Purgatory Pizza

Purgatory Pizza
1326 E 1st St
Los Angeles
323-262-5310

When the East side extension of the Metro Gold Line opened, a new world of tasty foods opened up to everybody. The East side extension, went through Union Station and went east to East LA. At the Pico station, is Purgatory Pizza. It came highly rated, so I decided to give them a try.



One slice and a can of soda, $2.50. They only had cheese slices, which was fine because if the cheese pizza isn't good, there is no reason to go back to any pizza restaurant.

This pizza was among the worst pizza I've ever had. The pizza was sitting in a box, on top of the oven, then reheated. Most places that serve pizza by the slice, the pizza is sitting in the counter, the reheated. Not a damn box. The slice was from their medium sized pizza. It wasn't that big but $2.50 for a slice and a canned soda, I got A & W Root Beer, is a good deal.

The crust was hard like a saltine cracker, terrible. There was a decent amount of cheese. But the sauce was so bland, I had to check and make sure there was actually sauce on there. I mean, how can pizza sauce be so bland and flavorless!!!

Service was OK. I walked in and the guy is talking on the phone. I look at the menu, he is still on the phone, and when I'm ready, he is still on the phone but hangs up pretty quickly. If this guy is the owner, it is a terrible first impression.

There is no reason for me to go back to Purgatory Pizza. I should have kept in mind, the word purgatory, was in the name.

Mike's Sandwich Shop-Closed

Mike's Sandwich Shop
1717 S Soto St
Los Angeles, CA 90023
(323) 264-0444

I heard about Mike's Sandwich Shop and their famous hockey burger and decided to give them a try. Mike's is a diner style restaurant, in an industrial area off of Soto, not far from that old Sears building.

Not sure what the hockey connection is, but there were photos of movie stars including what looked like most of the cast of Dallas.





So I ordered the hockey burger, $3.85, cheeseburger, with mustard, lettuce, tomato, and a hot dog on top. The burger was a thin patty, pretty moist, the lettuce and tomato was fresh and the bun was nicely toasted. The hot dog has a spicy bite to it. An interesting combination but nothing special. I could get this type of burger from any local burger place.

Service was bad. I walked in, went up to the counter but was never greeted. The old hag taking my order was cold and unwelcoming. Can't you say Hi and greet your customers?

I wouldn't go back to Mike's Sandwich Shop. Rude service, average food. Why bother?

El Tepeyac Cafe

El Tepeyac Cafe
812 Evergreen Ave
LA
323-268-1960

The Manuel Special Burrito. Most people will known what that means. It's one of the biggest burritos I've ever seen. Named after the owner, the burrito must be five pounds. It feeds four to five people easily.

I ordered the pollo (chicken) Manuel burrito for $20. To go orders are priced a little more because of the costs of the packing materials. I mean you just can't put this burrito in those regular containers.

The burrito is good. There is a ton of white meat chicken, beans, rice, and guacamole inside the burrito. But was the best burrito ever? No. It's good, Mexican comfort food. The draw of the Manuel burrito is the size. Some people have eaten the entire burrito by themselves. But most people will split the burrito and for about $5 a person, the burrito is very good.

El Tepeyac is also known for their Hollenbeck burrito, which is just a smaller version of the Manuel.

Service is good. The server speak English very well and are very nice and friendly. The area is fine. Of course you won't see this area on post cards but I never felt any kind of danger and I went there at 9pm on a Friday night. El Tepeyac has a parking lot right next door. Nothing happened to my car when I was there.

They are building the Gold Line extension from Union Station through this area. So getting to El Tepeyac is a little tough, coming from the 60, as many roads are either closed or have reduced lanes due to construction. The construction is set to be completed by 2009.

I would go back to El Tepeyac if I was in the area. I wouldn't make a special trip just for El Tepeyac but if I'm going to downtown LA, I would stop by and eat here.

La Serenata-Closed

La Serenata
1842 E First St.
LA
323-265-2887

La Serenata is a very good upscale Mexican seafood restaurant. The First St. location isn't in the best of neighborhoods. But I didn't feel I was in any type of danger.

Shrimp cocktail, $15.95. Ok very pricey for shrimp cocktail. But the quality of the shrimp was very high. The shrimp was tender and tasty.

Halibut ceviche, $6.95. This is the first time I've ever had a fish ceviche. I've had the shrimp ceviche plenty of time and thought trying the halibut ceviche would be a good idea. But for some reason, I didn't like this dish. Just the tangy citrus and the texture and flavor of halibut just don't go together. For me the flavor combination didn't work for me. The halibut was fresh and good quality. The tomatoes, onions were very fresh. If you like halibut ceviche, I'm sure you would like this dish.

The last picture is the scallops a la plancha, $22.95, which is topped with mushrooms, garlic and green chiles. The scallops are huge and very fresh. I liked how all the flavors worked very well together. Though a bit on the pricey side, I thought it was very good quality seafood.

Service was pretty good. The server was nice and friendly. The language barrier got in the way a couple times but nothing too bad.

While I think La Serenata is a bit pricey, I would go back again. It's good quality food and the portions are fairly big.

Pioneer Chicken- Soto St.

Pioneer Chicken
904 S. Soto St.
Los Angeles 90023
323-262-4562

The third stop on the Pioneer Chicken run. The other two locations were, Sunset Blvd, and Echo Park.

The best so far. The chicken was hot, not warm, not cold, but hot. The crunch was great every bit as crunchy and good as I remember. The chicken was so juicy and tender. I was very impressed and happy. The breast piece was $1.72.

This place also had a wide variety of food such a fish, pork riblets and chicken gizzards.

I have already been to this location before and I will continue to come back.

Update November 12, 2010:

Since I reviewed the Pioneer chicken locations, two locations have closed down; Sunset Blvd, and Echo Park.

So I decided to go back to the Soto location I went back to the Soto location, because I want to make sure Pioneer Chickens stay open. I also wanted to get some better pictures and to see how if the chicken is as good as I remembered.



I saw this cup filled with soda, $1.99, so I decided to buy it. I know it's a simple logo, but there aren't many items around with the Pioneer Chicken logo.




I got another chicken breast and this time was a disappointed. The chicken was luke warm, the skin was greasy and soggy; the chicken itself, was very dry, because it had been sitting under heat lamps for too long. What got me was it was about 11:20am. I can't believe they cook the chicken at 10am and let it sit around.

Service was below average. The lady was just going through motions.

If I come back to this Pioneer location, I am going to make sure the fry the chicken, fresh. I don't care how long I need to wait.