Midtown Lunch

The reaction to Tsujita’s new “Annex” across Sawtelle has been pretty schizophrenic in the few weeks it’s been open.  For every ramenologist excited to discover that they’re serving an almost exact replica of Tokyo’s super famous Jiro style Ramen, there was somebody complaining on Yelp about how many ways the Annex’s bowl of soup is different from the original Tsujita location across the street. How different?  Well, it’s fattier, the noodles are thicker, it’s loaded with cabbage and bean sprouts (the horror!), they fill the bowl up so much the soup falls over the edge, and, the real crime, it’s not going to make the line at Tsujita any shorter. Did we mention how fatty Jiro style ramen is?  It makes the original Tsujita ramen from across the street seem watery.

And even though Tsujita Annex’s ramen is expertly constructed for those who appreciate this kind of ramen, complainers will be happy to know they’re not filling the bowls up to the rim as much as they were at the beginning. And yesterday they started serving their miso ramen…

Read more »

Photo courtesy of Gourmet Pigs

• BEVERLY HILLS Signage has gone up for Itzak Hagadol [Grub St.]
• BEVERLY HILLS Get free chips with every wrap at Momed this week [Grub St.]
• DTLA Tangerine is now open in the Weller Court [Grub St.]
• MID CITY Fritzi Dog has added some new options to their menu [EstarLA]
• SAMO Your first look at Pono Burger [Grub St.]
• WEST LA The Ramen Jinya on Sawtelle has closed [Eater]
• WESTWOOD Chipotle’s Shophouse is taking over Waffle Chix [Eater]
• WESTWOOD The blue crab grilled chese at TLT looks pretty good [Gourmet Pigs]
• MOBILE Ricky’s Fish Tacos will return on a truck!? [Eater]

I’ve been a huge fan of Michael Voltaggio’s Ink.Sack ever since it opened a year and a half ago. See, MVolt could have opened a typical sandwich annex next to his popular restaurant Ink, charging upwards of $12-15 for sandwiches that people who eat lunch on Melrose would be more than happy to shell out the cash for. But he went the other way, offering a mostly take out menu of smallish sandwiches for $5-8 with great ingredients and interesting flavors that cheap fatsos like me would like. A pork filled, chicharron topped banh mi. House made corned beef and pastrami. A Cuban sandwich. Sadly, the chicken skin and liver mousse sandwich is gone, but there is still the cold fried chicken sandwich and the Spanish godfather.

And this week they added 6 new sandwiches to their menu, four of which contain an ingredient that pretty much improves anything it touches: fried eggs. And the best part is, they’re available All. Day. Long.

Read more »

I try to be positive here on Midtown Lunch… and I freakin’ love this city.  The food is amazing, and there’s no better place to be a “Midtown Lunch’er”.    But as much as I love most of the food in L.A. (and will defend it to the death against any outsiders, or natives with an inferiority complex) there are some things about lunching in this town that really annoy me.  Here are 7 of them, LAist style, for your enjoyment…

 The Beef Roll from 101 Noodle Express in the Fox Hills Mall

1. You’re not allowed to complain about there being no good chinese food on the westside unless you eat at 101 Noodle Express in the Fox Hills Mall Westfield Culver City at least once a month. Your indifference already killed Kyochon. Please don’t let it happen again. Oh- and don’t give me this “It’s not as good as the one in SGV!” bullshit.  This is why we can never have nice things, westside.

2. Speaking of the westside… I know it was you Chego.  You broke my heart.  You broke my heart.

Read more »

At this point it’s common knowledge that Los Angeles is home to the most culturally diverse food landscape in all of the country (possibly the world.)  But to call it a melting pot would be a little misleading, since most of the best versions of each cuisine represented in L.A. can mostly be found in their own specific neighborhood.  Thai food in Thai Town, Korean food in Koreatown, and so on.  Good Chinese food outside of Chinatown and the San Gabriel Valley?  Good luck.  Naturally, there are exceptions.  And as more and more people become interested in following Jonathan Gold to the next foreign treasure it only makes sense that more treasures are creeping outside of their own enclaves.

Boyle Heights’ Guisados opened up a new Echo Park location less than 3 miles away from the original. A second Mariscos Jalisco truck?  Same deal.  And now there’s Pa Ord, the boat noodle specialist from Thai Town who recently bought Thai Foon on La Brea and Sunset.  Close enough to Thai Town to make you consider just going to the original, far enough a way to make it conveniently worth it not to.

Read more »

I’m going to give this place the benefit of the doubt and presume that their terrible name is completely unintentional.  After all Gangnam is a district in Korea, and there’s no use of the word “style” or any stupid music references in this otherwise modern but understated spot.

I’m also going to put aside the slightly higher-than-they-should-be prices, because it is on Melrose near La Brea and finding good Korean food outside of Koreatown is already an exercise in futility.  If paying a little extra is what it takes to get good soondubu west of Western, I’ll take it.  And make no mistake about it, this place serves up some good soondubu.

Read more »

When Tsujita first announced that they’d be taking over the old Miyata Menji space to open an “Annex” it made total sense.  The  popular ramen spot on Sawtelle has been perpetually packed for lunch since word got out that they were serving the best bowl of ramen in L.A.  Plus, the original space turns into a ramen-less izakaya at night so having a replicon across the street would not only lessen the lines during lunch but would also give Tsujita’s legions of fans an opportunity to eat their ramen for dinner.

Well, the Annex had their grand opening yesterday after a 4 day invite only trial period and you might be surprised to hear that the bowl of ramen they’re serving is absolutely nothing like the original.  The good news is, it’s nothing like any of the other bowls of ramen in Los Angeles either.

Read more »