Consume Part I: Food

 

 

 

BEST RIDICULOUS BREAKFAST BURRITO The Cook Shack. It’s made with six eggs — need we say more? Okay, we will. This creation is so monstrous it’s delivered to your table by crane. It’s jam-packed with cheese, potatoes, chiles and your choice of bacon or sausage, it’s topped with salsa, and it comes on a plate loaded with the Shack’s famous breakfast potatoes, which are so mysteriously light and crisp you could toss them into the air and they’d probably flutter down like flower petals. You also get a complimentary piece of delicious, home-baked coffee cake, which comes with every breakfast order. Warning: You can split this breakfast with a buddy and you’ll still be sorry. 1929 Huntington Dr., S. Pasadena; (626) 799-3333.(Mary Beth Crain)

 

 

 

BEST THREE-HOUR MEAL Pinot at the Chronicle. For years the favorite watering hole of Pasadena’s elite, the Chronicle was the old newspaperman/politico hangout. Then a few years back, primo chef Christian Shaffer helped to create Pinot, which has become the ultimate in haute cuisine and features waiters who go past mere service into the domain of caregiving. This place is so classy that at the bottom of the menu Shaffer is listed as "Chef du Cuisine," along with his "sous chef," Joseph Gillard. The waiters specialize in "personalized menus," and will "create" your meal in consultation with the chef, who loves both challenge and spontaneity. There is, for instance, his "Salad in Metamorphosis," a freeform appetizer that comes to him on the spur of the moment and therefore can’t be regulated by the crass constrictions of the common everyday menu. Shaffer will communicate through the waiter whether or not he approves of your choice, and sometimes will not accommodate you if he feels your desire is not in your best interest. Fortunately, he’s like a good stockbroker in that respect: The food is so phenomenal that if you’re smart, you’ll just sit back and take his advice. Up to four waiters at a time will be serving you, and your master waiter — who has arranged your meal to be, as he terms it, an "event in process" — will divide the dinner into four or five courses and will be checking midway through every course to see how you like it, reporting back to the chef. He’ll also suggest the perfect wine, of course, and as for the dessert menu — well, he brings it to you with somber reverence, saying, "I know these decisions are difficult, so take as much time as you need," sort of like a funeral director. Our meal’s running time: three hours. The cost: roughly $35 to $40 per person. 897 Granite Dr., Pasadena; (626) 792-1179. (Mary Beth Crain)

 

 

 

BEST CHEAP-SPAGHETTI COMPETITION Carmine’s vs. Domenico’s. Okay, guys, get out those gloves and duke it out, ’cause this is a tough call: The new kid on the block versus the old favorite. Carmine’s, a recent addition to South Pasadena, has the more romantic atmosphere, the more attentive waiters and waitresses, and a wow of a real meal deal: Your choice of a whopping bowl of excellent minestrone soup or a salad, all the fresh rolls you can eat served hot from the oven, and a plateful of spaghetti marinara that’s enough for two — all for (are you ready?) $5.75 (add a buck-twenty-five for two big meatballs). Domenico’s has the rowdier feel of the family pizza parlor, where you sometimes have to grin and bear the crowds and noise, but its spaghetti dinner packs a Joe Pesci punch: a salad of greens, olives and tomatoes buried under an avalanche of mozzarella (a meal in itself), a couple of slabs of garlic bread the size of Mike Tyson’s forearms, and a portion of spaghetti marinara that’ll feed you well into the next day, at the bargain-basement price of under $7.60. You choose. Carmine’s, 424 Fair Oaks Ave., S. Pasadena, (626) 799-2266. Domenico’s Italian Kitchen, 2411 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 797-6459. (Mary Beth Crain)

 

 

 

BEST 24-HOUR MEXICAN REST AURANT Ordonoz. Ordonoz is the San Gabriel Valley’s version of Hemingway’s clean, well-lighted place: not a taco stand, but a peaceful, sit-down refuge for those who can’t sleep for want of an order of succulent birria and tortillas — or even breakfast — at 2:15 a.m. 872 Garfield Ave., Montebello; (213) 724-6386. (Marc B. Haefele)

 

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF . . . Arturo’s Family Restaurant. While the most alluring of L.A.’s old-school Mexican restaurants rely upon a tawdry rendezvous of tequila, red lights and red vinyl, Arturo’s Family Restaurant manages to charm in a manner quite the opposite. Light and airy and bright, with tropical plantings, Arturo’s evokes Disneyesque Americana/Mexicana futurism circa 1961. The dining room’s soaring glass walls, spacy white globe lights and suave-dopey coral-and-turquoise benches reinforce that jet-age feeling of internationalism. The bar is particularly attractive with its glass-enclosed, leafy atrium, waterfall and sullen stone god. The menu is replete with the usual gringo-friendly combos, the traditional Mexican/suburban specialties and steaks. The mole is particularly savory and not too sweet, while the tamales are delightfully so, and the enchiladas seem happy about the sauces in which they sit. Six-foot burritos upon request. 25720 S. Western Ave., Harbor City; (310) 325-0671. (Reverend Al Cacophony)