Restaurants

Here's where I am going to tell you about quality restaurants that offer value for your formal dining, and casual dining, and family dining dollar. Heck, I'm also going to tell you about good places to eat too. While I enjoy a fine restaurant, I also want value for my money and I don't want to cringe when the check comes. I'll pay more when the atmosphere and the service and the taste and quality are worth paying more, and I hope you'll agree with the restaurant suggestions -- formal and casual and on-the-go -- that I present here.

LOUISE'S TRATTORIA

It just makes perfect sense that the first restaurant I feature here is Louise's Trattoria, the well known and popular chain of family-friendly and modestly priced Italian restaurants in the Los Angeles area. Louise's Trattoria, casually called "Louise's," has seven locations including restaurants in Santa Monica, Brentwood, West Los Angeles, Hancock Park, Hollywood, Studio City and Old Town Pasadena -- and I've enjoyed lunch or dinner in all of them. The first Louise's I had lunch at was the one near the old Channel 9 studios, when KCAL was on the Paramount Studios Lot on Melrose Avenue. What impressed me about that Louise's was the consistency and the value -- and that has been the same at all of the other locations. My wife and I frequently have dinner at the West Los Angeles Louise's on Pico Boulevard. And every time we get the delicious quality we've come to expect and always enjoy the wonderful, friendly service... and the bread... which is the secret that keeps the regulars coming back again and again. Louises recently changed its menu to offer lower prices and you can't argue with lower prices -- but the quality hasn't changed and frankly the portions are still plentiful and we have a "doggie bag" to bring home every time, and we don't have a dog. Call Louise's Trattoria at (877) LOUISES or go to www.Louises.com for address, their menu, and information about catering, parties, and their formula for success. Watch the video below.

DON'T BRING IN A PIZZA, BRING IN THE PIZZA RESTAURANT

Updated January 11, 2011 I love this idea. You can all it-- "when food truck meets party planner." Yep, there is now a food truck in Los Angeles that specializes in pizza and the food truck has its own pizza oven to make fresh pizza on the spot. Several times a week you'll find The Slice Truck near USC at Jefferson and McClintock. But The Slice Truck makes house calls and office calls and you can have The Slice Truck come to you for your next ultimate pizza party.

Call them at 310-944-2474 or go to their website www.slicetruck.com for information and how to order your own pizza restaurant for your event. There are some conditions -- so you can't call them just for a slice.

When you call, they'll need to know the date and time of your event, how many people to expect and how many slices per person. And what about liquid refreshments? Of course they'll need to know your address and what kind of event it is. For example, if it's for a wedding or Bar Mitzvah they might have some extra decorations available. Their minimum charge for bringing The Slice Truck to you is $800 and there might be a higher charge depending on how far they have to drive.

Remember, they have pizza ovens on the truck and use fresh hand tossed dough to make their pizzas. The truck itself i a pizza restaurant. And why did they do it? "The reason behind it is that historically when large groups order 40-100 pizzas for a large gathering, the majority of the pizza gets cold before people can eat it," David Hanley told me. "Basically SliceTruck is what you call when you're in a situation to order 40 or more pizzas, as it will cost about the same and the freshness and hotness and greatness will be much higher. Not to mention that compared to most any other pizza place in L.A., we have much better pizza anyway."

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