The Rest of Valentine's Weekend

I hope you have been anticipating anxiously my next post and I really do apologize for the delay.  Now with my brand spanking new computer expect a lot of new posts!!  So to fill you in on what happened outside of the Street Food Fest let me tell you a little tale about the culinary adventures we partook in when the family was in town.

So to start off the weekend we went to C and O's Cucina.  For those of you who have never been to, or heard of C and O's you should.  Its an Italian restaurant on Washington Blvd that has the atmosphere of your typical californian cucina.  Lots of random intalian art work on the walls, with loud red wallpaper and loud patrons to match.  We sat down, ordered a round of drinks then started perusing the menu.  I always get the gnocchi, so I wasn't really looking, but the rest of the group was having trouble making a decision.  The problem is that the menu is pretty extensive, and everything sounds good.  So we placed orders for gnocchi, chicken parmesan, seafood linguine and spaghetti and meatballs.  Then the best part of this restaurant arrives...KILLER GARLIC BALLS!  They're these little rolls, maybe two bites, golden brown, COVERED in olive oil, parsley and garlic.  Amazing.  Also there is a plate set on your table when you sit down that they put the garlic balls on, which they continue to refill throughout the night, every time you eat all of them.  Then dinner came and everything was...good.  I love my gnocchi is always amazing with a really tasty meat sauce and really light potato dumplings.  My husband's chicken parmesan was amazing as usual, lightly breaded and fried chicken with tons of sauce, cheese and spaghetti.   The seafood linguine was good, not amazing, but good.  Basically what you would expect from a bowl of linguine, seafood (clams, shrimp and scallops) and a light tomato sauce.  I thought it was a little light in flavor.  The spaghetti and meat balls were good as well.  The sauce was good, the pasta was really well cooked and the meat balls were really good too  The only thing I would have liked more would have been if the was more marinara sauce on the spaghetti.

Over all I give C and O's 4 points, I love it, its a happy place, they have unlimited garlic balls and you should love it to!

So saturday we spent the day in multiple lines at the food fest and on Sunday we decided we hadn't stood in line enough so we went to the Malibu Fresh Seafood and Fish Market.  They make a fresh pot of clam chowder everyday and have a huge array of steamed, fried and sandwiched fish and seafood.  So we ordered a smorgusboard of heart attack worthy food: deep fried clams, d.f. oysters, 2 baskets of d.f. shrimp, 4 baskets of fries and 32 oz of clam chowder with a roll.

Lets start with the pros.  The food was good, the clams were the best.  The location was cute!  We sat on a covered patio that looked out at the ocean at large picnic tables.  We also brought a little cooler with beer in it (BYOB) which made it almost picnic like!

The bad.  The food wasn't anything unique.  I've ordered the EXACT same food at Red Lobster before.  Its called the admirals platter, and was probably cheaper.  Which brings me to my next point, its not cheap.  For a basket of fried shrimp and french fries it was something like 8 or 9 bucks.  And then let not over look the most obvious draw back...the line!!! I know we spent all saturday in line, and then we sat in traffic on the PCH trying to get to this place, and then we stood in line for some 30 minutes to order a ton of fish.  Meh!

I give the place 2 points.  It was kinda fun to go to with the family, it would be a neat place to go to if your a tourist in LA but overall it seriously lacked quality and uniqueness for the quantity of money.