# LA area recommendations?



## SeattleBen (Apr 9, 2019)

looking for some meals in and around LA. Ideally there's one Mexican with fresh tortilla, some sort of Korean, and I will be in the JKI area at least once so something in the vicinity probably lunchtime. 

I'm checking eaterLA are there any other local publications I should be looking at as well?


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## M1k3 (Apr 9, 2019)

Teddy's Red Tacos. Nothing fancy, just damn good tacos.


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## WildBoar (Apr 9, 2019)

Highly recommend you reach out to Jon at JKI. He know restaurants...


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## SeattleBen (Apr 9, 2019)

M1k3 said:


> Teddy's Red Tacos. Nothing fancy, just damn good tacos.



As long as there's al pastor or carnitas I'm happy. Bonus points for elote.


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## slickmamba (Apr 9, 2019)

Tsujitas for tsukumen for sure. What kind of korean food are you looking for?


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## SeattleBen (Apr 9, 2019)

slickmamba said:


> Tsujitas for tsukumen for sure. What kind of korean food are you looking for?



I suppose for safety's sake I should say BBQ? I like Korean food but my wife isn't a fan, though if the tsukumen is good enough I could probably sway her.


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## slickmamba (Apr 9, 2019)

for all you can eat I'm a big fan of Mr. BBQ but its all the way in glendale, road to seoul isn't as good as it used to be but is very popular and is in ktown and is where I usually take my friends for their first time, hae jang chon is also solid. Kang Ho Dong is very good, but is not all you can eat and will get pricey, same with Parks. Both are very very good and worth it if you can splurge a little.


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## boomchakabowwow (Apr 9, 2019)

I was just there. Had a GREAT French dip sandwich at Philippe’s. 
(Something like that)


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## JBroida (Apr 9, 2019)

Hit me up ... I’ve got lists of places


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## Anton (Apr 9, 2019)

JBroida said:


> Hit me up ... I’ve got lists of places


L-I-S-T


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## PC315 (Apr 10, 2019)

When are you in town? Do you want to fancy or casual? What kinds food do you want? 
Japanese: N/Naka if you can score res
sushi: sushi onodera
Chinese dim sum in San Gabriel is really good
Thai: any of the Night+Market restaurant are really good. Jitlada is not bad
Porto's bakery for pastry and tamales and potatoe balls are excellent

Other restaurants: Bestia, Orsa & Winston, Grand Central Market is cool little market with lots of food stalls.


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## mille162 (Apr 10, 2019)

+1 for Night+Market Song (WeHo), my mosy memorable meal in LAnin the last 2 years. Order the fried chicken samdwich (hidden menu)...actually, I remember 3-4 interesting spots all in Silverdale area, many more with mid-week waits and lines of hipsters outside so the food must be worth coming back for.


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## SeattleBen (Apr 10, 2019)

PC315 said:


> When are you in town? Do you want to fancy or casual? What kinds food do you want?
> Japanese: N/Naka if you can score res
> sushi: sushi onodera
> Chinese dim sum in San Gabriel is really good
> ...



Got me salivating pretty early today!! 

I think that we'll mostly eat casually but I'm guessing we've got one Sushi Onodera meal in our budget. I'm trying to actually get the address for where we're staying. LA is bigger than Seattle by quite a bit.


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## PC315 (Apr 10, 2019)

If you are in Seattle, have you tried Shiro's sushi Or his new place, sushi kashiba?


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## pete84 (Apr 10, 2019)

If you want a really authentic old-school Koreatown BBQ experience, check out "the Corner Place" on James M Wood Blvd. That is one spot that does it the same way it was done in K-town 30+ years ago still to this day. Nothing fancy, no AYCE, just Korean tabletop grilling the way it was before "K-BBQ" entered our lexicon. Or for a traditional Korean meal that is not grilling, try Kobawoo house on Vermont and 7th street for their steamed pork belly cabbage wraps (Bo Ssam) and beware of their Chun Guk Jang (stinky bean soup as my friends call it) unless you are the type to enjoy really pungent funky foods (stinky tofu/stinky cheese/etc)


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## SeattleBen (Apr 10, 2019)

PC315 said:


> If you are in Seattle, have you tried Shiro's sushi Or his new place, sushi kashiba?



My wife loves both of those places, for my experience I prefer wataru.


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## parbaked (Apr 10, 2019)

For old school Korean (if not in the mood for cooking BBQ) I also like Beverly Soon Tofu on Olympic.
I think it's the best soon tofu and their other dishes are tasty too.
https://www.beverlysoontofu.com


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## changy915 (Apr 10, 2019)

Beverly soon is great. Soowon BBQ is probably my favorite for kbbq. Sun nong Dan is great, go to the one in sgv to skip the lines


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## boomchakabowwow (Apr 12, 2019)

pete84 said:


> If you want a really authentic old-school Koreatown BBQ experience, check out "the Corner Place" on James M Wood Blvd. That is one spot that does it the same way it was done in K-town 30+ years ago still to this day. Nothing fancy, no AYCE, just Korean tabletop grilling the way it was before "K-BBQ" entered our lexicon. Or for a traditional Korean meal that is not grilling, try Kobawoo house on Vermont and 7th street for their steamed pork belly cabbage wraps (Bo Ssam) and beware of their Chun Guk Jang (stinky bean soup as my friends call it) unless you are the type to enjoy really pungent funky foods (stinky tofu/stinky cheese/etc)


This place!! +1!

It’s awesome. They didn’t speak English when I was there. I literally pointed at other tables food. Super awesome. Their cold radish soup was epic and the perfect pairing for the sizzling charred meat bits. 

You will smell like a Korean campfire when you leave so don’t plan on going anywhere afterwards. Pack a plastic bag to wrap up your laundry so you don’t smell up your other garments.


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## SeattleBen (Apr 12, 2019)

That sounds great and I think it’ll be for sure added! I’m still looking to find a Japanese meal for about 100$ worth of food.


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## PC315 (Apr 12, 2019)

100 pp or total? Also, what kind? Japanese town is right there, lots of good stuff. I think folks mentioned Tsujita ramen already. Their sushi place is pretty good. Manpuku is pretty good Japanese grill place in Santa Monica


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## PC315 (Apr 12, 2019)

BTW for reasonably priced but decent quality sushi, Sugarfish by Sushi Nozawa is pretty good
https://sugarfishsushi.com/


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## pete84 (Apr 12, 2019)

For sushi in that budget Id recommend:

Trendy sushi - Sugarfish 
Traditional sushi - Sushi Gen (Little Tokyo)


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## SeattleBen (Apr 12, 2019)

About 100 though I’m sure we can get to 150, we don’t drink so the dollars go a bit further.


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## pete84 (Apr 12, 2019)

If you have the time and the 150 budget is w/o drinks, some of the best views are at Nobu in Malibu. A far drive and kinda pricey but the view is worth it


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## SeattleBen (Apr 12, 2019)

This is also pretty lowbrow but we’re also looking for good bubble tea. Laugh at will.


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## JBroida (Apr 12, 2019)

at $100 per person, you could have a killer meal at shiki in beverly hills, okumura restaurant in encino, nozomi in torrance, or muira in lomita


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## changy915 (Apr 13, 2019)

SeattleBen said:


> This is also pretty lowbrow but we’re also looking for good bubble tea. Laugh at will.


Labobatory

I also like hasiba for hummus. I think it's as good as dizengoff.


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## SeattleBen (Apr 13, 2019)

Awesome! 

Thank you. 



changy915 said:


> Labobatory
> 
> I also like hasiba for hummus. I think it's as good as dizengoff.


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## Butaru (Apr 16, 2019)

How much time do you have? Eating crawl only or do you have places you want to visit? What location will you be traveling from as a base. 

I ask because LA traffic can be a pain if you can’t kill 2-3 places at a time.


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## YG420 (Apr 16, 2019)

Shin sen gumi shabu shabu in gardena...just got back from there STUFFED!


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## SeattleBen (May 8, 2019)

We're back and ate our faces off. Firstly I'd like to thank anyone that helped us find anything and a special thank you to @JBroida for being so welcoming in his shop. Not just to me but he really went out of his way to make my wife feel welcomed as well. We ate extensively off his list and off the places suggested above. 

Sushi Gen- First stop, got in close to the end of lunch service and ate at the counter. The fish was good and was pretty enjoyable being at the counter to watch the cutting. When we finished eating we walked around the surrounding area for a while and had some boba. (This boba theme will repeat) 

Tacos Leo- After walking around Sushi Gen we realized we needed to get to JKI! Hours later armed with the Al Pastor referral for Tacos Leo we ate a bunch of Al Pastor. Delicious! If we were more night people we would have waited til 9 pm for more from a truck that comes in across the street but we're early birds so we went to our place in Pasadena and went to bed with full guts.

Tsujitas- We were ostensibly visiting a friend who lives sort of near here so we went and got in line. We love Tsukemen so were really excited to go here. Especially since our favorite place for this only has it in the summer. The wait wasn't too bad and the Char Siu Tsukemen is really delicious. Since we're moderately disgusting we also got an uni and ikura don bowl. Needing to walk it off we wandered off to some of the area nurseries which were pretty nice. Saw a place called Be Sweet? which has halo halo and I'm a sucker for so I hurt myself with it. In fairness it was pretty good and I didn't need to eat it all I just did. We saw the Yakitoriya which was on the Jon's master list and thought we might come back later.

Joy- Taiwanese, near our place in Pasadena. We were too full from Tsujitas and dessert so we went back to our place and didn't leave for dinner til late. I had decided to got to Joy, again from the list, and there was a huge line. We walked around for a while had some diablito and decided to just go ahead and get something to go and called it in. The thousand layer pancake with chili sauce and basil, the mochi dessert, and boba were all stand out delicious. I'm not sure I'd wait in line but the take out was pretty painless.

The Corner Place- Noonish on Sunday made for a surprisingly easy table. When we got there there was only 8-9 tables there. My wife doesn't (didn't) like Korean food. We got the cold soup, bulgogi, tongue, and pork belly. Soup was spectacular as well as having some of the best tongue I've ever eaten. Bulgogi was bulgogi and pretty good. I'd skip the bacon in favor of something else if given the chance again. Oh, and the ssam jang!!!It really brings it all together. Left very happy and now my wife's looking around at Korean food up here in Seattle which seems like a bit of a blessing to me. Left here, walked around and looked at OB Bear which we didn't get to but would have liked to but just wasn't going to have time. Maybe next time.. Also had some diablitos, we like didablito an awful lot.

Labobatory- We were going to skip this since it was really out of the way from everything else that we were doing but after The COrner Place we decided to go to a botanical garden. We had some inadvertant luck and ended up at the one near here. So we had boba!! This was some of the better boba we've had and they really nailed the one that my wife's been pining for with no luck which was their ABG, which is just a vietnamese coffee with boba, but they add a layer of chocolate milk which ends up being good and not too sweet. 

Yakitoriya- Jon says this is the best in the country. I don't have a metric to compare this but it was really fun, tasty and totally worth the trip. We showed up right at the beginning of dinner service, (first in the door), and after a clarification of their dining policies, (5 stick and $20 minimum) started our order. He was cleaning chicken throat and we were able to order that as well as tails. Also ordered the 5 stick combo which is breast, liver, gizzard, thigh, and quail egg. Also comes with a pair of salads and chicken broth. If we were to come here again we'd skip the combo and just eat sticks of meat. I read that you don't neccesarily get access to the interesting bits without coming regularly so I don't know if we got throat and tail by luck or diligence with questions but we did. The liver and tail were really notable for me and the broth was very rich. 

FWIW we almost went back to Joy later that night.

Nomizo- While at JKI we mentioned that we'd had several pieces of uni at Sushi Gen and he really recommended this place for the uni don. It was our last meal on the way to the airport and the uni/ikura don didn't disappoint. It really was some of the creamiest sweetest uni I've ever had. 

Somehow LA traffic didn't really feel too much different than Seattle but I haven't spent that much time here. We really racked up the miles over the weekend, close to 300. I think we might have had one of our best food weekends in a long time here. Much of that was due to your aid and specifically to Jon's list. We really are grateful to everyone here for helping with that.

If you're ever in need of suggestions for the Seattle area hit me up and I'll do what I can to help you.

Thank you all again.


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