Beverly Hills Thai Kosher Kitchen opened earlier this month offering Los Angeles’s kosher observant foodies another ethnic kosher restaurant in the area. This restaurant is unique as it’s the only kosher (meat) Thai restaurant in town. The Thai owners aim to use fresh and healthy ingredients to offer a reasonably priced gourmet Thai meal.

FYI:

@YeahThatsKosher There’s actually another kosher Thai restaurant on Pico & Glenville under KosherLA, it’s a vegan/veg place called Bodhi

— Shosh (@shoshkabob) January 25, 2012

Supervision is by the Rabbinical Council of California.

If you end up eating here, please comment below and let us know how it is!

Kosher foodies who love Italian should expect an overdose of it at Berry & Basil, combining Italian Gelato and Pizza under one roof (hopefully not on the same plate!).

Berry & Basil will feature 3 machines (serving 6 flavors) that will carry “Berri Good” (Cholov Yisroel) Gelato and frozen yogurt, which will be self serve and priced by weight. Thin crust pizza will also be served on site and will feature an option of gluten free pizza.

The store will be Cholov Yisroel supervised under Kehilla Kosher, Pas Yisroel and Kemach Yashon.

Basil & Berry is located at:
8946 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035

H/T to mykosherla.com. Pics from mykosherla.

Planet Raw, located 3 blocks from the famous Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade, is now kosher certified by (K♥R) – “Kosher Vegan Raw” which provides kashrut certifications to vegan and raw products and restaurants. (K♥R) is run by Rabbi Uziel Moses out of Los Angeles.

As a “vegan” restaurant, Planet Raw uses no dairy or meat. As a “raw” restaurant, they do not cook their food or use fire, thus there is no issue with bishul akum (a law forbidding the eating of certain foods cooked entirely by non-Jews).

Comment below if you’ve tried it. We want to hear what it’s like!

Planet Raw‎
609 Broadway Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401

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I’ve been eyeing this restaurant every week or so as I as pass through the neighborhood to do some shopping. A friend of mine, a Valley Village local, raved about this place, so we stopped by for lunch. I went back the next day with my husband because I was mesmerized by their ice blended drinks and paninis.

We enjoyed a breakfast panini (with eggs and cheese), a cheese pesto panini, an ice blended chocolate drink, and an ice blended vanilla drink.

What We Enjoyed: The food will blow your mind. Some how the simple ingredients Stacey uses combines with her rockin secret sauce makes the paninis amazing. She has a fantastic variety of menu options and there were many selections that sounded delicious. It’s corny to say it’s really “delish”, but it’s true. The place is tiny, but sparkling clean and she makes great use of the space.

Needs Improvement: Around lunchtime parking is a nightmare. I would suggest using the parking lot across the street by the supermarket and combining your feast with some food shopping to make it “kosher”. There are 2 indoor tables that seat 2 people, so you will likely have to eat on the small patio outside. The restaurant is solely Chalav Yisroel, but Stacey offers a few packaged goods that are not, so look before you buy.

Family friendly: Not really. Kids will love the food, but there simply is not room for them here.

Prices: Very reasonable. Lunch will cost you $10-$14, she also has less expensive things like soup and frozen yogurt.

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(818) 506-2551

Hashgacha: Rabbi Benzaken (Chalav Yisroel)

Contributed by: Alon Asefovitz  |  Last Date of Travel: September 2011

Kosher Food:

There are many caterers in the area that provide food for hotels and the like, but places to eat out are hard to find. A few months ago the meat deli/grocery suffered an electrical fire which burnt the place down so if you are craving a burger, I hope you brought your BBQ and meat with. There is a good quality (and value for money) place in University City, La Cafe. The variety on the menu was great, service was excellent, and the general feeling of the place / atmosphere was great. Just a note for all you hungry souls out there, this is a milchik establishment.

There are a wide range of hotels within a few miles of La Cafe and even the zoo is not too far away (some 20 mins by car if that).

There is also the option of going to Ralphs and buying pre packaged goods from there (like always, there is a good selection but nothing comes pre-cooked).

Tourist Info:

This past Labor Day weekend my wife and I spent the weekend down in San Diego, California. There is an abundant variety of activities including the world famous San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Sea World. If you plan on visiting, I would suggest bringing the kids and spending the week.

One of the most famous and enjoyed places of all, would be the newly renovated LegoLand – fun for all ages!

Jewish Info:

There are a few Shuls in San Diego in various parts (Not just Chabad and Aish), so there is something for everyone.

[Guest Review by Heshy Fried of FrumSatire.com]

12 Tribes Food is the latest addition to the Bay Area’s growing list of kosher prepared food. About two weeks ago, 12 Tribes moved into the kosher kitchen at the JCC in San Francisco and is now providing Glatt Kosher organic packaged meals for sale in the JCC Café on the ground floor. The meals, available in the refrigerated section at the JCC Café are made available 5 days a week and they are made from all organic and local produce, all of the meat and chicken used is organic and pasture raised – purchased from Grow and Behold. The packaging is all compostable and everything is made from scratch.

San Francisco, for having such a large population of Jews (about 80,000) has a surprisingly small amount of kosher food. There are two restaurants a number of caterers, including 12 Tribes and not much else. The Bay Area itself has a dearth of kosher eating out options and I’ve been told by numerous folks that having kosher food in a notoriously secular JCC is a really big step in bringing a more diverse and hopefully more orthodox presence into the JCC.
The food is very Northern Californian, the produce is all local and organic, everything is seasonal and the stuff is so delicious – it doesn’t need any seasoning. The chicken I had tonight was the juiciest I’ve ever eaten and it was only roasted with salt, pepper and oil – and small amounts compared to my restaurant roasting experience. Last week I discovered dry farmed early girl tomatoes and I’m totally in love and this week we had the most pungent and bright carrots I’ve ever seen.

Becky Joseph, the founder of 12 Tribes Food, is the Jewish “Alice Waters”. Like Alice, Becky firmly believes in using the best ingredients and she is not willing to compromise, this is despite the fact that kosher meat already very expensive is almost double the price when you tack on pasture raised and organic to the price tag. We only use non-industrial brown eggs and this means that almost half of them are rendered non-usable by blood spots, luckily we have a baker next door that can take them and we don’t have to feel guilty of so much waste.

Besides for providing packaged kosher meals to the JCC Café in San Francisco, 12 Tribes also does catering has this unique dinner culture CSA in which you can buy shares and get dinner once a week – now on Wednesday’s. I took this job to learn more about food and use my technique and knife skills to help make me a better cook and eventual chef and I’m getting more than a bargained for – Becky’s known for her baked goods and just today I helped bake cookies, brownies, shortbread and lemon tarts for Daniel Gouridis and Calvin Trillun, both guest speakers tonight at the JCC – potentially also catering for Tom Brokaw, Bill Bryson and Taj Mahal, all of whom are coming to speak at the JCC in the near future.

Check out their packaged kosher meals in the JCC Café in San Francisco or visit them on the web to place an order, cater an event or chat about food.

Located in the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco at 3200 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94118

Not long ago I compiled a list of Kosher Subway Restaurants across the U.S., which in its heyday numbered 12 across the country, 5 alone in the NYC metro area.

Today, all 5 of the NYC area Kosher Subways are closed and only a total of 5 remain open nationally.

I was recently interviewed by the Jewish Week discussing my (3 main) reasons why I believed the deli sandwich chain did not do well in NY.

Here are the remaining 5 Kosher Subway restaurants that have thrived (not necessarily in places you’d expect):

• Cleveland, OH – JCC 26001 South Woodland Rd., Beachwood
• Los Angeles, CA – 8948 W. Pico Blvd, Los Angeles
• Miami, FL – JCC 18900 Northeast 25th Ave, North Miami Beach
• Baltimore, MD – 706 Reisterstown Rd., Baltimore
• Rockville, MD – JCC 6125 Montrose Rd., Rockville

Now I’m left wondering… what will be the next kosher restaurant fad to sweep the country and will it last?

Surely, the Kosher Subway chain experiment is an eye-opening lesson to would be restauranteurs.

~Dani

[This is posted on behalf of a friend from Southern California]

Dr. Sandwich is a little restaurant that lives right outside of Super Sal; you buy your food inside the market and eat it on the covered area on the side walk. I go to Super Sal very often, but for some reason I was never enticed to eat a pita on the side walk. Until now.

We had A shwarma sandwich and a falafel sandwich & Diet Cokes.

What We Enjoyed: The food was surprisingly delicious! This was one of the best falafels I’ve ever had. Maybe the best. My husband said the same about the shwarma. We didn’t share with each other like we usually do, we each gobbled our sandwiches up. G-d it was so good. Service is quick.

Needs Improvement: You have to observe the dining experience in advance and decide if it meets your comfort level. You will be eating messy food on the sidewalk with a crowd of people who feel a sense of kinship with you and therefore have no problem commenting on your food, style, or parenting. Welcome to what seems like “Little Israel”.

Prices: Reasonable and worth every bite. Approximately $8 a meal.

Family Atmosphere: Definitely kid friendly. It’s too bad they took away the rides they used to have, but kids are welcome and are common here.

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