📍 Los Angeles, USA

New drink on the Starbucks menu in USA which caused me to make a spur of the moment decision to order this instead of a regular cappuccino.
This drink is pretty interesting, yet delicious. There’s caramel drizzled on top of the cocoa, coffee and milk so it’s not bitter. It was slightly too sweet, but still tasted yummy anyway. The Starbucks cups come with a sippy lid to reduce plastic straw usage, which is awesome, but it’s a bit hard to mix everything together with a full cup. The cloud macchiato foam has eggs, and it’s certainly as light and fluffy as a cloud. It doesn’t have much flavour on its own, but leaves a foam moustache and adds an airy feel to the drink. I’d love for Starbucks Singapore to bring this in, as it’s a delightful cold drink to pick up on a warm summer day (which is almost everyday in Singapore anyway).

Lettuce with chicken breast, bacon, blue cheese, cherry tomatoes, spring onions and a gorgonzola dressing. Easy to pick up for a meal before your flight, and very filling too thanks to the generous amounts of meat.

The blue cheese and dressing are quite salty, so a little dressing goes a really long way. The bacon also adds a lot of saltiness to the salad, so I actually just dipped minimal dressing on my fork to go with the greens. The spring onions were really good in this combination but the cherry tomatoes were pretty sour. There’s just so many Grab-n-go salad options at LAX Terminal 6 that I’m not sure how this might stand out over the rest, but this Cobb salad was good overall.

The Crushcake is their signature flavour - which is a red velvet cake topped with a chocolate heart dipped into crushcake’s signature sour cream frosting. This was a delicious cupcake that was so easy to gobble up! The red velvet cake is so moist and chocolatey. It also wasn’t terrifyingly red, which is a plus in my books. The frosting was not bad, although I wouldn’t have known it was sour cream. It wasn’t very sweet, and had sort of a marshmallow fluff-like texture. Despite that, we still didn’t finish the frosting as we’re not big on those but overall this is a really good cupcake!

The Half-baked is an almond chocolate chip cupcake filled with homemade chocolate chip cookie dough topped with chocolate frosting and caramel drizzle. There’s a little molten bit in the upper center right below the frosting. Overall, we thought this tasted quite weird on its own. You do need the chocolate frosting to dull the marzipan-like taste in the cupcake. I guess their strong suit lies in their frostings which aren’t too sweet. Overall I didn’t enjoy this cupcake taste much, but the texture was good! I wish I’d tried the coconut flavour, but I’ll save that for next time instead.

This is literally my favourite drink I’ve had in California so far. The Dirty Chai latte at Crushcakes is very fragrant. I love the prominent spices, which balance out with the coffee very well. The dirty chai did seem to have some chocolate in it as well, which tasted awesome. The blend of cinnamon, spices, coffee, chocolate and milk in this beverage is a sure winner. It’s so smooth and velvety that I had to restrain myself from gulping it all down. It was also the perfect accompaniment for my drive from Santa Barbara to Santa Monica.

If I ever pass by the Santa Barbara area or any of the neighbouring towns with a Crushcake outlet, I would definitely go out of my way to pick one of these up!

If you’re in Santa Barbara, Crushcakes is a great place to grab breakfast or lunch downtown. Even if you’re not there for a meal, you can grab some pancakes or cupcakes for dessert, or even a cup of coffee or tea.

My personal recommendations:
- Dirty Chai Latte
- Crushcake Cupcake (red velvet)

One of their specialty drinks which is a dark chocolate mocha sweetened with agave. It’s not as sweet as a regular mocha, thanks to the dark chocolate. But also not too bitter thanks to the agave syrup. I found this drink really nice and smooth, although the coffee was a little too weak to act as a wake me up despite it being made with two shots of Intelligentsia espresso.

Great accompaniment with the breakfast items, or a cupcake!

A fried egg, bacon, cheddar, and chipotle ketchup on an everything bagel and a side of fresh fruits. Everything quintessentially breakfast-like combined into one bagel.

The chipotle ketchup adds a little tang to the mix so it doesn’t get too greasy or salty. I was a little disappointed by the bagel as it was flat. It wasn’t as fluffy and soft as the other bagels we’d had in the US, but it also wasn’t as filling which might be good for a lighter breakfast.

Crushcakes is overall just a great place for breakfast, a quick meal, coffee or cupcakes. I wish we had more time in Santa Barbara to explore the menu and other eateries, but I’m glad we tried Crushcakes!

A breakfast sandwich served with maple roasted ham, fried farm egg, melted jack cheese, sliced red onions and tomatoes on grilled sourdough and fresh fruits (banana, strawberries, red and green grapes).

What’s not to love with such a cute name for a dish? You’ve got all the breakfast staples in one sandwich, and it even comes with fresh fruits to start the day right. The egg is a little underdone so you get some gooey yolk flowing out to coat the cheese, ham and bread. I love that the ham is sliced very thick. The sourdough is grilled nicely, and has a slight tang to it. Overall it’s a nicely balanced sandwich, nothing extra special or fantastic - but a solid breakfast option if you want something fuss-free.

New drink on the Starbucks menu in USA which caused me to make a spur of the moment decision to order this instead of a regular cappuccino.
This drink is pretty interesting, yet delicious. There’s caramel drizzled on top of the cocoa, coffee and milk so it’s not bitter. It was slightly too sweet, but still tasted yummy anyway. The Starbucks cups come with a sippy lid to reduce plastic straw usage, which is awesome, but it’s a bit hard to mix everything together with a full cup. The cloud macchiato foam has eggs, and it’s certainly as light and fluffy as a cloud. It doesn’t have much flavour on its own, but leaves a foam moustache and adds an airy feel to the drink. I’d love for Starbucks Singapore to bring this in, as it’s a delightful cold drink to pick up on a warm summer day (which is almost everyday in Singapore anyway).

Plain ol’ black coffee that comes with half and half creamers and whipped cream. The coffee is refillable so drink up. Their brew is nothing fancy, but good to perk up before a day at the beach or before resuming your drive along the Pacific Coast.

Paradise Cove proudly states that their tacos are world-famous on their menu, citing that these are Pablo’s recipes from home. You get a choice of: The Best Fish Tacos, “Carnitas” Pulled Pork Tacos, BBQ Prime Steak Tacos, Ocean Shrimp Tacos or Spicy Corn & Avocado Tacos with rice & beans, fresh guacamole, sour cream and Pico de gallo.

We got the fish, steak and shrimp tacos to share. I recommend squeezing lemon on all the tacos, as well as loading them up with guacamole and sour cream, except for the beef taco. That’s not to say that the tacos on their own aren’t good, as the fish and shrimp are very fresh, crisp and sweet. However, they tend to mellow out in the taco wrap. The beef taco has a prominent taste on its own, it’s bold and reminded us of Korean beef seasoning for some reason. No matter what it tastes like, the beef was so tender and moist, I would’ve ordered it again. Actually, I would order all these tacos again if I revisited Paradise Cove!

While it’s an expensive stopover with the parking fee, the food is top notch and our waitress Dana was really attentive and nice too.