Today, Margaret Nazareno — one of the South Bay Foodies and presiding barbecue expert  — reprised her role as a top contributor on Yelp.

Her review of Bludso’s BBQ was selected as Review of the Day based on feedback from other Yelp contributors and viewers.

You can find her review over at Yelp.  Congrats, Margaret!

I’ve always known that the South Bay Foodies were great people. Over the years, I’ve come to rely on their tips and suggestions for food, wine, services and more.  Now I can be even more justified!

Today, Margaret — an editor at South Bay Foodies — had one of her Yelp reviews recognized as “Review of the Day”. What a distinction! What makes this award so cool, is that its given based on the votes of Yelp members. Whenever Yelpers rank reviews, those stats are used to sort the best of the best. Its no surprise that Margaret made the cut!

Read Margaret’s review of La Espanola Meats here on South Bay Foodies or on Yelp.

Congratulations, Margaret!

The Wisconsin Trio

I came tonight for the grand opening and it was pretty busy! Set back from Hawthorne in a financial building (formerly the Comerica building), the restaurant is very nicely decorated with lots of booths for various sized groups and a row of intimate booths for parties of two. As a veteran of Melting Pot, I have to say that this is one of the cutest ones I’ve been to. The menu is the same as all other Melting Pot with a variation on the wine selections. One of the bottles that I wanted to try that I had had at the Irvine and San Clemente stores was not on the menu, so I decided to try something different. I went with the Chocolate Fontini which was fabulous. It went down very smoothly but wasn’t too sweet to ruin the meal.

We decided to have just cheese and chocolate for dinner. We chose the chedder cheese fondue (my fav!!) and the Wisconsin trio cheese fondue. Both were good, as was expected! Our server, Isabella, gave us very full bowls of cheese and cooked them perfectly. The bleu cheese in the Wisconsin trio brings out the flavors and is complimented with the breads. Isabella made the best cheese I’ve ever had at an MP and for that, I will be asking for her anytime that I go to this location.

Now the chocolate portion of the meal is always so good, however, whenever I go, we can never finish because we are so full. So I was excited tonight to finish all of it and also try some new ones. We tried the specialty, the Cherry Jubilee and the Bananas Foster. Now, I am not a big fan of white chocolate because it tends to be too sweet, but I figured we’d try out the Bananas Foster to see how it was (plus one person in our party doesn’t like dark chocolate, so it was her choice).   Well, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the Bananas Foster!  This is not your typical chocolate fondue. It had caramel, white chocolate, chunks of bananas and an alcohol flambeed on top of it and it was so good!! I LOVE dark chocolate, but the Bananas Foster blew the Cherry Jubilee out of the water. It was good because it wasn’t really chocolatey, just more of a good dessert. Not too sweet, and it went well with most of the dippers. So good!

All in all, we had a fun night and I know that I will be coming back for more fondue. I spoke with the owner before leaving and she let me know that they are going to be having Girl’s Night Out like the other Melting Pots and also a Happy Hour. I can’t wait for those to start so i can get more of my friends hooked on fondue!!

Melting Pot
21525 Hawthorne Boulevard
Torrance, CA 90503
(310) 316-7500

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Also featured as “First to Review” on Yelp.

Exterior of La Espanola Meats grocery store.

When we first pulled up, it looked so industrial/wholesale that I thought we wouldn’t be able to get in.  While we were parking, I downplayed it just in case we couldn’t.  You know how in Willy Wonka right when they step into that Candyland room with the chocolate waterfall?  We opened the metal screen door and it was exactly like that…but with Spanish food!  We were in awe!  

Different Spanish wines, canned foods, dried goods, deli cases of cured meats, paella pans, cookies, fridges full of different Spanish cheeses, beer at very reasonable prices…Increible! (add an accent over the ‘i’, please)  They even had a table of mad samples–Spanish chorizos, different cheeses, membrillo, olives, pate, and different pralines–you know how I love the free shit.  You can purchase cafe ($1.25) and bocadillos ($5.50).  They even have paella ($9-13) on Saturdays, if you call on Friday to order.  

The staff was friendly and fast.  The owner was on hand and was so friendly and knowledgeable.  He said that they’ve been around for 25 years doing wholesale business with stores and restaurants, but have always had the retail shop open to the public.  And to think, people spend crazy money on trendy tapas places!  Psssh.  

I came in hoping to just check it out and buy some anchovy stuffed olives and jamon.  We left with a basket full of goods, giggling like schoolgirls, joking about prepping all the food and eating tapas in the backyard with the hot weather reminiscent of a Sevilla summer.  Rebujitos and bocadillos on the hottest day yet?  Mmmmmm!

Originally Featured on Yelp.