The Unvegan

Featured Reviews

Merging Cultures at Chino Bandido
Back to Asia with Taiwan Food Express
A Big Ass Burger at Roaring Fork
Damn Near Perfection at Tokyo Fried Chicken

Reviews

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1/5/2010 Gardena

Japanese for Real at Hakata Ramen Shinsengumi

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Drunk or not, this looks awesome.

For too long have I been subjected to people who believe the beginning and end of Japanese food is sushi. While living in Japan for half of a year, I believe I ate sushi once. This was not because I was avoiding sushi, but because sushi just wasn’t as prevalent as we are led to believe. Sure, you can find sushi if you are looking, but it is not as though every corner has a sushi place. Rather, it is much more common to find ramen. This isn’t your Cup O Noodle college hangover ramen, but a real, hearty bowl of broth with noodles, meat and more. Recently, some coworkers of mine were heading out to “that ramen place” in Gardena for lunch and I joined them, fingers crossed that this place would be the true Japanese food I’ve been waiting for.

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1/4/2010 Los Angeles

A Fire in my Mouth at Henry’s Hat (CLOSED)

Mild burning here.
Mild burning here.

Every once in a while, Henry’s Hat sends out an email to loyal fans, alerting them that the entire menu, including drinks, will be half price for a night. Luckily, my girlfriend happens to be one of those loyal fans, so we set off for that strange area near Universal City to get some ridiculously cheap food.

Henry’s Hat is really a sports bar with a mostly bar-like menu. As someone with an infatuation with bar food, this was great for me. A lot of the food on the menu looked good and some looked fancier than your average bar food. We started off with an order of Aggies’s Chili Con Queso. This was molten cheese and salsa with tortilla chips. And since we were such big rollers for the night, we decided to “Make it Mud.” In doing so, they added black beans, chorizo and avocado and pico de gallo to the mix. Actually, we got the pico de gallo on the side, since those tomatoes and onions would have ruined the whole thing.

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12/30/2009 Los Angeles

Pizza on the Cheap At Lenzini’s 241 Pizza

A happy large.
A happy large.

Ever since graduating from college, it hasn’t been easy find great deals on pizza. Not so long ago, I was in the habit of ordering two large one-topping pizzas for the amazing price of ten bucks, including delivery! While days like that will likely never be seen again by this hungry unvegan, there are still some decently cheap pizza places out there. Lenzini’s 241 Pizza (get it? two for one?) in Plams is one of these places. All the pizzas on their menu come with a second pizza of equal or lesser value. The prices are slightly inflated, but it was definitely worth a try the last time my girlfriend and I had to order a bunch of pizzas.

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12/29/2009 Manhattan Beach

Dying a Little Inside at Chili’s

Translucent chips!
Translucent chips!

Chili’s isn’t exactly known for being healthy, making it a perfect place to do some unvegan food reviewing, or so one would think. I went to the Manhattan Beach location with a group of six for lunch and we all decided to take advantage of their 2 for $20. In this nutso deal, two people get to share an appetizer, get their own entrees and get to share a dessert. Since we had six people, we all ordered that special and made sure to get different appetizers. Then the real fun began!

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12/28/2009 Marina del Rey

Reliable Italian at C & O Cucina

The REAL reason to go to C & O
The REAL reason to go to C & O

Not to be confused with C & O Trattoria, C & O Cucina is just down the street in Marina Del Rey. Although the location is completely different, the menu seems to be the same as the other C & O. One thing it is missing, though, is the fun outdoor atmosphere. Nonetheless, I had a restaurant.com gift certificate so I had to try it out.

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12/24/2009 Mobile

A Food Trailer Named Derb’s Gourmet (CLOSED)

This is not a truck.
This is not a truck.

One day I received a random Twitter follow from @derbsgourmet. It piqued my interest so, I decided to follow them and found out that they were a new food truck called Derb’s Gourmet and set to launch in a couple days. Not only that, but they were launching at a bar right down the street from me, Bigfoot West. The sheer convenience was a sign that I had to try them out.

I arrived at 10:00, since that was supposed to be their launch time and saw that this was no normal food truck.

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12/23/2009 Redondo Beach

The Anti In-N-Out at Chick-fil-A (CLOSED)

Now available in malls?
Now available in malls?

EDIT: This spot is closed, but obviously Chick-fil-A and its bigotry against beef continues to thrive.

Other than having hyphenated names, In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A have some other eerie parallels. For a long time, Chick-fil-A kept itself to the south, but has since expanded. In-N-Out, on the other hand, has kept itself to the west and has hardly expanded outside of California. Both still carry an air of mystery, as they are not readily available like McDonald’s or Burger King. They are also pretty religious, with Chick-fil-A closing on Sundays and In-N-Out printing bible quotes on their packaging. And finally, their menus are both incredibly simple. Yet, their simple menus are what makes them such opposites. In-N-Out only has burgers, while Chick-fil-A only has chicken.

I didn’t even realize Chick-fil-A existed in LA until a friend told me about one in the South Bay Galleria Mall in Redondo Beach. One day for lunch, we headed over there so I could see what Chick-fil-A was all about.

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12/22/2009 Mobile

A Breakfeast at the Buttermilk Truck (CLOSED)

Hungry workers.
Hungry workers.

EDIT: The truck is no more, but apparently the food can now be found at Willie Jane’s in Venice…

As I sat on my couch in the morning, waiting for my English Muffin to toast, I realized that I didn’t actually have a Newsweek to read. This was very disappointed, so I turned to my iPhone and checked Twitter. Thinking nothing new would be there at such an ungodly hour (8:30), I was just hoping to kill time. But then I saw it. The Buttermilk Truck was already on the streets and serving up breakfast in El Segundo, essentially across the street from where I work. I shot up from my couch, grabbed the English Muffin from the toaster and tossed it back into the fridge, then hit the road to get some breakfast from a truck.

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12/21/2009 Los Angeles

Legendary Meat at Langer’s Deli

In cursive, so you know it's good.
In cursive, so you know it’s good.

All-too-often restaurants claim to have “the best” blah blah blah in the world, but sometimes there is a restaurant that makes no claim to have the best of anything and lets the customers tell the good news. Langer’s Deli is one of the latter. Located in the not-so-posh neighborhood of MacArthur Park, Langer’s has become known for their pastrami. Many who have tried it have claimed it is the best ever, so to do the unvegan world a favor, I had to try it out myself.

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12/18/2009 Bloomfield Hills

Eating Road Kill at The Moose Preserve

Hungry for antlers?
Hungry for antlers?

As a child with an appetite pickier than a vegan, I remember going to The Moose Preserve in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and being amazed by the selection of interesting foods on their menu. I always went with a burger because I wasn’t adventurous yet, but as I grew up, I tried some more things. The Moose Preserve was the first place I ever tried a buffalo burger, and I loved it. In fact, at the time I tried it, I had never seen buffalo on a menu anywhere else. Despite trying buffalo, there was one thing on the menu I was always in fear of. This was the Road Kill Grill. Although not actually composed of road kill, this meal had enough strange (to me) animals on it to keep me away. On my last visit to Michigan, though, I decided it was time to take on the road kill.

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