Day 4 of #dineLA is in full swing for the first week! 3 times a year for 2 weeks at a time, dineLA features many participating restaurants in the surrounding cities with prix fix menus for lunch and dinner at an affordable price.. for something that would otherwise be way more expensive on the regular menu. Now that’s not to say EVERY restaurant will have a stealer menu, but if you take time to peruse the menus, you will find a couple that definitely offer the best bang for the buck. For me personally, lunch is almost always better than dinner because most of the time, they have the same menu items except for an additional entree or dessert for dinner. So why not go lunch timeee??
Today for the MLK holiday, I decided to take my mommy out to a lunch date at Parkway Grill in Pasadena. Now I recently tried a few samples of Parkway Grill during Huntington Hospital’s Fall, Food & Wine Festival earlier in the fall and thought the food was extremely tasty. Also, their lunch menu looks BOMB. My eyes spied bone marrow, lobster and wagyu for just $25?! I’m getting it. Haha
The restaurant is located a few blocks from Huntington Hospital right next to Arroyo Chop House. There is only 1 hour parking on the streets right in front, which is useless if you want to dine at a restaurant. HOWEVER, if you go directly around the block to the street on the other side, there is plenty of 2 hour parking!!!! Just don’t be so lazy and walk a few blocks! Gotta work for your meal ehh?
Also, I’m glad that I did because I randomly saw Parkway Grill’s sign that shows their organic, own growned garden in the back of the restaurant!! They grow their own vegetables?! That is impressive.
The exterior of the restaurant kind of looked like an old-fashioned, cozy house. But the inside is elaborately decorated. This restaurant opened right at 1130am and there were already 5 parties with reservations ahead of us. We made reservations too don’t worry. But hint: make a reservation during dineLA week, because it gets PACKED.
I managed to snatch a picture before the hostess started seating people. Hehe.
Parkway Grill is known for their complimentary bread baskets that they serve in the beginning. It comes with a side of chilled butter and organic white salts. In the bread baskets you have 5 different types of breads: white sour dough bread, pea corn bread, raisin and small fruits bread in the back, a tower of crispy bread that’s seasoned and crispy like a chip, and two twix stick like breads that’s fun to eat. All were delicious.
roasted bone marrow, foie gras crust, house giardiniera, sourdough toast. I couldn’t even tell that it was foie gras in the crust, but just knowing that made me enjoy the dish even more!! Who doesn’t like anything expensive??? The bone marrow was extremely fatty and suptle and soft. The crust was lightly oiled and extremely flavorful surprisingly. It comes with the toasted sour dough, which I am grateful they didn’t give too much of. The quinoa mustard sauce was almost like a friendly version of horse radish.
lobster club, herb and garlic french fries. Whoaaa I like me shoestring fries!! Who doesn’t? Perfectly seasoned and fried. They’re always fun and easy to eat on a full stomach. Parkway Grill was generous with their lobster inside of the sandwiches. There were no shells. It was seasoned with a creamy salad sauce. Then we have tomato, avocado and lettuce. The fact that it was 3 bread layers made me feel like it was an overgrown tea sandwich!
Yum, yum, yum. Look at that lobster!
american wagyu “mishima reserve” burger, maytag blue cheese, tomato aioli, sweet potato fries. I like how instead of using the traditional mayonnaise and ketchup on a burger, they went ahead and made an aioli sauce of tomatoes. It was strikingly VERY GOOD. Lightly creamy and slightly tangy. Perfect. The sweet potato fries were perfect. Who can do those wrong???? The option of how much vegetables you want to put in your own bread was nice.
Look at that medium rare, delicious piece of meat. It was more juicy than it looks.
Here’s my burger I put together. IT WAS SOOOOOOOOO GOOOD. I’m automatically putting this on my top 10 burgers in california… to be posted.. eventually.. MUWAHAHHAA. But I wonder if this is just a seasonal item for dineLA only or they have this year round? I will find out!
It’s always nice when a restaurant celebrates a special occasion with you! For my mommy and me? It was just a casual mommy and daughter date <3 This was a very sweet and dense cupcake with a “lighter than air” whip cream. The golden cupcake wrapping perfectly explains how rich this cupcake is. If you can imagine what my taste buds were tasting..
