Midtown Lunch

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 Remil, an analyst who also wishes there was street meat in L.A.

Name: Remil

Age: 39

Occupation: Contract Administration Analyst

Where in L.A. do you Work?: 3rd Street & Beaudry Avenue in DTLA

Favorite Kind of Food: Wow! This is really a hard question. I’m Filipino so obviously Filipino food is my absolute favorite. But I also love a wide array of foods ranging from Chinese dim sum, to Korean BBQ, to Japanese ramen, to super spicy Thai, to Vietnamese pho and the occasional Texas BBQ. I often explore many different restaurants with my friends and my list of favorites just keeps getting longer and longer.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I try not to discriminate and I don’t really have a least favorite. But if I had to list just one, it would have to be a particular Chinese vegetarian restaurant in SGV. It wasn’t pretty.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: My favorite Filipino restaurant in L.A. is Salakot Sizzle and Grill (2122 Beverly Blvd). It’s not your typical steam table restaurant. Here you sit down, place your order and everything is cooked fresh. My “goto” selections are their Kare-Kare (oxtail stew), Crispy Pata (deep fried pork hock), Dinuguan (pork blood stew), Lechon Kawali (deep fried pork belly), Sizzling Sisig (chopped pork cheeks) and the Pork BBQ on a stick. Don’t forget to order the Halo-Halo (shaved ice) for dessert. For a quick Filipino lunch try Bahay Kubo Natin (2330 W Temple St), where they have a rotating daily menu. Just point to what you like on their steam table to match with either steamed rice or pancit (noodles) and you’re good to go. My favorites here are their Mung Bean stew, Pork BBQ, Fried Chicken Skins, Egg Plant Omelette and their Filipino-style Fried Chicken. In no particular order, here are just some of my other favorite places for lunch. Starry Kitchen on Grand for their green tofu balls, Eastside Market on Alpine for the D.A. special, Mien Nghia on Ord for their beef noodle soup, Mendocino Farms on Flower for any of their sandwiches, Langer’s Deli on Alvarado for an amazing pastrami sandwich, Daikokuya on First St. for their ramen, Yorkshire Grill on Sixth St. for their chopped liver, Fisherman’s Outlet on Central for their grilled sea bass and Jitlada on Sunset for their Southern Thai specialties.

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Fat Fish on 6th St. in Koreatown for kaiten sushi, Papa Cristo’s on Pico Blvd. for delicious Greek food and Manna on Olympic Blvd. for Korean BBQ. Sorry, but I couldn’t pick just one.

Place you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? Thanks for pointing me out to Dino’s Chicken and Burgers (2575 W Pico Blvd). There is seriously something addicting in their grilled chicken and french fries.

The farthest place you’ll drive for lunch on a normal day? I’ve driven 15 miles to Santouka Ramen in Culver City for lunch.

Dream job location (anywhere in the world), purely for lunch purposes, and why? It would have to be New York City. I recently visited NYC last February with friends and had lunches at Del Posto, Marea, Locanda Verde, Porchetta, Luke’s Lobster, The Meatball Shop, Ippudo…I can go on and on. Oh did I mention that our sole purpose in NYC was to just eat there for a week. LOL

Anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? I’ve often wondered where I can get something like the Halal chicken and rice here in Los Angeles?

Oh Remil… from your lips to jeebus’s ears.  This is the closest I’ve found, and it’s not even that great. Want to be next week’s Profiled: L.A. Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d want to nominate), email me- zach@midtownlunch.com.