Midtown Lunch

I was a big fan of Fat Spoon when it opened on 1st St. Downtown. Their Italian style pastas with Japanese ingredients, like cod roe and seaweed, filled a nice void in the Little Tokyo lunch scene, and their curry offerings were more than solid. Seemed like it was perfectly situated to pull in the spillover from their perennially packed neighbor Daikokuya. And once you toss in the fact that it was opened by the owners of Lazy Ox and Sushi Roku you would seem to have a recipe for success. Or not.  The place never took off, and during our DTLA noodle crawl last month we noticed that it was being replaced by a udon place called Monzo.

Read more »

Daikokuya just celebrated its 11th anniversary last week with $5 ramen, a deal that made those of us who already hate the lines at Downtown’s most popular ramen joint shudder.  I’m as cheap as the next guy, but even on a normal day, the waits at Daikokuya have me questioning how much my time is really worth.  Luckily it’s not the only noodle game in DTLA these days, and more and more places seem to be popping up every day.  Here are 3 of the newest:

Men Oh Tokushima

This Tokyo ramen chain opened its first L.A. location back in October in the same strip mall as Aloha Cafe and Sushi-Gen.  Fans of the super porky broth at Daikokuya might not consider it a suitable replacement, but pure ramen fans looking for something new and different will find a lot to like about this place.  Their signature ramen is a combination tonkotsu/shoyu broth, giving the soup an interesting flavor that you’re not likely to find at any other ramenya in L.A.  Toss in some thinly sliced, stir fired pork belly alongside the more typical chashu pork and you’ve got a bowl of ramen worth going a little bit out of your way for.  456 E 2nd St. 213-687-8485

Read more »

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.

Read more »

Back in May I posted a taco crawl for out of towners and locals alike; a perfect way to enjoy 5 of the best tacos L.A. has to offer, all in 2 hours. The journey starts in Los Feliz with a Baja style fish taco, and ends in Boyle Heights with a fried shrimp taco from Jalisco.  In the middle?  The best guisados, vampiro, and carnitas L.A. has to offer.  It wasn’t so much a recommendation as a glimpse into my demented eating habits.  The way I like to eat my tacos… because after eating at one, I find it hard not to crawl on to the next- each taco so cheap, and so close to the one that precedes it on the list.  The crawl is still the best way to enjoy these tacos, but two of the places have now opened 2nd locations- neither of which are too far from the original (much to the disappointment of westsiders.)

Read more »

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.

Read more »

Is it really that shocking that it’s a chore to find amazing bread in Los Angeles?  Anytime there is a portion of your restaurant-going population who pretends to have celiac to avoid eating carbs, I’m pretty sure you cede your right to being a hub for great gluten. What makes it even harder for me is that I lived around the corner from the Sullivan St. Bakery factory in NYC for 5 years before moving to L.A.  Not only did they supply bread to well known restaurants all over the city, but they also had a small takeout counter where they peddled sandwiches, breads, and pastries in a relatively industrial part of Hell’s Kitchen.  I miss it.

Or I should say, I missed it.  Bread Lounge in Downtown L.A. has filled my void, serving up sandwiches, breads, and pastries in an industrial part of Downtown (sound familiar?) And the best part is, their sandwiches make it a perfect lunching destination.

Read more »

Great news out of Park’s Finest, the upgraded from a catering company Filipino barbecue brick and mortar just outside of Downtown L.A. A few weeks ago they introduced “Worker Wednesdays”, a new lunch special that includes coconut beef, pulled pork, sausage links, chicken, cornbread, veggies and rice. And the best part is, this greatest hits platter costs just $10.  It’s only on Wednesdays, but it’s hard to complain once you see what you get for your money.  Order the special solo (or to go) and you get the borderline massive plate seen above.  Go with a big crew, and they’ll most likely serve you family style.  Last Wednesday we went as a party of four, paid $10 a piece and got this ridiculous feast…

Read more »