Midtown Lunch

Growing pains and early mistakes aside, when a new restaurant opens it’s pretty easy to tell if the owners know what they’re doing.  From the fanciest of the expensive restaurants, to the independently owned spot, to a new franchise of a giant chain, there are little things that let you know- ok, problems aside, these guys have their shit together.  They’ve done this before.  It’s going to work out.  It is pretty clear that the duo who started Ratata, a brand new French Cafe in Westwood, have absolutely no idea what they are doing.  You know how I know?  Because their authentically Parisian menu of sandwiches, salads, pates and pastries is way too amazing to be so cheap.

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I have a feeling the area around Overland and Palms is going to be one of my new favorite spots to eat.  There is Sushi Central (which was featured on Bobby Flay’s Throwdown), Kogi’s Chego! is having their grand opening this week (although, sadly not for lunch yet), and of course there is Simpang Asia, one of the best Indonesian spots in the city.  It might be a coincidence, but it looks like the latter is preparing for their neighborhood’s moment in the sun. At the end of last month they moved into a newly renovated space formerly occupied by their “grocery store”, which has now moved into the generic looking convenience store next door to that.  The old Simpang Asia space is going to be converted into a larger kitchen to accommodate the larger restaurant.

If that means shorter wait times on Thursdays and Fridays during lunch (the place tended to fill up pretty quickly), I’m all for it!  As for the food, well if you’ve ever been you know it’s pretty freakin’ awesome.  Check out the new digs, plus plenty of banana leaf wrapped food porn after the jump.

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Westwood Blvd is teeming with delicious Middle Eastern options, and a few weeks ago Squid Ink pitted two of the relatively new spots against each other in a shawarma sandwich battle to the death. (Technically both sandwiches “died” at the hands of a third party, but one made its killer happier than the other.)  And even though Sunin was declared the winner over Alcazar Express I was left pining for the other sandwiches mentioned on Alcazar Express’ menu.  Beef brain?  Lamb tongue?  I’m there.

(Don’t worry squemish white meat chicken addicts…  there’s that too, after the jump.)

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I distinctly remember my very first New York burrito. It was at a cheap dive called La Paloma in Hell’s Kitchen, and after a few years of living in L.A. (preceded by 9 years of eating at the very worthy Anna’s Taqueria in Boston) I pretty much thought it was terrible. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I never had a great burrito in New York. That is a “real” burrito, which to me means a giant tightly wrapped nugget in tin foil, eaten with your hands, and usually stuffed with delicious carnitas. (That’s how I do it.) Some people call it “mission style”. Or “dry” (because it doesn’t have sauce poured over the top.) I just call it a burrito.

But as time went on (I spent 5 years in New York) I could feel myself gradually becoming more accepting of New York’s burrito offerings. And by the end of my time there, I even called certain burritos “decent”- even though they probably weren’t half as good as that original burrito from La Paloma (which I claimed to hate.) Now that I’m back in L.A. I’m guessing the same thing is going to happen with pizza. Because as everybody knows, the pizza here is as bad as the Mexican food in NYC. I don’t doubt that there are decent slices to be had in Los Angeles, and of course there is now Mozza and Antica and even Bottega Louie. But those aren’t Midtown Lunches. Where do us cheap bastards go for a decent pizza lunch!?

Pitfire Pizza? Seriously?!

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