal ended with dessert. The brownie was super chocolatey and rich. It was also very gooey, which reminded me of lava cake. The homemade ice cream was so fresh and good. The strawberry flavor was very rich.

I enjoy visiting Yountville very much because it is so peaceful and quiet there. I enjoy grabbing snacks from Bouchon and eat outdoor as I enjoy the sun. Then end the night with delicious dinner at Ad Hoc. Even though the drive is about an hour long, it is always worth it!