Midtown Lunch

If there was an award for most improved L.A. lunch scene in the past few years, it has got to be Miracle Mile.  The area of Wilshire Blvd. between La Brea and La Cienega has been completely transformed since I worked at 5700 Wilshire in 2005.   Back then it was Baja Fresh or Baja Fresh… unless of course you liked Marie Callender’s (I do not.)  Now there’s The Counter, a couple of decent looking sushi places, Five Guys is on its way, and of course the food trucks- which still line up en masse across the street from the LACMA.  But my new favorite place in the area has got to be Genki Grill, a 6 month old Asian rice bowl place on Wilshire between San Vicente and Crescent Heights.

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As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week it’s Dylan, an art director with some great recs for DTLA and the South Bay.

Name: Dylan

Age: 33

Occupation: Art director/photographer

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Self-employed/freelance

Favorite Kind of Food: Noodles!

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything that employs ranch dressing, chain-restaurants and bastardized Chinese food

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: When I was working in South Bay, I frequented Mottanai‘s shoyu ramen, Spoonhouse‘s uni spaghetti, Otafuku‘s fishcake tempura soba and Shin Sen Gumi‘s horumon motsunabe (intestine hot pot). In Downtown LA, it would’ve been Chimu (RIP), Chichen Itza and Yang Ban‘s korean beef rib soup (Fashion District). In Silver Lake/Glendale area Ricky’s Fish Tacos, cheeseburger and cochinita pibil combo at Yuca’s and Mini Kabob (mom & pop shop with only 12 seats). Finally, Koreatown area I like Myung Dong Kyoja (knife-cut noodles with ground meat/dumplings) and Soo Won Galbi‘s korean beef rib soup. My latest food fling has involved La Cevicheria in Mid-city (3 times in 2 weeks!).

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I’m a huge enough fan of Lazy Ox in DTLA, so much so that I broke my $10 rule just to eat lunch there (even though it clearly isn’t a Midtown Lunch.)  So naturally when I heard that its chef, Josef Centeno, was taking the baco- one of his signature items- and building an entire new concept around it, I couldn’t help but be super excited. The baco, which has been described by the L.A. Times as a gyro/taco/pizza hybrid, was invented long before Centeno served them at Lazy Ox as an occasional special, but the only time I’ve ever had one was from the Cart for a Cause Truck. And it was good.  Real good.  So good that when I heard Baco Mercat was in soft opening mode last week, I had no interest in waiting for them to work out the kinks.

The result?  A lunch of hits and misses.  The highs weren’t super high, but the lows weren’t super low.  And only a dick blogger would nitpick about a meal served during a soft opening period, right?  But a more fair-minded eater would probably see the potential, and give them time to work it out.  And a fan?  Well a fan would gush about how much they love the place.  (And, admittedly, I’m a fan.)

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Komida’s Tacos. Photo courtesy of Gourmet Pigs.

• DTLA Your first look at Josef Centeno’s Baco Mercat [Squid Ink]
• HWOOD Komida’s asian tacos look as good as I remember [Gourmet Pigs]
• MID CITY Short Order is finally opening next week! [Eater]
• SAMO True Food Kitchen makes a good turkey sandwich [Squid Ink]

And don’t forget to check out Jonathan Gold’s 99 Most Essential Restaurants in L.A. for 2011. A number of Midtown Lunches were new to the list this year, including Tsujita L.A. (which appears to have replaced Daikokuya!), Spice Table, and Guisados.

I’ve been waiting 7 months (!!!) for the branch of Hokkaido Seafood Buffet to open in the Westside Pavillion, so to say I was super excited when this showed up in the mail a few days ago would be a pretty big understatement. Mind you, this wasn’t some press notice or blogger preview or even a postcard addressed directly to me.  This was a “Current Resident”, bulk mail piece of 4″ x 6″ magic that left me wondering “How did they know!?”

A call to the location revealed that they will finally be opening tomorrow (Saturday, 11/12).  I know where I’m having lunch on Monday!

If the excitement for food trucks is on the decline here in L.A. nobody has bothered to tell prospective food truck entrepreneurs. Every time I hit up my favorite food truck lot for lunch it seems another (usually ridiculous) idea has placed itself on four wheels- from nachos to peanut butter topped hamburgers.  And while many early gourmet food truck fans have given up on finding anything of quality off of a truck that seems to have spent more time on their logo than researching their business plan, I still can’t help myself.  Sure, the relatively low barrier to entry has created a parade of mediocre trucks run by wannabe cooks who are in over their head- both financially and culinar-ally (yes, I just made that word up.)  But occasionally you stumble upon something so genius- I’m looking at you sushi burritos– or just plain tasty, that it restores your faith in the whole genre.  And if you work in an office near Mid Wilshire, or 26th & Pennsylvania, or Olympic and Bundy, or Overland and Washington, or 7th & Fig, being a snob about food trucks doesn’t really seem like an option.

So when I read on Grub Street that a new Japanese curry truck was hitting the street, I got a little excited.

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Obviously we here at ML believe that lunch is the most important decision you’ll make today, and I often get asked how I decide where to go. I can’t divulge all of the complex algorithms that determine whether a place is worthy of being called a Midtown Lunch, but there are a few menu items that are guaranteed to get me excited (spoiler: putting avocado on a chicken sandwich, which an improvement, is not one of them). Topping a burger with a runny egg will guarantee you a looksee. In fact, topping anything with a runny egg is good thing in my book. Putting french fries or onion rings in places where they don’t belong also brings me a lot of joy (i.e. inside falafel pitas, or stuffed into burritos). And of course, there is the all you can eat buffet- which could be the greatest form of lunchtime eating ever invented. I am a very forgiving eater when faced with the prospect of all you can eat.

Now I know what you’re thinking. “You, are a fat bastard Zach. Of course you like the all you can eat buffet!” But to be completely honest it is way more about variety than quantity. Which is why I was super excited by the $7 sampler platter being served at Guisados in Boyle Heights.

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