7 Reasons to Hate L.A. (Lunching, That Is)

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

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1. Delicious $12 Peruvian masterpieces are too expensive for this location.  But $12 sandwiches? A-ok.

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2.  On a related note, Flanders Frites!  Poor poor Flanders Frites. It’s bad enough Chimu got replaced by Local Express.  But the addition of Flanders Frites is just that extra kick in the nuts, right after you just told me my Grandmother died. I could probably do a whole 7 things just on Flanders Frites… but I guess I can just settle for 2. First: if you are going to open a window dedicated exclusively to 3 things, you might want to make sure those three things actually taste good.  Serving ordinary shoestring fries and trying to pass them off as cutesy Belgian “patat” is one thing, but deep frying bland dog food and selling it for $4.50 as a kroket is shameful. I wouldn’t have eaten these things if they were free at my cousin’s Bar Mitzvah (and I’ll normally eat *anything* fried at a cousin’s Bar Mitzvah.)  The fries make a decent side dish to a Local Express sandwich, but who on earth is giving this place 4 stars on Yelp?

But wait… there’s more. Ludo, babies, and bacos feel my wrath after the jump.

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3. Also, currywurst is apparently super hip right now.  Sadly, Flanders Frites doesn’t seem to actually know what currywurst is.

4. A few months ago we got all excited when it was announced that the Ludo Truck would be trying some exciting new specials on their menu. What they didn’t tell us was that their famous chicken balls (which had already been un-balled earlier in the month) would no longer be a regular menu item. There are two explanations for this. 1) Food trucks are a tough business, and Ludo’s famous provencal chicken is just too expensive and labor intensive to work on a truck. Or 2) Los Angeles prefers white meat chicken strips to moist and delicious thigh meat. Either way, it makes me angry.

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5. I love babies in a strollers. I have a baby, who I put in a stroller. I like eating out with my baby in a stroller. I think fancy restaurants would be smart to have early baby in stroller seatings, like Monday morning movies at the Grove. And yet… some places should probably remain stroller-less. (Like the ones that only have two communal tables with 8 seats each, crammed into a tiny Santa Monica space that is perpetually packed.)

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6. Of course Baco Mercat raised all the baco prices and did away with the quick service ordering at the bar. I was silly to ever think that this concept was going to be a cheaper, lunchtime alternative to Lazy Ox Canteen! Damn you straight to hell BACO MERACT! What’s that? You’re now serving sichuan chicken ribs, house made pork di testa, and an unbelievably delicious beef tongue schnitzel baco?!?! Oh, who am I kidding. I can’t be mad at you baco…

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7. Angeli Caffe is closing, and taking it’s delicious homemade bread, gnocchi, and roast chicken with it.  I should have eaten lunch there more often.  (We ALL should have eaten lunch there more often.)

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