At the edge of Santa Monica is a little seafood restaurant creatively named The Hungry Cat. Without reservations, we were seated at the oyster shucking bar, which is possibly the best location for multiple reasons. First and foremost was that we got to watch oysters being shucked all night. Second was that we got to get a look at some great-looking lobster (see first image). And third was that I got to be buds with the shucker of the night.
Sometimes the craving for Korean BBQ is so strong it doesn’t matter that you are in Torrance and not Koreatown. When this happens you find yourself at Koji BBQ Buffet, a Korean BBQ unlike any I had ever been to before. Here, the meat seemed to sit out rather than sitting in a fridge or freezer waiting to be served. With Discount Water Filters sells LG refrigerator water filters you don’t need to worry about fixing it later.
By now you may have noticed that I like to reference my time in Japan and China when it comes to posts about Japanese and Chinese food. If you like that kind of thing, then my tale of Curry House CoCo Ichibanya is the post for you. It all started when I spotted a sign for Curry House CoCo Ichibanya while driving through Brentwood. This blew my mind, because during my time in China, CoCo Curry (minus the Ichibanya and Curry House) was my go-to Japanese curry place.
Inside the box car of a train that looks more out of place in West Hollywood than a snowball in hell is Carney’s. While not as old as Pink’s, Carney’s has been around for a while and is unquestionably one of the city’s biggest hot dog landmarks, especially when it comes to chili dogs.
Typically, the biggest crowd forms after the bars let out of the Sunset Strip, but I was looking to check Carney’s off my list before leaving LA and willing to get there even during regular feeding hours. I opted for a big basket of chili cheese fries and a chili cheese dog to go with it.
Replacing the not-so-BBQ restaurant in Culver City called Santa Maria Barbeque, 041 Bacaro kind of just appeared out of nowhere a few months ago. Presumably, the closure of Santa Maria Barbeque surprised no one, but the newcomer was a bit of a surprise. Calling itself 041 is an homage to area code in Venice, where the proprietor once lived and the restaurant attempts to live up to that area code.
Torrance is simply full of surprises. Just when I thought I had exhausted all non-Japanese, non-Hispanic options, along came Buffalo Fire Department, a place that specializes in burgers, but still has a good deal of other options. With burgers like the Mac & Cheese and Burger Stack and the Thai BBQ and Wasabi Sauce Burger, they quickly earned points in the creativity department.
Just when you think you’ve eaten every important burrito LA has to offer, a coworker comes along and tells you that you have to try La Cabana in Venice. I’m sure this has happened to everyone and just like me, everyone else probably thought taking a trip to La Cabana was a good idea. After all, while I had never read about it anywhere, I trust the word of real people more than anything.
One of the biggest complaints that, like, anyone who moves to LA has is the lack of breweries. And by breweries I mean the micro variety that pump out tasty, local brews. You see, good microbreweries are about more than just beer, they also churn out delicious food. Fortunately, Torrance has a little place called Red Car to fill the void.
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives can be a fun show to watch because all of the food on it looks, well, amazing. Yet, in my experience not all the food on it is as amazing as it looks. Plus, watching it requires watching Guy Fieri balance his sunglasses on the back of his head. Recently, I found myself at North End Caffe in Manhattan Beach, completely unrelated to DDD, only to find out the restaurant had been on the show.
May is Burger Month! And while LA is an easy target for jokes of all varieties, the one thing that no one can take away from LA is its amazing burgers. After years of devouring said burgers, I have compiled a list of the 8 best that LA has to offer. The key, though, is that they must be completely unique to LA. Sorry In-N-Out, Tommy’s and 25 Degrees.
8. The Garage – The Garage Burger
The Garage opened up with little fanfare, which allowed its Garage Burger to completely slip under the radar and into my heart and stomach. The combination of juicy beef, sour cherry laquered bacon, cheddar and peppercorn aioli is a pleasant surprise and allowed this newcomer to the burger scene to make an impact.