Via Alloro via Yelp

Usually starting my blog post at 10:50 pm indicates a rough day, but today was awesome! My parents are in town, so I got to spend the evening with them. After work and cheer practice, I scooted over to Beverly Hills to meet my parents at their hotel, Sofitel. It's right next to the Beverly Center, walking distance to tons of shops and restaurants, and only a few miles from the heart of Beverly Hills. Plus the hotel and rooms are really nice; my parents are loving their stay!

Once I arrived at their hotel, my parents and I headed down to the very nice workout room to get our sweat on before dinner. Mom and I hit the treadmill while Dad tackled the elliptical. I threw together a sweaty, 20-minute treadmill pyramid. We were both wiped out afterward!

~ 25 minutes with warm up and cool down

Next up, we played around with some strength stuff: good mornings, split squats, sit ups, lunges, and squats. Then we cleaned up and headed out to Beverly Hills. First stop: a drink at Nic's Martini Bar.

Watermelon for me, bleu cheese for Dad, and Golden Triangle for Mom

Via Alloro. I found the restaurant on Yelp. Do you ever use Yelp or similar sites to check reviews? I go there almost automatically now to find restaurants and the like, but Terry gets frustrated really easily. He gets annoyed with all the people who think they're food critics and who criticize really specific things. For me, if a restaurant has been reviewed by a few hundred people and has 4 or 5 stars, I can't exactly turn up my nose at it. We've found some great stuff using Yelp, including our church! Who would have thought?

Tonight's dinner got decent reviews on Yelp and decent reviews from us, too. Via Alloro belongs to a group of Italian restaurants owned by two Italian brothers. The menu was extensive, but we settled on a few items and some vino. The highlight of the meal was our appetizer: burrata (a super creamy cheese) with toasted bread, sea salt, and tomatoes.

Dad got a Caesar salad.

 I would have just eaten that if I could! Instead, I got spinach gnocchi with bolognese. My mom got pasta with vegetables, and Dad enjoyed his pasta with tomatoes and Italian bacon.

Delicious and filling, for sure! I'm glad to be home and excited for another fun evening with my folks tomorrow. Hope you had a great Tuesday!

Do you use Yelp or other online review sites?