TBA
Monterey Park
Much-anticipated visit to Gram Cafe & Panckaes for their Japanese souffle pancakes. But first, to take care of the one hour wait they had, pork cheung fun, har cheung fun, beef offal, and pork intestine at Yummy Cuisine across the street. The cheung fun are the super thin style but the sauce is nicely balanced, and they're quite good. Pork is the way to go, the shrimp is good but it's actually a shrimp and scallop, and the tiny little scallops are not much of a value-add. The beef offal isn't bad, but the pork intestine is damned good.
Main issue? The dining room is a small square, and holy cow it gets loud inside.
A bit over an hour later, finally got seated at Gram Cafe. Another 20 minutes to pancakes, and while they were very photogenic, felt like their competitors are a bit better? Or at least more delicate/fluffy/well-presented? The presentation isn't too far off but doesn't quite have the tiny flourishes of, say, Motto Tea Cafe, while the pancakes seem to have more structural integrity than their competitors. This is good for pictures and for cutting and serving, but also meant they lacked the absurd delicacy of other souffle pancakes I've had.
Overall experience with the food was still very good, but add in the hour-plus wait and the (very reasonable) twenty minutes for food and you are talking 90 minutes from arrival to eating, and that's a tough sell in the end.