Midtown Lunch

Did you know you can now eat in at Chego during lunchtime?

Its there anything more exciting than when your favorite neighborhood lunch spot, the one that you’ve eaten at a million times, changes up their menu?  Most places will do it gradually or with the seasons, subtly swapping out a few dishes here and there.  Of course there is nothing subtle about Roy Choi’s food, so nobody should be surprised that the new menu at Chego (which just launched yesterday) amounts to a bit of an atom bomb explosion.  Sure, we were warned weeks ago on the Kogi blog that it was coming.  But now that it’s here, it’s hard not to be excited and overwhelmed by all the changes…

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I try to be positive here on Midtown Lunch… and I freakin’ love this city.  The food is amazing, and there’s no better place to be a “Midtown Lunch’er”.    But as much as I love much of the food in L.A. (and will defend it to the death against any outsiders, ornatives with an inferiority complex) there are some things about lunching in this town that really annoy me.  Here are 7 of them, LAist style, for your enjoyment…

1. First bagel pizza, now this. You’re not fooling anybody Abbot’s.  The saddest thing is, if I was going to eat a salad I would want it to be served on top of cheese covered baked dough.  Does that make this genius?  I don’t even want to think about it…

2.  If nobody is allowed to serve a $14 pastrami sandwich within 2 miles of Langer’s, than fair is fair.  Nobody is allowed to open a ramen/tsukemen combo within two miles of Tsujita.

3. Ink.sack has a bread-less sandwich option!?  Et tu, Michael Voltaggio?

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Photo courtesy of Tatiana Arbogas/Grub Street

• DTLA Stick to the curry and pastas at Fat Spoon [Mattatouille]
• HWOOD Krua Siri makes a great papaya salad [Squid Ink]
• MID CITY Taqueria Los Anaya makes great seafood tacos [Squid Ink]
• SAMO Huckleberry does an off the menu egg mcmuffin?! [Grub St]
• WEST LA NongLA’s bon bo hue is really spicy [The Minty]
• WEST LA Roc Star Dumplings are coming to Sawtelle [Eater]
• WEST LA The Guru likes Hannosuke is his own special way [LAT]

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Snyder/Squid Ink

• DTLA The house wonton soup at China Cafe is great [Squid Ink]
• DTLA Everything on Kula Sushi’s conveyor belt is $2 [Squid Ink]
• DTLA Tokushima ramen is coming to Little Tokyo [Squid Ink]
• WEHO Omi Sushi is MVolt’s favorite for the cheap stuff [Squid Ink]
• WEST LA We’re getting another Asian burger place from Vegas [Grub St.]
• WESTWOOD The Lime Truck is opening a shop near 800 Degrees [Eater]
• WESTWOOD The turkey sandwich at Fundamental is great [Unemployed Eater]
• LISTS The 10 Best Pupusas in L.A. [Squid Ink]
• MOBILE Big Gay Ice Cream Truck is coming to L.A.!!! [Eater]

As amazing as the food at Zam Zam Market is, even I’ll admit there are a number of things holding it back from becoming a go to spot in L.A. for Pakistani food.  First, the food is too amazing. Well, too authentic anyway. (Aka, not made for white people.) Most Angelenos are probably not interested in picking through a biriyani minefield, trying to avoid bones, cardamom pods, whole peppercorns and red chilies (although I’m proud to say my 3 1/2 year old son is not one of those people!) They’ve also got the weirdest hours- for anybody who isn’t intimately familiar with the prayer schedule at the mosque just up the street whose congregants make up the bulk of the customer base at Zam Zam. Aaaand there’s the big Dept of Health “C” on the door, the overrun by zombies decor, and the lack of a fixed menu. Did I mention the food is really freakin spicy?

Well, it appears as if a few of those issues have been fixed! As of last week Zam Zam Market is now open 7 days a week from 11am to 9pm. And they’ve added a bunch of new menu items, including a ridiculously huge $9 mix plate that you have to see to believe.

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As a $10 all you can eat Korean BBQ devotee it didn’t take me long to realize that the best under $10 ayce Korean BBQ place is the newest under $10 ayce Korean BBQ place.  Stuffing your face with loads of grilled meat seems to be a dinner thing for most, but to draw people in for lunch many of these restaurants will offer the $10 ayce special just to get people in the door; the kalbi version of a loss leader.  The problem is that once the place gets super popular at lunchtime, they need to either cut back on quality or raise the price.  And while the average Korean lunchtime tourist may not notice, the devotee begins to look for new pastures.

When Don Day started to slip, I moved on to Bud Namu (which is great if you love bulgogi.) But my new favorite might be a place hidden on the second floor of the Cosmos Village strip mall on Western btw. 3rd and 4th. Man Kang if you believe Yelp, Mr. Lee if you go by the sign over the door.

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been an entire year since Fat Spoon brought their unique blend of Japanese curry and pasta dishes to Little Tokyo.  From Day 1 they became my katsu curry go-to and the only place I’d want to get a bowl of spaghetti with cod roe and dried seaweed in Downtown L.A.  Sure, it hasn’t replaced Daikokuya as the most popular lunch option on 1st Street but they appear to have built up a solid following.  And the best part is, they’re still working at it.  They added chicken katsu and a “loco moco” back in March, their specials board is always filled with random excitement (seafood curry yakisoba, anybody!?) and just recently they introduced a $10 lunch combo.

Check it out after the jump…

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