Midtown Lunch

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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All the chatter about Chinese New Year is making me hungry for some Chinese food! Of course who has time to trek to the San Gabriel Valley for a weekday lunch? So here are 4 of my favorite “Chinese” lunches between Downtown and Santa Monica. (With Chinese in quotes so that when the inevitable comments come in saying that nothing in this post is actually Chinese food, I can be like “Uh… dude. Didn’t you see the quotes!?”)

DOWNTOWN: If you work Downtown you could venture into Chinatown for some orange chicken from Yang Chow, or some dim sum from Ocean Seafood or Golden Dragon. But I’ll pretty much use any excuse I can get to eat lunch at Uncle John’s Cafe, the displaced Downtown diner that pairs Americanized Chinese food w/ greasy spoon breakfast fare. Salt and pepper pork chops or char siu with home fries and eggs? Yes please. [link]

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Back in July the Westside was cautiously optimistic extremely excited about the opening of 101 Noodle Express in the Fox Hills Mall (sic). The original branch has been on JGold’s essential restaurants list for 5 of the past 6 years, and to be able to get their beef rolls without driving to the SGV is good news for those of us who live and work west of La Cienega. Of course excitement quickly turned to indifference when the branch turned out to be less than essential. The beef rolls are there, and pretty delicious (if you’ve never had the original) but too much other food court nonsense (and a menu in obvious flux) kept anybody from declaring it a worthy replacement of the original.

Well, I was back at the mall again last week doing some holiday shopping and it looks like they have finally settled on a menu, and are offering 15% off to celebrate their official “Grand Opening”. The changes are shocking but inevitable in equal measure… and let’s just say, there’s good news, bad news and more good news.

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If there is a better work day lunchtime set up than the mall food court, I haven’t seen it.  What other place can you go with your co-workers (or family for that matter) and everybody be able to get what they want.  You’re in the mood for a turkey sandwich but I want shitty Chinese food?  Food court can make it happen.  You want a salad, but I’m in the mood for- oh who am I kidding.  I always want the shitty Chinese food.  Point is, food courts have got something for everybody.

Recently food courts have taken to looking outside the standard fast food joint model that has dominated the scene for decades.  The Westfield mall in Century City is well known for their upscale food court, which features a number of interesting and kind of upscale options.  And I’ve explored the hidden mysteries of the Santa Monica Place food court.  But nothing could adequately prepare me for the announcement that 101 Noodle Express, the San Gabriel Valley institution famous for their beef rolls, was now open in the Fox Hills Mall Westfield Mall Culver City.  Could this be the Chinese food savior the westside has been praying for?

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When I moved from Boston to Los Angeles in 2004 the change was predictably jarring.  The weather?  Amazing.  People smiling? That’s crazy pants.  And the movie theater in Los Feliz?  Packed on a Tuesday at 2pm.  I love this town.  But there was one negative thing that loomed large in my stomach’s subconscious.  The lack of all you can eat Chinese buffets.  It may surprise you to learn that Boston has a ton of all you can eat Chinese buffets. It’s probably less surprising for you to learn that I really loved those buffets.  And moving here left a giant hole in my all-you-can-eat loving heart.  (Moving here also led to an immediate loss of 10 pounds; a coincidence, this is not.)

So when I read last month on Eater that a new Chinese food buffet had opened up on Western just south of Sunset (around the corner from where I used to live!!!) I got pretty excited.  The early word on Yelp sounded pretty bad, but clearly I needed to check it out for myself.  You know… for science.

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Living and/or working on the Westside has its obvious positives. You’re close to the beach. Santa Monica’s Farmers Market. Sang Yoon and Roy Choi have set up shop here. There’s great Indian food in Culver City. Japanese food fans have Sawtelle. Even Mexican food fans have Mariscos Chente, Monte Alban and Juquila. But Chinese food? Where the hell can you get some good Chinese food on the Westside? Can you even name one place?

The news that 101 Noodle Express has opened in the Westfield Culver City Mall is huge for San Gabriel Valley fans, no doubt. But that’s just noodle dishes and beef rolls. What about some straight up “Chinese” food? Enter Hop Woo BBQ & Seafood.

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Being wary of jack-of-all-trade Asian restaurants is a rule as old as not eating the bread at an all you can eat buffet.  Red flags always fly when I see sushi paired with Thai food under one roof, or Vietnamese followed by the words “and Chinese Food”.  And living in L.A. has made me even more fanatical.  Now it’s not even good enough for a place to be just Korean, or just Thai, or just Japanese.  They should specialize in one particular region or dish or style of food- like boat noodles at Sapp, or ramen at Daikokuya, or the bosam at Kobawoo. But recently I discovered a place in Playa del Rey that turns all that on its head. Meet Destini Cafe.

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