Tuscanova @ Century City Westfield Mall

I almost don't even want to write about this so I can keep it a secret...but then again, no one really reads my blog, so who cares!

Tuscanova restaurant opened recently at the Century City mall in LA, and they have a seemingly too-good-to-be-true happy hour: 4-8pm, EVERYDAY, 51% off all drinks, and a FREE plate of apps! This definitely outshines Bar Pintxo! For $37 we got 6 glasses of prosecco, a cosmo, and a cappuccino (for my underage sister)! The free app plate isn't amazing, but it's definitely appreciated. It comes with little bites of pizza (homemade pizza, but not gourmet tasting at all...kinda taste like the thin crust fast-food pizzas you can get at the food court), mini ham/cheese sandwiches, and crostinis with a brushetta topping.

The prosecco was 51% off $10, so 3 glasses of it go down really easy. We actually ended up staying for dinner too, and that was not as good. It was actually pretty simple/healthy seeming, but lacked flavor because of that. For example, my mom got gluten-free pasta and it was really dry and boring. I got sea bass that was cooked perfectly and tasted simple but good, but it was $26 and didn't come with any side dish or anything!

So I recommend Tuscanova for happy hour, but then going to Houston's or Gulfstream next door for dinner.

Bar Pintxo: Overpriced, Oversalted Tapas (but great happy hour)

Bar Pintxo is on Santa Monica Blvd and Ocean Ave in Santa Monica. I've heard great things from my uncle about this place, so we made it in there before seeing Cirque Du Soleil this past weekend. They have happy hour from 4-6pm, featuring 6 tapas for $6! Now THIS is a great deal, but I didn't really care for any of the tapas featured on that menu (everything had either cheese and/or ham in it....boring!). Don't get me wrong, $6 is a great price and probably worth it, but I had to try their other more interesting items (which ended up being too salty and too expensive): garlic shrimp (3 for $9), scallops with fennel and cocoa dust (4 for $11), and seafood paella ($15). The paella was the only thing that was filling (because the rice) and not too salty. Luckily the cava I selected cut the salt pretty well for the other items though.

Wines: All their wines are Spanish, and their happy hour menu features 2 of them for $4-5 each, and also a sangria (which was watery and not worth it). I ignored these wines, and instead opted for a cava rosat at $11, then a regular cava at $9. The rosat was very interesting. Notes of cranberry stood out the most to me. The cava had more typical/expected nutty and yeasty flavors. I preferred the cava over the rosat, because it worked with my salty seafood a little better.

My conclusion: go here if you like Spanish tapas (salt, cheese, and ham). Don't go here if you're going to order other stuff on the menu--it's a rip off. I would definitely go here again and order the tapas. For $6, who cares if I don't love all of them?!? Also, I really appreciated that it wasn't crowded. On Friday night, at 530pm in the middle of happy hour, 6 of us could easily get a seat. I wonder why this is...no one's heard of it? Or no one likes the selection/prices...

Barefoot Merlot: when wine tastes worse than its price :(

Apologies to my 12 followers for not writing in a while. I guess you could say i've been a little discourage/depressed after a certain episode last week. I'm speaking, of course, of my encounter with Barefoot Merlot. I'm not sure how much it is per bottle, I'm guessing $5? Regardless, it was awful. Just plain awful. You couldn't pay me money to drink that, let alone charge me $5! There are so many better wines for that price out there! I do honestly believe that once you're over the $10 mark, wines start getting substantially better. But who doesn't want a quick easy $5 wine once in a while? I've seen much better from Argentina, Australia, Chile, etc. Adios Barefoot. Never again!

Note on Cake Bread

I don't really get it. There's a Cakebread Winery in Napa, then there's this "Cake Bread" (it's actually 2 words) winery that makes the Malbec. I ran into a Cake Bread Shiraz from Australia yesterday at the BevMo nickel sale, but it had no other information about who the parent company is or what's going on. The Cakebread Napa seems completely unrelated to the Cake Bread Argentina/Australia. Any ideas?

Cakebread Malbec

I realized that I don't really have a "go-to" Malbec, so I'm on a mission to find one, or at least try all the easily accessible ones. Last night I was at Safeway, and I saw the 2008 Cakebread Malbec. It was $18 on sale for $15 for Safeway club members. I thought this was a little pricey for a Malbec, but I was willing (if not excited) to "splurge" because I had a good feeling about this one; I figured for that price point, I could almost guarantee it would be juicy/jammy, not tart cherry. And sure enough, it did not let me down!

It was full bodied and rich on the palate, juicy with a slightly savory hint of salt. Jammy flavors of blackberry and plum lead to a moderate, but noticeably alcoholic finish. I like the savory/jammy combination, and I expected the alcohol (i think it's 14.5%?) which luckily mellowed out after a opening for a bit. All in all, I liked it.

Side note: I drank it alongside this sauteed chickpea dish i make. chickpeas, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cumin, etc. It wasn't perfect, but wasn't bad at all! I was surprised.

Syrah + burger= YUM!

I've been to Eos twice now, and while the service is slow, the food is great. The menu is a fusion of american/european and thai (mushroom risotto vs. curry potato cakes) and works well with their selection of wines. In general, I like restaurants with small plates and a lot of wine, so this venue is right up my ally. But what convinced my boyfriend to come with me, was their random stand-out entree: the burger. 

and as it turns out, this burger was what i remember most from my recent dining experience there. We started with soup, scallops, and the tuna tower, accompanied by a sparkling rose. Then last, but not least, we got the burger. I still had half a glass of rose, and fadi was done with his sangria, but our server insisted on bringing us a glass of Bell Canterbury Vineyard Syrah. Smooth, round, and juicy--just like the burger. I can't really explain why the flavors of the burger matched perfectly with the flavors of the syrah, but i can say that it worked like grape jelly sauce on party meatballs, just more classy. 

I think burgers are admired for many reasons: they're easy to cook, they work well with a variety of toppings/condiments, they're a great excuse to barbecue with friends, and, of course, they pair really well with wine! I bet a burger would be awesome with malbec....