Royal/T Cafe

Is there anything more glorious than having tea and cupcakes in the afternoon at a Japanese/French fusion cafe and being served by waitresses dressed in maid outfits?? I think not!! Strolling into Royal/T Cafe for an afternoon snack is quite the think to do in Culver City, CA. If you're looking for a little pub grub meets sophistication, Royal/T Cafe has the food, sweets and the drinks perfected. Not to mention it's also an art gallery and a cute gift shop too where you can buy the art, or their famous tea. Although we didn't stop by for the food, I here it's delicious and well worth the trip (even if you're not getting a cupcake..but why wouldn't you??). I was told the Sat/Sun brunch is awesome and the dinner/lunch menu (when its not crowded with events) is good also. Check out their menu.


You definitely have to try the Chocolate Raspberry Mousse cupcake. It looks so scrumptious, we couldn't resist. The cake was nice and chocolatey but the mousse was excellent!! It was velvety smooth and very sweet! Perfect!

The stawberry had a nice flavor as well. I'm not a big fan of strawberry, but this one is pretty good. I find that most strawberry cupcakes have to be overly sweet to compensate for the subtle taste, but I was very satisfied with this one-just sweet enough, especially with my tea.



I had the Kyoto Sunset Tea-hot. It's a black tea with apricots. We liked it so much we purchased a 3 oz bag of loose leaf. It's a very fruity mix. The best thing about the teas here is that they recommend adding flavored syrups to the teas, such as vanilla or peach. Later at home, we made this tea iced...and it's very refreshing!



We also tried the Royal/T Milk tea-brewed in soymilk-Iced. This one is another black tea with rose leaves. I love adding milk to my teas! And this one was great too!




Definitely need to try the food here! But I can always count on sweets and tea! And I heard Tea Parties here are fun too!

The Cupcakery-Las Vegas, NV

Ooo, I'm so excited to blog about the new cupcake place I went to! I know I'm biased because I think Sprinkles are the best thing since fro-yo, but I have to say, The Cupcakery in Las Vegas, NV is right behind Sprinkles in taste and flavors.

Here's the DL, The Cupcakery is located just a couple miles off the the strip and easily accessible. I just had to stop by! I love the fact that they have so many flavors and that the decorations and names are adorable! The quality of these cupcakes were very surprising. In fact, the chocolate cakes were the moistest of all of the flavors, and normally I find chocolate to be dry. I was also VERY impressed by the presentation of the frosting. There's always some cute sprinkles or swirls that make the cupcake look so inviting. So, here's what flavors we got (couldn't remember some of the flavors..sorry..and I couldn't find them on the website either):

Southern Belle-red velvet

Coco Frauline(dark choc. cake with creamy coconut and pecans) and vanilla with pink coconut

Lemon (with vanilla/lemon buttercream)

Hazelnut...i think??-with coconut and almonds

Grasshopper (mint chip dark choc. with mint choc. frosting) and Cherrylicious (stuffed choc cherry mousse inside a dark choc cake and topped with ganache)..hmmmm! my favorite!!

Sharon and me..holding our fab cupcakes! I was sssoo happy! I even wore my Johnny cupcake tee..I planned this! haha If you loved this post, check out www.johnnycupcakes.com/blog for more cupcake propoganda!

SushiSamba-Las Vegas, NV

My girlfriends and I headed over to Las Vegas for a birthday and I just happened to be capturing the blog-worthy food we ate there!...it's the only pictures I can show from the trip! ha!

To celebrate my friend's birthday, we ate at the super hip, SushiSamba, located in the Palazzo hotel. SushiSamba is a blend of Brazilian, Peruvian and Japanese inspired cuisine. The dishes are made for sharing so the sushi rolls and churrasco plates are perfect. And the drinks are good too! Some of the mentionable drinks were an acai blackberry vodka cocktail and the watermelon martini.



We ordered 3 rolls: BoBo Brazil roll- seared kobe beef, avocado, kaiware, shiso, red onion, and chimichurri. This came with 2 side sauces: soy sauce infused with avocado puree and chimichurri. The sauces gave a spicy and sweet hint to the rolls. Not to mention the kobe beef was delicious. Green Envy roll- tuna, salmon, asparagus, wasabi pea crust, aji amarillo-key lime mayo. This one was my favorite!! The key lime mayo was the defining flavor. And we also ordered a shrimp tempura roll, always a crowd pleaser!


We decided to take advantage of the Brazilian part of the menu which was a 5 meat churrascuria plate. It was definitely a plate to share! Our 5 meats included grilled hanger steak, ribeye, pork tenderloin, chorizo, lingüiça with malagueta pepper oil and chimichurri. And......it also came with a side of white rice, black beans, collard greens and farofa. So delicious! The favorite was the chorizo and the hanger steak. The seasonings were salty and smokey!





They gave us a complimentary birthday dessert- a 3 chocolate (milk, dark and white) mousse complete with brown sugar crisp at the bottom.


The prices are very spendy ($$$). $15-19 per roll and $46 for the 5 meat plate. Must make reservations for dinner!! The place gets very crowded. But a good place to eat before heading out to club Lavo!