Dining in LA

The Post’s chief restaurant critic, Tom Sietsema, has been running a series on the best restaurant cities in the country. Here is his take on LA; I’d be interested in hearing what the natives feel about it.

I read through it quickly, he makes a lot of different points but I agree with them in their generality.

1. It’s a diverse city but it’s also very specific. He’s absolutely right about ethnic food (especially Asian/Mexican) not catering to the general public, but to their target ethnic demographic. This is particularly obvious in Ktown and San Gabriel Valley. There are SO many restaurants opening up that are one cuisine/style specialties. You want to try a specific type of korean seafood stew? There’s a place for that. You want to try a place that specializes in lamb skewers? There’s a place for that. The amount of new Chinese food alone has gotten me so excited, I’m constantly exploring new places and dishes I didn’t even know about and I grew up in LA and ate at a ton of restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley.

2. I also dislike Providence, one of our “highest” end restaurants in LA. That’s well documented (my dislike) and I know many on this board will argue till they die with me that I’m wrong.

3. We don’t have much high end dining in LA. That’s fine. We have so much $50-100 restaurants that fill the gap and don’t feel like there needs to be a special occasion to eat at. Los Angeles is casual. The environment and people just gear to not having white table cloth meals, but shared plates and eccentric food. I wish there was more high end exciting dining like what they have in SF/NYC, but it is what it is. We do have a lot of incredibly expensive Japanese restaurants though that rival the pricing of any 2-3 star dining in NYC/SF.

4. Tacos are awesome. I’m not a fan of guerrilla taco as I think it’s a bit too expensive for the quality of their ingredients, but taco trucks/grills/restaurants ARE so good. If you’re ever in your DTLA office Neal, I’ll take you to one of the most amazing pork centric taco joints a few blocks from your office.

5. proximity to major farm regions means a lot of fresh ingredients readily accessible for everyone at reasonable pricing.

I agree pretty much with what Charlie wrote. And he is right about Providence.

what’s the taco place in DTLA? might be staying there in a few weeks

It’s in Grand Central Market. Las Morelianas.

They specialize in pork. They basically throw a whole pig in a vat and break down the parts. You can order each taco based on the corresponding pig part. My usual order is Costilla (rib), feet and carnitas with skin.

[resizeableimage=500,373]http://s3-media3.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/o3CaRlgDJoBf25mBcebayA/o.jpg[/resizeableimage]

I’d be happy to tour you around grand central market and all the eateries if you give me a few days notice. Lots of really good stuff in there.

awesome. thanks. will ping you.

Fairly good Cliffs Notes of L.A. dining trends for the uninitiated. My only complaint about survey stories like this is when the writer bases the article primarily on interviews with fellow food writers. It’s a bit of self-perpetuating echo chamber. The Illuminati as gatekeepers …

Complaining about no high-end dining is like complaining about there being no NFL team here. As Charlie notes, there’s so much going on that you don’t really miss it.

An adventurous eater could spend a week each in K-Town (Korean), San Gabriel Valley (Chinese), Glendale (Armenian/Mediterranean) or just chasing late-night taco trucks all over town and not miss Michelin for a minute.

And if someone wants the extended, Full Monty, seasonal prix fixe, French-California experience with thoughtful wine service there’s always Melisse here in Santa Monica.

I miss it. There is no excuse for a city as large and diverse as LA to have as crappy fine dining as we have here. And by fine dining, I mean restaurants at the higher end of the scale that are adventurous, creative, and original. Josiah Citrin is a good cook, but he is not adventurous, creative, or original.

Marshall and I went to Aestus Saturday and as always were talking of openings and our mutual hope that some new “finer” dining places open. Actually I think we might see some opening the next year. There was another thread somewhere about whether fine dining was dying and then a morph into discussing what fine dining really is. Aestus had great wine service and is very collector friendly.

I certainly miss fine dining (along with the NFL), with Melisse and Providence being examples of my definition. I have always enjoyed Providence more than Charlie. Some part of that might be that I like formal dining and also that we are pretty well known there and dine often with some of the place’s “regulars”. I thought the writer’s review and the fact that it sounds like he left, kind of weird.

I think the “new” fine dining as described by Bill Chait is like the Emperor’s new clothes. Bestia is a perfect example. The food as excellent and as good as anywhere in town. But it is a poor substitute for fine dining. The tables are crammed together, the chairs are horrible, the service is harried, the pacing is not structured, the tableware is meh, and the place is as loud as a concert. But that formula allows them to turn a ton of tables and charge not that much less than fine dining. Melisse indeed could use an infusion of creativity (though the carte blanche affords one more interesting dishes) but it has the other part of a classic dining experience mastered.

I think the author did a pretty good job of visiting a cross-section of L.A. eating. Looks like maybe he hasn’t been here much if he felt compelled to go to Musso’s. I like Guerilla tacos. It might be a bit pricey and effort-requiring, but unlike Charlie I find the ingredients different and superior to almost all other taco offerings. But I do agree with Charlie that some of the down & dirty traditional tacos are best. I love stuff like the cochinita pibil tacos at Flor de Yucatan. Grand Central market is blowing up with the foodie hype. It’s kind of funny that Morelianas, which has been there for about 7-8 years is so much more popular now. I wish they had some better tortillas, like the handmade ones at Anaya.

I also like the fact that there was even a shout-out to Charles Olalia trying to bring Filipino food into greater exposure. As Matthew says there certainly is a ton to eat around here. I like down and dirty casual most of the time and love ethnic food, so don’t mind that that’s our real strength. I also like the Bestia, Factory Kitchen, Animal type vibrant place but only lament that the success of that formula has trended us away from finer places. I think also that L.A. business diners aren’t able to sustain the finer places as much as pre-recession.

Btw, Il Grano is closing very soon. If anyone is interested it looks like they are doing some sort of dinner involving Heritage Wine Auctions on Thursday where a bunch of decent wines are $25. I’m looking forward to see what Otium will be like. I don’t think they are going “formal” but the food ought to be great. Two cuisines I really wish we had more of are Creole/Cajun and Southwest. There’s almost no Creole above low-end. I can get some great fried shrimp at Orleans & York, and Harold & Belle’s is still on life-support but there’s nothing else. Southwest cuisine is not in vogue but a recent trip to Santa Fe reminded me of how great the flavors are.

I’ve got a man on the ground there, pictured at right in the article. Lemme know if you need a Sherpa.

John,
Did you like Aestus? I’m a fan.

looks great to me. on my list for this trip for sure. solid list too.

Alexander’s just opened here in Pasadena (Bay Area loc has 1 Michelin star) and we thought it was very good. Will be interesting to see how it fares here. Oddly, our favorite dishes were not the steak, but Hamachi app, short rib, bone marrow custard, truffled potatoes, and desserts. They also have specials like truffle filled Wagyu rib caps. The Somm/ service was great, some fun wines on there and some relative hidden bargains for a list of that sort. Had some 1908 Madeira along with Thackrey Pleiades and the Somm wine of the night, a 90’s Malbec.

Please do tell! EDIT: nevermind, I see you gave it up a couple posts later. I’ll give that place a try next time I go to Grand Central Market. Thanks!

p.s.: I wasn’t impressed with Providence, either.

NYC transplant here and the article is pretty spot on in many regards for me. I’m still giddy that I can grow citrus in my backyard and the farmer’s markets make my head spin with the offerings…

Personally I don’t mind the lack of “fine dining” here as I got my fill in NYC over the years and can still find it when needed here (Melise is a favorite of ours). I love the more casual, food-centric approach that yields a more fun, relaxed dining vibe. I can remember some incredible meals in NYC where I felt like I was eating in a museum and was afraid to talk…

The ethnic fare here is really unmatched as well, discovering all these “new” types of asian fare has been a blast and it’s nice to finally know what real mexican food tastes like…

And for the record, I do like Providence on the whole, while not perfect it does a lot of things right IMO.

We went in part due to your recco, and we had some of their food at a tasting event. Honestly the genre is not my favorite, but that is just a reflection of what I love to eat. I like more bold flavors. But that small preference aside, they do their cuisine (“clean” food as my wife described) very well and I enjoyed it. My wife liked it even more, I would certainly recommend it, and will definitely go back. We had a bunch of stuff. Marshall and I shared the cote de bouef for two which was very good and a generous portion including potatoes gratin and some veggies. We also got charcuterie ,roasted chicken, pork ragu papardelle, burrata, brussel sprouts, caponata, and polenta. Yes, I got sh#t from my wife for over-ordering. It was all very good. I think I’d get the charcuterie plate every visit.

The real plus is the wine program. The co-owner Kevin was the somm at Spago and is a partner in Lioco winery, so he knows his stuff and was doing our wine service. The list is IMO really good as it has a good selection of mid-level stuff at better than average process. It’s short on trophies, but we usually bring the good aged stuff and look to buy at mid-level. We got a Boulay Sancerre Mont Damnes off the list and brought in 82 Trotanoy and 98 Leoville las Cases. The wine service, including splash and long decant on the respective reds along with good stems was really spot on. I also love the corkage policy of waive one with a purchase, and $10 for anything 10 years-old or older ($25 for younger). They have a stated two bottle limit, but we had a discussion about opening a third red. We ended up not needing it, so didn’t, but he said they’d do the additional bottle at $25 in the case of good aged wine.

This is thread drift but we really liked nearby Cassia too. Thinking of giving Maru a try this weekend.

why don’t you ever get lunch with me, you work 3 blocks away

I know I know … we should make a point of at least once a month — that’s doable. I keep a loaf of bread, pastrami, cheese, mustard, and fruit at work. Unless I’m in court, I almost always make myself a sandwich and eat at my desk ---- faster and cheaper than going out! And when I do have to be at court, I usually do the same thing either before or after. Saving for a house down payment has put a huge hurt on my discretionary funds.

p.s.: reading a friggin’ PQME right now … this is third consecutive 17 hr day … fml.

Brian, Are you still living in my neck of the hoods?

I jumped over and read the NYC version of the series. Interesting that it was not necessarily gushing over the NY food scene, though there is undoubtedly A TON of good food in NY and it’s much stronger at the top end than LA. I was tempted to reply to the commentor that said the alleged lack of good Mexican food in New York is a myth and “it’s everywhere”.
The Post article didn’t seem to touch on pizza here in L.A… Five+ years ago there was a serious dearth of good pizza. It still is not a strength, but the pizza scene has improved to the point where one can find some really good ones if one ventures a bit. The fresh pasta genre took a hit when Bucato closed recently.

Btw, LA Weekly just put out their best 25 restaurants list, compiled by Besha Rodell. Providence is third. Maude is one, Trois Mec is two.

Yeah, I’m still just a couple miles away, John. But Ashley and I hope to change that within a year, as our family will soon outgrow the place we are presently living in.