Midtown Lunch

Yesterday I needed a car wash, and what better way to kill two birds with one stone than with a car wash lunch!?  I kind of love how a ton of car washes places in L.A. have little lunch spots attached to them, and I’ve been obsessed with trying as many of these places as I can.  Am I saying that lunch dictates where I am likely to get my car wash?  Yup.  That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Crunchy Sea is a great car wash option in Koreatown, and I’ve been really wanting to try the barbecue place attached to the Handy J car wash in West L.A. (even though I’ve heard bad things.)  But yesterday I was hell bent on checking out a sushi place that I was told about by Josh from the blog Food GPS.  That’s right… car wash sushi!  How could this be bad? (You know what… don’t answer that.)

Lucas Roll & Sushi is not the most inviting sushi place I’ve ever been to, and being able to see into the tiny open kitchen doesn’t really have the calming effect that you would want from a place like this.  But after my surprisingly great experience at Wow Bento and Roll downtown I didn’t want to judge a cheap sushi book by its cover.   The Lucas menu has sushi, maki, noodle soups, and bowls with teriyaki, tempura and Korean BBQ beef, plus various combos.  Even though it was $1 out of my price range, I went with the $10.95 Lucas sushi combo so I could taste a little bit of everything.

You can’t have high standards when it comes to cheap sushi, but much to my disappointment Lucas wasn’t even good for the genre.  The sushi was the pre-cut (likely pre-packaged) kind, and the “california roll” was just imitation crab meat salad. I watched them dip and fry the tempura to order, but it wasn’t that good either.  And the chicken had a nice smokiness to it (they finish it on a grill) but overall it wasn’t worth it.  I suppose I could go back and try one of the beef bowls, but I just don’t have huge hopes (and if I’m in the mood for meat and have to go to this car wash, there’s an Umami Burger next door!)

I know what you’re saying.  “Zach, what the fuck did you expect?  It was sushi from a car wash!?”  And it’s hard to argue with that logic.  But I know there is a great car wash lunch out there just waiting to be discovered.  Have you found it?  Let us know in the comments. There’s no reason that getting your car should mean wasting a lunch opportunity.

Lucas, 916 S La Brea Ave, 323-634-0701