Palomino

Located blocks from 26,000 students attending UCLA, Palomino knows their client base and serves them well with this NEVER ENDING HAPPY HOUR!  That's right, all day, every day, in the bar at Palomino Restaurant Rotisseria Bar you can enjoy $5 pizza (more than enough to fill most stomachs) and $4 specialty cocktails.  

Buttttt you get what you pay for. The restaurant owners obviously know that college students aren't a picky bunch.  More like a bunch of people dyeing to get off campus and eat somewhere other than the DC and anyone with a ten spot can eat a lot at Palomino.  If only quantity made up for quality, but unfortunately a cheap meal only gets you so much leeway. Our trained happy hour palate was not fooled and was left feeling a bit disappointed.

Starting with the positives, we loved the Cranberry Mojito served in a pint glass.  It was the only cocktail we tasted that didn't have too much syrup/mixer.  It was refreshing and large! Two very good qualities.  The other highlight was the Potatoes Gorgonzola at $4.50, pictured below.  Yes, they are every bit as good as they look in the picture.  Tasty, cheesy, gut burstlingly delicious and probably our favorite "French Fries" style dish we've had in a long time.

The pizza is definitely the main attraction at this happy hour and for good reason. $5 for eight pieces is a great deal anywhere!  But the taste was just so so, and the dough was just that, uncooked dough.  A good pizza needs a crusty crust and the pizza sauce can't come from a can.  Even for $5!  The Pomegranate Margarita was more mix than Margarita and the house Wine, a Sycamore Lane Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, were only $4 a glass, but when you research the wine online you can buy a bottle for $5.99.  Again, you get what you pay for.

And now for an even larger "butt."

Buuuuttttt the so so food and drink on happy hour doesn't seem to matter much to the restaurants core audience.  We arrived at 5:30 and snagged a table, which is lucky because by 5:45 it was packed!  I guess for most the price, the fact that happy hour is all day every day, and the hip yet comfortable decor tips the scales to "let's go to Palomino for cheap pizza!"

ONE IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE:

The restaurant address is on Wilshire, but actually the restaurant is in a high rise that is on Wilshire, but the entrance is on Lindbrook around the corner. Also, if you continue down Lindbrook you can do metered parking which is cheaper than the $6 valet.