Midtown Lunch

As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week it’s Austin, a pastry chef who hates taro.

Name: Austin

Age: 29

Occupation: Pastry Chef, writer, ninja by night

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Westside Tavern, a 300 seat restaurant in West LA at Pico and Westwood.

Favorite Kind of Food: Pretty much anything, I’m open to try most things at least once, but I consider myself a “burgers and pizza” kind of guy

Least Favorite Kind of Food: There are 2 things I absolutely refuse: taro (in any form) and papaya

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: As someone who works the dinner shift in a restaurant, I actually have the liberty of choosing just about anywhere to go for lunch before I need to leave for work, however tend to stick to places near my home in San Marino. But this also applied while I was previously doing private catering out of my home.

With that said, some of my favorites near me are B-Man’s Teriyaki and Burgers in Pasadena (on Huntington and San Gabriel Blvd) for the ABC burger, a cheeseburger (American or Swiss) with teriyaki sauce and avocado. Their chicken curry fries are also pretty bomb and a meal in itself.

South Pasadena also has quite a few good lunch places.

I like going to Senor Fish for their scallop burrito. It’s totally food coma inducing, but for just $6.95, it is completely worth it. I mentioned I was a burgers and pizza kind of guy, so for pizza, I go to either Mamma’s Brick Oven Pizza or Nonna’s Pizzeria, both also in South Pasadena on Fair Oaks Ave. My favorite pizza they both make is the classic margherita pizza, but Nonna’s makes this spinach, artichoke and sun-dried tomato pizza that Mamma’s does not. When I want cheap and greasy fake take-out “Chinese” food, I hit up La Mein. I usually get the 2 item combo with all chow mein and the fried chicken wings in garlic salt and the roasted pork. At $4.85, you really can’t complain and its actually pretty good. Lastly, Fanta-Sea Grill has this blue crab cake sandwich that I have on more than one occasion gotten to-go on consecutive days.

Pasadena has plenty of choices as well. Lucky Boy has its famous breakfast burrito, in which you have a choice of ham, bacon, sausage, or chorizo to go along with eggs, hashbrowns and cheese, but it isn’t just for breakfast. It is served all day long and I have on many occasions ordered it for lunch. Just across the street Sushi Osaka, which offers all-you-can-eat sushi for under $20, has a a pretty good $8 lunch special. I forget if it is included as part of the special, but their bowl of udon noodle soup is pretty good for the cold winter months. But then again, we live in Los Angeles, so we don’t know what ”cold” truly is. Going North to the Oldtown Pasadena/Paseo Colorado area, you cannot go wrong with Europane‘s egg salad sandwich, or just about anything from King Taco. Hidden away from the bustling Colorado Blvd, Tede’s Cafe offers up a wonderful selection of hearty sandwiches.

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? As I mentioned before, I’m at home during lunch time most days, so I actually haven’t nor don’t go out to lunch with co-workers.

The farthest place you’ll drive for lunch on a normal day? Not that its very far, but I’ve driven to Downtown LA on numerous occasions just for lunch. More specifically, Starry Kitchen. I pretty much have loved everything there, and because they rotate their menu every couple of weeks, it allows the SK faithful to sample their menu items with plenty of variety. Some of my favorite items I’ve had have been their chap chae, the Taiwanese pork chop, and the lemon grass chicken.

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? While I love the diversity of domestic and ethnic food here in LA, I think any big city that is conducive to walking a couple block from work (i.e. San Francisco, New York) to a plethora of options would be totally awesome. I mean, who wants to deal with parking?

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers in L.A.? I understand that such thing may not exist here in LA because it is not as ”universal” as ribs or steak, but ever since my trip to Rudys Country Store in San Antonio, I have been on a search for beef brisket. Again, I know its purely a Texas thing, but if anybody can lead me to darn good BBQ beef brisket, TENDER BBQ beef brisket no less, I would be forever grateful, and perhaps make you a dessert of your choice ;)

Got a recommendation for Austin? Put it in the comments. And if you’d like to be next week’s Profiled: L.A. Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d want to nominate), email me- zach@midtownlunch.com.