Midtown Lunch

Label’s Pastrami Sandwich. Photo courtesy of Facebook/Refinery29

• LISTS Label’s Pastrami is just one of the great lunches on this cheap eats list [Refinery 29 via Eater]
• LISTS The 10 Best Places for Pho in Los Angeles [Squid Ink]
• LISTS The 10 Best Tamales in Los Angeles [Squid Ink]
• MID CITY The Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is expanding [Grub Street]
• WEST L.A. Kyota Ramen is coming soon [Grub Street]
• MOBILE Hello new onigiri truck! [Squid Ink]
• EVENTS Here’s a complete vendor list for the L.A. Street Food Festival [Grub Street]

Just a friendly reminder that this isn’t the only place to follow my lunch exploits. You can also follow Midtown Lunch L.A. on Twitter and Instagram (@midtownlunchLA), where you’ll be treated to all sorts of grossness.  Follow along in real time as I stuff my face with Lebanese cocktail wieners (thanks for that one Jonathan Gold!) and tackle tough decisions, like “All You Can Eat Chinese Buffet vs. Delicious Lamb Tacos”  (spoiler alert: the lamb tacos won.)

If you’re a huge fan of Hatfield’s or find yourself lunching around La Brea often you were probably very excited to hear about the opening of Sycamore Kitchen. I’m neither, and yet I found myself kind of interested. Even though the small menu of undoubtedly gourmet sandwiches was relatively unexciting, and nothing is under $10, I still felt compelled to check out the latest “cheaper offshoot” of a famous L.A. restaurant- a trend that seemed to start with Huckleberry, and has continued with places like The Deli at Little Dom’s, Gjelina Take Away, and Ink.Sack.

In fact, it got me thinking. I’ve eaten a lot of over $10 sandwiches in the last year, something I never used to do when I worked in Midtown. I don’t know if it was the $9.75 sandwiches at Mendocino Farms that buttered me up, or the constant sunlight wreaking havoc on my brain, but regardless of the reason I am now a person that is sometimes willing to spend $12 on a sandwich. But for every great sandwich that has me justifying my newfound deep pockets, there is another sandwich that turns me into my Grandfather- grumbling about the days when you could get a sandwich at Langer’s for a nickel! (That probably was never the case, but it sounded like something my grandfather would say.)

So with that in mind, here are 5 kind of worth it sandwiches I have paid over $10 for in the last year…

Read more »

Chicken Vampiro at Mexicali Taco & Co. Photo by Garrett Snyder

• DTLA Chicken is the best way to stuff a Vampiro at Mexicali [Squid Ink]
• HWOOD Berlin Currywurst is coming to Cahuenga [Eater]
• NOHO LA Weekly discovers the awesomeness of Joe’s Falafel [Squid Ink]
• SAMO Another thumbs up for Pier Burger [Unemployed Eater]
• SILVER LAKE This ecuadorian place looks pretty interesting [The Minty]
• WEHO A new Zankou is opening on Fairfax soon, but not today [Grub Street]
• LISTS 10 Best tamales in Los Angeles [Squid Ink]

Ajrakan from Mush Bakery in Little Armenia. Photo courtesy of Food GPS

• DTLA Woori Market is a hidden gem [Brigham Yen]
• HWOOD Mush Bakery just keeps getting better and better [Food GPS]
• HWOOD Mao’s Kitchen has some great lunch specials [Unemployed Eater]
• KTOWN Yu Chic makes the mool naeng myeon [Squid Ink]
• KTOWN You can find decent Italian food in Koreatown!? [Food Marathon]
• MID CITY Your first look at Hatfield’s Sycamore Kitchen [Squid Ink;Eater]
• LISTS The 15 best Peruvian restaurants in L.A. [Squid Ink]
• LISTS 15 Hamburgers that are better than Apple Pan [LAist]

Poor 101 Noodle Express in the Fox Hills Mall.  With all the fat food blogger talk of “there is no good Chinese on the westside” one can easily see why this SGV mainstay opened up in the food court of a Culver City Mall.  Kyochon seems to be doing alright in the same location, and who doesn’t like a scallion pancake stuffed with sweet meat!?  Answer: most people who eat at the food court of the Fox Hills Mall.   Their opening menu touted turkey as a possible filling, and french fries as a possible side dish  for their famous beef rolls. It didn’t matter to true fans, who were just happy to have something resembling a beef roll on the westside.  But clearly it didn’t go over well with the food court regulars.

Fast forward a few months and the french fries were gone, along with the pan fried dumplings and a decent version of dan dan noodles.  The beef roll remained, and could now be paired with food court style teriyaki chicken and a special ground chicken dish that was actually pretty great. It was a food court fanatics wet dream.  (Translation: it was my wet dream combo… and a ton of food for $8.)

Sadly it appears that I may have been the only person is obsessed with both beef rolls and food court teriyaki chicken, who also regularly visits the Fox Hills Mall.  Because recently they unveiled a completely new menu, and my beloved combo is gone.

Read more »

Not having to drive all the way to the Valley for some fresh baked sangak is a great thing for those of us who live in L.A. proper. But being able to get solid, under $10 kebab lunch specials alongside that fresh baked Persian bread is what made Kabab Mahaleh (8762 Pico Blvd, just East of Robertson) one of my favorite 21 lunches in Los Angeles to share with people from out of town. So when I heard that a rotisserie spit had popped in their window a few weeks back, I got pretty excited. And on Friday I finally got to check it out (with a friend from out of town, of course!)

Read more »