A lot changed in Downtown LA while I was gone for two years. The Arts District, which is adjacent to Little Tokyo, had already had a bit of a resurgence that has kinda blown up. On top of that, Chef Neal Fraser, who is behind BLD, has popped out a couple new spots. When you combine these, you get Fritzi, which is like an affordably upscale fast-casual concept (yeah, I said it).

Ordering is done at a counter, and behind that counter is a giant rotisserie filled with half-chickens dripping their juices and setting off delicious-sounding flames. Yet, as good as those chickens looked, I was caught by the bacon-beef blend burger. This came topped with fontina fondue, iceberg lettuce, calabrese relish and thousand island, with the choice or tots, fries or something called a potato waffle. I ordered mine without the veggies and then just had to find out what the potato waffle was as my side.

It turned out the potato waffle was not the waffle fries that you might expect. Instead, it was like someone mixed hash browns and eggs in a waffle iron and let it rip. Oh, and then they added shredded cheddar on top. It probably could have used a bit more potato, but it was unquestionably delicious.

The burger turned out to be a conundrum. It was good, no question, but it didn’t taste as special as you might expect from a bacon-beef blend. The bacon added some additional saltiness, but not so much in the smokey department. Plus, due to the bacon component, it had to be cooked a little more and wasn’t as juicy as I would have liked. On the other hand, the combination of fontina fondue and thousand island was like a perfect condiment.

I’m glad I checked out the burger and the waffle, because I really just had to. In the future, though, I’d probably find myself chowing down on that beautiful chicken instead.

Apparently some place called The Lazy Ox downtown is a big deal or something. I wouldn’t know because I haven’t been, but supposedly the guy behind it, Michael Cardenas, is also a big deal. Such a big deal, in fact, that he took it upon himself to open another restaurant, called Fat Spoon. The new place is down in Little Tokyo and is conceptually a Japanese curry house. As a man with a fair amount of Japanese curry experience, I definitely wanted to check the place out, and it didn’t hurt that I had one of those Blackboard Eats 30% off printouts either.

We arrived for a late dinner on a Saturday night, but fortunately Fat Spoon keeps their doors open until midnight for hungry curry-lovers. With a group of people, we decided to go all-out, order a bunch of things and eat them family-style. This was pretty easy to do with the modest prices, and even with the vegetable choices that my foolish friends made, I felt like I was getting a fair share of meat.

But before I get into the mass of food, I feel the need to mention the beer I ordered with my meal. It was a Sapporo, which was the only beer they had on tap and when it arrived, it seemed to be lacking in bubbles. Upon tasting, the flatness was confirmed. Sapporo isn’t an especially great beer in the best of conditions, and being flat certainly didn’t help. We let the waitress know and she brought us a second round, which was only slightly better. It was a shame to have this as my first taste of the restaurant, and I hoped the real meal would make up for it.

It started with a round of jalapeno, cheese and curry fries, which was a strong start. The combination of flavors made it into a sort of Japanese poutine. Instead of gravy, there was curry, and instead of cheese curds there was shredded cheese, but the spiciness added a nice twist. Even bites without the actual jalapenos had a bit of a kick, which was nice. The fries themselves were thick-cut and crispy enough on the outside to survive the curry without coming out too soggy.

Next, I moved on to our two main curry dishes. The first was the beef curry, which was made with short rib meat. It looked awesome and tasted pretty good too. Yet, the spiciness that had been a part of the fries was lost in the regular curry, leaving me wanting a little more. Of course, Japanese curry is not known for being spicy like Indian is, and I could probably order it spicier in the future when I don’t have to share with spice haters. The meat was damn good and short rib was a nice change from the chicken cutlet I usually find myself eating with Japanese curry. I also tried a bit of the seafood curry, which had the same sauce, but a nice variety of invertebrates (shrimp, calamari, scallops and clams) swimming around in it. As not much of a seafood lover, I preferred the beef, but the seafood was definitely worthy.

For a fake dessert, we followed up our main courses with some curry pan. Pan means bread in Japanese and these were like crispy eclair donuts, but with curry in the middle. The panko crust that covered the pan gave them an awesome crunchy texture and the ground beef curry inside made them nothing short of awesome. They were a great way to close out a pretty tasty meal.

As a self-proclaimed Japanese curry expert, I was pretty happy with Fat Spoon. It doesn’t quite measure up to the standards set by Hurry Curry of Tokyo, but is definitely a solid establishment with good food for even better prices. Next time, though, I’ll pass on the beer and order my curry extra spicy.

A month or so ago, Thrillist Rewards made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. For $29, it included one half-pound burger, unlimited wasabi fries, unlimited wings and two flights of delicious beers at a place called Far Bar in Little Tokyo. A few of us capitalized on this deal and finally made our way there to indulge. But finding it wasn’t exactly easy, as it required a walk through a strange alley. In fact, I walked into the restaurant next door by accident, but a guy there walked me over to the actual bar. Upon arrival, my friends who had gotten there first thrust a basket of fries and wings in my face and I knew I was home.

One thing that Thrillist did not mention in their reward was that the bar would feature a free drunk guy. And this guy was plastered beyond belief. It entertained for a while, but ultimately the bar kicked him out. This left us as the next closest thing to loud people in the bar, and most of our loudness was asking for more beer, wings or fries.

I’ll start with the fries, which were a nice component of the meal, but ultimately just filler to keep my stomach from eating more wings. They were topped with garlic and a sort of creamy wasabi sauce to give them a bit of an Asian kick. Fortunately, the wasabi was only lightly drizzled on the fries and each basket came with an extra dish of the sauce so they wouldn’t get soggy.

The wings, though, were pretty awesome. These were neither your average buffalo wings nor your average Asian-style wings. Despite being in Little Tokyo, they actually had a flavor and texture reminiscent Sichuan fried chicken. They were cooked with hot red peppers and weren’t topped with any sort of sauce. While I love me some buffalo sauce, these wings did a great job of capturing the essence of wings, and included an Asian touch that can seldom be found in your typical wing joints.

But let’s not forget about the burger. While everything else was unlimited, but devoid of options, there were a good handful of burgers to choose from. Ultimately, I went with the B.L.A.T Burger. This half pounder was topped with bacon, avocado and ponzu onion marmalade. I was weary of the onions in this marmalade, but figure I would give it a shot and scrape out the bastards if they were ruining my burger. I ordered medium rare, then ate some more wings and drank some more beer as I waited. Upon arrival, my burger was a pretty little thing. There was a thimble-sized bowl of pickled vegetables sharing the plate with my burger, but thankfully none of the juices escaped the thimble. I opened the burger in search of onions and, finding none, went to town.

What I found was perfectly crisp bacon mixed in with perfectly ripened avocado. The ponzu onion marmalade had little-to-no onion remnants or taste and was a very welcome addition to the burger, offering a little tartness and sweetness to an otherwise way savory burger. Oh and the meat was pretty damn good. It was cooked perfectly with a sort of medium grind to let me know it wasn’t just some pre-made patty. And the bun was everything I could have hoped for. It acted as little more than a conduit for the burger, but was both sturdy and pillowy all at once.

Meanwhile, the beers I tried were delicious. I would write about them all here, but that would be both boring and painful. The most important thing to remember about them is that they have a ton of locals on tap, including just about every beer Stone makes. Plus, although they weren’t available for my flights, they have a ton of Japanese beers that I would love to pour down my gullet on my next visit. Oh yeah, I do think there will be a next visit, because they have a happy hour during which they sell their burgers for only 5 bucks a pop. That alone is worth heading to Far Bar for. This little gem in a back alley in Little Tokyo definitely has a new fan.

I had been hearing about a glorious and semi-new restaurant in downtown LA for months and finally I gathered up the strength to make the trek down the 10 and check it out. This new restaurant is called Wurstkuche and although there are multiple fun and interesting pronunciations for such a place, the one thing that is certain is that it means “sausage kitchen” in some Germanic language.

Arriving on a Sunday night, I expected the place to be packed, but was happy to find a relatively short line at the counter that gave me just enough time to decide what I wanted. The menu is limited to a wide variety of sausages and french fries. Although this seems kind of limiting, there is a sausage in their extensive list for everyone (even those dastardly vegetarians and vegans). The most intriguing part for me was the exotic sausages. Animals found in these ranged from rattlesnake to alligator to rabbit. I decided to order two sausages from this list. The first was the Rattlesnake and Rabbit with Jalapeno Peppers. The second was the Buffalo, Beef and Pork with Chipotle Peppers. The four toppings available were carmelized onions, sauerkraut, sweet peppers and spicy peppers. The only one that fit into my unvegan eating habits was the spicy peppers, so I ordered that on top of the buffalo sausage, but opted to keep that rattlesnake sausage naked.

Along with these, I ordered a small order of fries, called “Klein.” These fries are done in the Belgian style, which I believe means they are double-dipped and come with some crazy dipping sauces. I ordered mine with the Bleu Cheese Walnut and Bacon sauce, then paid up and headed out of the grilling area and into the seating area.

I filled up a glass of water at one of the spouts and was disgusted to find that it had cucumber flavor to it. I spit it out and found another spout that had regular water. I joined my friends in the seating area and was a little disappointed by the lack of lighting. I know they were trying to set some sort of a mood, but it’s not that often that you eat rattlesnake, and when you do, you kind of want good light to see it in.

The food was ready in about 10 minutes, and I was presented with two sausages, labeled “snake” and “buff.” I decided to test out the snake first and bit in while crossing my fingers that all the venom had been removed. I was surprised that it tasted pretty good. The jalapeno wasn’t overwhelming and left me able to taste the sweet meat of rattlesnake and rabbit. I hate using the cliche, but in all honesty the combination didn’t taste terribly different than chicken, but this was a good thing. I offered it around the table and as my roommate, Vicki, tasted it, she described it as having a bite. She was under the impression that it was just a regular sausage called the “snake” sausage and was quite surprised when she realized it was actually composed of real rattlesnake.

Next, I tested out the buffalo. This one was smaller, and closer in size to a hot dog than a sausage. Upon tasting, the texture was also smooth and along the lines of hot dog as well. The taste, however was pretty different. It was kind of like a beef sausage, but stronger in a better way.

While eating these sausages, I also dug into the fries, which were pretty amazing. They were perfectly crispy on the outside, while chewy on the inside. When I went to try out the dipping sauce, though, I realized it was nothing at all like what I had ordered. Instead, it was Chipotle Aioli. This didn’t taste bad, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I returned to the counter to ask about it and they said they were out of the bleu cheese.

Then they handed me a few other sauces to take instead. These were the Curry Ketchup, Chipotle Ketchup and Buttermilk Ranch. The best of these was definitely the Curry Ketchup. It was a nice twist on ketchup, which is my usual sauce for fry-dipping.

Overall, I had a pretty awesome experience. It was great to eat some new animals in sausage form and although there was cucumber in the water and no bleu cheese sauce, it was easily forgotten about.

It should also be noted that the place has a huge variety of beers from around the world. I didn’t order any for myself since I was already packing in two sausages and fries, but I’m sure next time will require some liquid sustenance, especially if I am worried about cucumber water.