Nate n Al Deli

Nate n Al Deli
414 N Beverly Dr
Beverly Hills
310-274-0101

LA has many delis. Some people think there are more delis in LA than in New York City. The New Diner has reviewed many deli's in LA including, Billy's, in Glendale, Brent's Deli, in Northridge, Langers, in downtown LA, Art's, in Studio City, and my personal favorite, Canter's.

I found another deli in Beverly Hills, Nate n Al. So I decided to give it a try and see how it compares to other delis on LA. When I arrived I saw a long wait and I didn't want to spend anymore time around the pretentious assholes of Beverly Hills, so I got an order to go. I got the #11 combination sandwich, corned beef and pastrami with swiss cheese, $15.50. The sandwich is suppose to come with Russian dressing and cole slaw but I asked for both on the side.

After I got the sandwich, I found a place to sit down and took the pictures you see. I tried a third of the sandwich and found the corned beef to be dry and pretty salty. The pastrami was pretty good, nice seasoning and flavor. Both meats were pretty lean. The rye bread was pretty good. A nice firm crust, dense bread. The swiss cheese had a nice nutty flavor, though they could have put one side at the top and bottom of the sandwich, instead of doubling up at the top.

The Russian dressing was awesome. A more mild, less tangy flavor, which is a plus in my book. Maybe the best Russian dressing I ever had.

Service was pretty good. I walked in and people were nice and friendly. When I found out how long the wait was, one of the servers told me where to go to place a take out order. The guy who took my order was nice until it came time to pay. He finished preparing my order and asked "Would that be cash or credit?" No mention of the total, nothing. I mean I know this is Beverly Hills and every pretentious jerk has tons of money, but even they want to know the total for an order.

Also the way he made the sandwich was bad. One third of the sandwich did not have the bottom part of bread. It was almost as though he threw everything in the container. Now people may say I had a to go order and maybe taking the sandwich out of the container to take a picture was the problem. No it wasn't. The container is a clear plastic container and when I looked at the bottom of the container, I saw no bread on the bottom on one of the thirds. I also only took the sandwich about two stores down from Nate n Al, right by a nice waterfall.

I thought parking would be tough but I found out you can park at the Crate and Barrel parking structure, for 2 hours free. Canters is still my favorite deli in LA. Nate n Al doesn't come close to Canters. There is no reason for me to go back to Nate n Al again.

Fogo De Chao

Fogo De Chao
133 La Cienega
Beverly Hills
310-289-7755

A Brazilian churrascaria in Beverly Hills. I was curious about it enough to try it. Now I compare all churrascaria to Green Field. The variety of meats and the price make Green Field hard to beat.

The first picture has roasted pork loin, bacon wrapped filet mignon, and chicken breast wrapped in bacon. The pork loin was very dry, I only ate about half of it. The bacon wrapped filet mignon was very tasty, nice flavor, pretty tender and cooked about medium rare. The chicken breast wrapped in bacon was also on the dry side.

The second picture shows, top and bottom sirloin, and the picanha, which is the prime part of the sirloin. All meats were well seasoned and flavorful. They were pretty tender. After awhile all the meats do tend to taste the same.

The third picture is the rib eye. I think this was the most tender and flavorful cut at Fogo. Cooked about medium rare and just full of flavor!! My favorite cut, though it didn't come around as often as the sirloin cuts.

The last picture has the filet mignon and another piece of bacon wrapped filet mignon. The filet was tender and flavorful but I didn't feel it was as tender as the rib eye. It was good but not on par with the rib eye.

Other meats they served included chicken leg, lamb chop and linguica, a pork sausage.

The buffet bar included lot's of salad, sliced cold cuts, and fresh cut vegetables. The servers also bring you side dishes like mashed potatoes and fried bananas to your table. I only had a green salad which was very fresh but I didn't touch any sides or any other items from the buffet table. I was there for the meat!!

Service was very good. But when I came back from the salad bar, all the servers came around with the meats. I couldn't even touch the salad. Not that's a bad thing. The meat carvers came around on a regular basis. But they had very few carvers with filet mignon, we may have saw him once the entire time we were there. The carver with the beef ribs never came around. The pork lion came around twice. But all other cuts of meat came around alot.

Also there was confusion over water. We ordered bottled water but I had a glass of regular tap water from the bar. I didn't touch the glass of bottle water until I finished my glass of ice water from the bar. When I finished the server came by and took the glass of ice away. I thought he was going to refill the glass, at some restaurants they take the glass away for refills. Others just have a jug of water and refill it at the table. Well at Fogo they refill glasses at the table. Later on the server asked if I wanted more water. He came back with another bottle of water. But while he was gone, another server asked if I wanted more ice water. I said yes. He came back with a glass of ice water. Then the other server came back with bottled water. The second server tried to take away the glass of ice water and I told him, I want to keep that. Personally I wouldn't have ordered bottled water but when you're going to dinner with others, you go with the majority. I hate just plain water, I need ice in there. I don't mind mixing bottled water with ice.

The churrascaria with the salad bar and all the meats you want is about $48. That's about double the price of Greenfield's. I don't feel the quality of meats is worth double the price of Greenfield's. Fogo is a very nice restaurant and the food and service is good but I don't feel the quality of meat justifies the prices. Of course you are paying the higher prices because you're in Beverly Hills. But you will get the same quality of meats and more variety of meats at Greenfield's.

I wouldn't go back to Fogo De Chao. It was good and I enjoyed eating there but it's not worth the price they are charging.

Mulberry Street Pizza

Mulberry Street Pizzeria
347 Canon Dr
Beverly Hills
310-247-8998

Talk about going from the good to the bad. After experiencing the greatness of Village Pizzeria, I had the misfortune of trying Mulberry Street Pizzeria for NY style pizza.

Not only are the slices about double the price they are just plain terrible.

The first picture is a plain slice, $3.00. I would have been better off eating the paper plate. Man this was terrible. The crust was just bad, like cardboard. The cheese was OK but the sauce had a very sour taste to it.

The second slice had chicken and tomato, $4.00. The tomato was fresh and tasty. That's the only good thing about it. The chicken, what little there was, was bland and flavorless. Adding bad toppings to a crappy slice of pizza just means a crappier slice of pizza.

Service is OK. We stood at the counter for about five minutes before anybody said anything to us. They weren't that busy at all. When we finally got service they were nice and friendly. But while I was eating the pizza a couple walked in and waited and waited for somebody to take their order. They finally gave up and left. I wish I would have left because this is one of the worst pizza places I've been to. Now I understand it's Beverly Hills and rent is high. But to charge those kind of prices for such bad pizza is robbery!!

I would not go back to Mulberry Street Pizzeria.

Lawry's

Lawry's
100 N. La Cienega Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
310-652-2827

Lawry's!!! I've lived in LA since 1978 and I have never been to Lawry's. I finally go to Lawry's and I would gladly return. Lawry's is famous for their prime rib and if you go to Lawry's you have to order the prime rib. The prime rib dinner includes their salad, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, and whipped horseradish.

The first picture is of Lawry's famous original spinning bowl salad. The salad has mixed greens, shredded beets, chopped egg, croutons and our exclusive Vintage Dressing. Now I hate beets but you can't have the salad any other way. But I was very surprised at how great this salad was. Though the dressing was a bit overwhelming, they could cut back on the amount of dressing on the salad. All ingredients were fresh.

The next picture is the famous stainless steel carts they serve the prime rib in. I ordered the "Beef Bowl" cut of prime rib with their creamed corn. The "Beef Bowl" cut is given to the two teams that play in the Rose Bowl. The "Beef Bowl" is a contest to see which team eats the most prime rib. When Wisconsin came to the Rose Bowl a few years back, Aaron Gibson, an offensive lineman, who was about 340lbs. ate 13, beef bowl cuts!!!! 13!!!!!!!

The prime rib was tender and juicy but there was a lot of fat on the rib. I was surprised at the amount of fat on the rib. I would think Lawry's would have more lean prime rib. But I wouldn't let the fat get in my way of enjoying the prime rib. One of the better prime rib I've had.

The creamed corn is so sweet and tasty. A perfect addition to the prime rib.

My girlfriend ordered the broiled lobster tail. I had a couple bites of the lobster tail and they were tender and flavorful.

Service was very good. But one thing they do not tell you, is that the corn is $5 extra. It does not come with the prime rib dinner. But our server was very nice and helpful. The man who cut the prime rib was also nice, he allowed me to take a picture of the cart.

I would go back to Lawry's. Though I thought the prime rib wasn't the leanest, I've had, it was among the best I've had. I talked to other people who had been to Lawry's and they have gotten lean cuts of prime rib. I'm glad I finally got a chance to go to Lawry's.