On the Northwest corner of Venice and La Cieniga, this food truck appeared a couple of months ago right before the holidays. At first I thought it was just a regular taco truck and it wasn’t high on my list to try immediately. But a friend noticed it was serving Filipino food on a stick! We hightailed it over there this weekend.
They are inspired by a popular bbq place in the city of Cebu in the Philippines called Larsian. They named themselves after it by stylizing the LA and adding bbq at the end for LArsianbbq.com. http://larsianbbq.com/
Enough history, the set up is simple enough, almost all the food is $1 and on a stick. You grab a piece of paper, mark off what you want, dine in or take out and your name. Bring it to the window, pay and wait for your food to be available. On weekends, they have specials such as Lechon for $12/lb. The counter table has different sauces such as vinegar, soy sauce, etc. They have the grills on the side of the truck cooking the sticks.
The food isn’t life changing but for this Asian boy with Filipino soul in him, this was pure comfort food. The meats were juicy, seasoned well, not overly salty. The people were super friendly. My pinoy friends and I were in heaven sitting on the tables in the sidewalk nibbling on the various meats and enjoying the food and company. The only thing missing was cold bottles of beer.
What I also find great is that I can satisfy my Filipino food cravings easily and inexpensively without having to drive to Carson or Eagle Rock. Swing by, grab a few sticks, cup of rice and be out of there for under $5
We also got a pound of the lechon and it was prepared well. The skin was the right crunchy and crispyness. The meat tender, juicy, well marbled. We ate it all and I ended up grabbing another pound to take home. I’m very happy this place opened up.
My plate with pork, chicken, pork intestines, chicken intestines and longanisa
This is the truck with the “One Dollar BBQ” sign? See it every day on my way home but it’s in the wrong direction.
Speaking of wildly popular filipino food trucks - anybody hit up that truck on Temple - maybe a block west from Bahay Kubo? It’s always packed but I never seem to pass it when I’m hungry.
Arko’s great! Probably one of the better turo turo joints. Just have to watch out for the tita’s throwing bows even with the numbering system they have to try and control the chaos.
It’s hard to get good lechon. Since I’m on the westside, I satisfy my cravings by going down to Carson and Manila’s Lechon Manok, it’s decent.
But I satisfy my Filipino roast pork cravings the best with the Crispy Pata at the former Magic Wok in Artesia. Now called Crispy House after an ownership change. But they seemed to have kept the same staff and menu. The service is still relaxed at best, the prices and portion has remained the same. The crispy pata still heavenly and artery clogging.
For now, I’m happy with the dollar truck’s lechon, it’s good enough to satisfy and I don’t have to drive to all over the place.
Yes, that is it. On the northwest corner of Venice and La Cienega. It can be difficult to get to if you’re going east on Venice. You can’t make a U turn on La Cienega. I’d suggest pulling a U before you get there and park on westbound Venice and just walk up the block
Oh shit, I’ve been wondering what that was haha I couldn’t imagine American BBQ being $1, so makes sense. I’ve seen that thing many times. Good location.
