Century City Mall

Last weekend the husband and I went to Century City to grab some dinner and see a movie. Sadly, this was my first trip to Century City after living in LA for five years. What can I say, Santa Monica is just that cool - and I'm just that lazy.

I got to admit that I found the mall at Century City to be a very cool alternative to Santa Monica. First, there is an incredible amount of parking, and they have great deals with movie validations and allotted times of free parking. If you have lived in LA longer than a week, you know parking situations can be deal breakers - so rest assured this won't be a problem.

Second of all, outside of the great options for shopping, the outdoor mall also offers great options for getting food. Compared to the new mall at Santa Monica, the restaurants available at Century City are considerably better. For example, Gulfstream Restaurant offers an awesome menu of seafood and a very cool ambiance, and if you are feeling a little more casual, but still want a great meal, the mall has the Counter and Pink Taco.

The Counter is probably one of my favorite restaurants. Instead of dictating an order to the server, you are given a clipboard of options to build a meat or chicken burger with endless toppings and sauces. It might take two trips to get the order just right, as I learned with the mountain of grilled onions, but once you got your groove this will become a favorite. The Counter also offers a huge platter of fries (sweet and regular), onion rings and some of the most creative milkshakes. Each month they feature a milkshake. I recommend October for the churro milkshake.

As for Pink Taco, last weekend was my first try of the iconic LA establishment. To begin with I found the salsa to be just right. (For me, this can make or break a Mexican restaurant) and the service was awesome. I chose the Mexican cobb salad. I got to admit, it wasn't the best thing I've ever had. I was feeling like a traditional Mexican salad, but I found the blue cheese to be a little overwhelming. The husband chose some chicken enchiladas with a verde sauce, and I'll admit I was a little jealous. As for portions, it wasn't your typical Mexican restaurant. Things were slightly understated and not covered in cheese and grease - which I prefer. Overall, I would like to try Pink Taco again, but just order something different.

After dinner we headed over to the movie theater, which offered a lot of options and very comfortable seats. (What, I have strange levels of criteria.) We ended up seeing The Hunger Games. Our friends had reserved seats ahead of time. I might be doing this from now on when buying tickets for the movies. It was so nice to just walk in and know we had some seats. As for the movie, I was a fan. I had read all three books and had very low expectations for the movie, but I found the adaptation to be spot on. My husband even turned to me and said, "I'm actually liking this movie." For someone who hates all "youth books made into movies" I think that was saying something.

So, if you are in the LA area and you want a cool night out check out Century City. You might even be lucky enough to see some celebrities.