Eat. Travel. Eat!

L'Etoile, located on the Capitol Square, is a fine-dining establishment in Madison, Wisconsin, focused on local and seasonal offerings. Arguably Madison's most renown restaurant, I couldn't have skipped a trip to Madison without trying this place for myself. L'Etoile provides an air of simple elegance. Housed in a building with floor to ceiling windows, with an interior that has understated neutral tones, the scene warmed up with the extensive wine cellar, candlelight, and flower arrangements. At our table, we received custom printed menus for the evening. It was here that the attention to detail came about. When making the reservation, we had noted the occassion that presided our visit, and our menus had a small message to reflect that note. Moreover, the employees also were aware of the occassion--a very nice touch.

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!)...

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.

During a recent trip to the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco, we stopped by The Slanted Door for lunch, a modern Vietnamese restaurant that came highly recommended per a review by Kevin Hsu of kevinEats .

What happens when my writing queue becomes so long? Restaurants change: they close, change owners, or have new menus and pricing. Dumpling 888, for example, had already changed owners when I visited it in El Monte. Now, the original owners have moved to a new, larger location: Atlantic Times Square in Monterey Park.

Sometimes I have a positive and negative visit to restaurants, and Lunasia certainly fulfilled in that case in that specific order. It is annoying, but since I already posted half of this post's pictures before that negative visit, I might as well document all of it. The first time we went for a dim sum brunch, the restaurant was full, and we had to wait for quite a while until we were able to sit down-- at a table right next to the main walkway! The atmosphere was eventful, reminding me (along with the interior) of Zen Chinese Cuisine in Hong Kong . The second time (during dinner hours), however, the restaurant was empty with an exception of some family diners and banquet customers, and the mood was quite different. Rarely do I see cast iron tea pots used in restaurants, so I took the opportunity to take a picture. Tea, by the way, has a 1.25 USD charge during lunch hours, but during dinner service the tea is complimentary. We began our lunch with some excellen...

Oto-Oto Izayaka Japonaise may be a large chain restaurant, operated by Ramla Inc., the third-largest chain restaurant in Japan, but the food quality was decent enough for a friend to recommend it to us. To thank him for a year's worth of mentoring, we decided to surprise him here, and as expected, the dinner went very well. Holding a corner spot in a strip mall, one may think that Oto-Oto is small, but it is actually quite a decent sized restaurant, with a large number of booth tables and stand alone tables.  They were able to fit our 20+ attendees comfortably that evening along with regular patrons and a birthday party! Throughout the visit, the employees made sure that we all had enough water, although by the end of the visit, they were slightly less enthusiastic as we spent more than three hours in their restaurant. It happened to be happy hour while we were waiting for our special guest, and so I ordered a small appetizer: spicy trio cones. These consisted of sp...

Driving back from Stanford and the event, we were met with a pleasant sunset; the sun made the green mountains shine even more so, and everything became even more picturesque. During our drive we made dinner plans; after crossing off one Chinese restaurant off the list to visit ( Koi Palace ), we decided to visit another one: R&G Lounge in Chinatown, which our friend recommended us to visit. Parking was easy to find; there is a parking structure that offers validated parking a block or so away from the restaurant. However, getting the seat at the restaurant was not. We forgot to make a reservation, which I highly advise making for any popular restaurant when visiting San Francisco such as this one, and as a result we waited for 45 minutes for an open table. What can one do in a loud, crowded atmosphere with no book? I spent my time taking pictures and learning about how the queue system works instead. Like some restaurants in Hong Kong, R&G utilizes a computerized queue...