Midtown Lunch

The L.A. Smashburger. Photo courtesy of A Hamburger Today

• CULVER CITY Your first look at Smashburger [AHT]
• DTLA Mariscos Jalisco has a 2nd truck now on 9th [LA Taco]
• DTLA Get 3 things for $11 at Kagura for lunch [The Minty]
• MID CITY Lemonade is coming to Larchmont… [Eater]
• MID CITY … and so is Pinches Tacos [LarchmontLA]
• MID CITY Plan Check is opening a 2nd location on Fairfax [Eater]
• SAMO Hole in the Wall Burger has moved to a new location [Unemployed Eater]
• WEHO Shoop’s European Deli has opened a 2nd location [Grub St.]
• MOBILE Wood fired pizza from a truck!? [Unemployed Eater]
• TACOS The 25 Best Tacos in L.A. right now [Food Republic]

Anybody who has eaten at Chin Ma Ya in Little Tokyo in the past year probably won’t be surprised by this news… they will be closing on January 20th.  2 1/2 years ago it may have been the best place in Downtown L.A. to get kara-age and tan tan mien, but it has been slowly going downhill ever since.  Part of me feels a little bit saddened by the news, but if it’s being replaced by Ikemen that feeling won’t last long. Goodbye old friend.

Back in August, when word broke that Hummus Bar & Grill in Tarzana was opening an “express” location on the 3rd Street Promenade, I wondered just how excited Santa Monica should really be.  After all, there was no guarantee that some of the best parts of the original (the fresh baked laffa, the all you can eat salads, the french fries in the sandwiches) would be making the journey down the 405.  Well, last month Hummus Bar Express opened on 3rd between Arizona and Santa Monica and the answer is a resounding very excited.  Santa Monica should be absolutely pickled tink. (See what I did there? Because, you know, there are a lot of pickles in Israeli food… and people say “tickled pink”, so I just took the first letter of… oh nevermind.)

As expected, there is no all you can eat salad option.  But there is enough of the original in this express location to immediately make this one of if not THE best lunch option on or around the Promenade.

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There are few things in life better than a great food court, especially here in L.A. where co-workers’ taste can range from “fat IT guy who will eat anything” to “fat IT Guy who doesn’t eat meat or gluten”.  In other words, finding a place that is suitable to all of your friends is damn near impossible in this city, which makes food courts the best.  Everybody gets what they want, everybody is happy.  Plus, there is never a shortage of (my personal favorite) shitty Chinese food.  What I’m saying is, I love food courts. And chances are you love them too- unless, of course, you’re some kind of communist.

So when I heard that DTLA’s new food court inside Fig at 7th had opened I was pretty excited.  Food courts have been getting progressively better over the past few years, either by incubating interesting new gourmet concepts (like Century City) or bringing in delicious transplants from ethnic neighborhoods (like the Fox Hills Mall).  Fig + 7th seems to be doing a little bit of both.  But deciding what I wanted to eat proved a little bit easier than I expected.

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• TACOS Marisco Jalisco’s shrimp taco is the taco of the year [Great Taco Hunt]
• BRENTWOOD Curry House CoCo Ichibanya is coming soon to Wilshire [Grub Street]
• DTLA Ikemen is expanding to Little Tokyo [Eater]
• DTLA Grand Central Market is getting a massive overhaul [LAT]
• DTLA Bar Ama is open for lunch! [Grub Street]
• DTLA Uncle John’s Cafe makes a great wonton soup [The Minty]
• DTLA Umamicatessen’s b’fast sando might make me break by $10 rule [The Minty]
• ECHO PARK First look at the new Guisado’s [Grub Street]
• ECHO PARK TiGeorges is closing up shop [LADTN]
• HWOOD The 10 best things to eat in Thai Town [Squid Ink]
• HWOOD Jon Shook recommends Ruen Pair and Mario’s Peruvian [Squid Ink]
• HWOOD A look at every single hot dog on Pink’s menu [Serious Eats]
• KTOWN Castle BBQ now has a 2nd $10 ayce location [Grub Street]
• WEST LA Hannosuke makes JGold’s top 10 of 2012 list [LAT]

This time of year it’s natural, even for professional fatsos like myself, to be feeling a bit gross. So it’s become a custom to post a list of the healthiest Midtown Lunches I can bring myself to eat as a public serve to our readers looking to start off the year a bit healthier. Of course my idea of healthy differs a bit from the average Angeleno, but in my defense the title of the post isn’t “healthy” lunches. It’s healthiEST lunches, which on this website could be medically questionable. In other words, if avoiding carbs is your preferred method of getting healthy, you may want to avert your eyes. If, on the other hand, you consider carbs to be healthy by virtue of their not being fried, read on! This list is for you…

1. Bun from NongLA. Vietnamese food is one of those completely unique cuisines where my preferred dish also happens to be one of the healthier things you can order. Boiled noodles, grilled meat or shrimp, veggies, and nuac cham. That’s one small step removed from a salad in my book. The version at NongLA is not as good as what you can get driving to Westminster or the SGV, but it’s the best in West L.A. for sure. Sadly it’s next to impossible to order this dish without getting the fried spring roll. If you don’t tell anybody, I won’t. 2055 Sawtelle Blvd, West LA. 310-268-1881

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