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 Dylan, an art director with some great recs for DTLA and the South Bay.

Name: Dylan

Age: 33

Occupation: Art director/photographer

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Self-employed/freelance

Favorite Kind of Food: Noodles!

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything that employs ranch dressing, chain-restaurants and bastardized Chinese food

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: When I was working in South Bay, I frequented Mottanai‘s shoyu ramen, Spoonhouse‘s uni spaghetti, Otafuku‘s fishcake tempura soba and Shin Sen Gumi‘s horumon motsunabe (intestine hot pot). In Downtown LA, it would’ve been Chimu (RIP), Chichen Itza and Yang Ban‘s korean beef rib soup (Fashion District). In Silver Lake/Glendale area Ricky’s Fish Tacos, cheeseburger and cochinita pibil combo at Yuca’s and Mini Kabob (mom & pop shop with only 12 seats). Finally, Koreatown area I like Myung Dong Kyoja (knife-cut noodles with ground meat/dumplings) and Soo Won Galbi‘s korean beef rib soup. My latest food fling has involved La Cevicheria in Mid-city (3 times in 2 weeks!).

The “goto” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often? Used to be Tokyo 77 Coffee Shop in Culver City and New Kamara in Chinatown. First one has closed down and second one has new management/chef. The pain…

Places you’ve discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch: Haven’t tried anything recently but the Sangak Pizza looks insane. I love Sangak bread.

The farthest place you’ll drive for lunch on a normal day? South Bay, most definitely. Westside, maybe.

Dream job location (anywhere in the world), purely for lunch purposes, and why? Work from anywhere in the world remotely where I have access to street hawkers and vendors. Some place like China, Vietnam, Singapore or Mexico.

Got a recommendation for Dylan? Put it in the comments, and then go check out his blog Eat Drink + Be Merry. 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.