Dina's Cafe

This one is a quickie, inspired by dinner I had Thursday night after a show in Westwood. Since it was after 9 o'clock, and Westwood is a lame college town, I found my go-to sit-down restaurant (KoalaT) closed. Most of the other dining options I knew of involved clogging my arteries with saturated fat (I had already eaten an apple fritter for breakfast) so I whipped out my Yelp app. When I ranked the restaurants by customer review, I found dina's cafe near the top. This surprised me because I had passed by last December and recalled pulling up no reviews when I then checked for the place on Yelp and Google maps. Furthermore, the advertisement of $1.50 empanadas I encountered when passing by on the street during the daytime suggested a restaurant too desperate to be worthy. 

Nevertheless, the pangs of my stomach and foodie-ist curiosity led me to a low-rise brick edifice on Gayley Avenue, where Dina's sandwiches between a hair salon and smoke shop. When I walked in, I was a surprised a little by the colorful menu displayed above the counter: given the restaurant's name I had expected the restaurant to serve tuna sandwiches and baked goods (e.g. Empanadas).  Instead, the menu not only included Tortas but burritos and tacos. 

Although my hunger normally dictates that I order a burrito (when presented with the opportunity), a combination of Asada, potatos and crema attracted to me the Torta de Estilo DF. 

While I waited for the food to be served, the cashier offered me a taste of a fruit drink (I believe it was Jamaica) he had stored on the counter. I assented and he scooped out enough to fill a normal-sized plastic cup. It was not as cold as I would ideally like but quite refreshing nonetheless! 

Many places grill the bread and the ingredients for their Tortas seperately and stack them together at the end. The cook at Dina's however seems to grill the sandwich after it has been composed, like a Panini, and serves it in a wrapping of parchment and aluminum foil.

The combination of cheese and crema gave the sandwich a rich flavor, comparable to a white cheddar mac, that I unexpectedly enjoyed (I usually dislike rich, cheesy flavors). The chunks of roasted potato seemed to supplement the crema-cheese flavor, However, the asada was a little tough and less piquant than I normally like.

Nevertheless, the outstanding service offered by the cashier and the food's reasonable price (only $7.99 for the sandwich) ingratiated me to this restaurant. The meat might have come from the bottom of the barrel (which I could understand because it was near the end of the day), but the chef still did a reasonably good job at her Torta

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Westwood needed a reasonably-priced, non-chain Mexican food joint. This might be it.

I hear they make a good breakfast burrito, so I will try to return in the morning sometime soon and update this post!