Another year, another move. This time, the year was split between LA (Pasadena) and Phoenix (Scottsdale). While LA is certainly more of a melting pot of cultures, Phoenix certainly has its fair share of good food driven by transplants from all over the country, if not the world. And what year would be complete without a bit of travel as well? As is usual, I’m keeping the travel out of the Best of, but you can see it all here (including some amazing food from a trip to Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan). So without further adieu, bring on 2017.

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Best Burger

B.S. Taqueria – Downtown Los Angeles

You had me at Chorizo Cheeseburger, but then you took it a step further by adding a cheese skirt to this beast. Sure, B.S. Taqueria is supposed to be a taco place, but this burger shines above the tacos and above any other burgers I got my hands around in 2017.

Honorable nod goes to Rehab Burger Therapy in Old Town Scottsdale for turning the peanut butter and jelly burger into art.

Best BBQ

Naked BBQ – Scottsdale

Holy cow. Literally. I could build a religion out of the beef ribs that Naked BBQ churns out as a special. But their regular menu isn’t too shabby either. At first it was a bit of struggle to realize truly great BBQ could come out of a building in the parking lot of a Scottsdale strip mall, but it didn’t take long to get over it.

Honorable nod goes to Bootleggers BBQ in Phoenix for taking the best of a gastropub and dropping it into a BBQ joint.

Best Steak

Compass Arizona Grill – Downtown Phoenix

Steak is inherently not your everyday restaurant food. So, for the duration of 2017 I really only went out for steak once, at Compass. But, that should not prevent me from highlighting the deliciousness of this steak topped with black garlic, even if the whole concept of a rotating restaurant is super gimmicky.

Best Wings

House of Wings – La Verne, California

So many wings, so little time. But what really made House of Wings the best wings in 2017 was the happy hour special that allowed me to try out a couple of different flavors. It’s not easy to find the right balance of spicy and BBQ, but House of Wings nailed it with plenty more options for the next round.

Best Hot Dog

Detroit Coney Grill – Mesa, Arizona

This was probably the toughest category of all, with both the winner and the honorable nod serving up a heavy dose of nostalgia. Yet, it’s just hard to beat the comfort of Detroit-style coney dog with perfect wet chili, a steamed bun and that snappy dog.

Honorable nod goes to Wimpy’s Paradise in Chandler, Arizona for bringing a taste of Pittsburgh to the Valley of the Sun.

Best Sandwich

Ugly Drum Pastrami – Downtown Los Angeles/Mobile

Sometimes a sandwich is composed of a number of ingredients all working in harmony to create a symphony of flavor. Not Ugly Drum, whose pastrami is almost paired with bread out of necessity. The pastrami in this sandwich even challenges the great Langer’s Deli, but the jury is still out on that.

Honorable nod goes to La Grande Orange in Pasadena for churning out an impressive French Dip where the bread almost takes the front stage.

Best Pizza

Humble Pie – Phoenix

I don’t care if it’s 2017, I still love pretty much anything more when you put an egg on it. So, despite the semi-burnt crust Humble Pie put together some pretty tasty pizza and impressively maintains a small pizza place feel despite having locations all over.

Best ‘Merican

Tokyo Fried Chicken – Alhambra, California

It doesn’t get much more ‘Merican than an American-style fried chicken place with Japanese influences. And there may not be any better fried chicken anywhere, regardless of the influences. This was the juiciest, flakiest, crunchiest fried chicken I’d ever had and if that isn’t deserving of best ‘Merican food, I don’t know what is.

Honorable nod goes to Citizen Public House in Old Town Scottsdale for having the audacity to stuff a Jucy Lucy with Velveeta.

Best Mexican

Burritos La Palma – El Monte, California

I love the diversity of Mexican food and Burritos La Palma leads me to believe I’ve hardly scratched the surface. Here, the burritos look more like enchiladas, but they are no less delicious – being filled with all sorts of good meats and topped with cheese and green chile sauce with pork.

Honorable nod goes to Chino Bandido in Phoenix because I truly could not figure out where to put this restaurant that combines Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and Caribbean flavors into one greasy, delicious mess, but I knew it had to go somewhere on this list.

Best Breakfast/Brunch

Breakfast Kitchen Bar – Scottsdale

This place took the concept of breakfast pizza and completely flipped it on its head in the best of ways. It almost made up for having the least creative name of any breakfast restaurant with a bar. Almost.

Honorable nod goes to Eggstasy in Scottsdale for their delicious and well-executed twist on eggs benedict.

Best Asian

Borneo Kalimantan – Alhambra, California

No offense to Phoenix, but this was just a race among restaurants in LA’s San Gabriel Valley. The winner is Borneo Kalimantan, partially because I went to actual Borneo shortly after this, partly because the dishes are super unique and partly because of the great execution. There are all kinds of new and exciting things happening in the San Gabriel Valley and Borneo Kalimantan challenges all others to step it up.

Honorable nod goes to Mian in San Gabriel for its delicious and deliciously cheap Chinese noodle bowls.

Best Middle Eastern

Persian Room – Scottsdale

Tah dig is pretty much all it takes to win me over, which is a crispy rice that’s pretty special to Persian cuisine. But the fact that Persian Room also churns out some amazing meats is enough to make it into the Best of 2017.

Honorable nod goes to Pita Jungle throughout the Phoenix area for not being willing to settle for plain old classic Mediterranean.

You can find all these restaurants on Google Maps here, and you can check out years past below:

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

You don’t really associate Japan with fried chicken. I mean, sure, if you’ve spent enough time in Japan or with Japanese food you have undoubtedly discovered karaage and more, but those aren’t exactly Earth-shattering compared to the fried chicken of the American South or even the fried chicken of Japan’s neighbor buddy (kind of), Korea. But Tokyo Fried Chicken in Monterey Park is doing its best to change that perception. So when it came down to choosing new restaurants or eating at old favorites before making the move to Phoenix, Tokyo Fried Chicken is where I found myself eating my last reviewable meal as a resident of Southern California (at least for now!).

As there were three of us, we decided to order the Meal for 3. This included 9 pieces of chicken, 3 sides, rice and some sort of cabbage-y thingy that I wouldn’t need to have anything to do with. For the sides we got the curry creamed corn and upgraded the other two to mac and cheese and brussels sprouts. The last of these was obviously not my idea, but I was content just to eat the other two.

We swapped out a couple of the pieces of chicken for chicken breast because one of my companions was a white meat only racist, and unfortunately this made the food take a little longer to cook. But, soon enough it was ready with the sauces on the side to go with it (Ponzu, Spicy Ponzu and a taste of the Yuzu Pepper sauce just to see what it was like, which was pretty solid). Oh, we even got gloves to eat the chicken with so we wouldn’t get our hands dirty.

Anyway, the chicken was nothing short of incredible. The breading was all sort of crispy, while having no trouble clinging to the chicken. It was just thick enough and also flavorful in all the right ways. The chicken also managed to stay perfectly juicy – even the white meat that I ate at the end because there was extra. I was a fan of the Spicy Ponzu sauce, but really you couldn’t go wrong.

As for the sides, the curry creamed corn was exactly what it sounds like. So, if you like corn and curry, this is your dish. If you are expecting something unique and different than creamed corn, this is your dish. But if you’re hoping for something life-changing as a lover of corn in curry, you may be disappointed. And as for the mac and cheese, I’m actually going to weirdly penalize it for trying too hard to be different. The flavor was unique, but it could also be described as “off.” This, of course, did not stop me from devouring every last bite of the stuff, but if I had to do it all over again I would have traded out the mac for more fried chicken.

And that was my overall feeling as I left. Tokyo Fried Chicken is simply amazing at making fried chicken. And all the while the sides are just along for the ride on the coattails of the chicken. Truth be told, that was just fine by me.

Melt It! in Pasadena refers to itself as “A Grilled Cheese Co.” I’m not sure what else would have been expected from a place called Melt It! (except maybe like fondue or a ton of patty melt options, which are basically just grilled cheeses with burgers in them anyway), but I was eager to see what kind of twists this place would make on the old standby.

There were plenty of options, including specials and some non-grilled cheese options, but I went with something called The Lar. The Lar is what happens when you try to turn jalapeno poppers into a grilled cheese and throw bacon in for good measure. Seriously, it’s cheddar, cream cheese, jalapenos and bacon on white bread.

You really can’t screw a sandwich like this up, and Melt It! did not. However, it was surprisingly light on the cream cheese. I know I’m used to bagels loaded up on the stuff with no other toppings, but this went beyond that. Fortunately there was cheddar for backup.

A little bit more shmear would have gone a long way, but it was the slightest complaint. Melt It! did a solid job of changing up grilled cheese and one of my favorite appetizers so I left a happy unvegan.

Restaurants come and restaurants go. But I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a restaurant come and go as fast as TLT in Pasadena’s Playhouse District. Fortunately, there was almost no delay in replacing it with The Stand, a burger concept that already had a few locations around LA and Orange County. The burger options were pretty unique and at a reasonable price, so I had a hard time choosing.

But I ended up getting the French Onion Soup Burger. This comes topped with gruyere cheese, fried onions and red wine onions in a parmesan crusted bun with some onion soup au jus for dipping. I ordered mine medium rare and without the red wine onions because they sounded terrible. I also had a side of fire fries (loaded with their wing spice and a side of blue cheese dressing) because clearly a stack of fried onions on my burger would not be enough.

Everything about the food was delicious. From the amount of crispiness in the onions to the meltiness in the cheese to the fieriness in the fries. And as I ate, I couldn’t help but feel like I was getting a gourmet burger experience at a fast-casual price. Sure, the patty may not have been as thick as some of the gourmet spots, but I’ve also had my fair share of annoying un-filling gourmet burgers out there. Most importantly, interesting toppings that seem to be well-balanced at The Stand are not just limited to the French Onion Soup, but to a variety of options, including a rotation of specials.

As you can tell, I was a fan of The Stand and wouldn’t be surprised at all if it continued to expand its mini Southern Californian empire.

It’s not easy to go across town for breakfast or brunch. Especially if you’re like me and consider noon to be the beginning of the day on a weekend. But, I managed to pull myself out of bed for brunch downtown at a place called Artisan House. Surprisingly, it didn’t just have the kind of upscale brunch items I have grown used to, but a couple items I hadn’t seen before.

One of these was called Brioche Toad in a Hole and consisted of two eggs over easy INSIDE two slices of brioche toast. These were then topped with a truffle parmesan sauce. I knew they had to be mine, but I was told they might not quite be filling enough. Thus, I opted to split them and the Chicken and Waffles with my buddy.

Unfortunately I had failed to notice that the toads came with a mixed greens salad or I would have swapped it out. So, while it may have ruined the picture, I can safely say that it went uneaten and did not ruin the meal. My toad in the hole turned out to be really delicious, with the egg being perfectly cooked, the toast being perfectly toasty and the saucy being perfectly saucy. But, as I was not on a diet it really was not enough food.

As for the chicken and waffles, the portion was a bit off as well. Except in this case there was plenty of food, but too much of it turned out to be waffles. This meant many bites of just waffle or little bits of chicken to try to preserve the combination. From a taste perspective each component was delicious and the chicken was crispy and tender, but the balance simply could have been better.

I left Artisan House feeling like it had been a mixed bag of decent and delicious. There was nothing to truly dislike, but a couple tweaks could have gone a long way to glory.

When you need breakfast or brunch in Encino, where do you go? Well, when the opportunity presented itself to me I found myself at Claudine, which is like a bakery and restaurant in one. You order at a counter, and seats are hard to come by on the weekend, but I managed to snag a table right out from under an old lady. To be fair, all she needed was 2 seats and we needed 6 so I found another table for her. Sheesh.

As for the foodstuffs, there was one thing on the menu that called my name annoyingly loudly. It was called Breakfast “Naan”-zza, which is fancy bakery-speak for pizza on a piece of naan bread. The menu said this was to be topped with gruyere, sausage, bacon, a farm egg, jalapeno relish and grilled onions. I wanted nothing to do with the onions and ordered thusly. While Claudine heeded my order, they failed to tell me that this naan-zza would come topped with a devious handful of arugula.

I don’t know what the hell they were thinking, but you cannot be so damn careless with arugula. Maybe they thought that nearly $13 for a mini pizza with those toppings would be an easier pill to swallow if they added one more ingredient? However, this was subtraction by addition and it’s one thing to throw the mess in a bowl or on the side, but strewn atop my pizza was something that could not be forgiven. And that’s a real shame, because everything else about the naan-zza was great, including the explosive yolk of the egg.

Instead of leaving Claudine singing the praises of the naan-zza, all I was left with were the thoughts of what might have been.

When I found out that a Taiwanese fried chicken place had opened next door to my office, I knew I had to stop by, especially because I would soon be paying a visit to Taiwan. It’s called Hot Star, and for some reason it specializes in flattening the fried chicken to make it look massive. I don’t know if this is meant to make it taste or look better, but I was ready to find out.

I ordered my chicken spicy which, in this case, is spicy with powder and not a sauce. I was then handed a giant piece of chicken along with a single glove to hold the thing. I dug in and found one juicy, tender and crispy chicken. Clearly, Hot Star had perfected this concept at some point or else they would not have grown from the Shilin Night Market to a global footprint. Plus, the spicy flavor was tasty without overwhelming.

However, things got kind of weird down towards the bottom of the piece of chicken because the bones were still in there. This probably helped for the juiciness, but was strange and made it harder to eat than your typical bone-in chicken breast. Moreover, it seemed a bit pricey for just a fried chicken breast.

But, it was tasty and a unique spin on fried chicken, and I would highly recommend paying a visit. It’s a whole lot easier then heading to Taiwan.

In preparation for traveling to Borneo, I wanted to get a taste of Bornean food. This, of course, is not an easy thing to do, but when you live in LA pretty much all food is a possibility. Thus, I found myself with my Bornean traveling companions at Borneo Kalimantan in Alhambra. This place is more focused on the Indonesian side of Borneo, and although we were heading to the Malaysian side it still seemed as close as we were going to get. Plus, it also had Singaporean and Malaysian, so we weren’t completely off.

We kicked things off with some Roti with Curry Sauce. Roti, in this case, was like a flakey pancake-esque bread and the curry sauce was mighty good. It was a solid preview of what was to come.

And what was to come was a plethora of goodness. I probably ordered the least interesting of all dishes, which was the Nasi Campur Kalimantan. It came with a pile of BBQ pork, fried chicken, sliced sausage, a flavored egg and cucumbers piled on some rice. I wasn’t happy about the cucumbers, but I knew I could pass them off to my wife. And fortunately, this was the case. But where I kind of expected some sort of banana leaf-wrapped delight, I was instead presented with some food on a plate. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, it just wasn’t what I expected.

But, my wife went ahead and ordered that delight up above. It was the Kie Kecil Hokkian, which is chicken, mushroom, BBQ pork, flavored egg and some veggies. It is also filled with delicious thin noodles with some soup on the side for either dipping or dumping pleasure. But while that was tasty, it didn’t compare to the Laksa Ayam Borneo, which is a curry chicken soup and was pretty much amazing. If I went back, I’d go straight to that curry soup.

And I would go back if I still lived in LA, because Borneo Kalimantan is not just a place for delicious food, but it’s food that is so unique that there are very few places in this hemisphere to eat something similar. In that sense, when you get a hankering for Bornean food, nothing less will do.

It seems like just yesterday that I packed up my bags in Michigan to move to Los Angeles, but alas it was nearly 10 years ago. A lot has changed in those 10 years, and aside from housing prices and traffic much of it has been for the better. Take, for example, breweries. Michigan was littered with them and I found LA barely had one (San Diego was strong, though). Now, they are much easier to find and have even come around to serving brewery food instead of fancy stuff (I’m looking at you, Golden Road, but glad that you have also fixed yourself up!) Highland Park Brewery is one of the new entrants and I set out to test both its food and booze.

The booze passed the test, plus Highland Park Brewery had a great selection of local guest taps. But I know all you really care about is food and so I should say that I ordered the Meatloaf Burger. It was made from beef and bacon blend, then topped with a fried egg, avocado and pimento cheese. Thinking that a meatloaf is essentially a giant burger, I kind of thought this would simply be a burger with a hipster name. It turned out I was wrong, as this literally looked like a slice of meatloaf. More than that, it tasted like a slice meatloaf as opposed to a burger, which is all at once a very clear and very ambiguous description. Just know that from a texture and density standpoint, this was meatloaf.

And that’s all good and well, but call it what it is – a meatloaf sandwich. I love a good slice of meatloaf as much as the next guy/gal, but it is important to set my expectations correctly. Because of these expectations, I couldn’t help but feel at least a little bit disappointed by the sandwich, which is sad because it was really an ideal mix of ingredients for an unvegan.

Nonetheless, the menu at Highland Park Brewery, just like the beers, is ever-changing. I am all but certain that the meatloaf burger is gone from the menu and has been replaced by something that may be described better. Whether that is the case or not, I certainly enjoyed the beers and can only mildly complain about the naming of my meal, which meant I was a happy man and would happily return.

Sometimes all you want to do is watch sports and eat wings. And sometimes there’s not enough time to get home to watch said sports and you have to find the spot closest to your office. Thus, I found myself at House of Wings in La Verne. House of Wings not only had a great variety of wing flavors, they also sported a pretty great happy hour for beer and food.

I ended up ordering the happy hour wing special, which came with 5 boneless, 5 bone-in and fries to boot! For my bone-in I ordered the Spicy BBQ and for the boneless I got Sriracha Glaze.

The Hot BBQ was pretty delicious, managing to balance a perfect mix of spicy and sweet. Spicier BBQ flavors at wing spots usually disappoint me, but this did not. On the other hand, I was kind of disappointed with the the Sriracha Glaze. You see, the wings were tossed in a sweet sauce, but then the sriracha was just kind of squirted onto the wings afterwards. If you’re not going to toss it all together it doesn’t really make any sense to me. Plus, that made the blue cheese dipping kind of strange because the sriracha came off a good amount in each dip.

Regardless, I was very happy with my House of Wings experience. The happy hour was pretty great and I would definitely love to try some of the other flavors to see what might pair better with that Hot BBQ.