Midtown Lunch

My lunchtime wish list for this site is starting to make me feel like the captain of a leaky boat in the rain.  Just when I feel like I’m starting to make a dent in lists like this one and this one, another one comes along that just piles on more lunch options to try.  Enter this month’s “Mexican Food in L.A.” issue of Los Angeles Magazine.  Huntington Park, East L.A., and Downey are a bit too far for me to go for a weekday lunch, but there are a few recs between Downtown and SaMo that have no officially made it onto my must try list:

Top 10 Mexican Restaurants

5. Loteria Grill, 6627 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood.  I’ve been to the location in the Farmer’s Market, but maybe it’s time to finally hit up their brick and mortar location in Hollywood.  LAMag recommends the mushroom tacos topped with huitlacoche sauce, and the ones with pork rinds in chile verde.

7. La Taquiza, 3009 S. Figeroa St., South L.A. (just south of Downtown). Al pastor mulita, here I come!

8. Yuca’s, 2056 Hillhurst Ave., Los Feliz. This hut has been on my list for awhile, and seeing it here just seals the deal.  LAMag seems to think cochinita pibil sandwiches are the way to go.

10. Guelaguetza, 3014 W. Olympic Blvd, Koreatown.  Many of the house specialties are out of ML price range at this popular K-Town Oaxacan spot, but the clayuda is under $10, as are their lunch specials with mole.

None of the sandwiches, enchiladas, and tacos listed by the editors make sense as Midtown Lunches, but they do recommend the coloradito from Juquila (11610 Santa Monica, West L.A.) , and the yellow mole from Guelaguetza (see above for location).  Plus the red menudo from Monte Alban (11927 Santa Monica, West L.A.), although it’s only available on the weekends.  In the tamales category they recommend the tamal colado from Chichen Itza, just south of Downtown (3655 S. Grand Ave.), though I’m kind of partial to their tamal horneado.

If tacos is what you’re looking for Bill Esparza, from Street Gourmet L.A., takes LAMag’s editor on a 10 taco crawl that would take a weekend to get through… although Ricky’s Fish Tacos (in Los Feliz) made the cut, as did Pal Cabron, which just moved to a more central Koreatown location last week (3337 1/2 W. 8th St.)  The other realistic option for those of you who work Downtown?  La Flor de Yucatan Bakery (1800 S. Hoover St.), for their papadzul and cochinita pibil.

And if you go online, there are also a few web only extras (like a sweetbread taco recommendation by Hatfield’s owner Quinn Hatfield.)

Of course these are just the places I wanted to make note of for Midtown Lunch’ing purposes.  There are plenty more recommendations for dinner, long lunches, and weekend excursions in the magazine itself.  But for that, you’ll have to shell out the $4.95.  (It’s worth it.)