Flemings Steakhouse (LA Live)

Time to celebrate the hubby's birthday and he said he wanted to try Flemings since we'd never been. It also helped that we'd received a $50 enticement from Amex to visit so we made the rezzies and waited for our hot date night!

Traffic to the restaurant wasn't too bad until we hit downtown and the freeway was almost closed down to clear up a hazmat situation. Really? On a Saturday? We called the restaurant to let them know we were running late so they wouldn' t give our table to someone else...no worries, we had an early rezzie and they still had booths available. We arrived after parking in the LA Live parking structure and it was a short walk to the restaurant. First time the hubby was at LA Live.

So we arrived and they opened the doors for us...nice touch. We checked in with the hostesses and they thanked us for calling to let them know we were running late...2nd nice touch. She led us to our table and asked if we cared for a black napkin...3rd nice touch. As we settled in, the bus boy came and asked if we wanted water and what type...LA's finest tap would be just fine, thank you very much. After he returned and filled our water glasses our waitress showed up with the menus. As we started looking through the menu, our "first" course arrived...compliments of the restaurant...in the form of a freshly baked mini loaf of parmesan bread with 2 spreads (chardonnay feta and sundried tomato). Both were yummy and the bread was nice and warm.

On to the food then...we had to order the Lobster Tempura as that was recommended by 3 different friends. It came and the first few bites did not disappoint. The batter was good and well seasoned and the accompanying tempura'd veggies were good as well... bell peppers and asparagus. This we had to eat fast because as it cooled down, you really started tasting the heaviness of the oil in each bite. Instead of bringing our own wine like we normally did, we decided to order a glass of white to share and then we'd each order a glass of red to go with our meal. We decided to order the Cakebread Chardonnay since it was a special occasion and neither of us had tried it before. It was a nice smooth chard that went well with the lobster.

Then we decided on our entrees...hubby ordered the Bone-In Ribeye and I the Porcini-Rubbed Filet Mignon. Hubby was happy with his beef when it arrived. It was very beef-y and tender all around. Cooked perfectly and well seasoned. My filet, on the other hand, was cooked perfectly but it did not taste as I'd expected. The porcini rub was not apparent on the meat...it was more like a porcini dusting. The meat was very beef-y as well and perfectly tender. For our side dish we ordered the Lobster Mashed Potatoes. Richly decadent and super buttery. I had had the lobster mash before at the Flemings in Fresno and it was great there and we'd also had it at Mastro's where it was simply phenomenal! This time we were a little disappointed. The lobster tasted overcooked, dried and old. The sauce it was cooked in was great but the lobster itself was a disappointment. Had the manager come over to ask how our meal was, I would have had to let him know...alas, he did not show (minus point). We each ordered a glass of red to complement our meats. Hubby had the 2006 Duckhorn Cabernet which went perfectly with his steak. I was debating between the Trefethen Cabernet and the Hall Cabernet so our waitress brought me a small sample of each to help me decide. I went with the Trefethen as that definitely had more noticeable terroir than the Hall. The Hall was deeper but fell kind of flat for me. The Trefethen had a more robust feel and was more distinctive from the first sip.

Our waitress convinced the hubby to order the Chocolate Lava Cake for dessert and that did not disappoint. It was fresh made with a molten chocolate core and served with vanilla ice cream and chopped pistachios. They also brought a bowl of fresh whipped cream that made every bite worth the cardio we would have to do to work it off! And last, but not least, they gave the hubby a box of 4 truffles as a Happy Birthday and Thank You for celebrating his birthday at Flemings. Definitely a nice touch.

All in all, a good meal with great service. We would go back but just a couple of misses made it miss the perfect mark.

Malan Noodles (Hacienda Heights)

So I was super hungry after 2 meetings, a smallish breakfast, no lunch and fighting 2 hours of traffic to get back. Once in the door I asked the hubby if he was hungry and what we were having for dinner because I was starvin' marvin. He said he could eat so I told him to get into the car because we were going to hit Malan Noodles for some hand-made noodles.

We hopped in the car and he drove while I read reviews of the place on Yelp. Sounded like the Malan Beef Soup Noodles were the thing to get so I ordered a small since the reviews were mixed. You can order different types of noodles and they're all hand-made (you can see into the kitchen as the guy pulls and pulls the dough into the shape you want). You can choose from small, medium and large round; small, medium and large flat; and triangle. I chose the triangle and the hubby chose medium flat. I preferred mine because the texture was chewier. :D

We also ordered the Simmered Chicken Gizzards and Spicy Tripe (both served cold). The gizzards were ok...nothing special. We'd had better at Jade Restaurant in Rosemead. The spicy tripe was really spicy. It was mixed with that chili oil and the seeds gave it that tongue numbing spice. Good but a little too spicy.

The noodle soup was a nice consomme type broth with slices of beef on top of the bed of noodles with a good amount of cilantro and green onions. The soup was nice and hot on a day that was ending on the cooler side. The noodles...oh the noodles...they were so yummy! I had the triangle noodles and they were chewy and looooooooong! Not too mushy, not too al dente...just right. They did make for a bit of a mess since I kept pulling and trying to fit bite after bite into my mouth while still piping hot...I think I mentioned I was hungry, right?

All in all, a good noodle spot that we'll hit up again. It's in a bit of a weird spot...next to a dialysis center with windows that opened up into the dialysis center so you could see the paramedics transporting patients in while you ate. It wasn't busy when we went since it was late afternoon/early evening by the time we got there. The waitress was nice and seemed to be the only server there. A little pricey for a bowl of noodles but not bad for the novelty of having fresh, made-to-order, noodles pulled your way!