When you stay at the Sideways Inn you can get a "knock & drop" breakfast in the morning. A simple breakfast that you mark off on a form the night before and find on your doorknob the next morning. All I really needed was bagel and OJ to get my day started.
We relaxed, went for a stroll, then checked out.
We enjoyed our stay here.
Sideways Inn
114 E Hwy 246
Buellton, CA 93427
One of the reasons we spent the evening in Buellton was to have lunch in Los Alamos the next day at Bell's. While we had enjoyed dinner at Bell's on a previous visit, it was the more "classic" French lunch that we loved. Thus, I had made reservations for lunch.
We got into Los Alamos a bit early, so we headed to the Los Alamos Gallery to browse and shop.
We ended up getting a couple of gifts for folks. Downtown Los Alamos is basically a four block stretch, so we left our car parked on the street and walked on over to Bell's a block away.
The restaurant, which I believe used to be a bank had just opened for lunch service and we were the first through the door.
Just as on previous visits, the service was relaxed, yet professional, hitting a nice balance.
We started with the Chicken Liver Mousse.
Smooth, almost creamy, the pate had a pleasurable, rich funkiness, nice sweet-savory tones. The deep flavor went well with the strawberry jam, aiding in cutting the richness and the cornichon cleansing the palate.
The Missus loved the escargot during our previous visit, so we made sure to order it again.
And just as before, the Missus enjoyed the plump, "wild" Burgundy snails, surprisingly tender, full of garlicky goodness. Sadly, the baguette was also the same as before, much too chewy. Still, those snails…..
The Crepe du Jour looked interesting.
The tomatoes was an sweet-acidic-fruity flavor explosion! The crepe wasn't too sweet and the taste of cheddar came thru nicely without being overwhelming.
Of course I had to get the Beef Tartare.
This is still one of my favorite versions; tender beef, perfectly cut, nice balanced amount of capers, creamy egg yolk, nice touch of pungent tones! There was a generous amount of lightly dressed greens provided. Though again, that baguette. But, the tartare was so good, it was easy to overlook the bread.
We really enjoy lunch at Bell's and can't wait to return!
Bell's
406 Bell St.
Los Alamos, CA 93440
Current Hours:
Thurs – Mon 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 830pm
Closed on Tuesday – Wednesday
And I proceeded with my "standard process" of mixing the dish to my satisfaction. I quickly noticed that there wasn't any "sauce" at the bottom of the bowl, it was merely a touch of sate sauce squirted over the egg noodles. This was not nearly enough to coat all the noodles and would not provide enough of that savory-nutty-pungent flavors for the dish. I ended having to add a rather large amount of the broth on the side to the bowl creating more of a soup, which kind of defeats the purpose of things. Also, the broth was quite MSG heavy, but at least wasn't bland. It was good in a soup spoon with a slice of meat and onion in it. The noodles were also undercooked and hard as well.
The was a definite difference in the soup, it was way lighter and thinner than what I'd had here in the past, really lacking in savory tones; more like white pepper-salt water. There were 2 won ton and 3 dumplings….yes, I counted. The wrappers were very soft and tender; really enrobing the fillings. In fact, doesn't the won ton look like brain matter?
The fillings, while being more chewy than I recalled, as nicely flavored, porky, hints of seafood, sesame oil, and so forth. The char siu was hard and very tough and weak in the sweet-porkiness I enjoy.
The pieces of karaage were large, the batter slightly crunchy, the chicken was on the tougher chewier side. It was also fairly bland in terms of seasoning. Not my favorite version of this.
The broth was interesting, a lot lighter than I would expect for Hokkaido style ramen. It did have a good amount of saltiness and based on what I'd read, there's supposed to be a savory-seafood based component to it, like how Santouka is in Japan. I was looking forward to that, but I really couldn't make that out. As a whole, the broth lacked complexity.
The noodles were nice and springy, of the slightly thicker variety, much like what we'd had at 
Man, check out that chashu. It looked different from the version I'd had on my previous visit. It was still the same overly lean cut, but was also super salty. In fact, I wasn't able to finish it!
The one bright spot were the perfectly textured, springy noodles, that did a great job picking up the broth. Now it would have been great if it wasn't so salty….and I like salty foods!
Opening the sandwich up, the first thing I noticed was how much shredded lettuce there was. So much iceberg that it could have sunk the Titanic. Also, I remember Grab & Go as having some of the messiest, sloppiest sandwiches and this definitely lived up to that rep. One of the reasons I enjoy this sandwich is that it’s toasted, the bread was yeasty-crackley-crusty goodness. Also appreciated that the Provolone was melted. The jalapenos added some heat though not a huge amount. The oil and vinegar dressing is perfect for this sandwich; mayo would be overkill in my opinion.
The bun is thin with a slight pleasing crispness to it. The filling was scalding porky heaven, with nice hints of black pepper, mild sweetness, and savory tones. This was delici-yoso!!!
So, how did this match up? Well, the wrapper was not as tender and more brittle than what we'd had at DTF. The "soup", the aspic based liquid was porky and flavorful. The filling was tender, though not quite as flavorful as DTF in our opinion. Though, it could be that having been to several locations of DTF around the world we've been indoctrinated?
It was a very large portion! Though you can see how thick the kitchen is slicing the tendon and pork ear now. Eating some of the pieces of tendon was like trying to bite into your flip-flops! The pig ear was crunchy and manageable. The smacked cucumbers were better than what I'd had here previously, with a decent amount of salt. The chili oil based sauce wasn't quite as spicy as I recalled and it had a hint of sweetness and more soy sauce, which wasn't a bad thing.
Soon enough my plate arrived. I loved the colors on my plate. The rice was fluffy and fragrant, the adana kebab, while not as full of various spices as the version during Sultan's heydays was surprisingly moist, tender, and very beefy.
Other than that, this was a nice meal. A nice reacquaintance to an old favorite, a place like I mentioned so many times inspired us to 
Well, so that gentleman I ran into while 