Midtown Lunch

Ask for the best Chinese food in Los Angeles?  People will tell you that you have to drive East into San Gabriel Valley.  Vietnamese?  It’s south to Westminster you go.  Japanese?  Torrence.  Filipino? Artesia.  Fans of Thai and Korean food (aka Me) are lucky.  Those two can be found within the Midtown Lunch boundaries, just West of Downtown.  But what about Indian food?  Well, for that, I’m starting to think that Culver City is the place to be. Sure, many of the restaurants are vegetarian only.  But the food is so good, so flavorful, and so uniquely Indian (forget everything you know about chicken tikka masala) that it’s easy to forget there’s no meat.

This realization didn’t happen all at once.  When I first moved to Culver City I tried India Sweets and Spices, and was super surprised by how good it was (jackfruit is not very common in New York City.)  Things got even better at Samosa House and Samosa House East. Same basic concept, but with tastier food (fake chicken and paneer FTW!) Mayura is great if you want an all you can eat lunch buffet (and meat), and I’ve heard Annapurna is good for dosas and other south Indian delights- but Bawarchi might just be the best of them all.

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A few weeks ago I couldn’t help but notice profiled L.A. lunch’er Himanshu’s go-to lunch recommendation in Santa Monica.  Usually a go-to lunch is the place you hit up when you’re feeling lazy and unadventurous- but this one stood out as a tiny bit awesome:  “Lunch specials at Il Forno (2901 Ocean Park Blvd) $6 for pasta + excellent bread”.  $6?  And you get “excellent bread”?   How could I not?

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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 Maggie, the Founder and CEO of Blackboard Eats– which is kind of like Groupon… if Groupon only worked with good restaurants and you just had to pay $1 to get the discount.

Name: Maggie

Age: 31 and 1/2

Occupation: Founder/Editor-in-Chief of BlackboardEats

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Venice, CA

Favorite Kind of Food: Octopus

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Canned tuna. I won’t touch it and have a hard time being around it.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Akbar (3115 Washington Blvd) for their Bhindi Masala and Chicken Tikki Masala. Irori (4371 Glencoe Ave) for their Japanese Albacore, Japanese Snapper with Shiso, and “The Maggie Special”. Gjelina (1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd) for their Tuscan Kale, Bread Crumbs, Shaved Radish, Fennel, & Ricotta Salata, P.E.I mussels with Chorizo, Confit Tomato, White Wine & Grilled Bread, and their Mushroom, Goat Cheese & Truffle Oil Pizza. Lemonade for their Israeli Couscous and Broccoli w/ Ricotta and Champagne Vinaigrette.

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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 eating lunch in this town that really annoy me.  Here are 7 of them, LAist style, for your enjoyment…

1. I really can’t stand the word clean. For example when somebody says “I like California Chicken Kitchen because it’s good clean food” that’s the kiss of death for me. But using it on a food truck? That’s taking it to a new low. Implying that street food is usually dirty as your selling point is not only dumb and tells us nothing about your truck, but it doesn’t help the industry you just became a part of.

2. Boiling Crab… why are you not open for lunch!?!? This makes me very mad!

3. “Best Fish Taco” in Los Feliz might want to consider a name change now that the actual best fish tacos in all of Los Angeles can be found right down the street.

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If you work in Culver City the lunch options just got a little better thanks to Westside Food Truck Central, a parking lot for food trucks on Washington just East of Overland.  It operates for lunch every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11am to 3pm (and dinner on Mondays from 5-9pm.)  Lomo Arigato, India Jones, Lee’s Philly, Jersey Grub and Coolhaus will be parked there for lunch today, and another 7 trucks will join them for dinner tonight.  Track the schedule via Twitter @FoodTrukCentral

Steak Bomb from Soda Pop’s. Photo courtesy of Julie Wolfson/LAist

• BEVERLY HILLS Soda Pop’s looks good, and they make their own chips! [LAist]
• BEVERLY HILLS A new branch of Saffron is now open [Squid Ink]
• CENTURY CITY Sen Asian Kitchen is now open in the CAA bldg [Squid Ink]
• DTLA Lemonade’s $1 cupcakes are great [Cupcakes Take the Cake]
• MID CITY Doughboys makes a great steak soup [Zagat Buzz]
• MID CITY Hickory sauce makes the burger at Apple Pan [Squid Ink]
• WEST LA Naan Hut is making fresh sangak!!! [Squid Ink]