Eastside Eateries

My idea of a perfect night out is having cocktails or wine and dinner with friends and tonight I did just that. I finally got over to the eastside and met up with one of my dearest foodie friends and brought a westsider friend with me. I took them to one of the best restaurants I have ever been to in my life. It is a vegetarian restaurant and the food is just unbelievable. Whether you are vegetarian or not, you cannot deny that their food has so much flavor that you don't even notice that the meat isn't there. I am stuffed. The restaurant I am talking about is Elf in Echo Park. It is a small and quaint restaurant that is dimly lit and always filled with the eastsides finest hipsters. It is a real intimate setting where you can watch the chefs prepare some of the best food I have ever had. Because the cafe is so small there is almost always a wait and of course tonight was no different and so we walked across the street to the wine bar and had a glass of wine while we waited for our table.


The maître d’ was so great and called me when our table was ready. So, we walked back over and sat down in our own little corner and order some great entrees and shared with one another. We had a Baked Tart with Roasted Tomatoes, Carmelized Onion and Feta:


A Sheep Cheese Crepe with Chevre Butter:



And a Portobello Mushroom with Spanish Rice and Mashed Potatoes:


They also served cucumber infused water which was really refreshing. My friends both loved the food and were talking about the next trip back. It was so good that our dishes were being wiped clean by both of them which resulted in this:



A beautifully, artistic stack of dishes.