Midtown Lunch

Between Pico’s Kosher corridor and the Valley there has never been a shortage of good falafel in Los Angeles.  And the past few years have seen some new spots worth getting excited about (Joe’s Falafel in 2012, Hummus Bar Express in 2013). But since the beginning of the year there has been an explosion of new and delicious Israeli falafel joints, enough to make it feel like L.A. might be on the brink of having a falafel moment.  Here are four new’ish falafel places all worth checking outm and, if that isn’t enough, the chef behind New York’s best falafel is doing a series of dinners  in L.A. week.  Details about that are at the end of the post…

The Newly Expanded

Name: Ta-eem
Address: 7422 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles
Phone: 323-944-0013
Falafel in Pita Price: $6.95
Laffa: Yes ($9.95)
This popular but tiny falafel shop on the lunch (and t-shirt) wasteland that is Melrose Ave. isn’t tiny anymore. At the end of last year this small lunch counter with limited seating took over the hair salon next door, and morphed into a full fast-casual restaurant with plenty of room and loads of places to take a load off.  The one thing that didn’t change? The delicious menu of shawarma, kebabs, merguez and, of course, falafel, topped with their vast assortment of salads, and all served on fluffy Israeli style pita or laffa.

Read more »

If you are one of those people who always felt like Eagle Rock was too far to drive for pastrami sandwiches, pulled pork and crazy burgers, you’ll be excited to discover that The Oinkster just opened a new Hollywood location on La Brea just north of Melrose.  The menu from the original has made it over mostly intact, complete with sandwiches, salads, fries and milkshakes. The rotisserie chicken is still Eagle Rock only, but to make up for it they’ve made some of the more popular specials from the the original location into permanent menu items at the new branch- like the Thanksgiving Burger (a turkey burger topped with celery sage relish and cranberry sauce) and the pork adobo burger (a burger topped with pork adobo.)

But is this is your very first visit to the Oinkster, you’ll probably end up going with their namesake sandwich.

Read more »

At the beginning of the year, Los Angeles finally got its very own NYC style chicken and lamb over rice cart. They’re still spending nights in Hollywood, but those of us looking for a lunchtime street meat fix have been SOL… until now, that is.  Yesterday Chicken & Rice LA opened a brick and mortar shop on N. Figueroa just up the street from Dodger Stadium.  They took over an old pizza place, so in addition to their plates of chicken and lamb over rice with hot sauce and white sauce, there is also pizza.

Which means, there’s also… drumroll please… chicken and rice pizza.

Read more »

Newport Seafood House Special Lobster. Photo courtesy of Noah Galuten

Yesterday some huge news broke for those in the “there’s no good Chinese food on the Westside” camp. Newport Tan Cang, the super popular SGV seafood restaurant that specializes in crab and lobster, is opening a branch in Beverly Hills in the old Xandros space. It’s  great news for those of us who live or work on the westside and don’t feel like traveling east of Downtown for our Chinese food fix.

This is actually just the latest in a series of new developments west of Fairfax, that make complaining about the lack of Westside Chinese food feel almost outdated. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a long way to go. And most of the improvements still come with “it’s not as good as what you would get in the SGV” caveat. But in addition to the Newport news, here are four more arguments against the old stereotype…

Read more »

Are you in there Kris Yenbamroong?

If you’re at all curious about the food at Coachella this year, I’ll be eating my through the festival this weekend over on Food is the New Rock an an official Tumblr site for the festival.  Night+Market, Sugarfish, Baco Mercat and Mexicali Taco & Co are just a few of the L.A. vendors added to the festival this year in an effort to up their food game, but I’m sure I’ll also be able to find space for a slice of Spicy Pie, crab fries and a corn dog.  Follow along at www.foodisthenewrock.com 

The transformation of Downtown L.A.’s Grand Central Market into a world class dining destination has continued unabated over the past few months.  For people like us it was always a great place to eat lunch, with pupusas, pork tacos, and wonton soup that made getting summoned for jury duty that much more bearable.  But with the addition of Sticky Rice and Eggslut, Valerie’s and Horse Thief BBQ it has become an actual lunchtime destination, one that seems ready to deliver on the PR promise of becoming L.A.’s version of San Fran’s Reading Terminal Market.

A bunch has happened since the last time I visited the market, pulling me back for 3 lunches over the past few weeks.  Here are the last 5 things I’ve eaten at GCM (and the next 2 things on the docket.)

Read more »

Even though 2014 is barely 3 months old, Zagat is already compiling data for their 2015 reviews and they are looking for your help. Know Los Angeles lunch like the back of your hand? Zagat is looking for local experts to take their L.A. Restaurants Survey. Not only could your comments be quoted in an official Zagat review, but everybody who takes the survey will get $10 off a qualifying Gilt City purchase. In addition the wittiest review will win a FREE Nexus 7 tablet. You need to complete the survey by May 8th, 2014. So what are you waiting for?!

Click here to get started>>