Midtown Lunch

Midtown Lunch: LA has been up and running for 2 weeks now, and not a single post about street food? Embarrassing… so on Friday I set to rectify the situation by heading to the new Downtown food truck food court on S Alameda and Traction run by the SoCal MFVA. I was excited to try India Jones, which had been recommended by Lunch’er Damara during my last week of lunching in NYC. I’m a huge fan of the kati roll (an Indian burrito/soft taco of sorts popular on the streets of Kolkata), and was worried that moving to L.A. would end my affair with the Indian street snack I had come to know and love.

Is there anything this city doesn’t have!?

Read more »

Photo courtesy of An Immovable Feast

• Slaw Dogs’ onion ring topped hot dog is calling out to me from Pasadena [An Immovable Feast]
• For super cheap burgers in Mid City, Capitol Burger is your spot [LAist]
• Dim Sum from a truck?! My prayers have been answered… [Food GPS]
• El Cholo is opening a new location Downtown [Blogdowntown]
• The Oinkster’s pastrami is a great alternative to Langer’s [Exile Kiss]
• Loteria Studio City is now open [Eater LA]
• According to “The Guru”, El Texate serves up the best selection of Oaxacan Mole in Santa Monica [Squid Link]

Longtime readers of this site are all too familiar with my quirky rules for determining what places qualify as bonafide “Midtown Lunches”.  (All you can eat buffet = good.  The *best* salad and turkey sandwiches = meh.)  But the one that looms largest is price.  There are actually multiple reasons for this rule.  #1.  I’m a cheap bastard and of the opinion that it is our god given right to a delicious and filling lunch, for under $10.  But it’s also a matter of self preservation as well.  I’m already overwhelmed with the number of must try under $10 lunches in Los Angeles.  Open the site up to every $12 lunch menu, avocado topped, boar’s head serving, salad/sandwich spot in L.A. and my head would probably explode. Plus I’m not interested in those kind of lunches.

But I’ll tell you what I am interested in.  An oyster po’boy with french fries from the Lazy Ox Canteen!  Profiled Lunch’ers “Shawna & Sonja” recommended the place, KevinEats was impressed,  “The Guru” found some things to like about it, and the L.A. Times just gave them 3 stars (and called their burger the best in town.)  How could I not?

Read more »

I’ve been in L.A. only two weeks now and I have to admit I am completely overwhelmed.  Seriously.  How do you people do it?  With so many amazing and diverse neighborhoods, serving up interesting under $10 lunches, deciding where to eat every day is completely daunting.  No matter where you work, you can travel five minutes in any direction and find some strange deliciousness… and it’s no easy task trying to keep up with it.  My wife reminded me that I felt the same way when we moved from L.A. to Manhattan, and while that time and place seems like a distant memory, I vaguely remember that being my motivation for starting Midtown Lunch.

I guess what I’m trying to convince myself is this feeling of vertigo is familiar, and eventually it will pass (at least that is what I’m going to keep telling myself!)  The problem is I keep eating at places like Sri Siam!  The recommendations keep pouring in, each one better than the next, and while some people would take joy in finding a great new spot for lunch- I kind of find it depressing.  How many Sri Siams are there out there, and how will I find the time to eat at all of them!? And most importantly how am I supposed to find time to eat at Sri Siam again! And make no mistake about it… I really want to eat there again.

Read more »

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 I’m excited to welcome Pat, not just because she runs the very excellent food blog Eating L.A. but also because she works in the same building I worked in when I was at Indie 103 (during my first stint in L.A. 5 years ago.) It was long before the food truck explosion on Miracle Mile, but I can totally relate to having way too many lunches at the Baja Fresh across the street…

Name: Pat

Age: Let’s just say I’m a longtime Angeleno.

Occupation: Editor at Variety and food blogger at EatingLA.com

Where in L.A. do you Work?: Variety, Miracle Mile

Favorite Kind of Food: Thai or any Asian cuisine

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Hot dogs, dessert

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Fresh mozzarella or meatloaf sandwich from Black Dog Coffee (5657 Wilshire, nr Hauser), the vegan BLT from Cafe Flourish (5406 Wilshire, nr. Cloverdale), the Grilled Cheese Truck, and the pork banh mi from the EatPhamish truck (Weds & Thursdays at 5900 Wilshire, nr. Ogden).

Read more »

And by the time we left, the lines were out both doors

Being a recent L.A. transplant, and a lover of street food, I was pretty excited for this past weekends L.A. Street Food Fest downtown… me and everybody else in the city! The event, which was organized by Profiled L.A. Lunchers Shawna & Sonja, was the perfect way for somebody like me to try out L.A.’s amazing (and enormous) street food scene all in one shot. Sadly by 11am (the time the doors were supposed to open) the line was already stretching around the corner, down the street, and through the main parking lot, which was full by 11:15am. Looks like V.I.P was the way to go!

Not wanting to wait on the 2 hour line (!?!) just to get in, we headed to an unsurprisingly packed Philippe’s (on N. Alameda & 10th) where it seemed like everybody waiting on line had given up on the street food festival… and no, we didn’t see any roaches!  (As for my L.A. street food craving, I guess I’ll have to pick the trucks off one by one.  Any suggestions for where I should start?)

Photo courtesy of Damon Gambuto/AHT

• (Umami Burger + truck) < $10 = heaven [A Hamburger Today]
• Ever wonder how Kyochon makes their fried chicken?  Me too! [Saveur]
• Free chai lattes from Coffee Bean today from 4-7pm [Grub Street]
• The best fries in the city are being made at a Lebanese joint in a Burbank strip mall [Daily Dish]
• Philippe’s patriarch passes away at 94… [Blogdowntown]
• … and yesterday they were closed by the DOH for a roach infestation [Blogdowntown]