ok heres a ton of things everything i can remember after reading this entire thread hopefully helpful to some

dogs:

silverlake dog park, a off leash fenced in patch of dirt near the silver lake reservoir, not worth driving to unless you live in the neighborhood, but my dog likes it and its fairly large

alysian park technically not off leash but you can find plenty of areas to let your dog run while you hike, there are some real hidden gems to search out, beware of cholos and their off leash pitbulls

griffith park, has one off leash area trail near the observatory, there are plenty of trails you can hike up in and around and let your dog off the leash

hollywood sign park, right below the hollywood sign up beachwood drive this park has a nice grass field is never crowded and I highly recomend it if you can find it, technically it says "leashed" but no one and i mean no one cares if your dog is running around off the leash, you'll get more stares if you keep your dog on the leash, also a great place to bring tourists in town for the view and the drive.

Runyon Canyon, off leash areas and difficult hikes, worth the hike to the top at least once just for the view, also filled with "hot chicks". if your not a hiker there are some people who just hike up to the off leash area and hang out and let their dogs run around but majority of people here are in shape and are hiking the hill.

Long Beach Dog park, sweet view of the factories, hot chicks in bikinis, if your single and have a puppy this is a gold mine, great place to let your dog off the leash and let him romp in the surf

food:

sushi's ben done to death in this thread so i'll leave it at that.

hot dogs, skip pinks go find a street lady selling bacon wrapped hotdogs get it "con todos" and if your a man say yes when they ask if you want jalapenos. the best time to find these is friday and saturday night near any of the clubs downtown or in hollywood after about 11 or 12. this is the best hot dog you will ever eat, substitution is skoobies on hollywood blvd make sure you try the lemonade

BBQ, Kings BBQ on sunset kinda ghetto but good texas style baby back ribs are out of this world, also good prop bet place if you think you can eat the king burger which offers the most bang for your buck anywhere in the city with a 1lb burger fries and drink for under 10 dollars (this thing is massive)

Fogo de Chao if you like meat this is your spot on la brea
for those on a lil tighter budget the brazilean BBQ joint in the farmers market is also delish and the charge you by the pound

Spagos if your baller try it, its worth the $$

same with CUT go ahead and order the 8oz 120 dollar baller steak its worth it

Breakfast, gotta go to Dusty's in silver lake for brunch corner of sunset and descanso

best beer selection is GOOD on sunset blvd i think they have over 150 varieties and the foods not bad they also have their own microbrews, great place to meet some freinds for dinner and brews

also in the silver lake neighborhood is cardone's, most excellent italian deli run by a couple young new yorkers, its right next door to dusty's

if you never had one gotta eat a TOMMY's burger at least once its open 24 hours and even tho the neighborhood can be kinda sketchy its safe eating there any time of night.

portos in glendale is awesome for lunch and for their bakery, if you got a sweet tooth this place is your spot for cakes pastries and cookies, make sure you try the meat pies or whatever they are called

i ll do another post later on things to do, and as i remember them

SCOPE - some sweet suggestions, thanks.

I like their brunch too, but for the area, don't think it's the best. I'd say Millie's and Matisse are comparable if not better (in Silverlake) and if you go 0.5 mile west to Los Feliz, I think Square One is the best in the hood (just went there with LF Slim and Skunk, I think they enjoyed it). Bonus for eating there is a great view of the Scientology Center on L. Ron Hubbard Way.

-Al

As a man who greatly enjoys SE Asia and its food (specifically Japanese), the best Sushi I have ever eaten in my life was had here:

Sushi Midami
11905 Olympic Blvd.
Westside Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 479-4810

The chef is an underpaid genius and they serve some of the most tasty and unique food I have ever had before. A++ sauce combinations. This will sound original, but trust me its not: get the Volcano and Spicy Tuna Roll.

Not trying to sound like a food snob, but I would never judge a sushi place by ordering a volcano or spicy tuna roll. The true test is ordering the simple items on the menu. The ultimate test (beyond, quality/seasoning of rice, seaweed wrap (kheem), fish and the cut of the fish) is tasting the tamago. It's one of the only few things that a sushi chef cooks from scratch.

Most sushi places fail right away due to underseasoning of the rice and not having the rice at the right temperature (slightly warm). Portion of fish to rice and cut of fish also plays a key importance. It's amazing how many sushi places don't get the above right.

All I'm saying is I've been to over 20+ Sushi houses around LA (Westwood, Hollywood, Santa Monica, etc), lived in Osaka for 10 months, and still, Sushi Midami offers the best tasting Sushi I have ever had. Every item on the menu is a specialty that you won't find anywhere else -- yes of course you'll find Spicy Tuna Rolls everywhere, but this place prepares it uniquely and the sauce combination is literally orgasmic.

scope,
i just tried fogo de chao. amazing

didnt see this posted. but dine la! had a pretty nice dinner at ruth's chris tonight
http://www.dinela.com/data/restauran...ticipating.php

I don't have time to read through the whole post right now so I hope this isn't a repeat.

For a year straight my roommate and I went out a couple times a weeks for sushi in an effort to find the best place in LA...

The best is TOMO sushi in Burbank on San Fernando. It's sandwiched between several BS large chain sushi joints... but this place is the real deal.

For outdoors... nothing in my mind can top a quick 2-3 mile hike in Angeles National Forrest down to Switzer falls. There is a lot of great hiking up in the crest... Mt. Wilson is cool too.

For movies I really like the Paseo in Pasadena.

AVOID the trendy Yardhouse and head 3 blocks down the street to Lucky Baldwins on Raymond. Lucky Baldwins has an AWESOME beer tap selection and great atmosphere.

Anyone familiar with the golf courses in the Los Angeles area? I go to school at USC, and my roommate and I were looking to hit the links this weekend.

A few requirements:
1. We need to rent clubs.
2. Reasonably cheap.
3. Relatively easy. I used to play somewhat regularly, but it's been a few years now. And he has never played a round in his life. We don't want some pussy par 3 course, but we also don't want to get completely dominated and hold up everyone behind us.

Thanks for any input!

Griffith Park has two courses (Wilson and Harding) but it's quite busy as are most golf courses in the heart of LA. Brookside in Pasadena is really nice (next to the Rose Bowl). I would call ahead to see if they rent clubs.

There is also Montebello off the 60 fwy which is close to you as well.

I was there last night too, i was in the group ten asians, just in case you saw us. The menu for dineLA was solid. Definitely worth it, especially with the tuna appetizer.

The perfect place to go is Roosevelt Golf. Go straight up Vermont past Los Feliz Blvd. and it will be on your right side about a mile up. I am sure they rent clubs(although they are really old school) for about $5 and the round costs about $14 for 9 holes. It is a well kept, challenging course. Not long, but a lot of doglegs. You can still pull out the driver on a few holes, though. I love that course for a nice little 2-hr round.

For the Westside, there is always Penmar Golf on Rose, which is the perfect "ditch work for the afternoon and shoot 9-holes". Very easy course, but you can drive a majority of the holes(mostly 300yd par-4s) and it is very well maintained. Not sure about club rentals, however.

You can thank me afterwards. They are both very fun courses for casual golfers. No carts.

Went to this pretty cool tequila bar a couple of weeks ago after a recent 2p2 lovefest dinner. The place is called El Carmen on 3rd down the street from AOC winebar. While I really had no idea what I was ordering, they do have hundreds of tequilas to choose from. The reason for posting about this place is to show the El Diablo pictures that were taken.

This changes almost weekly, but right now I would say

Mondays - S Bar, Metal Skool at the key club (AWESOME heavy metal cover band, everyone must go here at least once, youtube "metal skool" for preview)
Tuesdays - Villa (impossible to get in without buying a table), Crimson, S Bar
Wednesdays - Les Deux (but prob not much longer). Tough door here as well. Same with Green Door
Thursdays - Goa, Villa. Opera is also solid and MUCH easier to get into, if you don't want to buy a table go to Opera
Fridays - Villa, Green Door, Opera, Crimson. Best chance to get in - Opera
Saturdays - Goa, Green Door, Opera/crimson
Sundays - Spazmatics at Dragonfly (80s cover band), Lucky Strike bowling alley

I agree on Mel's, that place blows. You need to try the mexican white shrimp and the tradicional chicken at bossa nova. (This is Craig, btw)

Sushi Dan on Sunset and Crescent Heights is open till 2am but I don't think it's that great. Geisha House on the other hand is quite solid and they are open till 1:30am on Friday and Saturday (1am weekdays).

Have you had Tommy's yet? If you ever want a greasy and amazing chilli burger, there is one right by you on Laurel Canyon east of the 101. Warning: Your stomach will hate you after. But it's damn good. Open 24 hours.

Citizen Smith is open till 4am and I think it's the best late night option. Get the jalepeno mac n cheese, sensational.

Also if you are on the east side, there is an AMAZING diner called Fred 62 that is 24 hour. What's weird about this place is they not only have great diner food but excellent udon! (Japenese noodle soup)

Also agree with Aleai that damiano's pizza is the ****.

Asanebo was amazing as predicted. That and Katsu-ya Studio City are my new favorites.

Made it out here today. A+ would play again. It was slower than I expected (~3 1/2 hours), but that was actually a good thing since it meant WE weren't the ones holding everybody up. Got to pull the grind-up-on-the-hot-chick-to-teach-her-how-to-swing move. I shot pretty poorly (recovered to my usual form with a +7 finish over the last four), but still had a blast. Plus it was my first round in two years, so I can't really complain. Great weather, and we finished it off with a stop at In-N-Out on the way home. Man I love this place.

DineLA spots I went to:

Violet (Santa Monica) -- $25 3-course prix fixe, so an even better deal than most DineLA places! Overall, it was solid (I've always liked this restaurant). Pretty straightforward New American / Cal cuisine. Standouts were the trout in butter brown sage sauce and white beans (entree), the mac and cheese (gruyere serrano ham), and braised short ribs. Having eaten there before, with wine, avg. bill I think would run you ~$60-80. It's a neighborhood-y vibe, bordering on casual, which I find pleasant for a "fine dining" spot.

West (Brentwood) -- on top of the Hotel Angeleno, so you get some great views of the 405 haha (it's actually nice view-wise). As you would expect, fairly scene-y. I'd only gone for work, never paid out of pocket, and this trend will continue. It's an "Italian steakhouse" and I've just never been impressed by any of their food. I had the Kobe flatiron steak in red wine sauce, it was OK. It was not bad just not great.

Table 8 (West Hollywood) -- I've heard very inconsistent reviews of this place from friends (never been before), so this was one of the few DineLA places I really wanted to check out. As expected, interior was quite nice ("modern elegance") with a cool lounge area. Govind Armstrong was milling about and chatting it up with everyone (we had to wait a while for our table, so he hooked us up with some champagne which I thought was nice). We ordered alot of stuff off the DineLA menu, so I feel like I got a good feel for the place.

Overall the food was solid but not exceptional imo. Standout dishes were the grilled cheese braised short rib sandwich app and the new zealand braised lamb shank. Consistenly, our fish dishes were a touch overcooked. I would put Table 8 a tier below places like Jar, Lucques, Comme Ca, Sona.

-Al

UGH, I should have looked over this thread and could have created a killer 2 day trip. We pretty much just winged it the whole time and still had fun.

We did The Ivy for lunch today and it was pretty good. We got there at like 12:15 and I wasn't sure if we could get seated. They had plenty of tables open inside though and we were seated right away. In like 15 minutes though, the place was packed. I didn't figure the lunch crowd would arrive that late?

We were seated in the back room to the right. You didn't have the great scenery, but I didn't have a problem with it. It did get loud once people started coming in though. The girl I was with has spent a lot of time in Italy so it's important for things to be authentic, not Americanized. I've read reviews saying how things are Americanized there but she was pleased with the pasta she got I got Seafood Risotto, which was pretty good but it was the first time I've ever had Risotto so I was still iffy on it.

I also read on how service is bad and snobby there, but I didn't think so. I thought our waiter took pretty good care of us and stopped by frequently. The meal was a little pricey as just the 2 pasta entres we got gave us a bill of $70.

On the way out, there was a line going out the door and paparazzi everywhere. It's the first time I've ever seen paparazzi like that in person. I was curious who was there that they were interested in and I gave a quick look at the patio. I thought I saw Matthew Perry, but does he really get like 20 paparazzi following him around?

The menu for Grace on V-day looks kinda...meh

http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/...pdf&images=yes

Iggy,

I should leave this alone, but, wow, you took her to the Ivy?

Robertson in general is paparazzi infested, the Ivy is just their home base. If celebrities want to get photographed/put on TMZ (and believe me, they do) all they have to do is head on down to Robertson and go to Kitson or something.

hanster,

That menu looks pretty good to me. I've had a similar dish Neil made with the black truffle scallops and it was insane.

Los, is there something wrong with going to the Ivy? We were in BH looking for somewhere to eat and came across it on her GPS. She had heard of it from MTV Europe and wanted to check it out. So I guess I took her but she picked up the tab.

Speaking of Robertson, the Newsroom across the street is a phenomenal restaurant. Everything on the menu seems to be amazing, and for you vegans out there there is a TON of choices (most of my vegan friends list this and Real Food Daily on La Cienaga as their favorite restaurants).

3rd & Robertson in the daytime also seems to be the best place to meet hot women in Los Angeles, bar none. Every time I go there I am amazed at the quality and amount of ladies walking around... far more than the Bev Center or the Grove

Go to any place where the best shopping is and you will find hot women. Not brain surgery. Newsroom is very blah. Not bad, not real good. The Ivy is perhaps the most overpriced tasteless food in Los Angeles. I would say that it is the most overrated place in Los Angeles but it isn't even rated in the first place.

Madeo is right around the corner from there on Beverly Blvd. There's Chaya which is ok but not a bad scene. Dominick's is also right there and they have an amazing Sunday dinner deal there for $15 and it's bumping on that night...

i actually enjoy the fried chicken and vodka gimlet at ivy but it is WAYYYY overpriced. youre paying for the scene which is cool if youre on vacation or just got to l.a. but after a couple days its just annoying.

in that area is, sona, dan tanas, comme ca, hokusai and surya which are all far superior.