During our visit to LA, we made many casual visits to some popular kosher spots. Our most frequent destination was The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Imagine a chain as pervasive as Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks are on the East Coast, but every location fully kosher (at least in LA and Orange Counties).

These busy coffee shops feature a wide variety of KSA-certified coffees, teas, and blended drinks, as well as KoLA-certified pastries, cakes, salads, bagels, and sandwiches. All drinks are made to order and the rest of their offerings are great quality — we’ve tried and enjoyed their muffins, scones, bagels, and mozzarella-tomato-basil sandwiches. In all honesty, if I weren’t tied down to Boston already, I’d move to LA just for the Coffee Bean.

Of course, when we arrived in LA, the Red Sox were in the middle of their (disappointing) series against the Chicago White Sox, so the only appropriate food for watching Game Three of the ALDS was Italian sausages and french fries from Jeff’s Gourmet Kosher Sausage Factory on Pico Boulevard. We had our onion- and pepper-smothered meal wrapped to go and watched the game in our hotel room.

Unfortunately, Jeff’s spicy links were the only good news of the afternoon!

On Sunday night, after our day trip to San Diego, we headed down the Pacific Coast Highway to the Malibu Beach Grill, on a beaming recommendation from our friends, but it was unexpectedly closed. Instead, we headed to La Gondola, an Italian restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard.

Despite my desire to try something more appropriate to the restaurant’s cuisine, I was told the barbecued short ribs were not to be missed. After sampling a delicious mixed antipasti platter, the massive plate of ribs arrived. While these slow cooked short ribs were very tender and tasty, I was disappointed at the lack of Italian influence on the dish and the uninspired sides. The spring pasta special we also tried was underwhelming: just a large plate of spaghetti with bright vegetables… and no sauce, or flavor, to speak of. (But the bathroom was nice, so there’s that.)

We couldn’t visit a city without trying its local Asian fare for purposes of comparison with our places back home. Shanghai Diamond Garden Restaurant on Pico, just steps from our hotel, had been run for nine years as a non-kosher establishment before going kosher last year (the whole story is in last weekend’s LA Times). This eatery was much larger and more comfortable than Boston’s, featured an expansive and comfortable sushi bar by the window, and the quality of the food was top-notch. Service was very friendly and prompt, my feelings on which I probably made quite clear by accidentally tipping thirty percent — three times tax only works in the Bay State!