Midtown Lunch

Back in January I was pretty excited to read about a new Thai place Downtown called Esaan: A Taste of Thai.  From the sounds of the Squid Ink article (which I now realize I might have only skimmed) it sounded like Essan would be perfect for Downtown lunchers who didn’t want to make the trek up the 101 to Thai Town.  The name didn’t hurt either.  I’m no expert on the regional cuisines of Thailand but “Esaan” sounds pretty authentic- right?  Inclusion in Saveur’s 24 Hours of Thai Food in L.A. sealed the deal- I needed to check this place out.

Sadly, on my first visit I realized the truth.  There is no mistaking Essan for a real taste of Thailand (or even Thai Town.)  It’s a straight up fast casual sandwich and salad place that transforms Thai (and Vietnamese) dishes into yuppified lunches that would be deemed acceptable by the Downtown L.A. lunch crowd.   Case in point?  The “Pad Thai Salad”, a salad featuring “classic pad thai ingredients” tossed with spaghetti (yes, you read that right.)   It could easily be considered an abomination, except for one thing.  I kind of loved it.

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Last month Spice Table launched for dinner in Little Tokyo to a modest bit of hype.  Opened by a former Mozza sous chef, the Vietnamese/Singaporean inspired restaurant seems to share DNA with current popular new places like A-Frame, Lukshon, Night + Market, and Red Medicine, offering up a high quality, Asian-inspired menu in a hip Downtown environment.  The dinner menu, a smallish affair featuring noodle bowls, satay, vegetables and seafood dishes, was reasonable enough to give me hope that their long awaited lunch menu just might be within the ML price range (aka under $10).  So when Brand X announced on Friday that they had finally opened for lunch, I rushed right over.

And not only was everything under $10, from day one Spice Table is already one of the best lunches in Downtown L.A.

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I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since Uncle John’s Ham & Eggs was forced out of their old school diner and into the kind of scary looking Hotel Stillwell (on Grand between 8+9th). The gussied up decor ruins a bit of the charm, but the old hotel more than makes up for whatever “weirdness” they might have lost in the transition. Their Chinese/American diner food mash up is still one of my favorite places to eat in Downtown L.A., but it turns out it’s not the only great lunch to be had in the hotel.

As a big fan of buffets, I couldn’t help but notice the old sandwich board outside the hotel promoting Gill’s Indian Buffet. I don’t usually get turned off by the sketchiness of a lunchtime scene, but the lobby isn’t exactly inviting and the thought of walking into the bowels of an abandoned looking hotel searching for an Indian buffet had horror movie written all over it. But the $7.95 price tag (and my all you can eat loving gut) eventually won and this past Friday I finally gave into the lure of the Stillwell Hotel’s Indian buffet.

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Back in August, we got Betty Hallock from the L.A. Times to be one of our Profiled L.A. Lunch’ers, and she responded by giving us an amazing list of lunch suggestions in Downtown L.A.  Ever since then I’ve been using it as my de-facto guide to Little Tokyo, and yesterday I finally got to cross Yakitori Koshiji off my list.  I love me some chicken parts on a stick- but Yakitori places are traditionally after work drinking kind of spots. So often it’s tough to find an authentic one that is not only open for lunch but also gives you a filling amount of food for under $10.  That’s why I was super excited to discover that not only is Yakitori Koshiji open for lunch from 11:30am to 2pm (in the Weller Food Court on 2nd btw. Los Angeles and San Pedro), but they also have a bunch of lunch specials under $10.

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Being the cheap bastard that I am means not spending more than $10 on lunch.  That’s why I spend so much time sussing out Thai Town, Koreatown, dirty sushi holes, and food trucks.  But I also get excited when an otherwise expensive restaurant provides some kind of Midtown Lunch loophole.  A way for super cheap fatsos to get a “quality” lunch (whatever that means) but still only spend under $10.  You wouldn’t think Bottega Louie, the famously gigantic white marble Italian restaurant with a French patisserie (?) on the corner of 7th and Grand, would fit the bill.  And yet, with some savvy ordering even a fat guy like me can leave satisfied and less than $10 in the hole.

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When I first moved to Los Angeles from NYC and decided to keep doing Midtown Lunch I had a decision to make.  Do I focus on one specific area, like Downtown (the Midtown of L.A.), or do I try to cover a larger area of lunching- thereby making the site as useful as possible to as many office workers as possible.  In the end, people convinced me that Downtown L.A. was no Midtown, and I selfishly decided to cover the area from Downtown all the way to Santa Monica.  Well, I’m starting to think that might have been a huge mistake!  Downtown L.A. is kind of amazing, and every time I’m there for lunch I think about how much I wish I worked there full time.  (No, this is not April Fool’s.)

Just like Midtown Manhattan, Downtown L.A. pretty much has everything.  Your ethnic enclaves (Little Tokyo, Chinatown), your new generation chains (Mendocino Farms, Starry Kitchen, Gram & Papa’s), and your old school classics (Philippe’s, Cole’s, Grand Central Market, Clifton’s Cafeteria, and Uncle John’s Ham’s and eggs).  But even more important than all that, Downtown L.A. is dotted with all sorts of dirty looking, semi-hidden gems. Places that probably won’t survive their next lease renewal, but until that day comes continue to serve up cheap and tasty lunches to longtime regulars, and those of us newcomers with adventurous stomachs. Places like Wow Bento & Roll, my newest DTLA lunch discovery.

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Ask anybody who works Downtown where to get the best Korean food in the area and they’ll likely tell you to put your lazy ass into a car and drive to K-Town.  On a good day, it’s less than 10 minutes away. But not everybody has the luxury of time (or a car, for that matter), so for those people I’d say- Have you been to It’s a Wrap?  That’s right.  You wouldn’t necessarily know it by the name or the outside signage, but It’s a Wrap (on 7th btw. Flower & Fig) serves cheap, decent Korean food, in Downtown L.A.

I first heard about this place thanks to Profiled Lunch’er “Shauna” (aka The Minty) who recommended their spicy tofu soup.  Soondubu from a place called It’s a Wrap?!  I was instantly excited. Korean food hidden inside generic sounding delis is completely normal in Midtown Manhattan, so hearing about this place triggered an immediate (and all too familiar) craving.

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