If I had to make a list of places in L.A. where I felt least likely to find a delicious lunch, a food court on Venice Beach would probably be top 5. Unless, of course, you like shitty pizza, old hot dogs, or sun chips covered in melted cheese masquerading as nachos. Even the “branch” of Chicago’s famed Mr. Beef was a dud, closing almost as quickly as it opened. So when I read on Grub Street that a new Peruvian spot had opened up in one such food court (on Westminster and the Ocean Front Walk) I got mildly excited. Poke Poke is my goto lunch when I find myself down on Venice Beach, but it’s always good to have a back up. Especially if that backup is lomo saltado and a decent ceviche.
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I try to be positive here on Midtown Lunch… and I freakin’ love this city. The food is amazing, and there’s no better place to be a “Midtown Lunch’er”. But as much as I love most of the food in L.A. (and will defend it to the death against any outsiders, or natives with an inferiority complex) there are some things about lunching in this town that really annoy me. Here are 7 of them, LAist style, for your enjoyment…
In a terrible blow to Food Court fans and Westside Korean fried chicken lovers, the Kyochon in the Fox Hills Mall Food Court has closed. As a food court fanatic and Korean fried chicken fan who lives on the westside, it’s a double blow. It’s hard to believe that, with all the complaining people do about the lack of authentic Asian food on the Westside, Kyochon couldn’t survive. What’s even more upsetting is the realization that if Kyochon couldn’t make it, what chance does 101 Noodle Express have. And, really, what chance does any great food court in L.A. have. Fox Hills Mall was supposed to be that beacon of light, showing the path to other crappy mall food courts (I’m looking at you Beverly Center.) It’s enough to set a guy off…
6 more things I hate about L.A. right now, are after the jump.
Posted at 10:31 am, February 4th, 2013 under 7 Reasons to Hate L.A., Culver City/Mar Vista, Kyochon, Sqirl.
A Bowl of Ramen “So far ahead of its competition…”
I think we are finally at the point where we can stop saying that L.A. isn’t a great pizza town. Mozza, Sotto and Olio can go head to head with any of the best Neapolitan pizzas in NYC, a city which doesn’t even have an 800 Degrees equivalent yet! Great deep dish pizza can be found at Masa or Hollywood Pies, and slice fans can take their pick between Vito’s, Joe’s, and Mulberry Street. Even Slice Truck and Pizzanista are good enough. But I understand where the stereotype comes from. In New York, serviceable slices of pizza are found on every block of every neighborhood, ready to be eaten on the go for lunch or as a late night booze sponge. New Yorkers have pizza the way we have tacos.
But just like New York has plenty of Mexican restaurants, L.A. has plenty of pizza places. In every strip mall of every neighborhood you can get a slice. The problem is, more often than not the pizza is pretty terrible. Gross sauce, flavorless cheese, and don’t even get me started on the dough. If you don’t live or work near one of the places above, it’s a sad state of affairs to be a slice fan in L.A. So when I stumbled into Apollonia’s, an 8 month old pizza shop in the same mid-wilshire strip mall as Jinya I had pretty low expectations. Not just because I had never heard of the place but… well actually that’s it. Because I had never heard of the place. And if none of the L.A. pizza cognescenti are talking about a pizza place in such a high traffic area of town, how good could it be?
Posted at 9:37 am, January 31st, 2013 under Apollonia's, Mid-City/Miracle Mile, Pizza.
If you are a coffee or preserves fanatic then you likely have heard of SQIRL. This tiny daytime only cafe on Virgil and Melrose has taken the L.A. food world by storm over the past few months, with their local and artisanal jam covered toasts, bowls of oatmeal, and sugar free G&B coffee. It’s kind of amazing to see some of the stuff that comes out of this tiny space, and the jam is almost good enough to make you forget how much you’re paying for a piece of bread with preserved fruit on it. It might not be something I can afford to eat every day for breakfast, but it’s a worthy splurge to say the least.
But the price isn’t going to be the thing that keeps me away from Sqirl. More often than not it will probably be Wah’s Golden Hen, the dirty old Chinese food spot that you may or may not have noticed across the street. With it’s sign that touts “chicken & shrimp” Wah’s fits into the neighborhood in ways that Sqirl never could (for now anyway.) And it happens to serve the greatest Chinese food lunch special I have ever found in L.A.
Posted at 12:00 pm, January 29th, 2013 under Chinese, Hollywood, Silver Lake, Wah's Golden Hen.
And speaking of FIGat7th, I’ll be on Good Food w/ Evan Kleinman this weekend talking about all the different options at the new DTLA food court… because… well… I love food courts. The show airs Saturday morning at 11am on KCRW, or you can stream the episode after it airs on their website.
