RLOTW: Farmstand

I have not heard good things about Farmstand. Nobody I know has had a good experience at this self proclaimed "Urban Country Food" establishment. So with some amount of trepidation my coworkers and I decided to go after one coworker expressed his desire to eat somewhere "with salads" since he's on his annual cleanse. Despite the fact that my word of mouth reviews were positive, yet the the Yelp reviews are all decidedly okay, and the fact that I love the mixed-use building in downtown El Segundo, I successfully lobbied to go.

The results definitely exceeded my expectations. I knew we were in for a treat when the hostess who greeted us looked like she just got done taping an exercise video. I've never seen such fit arms in my life. And I don't have an arm fetish (chicken wing maybe). Anyway, we sat down, took a gander at the menu and ordered. I got a chicken sandwich and side of greens, coworkers ordered salads, and we split an order of fries. The fries were just a tad cold because they had probably sat out for a minute but they were super tasty - they were the uber-thin shoestrings, sprinkled with Parmesan, and served with a red sauce that tasted and smelled like ketchup to me but my coworkers swore it was not. After our meal (which I alone did not finish), we were pleasantly surprised when the steel armed hostess offered us a complimentary mousse. I'm not a super giant dessert fan but wow was that good.



After the meal one coworker, who was especially vociferous relating her prior bad experiences, proclaimed it the best meal she had ever had. Hyperbole aside Farmstand was definitely someplace where I would dine again.

RLOTW: Indian Summer

Oh yeah, and the coworkers and I did a ROLTW at Indian Summer (in the pouring freaking raining to boot). Yelp already has a ton of reviews so I didn't do anything there but I was pleasantly surprised that they had samosas as part of the buffet. It also seemed like they had a bigger selection than other places. Although all the meat was chicken they did have a big assortment: chicken tikka masala, curry chicken, biryani, and chicken kabob (including some sausage-like pieces). Anyway, I highly recommend.

RLOTW: Fantastic Cafe

Well we didn't do RLOTW last week but my coworkers and I survived the inclement weather and made it out today to Fantastic Cafe in downtown Gundo.



Yelp only had 9 reviews so I added my $0.02:

The aforementioned burger combo is now up to $5.39 but that's still not bad. I almost got the Patty Melt, which is my usual goto at places like this, but the Cheeseburger did me fine. Coworkers got the grilled chicken sandwich and were pleased (especially after adding a dollop of the homemade salsa verde). Unfortunately we all got fries, which were great, but had onion ring envy after we saw a plate walk by.

I've had breakfast here too, which is really where Fantastic shines. The breakfast burrito is dense and delicious and the omelets aren't too shabby (the avo was surprisingly fresh). Solid times.

All your RLOTW are belong to us

Over the holiday break my cousin 'dval' reminded me about his prior blogging experience with the Scary Lunch of The Month (SLOTM). This is the best idea ever and I wanted in. Fortunately I have a couple of adventurous co-workers that I coerced into helping me form the Random Lunch of The Week (RLOTW), which is still tentatively named. Our goal is to randomly eat at every restaurant in downtown El Segundo.

To get RLOTW off the ground I started by compiling a list of all restaurants in downtown Gundo. Then I went through and marked off the places we dined at in 2009 as a group (sorry Big Mike, you will not be part of our Thursday plans). Additionally, prior solo missions do not remove a restaurant from the list. Eventually this list will become its own map.

To pick today's restaurant one coworker picked a number, another picked a direction (either up or down) and the third randomly selected a restaurant on the list. Then from that starting location he moved either up or down by the number selected. I have a feeling like this process will change sporadically, or restaurants will be picked based upon a certain desire for special occasions. Or yearnings for sushi or burritos. Fortunately there are over 30 restaurants on the list so we have a lot to choose from.


View Larger Map

My other goal will be to spread the word about Gundo restaurants on Yelp. Because I'm anal I already went on Yelp to 'help' them with some of their info. I amended the Tavern on Main page to include their website. I informed them that the El Tarasco on Grand closed and has since been reopened as Beach Mex. My other goal will be to write reviews of places we go, but only if they have 10 or less reviews already. In that vein, I wrote a review for the restaurant we dined at today, Melting Pot Rotisserie:

I went there with 2 coworkers. I had the chicken pita, coworker 1 had the half chicken combo, and the other coworker had the brochette (ka-bob) combo with chicken and beef. Really good food all the way around.

The chicken pita was made by sauteing precooked chicken with raw onions and peppers and rolling up in a warm pita. Very good spices and Tzatziki sauce. The half chicken was reheated in one of those Subway cheese melting devices and had a green pesto-ish sauce on it - also very tasty and not dry at all. The beef brochette had a thin vinegar based bbq sauce with a nice tangy flavor although coworker reported that the beef was tough. The chicken brochette had a yellow sauce of unknown origin.

Other amusing notes were that the meals were served with salsa while the menu also included some Indian cuisine (paneer and curry). Gotta love LA.