Hi FTC friends. Merry Christmas to all. I’m considering bringing my father, girlfriend and 7 year old son out to dinner on Christmas Day rather thank cook. I have some SGV spots I’m considering but I live in Woodland Hills and would prefer to not travel east of the 710 and south of the 105. What restaurants in the SFV or LA city basin do you know of that are open for dinner on Xmas?
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For Christmas Day, I would choose San Laurel, but The Barish is also an option.
Is there any lower end takeout options in sgv? I have dinner plans but nothing for lunch. Dinner will likely be Asian so it would be nice to have a traditional Xmas lunch.
evidently Fogo de Chao is open. I think Christmas brunch might be on the table this year…
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I was at the Irvine location this weekend. Packed to the gills.
Reviving this thread for 2023. Any suggestions welcome. From Santa Monica to DTLA.
- 1 Pico at Shutters on the Beach (Santa Monica)
- Penthouse at the Huntley (Santa Monica)
I had asked on another thread about K-Town, and one poster said that most of the places would likely be open.
Ruen Pair’s IG says that they’re open their usual hrs on X-Mas.
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As an FYI for next year, Rita’s Gate of India and La Puglia in Santa Monica were open today.
Orto is Santa Monica had the lights on and someone dressed “like” a server walking around inside, but Google said it was closed.
I confirmed that BCD Tofu House is open (and that’s where I’m headed tonight… 
).
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I’m at ruen pair in Hollywood. Long long line
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Dang suprising esp for a school night for some tomorrow
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We hit up Duck House in MP tonight. Surprisingly, the crowd was 80% non-Asian… And we haven’t been in a while but it feels like they’ve pushed to become more non-Asian friendly. Greeted everyone in English as default. The presentation of dishes seemed more refined. And not sure if this has always been the case, but they didn’t serve any leg / wing joints with the duck nor did the soup have any meat / bones, just tofu and napa… just felt very Americanized. The duck was good but not amazing - meat was tender but the skin nowhere near as crisp as I remember it. I don’t know, maybe I hyped this meal up too much in my mind bc I love duck, but I left feeling unsatisfied.
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Looking at some pics in Yelp, definitely seems like the duck soup used to have some meat / bones in it, which is what I recall. So not sure what the hell happened to our soup… Probably won’t be back and will try Ji Rong or something else next time.
60-80 min at BCD Wilshire, a relatively long line at BCD Western. Then tried Magal, which only had a short wait.
The meat at Magal is fine (but not more than that), but the seafood pancake is a standout. Quite a diff texture than I’m used to. More than a little oily, but the dough was quite delicate, except around the edges (which had lovely crisp edges). I think the other Korean seafood pancakes I’ve had were maybe more egg-y?
I think our server was (delightfully) punchy and unfiltered after what must’ve been a long evening at work for him.
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No one got school on December 26th. Winter break!
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None of the jeon recipes I’ve seen had egg in the batter.
I mean like a school night for adults lol, kids got the best life!
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I have no idea how pajeon made is made, so that was the best description I could think of. Our pancake was more… fritter-y?
Do you think overall it had less batter? That might’ve been why, I don’t see any haemul pajeons on google so hard to tell