chic – lifeofacitygal

DineLA 2020 – Winter Edition

DineLA happens at least twice a year in Los Angeles; once in the summer and again in the “winter”. A nice selection of restaurants from all neighborhoods have a prix fixe lunch and/or dinner menu selection ranging from $15-25 for lunch and $29-99 for dinner. Dinners are usually 3 to 5 course meals so definitely worth the price. I normally try to make it to at least one of the restaurants during this time. Luckily, this year I was able to try two places.

I created a list of all the restaurants that peaked my interest to try for both lunch and dinner. For lunch, I decided to try Nick + Stef’s Steakhouse. This hidden gem is tucked away in Downtown Los Angeles. Upon arriving, I immediately thought this place would be a good recommendation for the summertime. There’s a bit of construction going on around the vicinity but the outside dining area gives a nice, unobstructed view of downtown and a cute little garden area nearby. There was a good selection for the lunch menu. For the appetizer, I went with the caesar salad. For my main entree, I tried the oak grilled salmon atop marinated kale with a nice chimichurri sauce and my husband went with the short rib (my initial choice but I didn’t want to get the same thing). Neither meal disappointed although I will say the short rib was the better option to me. It is a heavier meal for lunch so maybe it caters to a late lunch goer like myself. The flavors were great and overall I’m glad I was able to make it over to this place.

Oak Grilled Salmon

Braised Short Rib

For dinner, I tried Fin located in Culver City. It’s an Asian-fusion inspired restaurant that offered a good variety for its dinner entrees. $29 got me salmon sashimi, baked crab rolls and an 8oz ribeye with mashed potatoes. Definitely not bad for the price. I loved the smoked soy ribeye. The marinade went perfectly with the steak and it was cooked quite well. My husband decided to be fancy and ordered the filet mignon (not on the prix fixe) but it was good nonetheless. I fell in love with the plum reduction sauce used a base for his dish. Overall, the ambiance was very nice and the food was very good but I must admit the service was kind of slow. Maybe there were more diners out trying the DineLA options during the time I visited. I will definitely be back to try it out again, especially since there’s a speakeasy located in the back called ‘The Alley’. Looking forward to the DineLA summer edition 🙂 . If you’re in the LA area during the next one, I would definitely recommend trying one of the many restaurant options that cater to every type of cuisine you can think of.

Gracias Madre

If you were able to catch my last post, I talked about completing a fast which basically boiled down to eating only fruits and veggies for 3 weeks. Since I’m a foodie at heart, I love looking for new restaurants to try so I just had to incorporate finding vegan/vegetarian options during this time. I learned that this community is huge and LA offers a ton of restaurants catered to both vegans and vegetarians. I often opted for places that had dishes like a Tex-mex bowl with rice, beans, sautéed vegetables, pico de gallo and guac. Anything with guacamole and I’m sold 😊. This was the simplest route to take food wise and easy to find everywhere. However, I did venture out a few times and stumbled upon some wonderful places. One being Gracias Madre, offering 100% organic, plant based Mexican cuisine.

Gracias Madre is tucked away in West Hollywood on Melrose Ave. I’ve probably passed this place a million times and never noticed it before. It kind of resembles a nice house from the street view but when you walk in you are totally taken aback. The décor and ambiance is just so chic. There was a lounge area with comfy chairs and couches adjacent from the bar area. The outside dining area had communal tables with the heated lamps for those cooler days/nights in LA along with cute little tables for smaller parties. From the outside, the space looked so quaint but once inside it was a huge space and very accommodating for the large crowd in attendance that day.

To stick with my go to bowls that I’d been consuming, I went with Bowl Tres as my entrée. This bowl has quinoa, kale, roasted squash, white beans, peppers, onions and pesto cashew crème. Okay let’s start by saying the roasted squash was the best!!! The kale was also very seasoned and added a nice taste to the overall dish. Before I ordered this, the waiter did let me try the pesto cashew crème and I went for it and decided to order this bowl. I will say I did not know the bowl was heavily dressed with that sauce. I think sometimes dishes are overly compensated with a sauce to make sure we get a good amount of flavor and I probably should of asked for it on the side to be safe. That being said, the sauce did compliment the dish well and I was pleased with this entrée. I heard the drinks are pretty good too so I will definitely be back to give those a try as well.

A Better Me

With the new year comes all sorts of dieting, fitness goals and abrupt changes to accomplish being “a better YOU”. I’ve never really been into resolutions for the new year or implementing new life goals for the new year. However, this year my aunt spoke with me about the Daniel Fast and asked me to participate along with her. Since she told me this 2 days beforehand, I agreed to fast but with modifications. I had to mentally prepare for this thing you know since it started on New Years day. I decided to eliminate all meats, bread and sweets for the duration of 21 days and I started this commitment on January 2nd.

Just to give you guys a little background about me, I absolutely love food! It’s kind of my thing being a foodie and all. I jot down restaurants that I see on my drive home, follow other foodies and see their suggestions and pretty much indulge in anything food related. So, to commit to this fast was a big deal for me. The first couple of days were a bit tough because I didn’t realize how much stuff I consumed that had bread as the base and neither did I realize I ate so many sweets. After the harsh first few days, my body became acclimated somewhat quickly. The mornings were simple. My favorites were fruit and smoothies. For lunch and dinner, I normally sautéed veggies and I ate a ton of sweet potatoes and avocados. While on this fast, I learned about various vegan and vegetarian restaurants in the LA area too. I hadn’t paid attention before but there are a lot of options if you’re a part of the vegan community.

On the last day, I called my aunt and told her I made it through the fast. I will be truthful and say I had 2 French fries and 2 alcoholic beverages during the 21 days. I didn’t commit to giving up fried foods or alcohol but those kind of fall in that “don’t eat category” when I thought about this fast so I just gave those up as well. Water became my best friend and now I just go for water more now as my first beverage choice as I should anyways. I haven’t even indulged in coffee since the fast ended on 1/23 and I feel pretty good about that since I normally start my day with a fresh cup of coffee. The fast helped me to see and appreciate a lot of principles that I normally don’t pay attention to. Discipline, faith and commitment are the biggest ones I would like to mention. We often doubt ourselves and say we can’t do or commit to something before we even try. I was so proud of myself throughout this journey because to be frank it was quite tough to go out and order the “healthy food” or all veggies or NOT stop by neither of the 100 donut shops in LA you pass everyday. I can say I feel better energy wise and overall I just feel more connected and in tune with myself. Now I will not say I’m not eating meat again but I will be mindful of the intake of it along with other things that I was so use to consuming before. I’m a continuous work in progress so here’s to a better me!

Birthday Bae

10/27….The best day of the year (to me 😊) So here we are in October in LA and its peaking at above 85 degrees. Talk about a good birthday gift. Over the weeks leading up to my special day, I went over a number of things that I could do and just settled on the fact that I wanted to have loads of fun. So my first trip for this fun adventure began by making it to the infamous Paul Smith “Pink Wall” on Melrose for photo ops. I finally made it!!! Yay. For my day birthday fit, I decided to work with what I had in my closet. It was such nice weather so I went with a black cropped top, my favorite ripped jeans from Zara and an all-black suede Steve Madden mule. If you don’t know by now, I love me a nice mule. I gave so many retro chic 90s vibes with this look. I recently cut my hair so that added a different element to this vibe too of course. Although it is definitely fall, LA allows you to dress for the weather not season.

Afterwards, I went for margaritas at Velvet Margarita and decided to give Halloween Horror Nights a try for the evening. I’m not one that desires to be scared but I went for it and had such a wonderful time. Of course, a night in a theme park required a quick wardrobe change but overall this birthday was one of the best. Doing something that was actually fun (including an impromptu photo shoot lol) First birthday in LA in the books! Check out the great birthday shots I was able to get.

Floral Obsession

Summer is perfect to bring out floral print. I’m absolutely obsessed! The pants pictured here, I’ve owned for at least 4 or 5 years I believe. I purchased them from Urban Outfitters and could never seem to find a top to compliment them. While looking for something else one day in my closet, I ran across these and decided it’s time to wear them. I went with a simple black cropped top purchased from H&M. Since the pants have quite a few colors in them, the black pairs well. For the shoes, I wore my favs for this summer; my go to mules from Old Navy. Purchasing these shoes may have been the best decision I’ve made all summer. I literally wear them with everything and they are so comfy. The clutch is also from H&M and was another lucky steal I’ve gotten over the summer since it was only $7. Check out the other full outfit pictures below.

An Evening Look

I am absolutely obsessed with jumpers this summer. I stumbled upon this little beauty in H&M of course; I think I’m a bit obsessed with this store as well. You can always find something cute to wear in here, even when you’re not necessarily looking for anything. I wanted a nice look for a dinner but mainly wanted to focus on comfort yet staying stylish at the same time. I’d been eyeing this jumper a few times and figured I would try it on to see how it actually fit. It was perfect! Wide legged, made with the perfect material to keep cool on a summer night and was the perfect length with the right shoe. This piece is something I feel you can wear for any occasion and can be dressed up or down, depending on where you’re going. I paired the jumper with BCBG sandals that I hadn’t worn in quite some time but went perfectly with this. With black, you can always add a pop of color with a shoe or accessory so I chose a hot pink sandal lined with black to compliment this outfit. Dinner date ready! More full pics below.

Chic meets street

Living in New York, the main thing that I have come to focus on is being comfortable. A lot of my clothes are not that casual but I’ve learned I do not have to compromise my look . It’s perfectly fine to incorporate sneakers and still be quite stylish. Here I kept it pretty simple with a black turtleneck, faux fur vest and faux leather pants paired with the Jordan 11’s. Now this is when chic meets street.

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