Going Japanese–Late Night December 10, 2006
Posted by foodies in Cash Only, Cheap, Curry, Japanese, Late Night Eats, Places to go when you're drunk, Trendy / Hipster.add a comment
Koraku Restaurant
Location: 314 E 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA 90012-4221View Map
Phone: (213)687-4972
Type of food: Comfort Japanese food, ahem–no sushi
There are times when you can’t have dinner at 5, 6, 7 or 8 p.m. for that matter. Maybe you were at the bar and didn’t want to weigh yourself down so you could get that good buzz or maybe you saw a late movie and forgot.
In my case is because I’m at my weekly Brazilian Capoeira classes and don’t get home until 10:45 p.m. and with all the cart wheelin’ and hand stands, I tend to eat light and early, so sometimes after practice, I’m starving for something satisfying, and not to mention good, so I was ecstatic when my friend Pat told me about a Japanese comfort food that was:
A) Open till 3 a.m. on Monday-Fridays
and
B) Not a damn Denny’s Restaurant
Located at Little Tokyo in Downtown LA, it’s a great place to hit when you’re not craving the usual burger and fries and want a hearty bowl of ramen, or maybe hot tonkatsu (breaded pork) over steaming rice.
Essential Orders:
It is totally visually evident that the gyoza is freshly made. The thiness of the wrap isn’t thick like the instant out-of-the-bag kind like at Vons or Ralph’s. They’re big, and they come hot and steaming from the pan right to your table. It’s served with hot chili oil and perfectly moist. If you’re a fan of heat like I am, this amount of chili oil does not do this justice.
All courses also come with a bowl of miso soup and their own cabbage salad, but since I don’t eat rice, I ordered the seaweed salad that was also very good! They kind of went to town on the green onion in my soup, but lately it’s been cold as all hell and I wasn’t on a date or anything so I totally didn’t mind that.
Usually when you go to Japanese restaurants, they give you only ONE whole pork cutlet, but this is the only place I’ve realized that gives you TWO! The tonkatsu was crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. Not only did it come with a bowl of rice, but another side of cabbage salad, and potato or macaroni salad which were also very very good.
My friend (and sister of other Eat This Blog Creator, Renee) Ivy, got the Hamburger Cutlet. One thing that we agreed on other than the fact that the food was so good is that they don’t pour the tonkatsu sauce on top of the meat, and instead give you a squeeze bottle (which we were tempted to gaffle)
Unfortunately our eyes were bigger than our stomach, because the portions were such a good size that we brought home a decent amount of leftovers.
Service: 8 out 10. The waitresses there are very nice and attentive, even when it’s really busy ours was always able to refill our glasses at just the right time and always seemed warm when greeting and serving us.
Things to Know:
-
I’m honestly not sure about parking in the daytime since all of the times (which have only been 2), have been after 11 p.m. Parking in the night doesn’t seem like such a problem. You can park anywhere really since the metermaids all stop monitoring around 6 p.m.
- If it’s only 2 of you, you may want to sit at their countertop area. From there you can watch the chefs make your food. You’re THAT close to them.
- On weekends, you may want to already expect some sort of a wait. The place is pretty small and narrow– Like a hallway even
- Most importantly, CASH ONLY is accepted.
The deli you go to when you’re around Hollywood and it’s 2 AM August 19, 2006
Posted by starbright31 in American, Late Night Eats, Trendy / Hipster.2 comments
Canter’s Deli
Location: 419 No. Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles 90036
Hours: Open 24 hours a day
Last year, I was introduced to Canter’s after going to my friend Tova’s shows. When Grand Lux Cafe was closed, this was our immediate plan B. And to be honest, I’d rather go here than the very overpriced Grand Lux Cafe anyway.
The most recent times I’ve gone here were after seeing The Devil Wears Prada and after watching The Futureheads. From these two visits, I ordered my two favorites from the breakfast and sandwich menu.
Breakfast:
The way I’ve always had corned beef was straight from a can, so when I ordered this here, I was overwhelmed by how good this was. I loved eating this so much that I ordered this the next week I went there. The meat is seasoned really well, and it’s not at all salty. And Jamie pointed it out to me that the way Canter’s make their scrambled eggs is different from most places- and this is in a postive way too. We haven’t figured out what they put in their eggs, we just know that we like them A LOT.
Sandwich:
I know most people order pastrami sandwiches here, but it’s really nothing to write home about. You can get a much better one at Brent’s in Northridge. My sandwich here is The For Dedicated Fressers Only:
I can only finish one half of this sandwich, and I always save the other half for either my brother or to eat for lunch the next day. You get the best of both worlds with this sandwich, and it tastes even better when you slather mustard all over it.
Service: 7 out of 10. It all depends on how big your party is and what time you’re there. When it’s just around midnight and after last-call, you should expect this place to be busy. I’ve mostly had good and friendly servers here.
Good to know:
- Although they have a parking lot where it’s free for the first two hours with validation, you’re better off finding parking on the street if you’re going there during peak hours.
- Canter’s is great for big groups. I’ve gone here several times with a group of over 15 people and the wait wasn’t too long at all.
Not Tickled Pink August 2, 2006
Posted by foodies in American, Cash Only, Hamburgers / Hot Dogs, Late Night Eats, Overrated, Places to go when you're drunk, Stay Away, Trendy / Hipster.add a comment
Pink’s Hotdogs
Location: 709 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038
Hours: Mon-Thurs,: 9:30 a.m.-2:00 a.m., Sat. & Sun.: 9:30 a.m.-3:00 a.m.
Where do you take your psuedo-New Yorker bestfriend for his last night in LA before he goes back to the Big Apple, where coincidentally is the place where hot dogs is their state’s forte?
Pink’s of course. Or at least I thought of.
Honestly, going to restaurants while you’re trying to commit to a lifestyle change is hard. I’ve been doing it now for 3 months along with excercise 5-7 times a week. So when I want to cheat, it better be worth it and that’s why I decided to fuck Taco Bell and go to Pink’s at 12 in the morning.
Pink’s Hotdogs is one of LA’s historical landmarks and has rarely changed it’s outside for the past 70 years. The place is famous. I can’t really tell you all of the times I’ve seen it on the news or on Food Network.
They’ve got the standard fast food; burgers, fries, hot dogs. What they’re really famous for is their personalized special dogs that are named after films or movies star.
From one side…
To the other…
Estimated time waiting: 2 hours
Time actually eating: 15 minutes
Their lines are epic. I think when Peter and I lined up it was around midnight and it took over an hour before we could order. Now, if the food was actualy good, it probably would have been worth it, but alas, it really wasn’t.
Service: 7 out of 10. Ordering is very organized. They’re staff works real hard and gets the food quick to you, but they did screw up my order.
What we ordered: Peter ended up getting “The Lord of the Rings Dog”–a stretch 10 inch with onions rings slathered with bar-b-que sauce. Unfortunately there was too much and he had to scrape off the sauce. I, being the purist I am got the chili cheese dog with onions. Unfortunately the ESL workers thought I said mustard. Yeah, because onions and mustard sound just the same and because of that, my dog tasted real sour. If I didn’t actually took apart the whole hot dog and bun I wouldn’t have known that there was mustard! My dog didn’t even pop the first time I bit into it.
Looked good for a second
Yeah, this place is hipster, trendy and overrated.
Go to Scoobies. Fuck, should have gone there instead. I even thought of going there instead of Pink’s.
Like finally scoring a date with a hot guy and then finding out that he can’t kiss. Ugh.
My favorite taco shack in the valley June 16, 2006
Posted by starbright31 in Cash Only, Cheap, Late Night Eats, Mexican, Places to go when you're drunk, Tacos.3 comments
El Indio Mexicano Restaurant
Location: 17019 Roscoe Blvd., Northridge, 91325
I owe a lot to Del Taco at the moment for bringing me to a fantastic moment I'll never forget, but I must admit that anytime I eat at a fast-food establishment that claims to be "Mexican," I feel guilty because I know that whatever I order at a Del Taco or Taco Bell will never satisfy me as much as anything I order at El Indio.
I've been going to El Indio since high school. My brother, a.k.a. the king of finding cheap and "good" eats, had always spoke highly of it, probably because it was always open when he'd be out with his hooligan friends. It wasn't until I had their nachos that made me a believer of this place. With living in the San Fernando Valley, there's so many choices to go to for hole-in-the-wall Mexican places. I've avoided many on looks alone of the area, and El Indio look exactly like something I'd usually ignore. It's near a seedy-looking club, it's bench seating, and it doesn't look all that clean from the outside. But you have to toss all pre-conceived notions once you order food there.
Today's order was two tacos, one with carnitas (first picture) and one with carne asada (second picture):
(I would usually minimize the size of these photos, but I'm so proud of how it all looks.)
Tacos are $1.75 and you have a choice of meat you can put in your taco: carnitas, lengua (tongue), carne asada, chorizo, machaca, cabeza, and I know there's more but I've forgotten as I don't usually stray from carnitas and carne asada. I love the tacos here because they always hook you up with tons of meat on there and the salsa they pour on is spicy. I needed about two glasses of milk with that carne asada taco.
And what keeps me coming back here:
Essential order: Nachos #4- carne asada, guacamole, refried beans, and nacho cheese all topped over a crunchy bed of tortilla chips.
Since I started going here, I've seen the price go from $3.75, to $4, to $5, and now it's $6.10. If they raised it up to $10, I know I'd still buy them. Nobody does nachos better than El Indio- NOBODY. I've had nachos at so many places and I'm never impressed- I don't care for using shredded cheese or tender steak slices- I want (most likely canned) nacho cheese and carne asada, damnit.
Service: 7 out of 10. I wouldn't say they're bad or exceptionally great- but they are fast and when you have a craving for this type of food, they definitely get it out quickly.
Price: This order cost me exactly $10.39. They offer a lot of other food there too- burritos, tortas, tamales, chile rellenos, breakfast food, etc. And all of it is reasonably priced. I would say you'd need at the very least $5 with you to order maybe a taco or two and/or some horchata (rice drink) or an Orange Bang!
Things to know:
- It's open till very late at night. It's not 24 hours, but very close to it.
- They always give lots of their salsa in small containers when you order your food to go- don't go buckwild on putting salsa on your food if you can't handle the heat. It's very, very spicy.
- They also offer an atkins style burrito, so there's no tortilla, but again, they really hook you up with the meat.
- Cash only!
Skooby Snacks April 30, 2006
Posted by foodies in American, Cash Only, Hamburgers / Hot Dogs, Late Night Eats, Places to go when you're drunk, Trendy / Hipster.1 comment so far
Restaurant:
Skooby's
Location
6654 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(Cherokee is the big cross street)
No frills, what you see is what you get. Very hipster. Old school punk playing on their speakers. Wedged between a cheesy electronics store and right next to an adult sex shop. Very classy, indeed. In theory, if you're real bored, you can get a hot dog, buy a stun gun and a nudie mag; an equation for a great night.
Type of food:
American, Late Night Eats, Hot Dogs, Good place to go while you're drunk
Since this is the first official weekend of many where I'll be going to school and going to the hospital I decided to not be all crazy and have a quiet sober night and go to dinner with my bestfriend Renee (And co-creator of "Eat This Blog") and her older sister Ivy.
For the most of the week my brother has completely been hounding me to go to lunch with him and eat at Ruben's Red Hots on Ventura since it will be closing down. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any free time to go to get one last taste, but the thought has lingered on my mind: HOT DOGS. At first, we were set to go try Nathan's, also in Hollywood, but after searching and reading citysearch.com's reviews, we decided to swtich gears and try Skooby's.
Essential Orders:
I know I should be talking about their hot dogs first, but shit, they're fries are the best. Not even fries–more like a mix of chips and fries that are perfectly laced and tossed with seasoning salt. It also always comes with their own homemade aioli sauce. (Ketchup, who?)
Pictured: Guiness-based Chili Cheese Dog with fries; Garlic Dog with the Works and fries
In short: Their dogs were bomb. Perfect snap when you take that first bite.
Being the purists that we are, Renee and I ordered the Chili Cheese Dog with fries. The buns are fresh, slightly toasted, but not dry on the outside, soft on the inside. The ratio of chili and cheese are perfect. Not too much to where by the end it's fallen apart and you're eating it with a fork and also perfect to the point where you don't get the runs right after either like at Tommy's. Renee's sister Ivy got the Garlic Dog, a hot dog that has a bun slathered on with garlic spread. (Mmmm)
I know I might be jumping the gun, but these might just be the best hot dogs in Los Angeles.
Pictured: The view from the counter: You can watch them!
The menu is short and easy to read. There's only 5 dogs to choose from: Regular, Chili Cheese Dog, Cheddar Dog, Bacon Cheddar Dog, and the Garlic Dog. They also have fresh squeezed lemonade and Arnold Palmer's which Renee and I love. They make it fresh right in front of you due to the counter facing windows, so you can see all of the magic happening right from the comfort of your own seat!
Things to Know:
-
Open Sun-Thurs till 10 p.m. and from Fri & Sat till 3 a.m. Prepare to line up if you're coming out of the club, heard it's on and popping from 12 midnight all the way up to close.
-
If you're in the mood for people watching, the location is perfect. The area has a diverse mix of punks, bums, and hipsters.
-
Seating small. Only one table in the inside and 2-3 two top tables. If there are more than 2 of you, I would recommend sitting window-side which has around 5-6 bar stools.
-
Parking can be a bitch on the weekends since everyone is out to the clubs. If you can't find metered parking, look for the big lots, but the prices for staying there are up to $10-$12 dollars
Service:
9 out of 10. Only 2 guys work the small joint. Very nice and quick about your food.
Average Bill:
CASH ONLY. ATM is nearby. Between the 3 of us, we spent around $20-$25 in all. A combo usually runs you around $8 each.
-Jamie
