Vietnamese Soycafe - A Hidden Gem in Silver Lake

If you race up and down Hyperion in order to hit the green light at Lyric (or Fountain, as the case may be) you might miss the lilliputian Vietnamese Soycafe. If you are a true foodie, you’ll see a glimpse of it out of the corner of your eye. The first thing that you’ll notice is that it is not open on Fridays and Saturdays. This piques your interest.

You finally go there one Sunday morning after being intrigued by the limited but unique menu that you happen to look at through the window one Saturday when the pet food store was not yet open and you needed to kill some time, so you walked up the block to check this quirky place out.

Below, a cup of cinnamon soymilk:

If you usually buy your soymilk at Trader Joe’s you have not had soymilk until you’ve had it at the Vietnamese Soycafe. Viet, the warm and personable owner, makes the organic soymilk in house. Other flavors include black sesame, mint, and yerba mate. It’s a better deal to buy a quart and share it with someone – you’ll end up with twice as much for about the same price.

Below, a double Vietnamese coffee – you are in heaven.

Below, the jicama fresh rolls:

These are wonderful. You cannot eat the peanut sauce with which they are served (or you’ll take a trip to migraineville) but it doesn’t matter; the texture is perfect and the minimalist flavors blend so well together.

Below, the overwhelmingly popular lemongrass chicken banh mi:

You pledge that next time you’ll order the green onion and sardine banh mi. There is also a vegetarian option: the shitake mushroom and tofu.

Below, two views of the Sunday special bun with tumeric whitefish:




You’ve heard about this dish through the foodie grapevine, and you purposely came here on a Sunday just to get it. It surpasses all of your expectations; it’s so simple and lovely. You’ve declared this the best dish in LA County since the late Kuala Lumpur’s wonton laksa.

Below, the soyskin mushroom bun and the soynugs:




On a health kick? You’ll have to try the “C Shot” – Viet’s upscale version of the uber-cleansing detox libation of lemon juice and cayenne pepper.


Vietnamese Soycafe
1997 Hyperion Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027

Sean's Burgers, Yuca's Hut, and Burrito King - the Great Silver Lake/F'iz Burger Crawl

A preview of coming attractions:

On top: the Double Chili Cheeseburger from Sean's Burgers.

Middle: the Double Chili Cheeseburger from Yuca's Hut.

Bottom: the Double Cheeseburger from Burrito King.

I've been tempted to do a Silver Lake/F'iz (Los Feliz) burger crawl since reading two recent threads on the chowhound LA board. In the first one, lil mikey tells us of his burger adventures at Sean's Burgers (the new place that is now in the old Jay's Jayburger stand), and in the second, Burger Boy ponders the merits of a burger from Yuca's Hut and waxes nostalgic for the burger from Burrito King.

Sean's Burgers:

When I said "charcoal" flavor what I meant to say was "grilled" flavor (sorry, my mind must still be on charcoal Korean bubbaque). Speaking of grilled flavor, my next stop was at Yuca's:

Burger Boy mentioned that there was too much mustard on the burger. I have to admit I took my few bites from the perimeter of the burger and didn't taste any mustard; however, when I got the burgers home and dissected this burger, there was a huge splat of mustard right in the middle of Yuca's burger.

Burrito King:

I think that the best overall tasting burger was from Sean's but if I had ordered the burger from Yuca's without chili I think that one would have been best. The meat was of higher quality and it was really charred giving it a wonderful flavor.

While dissecting the burgers I couldn't help but notice how well Burrito King's burger held up: the lettuce on the other two burgers had already wilted but Burrito King's lettuce was still really crisp. If one just subbed Yuca's patties into the Burrito King bun and accoutrements, it would be a fabulous burger.

Sean's Burgers
4481 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90029

Yuca's Hut
2056 N. Hillhurst Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027

Burrito King
2827 Hyperion Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027

Breakfast at Blair's in Silver Lake

What looks like a perfect cinnamon bun; but, alas, perfection eluded this breakfast pastry: simply put, it was a bit too dry.

I met with some fellow foodies on an early Sat morn, with high hopes, at Blair's, a restaurant that is becoming a Silver Lake institution. I've been to Blair's many times for dinner and once for breakfast a few weeks ago and have always had great meals. On this morning, however, the restaurant was way off. I'm hoping that it was an atypical situation as opposed to a sign that the place is going downhill after only being open for breakfast a short time.

My cafe au lait. I was really shocked when our server asked me what exactly was in a cafe au lait. Huh? How can anyone in over-caffeineted Silver Lake not know what a cafe au lait is? After a while I was kind of glad that she asked me since if she didn't I may have ended up with a caffe latte (made with espresso instead of brewed coffee).

Some photos of other pastries: a beautiful banana muffin with a decorative design et une tranche de banana bread.

Two views of my main dish: scrambled eggs with kale and fontina cheese. Certainly nothing wrong with the eggs but the cook really skimped on the cheese. This cheesehead hates that! The spinach served on the side was a real problem: while my dining companions received fresh sauteed arugula with their meals, my sauteed spinach tasted old and was very gritty.

The blueberry mascarpone (please, not marscapone) pancakes that half of the table ordered. These were a big hit with the foodies.

Poached eggs with sides of mushrooms and that arugula. The cook committed a cardinal sin by leaving too much water in the bowl - one needs to gently drain poached eggs!

Now, a word about the service: it sucks. From 10 am to 11 am the restaurant was fairly empty so one could expect the service to be somewhat attentive but when you are one of three tables in the place, it's unnacceptable to wait 3 minutes for silverware and for butter and syrup for the pancakes. Why didn't the servers have enough sense to bring the necessities before the food came?

Blair's
2903 Rowena Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90039
www.blairsrestaurant.com