Midtown Lunch

If you’re a Mayer Hawthorne fan and a burger fan you’ll be interested to know that tomorrow is the last day his special burger will be available at Umami.  The burger, which comes topped with cognac-infused parsnip puree, cognac fondue sauce, hatch chiles and chile straws, was reintroduced this month to promote his new record “Where Does This Door Go”. The burger is available at The Grove and Hollywood locations of Umami.

Here’s what else is going on in lunch these days…

• DTLA La Morelianas in the Grand Central Market makes some good carnitas [LAM]
• DTLA Loteria and Torta Co. coming soon to Figat7th [Eater]
• KTOWN Cho Man Wan serves up great dumplings and jjanjangmeyon [LAT]
• LOS FELIZ The Palace has SGV style lunch specials!?! [Clarissa Wei]
• SILVER LAKE Black Hogg has a lunchtime sandwich menu called Sopressata [Squid Ink]
• VENICE Look who finally discovered El Huarique! [LAT]
• WEST LA Sushi Stop is opening a Shabu Shabu place on Sawtelle! [Eater]
• WESTWOOD 800 To Go opens on Tuesday w/ an expanded sandwich menu [Eater]
• MOBILE Ricky’s Fish Tacos is the best taco in America… [Daily Meal]
• MOBILE … and soon they’ll be getting their own truck! [Squid Ink]
• FOOD IS THE NEW ROCK I podcasted w/ Grant Achatz at the L.A. Food & Wine Fest last weekend [FitnR]

Photo courtesy of Clarissa Wei

Sad news about one of our favorite lunches near Amoeba Records, and one of the best chirashi deals in all of Los Angeles…  Clarissa Wei, from KCET and the L.A. Times, reported yesterday that Murakami Sushi will be leaving their current location (on Wilcox just north of Hollywood Blvd.) at the end of September, and hope to find a new location by then. Hopefully the rent will be just as cheap at their new location so they can continue to charge such amazing prices.

Related:
Murakami: Hollywood’s Surprising Sushi Gem
My 5 Favorite Lunches Near Amoeba Records

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier on Sawtelle in West LA, signage went up a few months ago announcing that Daikokuya would be opening just down the street from Tsujita, considered by many to be serving the best bowl of ramen in Los Angeles.  It’s enough to make ramen geeks squeal because while Tsujita is clearly serving the noodle bowl of the moment, Daikokuya’s ultra popular downtown location could be considered the ramenya that started it all here in Los Angeles.

A month ago the new West L.A. location of Daikokuya soft opened for dinner, but they didn’t start serving lunch until two days ago. And by day two the place is already packed. Check out the menu after the jump…

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Hart & the Hunter is one of my favorite restaurants in all of L.A., not just for their smoked trout, their ridiculous biscuits, and their addictive chicken cracklins. But also because you could get at least two of those three things during breakfast and lunch, even though it was pretty clear from the beginning that they were probably only serving food during the day to satisfy some kind of contract with their hotel landlords. Naturally the lunch menu also sported a few of their more popular salad offerings (brussels, cauliflower, pickled shrimp) and you could get their hangar steak as a salad’ish bowl. Certainly not the food that earned them a reputation as one of the coolest restaurants in the city, but good enough to get us hardcore fans to schedule lunch meetings and coffee meet ups there.

Well, just short of their one year anniversary, Hart & the Hunter has revamped their lunch menu and it now actually has a few things that might make the dinner crowd a bit jealous!

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Tsukemen from Tsujita Annex. Photo courtesy of Amy Scattergood

• TSUKEMEN This guide to dipping noodles has a few we missed back in 2011 [Squid Ink]
• CULVER CITY Smashburger has gone downhill [Mattatouille]
• HWOOD Fat Sal’s is now open on Highland [Eater]
• VENICE Pork Belly’s signature sandwich is simple but good [Food GPS]
• VENICE El Huarique makes one of the best ceviches in L.A. [Serious Eats]
• WEST LA A famous Japanese tonkatsu purveyor is coming to Sawtelle [Eater]