Midtown Lunch

Finding decent raw seafood for under $10 is one of my favorite pastimes, whether it be a great chirashi bowl, hwedupbap in Koreatown, or ceviche from a food truck. The line between good and bad seafood is not something you want to be crossing on a regular basis, so finding that perfect balance between quality and price is pretty exhilarating. So when I read about Poke Poke, a newish Hawaiian tuna bowl stand on Venice Beach, I was pretty excited. Cubes of raw tuna, tossed in shoyu and sesame oil, and served over rice for under $10 at one of the (arguably) worst lunch strips in all of Los Angeles? Yes please.

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If you like the chef’s choice style of Japanese omakase (me!), you’re a mildly adventurous eater (also me!) and you’re a cheap bastard (guilty again!) chances are you’ve heard of Wakasan in Westwood. Nobody would call it the absolute best omakase in a city that houses Nozawa, Urasawa, and Kiyokawa but it is without a doubt the best value. For $35 you are treated to a tasty mix of raw and cooked izakaya style small plates, exquisitely presented in a laid back setting that could just as easily be serving spicy tuna rolls and chicken teriyaki. Sure there are more expensive options available ($55, $75, $95) but those must be ordered a day in advance. In other words, the chef isn’t looking to up-sell and sticker shock is not a concern. This place is meant to be a bargain, and it really is.

So you can imagine how excited I was when my buddy Sam told me that they recently started serving lunch, and it turns out, unsurprisingly, to be just as much of a steal as their dinner. Wakasan’s take on ramen and the bento box… after the jump.

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Exploring other cultures through their cuisine is one of the most fun things about eating, and one of the most exciting things about L.A. is how many restaurants you can find who are making food from other continents without dumbing it down for the American taste buds. But not all adapted dishes are bad… and hybrids can end up being just as delicious as something that is supposedly “authentic” (after all,  if you look back far enough every dish we call “authentic” today likely has roots outside of its country of origin.)  If the Chinese didn’t try to make Chinese food for Americans, there would be no orange chicken from Panda Express (it’s horrible to even think about it.)   Japanese?   Spicy mayo *is* delicious on everything!  And Mexico?  Well, if you haven’t tried the hard shell goodness of Tito’s Tacos you haven’t lived.  Oh, and don’t get me started on New York pizza.

The best part is, we’re not the only ones that do this.  In Korea they have their own version of Chinese food that is awesome (jjanjangmyeon anybody?)  And they have their own version of sushi (kimbap) and a bibimbapped version of the chirashi bowl (hwedupbap).  Kimbap is something I’ve been eating for awhile, but I’m kind of new to the whole hwedupbap thing- raw cubes of fish served salad style over rice with veggies and red pepper sauce.  Sadly- just like sushi, the best versions of hwedupbap are going to be over $10 (like the one at Guru approved A-Won).  So when I heard that Ssing Ssing (on Vermont & 7th in K-Town) made a good version for $9, I was pretty excited.

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Yesterday I needed a car wash, and what better way to kill two birds with one stone than with a car wash lunch!?  I kind of love how a ton of car washes places in L.A. have little lunch spots attached to them, and I’ve been obsessed with trying as many of these places as I can.  Am I saying that lunch dictates where I am likely to get my car wash?  Yup.  That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Crunchy Sea is a great car wash option in Koreatown, and I’ve been really wanting to try the barbecue place attached to the Handy J car wash in West L.A. (even though I’ve heard bad things.)  But yesterday I was hell bent on checking out a sushi place that I was told about by Josh from the blog Food GPS.  That’s right… car wash sushi!  How could this be bad? (You know what… don’t answer that.)

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On Monday Grub Street dropped a bombshell of awesomeness– a new food truck has opened in L.A. called Jogasaki, selling… wait for it… wait for it… sushi burritos. I’m guessing “awesomeness” isn’t the word everybody would choose to describe a sushi burrito. Perhaps to you it sounded like another stupid new food truck, with an ill advised idea, by some deluded individual trying to discover the next Kogi in the worst place imaginable. To me, it sounded like the greatest idea of all time. Does that make me crazy? (Apparently it does.)

What can I say? I am no stranger to eating sushi from a truck, and I’m a firm believer that wrapping anything in a gigantor tortilla makes it better (french fry burrito anybody?) And yesterday I got a chance to put my theory to the ultimate test. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself for… the SUSHI BURRITO.

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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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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.

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