Midtown Lunch

Jet Tila’s Favorite Papaya Salad in Los Angeles

• CENTURY CITY Bibigo is coming soon to the Westfield Mall [Toddrickallen]
• DTLA Mo Chica is dead.  Long Live Mo Chica. [Eater;Grub Street]
• HWOOD An Epic Guide to Thai Town courtesy of Jet Tila [Food Republic]
• KTOWN Yu Chan serves up a solid bibimbap and naeng myeon [Food GPS]
• MAR VISTA The Pig and Fig at Earl’s Gourmet Grub is great [SE]
• MARINA DEL REY Aunt Kizzy’s is becoming a Thai restaurant [Grub Street]
• WEHO ink.sack is now serving a new pastrami sandwich [Food GPS]
• WEHO Monday is free burger day at Burger Lounge [Grub Street]
• WEST LA Spaghetti House is not long for this world [Eater]
• WEST LA The cha gio are the best thing at Nongla [Squid Ink]
• WEST LA Tusjita’s tsukemen is one of the 100 best dishes in L.A. [Squid Ink]

Coming to the realization that there is and will never be decent Vietnamese food without traveling to Westminster or SGV is an exercise that can bear some resemblance to the 7 stages of grief.  ”There must be some place that does it well?” “This place really doesn’t do it well.”  ”Why the fuck can’t they do it well!?” “This is never going to happen, is it? Time to get in the car and spend more on gas than I will on the banh mi I’m going to order when I get to where I’m going.”  The problem is I only ever make it to stage 4.   It makes sense that there is no decent Chinese food on the west side, after all it’s tough to wean a person off of chicken lo mein and beef with broccoli. (I should know, even though I love the SGV I’m not completely cured of my General Tso’s addiction.) But Vietnamese food?  That seems tailor made for chicken loving, health food eating Angelenos.  Pho is like a less fatty version of ramen, right?  Bun is just a glorified salad, with grilled meats.  And banh mi.  Who doesn’t like banh mi?

And yet most of the Vietnamese places in L.A. proper and parts west give the distinct impression that the owners spent more time thinking of stupid restaurant names than they did on the menu.   So when I heard that NongLA was opening on Sawtelle, I had mixed emotions.  Could this be the upward turn that leads us to the promise land?

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As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week it’s Sunny, a Mid-Wilshire marketing person who loves Japanese food but hates Chinese!?

Name: Sunny

Age: 27

Occupation: Marketing

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Academy of Couture Art (Miracle Mile, CA)

Favorite Kind of Food: Japanese

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Chinese

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Noshi Sushi for halibut, uni, scallop, and sweet shrimp, Umami Burger (850 S. La Brea) for their truffle burger, and Andre’s Italian Restaurant (6332 W. 3rd St) for small spaghetti w/ all three sauces and extra garlic bread.

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The Second Best Taco in L.A. Photo courtesy of Tien Nguyen/Squid Ink

• CULVER CITY Victor’s Jr. makes a kick ass chx philly cheese [Unemployed Eater]
• WEST LA Tatsu Ramen opens on May 23rd… [Eater]
• WEST LA … and Nongla opens on Sunday [Eater]
• TACOS The 10 Best Tacos in L.A. include a lot of ML faves [Squid Ink]
• THE GURU You can spend lunch every Wednesday with Jonathan Gold [LAT]

It’s a sad truth, but many people probably stopped reading this post after the title. Made their mental note (“Tochka = Good. Got it.  Let’s move on.”)  And sure enough, it’s those people that will inevitably leave the comment a week from now telling me how terrible Tochka is.  Because the newly open flatbread sandwiches place on Sunset in West Hollywood is really just ok,  an importantly tidbit that you now know because you actually decided to read on. I wouldn’t drive across town for anything on their menu, but if I worked in the neighborhood there is something I’d go back for.  Something kind of awesome.  Something that I never even really liked, until I tried Tochka’s version…

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The Beefy T

Have you ever wondered why Chego isn’t open for lunch?  I have. And by “wondered why” I mean “complained that”.  In fact Roy Choi’s Asian rice bowl restaurant in Palms not serving lunch appeared as one of my very first gripes about lunching in L.A. Well, it only took two years but today at 11:30am Chego will officially start serving lunch.  Since they still are using Chego to prep all of the Kogi trucks, lunch is only available for take out.  But most of the entire dinner menu is available (with just a few exceptions), and you can order in person or through their new online ordering system.

Check out the menu, plus a look at Day 1 (as it was twittered and instagrammed live from the scene) after the jump…

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Sausage Kimbap must be korean for Hot Dog Sushi. Photo courtesy of Squid Ink

• DTLA Daikokuya will be closed from the 14th to the 23rd [Grub Street]
• HWOOD Ro Ro Chicken’s sales jumped 80% because of The Avengers [TMZ]
• KTOWN Caju Naengmyeon serves some great kimbap [Squid Ink]
• KTOWN Kalbi Burger out spices the Fukuburger equivalent [Squid Ink]
• MID CITY Roscoe’s changes their 3 wing meal to “Obama’s Special” [TMZ]
• WEHO The KFC on Sunset is becoming a Zankou [Grub Street]
• WEST LA Tatsu is bringing customizable ramen to Sawtelle [Eater]
• WEST LA Nongla is set to open on May 20th [Eater]
• PIZZA 800 Degrees, Joe’s, LaRocca’s, and Vito’s are L.A. chef’s faves [Eater]
• EVENTS The Vendy Awards are returning to L.A.!  [Eater]