El Pollo Inka

1100 Pacific Coast Highway, Ste 2

Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

310-372-1433

http://www.elpolloinka.com

http://www.yelp.com/biz/el-pollo-inka-hermosa-beach

Rating: 5 stars

Col Saltado

Typical cost for lunch: $$ ($6 - 9)

What was ordered: Chaufa de Pollo, Col Saltado, Vainitas de Pollo, Pollo a la Brasa

Date of visit: 22 March 2011 (too many times to count)

 

Review:  One of the reasons we started the Aerolunch Blog was because we felt we were going to El Pollo Inka too often.  We have come across many great restaurants since so I was interested to see how El Pollo Inka would stand up.  It didn’t take long to remember why we used to come so often.

Rolls & the green Aji sauce

Shortly after you sit down you get warm dinner rolls and a big bottle of the green Aji sauce.  Nice!!!  When you order, stick to the lunch specials.  They have a pretty nice selection that rotates periodically and is a much better deal than ordering off the regular menu.  The best part is all the lunches come with a cup of Cilantro Chicken Soup.

Chicken Cilantro Soup

Here is my Peruvian-Gringo translator to make ordering easier:  Most dishes are served with one of three meats: (1) Carne (beef steak strips), (2) Pollo (chicken, $2 extra for all white meat), or (3) Mariscos (mixed seafood).  If the meat isn’t specified in the name it’s probably beef.  The majority of dishes are stir fried (saltado) and tend to be pretty salty (but ohhh so delicious).  Chaufa means it is stir fried with rice; col means with cabbage; and vainitas means with greenbeans.  If one of those are not specified it probably comes with French fries.  Alternatively, you can get the Rotisserie Chicken (Pollo a la Brasa), which is excellent, or a stew type dish: Aji de Gallina (chicken in a walnut gravey) or picante (a creamy, spicy sauce).  The Aji de Gallina is OK and I find the picante has too much sauce that is too thick and rich.  The Saltados are by far my favorite.

Pollo a la Brasa

I usually want some vegetables with lunch and order the col or vainitas…mmmm… a big pile of stir fried meat and vegetables on a scoop of steamed rice.  The seasoning is a bit salty but it makes everything taste spectacular.  A more common dish people like is the plain saltado which comes with a big mound of French fries.  It isn’t health food but it sure tastes good.  No matter what you order at El Pollo Inka you can be assured you will leave full.  All of the lunch plates are huge; add in the cup of soup and the bread it is one heck of a deal at around $8.  And don’t forget to use the Aji sauce liberally.  It has a bit of a kick to it, but they put it in such a big bottle for a reason.

Vainitas de Pollo

 Congratulations El Pollo Inka you have earned (and deservedly so) the Aerolunch Blogs first 5-star rating!

-Ben

Deluca Trattoria

225 Richmond Street,

El Segundo, CA 90245-3719

(310) 640-7600 ‎

www.delucapasta.com

http://www.yelp.com/biz/deluca-trattoria-el-segundo

Rating: 4.5 stars

Typical cost for lunch: $-$$ ($5-11)

What was ordered: Linguine Frutti di Mare, Pollo al Marsala, Penne all’ Arrabiata

Date of visit: 9 March 2011 (1^st visit)

Review: Richmond Street is a quaint, low-key street a block past the busier Main Street in El Segundo. I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to discover this street if I hadn’t gotten a tip to check out Deluca’s Trattoria. It is a serene street for lunch and Deluca’s, with its brick building, fits in nicely.

Inside is elegantly decorated and they even have cotton tablecloths. I was thinking to myself, “I am going to have to put some cash down for this lunch.” Then I saw the menu. A typical bowl of pasta is $6! Then, before we even ordered a big pile of hot, fresh from the oven, homemade bread was brought out. A bowl of olive oil, fresh minced garlic, and red-pepper flakes was on the side to dip the bread into. It wasn’t a plate with a splash of olive oil on it… it was a whole bowl… stuffed with fresh garlic. He couldn’t keep our hands off that bread.

I ended up ordering the most expensive dish on the menu and only paid $11 for a huge plate of Frutti de Mare stuffed with shrimp, scallops, and squid. My friend ordered the Chicken Marsala and when it came out it had a red sauce instead of the typical white marsala wine sauce. We were leery of it at first, but when we tasted it, it was all marsala goodness. The chicken came with vegetables on the side instead of pasta so my friend ordered the Penne all’ Arrabiata, too. The waitress suggested the half-order for only $4. I thought that was nice of her.

The pasta is good at Deluca’s (I would call it 4-stars), but everything on their menu half of what you would expect to spend. Plus, that bread… well I still dream about that bread and the garlic olive oil at night. As is normal procedure, I will refrain from giving out 5-stars based on one visit. 4.5 stars.

-Ben

Little Dragon

2205 W. Rosecrans Boulevard
Gardena, CA 90249

(310) 327-1281

http://www.yelp.com/biz/little-dragon-gardena-2

http://www.grubhub.com/la/little-dragon/

Rating: 2.5 stars

Typical cost for lunch: $-$$ ($5.5 - 7)

What was ordered: Kung Pao Chicken, Cha Chiang Mein, Boiled Meat Dumpling

Date of visit: 14 March 2011 (3^rd or 4^th visit)

Review: Trying to find a highly regarded Chinese restaurant around here can be a daunting task. We got excited when we came across Little Dragon with 4 stars on Yelp. When we showed up we realized we had been here a couple times before for the Cham-Bong (or Jjam-Bbong). So… we broke the first rule of Aerolunch and went in to review with our new-found standards. Little Dragon is more properly described as a Korean Restaurant that serves Chinese food or a Chinese restaurant run by Koreans. It doesn’t mean a whole lot to me other than they serve Cham-Bong – a spicy noodle soup with lots of seafood, and you get Kim-chi as an appetizer.

Based on Yelp reviews I ordered Cha Chiang Mein (that’s how the restaurant spells it; most reviewers on Yelp spell it Jja-Jang Myun). The Cha Chiang Mein was a big pile of noodles with a black, soy bean sauce poured on top. I agree completely with the only review on Yelp that did not like this dish. The noodles tasted like box spaghetti noodles and the sauce was not incorporated into the dish. I feel like maybe I don’t have the palette for Cha Chiang Mein but I know I won’t ever order it again.

We also got the Lunch Special Kung Pao Chicken. This was actually quite good… a nice sweet bbq sauce over chicken and vegetables. On the disappointing side, my friend asked them to make it with only white meat chicken (we would have happily paid extra), however they were either unable or unwilling to accommodate the request. Since it was a Lunch Special it came with fried rice, an egg roll, and a fried wanton. A bit of a pedestrian dish for a Chinese restaurant but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Boiled Meat Dumplings on the other hand were pretty terrible. “Boiled Meat Dumplings” may not be the most appetizing name but I figured the poor translation was a good indication of authentic delicious-ness. I was wrong. They were plain boiled pork in a lumpy, soggy, poorly-formed dumpling skin. It doesn’t take a genius of Asian cuisine to know these were a poor excuse for dumplings.

In the past I have ordered the Cham-Bong, though I have never actually been able to find it on the menu (I was with people “in the know”). As I mentioned before, it is a spicy noodle soup with a bunch of seafood. For the price (around $6) you get quite a bit of seafood, but I am rather apathetic about the taste. Its spicy, but not much else. My only other exposure to this dish was much better.

I will leave the Cha Chiang Mein off the score card; the Kung Pao was a 4 star dish (minus ½ star for not being able to accommodate a simple change), the dumplings were 1 star, and the Cham-Bong 3 star. I give Little Dragon an overall rating of 2.5 stars. Go if you’re dying for some Korean-Chinese food, otherwise if you find yourself here with a group stick to the Lunch Specials.

-Ben

Sloopy's

3416 Highland Avenue,

Manhattan Beach, CA 90266-3341

(310) 545-1373 ‎

http://www.sloopysbeachcafe.com/

http://www.yelp.com/biz/sloopys-manhattan-beach

Rating: 4.5 stars

Typical cost for lunch: $$ ($7-10)

What was ordered: Grilled Mahi-Mahi, Lumberjack, California Chicken

Date of visit: 22 February 2011 (4^th or 5^th visit)

Review: I am a big fan of Sloopy’s… it’s a little sandwich shop just blocks from beautiful Manhattan Beach that serves great food at a reasonable price. I always describe Sloopy’s as a restaurant with a tree in the middle of it and then realize when I show up that there is no tree. The seating area is actually a terraced, covered patio garden. Plants and fountains abound. It’s very serene. Furthermore, walking from your car to the restaurant it is hard to miss the breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean and the white sands of Manhattan Beach.

But how is the food? It’s actually quite good and a pretty good deal considering the view it comes with. The Mahi-Mahi sandwich comes with big slabs of grilled Mahi-Mahi on a nice fluffly poppy seed bun. It was under $10 with a pile delicious fries on the side. The other people in my party ordered a grilled chicken breast sandwich and the Lumberjack sandwich (sliced roast beef with caramelized onions and provolone cheese). Most of their menu is sandwiches and they all tend to be of a hearty size made with quality ingredients. The fries you get on the side are light and crispy. For $2 more you can substitute sweet potato fries for the normal fries. It is a little pricey as an upgrade, but I thought it was worth it.

I would give the food 4 stars, minus a half star for the price, and plus one star for the ambiance and view. 4.5 stars.

-Ben