Growing up in the Detroit area, it was pretty easy to take Greek food for granted. There is literally a Greektown in Detroit and Greek food can be found in every suburb. LA, however, is not so fortunate in this Mediterranean fare. Thus, I was pretty excited when I was invited out to the Good Greek Grill‘s new location in Hollywood for a free sampling of their food.

The first thing I noticed upon arrival was that there was a menu item called Meat Lovers. Usually such a thing is reserved for pizza, and at Good Greek Grill it could only be ordered as a platter. I was kind of hoping to get all the meats topping the Zeus Fries, but this wasn’t a bad alternative. The platter includes rice, Greek Salad, pita and choice between tzatziki or eggplant dip. I went the way of the tzatziki and swapped in some spicy feta fries in place of the Greek Salad, because, well, duh.

As for the meats, they were Pork on a Spit, Beef/Lamb Mix, Chicken Skewers and Pork Skewers. All were delicious and truly distinguishable from one another. The Beef/Lamb Mix was kind of like the gyros you expect, but packed with flavor and juiciness. I had never had Pork on a Spit like this from a Greek restaurant, but it’s essentially where the Mexican Al Pastor got the idea from. The chicken and pork skewers were beautifully seasoned a cooked perfectly. Good Greek Grill certainly knows what to do with their meats.

Better yet, the rice under the meats collected their juices and were all the better for it. The spicy feta fries were as good as I could have expected and the grilled pita went well with the tzatziki sauce (and it wasn’t overly cucumber-y).

Good Greek Grill isn’t exactly like the Greek spots I grew up going to, but the food is legitimately delicious. I can only hope that they open a spot in Pasadena next…

Bludso’s in Compton is very often hailed as the best BBQ in LA. Yet, for some reason, a number of people find it difficult to make it to that part of town. Thus, Bludso’s spun off into Hollywood with a bar and que concept that creatively includes a bar along with BBQ. In other words, my long-awaited trip to BBQ heaven (and possibly like real heaven) in Compton was put on hold to make the trip to Hollywood.

Bludso’s considers itself to be Texas-style, which means that the dry rub and smokiness is supposed to be much more important than the sauce. Our waiter made this very clear and we had absolutely no issue with it, while still asking for both the regular and hot BBQ sauce just in case.

We ordered a half rack of pork ribs, a half pound of brisket (not the lean Hollywood stuff), a Texas Red Hot and that side of collared greens was just for my buddy, don’t worry.

For starters, the brisket blew me away. It was so unbelievably juicy and smoky, with glistening fat that packed flavor rather than distracted from the meatiness. There was truly no need for the BBQ sauce with this brisket, which left me drooling for more.

The ribs were also great, but not nearly up to the level of the brisket. This is either a slight to the ribs or a glowing endorsement of the brisket, but either was I couldn’t complain. The meat did a mighty good job of falling off the bone and they were quite meaty. Again, these did not need sauce, but a little touch here and there really took these ribs to another delicious level.

The Texas Red Hot was, well, a Texas Red Hot. It wasn’t bad, it was just exactly what you would expect from a solid beefy Red Hot. I’d take more ribs or brisket over that any day.

Ultimately, the food at Bludso’s was a resounding success. I fear I have eaten the greatest brisket in the world and that I will be searching the world forevermore to find some better, but that is a worthy quest and a worthy result of a meal from Bludso’s. Now, to see if the original Compton location can do any better…

Few restaurants have been on my to-eat list longer than Jitlada, a Thai spot in the middle of Thai Town (which itself is kind of in the middle of Hollywood). The original plan was just to meet a couple of friends for some authentic eats, but we ended up biting off a lot more than we had planned for. You see, throughout the evening we had sporadic, then more significant conversations with Jazz, the woman (and Iron Chef competitor) behind the whole place.

But it wasn’t always that way. For starters, while Jitlada has been around since the 70s, Jazz purchased the place in 2006 and began to turn it into food that some call more authentic than Thailand. In that time, she’s served a lot of famous people, but seems to be the most proud of her friendship with Ryan Gosling and the time Mila Kunis came in deeply pregnant hoping the spicy food would kick her into labor. Legend has it she gave birth the next day.

We began with Tom Yum soup (which is spicy and sour) with shrimp. Immediately, I could tell this was not made for western palettes. Yet, it was all at once spicy, sour and refreshing, which is certainly a difficult feat to pull off.

Then we had that burger up above, which once required calling in advance for preparation. Now, due to it blowing up on TV as an amazing “off-menu” item, the Jazz Burger is available anytime. This burger, by the way, is not on the menu just to bring parents in with picky children. No, it was originally something Jazz put together for her kids who used to hang out in a Joovy-Zoom-360-Ultralight-Jogging stroller while she sang to feel more comfortable around their friends. One day a patron saw her prepping it and wanted one. The rest is just chili-stuffed, chili-topped and coconut milk-covered history.

We didn’t stop there, though, as we needed to get some Crying Tiger (or Tiger Crying depending on who you ask) Beef because it had also been featured on TV. Having had this dish before, I can say that this was leaps and bounds better. Not only was the beef perfectly tender, it was infused with a salty and sweet flavor that some beef just deserves. Moreover, it was served with a spicy sauce on the side that mingled perfectly with those other flavors (assuming you can handle the spice).

Finally, we had to have some curry. I, for one, thought we should continue getting dishes outside of the normal Thai restaurant zone, but our waitress convinced us that curry was a good idea. So we went with the red, got it with chicken and were immediately glad she had convinced us to do so. We got it at the “spicy for white people” level (my words, not hers) and it was perfect. It’s hard to explain how the flavors and texture of the curry made it different than other Thai spots, but just trust me that it is.

And while the food was incredible, perhaps the best moment of the meal was when my little baby started crying and Jazz offered to hold him and feed him for me. As a food blogger, there is perhaps nothing cooler than eating a famous chef’s food while she simultaneously bottle feeds your four month-old child. Yet, there I was, eating amazing food cooked by someone who loves nothing more than to walk around her restaurant and mingle with random patrons as though they were just stopping by her home for a meal. яндекс

Deep in the heart of the Hollywood Strip is a burger that rivals Umami Burger. Or so a coworker told me once upon a time. That once upon a time may have been over a year ago, but I never forgot, so when I had the chance to meet some buddies for dinner in Hollywood, Lucky Devils crept into my mind (and it didn’t hurt that it has been sitting on my to-eat list). What we found was a neat space with a great and enthusiastic server who was happy to tell us of their current specials, some awesome beers on tap and help us out with anything on the menu. Even though I had sworn not to drink, his description of their special black IPA on tap almost had my mouth watering enough to break the promise I made to myself.

But while a neat space and great staff is good and well, none of that matters If the food flops. Of their interesting burger options, the one that looked best to me was the Diablo Burger. Plus, it was keeping with the hellish theme of the place, and who was I to fight Hell? This burger was topped with white cheddar, double-smoked bacon, avocado, wild arugula, house 1,000 island and devil hot sauce. I ordered it without the wild arugula (What makes it wild? Do they literally find it in a field somewhere?) and made sure the get the hot sauce at their 2x level because my buddy had already tried the 1x and found it to be lacking in heat. I also upgraded the burger from Black Angus to their 100% grass-fed Tallgrass Beef for an extra $1.50. It’s a small price to pay for grass-fed beef, which is always superior.

When my burger arrived, I looked upon it in disappointment. Sprouting from inside the bun, I could see arugula gone wild. This was a damn shame and immediately destroyed my first impression of their food. I had to de-bun the burger, remove the leaves and put it back together before I could even taste the burger. When I finally did get to eat, the first thing I noticed about the burger was the overwhelming amount of 1,000 island. This sauce dominated the burger, and not in a good way. The devil sauce, which offered some great heat when I could eat it away from the 1,000 island, was severely tempered whenever it hit the dressing.

The other elements of the burger, including the meat itself, were awesome. I could only taste a single smoke in the bacon, but it was delicious, and I loved the inclusion of white cheddar, which is always a sure way to get to my heart.  The bun did a great job of keeping the burger together and had some great give to it when I squeezed it for every bite. The Tallgrass beef was a bit more lean than your usual burger, so it didn’t ooze out much juiciness, but it was definitely not dry and cooked to a nice medium/medium rare.

Oh, and did I mention that I ordered fries? No? Well, I did and they were damn good. They were listed on the menu as Crispy Fries and certainly lived up to their name. But while, crispy, they weren’t overdone and still had a nice potato-ey taste and some softness in their core. They were nice and evenly salted and really made a great companion to the burger.

Ultimately, what could have been an amazing burger and fries was undone by a couple of big flaws. Arugula (wild or tame) is simply unacceptable on an unvegan burger. And just go easy on the 1,000 island. There’s no need to flood a burger with that stuff, and in fact I think it would have been better off without it completely. It can go hang out with the arugula in a salad somewhere instead of chilling on my burger.

For a while now, I’ve been hearing about this place in Hollywood called Griddle Cafe. “Go to Griddle,” they say. “You’ll like what you eat there,” they also say. “They make pancakes with anything in them,” they continue, and then I get excited. You see, I like me a pancake, but a regular pancake can only be so good. Usually it tastes the best after a night of binge drinking, and it doesn’t matter if it comes from a box mix or the nicest brunch restaurant in the world. But I got excited about Griddle and finally made it out to Hollywood to see what all the pancake hype was about.

Recently, the world has been all about red velvet pancakes. Similar to regular pancakes, I feel like this is something difficult to mess up. So I decided to give Griddle more of a challenge and ordered the BLUESberry pancakes (no, there were no bacon or cheese-filled pancakes). This was a whopping three pancakes stuffed with blueberries (my favorite fruit) and topped with blueberry sour cream and powdered sugar.

And well…they were amazing. I was a little scared about the use of sour cream, but the fresh blueberry blend gave it a nice, subtle flavor to help keep the pancakes moist. It was definitely a big step up on butter or syrup. Inside the pancakes, I found a delicious distribution of blueberries that kept all of the pancakes in perfect balance.

In reaching for something to complain about, I really can’t find anything, except one thing – my stomach just wasn’t big enough. Yes, my stomach gave in before the stack of three pancakes did. And to add insult to injury, before I ordered I had asked the waiter if one order of pancakes would be enough. He assured me it would, and he was more than correct. That stack could have fed two hungry eaters, but as for me, I could not finish.

But that is a worthless complaint, because every bite I took was awesome. Griddle truly lived up to the hype and I would happily delve into those BLUESberries again if I can ever make it to Hollywood for brunch again.

Right around the time that Coney Dog was hitting LA straight out of Detroit, Papaya King was also making its way to the West Coast by way of some other city called New York. Never heard of it. Billboards glowed with the words “Papaya King,” yet this native Detroiter largely ignored the hot dogs of New York in favor of those from his native land. But when a Blackboard Eats discount for 30% off came around, Papaya King could no longer be ignored. I gathered a couple hot dog-loving friends and hit the road for Hollywood.

The first thing that should be made clear about Papaya King is that there are absolutely no papayas in the hot dogs. Yes, this is a little disappointing, but there is still very good reason for the name of the place. It is actually named for the papaya juice served there, which predated the hot dogs at the original New York location. That papaya juice is still important, but not nearly as much as the hot dogs.

The interior of the place is little more than a hot dog stand. The walls are covered with bright red and yellow paint and signs promoting all the uniqueness of papayas and Papaya King itself. There is only one small counter to stand and eat at, with a couple more outside. Needless to say, this was not a sit down and relax kind of place. Now, even without my 30% discount, the hot dogs at Papaya King were quite cheap and I quickly found myself a combo in need of ordering. Called the Grand Slam, this contained two signature dogs, a side of curly fries and a drink for $9.

I must say, I was a bit disappointed with the unvegan options. In fact, the best one they had available was called the Side on Top. This was their chili cheese dog, topped with curly fries. The curly fries gave them an extra couple points for creativity, but I was sad to see most toppings go the way of the vegetable. I ordered two of these for the combo, then got their namesake beverage to join in the festivities. In a few seconds, these were ready and we took them outside to eat, fully aware that our gluttony might draw the ire of the local homeless.

My two dogs looked pretty tasty, and when I bit in I found a pretty nice snap to these all-beef hot dogs. The chili was not my preferred type, lacking in kick and containing beans, but it got the job done. The cheese was the sort you would find on nachos at a ball game and the curly fries were quite well-done. Combined, this had the makings of a pretty decent hot dog. Above average, but not standout. The big disappointment, though was the bun. It tasted good, but was not equipped to handle hot dogs such as these. Even my friends who didn’t get such crazy hot dogs noticed the buns were not up to snuff. One would think decades of preparing these dogs and not offering seating would have led Papaya King to maintain hot dog-capable buns, but one would be wrong.

The papaya juice was a nice, somewhat healthy drink that provided a sweet counterbalance to the salty meal I was eating. It had the texture and sugar level of a melty orange julius and I could only imagine how delicious it would have been in that semi-frozen state.

For all nitpickings, though, the value of this meal cannot be understated. Two crazy all-beef hot dogs, a side of curly fries and a fruity beverage for just 9 bucks? That’s pretty damn hard to beat on a normal day, but let’s not forget that my 30% discount dropped the price to 6 measly greenbacks. They may have room for improvement (which I won’t hold out for for a place going on 80 years of service), but they are certainly above average.

And as a bonus, we managed to avoid any sort of homeless humbling while devouring our dogs.

The little area known as Larchmont in the middle of Los Angeles is LA’s version of Main Street America. Populated mostly by mom and pop shops, it features a few chains and also its fair share of shuttered establishments. In the middle of this strip of Americana resides Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese. Though the place certainly has its fair share of wines, spirits and cheeses, the main draw is the sandwiches. The long, yet swiftly moving line is a testament to these sandwiches. They offer only seven select sandwiches and not one of them is extravagant.

Yet, extravagance is not needed in a place like this, where only the highest quality ingredients are used. As is often unfortunate in sandwich shops, each features some sort of vegetable, be it arugula, tomato or mixed greens. But there is no pretension involved and they are happy to drop ingredients for you. Substitutions, on the other hand, might cost you extra.

For my sandwich, I chose the Imported Italian Prosciutto. This guy was composed of said prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, arugula, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Each sandwich has a choice of French bread or ciabatta, and I went with the ciabatta. It’s a pretty simple sandwich and even simpler without the arugula, yet the price tag of $9.00 might scare some people off. Let me tell you that price tag is well worth it. The prosciutto is heavenly and nearly melted in my mouth with each bite I took. The mozzarella just may have been the best mozzarella I’d ever eaten. The layers within it were so tightly packed that it offered an amazing texture. To melt cheese like this would have been a travesty. The simplicity of olive oil and balsamic did nothing to mask the flavors of the sandwich and were content to enhance the flavors and add some moisture. Finally, the ciabatta held it all together perfectly. Some prefer the French bread, but with this sandwich I actually prefer the ciabatta.

So, while parts of Larchmont seem to be changing, as long as Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese keeps pumping out amazing sandwiches, it is going to stay there as long as people in LA continue to enjoy good food.

Normally, when you hear about a restaurant in a hotel, it is overpriced and pretentious, meant more for business people with an expense account than for the common man. So when I heard that the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel had a delicious restaurant called 25 Degrees, I was a bit skeptical. But then I heard more and more about the place until my buddy over at Burger Conquest told me it was his favorite burger in LA. That was quite a claim for a city filled with the likes of Umami, The Apple Pan and Hole in the Wall, so I took it seriously.

Walking into 25 Degrees evokes memories of a bygone era that was bygone long before I was born. The dim lighting, leather booths, long bar and general swankiness gave me the impression that Clark Gable would have loved to drink a highball in this place. We were seated immediately and took a looksie at the menu. Known mostly for their burgers, 25 Degrees does have some other food, but I was here for some ground beef between two bun halves. There are three burgers on the menu, plus the option to customize. While these three original burgers had glimmers of unvegan glory, they were all tainted by the inclusion of vegetables, so I knew I had to make my own. The sirloin burger starts at 9 bucks, with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle: the four horsemen of the vegapocalypse. I told the waiter I wanted no part of these and proceeded to make myself a real burger. I chose crescenza cheese, prosciutto, a fried egg and parmesan garlic sauce (for a total of $13.50). There was no feng shui to my order, but it sounded amazing in my head. Having ordered my last burger cooked medium and being verbally abused for doing so, I ordered this monster medium rare and got myself an order of fries on the side ($4.00).

My beast of a burger arrived on a massive plate and although the burger itself only took up half the plate, I knew it was going to do me in. I took a peak inside the paper wrapping and found some crispy prosciutto and an egg just waiting to be taken down. Then I went to work. It wasn’t easy to get a bite in because the upper half of the bun was so massive, but when I did I found the perfect blend of flavors. The crescenza cheese was subtle, but added a bit of tartness to balance out the salty flavor of the prosciutto. The prosciutto had been cooked to a crisp, which made it sort of like a blend of bacon and prosciutto, but was delicious and added a much-needed crunch to the interior of the burger. Similar to the cheese, the garlic parmesan sauce added a very subtle taste to the burger that wasn’t really necessary with the creamy crescenza, but certainly didn’t hurt the burger. And the egg, as always, was the perfect burger topping.

Now, if you are siting there scratching your head and wondering why I didn’t just go to the Counter for a few bucks less and a wider variety of options, then you are forgetting one major thing: the beef. The ground sirloin used in this burger was so flavorful and ground so perfectly that I could have eaten it alone like a steak. It was cooked more medium than rare, but was still awesome. The only minor disappointment in this burger was the bun itself. The top half could have dropped a half-inch and that really would have upped the burger from a three-run homer to a grand slam. A minor complaint, but a complaint nonetheless.

As for my side of fries, this could have easily been a full meal unto itself. Spilling out of a Chinese-style takeout box, the skinny fries were fried to a crisp, salted and topped with a lot of dill. The dill could be overwhelming at times, but overall the fries made for a tasty side.

So after much recommendation, I’m glad I finally made it to 25 Degrees. The place truly knows how to make a great burger and holds nothing back, from the delectable selection of cheeses to the ground sirloin. Plus, when your only complaint about a place is that the bun was a little too big, they’ve obviously done a hell of a lot right.

Joining the ever-growing ranks of custom burger joints is a little place in Hollywood, called Juicy Burger. Just opened last year, Juicy Burger quickly earned rave reviews, and in a burger-wild city like LA, that isn’t easy to do. The custom burger concept is something I never tire of, because the very core of the concept protects me from vegetables, but how many do we really need? And what sets Juicy Burger apart from its delicious competition?

For starters, the place is in the prime location for anyone heading to the Hollywood Palladium or Pantages Theatre and unlike the Counter, Juicy Burger is built for people on the go. Ordering is at a counter (ironically) and only takes about 5-10 minutes to be taken care of so you can easily be in and out of the place in under 20 minutes. Plus the line never seemed to get very long. Ordering is done on a checklist and the first thing on this checklist that stands out from just about anywhere else is the price. Five bucks for a 1/3 pound burger and six for a half-pounder is a far cry from the typical eight bucks and up custom burgers.

I decided to keep it simple with a 1/3 pounder and then moved on to the rest of the menu. Bun options were limited to lettuce, ciabatta bread and a regular bun. Although the ciabatta showed a glimmer of creativity, I just went with the regular bun and moved on quickly. The free toppings kept things simple with four different sauces and four different vegetables. I turned away from the veggies and stuck with ketchup as my mainstay sauce.

The next section of the menu was a little strange to me, as it was a list of premium sauces for an extra 50 cents. This was where some creativity finally flourished, with flavors like chipotle ketchup and garlic mayo, but typically average sauces like buttermilk ranch and BBQ sauce were listed here. Usually sauces like these come free and because I didn’t want to move too far away from the base price I skipped over these.

Then came the cheese, which again amounted to a premium price. This time it was 75 cents. Of the four options (American, cheddar, monterey jack and blue cheese), I chose monterey jack. I really think this would have been a good place to have more options because of the premium charge, but I suppose for the seven people on the planet who don’t eat cheese on their burgers and may go to this place, it is probably a relief to not pay for a topping you don’t want. Dumb.

Finally I reached the final choices, known as premium toppings. These are the real premium toppings that custom burger places love to charge for. They also go by another name: the only toppings I want. From this list I chose a fried egg and bacon strips for a buck each. This brought my total to $7.75, which is cheap in comparison to other places, but not nearly as low as I had originally thought. The hard part is that they probably could have set the base price higher and chopped some of the premium upgrade prices and I would have felt better about myself. Instead, I had to second-guess my choices and wonder whether getting bacon, egg and cheese on my burger was worth the cost of more than half the base price.

Along the way I turned my burger into a combo, which added fries and a drink. The fries came with a choice of dipping sauces, which were the same as those premium sauces, but without the upcharge. I chose the chipotle ketchup, then took my seat to wait for my burger. When my name was called, I dashed to the counter and grabbed my basket. What I found looked quite delicious. The bun was shiny and a definite step up from a regular bun, but it seemed to big for the burger (and my mouth). The egg and bacon were sticking out and enticing me to eat, which I did as soon as I could get my hands around it.

The first thing I noticed was how light , yet sturdy the bun was. It was easy to bite into because of how airy and light it was. My concerns about the size were quickly gone. The bacon was perfectly crisp and thin enough that I could also bite through that easily. It was a strong start for the burger. The patty was cooked perfectly to a medium and although it wasn’t as juicy as the restaurant’s name implied, it certainly wasn’t dry. The cheese was nice, but didn’t bring a whole lot of flavor to the table. Of everything inside the bun, the egg turned out to be a bit disappointing. I know the restaurant is called Juicy Burger and not Juicy Egg, but they really could have fried the egg a little less. As it was, there was no runniness, which was missed because a runny yolk adds a delicious dimension of texture and flavor to a burger. Still, the burger was better off with a non-runny egg than no egg at all and I still maintain that egg is the most under-appreciated burger topping.

As for the fries, these were some tasty fried potato sticks. They were perfectly crispy and tossed with just the right amount of salt and seasoning. The chipotle ketchup dipping sauce was a perfect spicy complement to these fries, which had just the right amount of spice to give you a slight kick in the mouth. Dipping in this and the garlic mayo that the girlfriend got, I was reminded City Diner, my old late-night feeding ground in Shanghai that had eggs on their burgers and equally delicious dipping sauces for their fries. And Juicy Burger is open until 3 am! Not quite 24-hours, but about as close as you get to that in LA. Despite my mild quibbles with their pricing structure and non-runny eggs, I can hardly imagine a better place for a post-bar meal…well at least this side of Taco Bell. And better yet, my custom burger was great without any alcohol.

Out in Hollywood, there is a little taco stand on a corner called Cactus Taqueria. Having heard a lot about this place, I felt that I needed to stop there to have a Mexican dinner before the Belle and Sebastian concert. I showed up and found the little stand in the corner of a parking lot on Vine. There were a few people waiting for their orders and another few groups eating out in the outdoor, yet covered seating area. It looked like a great place to find a good taco.

I walked up to the window and took a look at the choices. I was surprised to find that they offered cheese on their tacos, because “authentic” Mexican tacos don’t have cheese. But we all know cheese makes everything better, so this made me happy. They also offered avocado on their tacos, and I felt like this was also something I wanted to get into. So for 2 bucks each, I decided to order a carne asada and a chicken taco with cheese and avocado. But I knew this wouldn’t fill me up, so I also wanted a carne asada burrito for another $4.50. It took a solid five minutes for me to get the attention of the order-taker, but finally she took my order. All of my food came with onions, so I ordered without and looked forward to the calling of my number.

Finally, my number was called and I was excited. I took a look at my tacos and they were beautiful. No veggies and loaded with meat, cheese and avocado. I dug in and my mouth was filled with bliss. These were some of the best tacos I had ever had. Sorry, I don’t care if cheese isn’t authentic, it is awesome and makes everything taste better. Kudos to Cactus Taqueria for realizing that. After sloppily downing my tacos, I moved onto the burrito. The burrito was a tasty blend of beans, rice, cheese and meat. And although it was good, the tacos were definitely the real winners here. They were just so loaded, with such perfectly seasoned meat.

So although it took a bit too long to order my food, the wait paid off. Cactus made me a delicious dinner and it was the perfect way to jump start an evening of beautiful music.