Midtown Lunch

It’s been almost two years since I moved from New York to Los Angeles, and I have to say I’m almost at the point where there is nothing I miss about lunching in the Big Apple. Sure, I’d like to have a decent $2 slice available 15 feet from the front door of my house. And I’ve resigned myself to the fact that there will never be a proper plate of chicken and lamb over rice with white sauce and hot sauce in this city- after all if the Guru can’t really find one, nobody can. But beyond that, I can’t think of too much that NYC has for lunch that L.A. doesn’t do at least as well (if not better, if we’re talking ethnic food.) And that’s especially true now that I’ve discovered Ta-eem on Melrose.

Israeli style falafel is everywhere in Midtown Manhattan, and while I finally found an excellent (albeit expensive) version at Habayit in West L.A., there was still one thing missing from L.A.’s falafel repertoire: laffa. And not the generic, store bought bullshit lavash that a lot of places around here try to pass off as laffa (I’m looking at you Pita Bar & Grill!) I’m talking the fresh baked, super fluffy, gigantic discs of bread that when rolled around falafel make a pita pocket look like a tea sandwich. So when a Kosher friend (apparently real Jews can’t eat pig, but they can have lunch with one) told me that a falafel place on Melrose served up real deal laffa, I got excited. Very excited.

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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 Adam, a TV writer who shares office space with me (at Scoops Westside.)

Name: Adam

Age: 29

Occupation: TV Writer / All-Too-Often TV Writer’s Assistant

Where in L.A. do you Work?: My couch in Marina Del Rey. Or Olympic & Bundy for my assistant gig at Parenthood (tune in Tuesdays at 10pm on NBC!)

Favorite Kind of Food: Offal. Or sushi. Or offal sushi.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Coconut… Which is strange given that I’d say the Coconut Bavarois at Red Medicine is my favorite dessert in town.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch: Near Olympic & Bundy… It’s hard not to love the Nook Burger @ Nook (11628 Santa Monica Blvd).  Tsukemen @ Tsujita (2057 Sawtelle Blvd). Or if the food truck line-up lottery right outside is feeling generous… the truffle popcorn from the Vizzi Truck. Near the Marina… Poke Poke on the Venice boardwalk has amazing Hawaiian raw tuna. I probably eat there three times a week. Get the Aloha style, add siracha, kale, avocado, seaweed and masago, then sit on the sand and resist the urge to Instagram the whole experience. If you need a pick-me up, the blue bottle coffee from Schultzie’s right next door is great. Poke Poke… best lunch in Venice.

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When Jinya opened its first outpost in Studio City back in the summer of 2010 it was a bit of a ramen revelation.  Not only was it a great bowl of soup (praised excitedly by both JGold and Rameniac) but it was also in the Valley- a particularly noodle deprived part of the Greater Los Angeles area. To say people were excited would be a bit of an understatement.  Robata Jinya came a few months later to Mid City, and even though the ramen menu was a bit more limited it filled a hole between the ramen hubs of Downtown and West L.A. But the ramen explosion of 2011 seemed to leave Jinya in the dust a bit, as the Yamadayas and Shin Sen Gumis (not to mention the sole branch of Tsujita) relegated Jinya to “good for the hood” status, but nothing to drive out of your way for.

This year Jinya looks to get back into the swing of things, with new branches coming to Sawtelle in West L.A. and the Miracle Mile section of Wilshire Blvd.  The Mid-Wilshire location opened up a few weeks ago, and is serving a quality bowl of ramen.  But it just might be their soup-less ramen dishes that makes the new Jinya a destination lunch spot in L.A.’s quickly overcrowding ramen scene.

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Photo courtesy of Damon Gambuto/AHT

• CULVER CITY The falafel burger at Rush Street is surprisingly great [AHT]
• MID CITY Angeli Caffe will also be open for lunch for its last week [LAist]
• MID CITY A first look at the new Ramen Jinya [Eating LA]
• WEHO You may be able to get away w/ 1 sando at ink.sack (but probably not) [The Minty]
• WEHO Pork dumplings are discounted all month long at Bao Dim Sum House [Grub Street]
• WEST LA If Lemon Moon is good enough for Ludo, maybe it’s good for lunch [Eater]
• MOBILE Frysmith will sport a soup only menu the week after next [Squid Ink;Eater]

I wasn’t here in L.A. for the opening of Umami Burger in 2009, but I was here for most of the aftermath.  The popularity.  The expansion.  Being named “Burger of the Year” by GQ.  The backlash.  The backlash to the backlash.  But through it all there is one thing that has always been undeniable (even though many burger snobs don’t want to admit it): Umami is a great concept. It’s a great burger.  But there are other great burgers to be had in L.A. and around the country- many of them cheaper than the $10-12 creations at Umami. In other words, it’s not going to be anything that anybody hasn’t seen before in some form.

But you know what you can’t get anywhere else in the country?  A real neapolitan pizza for $6.  And that, my friends, is why 800 Degrees- the latest concept from the Umami braintrust- will be a true game changer.  The first location of what they hope will be many opened Monday in Westwood Village, and considering how smoothly it was running on day 3 I feel confident saying that the place is completely genius. The concept.  The food. And most importantly, the price.  And what makes it even more amazing is that I completely expected it to be a shitshow.

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On April 27th, 2010 Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, the chefs from Animal, served one of my favorite lunches of the year from the Cart For a Cause Truck: a fried chicken sandwich, modeled after the delicious specimen from Bakesale Betty’s in Oakland.  Starting the next day,  I began a campaign (occasionally in public but mostly just me praying privately to the food gods) to make that sandwich available for lunch somewhere in L.A.  Anywhere.  I didn’t care.  In Feburary, Son of a Gun opened and the chicken sandwich made it onto the menu.  But like Animal, they were only open for dinner. So my campaign praying begging to food baby Jeebus continued. Well, I’m happy to report that on Monday my campaign officially came to an end.   Son of a Gun is now open for lunch, and the chicken sandwich ($11) is on the menu along with two new sandwiches that are just as good (if not better.)

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I find it hard to believe that this city can get any healthier than it already is, but somehow people in L.A. seem to dig deeper this time of year to find new, creatively disgusting ways to starve themselves.  I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions (especially ones that involve exercise or depriving myself of delicious lunches) but as a community service to those of you who are, here is a list of the healthiest* lunches I can bring myself to eat.   (*Legal Disclaimer:  It says healthiest, not healthy.  I cannot be held responsible for any weight gain as a result of eating lunches that I consider “healthy”.)

I’m not a big salad guy, but there is something about topping a salad with raw fish and Korean chili paste that makes it ok.  My favorite version of hwe dup bap right now is from Hawl Uh Kwang Jang in K-Town, and it somehow only costs $6.  So think of all the extra pounds you’ll shed if you end up with food poisoning!

More raw fish, another salad (shocker!), turkey burgers, small sandwiches, and an all you can eat buffet (yes, I’m going to try and convince you an all you can eat buffet is healthy) after the jump…

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