Midtown Lunch

The AYCE thali at Rajdhani in Artesia

DineLA asked me to round up the 10 best all you can eat deals in L.A. because… well… you know why they asked me. I’m a fat man who spends a lot of time thinking about all you can eat buffets.  The chinese food one is kind of a cop-out, so if you’ve got any other suggestions please put them in the comments. (Seriously. Please.  I’m desperately looking to find a good all you can eat Chinese buffet. Key word: desperately.)  The full list is over on the DineLA website>> 

If you are a regular reader of Midtown Lunch you know that my favorite $10 all you can eat Korean BBQ is the newest $10 all you can eat Korean BBQ.  From Don Day to Bud Namu to Man Kang, I hop from new place to new place like… well… like a short fat guy who believes that the best cheap all you can eat Korean BBQ place is the newest cheap all you can eat Korean BBQ place.  And the latest place to cross my radar is Dream, on Western near 1st Street.  They do all you can eat Korean BBQ for just $9.99, but the thing that really caught my eye was their all you can eat salad and panchan bar.

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I’m not sure if this is a sign of Bistro Laurent’s impending doom, or a brilliant case of two savvy restauranteurs helping each other to survive, but an all you can eat Indian restaurant called Mama’s Indian Kitchen is now sharing the Bistro Laurent space on Sepulveda in Culver City.  I suppose it makes sense. Owned by brunch specialist(?) Laurent Triqueneaux, the bistro never seemed to be open for the first half of the week anyway, so why not turn the space over to an Indian buffet concept on the days they’re closed.  It’s a fool proof scheme! And the best part is, it’s $9.95 all you can eat lunch and dinner (during the half of the week they’re open.)

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One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong.

Defining the characteristics of the all you can eat buffet fanatic is not as easy as you might think. Girth is part of it, sure. And I will not deny the fact that part of the reason I love eating at buffets is because they are the only restaurants in Los Angeles where I find myself squarely in the bottom 10th percentile weight-wise. But more than being fat you have to prize variety, sometimes most of the time to the detriment of quality. To most buffet aficionados, getting to eat a lot of different things is way more important than getting to eat as much as you want. But winning the game is important too, and a true buffet fan will attack a newly opened buffet like an M.I.T. card counting team takes down a newly introduced casino game.

And last week the opening of Las Vegas Seafood Buffet on Hollywood Blvd gave me a chance to put my Rules to Beating the Chinese Food Buffet to the test once again…

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When most people in L.A. talk about loving Korean food, they’re usually talking about Korean BBQ.  And even more specifically than that, all you can eat Korean BBQ.  But not all ayce Korean BBQ lovers are created equal, and opinions can range from the wildly enthusiastic (“I am a fatso… let’s do it!”) to the mildly exuberant (“You know all you can eat Korean BBQ isn’t even that popular in Korea.  It’s totally an American thing.”  “So you don’t want to go?”  “What are you talking about!?  Of course I want to go!”) to the reluctantly excited (“I’ll go… but I’m totally not going to eat that much.”) And within that group there is even a smaller subsect of ayce Korean BBQ lovers who will only eat at $9.99 all you can eat Korean BBQ places for lunch. And that’s where you’ll find me.  After all, why pay $16-25 for something you can get during lunch for just $10.  Added bonus?  You have the rest of the day to recover.

My journey to find the best $10 all you can eat Korean BBQ restaurant has taken me through many body sacrificing lunches… from Tahoe Galbi (which now features Brazilian BBQ!?), to the always reliable Choi Gah Neh, which were both blown away by newcomer Don Day, which I raved about back in June.  But after a return visit to Don Day last month left me a bit disappointed, my search for the best $10 ayce Korean BBQ lunch deal began again.  So when I read that a new Korean BBQ place had opened on Ardmore and 8th called Bud Namu, and they were offering a $10 all you can eat lunch option for a limited time only, it wasn’t long before I made it over there to stuff my face.

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If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a bit obsessed with all you can eat buffets.  Whether it’s Chinese food in Hollywood, Japanese food in Little Tokyo, Brazilian meats in Culver City, or Japanese/Chinese seafood in West L.A., I’m always down for a good challenge.  I like all you can eat Korean BBQ as well (obviously), although I do enjoy the standard steam table set up of a good buffet. The quantity.  The variety.  The challenge.  It’s like a 3 round UFC title bout. Me vs. The Buffet. It’s why I was willing to pay an unheard-of-for-me $17 (!!?!?!) to eat at Hansong Buffet in Koreatown.  It was a lot to shell out, but I can confidently say that place has not made money on me.

That being said I’d rather not make a habit of eating at $17 all you can eat Korean buffets… so when my good buddy Matt told me that a new Korean BBQ place had opened Downtown with a $9 all you can eat lunch buffet, only one thing came to mind.  Oh baby, you know what I like!

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Thanksgiving is just days away, so food blog readers should probably prepare themselves for a bunch of “Here are my favorite turkey sandwiches in L.A.” posts. (Lord knows I’ve been guilty of this in the past.)   But that’s just food blog filler.  After all, who wants to eat turkey before eating turkey?  Oh… you do?  Well, not me.  I try to limit my turkey intake to once a year, followed by a day or two of leftovers. Of course everyone has a different way of preparing for Thanksgiving.  Since we’re in Los Angeles, I’m guessing starvation is a go-to strategy for many.  Then again, for those people not eating is probably a default setting so the lead up to Thanksgiving is really just an excuse to make their eating disorder acceptable.

But don’t those people know that eating less is probably the worst thing you can do the prepare yourself for the carnage of a properly eaten Thanksgiving meal!  Stomach shrinkage?  No thanks.  We need stomach expansion.  That’s why I like to all-you-can-eat-buffet it up in the week leading up to turkey day.  And what do you know?  A new one has just opened up in West L.A.!

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