Favorite Restaurants San Fernando Valley (SFV)?

Not sure if I ever mentioned this, but I have an app that allows me to see how busy they are.

http://nowait.com/guests/

The app displays current wait times, mostly for places like Chili’s and Buffalo Wild Wings and the like, but both Salsa & Beer locations are in the app.

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So, “C” is for cucarachas?

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Non, mon frere. “C” is for Chinese only. :smiley:

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Tacomiendo… 3 orders of asada ala carte… $18. Much more impressive quantity than the photo can convey.



And you can get creative with your meal LOL

@Bigmouth: BTW, back at an “A” rating.

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Moved to Woodland Hills this past March. Here’s the spots that I like so far:

Joey’s - Good rotisserie chicken. Happy Hour not great both for food and only drinks worth ordering are the draft beers.

Gasolina Cafe - Everything I’ve had here has been good. Wish they had a bigger indoor dining area. Inside is two small two tops and two small counters. Cramped to say the least.

Todo Bien Kitchen and Tequila Bar - Fairly new gringo modern Mexican. Decent date spot, nice ambience. Not on the level of a Mercado or Petty Cash but decent and the best Mexican of this kind anywhere in Woodland Hills.

Magpies Softserve (Tarzana)- 4 dairy based 4 non-dairy (almond milk) based soft served flavors in constant rotation. Almond Corn is the go to non-dairy. We’ve abandoned Wanderlust for the time being because of this place opening back in May I believe.

I’ve been eating at FishBone 1-2x a week for the past several weeks. A pound of catfish and half pound of jumbo shrimp is about 18 bucks.

Sorta cheating because it’s literally right next to the 405 (sepulveda and ventura), but I’m a huge fan of Mizlala.

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@JThur01 has a very intriguing writeup on Red Chili, a Pakistani place. Anyone tried it yet?

http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/red-chili-halal-restaurant-has-las-largest-pakistani-offerings-8489147

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It’s been there for a few years. Tried it 3 times I think? Not too fond of it – too inconsistent, and the service sucks. We were there once and the server was after us to tip him in cash, and when my husband told him he didn’t have cash on him, the server got all pissy and practically threw the check at us. That was the last time we went.

Tawakal in Chatsworth has much better Pakistani food, but it’s better for take out and catering.

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Don’t judge me. El Taco Llama, Winnetka. Canoga Park

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Was this the Corbin Parthenia one? We used to live right by there and I used to walk there all the time to grab food to take back home. Their nachos were the best!

oops, Canoga Park location (I still can’t figure out their hours and they have no posted hours at the store)

I was going to do a bang^2 with the NY Gyro place next door, but probably ate 1k calories worth of chips/beans/cheese so decided against it.

Sorry you had a bad experience at Red Chili, but I’ve never had one in my visits. Nor had any inconsistencies with their food. Service can be slow, especially at busy times, typical of a small staff.

Tawakal is also very good, though I haven’t been since they moved to Woodland Hills. I actually prefer their nihari, which I greatly appreciated when I had a cold, but I digress. The downside is Tawakal has a much smaller menu, even though they do have kata kata! Red Chili’s owner is actually from Karachi.

Both are no frills, very basic restaurants. Nothing fancy about them - even quite the opposite, They just serve good national cuisines to local communities.

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I’m part of the “local community”, in that I’m Indian, and live in the area. The consensus in our social circle is pretty much along the lines of what I posted. Tawakal (which is in West Hills now, I believe, on Roscoe) does have a smaller menu, but they do a much better job with it. We’ve been to several Indian/Pakistani parties where the food was catered from Tawakal, but we’ve never seen anyone get food from Red Chilli. Catered food for parties is a big deal in Indian/Pakistani circles, so that’s a bit telling.

I’m not familiar with the dish “kata kata”? “Khatta” means “sour” – is it something sour? I looked up kata kata online and nothing came up, so now I’m curious.

Yes, West Hills. Sorry, got my “Hills” mixed up (I remember when there wasn’t a “West Hills”, but again I digress). The dish is listed as kata-kuts at Tawakal, but is usually spelled kata-kat, or some variation with hyphen(s) in different places. It’s an offal dish. I haven’t seen that on any other menu in the area.

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Oh ok. I’ve heard of katakat. I’ve seen the spice blend for it at the Indian store before. Not something I’m interested in trying though. :wink:

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I was thinking about this last night and I knew I remembered seeing it on a menu at another restaurant, so I did a little online investigation, and I was right – Al-Watan has katakat on their menu. Thought I’d let you know.

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We are regulars at Tawakal. Abdul, the owner of Tawakal is always teasing me about kata-kuts threatening to serve it to me. It’s brains with kidneys.

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FYI, Saj Bakery is now FurnSaj, has been for a few months now but they’re still cranking out really good stuff if any valley people haven’t ventured that far yet.

I need to start remembering what I order there bc some dishes certainly stand out more than others. It’s usually at least one shawarma sandwich and do not forget to substitute the pita bread for saj bread for a +$1.00, makes a HUGE difference.

Why are you people not going here? A gyro and drink is 7 bucks straight up, chicken and rice is 8 bucks.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/new-york-chicken-and-gyro-canoga-park

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