Midtown Lunch

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 Maggie, the Founder and CEO of Blackboard Eats– which is kind of like Groupon… if Groupon only worked with good restaurants and you just had to pay $1 to get the discount.

Name: Maggie

Age: 31 and 1/2

Occupation: Founder/Editor-in-Chief of BlackboardEats

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Venice, CA

Favorite Kind of Food: Octopus

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Canned tuna. I won’t touch it and have a hard time being around it.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Akbar (3115 Washington Blvd) for their Bhindi Masala and Chicken Tikki Masala. Irori (4371 Glencoe Ave) for their Japanese Albacore, Japanese Snapper with Shiso, and “The Maggie Special”. Gjelina (1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd) for their Tuscan Kale, Bread Crumbs, Shaved Radish, Fennel, & Ricotta Salata, P.E.I mussels with Chorizo, Confit Tomato, White Wine & Grilled Bread, and their Mushroom, Goat Cheese & Truffle Oil Pizza. Lemonade for their Israeli Couscous and Broccoli w/ Ricotta and Champagne Vinaigrette.

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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 much 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 eating lunch in this town that really annoy me.  Here are 7 of them, LAist style, for your enjoyment…

1. I really can’t stand the word clean. For example when somebody says “I like California Chicken Kitchen because it’s good clean food” that’s the kiss of death for me. But using it on a food truck? That’s taking it to a new low. Implying that street food is usually dirty as your selling point is not only dumb and tells us nothing about your truck, but it doesn’t help the industry you just became a part of.

2. Boiling Crab… why are you not open for lunch!?!? This makes me very mad!

3. “Best Fish Taco” in Los Feliz might want to consider a name change now that the actual best fish tacos in all of Los Angeles can be found right down the street.

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If you work in Culver City the lunch options just got a little better thanks to Westside Food Truck Central, a parking lot for food trucks on Washington just East of Overland.  It operates for lunch every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11am to 3pm (and dinner on Mondays from 5-9pm.)  Lomo Arigato, India Jones, Lee’s Philly, Jersey Grub and Coolhaus will be parked there for lunch today, and another 7 trucks will join them for dinner tonight.  Track the schedule via Twitter @FoodTrukCentral

Steak Bomb from Soda Pop’s. Photo courtesy of Julie Wolfson/LAist

• BEVERLY HILLS Soda Pop’s looks good, and they make their own chips! [LAist]
• BEVERLY HILLS A new branch of Saffron is now open [Squid Ink]
• CENTURY CITY Sen Asian Kitchen is now open in the CAA bldg [Squid Ink]
• DTLA Lemonade’s $1 cupcakes are great [Cupcakes Take the Cake]
• MID CITY Doughboys makes a great steak soup [Zagat Buzz]
• MID CITY Hickory sauce makes the burger at Apple Pan [Squid Ink]
• WEST LA Naan Hut is making fresh sangak!!! [Squid Ink]

Looking around at all the people in the Marina Del Rey Mendocino Farms yesterday I thought to myself what an amazing place M.F. is.  It’s one of the few places in L.A. where the fatties and the anorexics can find a common ground, and have a fast casual lunch together as one.  Sure, they have your standard L.A. salads and various vegan offerings- but there’s also the pork belly banh mi.  And the occasional draw dropping special… like the current Duck Conit Sandwich.  Sadly it’s a whopping $12.50 (!?!), aka too much for this cheap ass.  But yesterday and today they’re offering it for $9.50 if you quack like a duck at the register (and yes, they really make you do it.)  A small price to pay for this gutbomb.  Check it out in all its glory, after the jump.

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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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