Midtown Lunch

If you are an L.A. BBQ fanatic, you’ve likely heard of Big Mista’s.  My first encounter with the well known caterer/farmer’s market vendor was at the 2010 Vendy Awards, where they served up plates of ribs and strips of their addictive pig candy (aka sticky sweet bacon.)  I was disappointed to discover at the time that they didn’t have a permanent location, and did most of their selling at Farmer’s Markets around the city… the only problem was, all of their weekday locations weren’t ideal for Midtown Lunch’ing. In other words, not located between Downtown and Santa Monica. And if I was going to drive 30-45 minutes for BBQ, I might as well hit up Bludso’s in Compton.

So, I was excited to hear (courtesy of Lunch’er “Bigmouth”) that about six months ago they changed up their locations- switching to Century City on Thursdays and Downtown L.A. on Fridays.  That, I could definitely do.

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It’s been over two years since the Korean chain Bibigo opened its first U.S. location in Westwood Village, bringing fast food bibimbap and spicy pork to UCLA students and Westwood office workers.  And while writers who got treated to free meals raved about it, those of us who spend any time in Koreatown were slightly less enthusiastic.  A great Westwood lunch option, no doubt.  But nothing to get overly excited about.

Staying true to its goal of becoming the McDonald’s of Korean food, Bibigo has opened two more L.A. locations since then,  Including a “casual dining” location in Beverly Hills and most recently an outpost at the Century City Mall food court. And even more recently they added a few new items to the menu at their Westwood location, one of which is worth checking out.

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Midtown Manhattan has got practically nothing on Los Angeles.  Go through my list of faves, and there is practically nothing I could get in NYC for lunch that I can’t get here. But there is plenty here you’d be hard pressed to find there (good Thai, good Mexican and great Persian food, just to name a few).  But there is one thing I do miss from working all those years in Midtown.  Street meat. Chicken and lamb over rice with white sauce and hot sauce is 100% New York City. The halal food street meat plate was invented on the streets of NYC, and it doesn’t seem to have made it past the city line.

Until now?  While walking through the Westfield Mall in Culver City the other day I couldn’t help but notice somebody eating a styrofoam tray of food that looked suspiciously like street meat!  Could this be the breakthrough we’ve been looking for?  Only one way to find out…

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