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Oliverio's Budino di Polenta

Oliverio, the delightfully sleek yet comfortable restaurant at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills, is celebrating its first anniversary by offering a special prix fixe menu through Nov. 20:

That’s four courses AND a glass of wine for $40 per person. This is an amazing deal, especially when you consider that the chicken dish normally goes for $24 on its own. The tuna tartare on a crispy risotto cake, the truffle pizzetta and the budino are some of my favorites. Check out my previous post on Oliverio’s happy hour menu for more dining recommendations.

Pies at KCRW's Good Food pie contest

There were a lot of food-related events that happened over the long Labor Day weekend, but only one featured a homemade pie made by my friend, blogger Marni Landes of Happy Go Marni, and her mother, Joyce: KCRW’s Good Food pie contest. The event shared space with Taste of Beverly Hills, a three-day food extravaganza at the Beverly Hilton, but the best part was the pie contest was free! You could just walk up and sample from more than 100 pies that people had lovingly made in hopes of getting to the final, which was judged by L.A. foodie luminaries Jonathan Gold, Sang Yoon, Zoe Nathan, Eric Greenspan, Karen Hatfield and more. Marni won last year’s cream pie category, so she had a good chance of winning again this year.

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Momed (“modern Mediterranean”), a new Beverly Hills eatery, offers diners authentic foods from all over the Mediterranean in a sleek space formerly occupied by Rosti Tuscan Kitchen on South Beverly Drive. The fact that nearly everything on the menu comes in under $20 just makes this place an even more welcome addition to the neighborhood. Good food at good prices can’t be beat.

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Grilled tuna burger

M Cafe de Chaya, the macrobiotic mini chain that’s part of the Chaya Restaurant Group, is celebrating its 5th anniversary this month with different $5 specials each week at all three of its locations.

Week of June 7 — Falafel Wrap & M Chopped Salad (Grab & Go only)
Week of June 14 — 2 Salad Combo & Tofu Bento (Grab & Go only)
Week of June 21 — Breakfast Enchilada (breakfast hours only) and Double Chocolate Fudge Cake

What’s macrobiotic food? It’s food made from minimally processed, natural whole foods that are in-season. Fish is OK, but not poultry, red meat, eggs or dairy. I’ve been to M Cafe a few times, and it’s actually pretty tasty, despite its nearly vegan-like description. I have a few recommendations, none of which are part of the $5 specials. But no matter — you can always go back, and for certain items, it would be worth it.

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Madame Chocolat is a confectionery located just across the street from the Montage hotel and Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro in Beverly Hills. Not a bad location, eh? Oh, and the chocolates aren’t bad, either, considering their pedigree: The shop’s owner, Hasty Torres, is classically trained in the art of chocolate making, and she’s married to New York chocolatier Jacques Torres. You can’t really go wrong with anything in this store.

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Le Troque terrace bar at Le Merigot hotel. From LeMerigot (Flickr).

• Le Merigot: The Le Troquet terrace bar menu at this Santa Monica JW Marriott hotel recently introduced a late-night happy hour. From 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on weekdays, the bar’s appetizers and small plates (e.g., tuna tartare, crab quesadilla) are 30 percent off, and well drinks are 50 percent off (excludes beer and wine).

• Cafe Roma: The Beverly Hills eatery just reopened after a remodel, and it has a happy hour from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on weekdays where you can get two-for-one drinks (per person) and free finger foods at the bar. That’s one way to get people back in the door!

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And in more happy hour news…

I’m a sucker for good, inexpensive food and drink. Cheap eats, as it were. And you can always find deals during happy hour, right? (Sometimes, if I can muster the appetite that early, I’ll make happy hour my dinner. But I digress.)

So e*starla and I went to check out the happy hour at Hokusai, a Japanese restaurant near the intersection of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards in the space that used to house Continental. It’s pretty darn close to where we live, and just across the street from e*starla’s place of business. (This was a while ago, but you know you still want to hear about it — because it’s happy hour!)

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Looking for something to do this weekend? Hit up one or all of these events, then let us know if any of them were worth it.

• Cabbage Patch‘s new weekend brunch: The oh-so-yummy and affordable Beverly Hills eatery is launching brunch Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. From Daily Candy.

• Rebecca Minkoff sample sale: In Los Angeles and San Francisco! Up to 50% spring and summer. In Los Angeles at 8213 W. Third St., Friday 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. In San Francisco at 111 Minna Gallery, Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. From Daily Candy.

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Just opened:

• Tavern From Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne (AOC, Lucques, Hungry Cat) comes the ladies’ newest creation, a restaurant/lounge/marketplace, in Brentwood. Yes, it did open today. I called.

• Pourtal A high-tech wine bar in Santa Monica, Pourtal offers wine via preloaded punch cards and electronic dispensers. Fancy.

To open in the near future:

• Trader Vic’s The Beverly Hills institution moves downtown to L.A. Live. Scheduled to open Saturday, May 2.

• La Grande Orange Cafe The Santa Monica location is scheduled to open May 7. Food being tested and staff being trained, according to tweets from @LaGrandeOrange. Pizza will be added to the menu at the new location, with Pasadena getting pizza some time this fall.

• Playhouse and Sweet Love Hangover The nightclub/24-hour restaurant taking over the Fox Theater space on Hollywood Boulevard is now slated to open June 11. We’ll see. This is like the third or fourth time the opening date has been pushed back.