Gastromical

I’ve been placing many reviews of restaurants here on Gastromical from other sources, but haven’t yet placed anything of my own here.  The fact of the matter is that I haven’t gone out to dinner very much these past few years.  I’m a very unique cook, however, but I rarely cook for anyone!  Since I don’t really have anyone to cook for as of yet!

But last night my dad, said he was taking me out to a restaurant for my birthday which is today actually.  My old man is a Contractor, probably the best, although you probably wouldn’t understand what I’m saying.  He’s pretty intelligent but doesn’t get the credit!  Which is par for this course!  I’m not much like my Father but in this area we sure seem to be closely aligned!

Anyway my father has been a Contractor in Greater Los Angeles for about 40-50 years, and he’s worked at many restaurants here in Los Angeles and the surrounding vacinity.  He’s older now about 70 something or so, but amazingly he still works!  And this isn’t easy sit behind the desk or tell the guys what to do stuff, he actually has to dismantle air conditioner units and repair them by hand, and some of these units are not new.  At any rate he took me to The Golden Bull where he just completed a repair of their air conditioner unit.

The owner, of The Golden Bull, Don Cranford has known my Old Man for just about forever.  Dad says that Don has been saying for years for him to come in and try the restaurant.  On the House, of course!  So, if you know my dad, you’ll know that he doesn’t really bother much about such things.  So it was a pretty nice surprise to be invited out for dinner last night!

The Golden Bull is just off of the Pacific Coast Highway, and is in Santa Monica.  There was even a cool gay bar called the Friendship that Don used to manage just a few doors down from the Golden Bull, unfortunately the rent got too high and Straight People moved in.  So Don had to give up the Friendship.  You know how it goes!

So Don is still at his restaurant The Golden Bull.

Well, before getting to the restaurant I asked dad what kind of restaurant it is, and he says it’s mostly a Steak type restaurant, which is cool, I’m not thinking Sizzler here, more along the lines of The Chart House, which is a ways up the Malibu Coast, where I used to live, when I was a somebody!  But that aside I’m pretty happy to at least be getting out of the house on 4th of July.  I mean I should be buried by now for breathing so many breaths without any life surrounding me.

So we go into the parking lot of The Bull and I see that The Bull is a pretty old time restaurant.  Cary Grant or Holly Hunter could have eaten there.  It’s a real blast from the past 1938 to be exact!  Well we walk into the restaurant and there is Don, a cool and dignified Older Gentleman who keeps a tight rein on the festivities at The Bull.  My dad has worked here, so they shake hands and I shake Don’s hand as well of course.  The restaurant is small but really very pleasant.  You could have an intimate encounter at Don’s Restaurant without a lot of noise, which has become a problem of late for many restaurants.

So Don seats us and we are given bread which is really very good.  I love bread and start what will be about four baskets of the stuff.  I dab butter on the bread and check the menu out.  There are cool things to buy here at Don’s Golden Bull, but mostly there is the Steaks which is what I go for.  I order the Pepper Steak and dad orders the Chef’s Special Dinner Steak.  With that you get a small salad and a baked potato.

So I’m enjoying the bread and the salad is really pretty good with Blue Cheese dressing.  Then the Steak comes and I’m pretty well pleased because this is a ‘real’ piece of meat, not Costco Cheap or something, but some real FAT on it and it is pretty smooth to the taste.  I’m pretty happy with the steak being tasty.  Dad’s steak, although less expensive than mine looks pretty good as well.  He ordered the steak fries instead of a baked potato which is something I’d never do!  I love a baked potato, and it is good.

The service is superb, the servers are experienced people, who look like they’ve known and enjoyed Don’s good company for some time.  Not like you’d see at say Gladstones down the street with the part time actors and actresses who will bounce and do tricks for you but will often forget to serve you properly!  So I was getting my coffee filled like five times!  All the servers were top notch, really good at dealing with a real restaurant atmosphere.  The Golden Bull is small so the coverage was pretty good in this all important area.

Well we finished up the meal and it was almost sad for me that we couldn’t put any money down!  Don wouldn’t hear of it, of course!  Here we’d had a $100 dollar meal, and a very good one, and we could only walk out like theives.  But Don insisted as my dad has worked on the restaurant air conditioning for many years.  We say goodbye to Don and that ends the dinner night out on the 4th of July!

A Fish Tank at the Golden Bull… Just like in Scarface or something!

I’d like to thank Don for the meal and say that I’d hope that if you are looking for a cool and good place to eat a meal you’d be surely wise to give The Golden Bull a shot.  Everyone should at least eat at the Golden Bull at least once in their lives!  Especially in Los Angeles, where an older restaurant like Don’s Golden Bull is well known, trusted and respected.

Daphne’s is a strip mall near Ontario Mills off of Milliken and the 10 fwy near Sam’s Club. This is a chain restaurant of Greek fast food. They have chicken or beef kebobs, rice, Gyros,Fallafal. I went in here for late lunch around 3pm. I ordered the Gyro plate with fries and a drink. It came close to $10.  I asked the cashier about the Lunch deal for $6 same items. Cashier said it was too late. After I paid he offered me a coupon for the meal I just ordered for $5. I noticed a stack of them behind the register. I guess he works on commission.

Other than that the food is good. The Gyros meat was perfect.  They added some italian dressing to the lettuce and tomatos, which added to the flavor. Overall not bad on flavor just the price. For $10 I could get something better than a gyro and fries Imo.