McDonald’s Breakfast Bowls — Surprisingly Not Bad

Flush from victory from rolling out all-day breakfast, McDonald’s is testing out a new breakfast idea to pull in millennials and change their image.  Breakfast bowls come in egg white & turkey sausage and scrambled egg & chorizo, and cost $4.39 and are currently available in many Southern California MCDs.  I think they’re definitely worth trying.  And, yes, there is kale in it.

McDonald’s Coffee – Free Coffee with a Side of Awesome

McDonald’s is offering free coffee for breakfast this month to compete with Taco Bell’s newest monstrosity (yes, I plan to try it). I was in a McDonald’s recently and thought I’d share with you, loyal FD reader, their in-store promotion of the new emphasis on coffee. Yes, I believe those are empty foil wrappers for ground coffee.

This is how I imagine the conversation went:

Manager: Underling, corporate is telling us we need to push our coffee. Let’s jazz this place up, really make people think coffee. Start with this big fake bag of coffee corporate sent us.
Employee1: Well, how much of a budget do we have?
M: Just take it out if your paycheck.
E: Um, OK.

** By the way, I actually like the coffee OK. It’s not amazing, but is lighter than Starbucks and has some nice sweet notes.

Huckleberry’s Blueberry Cornmeal Coffee Cake — Delicious and Pretty Easy

Last year, I went to the UCLA Science and Food pie event, at which Zoe Nathan gave away her recipe for blueberry cornmeal coffee cake. No surprise, it’s pretty great. You can get it at Huckleberry by the slice (with seasonal fruit), or make it yourself.

Bread Lounge — Focaccia for Breakfast

When last we visited Bread Lounge, we checked out the kouign amann and found it a little lacking. Since then, I’ve seen BL’s bread around town and am about ready to say they make the best baguette in town. DTLA Cheese’s fantastic sandwiches feature this bread.

Sycamore Kitchen Revisited – Still Excellent

This update is mostly pictures from my latest visit to Sycamore Kitchen, the brunch place from Karen Hatfield. Spoiler: it is still incredible. In fact, the cooked dishes might actually be better than the baked goods, and *gasp* maybe even better than Huckleberry.

Starbucks Pastry Erratum – La Boulange Is Looking Good

I think I’m ready to admit I was wrong.. I happened to be back at Starbucks this weekend and tried three more La Boulange pastries. Not incredible, but they are actually pretty good.

JiST Cafe – Just Opened, First Bite

JiST Cafe is open and serving six days a week at 5am. Familiar face, redone digs, totally different menu. JiST is a promising new addition to the neighborhood, filling a (partially filled) hole in the Little Tokyo dining scene.

Lemonade at LAX — Food Upgrades at LAX

Reports of the rebirth of food at our local mega-airport have not been exaggerated. LAX has been sagging age-wise, and not in a fun retro way. It’s food offerings have been quite terrible for all that time, with the highlight being McDonald’s in terminal 1 or Chili’s To Go. But LAX’s overlords have decreed that they will put in high-quality, local, successful eateries, including Pink’s, Campanile (I won’t be eating there), and Lemonade.

Ronnie’s Diner – 4 Stars on Yelp

Having driven by Ronnie’s Diner and read the 200+ glowing Yelp reviews, I thought I would sneak in to check out what I hoped would be a DDD-type place in our backyard.