WHY When you’re in Boyle Heights but don’t want Mexican food. WHAT You’ll feel like you’re walking into the film L.A. Confidential when you pull open the screen door to this diner, which has just five stools and three leatherette booths. It’s a vestige of when Boyle Heights was a hub of Japanese immigrants, before [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Straightforward, tasty, very cheap Peruvian fire-roasted chicken served in a cheerful dive. WHAT We’re not as gaga for this chicken as some—it’s a wee bit bland, and it can get dry, depending on how long it’s been sitting around—but it has a wonderful, mahogany skin and a nice smokiness, and it’s a hell of [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY For the complimentary Prosecco and cheese to ‘toast’ your arrival, as well as the In-the-know staff, eager to pair the perfect Barbera with your tagliatelle with Fatted Calf sausage rag. Oh, and for the spiffy upscale market. WHAT This intimate neighborhood café, cheese bar and marketplace serves a pricey Italian-driven menu rich with farmers’ [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Neighborhood charm with gourmet soul. WHAT Surrounded by a quaint neighborhood of historic homes and breezy apartments, this bright, quirky café has become a hub of local life. (Come in alone and you can sit at a long communal table with soon-to-be friends.) For breakfast, try the mascarpone-stuffed French toast or the sweet and [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY To taste oddball whites, rare reds and exotic microbrews and banter about same with BottleRock’s urbane, wine-savvy GM George Skorka, former sommelier at an impressive list of high-end eateries. WHAT On the ground floor of the Metropolitan Lofts building, in starkly modern rooms lined with hundreds of intriguing bottles, this branch of the Culver [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY For the dazzlingly colorful appetizer of 20 Israeli salads, the homemade flatbread and the array of grilled things on skewers. WHAT Come hungry to this upscale shipudia (Israeli skewer house), because regardless of your intentions, you’ll eat too much. Pretty much every table orders the signature appetizer of 20 salads (carrots, eggplant, tabbouleh, mushrooms, [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY For the enormous, flopppy-crusted tlayuda con todo, Oaxaca’s answer to pizza, the red mole and the delicate, delicious Oaxacan-style empanadas filled with things like huitlacoche (a mushroom-like fungus) or flor de calabaza (zucchini flower)—or even chapulines (grasshoppers). WHAT The vibrant colors inside this strip-mall café hold the promise of equally vibrant cooking, and La [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY For the soon dubu jjigae, a spicy, garlicky stew of fresh tofu that bubbles like volcanic lava in its individual iron pot. The superheated dish cooks a raw egg that the server cracks in at your table. Seafood or bits of meat add extra flavor to the extravaganza. WHAT Rivals of this 25-year old [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY A long list of traditional noodle dishes infrequently seen outside Thai Town. WHAT In its hidden location, this simple spot has been surprising folks for more than 25 years with the quality of its food. Besides the excellent noodle dishes, you must try the swoon-worthy yet rarely seen ‘Indian’-style coconut curry and its northern [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Consistently excellent cooking that doesn’t pander to the sweet-craving American palate. Free delivery, too. WHAT It’s not just the array of tapas-sized plates that draws us to this stylish boxcar-size spot. Although who can argue with $2.99 appetizers that include skewered meatballs, crunchy rice cakes with Thai chile, the Thai spaghetti called knom jean [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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