What makes you think you know how many or how few specialized places there are?
There are pizza places everywhere in LA that don't belong to any popular chains.
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Why LA's Restaurants May Be Better Than Those In New York
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What makes you think you know how many or how few specialized places there are?
There are pizza places everywhere in LA that don't belong to any popular chains.
Devolution
Member
I'm a norcal snob in Portland. Portland is just as good if not better. Been around LA, prices meh.
.la1n
Member
Only the finest burgers grace these lips.
Marion Cobretti
Member
Born and raised in LA, been living in NYC for a few years now, and its not even close.
The only thing LA has over NYC is Mexican food, and maaaybe sushi.
NYC wins at every other food no contest. Not to mention that everything in NYC delivers, and nothing closes that early so you always have a wide range of things to choose from, unlike LA where you're stuck with fast food or tacos after midnight.
It also blows my mind that there's barely any good Mexican food in manhattan considering that there's a Mexican in every kitchen.
The only thing LA has over NYC is Mexican food, and maaaybe sushi.
NYC wins at every other food no contest. Not to mention that everything in NYC delivers, and nothing closes that early so you always have a wide range of things to choose from, unlike LA where you're stuck with fast food or tacos after midnight.
It also blows my mind that there's barely any good Mexican food in manhattan considering that there's a Mexican in every kitchen.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
LA/New York/Chicago/etc...have more than enough choices to be interchangeable when it comes to amazing places to eat. It's just unnecessary city pride jerking off when it comes to "which is better?"
Try living in shit town Indiana for 5 years. You'll drive an hour just for a spicy tuna roll that doesn't give you diarrhea.
Try living in shit town Indiana for 5 years. You'll drive an hour just for a spicy tuna roll that doesn't give you diarrhea.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Off topic, but is stuff like this generally considered good writing compared to using more simple phrasing? Not sure why this particular phrase stuck out to me, but I was just curious how others felt.
Devolution
Member
Parts of Florida are the worst I'm told. My Vietnamese friend just gave up finding decent asian food while she was there.
And I've been to a whole goddamn lot of them, and never go to chains if I can help it. And I have never been impressed outside of Mulberry and Raffalo's on La Brea. What makes you think you have any idea how many pizza places I have been to in 9 years looking for something good? The pizza situation in this city is dismal.
You haven't been around enough, then. Prices for food here are entirely in line with other West Coast metro areas, and there's stuff here you won't find anywhere else.
TheKaeptain
Banned
LA has Shunji. Which is considered the best Sushi place on the west coast.
As a Korean...Korean food doesn't really vary whether you're in New York, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, even Atlanta. It's not a particularly expansive brand of cuisine. You've got your basic stews, a couple meat specialties (half of it's unseasoned, the other half is and, really, galbi's quality is almost wholly reliant on the cooking method), and then the casual-younger fair like omelet rice, korean-friend chicken, etc.
Obviously China has everyone in the region beat when it comes to variety of flavors, but Korea is dead last in terms of flavor compared to Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. We pretty much have four seasonings that we use in 90% of our meals: soy, garlic, red pepper and fermented bean curd.
Hell, our noodles pretty much are dreadful other than the cold noodles (naengmyun). The noodles we use are gummy and don't have the tautness of good quality ramen or rice noodles.
You can find decent soon tofu in pretty much any urban center with a korean population in this country. You can't find really good Pho outside of New York, DC, LA, Chicago...and OKC. I don't know why, but there are a lot of vietnamese people in OKC.
.la1n
Member
I haven't been able to find any decent Asian food in Florida but I am sure some Floridians on the forum may know some spots.
Devolution
Member
No they're not. SF and LA are more than most other places. I can find stuff here or outside of those cities in Cali just fine.
Marion Cobretti
Member
There's plenty of fantastic food in LA, it just doesn't compare to the amount, and variety you get in NYC.
Dude Abides
Banned
When you're writing about a place as boring and soulless as LA, you have to gussy up your prose to try to keep the reader's interest.
Devolution
Member
Best Korean I've had so far was made by my friend's mother.
TheKaeptain
Banned
lol this is wrong.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, but it still tastes damn good. Not a ton of variety, maybe, but when you're looking for some spicy fried meat and rice, go Korean.
Living in Chicago, the only area of cuisine that's been kind of disappointing is seafood. Not that you can't find quality places, mind you, but you definitely pay a premium since we don't have the ocean.
It's a small price to pay for the best burgers, Mexican, Korean and hot dogs I've ever had. Among all of the other great options for eating cheap here.
It's a small price to pay for the best burgers, Mexican, Korean and hot dogs I've ever had. Among all of the other great options for eating cheap here.
There's a lot of Korean fusion stuff in LA that really has no equivalent elsewhere, although similar stuff is beginning to pop up in SF in the last few years.
Prices here and in SF are easily comparable to Seattle. I haven't been to Portland in over 10 years, but I suppose they might have somehow remained cheap in the interim. Still, you dismiss Los Angeles food far, far too vehemently to really come off as informed on the subject. I know, I sounded just like you my first year here. I was very wrong.
killertofu
Member
LA food is definitely better and cheaper than NYC in my experience.
I miss SF though ;___;
I miss SF though ;___;
You're only one human being. Surely you can't pretend like your experience is actually representative of what's out there.
I've lived here 22 years and have been to a lot of places, but I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert. I just recently found a wonderful Chinese food place in Santa Monica called Hop Li's a year ago.
Actually, pretty much every variety of seafood traveling from east coast to west coast has to go through Chicago.
It depends what you're looking for. Chicago's not really a "seafood only" restaurant kind of place. I guess there's El Barco on Ashland if you're interested.
The best restaurants are really going to be shared plates places, and you aren't really paying any more than you would elsewhere. The seafood items at Avec, Girl and the Goat, The Publican, Maude's, etc. are not any more expensive than the mammalian counterparts.
I haven't spent anywhere near enough time in NYC to compare it with LA on any level, culinary or otherwise, but knowing people from NYC and surrounding who have moved to LA has taught me two things. They A) Refuse to accept any pizza that is not made in New York City itself and B) Have a really weird idea of what Chinese food is supposed to be.
Then by all means, lay some suggested pizza places on me, but let's not do the stupid internet "If you don't put 'IMO' after everything you say I automatically assume you're trying to dictate Truth to every human being on the planet" routine, shall we?
If you're in North Miami, go to Ricky Thai for the best Thai I've ever had. I've had several people who've been to Thailand tell me it's extremely authentic, as well. The place is kind of hidden in this dinky strip mall, but soooo worth it.
Marion Cobretti
Member
I'm in LA at the moment, and I lived here most of my life, tell me, where can I get some awesome Himalayan, Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, or Ethiopian food?
Devolution
Member
My experience is that people prop up SF a lot but you can find great places in Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda, etc. It will be cheaper, just as good (sometimes better) and so much easier to get to.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
If you want to be able to eat healthy on a regular basis, then LA is fucking terrible when it comes to food.
I lived there for a year and outside of buying my own food from the supermarket, it's insanely hard to find cheap food that isn't going to clog your arteries. New York absolutely shits on LA when it comes to variety of foods that won't make you feel like shit.
I lived there for a year and outside of buying my own food from the supermarket, it's insanely hard to find cheap food that isn't going to clog your arteries. New York absolutely shits on LA when it comes to variety of foods that won't make you feel like shit.
Point taken.
I'll definitely check out El Barco, thanks! It's just been a change for me coming from Miami where seafood places grow on trees.My experience is that when people say "SF" they mean all of what you just mentioned, similar to how when people say "LA" they mean the city plus Santa Monica and other surrounding areas.
Again, I don't have any experience in New York, but this is very true. Eating healthy in LA generally means you're not eating out.
What's weird to me is the idea of things like budaejigae being though as delicious - looking at the German-Korean gastropub.
That's literally what poor people eat. I mean as in, you were embarrassed growing up and having to eat that. It's the equivalent of Hamburger Helper.
*I realize I am basically going through the experience of the Thai in the 2000s, the Spanish in the late 90s, the Middle Eastern community in the early 90s, Japanese in the 80s, the Chinese in the 70s...
Haha, oh yeah. If you're from Miami, there's no way you'll be satiated hereabouts. Nothing like seafood just 10 minutes from the shore.Point taken.
Avec, in my humble opinion, has the best food quality
rice ratio in the city. You won't pay more than $25/person sans drinks.Fairfax just south of Olympic is a neighborhood called Little Ethiopia, and it has several excellent Ethiopian restaurants all clustered together. Highly recommended.
jstevenson
Sailor Stevenson
LA gets a bad rap because it's all so spread out. SF, NO and NYC are all highly concentrated in terms of their top tier food. You can much more easily get to all those places, or see them walking around, or hear about them etc.
LA's are spread out, on streets you've never been on or neighborhoods you've ever gone to.
So LA probably does have a food scene as good as any other city, and maybe better. The problem is it's a lot harder to exploit it.
LA's are spread out, on streets you've never been on or neighborhoods you've ever gone to.
So LA probably does have a food scene as good as any other city, and maybe better. The problem is it's a lot harder to exploit it.
This. But also, as someone who lives in New York, the food's only especially good in Manhattan. Yes, like most big cities you'll find some good food in Brooklyn, Queens, etc., but most of it is really mediocre.
TheKaeptain
Banned
Places I've been to in the year I've lived there:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/awash-restaurant-los-angeles
I've been to Himalayan place but I have no idea what it was called. The only Venezuelan I have had was from a food truck and it was amazing. PR food I had which was good was Old San Juan.
I didn't know that, that's actually pretty funny/interesting. A lot of the Korean fusion fad (is it a fad? or a new movement?) comes from the explosion of food truck culture in LA several years ago. That came out of former restaurant owners not being able to afford restaurant space in the wake of the 2008 crash and switching to mobile kitchens essentially as a method of survival. The street food has moved into the restaurant now that the crisis is winding down.
Sometimes I guess it just takes a culture that doesn't have a social stigma attached to a particular dish to say "Hey, this is actually pretty damn good!"
jstevenson
Sailor Stevenson
Also - I'd agree with the thesis that LA's mid-range restaurants (ie, Animal, Son of a Gun, Spice Table, Tasting Kitchen, Baco Mercat) are totally the rage. There's something nice about the casual nature of all of them. It definitely is something that seems cutting edge in the food network / hipster age.
Fidelis Hodie
Infidelis Cras
I really, really need to get up to San Fran soon. It's a crime I've still never been.
Now you're just being silly.
Now you're just being silly.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
So...San Francisco then?
Oh, I'm aware. It's a happy accident if anything with Roy Choi and his contemporaries. It's past the "prime" as a movement, I'd say, but it's maturing. You're having more sit down restaurants, bistros using Korean flavors across the country. One of the most celebrated restaurants in the past two years in Chicago is Ruxbin, which is run by two Korean siblings. French technique with light, delicate touches of Korean flavors.
There are ways you can easily "Koreanize" other foods...basically substituting kimchi for a pickle or whatever acidic/sour element you'd have in a food to cut through fat. It works perfectly as a pickle substitute for bacon cheeseburgers. Bacon and stir-fried kimchi has always been a staple at home for Korean-American kids so that makes sense.
Marinated meat tastes delicious with everything. That's about all you need.
Devolution
Member
That's not SF, it will never be referred to as SF, it's the East Bay. Even people who spend fuckloads of time in SF and have only lived there don't consider it part of SF because they have to cross a bridge or take bart.
Raitosaito
Member
Currently living in LA and I concur. When I was in the bay area the dim sum is not comparable to LA's stuff, and Thai food here near the temples are dirty and delicious just like back home.
New York? nah
New York? nah
TheKaeptain
Banned
Best place to drink.
killertofu
Member
Best place to have your heart broken.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
I know multiple people who can dispute this, but clearly you're the final authority on the matter so I concede.
Aruarian Reflection
Chauffeur de la gdlk
I don't know how NorCal people who have traipsed around in L.A. a few times can have any meaningful opinion about food in L.A.
On a side note, I'm from SGV in L.A. and went to NorCal recently. Not one of my NorCal foodie friends could tell me a Chinese / Taiwanese restaurant that would impress somebody from SGV
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