What do you mean by “classic” and “authentic” Mexican? I took classic to mean old-school Mexican-American with booths and combo platters.
Yang’s is great but about as Chinese as Majordomo is Korean, especially at brunch.
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Sounds fun! Some ideas:
Echoing what others have said with Little Saigon. Go in the morning to one of the coffee places, then maybe go hang at the beach, then back for lunch somewhere.
Koreatown. Maybe go down the old JGold list?
Medan Kitchen in Rosemead you can’t really get on the westside
Salsa and Beer
Grand Central Market
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Booths and combo platters was mostly what I was going for, but Mercado Gonzalez looks cool too so I threw that in there too. What I’m not looking for is a fancier more upscale sit down Mexican restaurant - think Mercado, Toca Madero, Taco Maria (RIP 
)
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Salsa and Beer it is then (and you could make it a Valley day and go to one of the great Thai places in North Hollywood or a sushi restaurant)
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The spirit is so, so tired right now. But hopefully it will be less tired in the near future. 
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neither of these is upscale, but 1) gish bac 2) guelaguetza are places i would ve very happy to lunch at…
or if you can wrangle the scheduling with the sergio, foodwise bee taqueria’s omakase would be in a league with the more upscale places
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everything at Mercado Gonzalez is fine to OK and somewhere in between. IMO not worth the journey to go there if driving far but if it was my local market I’d eat there regularly.
It’s kinda cool to see something of this scale here but individually you can find better versions of each dish elsewhere, as far as food courts though its not a bad one and just shows how spoiled we are for choices in SoCal.
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I second both gish bac or guelaguetza. A favorite of mine taqueria Los Anaya would also be good.
Further if you’re up for additional ideas or multiple stops use bill esparazas taco guide as a reference. Birria or carnitas would be my choice
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Salsa and Beer, https://www.salsaandbeertogo.com/ seconded
Edited to say I get three meals out of one main, so you should probably split your order. My favorite is the Carne Asado combo with a cheese enchilada.
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re: Dim Sum
This spot is offering $20/person AYCE on weekdays only. Pretty tremendous value IMO
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8j7yqHJ4tm/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8cy4klSD9R/
I, and many people I know, have not really enjoyed Lunasia for the past few years. We’ve felt that the lines, prices, and execution weren’t comparable to its competitors. Obviously, many people disagree since the lines refuse to die!
Sea Harbor is solid, and I also like NBC Seafood in MP for a classic steam cart vibe. Also very conveniently located next to Jim’s Bakery to take egg tarts back for the week.
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What!!! AYCE 20 bucks?!?!
But also is this starting death watch timer?
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That’s an insane deal. I don’t understand how that is even possible to make a small profit when the average casual meal is around $20. I gotta check it out for scientific purposes lol
I wonder what our Cantonese ancestors think of us pigging out at dim sum
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They loved saving money and probably deals more than we do lol
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Ancestors? My HK friend eats dim sum all day long when he goes back to HK!
I feel like @Totoro needs to see the AYCE deal.
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Can’t help but wonder about the food quality when this sort of insane deal is promoted…
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I would imagine the volume on weekdays would also be so low that you definitely can’t have food made a la minute. I would anticipate that all the dim sum is made fresh on the weekend when there’s significantly higher order volume - customers get access to fresh dim sum while the full staff is there.
Leftovers/uncooked dim sum is frozen and operationally easy to reheat throughout the week for the AYCE deal. They may have really slow weekdays and this deal can be a loss leader to generate some more awareness/demand.
For $20, I feel like I can definitely forgive a LOT of shortcomings
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Totally comprehend all you’ve said.
Please forgive me; it’s just that I’m on the medical receiving end of quite a bit of these AYCE deals when they do go awry (although it’s usually AYCE sushi lol); and thus my unusual trepidation about the whole business.
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I’d be willing to try it! Just gotta find a free weekday….
First field trip of the week was to…. Gish Bac! I liked the flavor of the black mole, but the chicken was just ok. My gf got the black mole enchiladas, which were a bit better, but still not amazing. I checked Yelp after and everybody was raving about the barbacoa, so maybe we didn’t order quite right. I also didn’t realize they only take cash until the end of the meal. Moral of the story - I need to do a bit more research ahead of time. But we were not wowed by what we ordered 
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Well, hopefully the rest of the week will be an improvement!
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