Best of LA for the budget-minded among us

SaMo location’s menu is abbreviated compared to the Westwood location (from what I recall eating there a few years back).

Their shwarma is moist - both chicken and beef. Their falafel are fried to order (at least mine were). Still, the falafel are pretty dense and I prefer at least some parsley in mine which there was almost none.

Plates are ~$13-15, wraps ~$8-9 - some may not consider this to be budget but this type of food can be very filling.

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See, now that one is funny to me. That is my neck of the woods. Right behind us in fact. I admit that tamale does look good. But it wouldn’t even occur to me to eat there, just on GP. I’m shocked you guys know about it… and it’s good? Although it has cleaned itself up lately - That hotel has been the bane of the neighborhood’s existence. More crazy has gone on inside and outside those walls than you can imagine. One summer the neighbors were ready to form a posse with pitchforks and torches and run them out of town… Just kidding officers.

That sounds like a nice idea @aaqjr. Thanks.

Maccheroni Republic $9.95 lunch special - fresh pasta with a choice of sauce, salad, bread. You don’t have access to the full pasta menu but it’s still a great deal.

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I have not. Yelp has mixed reviews and they always seem closed when we actually think about going there. In that same center is the Eritrean/Ethiopian place I posted about recently.

Derrick’s, thanks for taking one for the team, I never got good vibes from them whenever we drove past .

Good one.

What?!? I haven’t been in a while but have they gone downhill? When they first opened, it was fantastic and lots of people were making special trips to them.

Yes! I believe your report was one of the ones that reminded me to go try them.

Easily six months ago? With their hours, it’s hard for me to make it to them. Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Would hate to hear if it was permanent. What did you end up getting and what was wrong with it?

Thanks for this. We keep meaning to try it but haven’t gotten around to it. In fact it was one of the options this weekend and we ended up at Ackee instead.

I have not. I take it you’re suggesting I do. :slight_smile:

I know! I used to really like it, but the breading is super heavy now, and the tempura is greasy. They used the give you nice vegetables, like lotus root and mushrooms and Japanese squash. Now it’s broccoli and potatoes and a green bean if you’re lucky. The counter-people have a real attitude problem and there are no Japanese cooks anymore. So sad.

Apologies @Nemroz. I trust your food finds. I’ve lived off La Brea for a long time and that part of the block was really hairy at one time. It still gets pretty rowdy at night. You guys be safe.

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Pretty sure they were, actually. I went there for dinner once, and I think I might’ve even checked the website.

According to Yelp, the Long Beach location is permanently closed, so perhaps that’s why there’s no mention of it?

But, I reserve the right to be totally mistaken…

I think the downhill alerts might’ve even started back as far as b/f the CH mass exodus/expulsion. :frowning: Too bad, b/c the place was great. Kaido in SaMo has surprisingly good tempura.

I’m not going to the hotel, just to eat at the separate restaurant. I’ve been at least 30 times and it’s really good actually. Try the escabeche soup on the weekend. Or the ducunu plates, or the ox tail or the dozen other dishes… just white rice with stewed beans is really good by itself. just start with the $5 lunch special chicken, dark meat.

i’ve worked in the area for 10 years and admittedly only been there for lunch or dinner with family on weekends… never seen issues… yea hotel is a dump. but that has no effect on me. it’s run by a family and the owner is a Soca dj

ooh Ackee looks good…

I’m assuming the tempura stall being referenced is Hannosuke? I ate at the Torrance one last month and their vegetable soba tempura combo still has lotus root, squash, mushroom, etc. Found it quite nice and no overly breaded. The coating is quite crisp and more browned than I’m used to. To use an au courant FTC descriptor, their tempura was shatteringly crisp :sweat_smile:

I haven’t been to Front Page in a few months, but DH works in the area and eats there all the time (and brings home beef patties for me and kids!)

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You’re so lucky. Our location’s tempura is definitely not "shatteringly “crisp”.

Aha. You’re far more likely to be correct.

Em Toni is Lebanese. And in my view Sunnin is an excellent neighborhood Lebanese restaurant, though perhaps not in the class of Glendale providers such as Carousel.

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