Midtown Lunch

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 much 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…

1. Am I crazy for thinking that if you name your restaurant Potato Chips, you should probably make your own potato chips?  A much better name for this place would be Meatball Sandwich- because they actually make a good meatball sandwich.  (It might not be worth $10, and you’ll need a ton of napkins to sop up the mess, but it’s far more interesting than their bagged potato chips.  Just sayin’.)

2. What’s worse?  The Asian restaurant that refuses to give people forks unless they ask (and then openly looks down on those who want one.)  Or the Korean/Chinese restaurant where, the other day, every single employee who walked by the table offered me a fork-you know- because white people in L.A. don’t know how to use to chopsticks…? (I think I prefer the former.)

3. Seeing as how I actively promote eating lunch out every single day of the week, it naturally bothers me that so many places are closed for lunch on Mondays (I’m looking at you Huckleberry and Attari!)  Fine.  I get it.  Mondays are the slowest day of the week. People ate a lot over the weekend. Maybe they bring their lunch on Mondays, or starve themselves. Restaurants need a day off.  Whatever.  But Tuesday?  Why are you closed on Tuesdays!? (Salt’s Cure, you screwed me real good!)  And Wednesdays?  There’s really no excuse for being closed on hump day. (If you haven’t been burned by Sapp Coffee Shop at least once, you’re not going enough!)

Ribs from Original Texas BBQ King

4. Apparently in Los Angeles “Texas BBQ” is code for “swimming in sauce”.  Note to self… always ask for sauce on the side.  Even at the good places.

5. No matter how emphatically you explain to the waitress that you want it “Thai Style” or “Bangkok Style” or that you want it “spicy”, there are certain restaurants in Thai Town that will still hold back a little just because you are not Thai.  The only way to avoid this?  Bring a Thai friend to lunch.  (And even sometimes that doesn’t work!)

6. This is what passes for chicken shawarma on the Sunset Strip?!  Sorry.  That’s chicken breast, cut into strips. Not chicken shawarma. (I officially feel bad for shawarma lovers who have to work on the Sunset Strip.)

7.  I’m still mad at Chego.  Why are you NOT OPEN FOR LUNCH!!!!

See all past lists of “Reasons to Hate L.A.”