the pork belly banh mi with fried egg at nong la is pretty solid for the west side.
Hi @ipsedixit,
Thanks for the rec. 
I pass by that place so often, then I remembered that was the place Malady was talking about I think last year.
I’ll give it a try. Thanks.
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Yes, that Go Fish Mi sandwich is great. I didn’t think it was possible to find good banh mi on the Westside.
@Chowseeker1999. Being reminded of your love of the egg bang mi, I think I just might have to try it this weekend. Do you add anything extra to it? I’ve never thought to add pickled vegetables to a fried egg before.
While on the Banh Mi discussion
Thanh Tam/Tan Hoang Huong
Both in Little Saigon area, both serve up Spam and Egg Banh Mi. I feel this should be more popular.
Lien Hoa BBQ
In Chinatown they do Banh Mi’s with charsiu and roast pork.
OC Poultry and Rotisserie
In Anaheim, you guessed it…Roasted Chicken Banh Mi, and you can add an egg.
The above places should get way more love
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There’s 2 THH’s in the same plaza, one is a banh mi shop and one does more larger to-go type stuff, but the larger one will also sell you cafe sua da in case the banh mi shop is too busy.
Hi @attran99,
I hope you get to try it! The standard version from their menu already comes with Pickled Veggies, Cilantro and Jalapenos. I think one time they asked us, “With everything?” to which you should say, “Yes.”
You can also ask for a less cooked egg, if you want the yolk more runny.
Hi Jeet,
Yah, the Thanh Tam version I thought would be amazing with the Spam, BBQ and Egg, but their Egg was overcooked (precooked / firm version), and the bread was lacking compared to Saigon Bakery. But it could’ve been an off day.
Love OC Poultry and Rotisserie as well! Thanks to @A5KOBE for recommending it last year.
IIRC 213 includes chinatown and the eastern half is pretty much all vietnamese at this point. i don’t think much of buu dien but decent banh mi CAN be found in the 213.
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I never said there weren’t any, I said there weren’t many. I also said…
“I don’t consider 1 banh mi shop in Chinatown that services all of LA proper to be good coverage”
i understand that you have narrow definitions for a lot of things. so be it.
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Tried G Burger In La Habra tonight.
The kids loved it. They wolfed down their burgers and fries.
Chili cheeseburger - our youngest almost finished this fairly large burger.
Cheeseburger with blue cheese, lettuce-wrapped…I’m a fan of any place that offers blue cheese as an option. They also have American, cheddar, pepper jack, and Swiss. It was cooked to a perfect medium inside.
The fries here are dusted with seasoned flour before frying so there’s a nice crisp crust outside and pillowy soft inside. They finish with more seasoning salt…I don’t eat the bun so I can eat more fries.
The only clunker of the evening was the G fries…their version of animal-style fries but with bacon and their house-made sauce. The cheese was not melted. Fries were crispy warm and onions, too, but the cheese was a solid, floppy piece. Took the sails out of the dish.
Nice to have a non-In-N-Out option for burgers. Thanks!
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Since the places were mentioned in this thread, saw that Chef Storts from Grits Fullerton is going to be executive at Tempo as they expand to Las Vegas and internationally. The press release from Tempo did not mention what that meant for Grits.
It’s been a while, and we’ve done more exploring since.
North Woods Inn (La Mirada)
We dropped in for happy hour. We’re big fans of Clearman’s Steak N’ Stein in Pico Rivera, so we were hoping that this would be a close option since it’s the same owner. The floor littered with peanut shells is kind of fun, the bar pumps out some okay cocktails, but the food was meh. The best thing was the salad and cheese bread option. You get their house iceberg salad with housemade blue cheese dressing, you also get the red cabbage slaw to go along with their terrrific cheese bread. The fries and chicken strips (while fantastic at Steak N’ Stein) were greasy and off putting here…like they hadn’t changed the oil in quite some time.
Meiga Sushi (La Habra)
This is our new AYCE joint. It’s reasonably priced at $25 for dinner, and has a lot of good bastardized options. The kids enjoy the California rolls. The spicy tuna is actually spicy. My oldest likes the fact that the salmon nigiri offers a large slab of salmon on top a small nub of rice…he’s 13 and can easily polish down 15 nigiri without blinking an eye. On a couple occasions, we’ve picked up a couple of rolls to-go and they were nice enough to throw in some rolls on the house.
Taco Nazo (La Habra)
We used to frequent the Bellflower branch, and we’re so excited that this one was closer. However, not all branches are created equal. Our fish tacos had a thicker batter coating which made it more greasy than Bellflower. They also used less crema, Pico de gallo, and slaw so you don’t get enough flavors and textures to counterbalance the thick, greasy batter on the fish. I’m hoping we went on an off-night, and will endeavor to try it again because we have such fond memories of it.
Fullerton Fridays (Best Buy parking lot in Fullerton on Harbor and Imperial)
Food truck Fridays have been a fun way to spend the evening with our kids. We taste and sample a dish or two from the various vendors that they bring in. Lobster rolls from the Lobsta truck have always been solid…especially with extra meat. The Mess Hall Truck offers a lobster and crab grilled cheese that is both decadent and worth busting my usually low carb diet for. MyDelight brings some fun cupcakes…the breakfast cupcake offers tastes like eating pancakes and bacon. Crepes Bonaparte makes some decent dessert crepes. The rotation changes every Friday…I think they provide updates on their FB account.
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We had a similar experience at Nazo where the batter was doughy/greasy on the fish taco. Shrimp taco was better.
We had been going to the food trucks but had stopped with the various heat waves. Kogi, Chubbee Monkee and Falasophy have been recent favorites.
Agreed on Taco Nazo. Last time I was at the La Habra location, it was pretty bad. My devotion is to their original location on Valley in La Puente. I have I haven’t been in a while now, but it has consistently been my favorite location over the years. I have fond memories of the odd looks I would get showing up there in a suit and tie back in the early 90’s. IIRC, you had to order in Spanish back then.
I heard you guys have a swanky new Italian spot in your area. Ravello Bar & Grill in Uptown Whittier. Date night anyone?
@TheCookie I’d be game…I’ll check out the website and yelp photos tonight. I saw the Eater LA profile on it, and while good, it didn’t look too terribly exciting to me. However, I could be biased in that I love Scarpetta and Bartolotta (formerly in Vegas) as my high-end Italian spots.
Yeah, that’s the thing. You being a former Angeleno, might not be impressed. Let’s call it “Whittier swanky”. I get to say that. I have family in Whittier. We were actually there on Friday 
.
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@TheCookie I think Whittier/(insert any suburb here) swanky is more than fair. Not all finer dining is created equal. But then again, not everyone has the fortitude to come into the City for a meal…I’m willing to do it, but find dealing with traffic a hassle. I think we only do it a handful of times a year.