Chef Ludo Lefebvre’s pop-up restaurant experience known as Ludo Bites ends its run at BreadBar tonight. If it weren’t for some prior obligations, we would have been in LA this weekend for one last meal. (We actually had reservations this weekend but had to cancel when I was reminded of a prior engagement.) We only went to Ludo Bites once, but the meal was so good that we became instant Ludo fans and can’t wait to see where he sets up shop again.

Ludo’s food may be rooted in French tradition, but everything on the menu is playful and inventive. Of course, this means you might not like every dish, but you still come away respecting what Ludo was trying to accomplish.

We started with a Porcini Veloute that featured porcini ice cream, egg, crispy sage, tobacco powder. My wife wanted this one because she loves mushrooms, while I’m just starting to get over my disdain for them. The combination of the veloute, ice cream and egg made for luscious and rich starter, but I still found it a little too mushroomy for me. My wife loved it and probably would have finished it, but she couldn’t get past the flavor of the tobacco powder.

Porcini Veloute

Next up was the Foie Gras Black Croque Monsieur, a play on a traditional croque monsieur that uses squid ink bread and adds a piece of foie gras to the mix. I’ll let the picture speak for itself. :)

Foie Gras Black Croque Monsieur

The Creamy Polenta and Oxtail might be one of my favorite dishes of the year. It’s such a simple dish and doesn’t look like much when it’s brought to the table, but after the first bite, we were hooked. The polenta, with Cantal cheese and bits of black truffle, was great on its own, but it’s the oxtail that brings the dish home. This isn’t the most appetizing picture, but it still makes me yearn for the dish.

Creamy Polenta and Oxtail

Another one of the evening’s highlights was the Pork Belly with Frisee and Mustard Ice Cream. That’s right…mustard ice cream. Basically, the savory mustard ice cream was just a frozen dressing for the frisee, so while waiting for that to melt a bit, we worked on a perfect piece of glazed pork belly.

Pork Belly with Frisee and Mustard Ice Cream

If you saw Fried Chicken in Duck Fat on menu, you would order it right? I knew you would. It was accompanied by some perfect roasted fingerling potatoes, tapenade and are really good red pepper ketchup.

Fried Chicken in Duck Fat

At this point, both of us were pretty full, but dessert was on the horizon, so we buckled down. Our first dessert was the Chocolate Cupcake, but this was no ordinary cupcake, featuring candied bacon-almonds, maple syrup, and a foie gras chantilly frosting. If foie gras frosting sounds intimidating, it is. We ate around it for the most part because it was way too rich and savory for our taste. The rest of the cupcake was really good.

Chocolate Cupcake

Our second dessert was the Vanilla Panna Cotta, another challenging but ultimately successful dish. It was served on a pool of caramel and topped with caviar, which may seem odd, but when its briny saltiness was combined with the caramel and the panna cotta, it works perfectly.

Vanilla Panna Cotta

The last dessert, Strawberry Cream Pop Rocks, intrigued me when Ludo first mentioned it on Twitter (follow him @ChefLudo). It was simple concoction of with strawberries, whipped cream and that old childhood favorite, Pop Rocks. We were so full that we weren’t going to order it, but Ludo’s wife Krissy brought some out for us, since I had expressed so much interest in it already. It was the perfect way to close our meal.

Strawberry Cream Pop Rocks

Most of you probably know Ludo as the intense, cocky, foul-mouthed French chef on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters who lost to the show’s eventual winner Rick Bayless. But in person, Ludo is a really cool guy who loves cooking. We had a nice discussion about food and blogging, and I found out that Ludo loves Korean food when I told him about the Korean BBQ tacos I was making the next day. (It’s my next post…I swear).

Both Ludo and Krissy take the time to greet all of their guests and make sure they’re enjoying themselves, and overall, Ludo Bites was just a fun place to eat. Ludo told me that he worked in fine dining most of his career and after the Ludo Bites experience, he never wants to work in a fine dining environment again. I think this suits his personality, his food, and the City of Los Angeles, just fine, and I can’t wait to see where Ludo pops up next.

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Kogi BBQ‘s now-famous Korean taco trucks have eluded me on my last three trips home to SoCal, but this weekend, I was determined to hunt one down. Kogi has two trucks, Roja and Verde, and I met up with Roja yesterday at 9th and Hope in Downtown LA.

Let me just say upfront that I think Kogi’s food is great. We really liked everything we had, especially the Kogi Sliders and the Kogi Dog. But our first Kogi experience was a logistical disaster. It took two hours from the time we got in line to the time we got our food and left and they ran out of kalbi right before my order was fulfilled, so we missed out on their signature meat.

Since Kogi relies on their twitter account (@kogibbq) to keep their devoted followers updated about their whereabouts, it’s appropriate that this review contain my tweets about my first Kogi experience (follow me @inuyaki).

Watch how things progress by checking the timestamps of each tweet. (Timestamps from the Tweetie iPhone app.)

12:15pm Line for @kogibbq isn’t too bad right now (9th and Hope in Downtown LA) http://twitpic.com/4cnnw

12:17pm mic_dee @inuyaki d00d! aare they quick to serve at least?
12:18pm 3ND14P3 @inuyaki O_O that line “isn’t too bad?” ?? LOL Wow. I hope it’s moving quickly
12:20pm The @kogibbq line isn’t moving yet because they haven’t started serving. Will see how fast it goes when they start.

A few minutes after this tweet they started taking orders.

12:43pm LadyDucayne @inuyaki is the kogi anticipation still going strong? What’s ur place in line? red or green?
12:52pm @LadyDucayne I think it’s roja. Line is moving slow but steady. I’m actually hungry right now. :)
12:55pm @LadyDucayne I think we’re about 25 people back.

1:18pm The @kogibbq line is moving so slow. I wasn’t hungry when i got here but now I’m starving

1:28pm The people that wait 4 @kogibbq at night are either dedicated or crazy. Don’t know if I would do this again unless I was near the front.
1:31pm LadyDucayne @inuyaki both times I have been first in line. I like kogi, but not enough to wait in line for more than ten minutes…
1:36pm 90 minutes later…Finally near the front :) http://twitpic.com/4cu8t

1:50pm A tow truck just showed up. Minor panic. Dudes just wanted food. http://twitpic.com/4cvfi

1:51pm hsiawen @inuyaki bastards better not have gotten cutsies

A couple minutes later we placed our order: 1 kalbi burrito, 2 kalbi tacos, 1 spicy pork taco, 1 chicken taco, 1 tofu taco, 1 order Kogi Sliders, 1 Kogi Dog, 1 brownie with Chinese spiced nuts. I ordered the Kogi Dog because they said they didn’t have enough kimchi to make the Kogi Kimchi Quesadilla. I should have known we were in trouble then.

1:59pm They just ran out of short ribs…for my order and beyond. Not very happy now, just give me my food please! @kogibbq

They also announced that they were putting a limit of one burrito or three tacos per customer. There were probably a hundred people behind me at that point.

2:03pm So @kogibbq was expecting a regular lunch crowd and weren’t prepared for all the people that showed up, which led to logistical failure

I think the people at the front of the line were buying lunch for their respective offices and depleted Kogi’s supplies right off the bat. My wife said she saw people leaving with bags of food. If this is true, it explains why the line moved so slowly and why they ran out of kalbi.

At this point, I stopped tweeting because I was focused on getting my order completed. We were supposed to be at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles at 2:30pm to donate blood platelets for my friend’s daughter, and I was getting annoyed because I didn’t want to be late. Donating platelets is by appointment only because the process takes a couple of hours, but apparently, so does Kogi.

They called me to the window to ask what other meat I wanted since they were out of short ribs. I got the spicy pork instead and changed the burrito order to a second brownie. I thought that I might as well get another dessert out of this. I told the guy expediting orders that I needed go to the doctors and that I needed to leave ASAP.

The tow truck guys were seen leaving with food five minutes after they arrived.

2:06pm @hsiawen they did get cutsies
2:08pm hsiawen @inuyaki that’s BS that means they got your ribs!!!

Actually, the guy in front of me, who almost got out of line because it was taking too long, got the last of it. He only had to substitute spicy pork for part of his order.

But were the tow truck guys the reason I didn’t get short ribs? We’ll never know. Damn you, tow truck guys!

A couple minutes later, we had half our order and were waiting on Kogi Sliders and a Kogi Dog. The guy in the party that ordered after me got his complete order, which included a Kogi Dog and Kogi Sliders, before I did, which was really annoying. I reminded the expediter that I had an appointment.

At around 2:15 were in the car and on our way to CHLA, two hours after we arrived. I snapped a couple quick pics of the food before leaving the area, and we ate our food while driving over to CHLA. The Kogi Dog was especially challenging to consume…good thing I don’t drive stick.

Kogi Dog

Kogi Sliders

We got to the CHLA blood donation center about 10 minutes late. The last three tweets are from when I was in the chair giving blood.

3:01pm While I’m a little bitter about my @kogibbq experience, the food was really good. Had to sub kalbi with spicy pork
3:05pm kogibbq @inuyaki – hopefuLLy the experience was both bitter and sweet. or at the very least, meat. MEATY…! ::drools::
3:22pm @kogibbq kogi dog was great and i liked the spicy pork. brownie with spiced nuts were nice. just sad you guys ran out of kalbi.

If you’re still reading, I commend you for sticking with this epic ordeal. :) Like I said, I think Kogi’s food is great, but I feel like the experience is incomplete because I didn’t get to try the kalbi. I’m also sure they’ll learn from these logistical snafus as they and their fanbase continues to grow. Some people might not give Kogi another shot if they endured a similar experience, but I think what Kogi is doing is worthy of a return visit. It all comes down to planning and understanding, a responsibility that belongs to both Kogi and their customers.

Personally, I won’t wait more than 30 minutes for Kogi again, so I’ll have to do my homework and be more diligent the next time I seek them out. I hope Kogi does the same so that they’re prepared to get bumrushed every time their trucks open for business.

INFORMATION
Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go
Web Site
Twitter

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There’s a lot of buzz about Father’s Office (F.O.) having the best burgers in LA, but the more I think about how we qualify food, the more I think the word “best” is played out.

We paired our burgers with both shoestring and sweet potato fries, which were perfectly fried and seasoned, and each has their own specific aioli. I guess this would be a good time to mention that F.O. has a strict “no ketchup” policy, as well. Don’t ask for it either since they don’t have any on hand, and I heard they even crack down on ketchup smugglers.

The smoked eel topped with a poached egg, horseradish creme fraiche and onions was delicious and lets you know immediately that this is no ordinary bar food.

Like most bars, there’s no table service, so you have to order everything at the bar and maintain a running tab that you close out when you’re ready to leave. Tables can be scarce when it’s busy, but I avoided the crowds by getting there before they opened…and there was still a line. I’ve never been to the original Father’s Office in Santa Monica, but this second outpost in the old Helms Bakery is beautiful. If it’s sunny out, I highly recommend snagging a table on the patio.

If you’re willing to play by the rules at F.O., then you’re going to have a good time eating and drinking there. This might seem overly restrictive to some people, but I’m glad Chef Sang Yoon had a distinct vision about what he wanted to serve and stuck to his guns in the face of criticism. The decision hasn’t hurt business much since it’s always packed.

If you don’t like the rules, then F.O. has an alternate meaning and you can leave. There are plenty of people waiting in line, including me, that will be glad to take your place.

INFORMATION
Father’s Office
3229 Helms Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90034
310.736.2224 map
Web site

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Last time we were in LA, we met up with our friends Don and Cristy for dinner. When I asked Don where we should meet up, he said, “How about M&M’s?” I thought I hadn’t heard of M&M’s, but when Don told me it was the soul food place that was immortalized in the Ice Cube song “Steady Mobbin’,” the lyrics instantly popped in my head:

Since one time’s so hot
Got me stash spot in the hooptie for the glock
And I’m rollin’ on rims
Eating soul food, neckbones from M&M’s

Now we didn’t order any neckbones, and honestly, I don’t remember seeing them on the menu, but if I can say one thing about M&M’s, if it’s smothered in gravy, it’s probably good.

They were out of short ribs by the time we got there, so I got the smothered oxtails instead. The oxtails were almost falling off the bone and as you can see, portions at M&M’s are generous.

Smothered Oxtails

Another great gravy-laden dish was the smothered fried chicken. What I loved about it (besides the gravy) was that the skin was still really crispy and fatty and delicious. I’m pretty sure this fried chicken is fantastic on its own.

Smothered Fried Chicken

M&M’s is also very generous with their sides—you get three choices per entree. On our table, we had collard greens, green beans, dressing, corn, mac and cheese, rice and gravy, and red beans, but I didn’t think any of them were really outstanding. They do a pretty good cornbread though.

Cornbread

Despite the lackluster sides, I’d still go back to M&M’s for the main courses, especially because I didn’t get to try the short ribs.

INFORMATION
M&M Soul Food
5496 W Centinela Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90045 map
310.215.8186
Web site

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My parents’ wedding anniversary is two days after Christmas, and in the last few years, we’ve started taking them to restaurants that normally aren’t on their radar. Last year, we took them to Osteria Mozza, and this year, after reading my French Laundry post, my mom said she wanted to experience something like that. Granted, it’s impossible to find something comparable to The French Laundry in Southern California, but L.A. is no slouch when it comes to great restaurants. I ended up choosing Providence because of its seafood-centric menu and more affordable five-course tasting option, but two Michelin stars didn’t hurt either.

Two Michelin Stars in Los Angeles.

My first exposure to Providence and Chef Michael Cimarusti was on the second season of After Hours with Daniel Boulud, the MOJO HD show where Boulud throws after hours dinners at prominent restaurants. Season two was set in LA, and admittedly, it was hard to keep track of which one-word restaurant was which. As I rewatched the episode on Hulu.com, I instantly remembered Providence while watching the episode where a lobster attacks a piece of Kobe beef. You can watch the episode in its entirety at Hulu.com.

One of the first things we noticed about the tasting menu was that the dessert course featured a kalamansi gelée. If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you’ll know that kalamansi is the citrus of choice in the Philippines, especially in one of my favorite dishes, bistek tagalog. My parents were especially excited to see this versatile Filipino citrus featured in a fine-dining setting. For us, it was the second time in a month we’ve seen Filipino ingredients on a high-end tasting menu. (The first was the Ilocano salt and Pili nuts at The French Laundry.) So while the rest of the tasting menu looked fabulous on paper, we already had our eyes on dessert.

We started with an inventive amuse bouche trio.

Amuse Bouche Trio
From left: Gin and Tonic Gelée with Lime Zest and Tonic Powder, Mojito Raviolo,
Celery Root Soup and Black Truffle Syrup

The Gin and Tonic Gelée had a little tonic powder on it that started fizzing once you squeezed the juice from a lime wedge on top so that when you put it in your mouth, it replicated the carbonation of the tonic water, while the gelée supplied the gin. The best way to describe the Mojito Raviolo is that it’s a mojito shot in a bubble. When you put it in your mouth, it bursts with all the flavor of a good mojito. The third amuse was a mug-shaped shot glass filled with celery root soup on top of black truffle syrup. Since the soup was lighter than the syrup, it took up the top half of the mug. You drink this like you would a shot of liquor so that the soup and syrup combine into a tasty mix of temperatures and viscosity.

Before we got to the tasting menu, we ordered another appetizer, just because it sounded good.

Fatty Big Eye Tuna and Santa Barbara Sea Urchin
Soy Créme Fraîche, Crispy Soba, Mache, Black Truffle.

The Fatty Big Eye Tuna and Santa Barbara Sea Urchin was served with soy créme fraîche, crispy soba, mache, black truffle. This dish sounded interesting because of the contrast in textures between the tuna and sea urchin, as well as the addition of the crispy soba. It was delicious.

The first course of the tasting was Japanese Kanpachi with Satsuma tangerines, black olives and Piquillo Peppers. The combination of all the little elements of this dish were excellent together, but the Satsumas were especially impressive on their own.

Japanese Kanpachi
Satsuma Tangerines, Black Olives and Piquillo Peppers.

Nancy’s Day Boat Scallops were perfect and served with a subtle truffle vinaigrette, Juilet tomatoes, and frisée.

Nancy’s Day Boat Scallops
Truffle Vinaigrette, Juilet Tomatoes, Frisée

The Norwegian halibut was the last fish course in the tasting menu and another perfect dish. It was served with fried burdock, which my wife wasn’t a fan of because it’s too woody, but I thought it was pretty good. The lemon butter sauce and shiso foam were great complements to the halibut.

Halibut
Burdock, Shiso, Lemon

My parents and wife enjoyed their Veal Tenderloins served with chanterelle mushrooms, Weiser Farmers torpedo onion, celery root purée.

Tenderloin of Veal
Chanterelle Mushrooms, Weiser Farmers Torpedo Onion, Celery Root Purée

Earlier in the evening, our waiter told me about the $50 Kobe ribeye supplement for the tasting menu, and I jumped at the opportunity. It was served tableside by Providence owner and General Manager Donato Poto.

Kobe ribeye prepared tableside.

The Kobe ribeye was cooked medium rare, had a nice salty crust and literally melted in my mouth. I liked the pieces of veal I got to try, but was even happier that I did upgraded to the Kobe. Plus, I got to share it with the table, so everyone got to try it. It was served with porcini mushrooms, pomme fondante, and spring onions…

Japanese Wagyu Rib-Eye (Kagoshima, Japan)
Porcini Mushrooms, Pomme Fondante, Spring Onions

…and a really nice bacon parmesan risotto.

Providence is also the home of cutting-edge desserts, and pastry chef Adrian Vasquez is one of the best in the business. In fact, you can go to Providence strictly for their dessert tasting menu, which we are planning on trying on a future visit. The kalamansi gelée was one of my favorite dishes of the night. The kalamansi flavor was instantly recognizable and the texture was a perfect complement to the litchi-shiso sorbet and the tapioca balls in the white chocolate coconut soy milk soup.

Kalamansi Gelée
White Chocolate Coconut Soy Milk Soup, Litchi-Shiso Sorbet

Our tasting service had ended, but the kalamansi gelée was so good that my wife and I looked at each other and knew we wanted to try some more desserts. She ordered the pumpkin “pie” and I ordered the “cheesecake.” Both of these desserts were “deconstructed” and while they tasted really good, the platings were a bit fussy.

Pumpkin “Pie”
Curry Ice Cream, Pecan Streusel

The beignets in the “cheesecake” were really good.

“Cheesecake”
Passion Fruit, Guava Sorbet, Beignets.

Providence is regarded as one of the best restaurants in Los Angeles, and it’s hard to argue with that assertion. My parents had a good time, and my mom was glad to have had the experience. It’s definitely a place I want to return, but I think our next visit will be for the dessert tasting menu. If you’re looking for a world-class restaurant with fresh, modern cuisine, Providence should be at or near the top of your list.

INFORMATION
Providence
5955 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90038 map
323.460.4170
Web site

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We’re currently in Southern California visiting my parents, and as I was researching places to eat, I found a Chowhound post detailing afternoon tea at Gordon Ramsay at The London West Hollywood. Having afternoon tea had never really been on my radar but I knew my wife would be interested, and it seemed like a great way to see what Ramsay had to offer, especially after it was awarded a star in the 2009 Michelin guide.

The main dining room at Gordon Ramsay is a really beautiful space. In the daytime, it’s bright and has a decent view considering its located in the middle of West Hollywood. In relation to the picture below, we were seated at the farthest table in the blue booth where the window meets the wall.

Photo by Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times

Here’s the menu we were served.

Here’s the whole spread as it arrived at our table:

My wife had the tangerine tea and I ordered the earl grey. I normally drink my tea straight up, but since we were doing a British-style tea, I added warm milk and sugar. The tea was really smooth and very soothing. I may start doing the milk-and-sugar thing more often.

We started with the plain and raisin scones, which were served warm and went perfectly with the creme chantilly and blueberry jam. One bite and you understand why this is a staple British treat. Here’s a close up of the raisin scone.

Of the tea sandwiches, the prosciutto/mozzarella/pesto butter (below) was a standout along with the goat cheese/watercress/sundried tomato. The smoked salmon and prawn cocktail sandwiches were also very good.

Tea service ended with salted caramel truffles and a pineapple pate de fruit. They really were as good as they looked.

 

Afternoon tea is served from 3-5pm between lunch and dinner service. Our reservation was right at 3 and there were still from stragglers from lunch in the dining room. Tea service is $28 per person, which is a bargain, especially when you consider that at Ramsay’s The London Bar in New York City, it costs $40 per person.

INFORMATION
Gordon Ramsay at The London
1020 N. San Vicente Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90069 map
310.358.7788
Web site

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We just spent another long weekend in SoCal, where we amazingly escaped the oppressive 100+ heat of the Bay Area for much more manageable high 80s/low 90s temperatures (and 70s overnight). My wife had to work Thursday and Friday, so we didn’t get to visit a couple places that were on our list, but we did get to revisit some old favorites.

On Thursday, we went back to Mario’s Peruvian and Seafood Restaurant in Hollywood and fell in love with the place again. I tried the Arroz Chaufa, a simple Peruvian fried rice with beef, green onions, and scrambled eggs that didn’t look like much on the plate, but when you eat it, the flavors really jump out at you. It’s probably because the dish also included MSG, which I’ve got no issues with since it makes everything taste better. Thank you, Ajinomoto, for your umami-enhancing seasoning.

I wasn’t able to order for myself since I was trying to find parking (probably MILK’s only drawback), but my wife made some great choices. She picked up a Grasshopper, an amazing ice cream sandwich featuring mint chip ice cream between two huge mint-flavored macarons and dipped in chocolate.

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When I’m home in SoCal, heading out to Eagle Rock isn’t normally on the agenda, especially for food. But when some friends told me about The Oinkster’s house-cured pastrami sandwiches and ube milk shakes, Eagle Rock started sounding mighty nice.

The Oinkster is the brainchild of Andre Guerrero, a Filipino American chef who’s a veteran of the Southern California restaurant scene. His other restaurant, Max in Sherman Oaks, offers contemporary Pan-Asian fine dining that’s a stark contrast to The Oinkster’s laid-back, order-at-the-counter vibe. (We also took my parents to Max for a Mother’s/Father’s Day dinner, so basically it was an Andre Guerrero weekend.) We ended up going to Oinkster twice in four days and were able to try a good cross section of the menu.

The Oinkster Pastrami sandwich is a thing of beauty—pastrami with Gruyere and a red cabbage slaw. The pastrami is cured for two weeks (the old-fashioned way) according to a recipe Guerrero developed over a period of two years. It’s not a melt-in-your-mouth pastrami like they have at Katz’s in New York, but it’s definitely the some of best pastrami I’ve had on the West Coast.

Aside from the sandwiches, the pastrami also tops the Royale burger, and it’s also featured in their excellent chili. If you’re from Southern California, you’ve likely had a chiliburger at one of the many Original Tommy’s hamburger stands that are down here. Tommy’s chili is legendary in L.A., so it may be blasphemous of me to say this, but…The Oink’s chili is so much better. In fact, I don’t know what I really saw in Tommy’s chili other than the novelty of it. I went back to Tommy’s with my wife a few months ago, and on its own, the chili reminded me of dog food. It really needs to be paired with fries or a burger. The Oink’s chili can definitely stand on it’s own, and it has a freshness that you’ll never get from Tommy’s chili.

The BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich features soy/honey-brined pork that’s slow roasted and smoked and topped with red cabbage slaw and caramelized onions. The pork is nice and tender on its own, but my wife said it’s like Kalua Pig without the salt. When you pair it with The Oink’s own vinegary Carolina BBQ sauce, it’s just about perfect. Make sure you get some at the counter when you’re getting your other condiments…the first time we went, we forgot the sauce because we didn’t know it was on the counter and the bottles weren’t labeled very well. Instead, we used the house-made Oinkster Mustard as a substitute, which was fine, but not as good as the Carolina sauce.

Guerrero prides himself on using Kennebec Potatoes for his Belgian Fries, which he says are the same potatoes used at In-N-Out. I know many people who don’t like In-N-Out’s fries, but I’m definitely a fan, and I liked The Oink’s fries a lot. They use the traditional Belgian double-fry method to keep the fries crispy and fluffy, and they pair up nicely with The Oink’s chipotle ketchup and garlic aioli, and of course, it goes great with the aforementioned chili. The rotisserie chicken, also pictured above, was really good, but I like my birds to have a crispier skin a la Zankou Chicken.

There’s a wide selection of other desserts all baked by Guerrero’s pastry chef girlfriend, Jan Purdy. They include the excellent peanut butter and jelly cupcake, a very popular item so snap one up if they’re in the dessert case, and a nice carrot cupcake. Next time, i’m going to try the brownies and the lemon bars.

But if it’s your first trip to The Oink, you must christen the occasion with an Ube Shake. Ube’s going to sound weird to most people because it’s a purple yam native to the Philippines, but it’s actually very popular in desserts, especially ube ice cream. The ube shake is rich and creamy and is a beautiful shade of light purple. If you’re not very hungry, I think the Ube Shake could actually serve as a meal replacement instead of dessert. Think of it as a Filipino Jamba Juice.

I’m going back to SoCal in July for a wedding at Occidental College which is very close to The Oinkster. Sounds like I’ll need an ube shake to cool off just before wedding.

INFORMATION
The Oinkster
2005 Colorado Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90041 map
323.257.3892
Web site

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Picture from lataco.com

First, the bacon hot dog carts, and now taco trucks? What the hell is going on in L.A.?

Chowhound’s C. Thi Nguyen had an Op-Ed piece published in the L.A. Times a couple weeks ago detailing the new regulations passed by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors that would basically put taco trucks in unincorporated parts of L.A. County out of business.

From the article:

On Wednesday, the supervisors passed a harsh set of regulations for unincorporated county areas. Parking a taco truck in one spot for longer than an hour is now punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, or six months in jail, or both. Developers and restaurant owners, particularly in East L.A., are pushing for tougher enforcement too. These changes, say some truck owners, will probably put them out of business.

$1,000 or six months in jail? Not surprising when Downtown L.A. food cart owner Elizabeth Palacios spend 45 days in jail for selling a bacon hot dog.

Nguyen says:

This is a cultural disaster. Forget the Getty — it’s the taco trucks, and their crowds, that are the true culture of L.A. Attacking the trucks is like New York going after its hot dog stands or Memphis banning barbecue pits.

What’s the motivation for these new rules? Competition.

Ron Mukai, an East L.A. developer, says the trucks are unfair competition, edging out the “legitimate brick-and-mortar businesses.” But the county’s 14,000 registered catering trucks seem just as legitimate as restaurants — they’re just providing a different service. Restaurants provide meals, and a table to eat them at, and walls to eat them within. Taco trucks provide food, pure and simple. They charge less because they’re selling less.

If I’m looking for food on the run, I’m not looking for a sit-down restaurant. I want something good, fast, and cheap, and if that happens to be the neighborhood taco truck, I’ll be first in line. It’s a lot better option than fast food.

But class is also at the heart of this issue. Nguyen puts it best:

…these new regulations don’t just attack taco trucks, they hurt eaters, especially poor eaters. In a lot of places in town, it’s the only meal you can get for three or four bucks. And in some places, it’s a great meal for three or four bucks.

I’m not really sold on the effectiveness of online petitions, but if you want to sign one or are interested in more information about this fight, go to www.saveourtacotrucks.org.

Let this Cinco de Mayo be about FREEDOM!

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After trying and loving San Francisco’s Mi Lindo Peru, I thought I’d give Peruvian food another shot on a trip back home for the holidays at Mario’s in Hollywood. If you had to judge a restaurant on price/performance ratios, Mario’s would be one of the leaders. The food is cheap, hearty and filling, and more importantly, it’s delicious.

It’s no secret that I like fried eggs. I like it on my fried rice, it’s essential for loco moco, it’s great on a hamburger, and it was also one the stars of my wife’s latest concoctions, the B.E.P. Fried eggs also take a classic dish like Lomo Saltado (marinated steak grilled with tomatoes and onions and topped with french fries) and makes it even better.

It’s not on the menu, but when I asked for eggs on my Lomo Saltado, the waitress said, “Oh, you want Lomo Montado.” It’s a simple modification and they were happy to make me a plate…with egg yolks oozing all over the rice, french fries and strips of grilled steak, tomatoes and onions.

The other dishes we ordered, my wife’s fried Pescado a la Chorillana and a friend’s Saltado de Mariscos, were also excellent, but obviously, I was preoccupied with my order. I washed it all down with an Inka Cola, a popular Peruvian soda that looks like liquid gold and tastes like bubble gum.

So next time you’re eating Peruvian Food, remember this formula:

INFORMATION
Mario’s Peruvian & Seafood Restaurant
5786 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038 map
323.466.4181

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I first wrote about the Los Angeles Bacon Hot Dog War in February, and now comedian Drew Carey has joined the food fight, featuring the ongoing controversy on The Drew Carey Project on Reason.tv. Here’s Drew Carey’s report on the issue, including an interview with Elizabeth Palacios, the figurehead in this struggle.

The main problem for licensed vendors like Palacios is that they lose a lot of money when potential customers seek out the unlicensed vendors, who are more than happy to sell them the coveted bacon hot dogs. For Palacios, it’s walking the fine line between protecting her business and staying out of jail. For customers, it’s all about the bacon.

“They don’t care about if you’re cleaner, if you don’t have a license to handle the food,” Palacios said. “They just want the bacon.”

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You know you’re eating well when you’re at a Korean BBQ joint feasting on beef brisket, pork belly and some beautifully marbled prime kalbi. In fact, I think you can judge the quality of the meat by whether or not you’re tempted to start eating the raw meat right when it’s brought to the table, which almost happened at Cham Sut Gol when that platter of beautifully marbled prime kalbi arrived.

The kalbi was great and served in its most pure state—no marinades or sauces needed—just a little butter on the grill and the marbly meat would take care of the rest. I’d never had Korean style brisket and it was excellent, and I especially liked the sauce that came with it. The sliced pork belly was also pretty amazing and was accompanied by a strong but perfect salt/pepper oil that really enhanced its inherent porkiness.

But aside from the meat, a perfectly fried mackeral was another highlight, but I didn’t eat much of it because I was busy cooking and eating the meat while my wife and some friends tore that fish apart.

Ban chan selection was good, and the service was attentive. Parking might look like an issue, but they do have valet when it’s busy, and we didn’t have any issues finding street parking.

INFORMATION
Cham Sut Gol
3700 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019 map
323.734.9292
Web site

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I was catching up on my podcasts today, listening to one of my favorites, KCRW’s Good Food with Evan Kleiman. I’ve been listening to Good Food for a few years now, and it’s exposed me to lots of new and different perspectives on food and eating, and influenced where I eat when I go home to Southern California. Kleiman also owns Angeli Caffe, a cozy Italian restaurant on Melrose Ave. in Hollywood, and I really wanted to know if Evan the chef was as good as Evan the radio host. I’m happy to report that she is!

On our first visit, we were seated by the front window and throughout the meal, I could see my wife’s darting back and forth, watching everyone that walked by. The guy at the table next to us said that sitting facing Melrose is like watching television.

When you walk into the restaurant, the first thing you notice is the open bread station and oven. It’s always comforting to know when a restaurant is making things in house. As we perused the menu, a plate-sized loaf of hot, freshly baked bread was immediately brought to our table. The bread was amazing…a bit salty, which was nice. It went well with the olive oil but was also wonderful on its own. I was tempted to order one of the pizzas after devouring the bread, but I’ll save that for another visit.

After some great recommendations from our waiter, we started the meal with an order of Suppli (rice croquettes stuffed with mozzarella) and a half order of the gnocchi of the day, which was almond/ricotta. The Suppli were a great start, but the gnocchi were amazing. They were lighter and fluffier than any other gnocchi I’ve ever had, and they weren’t filling at all.

For the main course, my wife ordered the Linguine alle Vongole, which was a really simple pasta dish topped with fresh clams and seasoned with fresh herbs. It was excellent and they didn’t skimp on the clams. Since I had been on a meat-eating binge the past day and a half, I opted for the Lasagna Angeli, a meatless lasagna with spinach, tomato-basil sauce, ricotta, bechamel and parmesan. It was the freshest lasagna I’ve ever had, and again, it wasn’t heavy at all. Most of the time when I eat lasagna, I feel like I just ate a lead weight (probably because of the meat). If we were feeling bloated after the first two courses, it was due to the quantity of the food, not because the food was heavy. That didn’t stop us from making a concerted effort to have dessert.

A subsequent visit to Angeli (pictures above) was just as fulfilling. We went with a friend, so there was more food, and we got to try a few more things, including the Polpette di Melanzane, the daily special of Linguini with Chicken, Spinach, and Breadcrumbs, and one of my favorite all-time Italian dishes, Spaghetti A’lla Matriciana.

We finished off both meals with the Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding. I was expecting a little more chunk, but it’s so decadent and rich that it’s hard to complain.

Thanks for a great meal, Evan. Angeli is definitely on our minds whenever we’re in town.

INFORMATION
Angeli Caffe
7274 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90046 (map)
323.936.9086
Website

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We were in town to celebrate my dad’s birthday, and I was eager to find a place in Santa Clarita that was worthy of our attention so we didn’t have to drive out to LA for a nice meal. I found Maru after reading several glowing reviews on Yelp, where some reviewers admit to driving all the way to Valencia from all over the Southland just to eat there. People driving to Valencia just to eat? Now I had to see if it really lived up to the hype.

Maru is not your typical Japanese restaurant because in addition to a fairly standard Japanese menu, they also feature a seasonal Market Menu that features “modern California cuisine” and includes dishes like seared foie gras, crispy duck risotto, USDA Prime steaks, and other dishes you’d find at a typical upscale restaurant. Fresh fish is flown in daily from Japan, the restaurant is committed to using organic, free-range products, and all the vegetables are hand picked by chef/owner Jason Park at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Markets. You could argue that Maru serves the freshest food in Santa Clarita, but having a great meal there depends entirely on which menu you choose.

We decided to pick dishes from both menus so we could try as many of the inventive dishes as possible, as well as see how Maru handles some of the basics. For starters, we ordered their much-heralded crispy duck risotto and agedashi tofu. Creamy duck risotto was shaped like a puck and then seared to make it crispy and was an excellent appetizer. Unfortunately, the agedashi tofu we ordered was seriously lacking. The tofu wasn’t fried very well, and it was served only in a ponzu-flavored dashi. There were no bonito flakes or grated daikon to be found, so it felt incomplete and worst of all…boring. (The dashi was good though.)

Crispy Duck Risotto

(Note: I read several reports that Maru frowns up on people taking pictures of the food (allegedly because the chef is paranoid about someone stealing his ideas) so I broke out my spy camera—er, iPhone—to get these pictures.)

The Market Menu’s sushi offerings are adventurous and exude freshness, especially when you can order things like live octopus leg or live lobster. We ended up ordering a majority of the sushi from the Market Menu, including Hama-Toro (yellowtail belly), Kan Saba (winter mackeral). We also ordered an Ahi Carpaccio that was dressed with a yuzu vinaigrette, as well as two orders of Unagi. The carpaccio was definitely the best of this bunch. The Hama-Toro was much richer than your standard order of hamachi, and the unagi was some of the freshest I’ve ever had. The mackeral was just okay to me…I think I prefer my saba broiled.

Ahi Carapaccio

We also ordered the Spicy Crunchy Crab Roll, a unique and tasty presentation of fried soft shell crab wrapped in thinly sliced cucumber.

Spicy Crunchy Crab Roll

We also ordered two entrees off the Market Menu. I ordered the beef short ribs (of course!) and this was the single best dish of the night. Thick, LA-style, cross-cut short ribs are marinated and braised in a wonderful sake/soy sauce mixture and then grilled to finish. The meat was perfect…extremely tender but maintained its structure and slipped off the bones with ease. It was served with fries that didn’t look like much at first, but they got addicting after a few bites…and for some reason I ate a lot of them with my chopsticks. My parents split a slow-cooked pork dish that had a really nice citrus flavor, but once you got past that initial hit, the dish turned ordinary.

Maru seems so focused on their incredible sushi menu and Market Menu that it takes its eye off the ball when it comes to the basics, as evidenced by the agedashi tofu starter. It’s almost as if the Japanese Menu is there to appease people’s expectations, but it is so far beneath the chef’s real ambitions that he doesn’t pay it any mind. My wife, who is Japanese and very picky about how things are prepared, ordered the tonkatsu combination plate with tempura to see how Maru handled standard, innocuous Japanese fare. After one bite of the tonkatsu, she said, “my mom makes better katsu.” The pork cutlet was small and lean, lacking any traces fat, which made it dry and flavorless. The tempura was solid, but every Japanese restaurant should get this right. The miso soup that came with the combination seemed like an afterthought…there was nothing in it—no seaweed, no tofu—and the broth was surprisingly bland and watery. The whole thing was served on an enormous tray that was bigger than most cafeteria trays and it took up a lot of space on the table. A regular-sized try or bento box would have been preferable.

Before I discuss dessert, let me give Maru some props for their greens. Normally salads are throwaway items in a typical bento box, but Maru takes fresh mixed greens and pairs them perfectly with light but flavorful dressings and not the typical sesame or mayonnaise-based dressings that top bits of iceberg lettuce you’d normally find.

All of Maru’s desserts are homemade, the options are plentiful, but the results were hit and miss. My mom’s kiwi sorbet was incredibly fresh, but I’m not really into kiwi (other sorbet flavors on this evening were lychee, mandarin and pear). My dad’s molten chocolate cake was smaller than I expected but it was rich, smooth and delicious. The ice cream sandwich was the largest I’ve ever seen, featuring three scoops of ice cream (mocha, chocolate and vanilla) sandwiched between two gigantic homemade chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were amazing with nice big chunks of chocolate and a perfect crispy/chewy texture. However, the ice cream was incredibly rich and cloying, and all three flavors had a strong caramel-like flavor that made it difficult for me to differentiate between the chocolate and the mocha. The dessert that was utterly disappointing was the Berry Cobbler. The cobblers are baked to order but my wife’s didn’t come together completely and she said there were bits of uncooked dough in the bottom of the ramekin. Also, the cobbler topping was Bisquik style as opposed to the crunchy, crumbly topping that we would have preferred.

Ice Cream Sandwich and Chocolate Cake

Maru Sushi is a standout on the Santa Clarita culinary landscape, which is dominated by fast food, and family-oriented theme restaurants. But I really think Maru would be best served by concentrating on its incredible sushi and seasonal Market Menu. It’s obvious that Chef Park doesn’t seem really interested or challenged by basic Japanese food, and streamlining would allow him to serve a dynamic menu without feeling obligated to offer the more pedestrian Japanese dishes to appease the masses. This would make Maru more exciting and challenging for the chef and ensure that diners get a unique experience on every visit.

INFORMATION
Maru Sushi
24250 Town Center Drive, Suite 180
Valencia, CA 91355 map
661.290.2595

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I had my very first bacon dog right on Hollywood Blvd. I walked out of a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and this amazing smell overcame me, and I said, “Goddamn! What smells so good?” This guy on the stairs pointed me toward this woman selling bacon-wrapped hot dogs from a sidewalk cart. Let’s just say that I bought and devoured one immediately.

Folks in San Francisco may want to claim the bacon dog cart (above) as their own because they’re pretty popular with weekend drunks leaving bars and clubs after 10pm in the Mission District. The truth is, bacon-wrapped hot dogs really belong to L.A., and you can get them from lunchtime till the wee hours of the morning (if you know where to look).

But things are not good for the bacon hot dog cart vendors in La-La Land. The L.A. Weekly recently chronicled the plight of hot dog vendors in L.A., who are now forbidden from using bacon AND grilling their hot dogs. (Boiling and steaming are the only acceptable cooking methods.)

Sound ridiculous?

They’ve actually jailed hot dog vendors like Elizabeth Palacios, who is featured in the article, for selling grilled bacon hot dogs. Palacios once served 45 days for health code violations, a sentence she said was orchestrated to “make an example” of her.

From the article:

“Honestly, I can tell you, I’ve been a working person all my life, I’ve worked since I was 9 years old,” Palacios says. “I don’t like being bothered, I don’t like being arrested. Never in my life had I been to jail, and they threw me in jail for violating the laws of the health department.”

There’s also a racial element to this story as the City of Los Angeles tries to revitalize and gentrify the downtown area and likely considers it in their best interests to “clean up” downtown for future investment and development.

“They told me, ‘The mayor wants to make this area like New York, Times Square,’ but I told them, ‘Who told him we want that? The people who come here are not like that.’ Ninety-nine percent of the people here are mexicanos. Here, you don’t really see americanos. One or two,” she says. “Why are they coming now to get us out of here? Why the abuse? Why the abuse?”

What’s worse is that while licensed hot dog vendors see the business suffer due to the restrictions, fees, and threats placed on them by overzealous city health inspectors, police and gangs, they have to watch their customers flock to the illegal bacon hot dog carts that have flourished since the ban, serving a customer base that probably doesn’t care where they come from…they just want their bacon dogs.

Will there ever be justice for the L.A.’s bacon hot dog vendors?

UPDATE: Drew Carey joins the fight.

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Ord Noodles is the name you’ll see on the storefront, but its Thai name is Kwayteow Hoi Ka, which means Dangling Leg Noodles. The owners previously had a restaurant in Northern Thailand along a river bank, and people would sit and eat with their legs dangling over the water.

Not surprisingly, Dangling Leg Noodles is also the name of their signature dish (#1 on the menu). It’s an amazing sweet/spicy soup filled with ground pork, red pork ball, dried shrimp, pork liver, and your choice of fresh noodles (rice stick, chow mein, or thick rice noodles). You can see the chili flake floating around the vinegar-based broth, so you know it’s packing heat. Adding Chinese-style char siu makes this a #4, which is what we ordered. The three of us split a large bowl for $5; small bowls are $3.

We also ordered the rice plate with spicy crispy cicerenes (#21), which is basically chicharrones in a spicy sauce, and you can’t get much better than that. Our waitress said this was one of their most popular dishes and I saw at least three more orders go to other tables while we were there.

We rounded out our order with some Thai-style sausages, which fall somewhere in between Chinese lap cheung and Filipino longanisa, and a mint leaf chicken dish that was good but had a bit too much cilantro in it for our taste.

If someone out there can direct me towards a Thai restaurant that’s more authentic, delicious and cheap (nothing on the menu is over $6), then by all means, point me in the right direction. If not, I’ll be happy eating at Ord Noodles whenever I’m in town and lament about not having a place like this in the Bay Area.

INFORMATION
Ord Noodles
5401 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90027 map
323.468.9302

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Lawry’s the Prime Rib is a Los Angeles institution that has been serving basically one thing, beautiful roasted prime ribs of beef, since it opened in 1938. It made dinner a spectacle when Lawry’s founder Lawrence Frank invented the rolling silver serving carts that keep the meat fresh so that every diner can have their prime rib carved to order and served tableside. The Spinning Salad is kinda corny and isn’t that great, but watching the servers make it is always fun and adds to the “experience.” The restaurant was also a vehicle to promote Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, a key ingredient in the prime rib that is now a fixture in pantries and spice racks around the world.

I normally order the standard Lawry’s cut, medium rare, with creamed spinach and mashed potatoes. Yorkshire pudding is always puffy and golden brown and is great for picking up the excess jus. The food is almost always perfect, and the service is attentive, fast and hasn’t changed in decades. They hold several tables for walk-ins, but you should make reservations well in advance, and they’ve just started using Open Table for online reservations.

The Lawry’s dining experience makes it a great special occasion restaurant. In fact, my wife and I wanted our friends and family to enjoy the Lawry’s experience so much that we had our wedding reception there in 2005. If you’re willing to do a lunch reception, the food is so much better than hotel food, and it’s much cheaper than any other venue in the area. The entire Lawry’s staff was professional, efficient, and flexible, and they worked with our ideas to help make everything perfect. The great staff and service, coupled with family, friends and great food, helped make our reception truly memorable.

if you do decide to have your reception here, join Lawry’s VIP Rewards program. You get a $25 certificate for every 250 points ($250) you accrue, and these certificates are valid at any restaurant in the Lawry’s family. Let’s say you spend $10K on your wedding reception. This means you’ll get 40 $25 certificates. That’s $1000 worth of food! You can give them to friends, family, coworkers, or just keep them for yourself…we’ve had plenty of free meals courtesy of Lawry’s since our reception.

We all know that food tastes better when it’s free, but at a place like Lawry’s, it’s truly out of this world.

INFORMATION
Lawry’s The Prime Rib
100 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211 map
310.652.2827
Web site

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I want you to imagine a moist devil’s food cupcake, filled with flavored whipped cream (let’s use banana for this example). Now dip it in chocolate ganache to seal it, top it with an additional flourish of banana whipped cream and then garnish it with a slice of roasted banana.

Hungry?

Dainties Cupcakes are really a misnomer…but this is a good thing. The devil’s food cake and the chocolate ganache give the cupcakes a heft (without being heavy) that you just don’t get anywhere else. It makes these cupcakes — dare I say — manly!

I think I’ve finally found my cupcake.

All of Dainties cupcakes have the same base of moist devil’s food. They differ by their cream fillings. We ordered the Creme de Menthe, Tiramisu, Maple and the Stupid Chocolate.

The best of these was the Maple…just an incredible flavor combination with the devil’s food. The Tiramisu was also excellent…the cream reminded me of the mocha frosting at Goldilocks, only denser. Creme de Menthe was a really nice, subtle mint flavor. Then there’s the Stupid Chocolate, which adds dark chocolate chips to the cake, is filled with vanilla cream, then dipped in chocolate ganache twice. It’s topped with more vanilla cream and chocolate shavings. It gets its name because it’s a stupid amount of chocolate.

The actual storefront doesn’t look like much and the main signage says Flatbush and J, the catering company from which Dainties spawned. You’ll likely be greeted by Chef Bill Dertouzos, a Brooklyn native who’s the mastermind behind these amazing creations. Bill was very cool and gets extra props for giving us a sample of the roasted banana cupcake mentioned above. He said he was very proud of that creation, and he should be. It was our favorite cupcake of the bunch.

Finding Dainties is a little challenging. The address is on Santa Monica Blvd., but the entrance is actually on the side street. The easiest way to find it is to look for Winchell’s, then walk around the corner and Dainties is right there. I went there the other day and saw that they added a new mural on the wall near the entrance celebrating being named Best Cupcake by Los Angeles Magazine, so that should help you find it also.

The extra effort it takes to find the place will be rewarded. Believe you me, you will be rewarded!

INFORMATION
Dainties Cupcakes (CLOSED)
11058 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025 map
310.312.3656
Web site

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MILK is one of those places in L.A. where the specialty of the house is something decadent, like ice cream, but Angelenos will go in there and order a salad. In fact, since we were there around the tail end of lunch, there were plenty of folks in there eating salads.

We went to MILK for the ice cream and were not disappointed. My wife’s Blondie sundae was great even though I’m more into brownies myself. MILK’s vanilla ice cream is excellent, probably because the butter fat content is really high, and the candied pecans and whipped cream were really nice.

I ordered the Creamsicle – a scoop of blood orange sorbet with a scoop vanilla ice cream and topped with almond brittle. The brittle was crispy but soft enough that you won’t have to worry about chipping a tooth. I loved the tartness of the blood orange sorbet paired with the vanilla, but it really didn’t taste like a Creamsicle. It was still excellent, but I think a regular orange sorbet/sherbet would have captured that classic Creamsicle flavor a lot better (if that’s what they were going for).

To go with our ice cream concoctions, we split the Media Noche, a delicious Cuban-style sandwich of roast pork, ham, manchego cheese, pickles and a roasted garlic mayo. The accompanying salad was forgettable but since we had our ice cream, it didn’t really matter. Check out the cooler as you enter for a good selection of sodas, including Mexican Coke and some old-school bottles of Dr. Pepper.

We couldn’t leave MILK without trying their famous bon bons, so I got two each of coffee toffee, chocolate mint crunch and Berrynilla. The berrynilla was okay, but both the toffee and mint crunch were incredible.

I know there’s sandwiches and salads on the menu at MILK, but do yourself a favor…make sure you order some ice cream! We managed to find street parking pretty easily, but it would be a shame if you told someone you got a parking ticket because you drove all the way to MILK for a salad, wouldn’t it?

INFORMATION
MILK
7290 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90046 map
323.939.6455
Web site

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I’m not Korean, but I can definitely say that the KyoChon in L.A.’s Koreatown is another reason why it sucks to be Korean in the SF Bay Area.

All the Koreans I know in the Bay Area lament the dearth of good Korean Food and how all the good stuff is in L.A. This is good for me because I come home to SoCal pretty often and have access to some pretty amazing food. There’s some pretty good KFC joints in the Bay Area (99 Chicken, Oriental BBQ Chicken Town), but none are really as good as KyoChon, one of the most popular fried chicken chains in Korea.

KyoChon’s chicken is great. The texture of the chicken is perfect and crispy, just like my favorite KFC, Bon Chon in New York. However, Bon Chon’s better sauces, especially their Soy/Garlic, put it ahead of KyoChon.

There’s not much to the menu (their spicy chicken duk bok kee was pretty good, too), but it’s still a bit confusing with all the different combinations and the lack of explanations. There was a bit of a language barrier also, but despite this, our order was accurate and the chicken was delicious. Waiting for KFC is pretty standard since everything is cooked to order. I don’t know of any other KFC place that has them sitting under heat lamps, which is great because you know that you’re always going to get fresh fried chicken.

Again, almost as good as Bon Chon, but then again, it’s a lot closer than New York.

INFORMATION
KyoChon
3833 W 6th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90020 map
213.739.9292
Web site

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