Midtown Lunch

According to the L.A. Times tomorrow is the big day for Miyata Menji, the new ramen/tsukemen spot opening on Sawtelle in the old Gr/eats space.  Being a tsukemen addict (and lover of all things ramen) I’ve been cautiously excited about this opening, but the more and more I read and see the more wacky this place sounds.

From the LAT:

Japanese comedian Tetsuji Miyata brings his Miyata Menji concept to L.A. from Osaka, where noodles dubbed TG2-D and KK100 are served in ramen and tsukemen. On the menu are just two items: tonkotsu ramen with pork broth, teriyaki beef, shallots and fried tomatoes, and tsukemen with steamed noodles, anchovy cabbage, grated cheese (optional), minced pork, vegetable potage, tomato and croutons.

Teriyaki beef!? Tomatoes? Grated cheese and croutons? Well that explains the menu photos I spotted last week…

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As soon as JGold discovered Palsaik Samgyupsal, the pork belly specialist that opened in Koreatown last summer, I did what I do with most places “The Guru” writes about: looked for a lunch menu! Like most places in K-Town, Palsaik has a lunch menu featuring various soups and stews for under $10. There’s a $10 galbi tang (short rib soup), a $10 soybean paste stew with seafood, and a $9 kimchi jigae. You can also order pork belly lunch special for $12, as long as you have at least two people- or else they don’t think it’s worth it to fire up the table top grill. The lunch specials come with two strips of pork belly, plus grilled bean sprouts.

But Palsaik’s main draw is their namesake 8 flavors of pork, featuring a long wooden board with jelly roll looking servings of pork belly in a rainbow of colors. It was $40 when I had it a few weeks ago and I had been planning on writing about how it makes the perfect lunch for four (in addition to two pieces of pork belly per person, and a seafood stew, they also make a fried rice for you on the grill at the end of the meal.)  It may not be the biggest $10 lunch K-Town has to offer, and most of my Korean friends could probably polish off the dish themselves with a little help from a friend or girlfriend.   But as a way to enjoy a quality pork belly lunch with friends, it was a totally sensible lunch for $10 a person.  Sadly, though, Palsaik revamped their menu last week and the 8 flavors of pork is now $50!  Total bummer for cheap bastards Midtown Lunchers like myself, looking to eat their signature dish during lunch.  Whether or not it’s still worth it for dinner, I’ll leave to others to decide…

Check out the new menu after the jump…

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I wonder if El Compita is as good during the day as at night! Photo by Farley Elliott

• DTLA The banh mi ramen at Sai Sai Noodle Bar is pretty good [Tasting Table]
• CULVER CITY EK Valley is good homestyle Oaxacan food [Squid Ink]
• HWOOD The sour ribs at Krua Siri are tasty [Food GPS]
• MID CITY El Compita makes some great al pastor tacos [Serious Eats]
• VALLEY Looks like the trek to Pita Kitchen is worth it [Unemployed Eater]
• WESTWOOD Five Guys is now open! [Eater]
• LIST A guide to L.A.’s best coffee shops [Eater]
• LIST Taco Madness has begun!  Vote for your favorites now… [LA TAco]

The very first post on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles was khao soi (very fitting if you ask me) but do you know what the very first Midtown Lunch of all time was?  The one that kicked off this under $10 fat face stuffing nonsense almost 6 years ago in NYC?  It was Chinese food.  And not just any Chinese food, but possibly one of the most perfect Chinese lunch spots of all time.  The place was called Hing Won, and it featured a groundbreaking to me at the time two line system.  The left line was filled with mostly white people in suits, selecting Panda Express style orange chicken and egg rolls using the time tested method of menu ordering known as the finger point.  The second line was mostly Asian people, ordering from a bilingual menu of Chinatown style roasted meats, soups and noodle dishes featuring stuff like sichuan pickles and bitter melon.  Nothing over $7 (at the time), everything delicious.  And when they added Roast Pig over rice to the menu, it might have been the best day of my lunching life.  (And yes, there is a difference between char siu roast pork and roast pig.)

Head into Chinatown or the SGV and these places might be everywhere.  But for an eater trying to keep my lunches centralized, I would gladly cut off my Chinese food pointing finger for a Mid City equivalent to Hing Won.  Beef rolls from 101 Noodle are nice.  And I’ve had a few decent meals at Hop Woo.  But where’s the roast pig over rice?  Hell, I’d even settle for a decent roast pork over rice.  So when I saw Eater’s “Best Chinese Food Outside of the SGV” post last month I got super excited. Could the answer to my prayers be contained within?   I was a little concerned that Hu’s Szechuan made the list (the place is down the street from my house and kind of terrible), but the description of BBQ Unlimited #2 on Melrose in East Hollywood sealed the deal:

“A picture perfect hole-in-the-wall [with] steam baos for less than a $1, Cantonese style noodle soups, and cheap char siu pork that’s actually roasted.”

I’m there.

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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 Diane, a paralegal who is about to move to Paris. Also we couldn’t decide between the two photos Diane sent, so if the corn dog photo isn’t enough you get a second bonus photo after the jump…

Name: Diane

Age: 25

Occupation: Paralegal

Where in L.A. do you Work?: At a law office in Downtown (7th & Fig area), though I am currently working remotely from Santa Monica, and will shortly be doing so from Paris!

Favorite Kind of Food: Carbs and fat. Hurrah!

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Raw onions.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Mendocino Farms is always fantastic, though the lines have been egregiously long lately. The pork belly bahn mi is absolutely the best sandwich in town. It’s a Wrap and Green Hut Cafe are also close, cheap, and dependable, and even faster if you call in your order. We have a food truck lot on 7Fig that has different trucks daily, but our favorites are Auntie’s Fry Bread (they’re like savory donuts filled with taco ingredients — amazing) and the Ludo Truck.

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Just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier on Sawtelle, I stumbled upon this last week: Gottsui, the previously dinnertime only Tokyo okonomiyaki chain, is now open for lunch!  But before Japanese egg pancake fanatics get too excited over this new West L.A. lunch option, you should know they’re not serving okonomiyaki.  They’re serving ramen.  (I warned you it was about to get crazy.)  With the lines at Tsujita getting longer and longer by the day, you can see how a place on Sawtelle with no lunch business would be tempted to do lunchtime only ramen.  But with Ramen Jinya opening soon, Gr/eats becoming a tsukemen spot, and no standout lunchtime okonomiyaki to speak of in the area, the decision seems questionable at best.

What could they possibly do to make their ramen stand out on this soon to be ramen packed street?  Bring on the beef!

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