Mammalucco's

suddenly i want some pizza and yelp this place. Lucatoni Pizza attracted my eye~~ 3 flavors in one~ they also made their dough from thick to thin which is interesting. i latter figure out they can do 1/2 and 1/2~ @x@

TAPS

4 ★★★★ for the ambiance and the service
4 ★★★★ for the food
$$$ 50~100
i love company dinner!! i had kobe new york steak. one of the special menu and i forget how much it is. our waiter even mentioned that non of the food is from japan b/c of the radiation. Kobe is a lot fatter and juicier than the regular new york.
i also tried their filet mignon. but compared it with kobe, their filet was a bit dry and tasteless. i started my meal with TAPS salad w/ shrimp. i do not recommend it. their soup doesn't looks so great either. i would go for oyster and their bread. they have garlic oil for their bread deep which is very good.
chocolate souffle.
i also tried their baked red velvet cake. it's too sweet. so i end up order another creme brulee for us to share.

Jazz Festival

we check out the Jazz fest in brea downtown. the performance was good, and there were a lot people. but the fest is kinds small. we finish it around 30 min and end up going to downtown Disney since we got nothing to do. we made just in time for the firework. there were a lot people sited outside the Disney waiting for the firework. you can't really see the lower one, but most of them were shot pretty high. the firework is much better and longer than the one we saw on July 4th.
There were a lot pumpkins decoration for Halloween. they are so cuteeeee~

La Vie en Rose

4 ★★★★ for the ambiance and the service
3.5 ★★★ for the food
$$ 30~50
I took my parents to dinner for their B-day celebration since their b-day is close to each other. it's a new restaurant i never tried before. Since Restaurant.com has coupon for it, i decided to get $50 dollar gift certificate and try it out. we order the Prix Fix Menu which comes with soup or salad, main entry and a dessert for $39 per person. i had the steak with Lobster tail. the lobster was pretty good and i think it really worth the money.

my mom had the Lamb Shark which is just ok~~ the meat was tender and soft, but nothing special on the sauce.

i think dessert part was the most fun experience. they loaded all the dessert on a cart and we can pick what we like off from it. i picked the creme burlee, black forest, and Napoleon. the creme burlee got strawberry inside which was pretty good. but Napoleon on the other hand sucks.... i was fooled by it looks. actually i saw the cart was sitting there for a while when we begin to eat. since the dessert has been waited for a while, the puff pastry became soggy and it wasn't crisp at all. i mean for the price we are paying, i would expect better quality food. La Vie en Rose didn't disappointed us, but it didn't wow us either. i wouldn't complain too much since we got coupon for it.

Cold Stone

i haven't been to cold stone since we got too many yogurt place opened in the recent years. i remember Cold stone used to be my hang out spot, but now i go to yogurtland... >v< i guess mainly it's b/c cold stone is more expensive compare w/ other ice cream shop. i ordered a mango ice cream mixed with strawberry on the right. coffee w/ Oreo on the left. the mango flavor wasn't very rich. it's good to try something "American" but i think I'll choose yogurt over cold stone.

Daphne's Greek Cafe

i haven't been to this place since college~ sometime i like to try unordinary food like Mediterranean food, kabobs, and Greek cafe!!! i tried their Gyros on pita, it was so good and i love it. i also order a Falafa, but it's not as good as the one i had before.
it's called Baklava, a tradition Greek Dessert~ little piece for only a dollar~ it's soaked in caramel with cinnamon. i just had one bite b/c it's sooooooo sweet~~~

Cheesecake Factory

we came there for the Mother's Day~!! i haven't been to Cheesecake factory since college~ i kinda miss the food here, and it's still good after so long. we ordered the Tuna salad, Shrimp Angel hair pasta, Spicy meat pizza, and the steak and salmon combo.
The tuna salad was recommended online, so i thought to give it a try and my dad loves it. i felt the portion become a bit smaller than before, but maybe it's just me.
we ordered 3 cakes!!! The red velvet, Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, and Outrageous cake. both cheesecake were really good!! but i was a little disappointed at the outrageous chocolate cake. it looks good, but it's a bit dry and hard, i guess it's not that outrageous according to it's name...

Islands Burger

i carved for some burger today and Island is the only place i could think of that has decent burgers. i used to eat island a lot when in SD, but never in LA. somehow i feel like it's not a LA thing since LA get a lot more option to choose from. Luckily, we came there during Happy hour, so all the appetizers is 1/2 off. their happy hour is from M-F until 7pm. we ordered the Hula Burger-Mushroom with crisp red onion and we still end up so full even when sharing.

CPK

i haven't eat CPK for a long time~ i love their Jambalaya pasta~ i've been craving for it for a long time!! i also tried their new menu, "hawaii BBQ chicken." i love bbq chicken! i think they should have this item listed as their regular menu! although price is kinda pricey for pizza, i still like to have CPK once in a while. I just wish their pizza could be a bit bigger!