Los Angeles

Price ranges?

Ethnic types?

Anything in particular?  Korean sushi?  Oaxacan?  Handcut Chinese noodles? Best pastrami on the planet? Salvadorean tamales?

Neighborhoods?  Thai Town?  Little Armenia?  Monterey Park?  East Los?

Will you have your own car?  Are you familiar with navigating around Los Angeles?

Where will you be staying?  How far are you willing to drive?

BDL

 

Quote:

I'll take that suggestion!  Thanks!

 

Best Pastrami: 

Langer's Delicatessen-Restaurant

704 S. Alvarado

(213) 483-8050

http://www.langersdeli.com/

The pastrami is beyond belief and hand cut.  The rye bread is similarly wonderful.  Katz's, as good as it is, is a distant second.

In a sane world, the portions are more than adequate but not obscene.  Compared to the ridiculous excess that is L.A. deli-style, they are skimpy and you may consider double meat.  The menu has myriad variations of the basic sandwich, but I suggest sticking with bread, meat and mustard for your first outing. 

Many of the other menu items are very good, and a few are outstanding.  Stick with the pastrami. 

A very good egg cream, by LA standards if you like those sorts of things.  I prefer a Cel-Ray, or sometimes a beer.

Langer's is located at the corner of 7th and Alvarado in what has become the heart of LA's Salvadoreano barrio.  In terms of sounds, smells and people, it's a lot like a working class neighborhood in San Salvador.  I like it, but some people find the neighborhood intimidating..  Langer's has valet parking; and if you or your companions worry about ghettos, take advantage of it.  Another way to get there is by taking the Metro.  Get off the train at Westlake/MacArthur Park.  Leave the station, turn left (south), walk past the pharmacia (aka drug stone), and cross 7th.

Never open Sunday, and they stopped doing dinner when the neighborhood declined.  No reservations.  Prices are actually quite fair, considering.

BDL

 

Fine Dining (New International Cuisine): 

Bastide, Melisse, and Providence are all very, very good.  Spago isn't quite what it was, but it's still a helluva lot of fun.  All obvious picks.

If I was going to drop huge amounts of coin on dinner in Los Angeles and was only going to be here for a limited time, I'd spend it on raw fish -- either the Japanese or Korean versions of sushi/sashimi; or on some sort of super duper banquet in one of the really good Chinese places in the SGV. 

It's not that we don't have great fine dining here as good as anywhere else in the country; more that the Asian scene is just unbelievably good.  

Mexican food too, but the Mexicans haven't figured out how much the stuff is actually worth and keep undercharging.  Wherever you're staying, I probably know where to get good Mexican food. 

If you've never had Oaxacan food, you should go for the mole sampler at Guelegetza.  Mariachis on the weekend, you have been warned. There are other wonderful Oaxacan places, including Monte Alban which is on (surprise!) on the west side. 

Mexicans aren't the only huge Latin American population here.  If you've never tried a pupusa or a Salvadorean tamale, you should. 

If you haven't been to El Mercado del Oeste Los Angeles, you haven't experienced chaos at its best.  Orale!   Two large restaurants upstairs, an infinite number of mariachi bands on the weekend, dueling mariachis most of the rest of the time, souvenier stands, a bakery, a meat market, and everything else you can think of scattered around.  It's a theme park on acid, and where Chicanos go for the "American version of the Mexican experience."

If you're interested in high end Chinese cuisine, the Duck Restaurant in Monterey Park is amazing.  Because "Duck - Three Ways" is essential to eating there, and reperesents more than enough for two people, I can't really recommend the place unless you're a party of four (or more).  Highest recommendation. 

Speaking of Chinese food, nearly all the really good dim-sum places have 86d the carts and are serving off ala catre menus.  A few places, including Seafood Harbor on Rosemead in Temple City, and Elite on Atlantic in Monterey Park (across the street from the Duck Restaurant) are of Hong Kong quality, inventiveness, etc.

Back to sushi/sashimi, in addition to the usual suspects like Asanebo, and Matsuhisa (great place to spot celebs!), there's a few interesting variations on the theme.  Shibucho, for instance, does a lot of interesting wine pairings.  The Hump combines very good sushi with all sorts of other fine dining possibilities. I'm very fond of Echigo, too.   

My favorite sushi-ya are the Korean "Japanese Restaurants" which emphasize sashimi over sushi, do a lot of fusion with the variety of panchon, spicy soups, and whatnot.  And are just generally more fun and anarchistic than the seriously good Japanese places.  My favorite is a place called A-Won in K-Town.  If you're serious about $100 each "Chef's Choice," let me know and we can go through some of the signals you'll have to know so you get the real deal instead of the "white folk" special.  Highest recommendation!

By the way, Korean Japanse restaruants (of which there are a great many very good ones) are also very good for lunch.  Hwe do bap is a sort of sushi salad, and impossible not to love.  Damn!  You got me jonesin' just thinkin' about it. 

Lots of great Korean Barbecues too -- some of which serve impossibly good meat (including wagyu) and are expensive enough that you absolutely will impress your date.   

BDL

 

"Little Armenia" is a sort of diffuse area which may or may not include "Thai Town," is what the real estate people call East Hollywood, but is actually the area more "east of Hollywood." running south of Melrose, Hollywood Blvd., at the north, somewhere west of Western, and a little east of Vermont 

• Manouch, Little Armenia, Lebanese-Armenian -- Excellent food.  Nice atmosphere.  Nearly upscale.
• Carousel, Little Aremenia, Lebanese-Armenian -- Probably the best Armenian food in So Cal.
• Carousel, Glendale, Lebanese-Armenian -- Sister restaurant to Carousel in Little Armenia.  Nicer inside.  Music.  Food just not quite as good -- but that's being picky.
• Raffi's Place, Glendale, Persian-Armenian -- For some reason you always run into someone you know.  Good food.  Portions not huge.  

• Partmian's Bakery, West Adams
• Pano's Bakery, Little Armenia a few doors from Carousel
• Sarki's (Bakery), Pasadena

• Sahag's Basturma, Little Armenia.  Guess their specialty.  Go ahead, guess.  As they say in southern Armenia, "I loves me some basturma."

I did a huge case and had about 10 clients who sued a very fraudulent, nasty S.O.B.  He lost two or three and fled to Germany before paying up -- despite me giving the cops enough more than evidence to arrest him for Medicaid fraud, which still rankles.  There's an excellent Russian-Armenian place in Glendale, my clients used to take me there to "seal the deal," or celebrate a victory.  But I can't think of the name to save my life.  If I do, I'll let you know.  The food was incredible, and I gathered it was a sort of link to Yerevan for them.  On the other hand, we weren't exactly eating off the menu. 

BDL

 

Parks BBQ  

 

BDL, As I value your opinions. What do you think of Mastro's Steak House in Beverly Hills. My wifes son got a job there as a manager.

I know they have one in Vegas and they are growing nationally

 

Park's BBQ

RPM, The Talented and Lovely Nurse Ratchet, and I had dinner and soju there.  There are several Korean BBQ places in SoCal which are very "anglo" friendly.  Park's not so much.  You want Korean, you get Korean.  You don't speak Korean -- you'll get by, but have to work at it.  Worth it?  Oh heck yes.

Even though I don't speak more than four or five words of Korean (other than food names), Korean waitresses find the juxtaposition of my white face, love of Korean food, and Mifune level chopstick skills hilarious.  Ratchet looks Korean but had only un tres petit peu (as they say) of the culture and no language skills whatsoever which made the whole thing yet more entertaining for our waitress -- who was no slouch when it came to sense of humor.  RPM was pretty tickled by the spectacle(s), too.

Plusses:   The company -- always eat with Ratchet and RPM.  Boodle's martinis before at Musso's.  Quality of the meat served -- you don't know until you've been.  Spicy!  Great panchan.  Service -- all smiles and giggles.  Good soju selection -- we drank Fresh! as I recall.  Korean Anarchy and Cuisine -- each at its most delicious; again you can't know until you've been.  More panchan.  Portion size.  The waitress's scissors.  No charcoal smoke in your hair.  RPM's expense account picked up the bill.

Minusses:   The company -- I miss the pair of them.  RPM was driving and not drinking which is a good thing I suppose, but I wasn't driving with them and it would have been more fun to drink with him than at him.  A nameless someone (name witheld at request) drank an amount which seemed reasonable to her at the time, but not later.  No charcoal smoke in your hair.  Driving through K-Town. 

Dim Sum Off The Cart vs Ala Carte

Ala carte places like Lunasia (formerly Triumphal Palace, Seafood Harbor and Elite are having an effect.  Several of the old cart places, Hop Li in Arcadia for instance, have converted or (say they) plan to do so in the near future.  

It seems as though people -- including restaurant owners and managers -- are starting to associate ala carte with fresher, higher quality than off the cart.  There's less waste, too.

Some places will stay with the carts forever.

Mastro's

Ed, I've never been.  The Beverly Hills area is a very competitive environment for steak places -- if they can keep the doors open there, they've got to be excellent -- minimum.  Their reputation, unsurprisingly, is excellent.  Excellent (there's that word again) professional reviews; and all of the online customer review sites give them the full five stars.

BDL