Midtown Lunch

If you work in West L.A. but don’t lunch on Sawtelle at least once a week, what is wrong with you!? Dubbed little Osaka (to Downtown’s Little Tokyo) the area is chock full of Japanese goodness.  Back in April, I went on a bit of a curry spree and I’ve been meaning to check out all the take out bentos available at the Nijiya Market.  But that was put on hold once I spotted this post about Fu Rai Bo- written by my friend Aaron the “Savory Hunter”. Hello Japanese fried chicken wings!

I don’t know much about Fu Rai Bo (apparently it’s a giant chain in Tokyo?) or Japanese chicken wings for that matter… but there was this place in New York called Tebaya that served these amazing sweet and sticky wings sprinkled with sesame seeds that were out of control.  If Fu Rai Bo was even half as good as that place, I’d be one happy fat man.

Read more »

What’s there not to love about a proper Izakaya?  Copious amounts of beer, sake and shochu to wash down plates of yakitori (chicken on a stick), karrage (fried chicken), and other assorted Japanese dishes that are too big to be considered snacks, but too small to be considered entrees.  And the best part is, they don’t rush you… so you can spend hours and hours eating and drinking, drinking more and eating more.  In other words it’s more of an after work thing, which is why most traditional izakaya don’t even open until after 5pm- although here in L.A. it seems like that word might be used more for hipness, than to describe their bar/restaurant accurately.

So when I first read about the lunch menu at Izakaya Fu Ga, a new “Izakaya” that opened recently in Little Tokyo, I had mixed emotions.  If they’re open for lunch, they couldn’t possibly be a truly traditional izakaya- right?  On the other hand, their lunch specials looked kind of awesome… and they were all around $10.  “Authenticity” (whatever the hell that means) be damned! I had to check it out.

Read more »

Is there a better area of Downtown to work near (or eat lunch in) than Little Tokyo?  It almost makes me want to get a job at City Hall just so I could work near all the great Japanese food that lines the streets between Main St. and Alameda.  I’ve already tried the porky bowl of goodness that is Daikokuya’s ramen, and the Little Tokyo Marketplace (on 3rd & Alameda) is on my radar.  But when Profiled Lunch’er “Nguyen” (who also happens to own Starry Kitchen in the Downtown Water Court) called Chin Ma Ya’s ramen one of his favorite dishes to eat Downtown, the Weller Court (nr. 2nd and Los Angeles) leaped to the top of my list.

Chin Ma Ya isn’t known for their typical Japanese ramen.  You can order a shoyu or shio ramen, but their specialty is something called “tan tan men” a Japanese ramen with a Sichuan twist (imagine a bowl of soup with dan dan noodles dumped into it, and that’s the dish.)  I love ramen.  And I love Sichuan cuisine.  So there was pretty much no way this was going to be bad…

Read more »

With all the talk of the Go Go Curry eating championships in NYC, I found myself craving some Japanese curry recently.  It doesn’t help that Hideki Matsui is a California Angel now either.  My favorite cheap curry spot in Midtown was a shrine to #55 (Go Go in Japanese) and every time he hit a home run you would get a free topping coupon.  Sadly Go Go Curry hasn’t followed Matsui out to L.A. (yet!) but thankfully there are plenty of spots to find Japanese curry out here, and the other day I ventured to Little Osaka (the section of Sawtelle btw. Olympic+Santa Monica) to try two of them in a head to head curry battle the death!

Read more »

Got this email from Lunch’er “Steve” the other day:

Hello Zach,

Ive enjoyed reading about your LA food adventures. I read in today’s post that your wife works in Westwood, which makes me think you have to try Sak’s Teriyaki, if you haven’t already.

Is it great? No. Is it a great midtown lunch? Yes. It’s sort of cavernously hidden in Westwood and is a UCLA institution. It’s a sort of like Mall Chinese food filtered through Japan.

So, what do you recommend I order?

Read more »

Ever since I was a kid growing up in Miami I have had a soft spot for mall food courts. Where else could I enjoy a pork lo mein dinner (thank you random Dadeland Mall Chinese food spot) while my brother ate a bowl of matzoh ball soup (Bain’s Deli represent!) I’m ashamed to admit it, but I still love a little Daphne’s, or Hot Dog on a Stick, or Panda Express (the king!) from time to time. But those aren’t Midtown Lunches. Food courts are havens for your lazy co-workers, who don’t want to venture just a bit farther for something good. In other words they’ve become the very thing this site is meant to fight against.

Unless it’s an Asian food court! When I hit up Daikokuya in Little Tokyo the first week I was here, the ramen recommendations started pouring in. “Daikokuya is overhyped! Go to Mr. Ramen.” “Drive down to Torrence!” “Take the Orochon Challenge!” I plan on doing them all… but first on my list was a visit to the “West L.A.” branch of Mitsuwa, the giant chain of Japanese grocery stores. Every location has a food court, and nobody is serving samples of chicken teriyaki.  There was actually a giant (and awesome) Mitsuwa in New Jersey that we used to take the bus to once in a blue moon (hello giant bluefin tuna!) but somehow I never tried Santouka- the famous Japanese ramen chain located in their food court. Thankfully they have them out here as well!

Read more »

I’ve only been in L.A. a few weeks, so I never got a chance to try the now infamous Starry Kitchen.  But it sounds right up my alley!  An underground, take out, Asian food dinner spot being run by a couple out of their North Hollywood apartment? Amazing.  Sadly (but not surprisingly) it was closed down by the Department of Health after a 9 month run, but has resurfaced as a legal lunch’ing option Downtown in the “watercourt” at California Plaza (on Grand btw. 3+4th.)

Unlike the apartment “supper club”, which only served one dish a night, the new lunch spot offers a slightly larger menu of options.  Admittedly, the “Asian Fusion” menu will make some purists cringe- and eating at a generic looking lunch place in a Downtown food court is not exactly as exciting as eating out of somebody’s illegally run apartment restaurant.  But if you work near the watercourt, and the thought of choosing between Mixt Greens or Salads 2000 one…more…time  makes you want throw up in your own mouth, you should be super excited about the arrival of Starry Kitchen.

This week’s menu, and a look at the food is after the jump…

Read more »