Midtown Lunch

If you ask somebody in Los Angeles where to find the best fish taco, you can pretty much count on everybody to fall into two distinct groups:  those people who will tell you that Ricky’s Fish Tacos are the best, and those people who haven’t been to Ricky’s Fish Tacos yet.  Originally set up in a tented parking lot on Virgil in Los Feliz, Ricky has spent the past few months in Department of Health enforced exile– serving his fish tacos out of a Chinatown parking lot on the weekends, while he worked on making his operation legal.  The good news is he’s back on Virgil now in a food truck, Wednesday through Sunday from 11:30am to 4pm.  The prices are a little higher ($3 per taco) and you no longer get the added charm of watching Ricky expertly man his bubbling oil filled steel drums, but it’s a small price to pay for having our 2 Hour Taco Crawl starting point back open for business in their original spot.

It seems like Ricky is committed to his original Virgil spot for lunch, but now that he has a truck there is talk of starting to travel around for dinner.  This past Sunday night he was in Granada Hills from 5:30 to 8:30pm.  As always, make sure to check his twitter account before heading out.

Ricky’s Fish Tacos, 1400 N. Virgil. Wednesday through Sunday from 11:30am to 4pm

Left: Starting Line. Right: Finish Line.

Back in February, to celebrate the two year anniversary of Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles, I put together a list of the 21 best lunches in L.A. In addition to being a milestone celebrator and a shameful traffic builder it also meant that I now have a link I can send any friends from out of town when they visit and want to be taken to lunch. Naturally Mexican food dominates the list (6 of the 21 places), but I realized something interesting when a couple of friends from Boston visited last week. Why eat at one place, when you can eat at 5. In other words, there is a pretty spectacular lunchtime taco crawl to be had between Los Feliz and Boyle Heights. And the best part is, you not only get to try 5 completely different styles of taco, but it can all be done in two hours if you don’t dilly dally.

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It’s been a big couple of months for Ricky’s Fish Tacos, the much heralded fish taco stand that popped up last year on the sidewalk of Sunset Junction. Considered the best Baja fish taco in Los Angeles by the Taco Task Force, Ricky’s started off as a Saturday and Sunday lunchtime treat. But after a brief stint on Santa Monica Blvd., it looks like Ricky has found a permanent spot in a parking lot at 1400 Virgil (just south of Hollywood Blvd.) The rainbow umbrella is gone, replaced by three big green pop up tents, covering two big fryers… and if the last two weeks are any indication, he is now open Tuesday Wednesday Thursday through Sunday!

Last week Ricky’s kicked off the Angeli Cafe’s new series of Street Food Mondays, and tomorrow Eating L.A. (aka Profiled Lunch’er “Pat”) will celebrate their 6 year blogiversary by throwing a party at Ricky’s, with “cupcakes, free fish tacos for the first 25 readers, friends and supporters, and muy special aguas frescas”. Basically, if you work (or live) anywhere near the border of Hollywood and Los Feliz and haven’t been to Ricky’s- what the hell are you waiting for?

Fish taco porn is after the jump…

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This isn’t really about lunch, but we had to mention it for those of you who don’t work near Ricky’s Fish Tacos… Inspired by last month’s fundraiser for Breed Street vendor (and Vendy Award Winner) Nina’s Food, Chef Evan Kleiman, with the help of Bill Esparza from Street Gourmet L.A., have launched a new Monday night street food pop up series at Angeli Caffe (7274 Melrose). It kicks off tonight with an appearance by Ricky’s Fish Tacos, the famous fish taco vendor who used to only sell on the weekends at Sunset Junction, but now has a tent Wednesday through Sunday at 1400 Virgil (just south of Hollywood Blvd.)

So if you work in Mid-City or the west side, and haven’t been able to make it over to Los Feliz for a delicious fish taco lunch, tonight is your best shot at Ricky’s Fish Taco goodness (voted best fish taco in L.A. by the Taco Task Force!) Owner Ricky Pina will be selling $3 tacos from 6-10pm, while Angeli Cafe will selling beer and desserts.