EDIT: This location is a goner, but you can still find Coney Grills in Tempe and Phoenix.

My wise wife once said, “You can take the man out of Detroit, but you can’t take the Detroit out of the man.” When I was living in LA, one of the most exciting things to happen was the opening of Coney Dog, a Detroit-style chili dog spot. Due to probably a number of circumstances, that business failed. In Phoenix, however, a spot called Detroit Coney Grill seems to have made all the right decisions because it now has THREE locations in the area. And for some reason the Tempe location closes at 7:00, so I made my way out to Mesa to try it out for myself.

I found it in the Superstition Springs Center, which is a mall, because everything here is a mall. But unexpectedly it was part of a food court and not a sit down dining situation like most coneys in the Detroit area.  Nonetheless, the menu had everything Detroiter could ask for. I went for my usual, a loose burger, a coney dog and a side of cheese fries. I ordered the burger and dog without mustard and onions because they are stupid, and looked forward to seeing how the chili would turn out.

Everything came out in perfect order. The loose burger was fully loaded with ground beef way beyond expectations, and the chili on it was as good as I could have hoped. The coney dog was strangely easy to eat with my hands, as opposed to with a fork and knife, but that was nothing to complain about. After all, the dog was snappy and while I can’t confirm if it was actually Koegel’s hot dog, it served its purpose just fine. Finally, the cheese fries were above and beyond my expectations. Detroit Coney Grill nailed the chunkiness of the cheese that is somehow the trademark of cheese fries at coneys around Detroit.

As you can probably tell, the Detroit Coney Grill made me a happy man. Probably what I loved best was that they kept things simple. There was no attempt to re-imagine items or put a spin on classics. This place excelled in its simplistic execution and is a whole lot cheaper and easier to get to than a flight to Detroit.

Food court food isn’t typically known to be great, but then food court food isn’t generally Middle Eastern. Massis has kind of built a food court empire around LA, dishing out mostly Middle Eastern food with a sprinkling of random things like Argentinean Skirt Steak and Idaho Trout. I found myself at the Santa Anita mall and went looking for kabobs.

My kabob of choice was Persian Koubideh because I couldn’t get that stuff out of my mind after my recent visit to Raffi’s in Glendale. I watched as they grilled the ground up beef in the background of the stall, and it took a surprisingly long time for a food court spot. I assumed this meant there was a certain amount of attention to detail correlated to the preparation.

Eventually it arrived on a bed of rice, with the Russian Bean Salad I had chosen for my side and a tomato and pita for some reason. The koubideh turned out to be pretty great with some solid seasonings and plenty of it. Everything else, though, was somewhat disappointing. For one, the rice was plain. And I know that’s how rice generally is, but not Persian rice, which can have amazing things mixed in. Then there was the side, which I guess tasted okay, but it was pretty disappointing that hummus was not an option.

Regardless, Massis served me pretty well for a food court. The centerpiece of the meal was very good and fit into my expectations of food court prices. If only the sides were better, I would consider making Massis my go-to food court spot.

It’s not too often that food court food gains critical acclaim. Yet, in the case of 101 Noodle Express (my favorite college course), the only reason I went was by recommendation from Jonathan Gold. Like KyoChon, 101 Noodle Express can be found at the Fox Hills Mall, but also in other places where you would expect it more – like the San Gabriel Valley. Almost as surprising as finding such a place in a food court is the fact that Gold doesn’t even recommend the noodles.

Instead, the Beef Rolls are said to be all the rage. To test this claim, I ordered half of a roll. A product of Shandong, China, the roll consists of a pancake (like the scallion variety, but without the scallions), bean sauce, thinly sliced beef, cilantro and “onion.” I ordered mine without the onion, but the woman at the counter told me that meant I had to sacrifice the cilantro as well because they were mixed together. I wasn’t happy to lose the cilantro, but it is worth it drop the onion out. It was only when I got my order that I learned the onion was actually green onion. I’m not a fan, but it is certainly acceptable when mixed with cilantro. I got a side of it to test out and also some hot peppers to mix my roll if I needed.

Without the cilantro, the three slices of roll looked like a cinnamon bun gone wrong. The taste, though, was nothing like one. The pancake had an almost tortilla-esque quality to it except that it provided flavor to the roll instead of simply being a conduit. Inside, the beef was tender and flavorful, with the beans adding another burst of contrasting flavor. Had this been the full roll, I would have been a happy man, but I decided I had to try the cilantro-onion and hot pepper mixes I had on the side. This proved to be a wise choice, as these extra flavors provided extra balance and texture to an already superb roll. Would the cilantro mix have been better without the green onions? Most certainly, but they were worth having if it meant I had cilantro to go with my roll.

While it is hard to call a mall food court a destination, the one-two punch of 101 Noodle Express really does change that notion. For west siders like me, it is whole lot easier to get to Fox Hills than Koreatown or San Gabriel. While I can’t vouch for the differences between the neighborhood locations and the mall ones, I can certainly say they left me satisfied.

In the heart of LA’s Fashion District is a relatively new, yet relatively hidden food court. It is here that you can find a nice variety of foods and kind of escape after eating at one too many taco trucks. The food court itself is outdoors and feels like a world away from the fashion peddlers below. You can find Korean, Mexican and sandwiches up here, but I was pretty much drawn to a Japanese place called Blosom Bento. Sure, they served sushi, but they also had my favorite Japanese dish of all time on their menu: Yaki Soba.

The flavoring of Yaki Soba alone is enough to make my mouth water, but Blosom Bento took their soba one step further and added beef to it. I knew it had to be mine.

Even though the menu said it included “vegetable” I didn’t order it without. In my experience, the “vegetable” has always only been cabbage and it’s usually easier to eat around it than to explain to a Japanese person that you don’t want cabbage in your yaki soba. So I ordered it straight up and then sat and waited with the girlfriend for my Japanese delight to come.

The wait was surprisingly long, and later we were told that one of the cooks wasn’t in that day. I accepted the explanation and patiently looked forward to eating some real Japanese food.

When it did come out, it looked like a pretty picture of how yaki soba should be, except there was an additional item: onions. Damn, I had only planned on eating around cabbage, but the onions threw a wrench into that plan. Fortunately, the onions were cut nice and big, so although the onions meant that the yaki soba looked bigger than it was, at least it wasn’t really any tougher to eat. Weaving my way through the vegetables, I found the yaki soba tasted just as it should. The noodles were nice and oily and had that great signature yaki soba taste that’s a bit on the salty side and high on the flavor side.

The beef was thinly sliced, and also full of juice and yaki soba flavor. Although I had never eaten yaki soba with beef in it, I now feel like this is the only way to eat it. If I were to make yaki soba myself, this would be how. Well, at least without the cabbage and onions.

Not too long ago (at least in my head), Ajisen Ramen opened its doors at the Century City food court. I’m not sure where else this Japanese ramen chain exists in the US, but I do know it is a pretty popular and slightly upscale chain in the land of Asia. I decided to check it out to see how it held up against its Asian brethren and found that the menu was pretty similar to what I remembered from Asia. It had a variety of ramen options and some tasty-looking Japanese appetizers.

The prices were pretty on-par with the Century City food court, but a bit more than can be find at your average corner ramen shop. After looking at the menu, my decision was pretty clear: Beef Curry Ramen. But I didn’t think that would be enough (not in size, because I can never finish a bowl of ramen, but in terms of flavor variety), so I also ordered some gyoza. After about two minutes, the meal was ready and I grabbed it from the counter and brought it back to my table.

The gyoza was disappointingly small in size and number. There were only five dumplings and they were pretty tiny. It definitely didn’t seem to be worth the 3 bucks, but at least they tasted pretty good. The bowl of ramen, however, was huge. I knew that there was no way I could finish it, so I just set out to eat as much as I could. The noodles had a great consistency and the beef was pretty tasty. It had absorbed a nice curry flavor, which was strongest when drinking the broth. It didn’t bend any of the rules of ramen or try to do anything especially creative, but it was certainly what I expected and it made me happy. Better ramen can be had in the little Japanese pockets of LA, but if you have a hankering for good ramen around Century City, you really can’t go wrong with Ajisen.

EDIT: The Century City location is gone, but Lawry’s continues to carve elsewhere.

After a year or so of flirting around with the Asian options at the Century City food court, I finally decided to take the plunge into some of their meatier food. This is not to say that I wasn’t eating meat all along, but few restaurants exude meatiness more than Lawry’s Carvery, the food court version of Lawry’s Prime Rib steakhouse. I took to browsing their menu and even though there was a ton of meat, a few of the good-looking dishes included vegetables.

Finally, I found their BBQ Brisket Platter. It included crispy onions and cole slaw, so I just ordered it without the onions and asked if I could get it without the cole slaw as well. Rather than just listening to me demand, the woman at the counter asked if I wanted to substitute the cole slaw for anything under 2 bucks. This left only the potato chips, which sounded far superior to the wicked veggies of slaw. The platter also came with the side of my choice, which I chose to be mac and cheese.

They whipped up my platter along their assembly line and I found myself a nice little table to eat at. I looked proudly at my meaty dinner and began to eat. The brisket was pretty good and tender, and it was certainly a healthy-sized portion. The BBQ sauce wasn’t really anything special and although it didn’t hurt the meal, it didn’t make the meal either. The mac and cheese was tasty and my only problem with it was that I wanted more. The chips made a nice substitute for cole slaw, but didn’t bring too much to the table aside from making my stomach more full.

I definitely recommend Lawry’s Carvery for anyone looking for a meaty meal at the Century City food court, however, there’s definitely better brisket and BBQ to be found outside the mall in the rest of LA.

EDIT: This location is closed, but miraculously Sorabol lives on elsewhere.

Since Korean BBQ has never let me down and the Century City food court has also never let me down, I decided to check out Sorabol, the Korean BBQ place in the Century City food court. At the time it seemed like a great idea. I walked up to their stand and saw a few different food items hanging out in heating trays, so I chose their beef short ribs. They looked a bit dry, but the woman behind the counter ladled some sort of Korean sauce over them. They came with noodles, rice and some vegetable sides. I dismissed the vegetable sides and paid my 10 bucks, which I thought was a pretty good deal. I was wrong.

Do you like eating sand? No? Because that’s what eating these ribs tasted like at times. Every few bites I would bite into something crunchy, and not the bone. No, this was as though the ribs had fallen into charcoal and been dusted off. To make matters worse, I don’t think I’ve eaten drier ribs in my life. Usually the fats around ribs make them juicy and tasty, but somehow any juiciness had been cooked out of these things. The flavoring was decent, but nothing special and certainly not good enough to overcome the feeling that I was consuming a desert.

The rice and noodles tasted just fine, but they were not the most important part of the dish. Sorabol certainly failed in my book, but they somehow manage to stay in business in the delicious Century City food court. Perhaps I just got a bad batch of food, but I really can’t imagine it being any better.

EDIT: This location is closed, but I mean, you can find one of these elsewhere and they’re all the same.

Though rare in Southern California, Fuddrucker’s is a pretty common burger chain with an uncanny name. The Fuddrucker’s I found was in the Century City mall’s food court, sandwiched among many fancier looking places. After a short perusal of the other restaurants, Fuddrucker’s became my top unvegan option.

One thing that is unique to Fuddrucker’s is that that they put no toppings or condiments on your burger. I ordered the bacon cheeseburger knowing that they wouldn’t be putting any terrible vegetables on it. Rather, once the burger is served, there is a virtual cornucopia of toppings to add to the burger. Sadly, most of these were vegetables and no good to me.

I added only ketchup, but I also found that they had a pump full of cheese sauce. I assumed (rightly so) that this would be a good addition to my the fries and burger in my meal.

The burger itself was really just decent. It was freshly prepared, which was nice, but didn’t compare to a place like Fatburger. The main selling point was the choice of toppings or, in my case, the choice to not use toppings.

I had heard a lot about the Century City food court, which really surprised me considering most food courts I’ve been to don’t get any fancier than S’barro. As I was going there for a movie already, it was finally time to check out the food court.

I was actually very surprised with what I found. This was no ordinary food court with Panda Express and McDonald’s. Instead, it was filled with upscale places that made me feel like I entered an international marketplace with prepared foods. After a long walk around and a little sampling, I decided to order from Mr. Hana, a Japanese place. They had a great looking platter with spicy chicken, gyoza (dumplings), shrimp tempura and rice that I decided to get. It also came with mixed vegetables, which I was sure to order without. I also ordered a Japanese Melon Soda, which is one of the greatest drinks ever created. No, seriously, next time you see it, you must get it, you can thank me later.

I waited in anticipation of my Japanese meat-filled meal while sipping on my drink and when it finally came, I was pretty disappointed. The meats looked good, but it still had vegetables. Even worse, everything was placed on a bed of lettuce. Worst bed ever.

It was tough eating the chicken without getting lettuce in it because of the sticky sauce. The gyoza was pretty good, although a bit small. Finally, the tempura tasted pretty good aside from the lettuce that kept sticking to it.

In the end, it’s not scenario I would like to relive anytime soon. Next time I’m at Century City, I’m sure another food court option can give me a better unvegan meal.