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 Darin, a banker by day/food blogger by night looking for some fried chicken in DTLA.

Name: Darin

Age: 26

Occupation: Union Bank

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Downtown L.A.

Favorite Kind of Food: Asian noodles (both stir-fried and in soup) and dumplings, anything based around meat (especially beef, duck, lamb) and potatoes, fried chicken, whole-cooked fish, Italian fresh pastas

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Yogurt, vinegar, overcooked meat, stinky cheeses, salad

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Lately, I’ve been really into Mendocino Farms. My favorite sandwich on the menu is the banh mi but I love the “create-your-own” option. Basically, you have all of MF’s ingredients to play with and can create something unique and personal. Try getting steak with caramelized onions, fresh mozzarella, pesto, and arugula – panini grilled. So good. Cabbage Patch (520 W 6th St) is also in the regular rotation. The rotisserie half-chicken is a steal at $6 (dark-meat only, $9 for white & dark). The seasonal sides are generous and quite good at $2 each (try the Brussels sprouts and French fries). They have a pretty good burger too.

When I have a little more time, Octopus (729 W 7th St) has some solid Japanese food. A 3-item bento box is under $10 with enough food for two meals. You can choose from about a dozen items; my favorites are the sesame chicken and salmon teriyaki. The sushi is half-off during lunch… and it’s better than it sounds.

Other places I regularly go to are Chipotle, the 7th & Fig food truck lot (daily rotating trucks), Grand Central Market’s Tacos Tumbras a Tomas (great tacos!) and Chimu (pork belly and lamb belly are great), Saffron (chicken curry), and Starry Kitchen (Taiwanese fried pork chop is my favorite item). For a little splurge, SugarFish (not a ton of variety, but very good sushi), Chaya ($25 bento box and they don’t charge extra if you get double meat/fish instead of salad), and Drago Centro (pappardelle with pheasant, garganelli with sausage, and a number of all-day bar items including a $4 pizette with sausage and squash blossoms).

I often work in Little Tokyo on Fridays. I’m a huge fan of Fisherman’s Outlet (charbroiled fish plates and the gumbo), and lately have had good meals at the new Fat Spoon and T.O.T. (the spicy fried chicken deserves more attention).

The “goto” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often? Some may say I go to Chipotle too often but I really like it. I think the 7th & Fig food truck lot is probably somewhere my coworkers and I go too often, but the variety from the rotating trucks is appealing. I just find too many food trucks to be underwhelming.

Places you’ve discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? Original Texas BBQ King (closed), Jogasaki

The farthest place you’ll drive for lunch on a normal day? The furthest we’ve gone from downtown is probably Langer’s (704 S. Alvarado) or Ricky’s Fish Tacos (1400 Virgil). Totally worth it.

Dream job location (anywhere in the world), purely for lunch purposes, and why? I’d like to explore what NYC has to offer since there’s so much there I haven’t tried. San Francisco would be amazing too, as long as it’s close to the Ferry Building Marketplace.

Anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? Is there anywhere to get good fried chicken in downtown? What about soup noodles (pho, ramen, etc)?

Does Chin Ma Ya count? Because their kara age is pretty great. Got an answer for Darin? Put it in the comments. And, as always, if you want to be next week’s Profiled: L.A. Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d want to nominate), email me- zach@midtownlunch.com.