All of those are yummy. I also like some of their “basics” like prik king w/ chicken or pork and the shrimp cakes.
Define “close” and “closer”
You’re missing two classics. The salted turnip omelette, the best tasting thing with the worst sounding name; and ground pork with chinese olives.
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The salty turnip omelette and stir fry morning glory with a bowl Khao Tom is the move at Ruen Pair!
Crispy Pork Gang does a killer prik king with crispy pork. Yai’s does one of the best crispy pork and morning glory with prik nam pla!!
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Belle Vie.
We eat from All India Cafe more often, though.
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The salted turnip omelette is great.
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Is Kreation actually good? I live not to far from you but given my previous experience with self-consciously “healthy” places I’ve always avoided it.
Walking distance close happy: Sidecar Donuts (this answer would have been Tacos Punta Cabras before they left…watching the progress on their new space anxiously)
5 minute drive drive happy: Uovo
Wish was closer: Mariscos Jalisco (sooooooo excited for their brick and mortar relatively near work!)
Honorable mention things I miss from the Valley: Hatikva (formerly Star Falafel)–haven’t had a more consistently excellent falafel in the city; San Marcos Grill–the type of high quality neighborhood mexican place that is vanishingly rare in SaMo; the Coffee Grinder–probably still my favorite coffee shop in LA; Mizlala–well-priced but super delicious and pretty refined Moroccan food; Puro Sabor–I could eat that ceviche forever. sigh the beach is nice though…
Kreation is great. I pick up from there about twice a week - sitting down and eating there takes too long, but is great if catching up with an old friend. Of all the locations, the Montana Ave is the best one. Fantastic breakfasts, but I love it for lunch.
Where’s Taco’s Punta Cabras going in? I forgot to mention that I like Benny’s Tacos - also walking distance - sometimes a girl’s gotta have a ground beef greasy crunchy taco. And their chicken soup is really good.
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I just switched jobs and now am working in Santa Monica. The space they just rented to be my lab is a block and a half from Bay Cities Italian Deli.
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Extremely grateful to be close to Sachi Teriyaki. The gold standard for neighborhood teriyaki joints.
Lot’s I wish I was closer to these days. Gonna say Hungry Cat b/c wanted to do happy hour last monday but nixed plans at the last minute because fighting rush hour traffic home with a belly full of liquor and oysters just didn’t sound fun.
Real westside crowd on here, eh?
lucky guy! I’m starting a new job a week from Monday. Unfortunately for me it’s not walking distance from Bay Cities, but across the street from LACMA. So it looks like my walkable lunch options will be food trucks and chain restaurants…although I do remember the meatloaf sandwich @ Black Dog being pretty tasty from the last time I worked on “publishing row”.
Welcome to the neighborhood 
I’m a block east. We drive away for lunch all the time from here. Today was Yuko’s Kitchen though.
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Thanks! I’ll have to see how difficult it is to park/re-park to drive to lunch. I’m thinking that I should brown-bag it a couple of days a week. I’m going to be in the Coffee Bean building. When I was there on Friday, there was some sort of pop up lunch place with good smelling food off of the courtyard/lobby area—any intel on that?
I’m in that building… Coffee Bean are the newbies here.
Mon, Tue, Thr, Friday is popups by Fooda in our lobby, just get the app. It’s never anything great. Wednesdays are farmers market days with decent options especially when greeks are here. yukos is pretty dang good. meet up at FM one day to say hi, if you like us you’re welcome to join us for our drive away lunches… we do it up big, usually korean, mex or israeli
too bad that Fooda is not that good. I love greek food, where is the farmers market? I’d love to join you & your work crew for lunch one day or happy hour. I’m starting on the 26th—so once I get my bearings w/ the new job (work flow, hours, etc) and settled in a bit that sounds like fun! thx!
Wednesday farmer’s market is in our big courtyard. You can’t miss it.
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I work at LACMA, and when I forget to bring lunch, I go upstairs to the cafe for the salad bar or half sandwich and soup.
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I live by Arturo’s Puffy Tacos and work by Amor Y Tacos…not too shabby.
I seem to be missing out on a whole lot by living in the suburbs…I don’t know what I would want to be close to…the options are literally limitless.
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3 minute walk to:
In-N-Out
MidiCi
Pita Kitchen (Though the pita sucks)
Mizlala (10 minutes)
Lots of stuff within a short drive.
I’m simple. The 3 places I wish were closer
Sea Harbor
Porto’s
Grimaldi’s
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