We celebrated my birthday three days early on Friday, October 2, 2009 with dinner at the Palace and a Loggins and Messina concert at the Greek Theater. The Palace was part of the Dine and Ride package where we parked our car at the restaurant and rode a shuttle van to the Greek Theater. We set that up through dineandride.com about one month before. For Dine and Ride to the Greek there was a choice between 2-3 restaurants in the Los Feliz area including the Dresden, a German restaurant. We chose the Palace, a Chinese restaurant, because I figured less of the food would have dairy. The website did show the special menu that came with the Dine and Ride package and I could eat just about everything but the ice cream for dessert. We got a Dine and Ride package because our experience is that traffic going to the Greek Theater can get very slow. When we saw the Prairie Home Companion live show there in 2002 we sat in traffic for over an hour between Los Feliz Blvd and the Greek. When we got there, the main lot was full and we had to park way up the hill near the Griffith Observatory. We missed 45 minutes of the 2-hour show. For Loggins and Messina, we did not want this to happen again.
Our payment to Dine and Ride covered the food, shuttle ride to and from the Greek, parking at the restaurant, and all the taxes and gratuities. We had to get our tickets to the concert separately. After paying for our Dine and Ride package, their employee, Mark, sent an e-mail saying to be at the Palace at 5:30 pm on Oct. 2. When that day came around about 3-4 weeks later we used MapQuest to get directions. I checked the Dine and Ride website that now said that Dine and Ride was sold out for the Palace-Greek for Oct. 2 and 3. When I first put the addresses into MapQuest, the directions included going on the I-5 and Los Feliz Blvd. We wanted to avoid both these routes because they get lots of traffic on weekday evenings, especially when there’s a concert at the Greek. We adjusted the directions until they worked out to something more feasible.
We left at 4:15 pm and drove west on the 210. There wasn’t much traffic going west. Most of it was going east. We took the 210 to where part of it becomes the 134 in Pasadena. From the 134 we got on the 2 south in Glendale that also didn’t have much traffic. We were making very good time. From the 2 we took exit # 14B that led to Fletcher Drive. We turned left on Fletcher, drove on a bridge across the Los Angeles River and turned right onto Glendale Blvd. We took Glendale Blvd to where it forks into Glendale Blvd and Rowena Ave. We kept right to take Rowena Ave and saw that the Silver Lake restaurant, Flor Moreno, had a different name and that Blair’s, the former Thai-American Café was still there. We turned left on Hyperion Ave. and passed the Trader Joe’s and Gelson’s where we used to shop when we lived in Downtown L.A. We turned right on Griffith Park Blvd just passed the Gelson’s and then turned left on St. George St. with John Marshall High School on the left corner. St. George St. had a few hills. It led to Franklin Ave. where we turned right. This part of Franklin was less busy, narrower, and more residential than the major streets of the area such as Los Feliz Blvd. We crossed what looked like a bridge with steeples on the corners and then crossed Commonwealth Ave., an extension of the street I lived on during my first stint in Los Angeles 13-14 years ago. There were lights at all the major streets including the one where we had to turn right: Hillhurst.
We turned right on Hillhurst and drove about a half mile north. The Palace was on the right side of the street just past the intersection with Ambrose Ave. We got there at 4:55 pm, over a half hour early. The Dine and Ride e-mail said to go to valet parking adjacent to the restaurant. But we didn’t see any valet in the parking lot just south of the restaurant. We parked in the lot in a space labeled “Old Man Parking” by informal graffiti on space’s tire stop. I called Mark B, whose name was given in the Dine and Ride e-mail to call if we had questions. He actually answered and said it was probably too early for the valet and just to park in the lot and secure the vehicle. There weren’t very many cars in the parking lot. The Palace was all in one building that looked to be about two stories tall. We climbed a few steps and entered a large front door with lion face knockers. The door opened right to the hostess. We told her we were Dine and Ride and showed her the confirmation e-mail. She seated us at a very well-located corner booth with a view of the entire restaurant. A waiter gave us the specialty menu that was exactly like the one we saw online.
The Palace advertises itself as serving “Authentic Chinese Food”. It’s a large restaurant with lots of seating including tables upstairs. The décor consists of black and dark red walls, dark red carpet, and black furniture. There’s a large fish tank near the entrance, a bar in the back with at least two flatscreen TV’s, and artwork of Chinese scenes on the walls, all done by what looked like the same artist. There’s also a gold-covered Chinese dress high on the wall behind a clear covering, decorative fans, tapestries of Chinese women in red dresses, and hanging from the ceiling are banners for each of the twelve Chinese year animals. There weren’t very many people there since it was three hours before the usual L.A. dinner time of 8 pm. On our table were decorative Chinese plates, chopsticks, and, we were glad to see, forks. My wife picked up a take-home menu from the hostess’s desk and noticed that it listed many dishes that weren’t on the Dine and Ride specialty menu, including some things we might like to try sometime.
The waiter first asked us whether we would like anything to drink. The Dine and Ride menu allowed us to order a glass of beer or wine. We said we just wanted water but the waiter insisted we could order a glass of orange juice in place of the beer or wine. We did that and it came in tall glasses with ice and it tasted sweet and refreshing. I couldn’t remember the last time I drank something other than water at a restaurant. We told the waiter our choices from the Dine and Ride specialty menu and our food started arriving soon after.
First, they brought our starters: vegetable egg noodle rolls and Chinese chicken salad. The former came in four separate sections and with a small tray of spicy mustard sauce and sweet dipping sauce. The egg roll sections were crispy. My wife preferred the mustard sauce and I preferred the sweet sauce. Though I’m not sure it was authentic Chinese food, the Chinese chicken salad was still very good. Both the lettuce and the small white noodles were very crispy. The dressing was the right combination of tangy and sweet. As we ate our starters, we noticed other Dine and Ride patrons come in and be seated by the waiters. We could tell because they mentioned Dine and Ride when they came in or they only ordered things from the specialty menu. There was a large group of eight that arrived over the course of an hour in groups of two or three. There was also a couple at the corner on the other side. They were mostly Caucasians that looked 5-10 years older than us.
Next the waiter brought our soup: one each of the two kinds: hot and sour and egg flower. The hot and sour tasted like its name but it was still flavorful and delicious. It had noodles and chicken in it. The egg flower soup only had egg in it but was still flavorful. After we finished our soups, they took our plates and bowls and brought our entrees along with new plates. There was the honey walnut shrimp with shiny walnuts and sweet white honey sauce; the roast duck Mandarin, all shiny brown with two small drumsticks; and there was a plate of sautéed vegetables compliments of the restaurants. They all came with two small bowls of rice. The vegetables consisted of baby corn, carrots, broccoli, peas in pods, zucchini, bamboo shoots, and fried tofu. They were all good, especially the pieces of tofu. The duck was also prepared with bamboo shoots and mushrooms all in a rich and flavorful brown sauce. The duck itself was crispy and had great flavor even without much sauce. The best entrée was the honey walnut shrimp with the walnuts sweet and crunchy, the shrimp cooked just right and the sweet white honey sauce was great for “dipping area”. It was a lot of food, but all very good.
As we ate we watched ABC News with Charles Gibson on the screens in the far corner near the bar. They showed Rio de Janeiro winning the bid for the 2016 summer Olympics and the disappointed people in Chicago. We were actually able to finish most of our entrees. For dessert, we had a choice of green tea, plum, and vanilla ice cream. My wife tried the green tea and plum flavors and preferred the green tea. We finished dinner at 6:30 and the hostess said our Dine and Ride shuttle would pick us up at 6:50 pm. While we waited we looked over a brochure given by the waiter that had all the Chinese New Year animals. We noticed that it recommended that someone born in each year marry someone born either four years before or four years after. We thought that this wouldn’t be very easy to do given that many potential spouses meet in high school or college where the greatest age difference is three years between freshmen and seniors.
At 6:50 pm two shuttles showed up, one nearly full and ready to leave and other empty. Each van held about 14 passengers. We boarded the empty van since we could sit where we wanted. The drive asked us who was playing at the Greek Theater. We said, “Loggins and Messina,” and he said, “It’s gonna be great!” We asked where we should catch the Dine and Ride shuttle after the concert and the driver said he or another van would stop at the same place he dropped us off: right in front of the Greek Theater. We couldn’t ask for much better service. With our dinner at the Palace, our evening was going very well and the main event was yet to come.
Our payment to Dine and Ride covered the food, shuttle ride to and from the Greek, parking at the restaurant, and all the taxes and gratuities. We had to get our tickets to the concert separately. After paying for our Dine and Ride package, their employee, Mark, sent an e-mail saying to be at the Palace at 5:30 pm on Oct. 2. When that day came around about 3-4 weeks later we used MapQuest to get directions. I checked the Dine and Ride website that now said that Dine and Ride was sold out for the Palace-Greek for Oct. 2 and 3. When I first put the addresses into MapQuest, the directions included going on the I-5 and Los Feliz Blvd. We wanted to avoid both these routes because they get lots of traffic on weekday evenings, especially when there’s a concert at the Greek. We adjusted the directions until they worked out to something more feasible.
We left at 4:15 pm and drove west on the 210. There wasn’t much traffic going west. Most of it was going east. We took the 210 to where part of it becomes the 134 in Pasadena. From the 134 we got on the 2 south in Glendale that also didn’t have much traffic. We were making very good time. From the 2 we took exit # 14B that led to Fletcher Drive. We turned left on Fletcher, drove on a bridge across the Los Angeles River and turned right onto Glendale Blvd. We took Glendale Blvd to where it forks into Glendale Blvd and Rowena Ave. We kept right to take Rowena Ave and saw that the Silver Lake restaurant, Flor Moreno, had a different name and that Blair’s, the former Thai-American Café was still there. We turned left on Hyperion Ave. and passed the Trader Joe’s and Gelson’s where we used to shop when we lived in Downtown L.A. We turned right on Griffith Park Blvd just passed the Gelson’s and then turned left on St. George St. with John Marshall High School on the left corner. St. George St. had a few hills. It led to Franklin Ave. where we turned right. This part of Franklin was less busy, narrower, and more residential than the major streets of the area such as Los Feliz Blvd. We crossed what looked like a bridge with steeples on the corners and then crossed Commonwealth Ave., an extension of the street I lived on during my first stint in Los Angeles 13-14 years ago. There were lights at all the major streets including the one where we had to turn right: Hillhurst.
We turned right on Hillhurst and drove about a half mile north. The Palace was on the right side of the street just past the intersection with Ambrose Ave. We got there at 4:55 pm, over a half hour early. The Dine and Ride e-mail said to go to valet parking adjacent to the restaurant. But we didn’t see any valet in the parking lot just south of the restaurant. We parked in the lot in a space labeled “Old Man Parking” by informal graffiti on space’s tire stop. I called Mark B, whose name was given in the Dine and Ride e-mail to call if we had questions. He actually answered and said it was probably too early for the valet and just to park in the lot and secure the vehicle. There weren’t very many cars in the parking lot. The Palace was all in one building that looked to be about two stories tall. We climbed a few steps and entered a large front door with lion face knockers. The door opened right to the hostess. We told her we were Dine and Ride and showed her the confirmation e-mail. She seated us at a very well-located corner booth with a view of the entire restaurant. A waiter gave us the specialty menu that was exactly like the one we saw online.
The Palace advertises itself as serving “Authentic Chinese Food”. It’s a large restaurant with lots of seating including tables upstairs. The décor consists of black and dark red walls, dark red carpet, and black furniture. There’s a large fish tank near the entrance, a bar in the back with at least two flatscreen TV’s, and artwork of Chinese scenes on the walls, all done by what looked like the same artist. There’s also a gold-covered Chinese dress high on the wall behind a clear covering, decorative fans, tapestries of Chinese women in red dresses, and hanging from the ceiling are banners for each of the twelve Chinese year animals. There weren’t very many people there since it was three hours before the usual L.A. dinner time of 8 pm. On our table were decorative Chinese plates, chopsticks, and, we were glad to see, forks. My wife picked up a take-home menu from the hostess’s desk and noticed that it listed many dishes that weren’t on the Dine and Ride specialty menu, including some things we might like to try sometime.
The waiter first asked us whether we would like anything to drink. The Dine and Ride menu allowed us to order a glass of beer or wine. We said we just wanted water but the waiter insisted we could order a glass of orange juice in place of the beer or wine. We did that and it came in tall glasses with ice and it tasted sweet and refreshing. I couldn’t remember the last time I drank something other than water at a restaurant. We told the waiter our choices from the Dine and Ride specialty menu and our food started arriving soon after.
First, they brought our starters: vegetable egg noodle rolls and Chinese chicken salad. The former came in four separate sections and with a small tray of spicy mustard sauce and sweet dipping sauce. The egg roll sections were crispy. My wife preferred the mustard sauce and I preferred the sweet sauce. Though I’m not sure it was authentic Chinese food, the Chinese chicken salad was still very good. Both the lettuce and the small white noodles were very crispy. The dressing was the right combination of tangy and sweet. As we ate our starters, we noticed other Dine and Ride patrons come in and be seated by the waiters. We could tell because they mentioned Dine and Ride when they came in or they only ordered things from the specialty menu. There was a large group of eight that arrived over the course of an hour in groups of two or three. There was also a couple at the corner on the other side. They were mostly Caucasians that looked 5-10 years older than us.
Next the waiter brought our soup: one each of the two kinds: hot and sour and egg flower. The hot and sour tasted like its name but it was still flavorful and delicious. It had noodles and chicken in it. The egg flower soup only had egg in it but was still flavorful. After we finished our soups, they took our plates and bowls and brought our entrees along with new plates. There was the honey walnut shrimp with shiny walnuts and sweet white honey sauce; the roast duck Mandarin, all shiny brown with two small drumsticks; and there was a plate of sautéed vegetables compliments of the restaurants. They all came with two small bowls of rice. The vegetables consisted of baby corn, carrots, broccoli, peas in pods, zucchini, bamboo shoots, and fried tofu. They were all good, especially the pieces of tofu. The duck was also prepared with bamboo shoots and mushrooms all in a rich and flavorful brown sauce. The duck itself was crispy and had great flavor even without much sauce. The best entrée was the honey walnut shrimp with the walnuts sweet and crunchy, the shrimp cooked just right and the sweet white honey sauce was great for “dipping area”. It was a lot of food, but all very good.
As we ate we watched ABC News with Charles Gibson on the screens in the far corner near the bar. They showed Rio de Janeiro winning the bid for the 2016 summer Olympics and the disappointed people in Chicago. We were actually able to finish most of our entrees. For dessert, we had a choice of green tea, plum, and vanilla ice cream. My wife tried the green tea and plum flavors and preferred the green tea. We finished dinner at 6:30 and the hostess said our Dine and Ride shuttle would pick us up at 6:50 pm. While we waited we looked over a brochure given by the waiter that had all the Chinese New Year animals. We noticed that it recommended that someone born in each year marry someone born either four years before or four years after. We thought that this wouldn’t be very easy to do given that many potential spouses meet in high school or college where the greatest age difference is three years between freshmen and seniors.
At 6:50 pm two shuttles showed up, one nearly full and ready to leave and other empty. Each van held about 14 passengers. We boarded the empty van since we could sit where we wanted. The drive asked us who was playing at the Greek Theater. We said, “Loggins and Messina,” and he said, “It’s gonna be great!” We asked where we should catch the Dine and Ride shuttle after the concert and the driver said he or another van would stop at the same place he dropped us off: right in front of the Greek Theater. We couldn’t ask for much better service. With our dinner at the Palace, our evening was going very well and the main event was yet to come.
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