I always get the burger or chinese chicken salad.
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Used to be Flame Broiler lol (dat green hot sauce!)
But now they skimp so much on the chicken portions.
In person, I probably eat at Officine Brera more than any other restaurant (in large part because it’s open for lunch). I love how the menu is constantly changing with interesting options – one day it’s eel, another day it’s pheasant. The risotto and gnocchi are the best in LA. The soups and salads are fantastic. The farinata is delightful. I’ve never gone wrong. It’s my favorite Italian restaurant in LA, above Bestia and above Valentino and Vincenti.
For delivery, I probably order from Marouch more than any other restaurant. I think it offers the best Middle Eastern food in LA.
In my feet? Diabeetus.
[quote=“Barolo, post:83, topic:2628”] above Valentino and Vincenti.
[/quote]
Kind of a spectacularly low bar for Italian in LA, no? lol
Do they prepare pheasant as an entree regularly?
I’ve only ever seen pheasant at Wally’s before, where it was plated in a thoroughly Michelin-esque style, but tasted more bland and flavorless than a supermarket chicken breast… it would be interesting to have it done well.
Although LA has few Michelin 2-star or 3-star caliber restaurants of any kind – and certainly no Italian restaurants that fall into those categories – I think Italian is a strength of LA. Even just downtown LA has three Italian restaurants that likely would get a star (Officine Brera, Bestia, and Drago Centro), two others that would contend for a star (Factory Kitchen and Rossoblu), and a couple of others that are pretty good (Maccheroni Republic and Terroni).
I think the most glaring weakness of the LA food scene is Spanish. French is pretty weak too.
Pheasant is no longer on the Officine Brera menu. But it’s a staple at Drago Centro in the pappardelle dish, which is excellent.
Are there any cities in the US that does Spanish really well? Even NYC doesn’t.
Greek too.
Sofi’s on 3rd used to be a favorite. The food was good quality and the outdoor patio very pretty. The lamb was always very nicely cooked.
I liked it but did not love it. Growing up in NYC there was Greek galore in Astoria and Manhattan.
Yeah, it’s a shame. It seems like LA would be a good market for Greek and Spanish (and Portuguese) restaurants given the perceived healthiness of Mediterranean cuisine. Oddly enough, I look forward to trips to Tokyo so that I can go to the Spanish restaurants there. (I wouldn’t be surprised if Tokyo has better Greek and Portuguese too…I know it has at least one Portuguese restaurant.)
For Spanish, I would gladly take a restaurant like Jaleo in DC. (Caveat: I haven’t been there in 13 years, but I hear it’s still good.)
Like Jaleo, the Bazaar is run by Jose Andres. It’s been years since I went to the former, but you I’ll bet you can get some of the same dishes at the latter, particularly on the traditional side of the menu.
I think for Spanish, esp. tapas, Manhattan is probably as good as it gets in the U.S. (at least of the cities that I’ve visited).
Before it closed, Bar Pinxto was my go to for Spain nostalgia (used to live there). Fantastic tapas.
There’s a great Greek (chef is fro Cyprus) place on Broadway in Santa Monica called Inotheke
http://www.inotheke.com
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At Inotheke, how many plates do you think 2 people w/ average appetites would need to be satisfied (but not stuffed to the gills)? Very subjective question, I know…
Tonight with Mike?
I went last night!!! Prob not tonight, but you never know 
I really like the chef/owner at Inotheke but my two visits have been quite disappointing food-wise.
Oof that’s too bad.
This is an interesting point. I think LA would land more than a few 1-2 Michelin star Italian spots if the guide ever came back (I heard through the grapevine it’s certainly a possibility…) Drago Centro in particular would be a fringe 1 Michelin but I think with the guide here it really focuses and gets to a one-star. Maccheroni and Terroni would be Bib Gourmands, imo.