Eat. Travel. Eat!

Having enjoyed vegan/vegetarian focused restaurants in the past ( Cafe Gratitude , Real Food Daily ), we started off a visit to Santa Barbara by visiting Mesa Verde for lunch. It had been positively reviewed on multiple websites, and its own website showcased beautifully crafted vegetarian cuisine. Housed in its own quaint grey and green building, parking is a tight, only having a few dedicated spots in the parking lot.  Although we arrived relatively late for lunch (around 2pm), we still had to wait more than 10 minutes for a table. The restaurant was near capacity, and employees were busy in the kitchen and serving customers seated indoors and outdoors. The environment was still relaxed, with locals enjoying a wide number of items from the menu. The owner happened to serve us that day, and apologized for the wait. After ordering and asking for his input on recommended lunch items-- the Patatas Bravas Tacos and Picadillo Empanadas came highly recommended--he provided u...

We've greatly enjoyed our past visits to Larchmont's Cafe Gratitude , and so we were glad to hear that Cafe Gratitude has also opened up in Downtown's Art District--making a for a shorter drive to enjoy their creative vegan and organic foods. The Arts District location takes more of a light colored approach (instead of an emphasis on turquoise), with white chairs and benches, grey walls, yellow chairs, green plants, and woods throughout the entire location. It's also much larger than the Larchmont location--we made reservations, given Cafe Gratitude's general popularity and dineLA, but found out that the restaurant was less than half full when we entered. Unlike some of the Yelp reviews about this location, service was great right from the moment we entered the restaurant. We were happily guided to our table, our waiters noted the dineLA menu and dinner specials, checked up on us to make sure we were ready to order (took a while given the many options!)...

I've recently gotten an interest in healthier foods and restaurants that specialize in healthy eating, such as Cafe Gratitude. Having greatly enjoyed Cafe Gratitude , I thought it wouldn't hurt to explore and try out a fellow restaurant chain also in the same organic, plant-based segment--Real Food Daily. While Cafe Gratitude likes to " provide inspired service, honest and transparent communication, and express gratitude for the richness of our lives ", Real Food Daily prides itself on being a destination where " community happens around education, connection and hospitality, over delicious, accessible food that’s real. " And indeed, there were parallels in both restaurants. The service was extremely friendly, the environment upbeat, natural, modern, and friendly, and people were enjoying a wide assortment of plant-based items--drinks and juices, appetizers, rice bowls, salads, and dessert.

A growing 100% organic, plant-based restaurant chain, Cafe Gratitude offers healthful vegetarian foods in a positive, modern, and friendly ambiance. I was recommended to visit it by a friend, who lauded the positive atmosphere, and was pleasantly surprised by how tasty the vegetarian fare was. Inside, Cafe Gratitude is happy, positive, and clean, with natural tones and casual furnishings. The mood is set by the positive adjectives not only listed on the menus ("I am...") and boards, but also the employees, who are content and wear shirts that say "love" and other terms. Mindfulness, health, and wellness permeate the entire environment.

Mercado La Paloma, a local community gathering place, is also home to a fine hodgepodge of quality restaurants--Thai, Ethiopian, American, Mexican, and Yucatecan cuisine can be found here. Chichen Itza, the restaurant that consistently has the longest queue of all the restaurants, specializes in Yucatecan cuisine (southeastern Mexican cuisine)-- the menu is filled with unique regional specialties . After ordering in person at Chichen Itza's counter, one receives a wooden stand with a number (for the employees to keep track of where to bring food to). Prior to the arrival of the food, an employee will bring over beverages as well as Chichen Itza's house Habanero Hot Sauce. It's a potent, fruity, extremely spicy, and slightly acidic hot sauce.

Four years ago, I used a camera phone and a point and shoot. One of the most memorable pictures was this picture of an engraved watermelon with an UCI anteater, taken when my friend was just entering the university. The food then at Pippin Commons was decent, but there were definitely some setbacks, even at move-in day, where Pippin was trying to demonstrate its quality offerings to parents. For example, the chicken tortilla soup was barely passable; some other items I shrugged about. (Pictures taken during Celebrate UCI, 2012) In between the four years, I got samples from Pippin, such as some chocolate chip cookies (delicious, crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle) or fruit, but I never really got to thoroughly visit Pippin, or UCI itself again. With that said, my companions and I really were in for a surprise when we visited Pippin for the first time again in four years. In comparison to some restaurant reviews that I've written here on the blog...

The comments from last week's survey requested unanimously for a Mexican restaurant in Arcadia , and so here it is! Zapata Vive is one of the Mexican restaurants in Arcadia where the atmosphere is decidedly more Mexican compared to other places as well as sunny. And if you can't tell already by my writing, I have been here quite a few times. (However, this post only has photos from one visit and that is the first time I brought my camera to this place) Additional plus? There are routinely coupons for Zapata Vive in the local mail, and there are also restaurant.com gift certificates available. Thus, if you have extra airline miles from United that you don't plan on using for flying, switching for gift certificates is a great option- and using it here is a good option, as the main condition is 35 dollars minimum on food only, which when you have a party of four is easy peas-y. Plus you can use it any day of the week and any time of day, including lunch. I do no...

Focusing back to exactly a year ago: I had just redeemed some airline miles from United for our Boston trip so that we would have some gift certificates to use in Boston. I was able to redeem four certificates (worth 25 dollars) at Restaurant.com with my miles, but I only found three restaurants for our Boston trip. I didn't know what I would do with the last one. Then, I looked at the restaurants near my local area and one restaurant that popped out was Los Gueros Mexican Restaurant. It didn't look familiar (haven't seen it before), but it was right in our area! Months pass, and then I finally notice where it is. The gift certificate is still on the back burner, not used yet. And what does it mean when I am now doing a blog post? It means we visited it. Finally :). After parking at the adjacent parking lot, we went in and were immediately greeted by some of the Los Gueros staff. They seated us and their services came along. Our server came and gave us chips a...