Midtown Lunch

As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week it’s Christine, a grad student who works in Azusa but appears to be an expert on K-Town lunches.

Name: Christine (aka choisauce, aka olivejina)

Age: 28

Occupation: Psychotherapist, Grad Student

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Azusa for school/work and when I’m working from home, Pasadena.

Favorite Kind of Food: Almost anything soupy (especially thai boat noodles, hot pot, ramen), offals (again boat noodles, spicy sichuan, tacos!), anything and everything made by my Korean grandmother.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Only two foods I refuse to eat: bitter melon and durian. No and no.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: When I’m in Azusa, Country Chicken and Ribs BBQ (994 E Alosta Ave) has one of the best lunch deals in town which is a MASSIVE box of delicious brontosaurus sized ribs, moist bbq chicken, coleslaw, rice with gravy & biscuit for a mere $5! I also love that one of my favorite chicken places, Dino’s (original on Pico/Berendo) has another location in Azusa (another massive box of nuclear orange chicken, fries, coleslaw, tortillas for $5). Ironically enough, I’m not a big fan of chicken unless it’s fried so it’s saying a lot that I love LOVE these two places.

On the days I’m working from home, I have the nice luxury of being able to drive anywhere my appetite takes me.

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It only took one visit to Tahoe Galbi for me to rethink my position on the ubiquitous $10 All You Can Eat Korean BBQ lunch.  It’s not that I thought I wouldn’t be down with all you can eat Korean BBQ (how could it possibly be bad!?)  It was more me lamenting the fact that there weren’t any proper under $10 Korean buffets in Los Angeles.  I’m an old school buffet enthusiast, not just for the all you can eat aspect but also for the form itself.  Like carts at a dim sum palace, much of the joy I take from eating all I can eat is the buffet line itself.   But even though Tahoe converted me to this new way of gorging myself, it was clear it wasn’t going to be the end all be all $10 Korean BBQ spot of my dreams.  Room for improvement seemed possible, and it was then I decided I would need to try *all* of the $10 AYCE Korean BBQ spots in Koreatown before I’d be truly satisfied.  (You know… for science.)

Back in May Lunch’er “djjewelz” recommended Choi Ga Neh in the ML Forums, so I figured that would be as good a place as any to continue my quest.

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Photo courtesy of Katie Robbins/Squid Ink

• WEST LA Tempura House’s lunch specials and bentos look amazing [Squid Ink]
• BEVERLY HILLS Might have to break my price rules for Momed’s duck shawarma! [Squid Ink]
• CULVER CITY India Sweets & Spices has a new facade [Grub Street]
• DOWNTOWN It’s over $10 but Sugarfish is now open [Estar LA]
• MID CITY Flavors of Belize is now open [Grub Street]
• PICO/ROB Schnitzly makes some delicious potato chips [Squid Ink]
• SAMO La Monarca Bakery’s new location will have lunch options as well [Eater]
• WEST LA Which Wich is now open on Sawtella [Grub Street]
• FAST FOOD Tommy’s chili cheeseburger is a once in a lifetime splurge [AHT]

When I launched the L.A. branch of Midtown Lunch back in February one of my very first lunch trips was to the area of Fairfax known as Little Ethiopia.  The lunch I had at Rosalind’s was great, and I especially liked how even though everything was under $10 and ordered as individual lunch specials, the food still came out family style.  But as we left I couldn’t help but think we might have chosen wrong when I noticed the $9.99 all you can eat Ethiopian buffet sign across the street at Rahel’s.  “100% Vegan” is never something I enjoy seeing, but if there is one thing that will overrule the words vegan, or healthy, or salad bar, or pork-less,  it’s my four favorite words in the English language (when strung together): “All You Can Eat”.

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Even though there is technically no “Midtown” in Los Angeles and my quest for good food has no boundaries, when it comes to Midtown Lunch’ing in L.A. I’ve adopted a “between the goal posts” mentality since moving back west- trying to keep my lunches between Downtown and Santa Monica. So I never quite made it to Pal Cabron, the Huntington Park Pueblan sandwich specialist owned by the same family that owns Guelaguetza. I’ve always been curious about cemitas (most specifically, how exactly are they different than tortas?) and Pal Cabron was also given high praise by my two go-to Mexican food blogging experts. Well, last week Pal Cabron completely solved my problem by moving their operation to Koreatown- taking over the Guelaguetza space on 8th Street and Irolo in Koreatown.

Don’t mind if I do!

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As is customary on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a random reader to get their recommendations for the best spots to lunch near their work. This week it’s Shauna, a public radio marketer with some great recs for Downtown L.A.

Name: Shauna (aka “The Minty“)

Age: 35

Occupation: Public Radio Marketing

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Downtown Los Angeles, South Park

Favorite Kind of Food: Seafood, Korean, tacos, sushi, American comfort food such as meatloaf, fried chicken and the like.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Americanized anything. Americanized Chinese. Americanized Thai. Americanized Mexican. Bleh.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: I’ve been going to the Hygge Bakery (1106 South Hope Street) for sandwiches, specifically for the roast beef. I like the fresh green pepper slices in it. Corkbar (403 W. 12th) makes a great soup. Their corn and pasilla chile is wonderful. If I want to splurge, I go to Rivera (1050 S Flower St). Their shrimp and watermelon mojito salad is very good. And I like their fish tacos.

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