Buddha's Belly On Beverly

Cam and I went to this place I’d never gone to called Buddha’s Belly over on Beverly Blvd. I had to have passed this place so many times over the years and just never looked at it or something. Its close to Pan Pacific Park and The Grove and for whatever reason my brain just Matrix’d it out of my line of sight. Very strange indeed.

We headed over here even though yesterday we had an amazing dinner thrown by Cam for her annual after New Year’s deal. Her chicken is great by the way as is her tipsy rum cake which I always call “drunk cake” because the longer it sat in my fridge the more powerful it got. Sadly I didn’t take any pictures because my fat ass just shoved it in my mouth beforehand. Mixed with shrimp, fuzzy navels and an accidental screwdriver mixed with some funny ass conversation and you have a recipe for a happy Dante. Back to the restaurant.

I cant say that I am even kinda familiar with Pan-Asian food. I cant think of another place that I’ve been to that makes it so I will say for now that this is my first time having it. And it was great. See, that’s what’s hard about writing these food blogs with the new rating system with the whole breaking things down by category because I want to start either raving of complaining beforehand. So let me just get started, y’all.

Atmosphere. This place is really cool looking. There is a lot of room and its not one of those places where when you enter you’re bumping into people as soon as you step through the doors. They have high ceilings and the seats are way comfortable. It wasn’t noisy and the lighting was perfect.

Service. I cant say enough about how cool our waiter was and it sucks that I forgot his name. Thin white dude with curly hair on top. He was awesome and brought everything quickly and was there to refill Cam’s green tea and my Sprite. He even made suggestions and explained what certain items with the food were for. Dude was good.

Location. The location is off of Beverly Blvd. but not in the busy part towards La Cienega. Cam said that it gets busier the later it gets but we were around 2:30 in the afternoon. I imagine it could get busy since its near The Grove and the park. But we found parking instantly right across the street from the place.

Food. Oh, the food was so good! I’d had lemon grass soup before but this was the best I’ve ever had. It had great noodles, shrimp, tomato, leaves, and this coconut milk cream that was used to bring the spice down if I needed it. Which I did. And Cam had a lot of things. There was delicious shrimp, rice, fruit, and eggplant something or other. Oh, and for appetizers we got these really good chicken pot stickers.

Price. The price was pretty damn decent for the amount of food we got and the quality of it. You have probably spent far more for food that didn’t make me as happy as this did. We left crippled. Thankfully it’s the kinda place where you can let your food settle without feeling like you’re being rushed out. Great place that we’re already planning on trying again.