Restaurants in Simi Valley

american cafe with mexican, italian and deli comfort food with a old fashion bakery

Let the warm red and gold hues of La Finestra's décor pique your light lunchtime appetite for a Caesar panino with chicken breast, romaine, Caesar dressing, and parmesan cheese ($10) or a cup of handmade pomodore tomato soup with lemon and garlic ($6). La Finestra, Italian for "The Finestra," really excels at dinner fare. As the evening lights of LA simmer, whet your palate with antipasto La Finestra, a platter of imported meats with cheeses, roasted red bell peppers, and marinated calamari ($12, $18 large); or decorate your date-charming chompers with a rustica salad of radicchio, arugula, endive, mushrooms, and shaved parmesan ($7, $10 large). The veal scaloppini marsala comes basted in wine with fresh-chopped tomatoes and mushrooms ($22)—and is hard not to refuse to refuse if you haven't yet refused concurrent offers from the ravioli aurora (stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach and drizzled with pink sauce, $15) and the thin-crusted pizza portofino (with mozzarella, gorgonzola, and caramelized onions, $15). La Finestra's friendly, accommodating staff will do their best to prepare your pizza any way you wish.

Executive Chef Junior Perez draws on traditional French and Italian cuisine as inspiration for the upscale menus of pasta, steaks, and seafood, which have garnered an impressive number of features on local food blogs. At the Culver City location, brunch lures palates and sentient flatware with dishes such as pork-belly hash, bedecked with tuscan potatoes and mustard sauce ($10). House-made agnolotti pouches enclose wild mushroom and mascarpone under a wave of truffle butter ($16). Cap off the epicurean experience with mascarpone cheesecake accompanied by cranberry sorbet and exotic coulis or the chocolate purse, which totes candied hazelnuts, vanilla ice cream, and a caramelized day planner. A fleet of flickering candles perches on walls and tables inside the Santa Monica locale's dining area, casting a dim orange glow on dark hardwood floors.

Entice appetites with starters such as chicken livers in peri-peri sauce and tomato-onion gravy ($6.99), or more-conventional bite-sizers such as samosas ($7.99) or Hout Bay calamari served with homemade garlic mayonnaise ($7.99). Under the protection of divey décor (plastic fish, Christmas lights, and sports-tuned televisions), mine heaps of heartier fare such as Guinness stew, rich with the dark brew and chunks of filet mignon ladled over a pile of mashed potatoes ($14.99). The South African favorites on Springbok’s menu are “refined, with more attention to detail than the atmosphere would suggest,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Rudder hard to starboard and encircle Durban-style curry of the day with sambals and pappadum ($13.99), or a South African sausage sandwich ($8.99).

The Stand’s menu of chili dogs, burgers, and tuna melts evokes classic Americana images of diners and ball games. The eats may be casual, but the staff strives to give them modern style, earning a spot on Gayot's 2012 list of Top 10 LA Hot Dog Restaurants. Upon request, the staff will wrap burgers in whole-wheat buns or lettuce wraps instead of classic buns, and diners also have their choice of beef, turkey, or housemade veggie patties. Gourmet hot-dog and sausage toppings such as garlic mushrooms and corn salsa join traditional fixings such as mustard, sweet pickle relish, and tears from a recently defeated baseball team. To wash it all down, servers blend up 20-ounce chocolate and vanilla milkshakes and tap a rotating menu of draft beers, as well as root beer.

Opaque subdues sight in order to set other senses ablaze during a three-course dinner served in a fully darkened dining space. Guests arrive to a well-lit lounge area where they peruse and order from a diverse prix fixe menu devised by an illustrious local chef who engineers each dish to achieve the best in sight-free savoring, compiling interesting textures, rich tastes, and ingredients unlikely to shout "Marco Polo." The aphotic dining room then opens to a staff of blind or visually impaired servers who guides each diner to their seat in a refreshing reversal of roles, offering helpful suggestions and reassurance as guests adjust to their new and mystifying kinesthesia. Forks explore the eclectic textures of mixed green or heirloom-tomato-cucumber salads before meandering through savory dishes of garlic-topped filet mignon, roasted herb chicken, or sundried-tomato-pesto rigatoni. Seared ahi tuna steak dances a textural tango, lavishing tongues with a warm and smoky crust surrounding a cool, raw interior showered in sweet mango sauce, and a choice of desserts brings unlit evenings to a decadent end, as warm chocolate lava cake tickles mouth-roofs with berries encrusted in minty sugar crystals and eruptions of liquid chocolate.