Rose Garden Cafe

Wasn’t excepting much from food court in California Science Center, but the Chicken Chipotle Wrap that I ordered turned out pretty good, see the picture that I post!

Eat here instead of McDonalds. Its right across the way and has a bunch of salad options and sandwiches. For $ 6.50 we got 3 types of salads together incl pasta salad, corn, potatoes and asparagus. The sandwiches are $ 4 – 5. They also have fresh juices and lots of bottled drinks. The daily special was Teriyaki Chicken with delish rice.

Who would have thunk that there would be a very good cafeteria in the California Science Center? I was not expecting much when we went to lunch there where the Mc Donalds and Taco Bell were doing gang buster business catering to elementary school kids on their school field trips.
I didn’t like the thought of going to the cafeteria if all it had to compete with was Mc D’s and Taco Bell, but the parking at Exposition Park is $ 10 a pop so I didn’t want to act snooty and go out to Little Tokyo for Sushi since I only had an hour between the Imax show on Egypt and the Cleopatra Exhibit and too cheap to pay another 10 bucks. So I reluctantly went in line thinking this food was going to be crap.
There was a placard that shouted TODAY’S CHEF’S SPECIAL in bright red letters: Citrus Marinated Pork Chops over Penne Pasta, Rapini & Collard Greens, and Red Pepper Flakes. The addition of RAPINI caught may eye since you don’t find rapini unless you go to some Italian intensive restaurants usually on the Westside. The use of more sophisticated ingredients as well as grilled, caramelized red onions on top of the grilled pork chops called out to me, and at $ 5.75, I figured I didn’t have much to lose.
Well, this was the best $ 5.75 I spent on food in a long time. The pork chop was moist from the citrus marinade with possibly a kind of dry rub of spices applied before it was grilled. The penne was al dente (wow, considering this is cafeteria food) and the rapini and collard greens were also green and lightly sauteed and not over cooked as is the case in many low end eaterys, and all this seemed to be tossed in an Umami rich meat reduction sauce with perfect modulation of salt and other seasonings.
Unfortunately, being a museum mainly for kids, there was no way to accompany this great dish with a Cote du Rhone with varietals such as Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre. Heck, might as well pair it with a Château Neuf du Pape. So I got another French beverage, Orangina which wasn’t a Grand Vin, but it served its purpose.
Later, when I commented to a helper how much I liked the food, he pointed me to the Chef who just happened to be out inspecting the area so we talked about food and found out he also has a catering service called Kensington Caterers, Michael Sullivan, (213) 747‑8114 or

If the Chef’s Special is any indication of what Chef Sullivan can produce, he would be ideal in creating cuisine for weddings, receptions, etc. If I got this dish at a fancy restaurant in West Hollywood, I would have paid 3 times as much. Bravo!