Canter's Patty Melt on Rye

canter's delicatessen, north fairfax avenue, los angeles

Canter's, oh how i love thee. One of the top deli restaurants in LA, Canter's very rarely gets it wrong. While their Reubens for the most part are the superior sandwich choice, this patty melt on rye was certainly a worthy contender. The first thing I look for with any meal is always the quality of the individual ingredients. And in this case they were pretty solid. The bread was tasty, but honestly could have been slightly fresher. I really couldn't tell if it was over-toasted of maybe a little unfresh (not stale by any means). But overall i'm a big fan of the somewhat soft on the inside, toasty and crispy on the outside bread, and it succeeded in that for the most part. The quality of the beef: pretty good, pretty good, but not stellar. I would say that hamburgers are probably not Canter's forte. The grilled onions, the cheese, and the sauce that i can't define were all great though and that made it a very solid sandwich overall. Little bag of ruffles came with it, which was fine. If i had this sandwich at any other place i would think it was pretty damn great, but coming from a place like Canter's, it gets a solid B.

fountain burger

peninsula creamery, high st & channing ave, palo alto

The Peninsula Creamery was my favorite restaurant when I was growing up, and is more or less solely responsible for my love of diners. While these days their 50's throwback style seems overly kitschy to me, I fully bought into it when I was a child and used to love staring at their posters, one avertising "green river", another depicting cows making donuts. Although they no longer serve my favorite milkshake (marble fudge ripple), I still enjoy eating at the Creamery with my family on special occasions. My longstanding favorite at the Creamery is grilled ham and cheese, but this time I went with the "Fountain Burger", which is like a patty melt. Served on toasted rye, the burger comes topped with melted swiss cheese, grilled onions, bacon, and dijon mustard. I think that this particular example had less dijon on it than it normally does, or that perhaps the dijon used to be served on the side? I cannot recall. But it tasted great, of course, and the fries were good too. And the milkshake, while not "marble fudge ripple" good, was great as well.

patty melt

alexander's brite spot, west sunset & glendale, los angeles

After spending some time wandering around Echo Park, looking for a place to eat, some friends and I settled on this diner. I vaguely recalled hearing good things about it, and I'm a sucker for diners in general, so I was excited for this meal. Inside, it turned out to be pretty quiet- only one other table was filled, despite the fact that this was around eight on a saturday night. A waitress who must have been well into her seventies was wandering around, intently focused on making sure each table had ketchup and napkins! Awesome! She was probably the best part of the restaurant, although the food was good too. I went with the patty melt, one of my diner favorites, and was pleased with the Brite Spot's version- really buttery bread, grease all over my fingers, gooey cheese smothering grilled onions. Yes! The serving size was somewhat small, especially in comparison to the sandwich that JoJoJoJo got, but it was filling and I left contented.