A while back, Sang Yoon opened up a place called Lukshon in Culver City. For some, this was a time to rejoice, as this was the man behind the Father’s Office burger. But for me, it was a time to…well…consider trying out Lukshon. You see, if you know me, you know my disdain for the Father’s Office burger. So it took until dineLA’s Restaurant Week to get me out to Lukshon. I went with a sizable crowd, collectively known as the Suppah Club, and we had ourselves a seat at a massive table on Lukshon’s patio in Culver City.

While we were there initially for the fixed price menu, a group of us decided to go rogue and order a bunch of things from regular menu, including some of those from dineLA. This was great, as it gave me an opportunity to try more than I would have otherwise, beginning with the Spicy Chicken Pops. These things start out as basic Shelton Farms drumettes before being topped with garlic, kecap manis (a sweet soy sauce) and spicy Sichuan salt. And yes, they were as good as they sound. I loved the combination of sweet, salty and spicy flavor and could not get enough of these. They also had a unique texture, being quite crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

Next came the Lamb Belly Roti Canai, an incredibly unique dish with perhaps a few too many flavors going on. The roti itself is flatbread and the belly was topped with chana dal (a type of lentil), cumin, mint and raita (a South Asian yogurt sauce). There were also pickled cauliflowers on the side, which went right to everyone else. While I was happy with this dish, I felt like I couldn’t really taste the lamb belly itself. Maybe that was the intention, and while I was happy to get protein, I would have liked to taste the meat rather than just the yogurt, cumin and mint.

Then we got down with some Short Rib Rendang, a beef short rib dish cooked with Malay spices and served with a red chile lemongrass rempah (spice paste) mixed with coconut cream. While I didn’t eat much of this, I found it to be quite the opposite of the lamb belly, in that none of the flavors really popped at all. Perhaps my taste buds had taken a vacation after the lamb belly, but I expect some strong Malaysian flavor and was a little disappointed to find none. Nonetheless, the beef itself was cooked perfectly and had a fair amount of its own flavor to offer.

With that taken care of, we moved on to my favorite dish of the night – Heirloom Black Rice. Tossed in with the rice was lap cheong (Chinese sausage), roasted garlic, onion and a Lily’s Farm fried egg. I couldn’t order without the onion, as we were splitting this delicious rice, but if there was any onion in the final product, it went unknown to me. The fried egg was perfectly runny and got sliced, diced and mixed in with the black rice. The result was some spectacular flavor and texture. The black rice is a bit heavier than white and has a tougher feel to it, while the lap cheong is a slightly sweet and chewy sausage that goes well with just about any form of rice. With the perfect balance, the Heirloom Black Rice was the big winner of the night in my heart.

But wait, we weren’t finished yet. There was still Garlic Pork Belly to be eaten. Mixed in with the slivers of pork belly was do ban jian (a spicy paste), tubular rice cakes, cabbage and garlic chives. This made for a dish I needed to pick at. You see, I wasn’t about to be eating cabbage, I do have a reputation to protect. Unfortunately, though, the dish was lacking in pork belly content. When I did find that delicious pre-bacon, it was delicious, but it felt too few and far between. The rice cakes were a nice touch though. They may have been filler, but they were delicious filler with the great flavor of the do ban jian.

Now, Lukshon has a unique policy of offering free dessert at every dinner. Ordinarily I love anything free, but I have to think a restaurant offering free dessert for every diner is offloading the costs onto its patrons anyway. And since I’m not a dessert guy, I would prefer a cheaper regular meal. But that’s beside the point, and it turned out that our desserts were delicious. I couldn’t tell you what they all were, but rest easy that Lukshon comes through on desserts.

I left Lukshon a happy and full unvegan. While not every dish was a hit, I loved the thought behind them all, the emphasis on local sources and the overall variety of Asian influence. Plus, the great dishes were truly awesome. I also want to mention our terrific waiter, who knew the menu like the back of his hand, made some great suggestions and prevented us from over-ordering anything. With all that said, Lukshon was definitely a step up from the Father’s Office burger and Sang Yoon is moving in the right direction.

Ever walk into a “pizza parlor” that actually functions as more of a full-on Italian restaurant? Or how about a “Japanese place” that only serves sushi? We are constantly being misled into restaurants that either offer a lot more than expected or a lot less. And then there is Hinano Cafe in Venice, which only a crackhead would consider to be a cafe. You see, Hinano is pretty much the definition of a dive bar. Sawdust coats the floor, there are maybe five real tables and the two guys behind the bar take turns dishing out beer or flipping burgers on the lone griddle in the middle of the bar.

We arrived about five minutes before the end of happy hour and walked up to the bar to order. Since the bar was called Hinano, it only seemed right to order Hinano Beer, which comes from Tahiti. I’m not sure whether the bar is named for the beer, vice-versa or if it is just a happy coincidence, but perhaps it is best to leave such questions in the realm of the chicken or the egg. As my buddy and I tried to order our beers, we were quickly met with a bad attitude as the bartender yelled, “Just tell me what kind of beers you want.” We were under the impression that we had been telling him what beers we wanted, but apparently this wasn’t the case. We repeated our orders and when he came back it was time to order food.

Food at Hinano, by the way, consists of anything that can be easily made on a griddle. And I mean easy, as they don’t even dive into the realm of teriyaki chicken. But I was here for one thing only – a burger. Hinano kind of has a reputation for their burgers, which are not only cheap, but supposedly damn good. Their cheeseburgers run the same price as regular hamburgers and anything can have bacon, hot links or chili added for an additional charge. They can also be stacked into a double for the same price as adding bacon. They usually come with smorgasbord of toppings like tomatoes, lettuce, pickles and onions, but I wanted none of these. I ordered myself a double cheeseburger with bacon, plain. In no time, my burger and a bag of chips were brought out to me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they don’t have a deep fryer, so Hinano is a no-French fry zone. Instead, every burger comes with Fritos, Doritos or Lay’s. And you don’t seem to get a choice of chips, as my friend requested Lay’s and wound up with a bag of Fritos.

But back to my burger.

It was sitting on a paper tray basking in its own beauty, which I suddenly realized a pickle was getting way frisky with my bun. By the time I arrived on the scene, he bun had been impregnated with the juices of the pickle and a huge chunk could not be salvaged. Damn you, pickle!

With partial bun removal behind me, I went to work on the burger, which was quite good. It was plenty juicy, what remained of the bun held its own and the American cheese had been melted to perfection. The bacon was at a fast food thickness and probably not worth the upgrade price, but still a nice addition. Sometimes nothing can quite beat a simple bacon cheeseburger prepared on a griddle in the middle of a dive bar. Yet, while I enjoyed the burger, I couldn’t help but think that similar burgers exist in diners across the country. I know I’ve had my fair share of burgers like this one, but it’s probably the setting and the price that makes people fall in love with their burgers and brings them back for more, moreso than the burgers themselves.

For my part, I thought that while the dive atmosphere was great, I’ve had better, less pretentious service at places like Father’s Office, which thrives on an air of superiority (although the Hinano burger definitely tastes better). If you need a change of pace, by all means, Hinano is going to give you that, but as you eat your burger you might want to ask yourself whether you like the burger or just like the idea of eating a simple burger in a dive setting. If this were truly a cafe, I just don’t think the burger would taste so good.

I’ve been meaning to head to The Foundry on Melrose for a while. Not only have I heard good things about the food in general, but I also heard that once upon a time The Foundry challenged Father’s Office to a burger taste test. I’m not sure who ended up winning that particular taste test, but I was happy to know that someone had the balls to challenge the pretentious Father’s Office. Finally, a 30% coupon from Blackboard Eats pushed me over the edge to finally visit The Foundry.

We took a seat at their nice outdoor area and got to looking at the menu. I knew I would have to get the burger, but I wanted to see what else the place had to offer. The “Patio Season” Burger (as they called it) was only 12 bucks and the prices of entrees ran all the way up to the thirties. Good thing I had already had my mind set on the burger. The menu said it came with cheddar, Hawaiian (how exotic!) bread and summer condiments. I was told the condiments (tamarind caramelized onions, bacon and pineapple relish and house made mayo) all came on the side, which saved me some worry about an uninvited guest ending up on my burger, but just to be sure, I asked if anything else came on the burger. Despite not being on the menu, I was told it came with arugula, pickles and tomatoes. Good thing I asked, or else that would have been a rude awakening. I asked to get it without those hidden ingredients and was grateful when the waitress complied. Already, this place was better than Father’s Office.

I had also been told the Grilled Cheese ($9) from the Mid Course menu (what the hell is a mid course?) was amazing, so we decided to order that as an appetizer. The menu said it came with Taleggio (cheese), raisin bread and an apricot/caper puree, plus an extra 3 bucks to throw in some short rib. Those all passed the unvegan test and we placed the order.

As we waited, we were brought some delicious pieces of bread, and then the grilled cheese arrived. What was this? Red and green things sticking out from inside the sandwich? I had been duped. Although I should have realized from the burger, apparently The Foundry likes to add ingredients to their food that aren’t listed on the menu. I know a lot of restaurants do this, but why take the time to list a few ingredients when you aren’t going to list them all? So strange. Luckily, the cheese had not congealed and I was able to open up the sandwich and remove the leafy green and red pepper invaders. After that, the grilled cheese was really great. I’d never had taleggio cheese before, but it worked really well on grilled cheese. It was mild, but a little bit sweet, although that could have been from the raisins or puree. It was a little pricier than I would typically spend on grilled cheese, but for 30% it was worth trying.

While we were waiting for the main course, we were brought a couple of little biscuits. it was great to get that (and the bread) between courses to keep us hungry patrons happy and make us feel loved. Then came my cheeseburger. Covered in cheese (and nothing else), it sat upon four Hawaiian rolls. Off to one side were the condiments and to the other were onion rings. I was told the onions rings were pickled red onion tempura rings, which I guess are kinda different from the beer-battered onion rings unvegans like me are usually used to.

I tasted the bacon and pineapple relish and decided to put a bit on the burger and it was a good choice. The burger was great. The beef was perfectly cooked and I was so happy that they had been able to cater to my simple palette by only sticking cheese on it. Coupled with the Hawaiian bread, the burger made for a great sweet and salty experience, which is something I always love. The only problem was that the bread was a bit bigger than the burger, due to its square shape. This led to some burgerless bites, but at least it was Hawaiian bread and not some plain, boring bun I was eating.

I did attempt to eat the onion rings and found them to be pretty bad. Sometimes I can tolerate onion rings because they are so fried you can hardly tell there is any onion in there, but these still tasted a hell of a lot like onions and were really really really crunchy.

Finally, we decided some dessert was in order. We were pretty full, so the only thing that sounded good was some ice cream/sorbet. For 7 bucks, we got three scoops and chose peanut butter, guava and chocolate ice. Of the three, peanut butter was definitely my favorite, which surprised me because I really love guava, but the guava here was just too sweet for its own good.

In all, the experience at The Foundry was pretty good. The service was great and they were very amenable to my unvegan needs. Unfortunately, their failure to list out all of their ingredients made for less-than-stellar grilled cheese experience. So beware, fellow unvegans, for although I recommend The Foundry, you must be sure to ask what comes with everything, because there could be some surprises.

Heading into Beechwood, I was feeling a bit skeptical. Bars in Venice can tend to be a bit trendy, especially the food-serving kind. Once inside, part of my skepticism was confirmed, with strangely shaped lounge seats and a half hour wait even though we had reservations. Oh well, at least they had a pretty sweet beer menu so I could have a little something to drink while waiting. They had a pretty cool-looking wheat beer called Moosbacher from Germany. Since I like moose and wheat, I figured these would outweigh my distaste for Germany, and I was right. It was quite good and came in a huge bottle.

About midway through my beer we were seated. I took a look at the menu and was surprised by the high prices. Since when did bar food become so pricey? Luckily, we were able to order from the special bar menu and I found something that looked great, at least in name. It was called the Amusing Ground Rib Eye Burger and hey, I like to be amused. It came with BBQ sauce, gruyere and arugula. The arugula did not amuse me so I ordered it without and then got it cooked medium. It was nice that even though this was a semi-pretentious place, they were willing to take changes, unlike some gastropubs I know (achem Father’s Office achem)

It arrived and looked pretty swanky. The bun had some sort of swirly design on it that gave it character and was nice and soft. I chomped down and was really impressed. You may even say I was amused. The burger was nice and moist without being juicy and drippy and the house made BBQ sauce went really nicely with it. It was also nice that it came with fries, unlike some gastropubs I know (achem Father’s Office achem).

Overall, I was pretty satisfied. The place in general was a bit expensive and pretentious, but they made up for that with some good beers and quite a good burger. It may never get the acclaim that other gastropubs do, but the Amusing Ground Rib Eye Burger definitely deserves to be up there.

For a huge selection of beer, Father’s Office is the place to go. They also happen to have a reputation for one of the best burgers around town. With this in mind, I set off for the Father’s Office in Culver City to get myself a taste of their legendary burger.

On the menu, I saw they had a few pretty good unvegan options, but they had a reputation for burgers and that’s what I had to get. It came with carmelized onions, some sort of bacon substance, arugula, gruyere and maytag blue cheese. This already wasn’t looking good. Then I saw on the menu that the burger couldn’t be special ordered. You either get it the way they make it, or you don’t get it at all. We aren’t exactly talking a steak dinner here, so I felt it was pretty pretentious for a burger. Nevertheless, I felt the need to try the burger.

When it came, it looked just as terrible as I had expected. The layer of arugula was thicker than the layer of burger itself. Then there were the carmelized onions, which had totally adhered themselves to the cheese. The entire shape of the burger had diverged from the roundness we know and love into a sort of ovular shape, with a bun to match. Before picking all the veggies off, I had to give the burger in its entirety a shot.

I took a bite…

And nearly spit it all back up.

It took a lot of effort to swallow down the arugula and onion bits, but luckily I had a fancy beer to help propel it downward. After, I immediately set to work at picking out the veggies. It took a while, and left my fingers feeling carmelized, but I finally did it.

When I finally set to eating my burger, it had been reduced to a size unworthy of the $12 I had spent on it. The burger, I have to admit, tasted pretty good, but stray bits of carmelized onions kept making their way into my bites. It also dawned on me that I had no taste of bacon. Was the bacon hidden somewhere amongst the carmelized onions that I had picked out? Or worse, was it never there in the first place?

It took me about as much time to pick out the veggies as it ultimately took me to eat the burger. If only Father’s Office would have shown some perspicacity and allowed me to order the burger I had wanted, my experience may actually have been enjoyable. Instead, it made me long for a better burger.