This is probably the worst list I’ve seen from him. Lukshon is a joke of a choice. I have been many times, living in the area, and I am always disappointed/wishing I was at a cheaper, better place.
Luv2Eat is a massive miss.
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or maybe his opinion is just different than yours. as john cusak says in high fidelity, how can you bitch about somebody stating a preference.?
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First time I saw him was at Gaylord on La C. Or what Gaylord became right after it was Gaylord - a slightly hipper Indian joint. It was shortly after the Pulitzer pics of him glugging a giant Chimay were available online. I was so excited I ran up to him and told him, “Thank you, Mr. Gold. No writer I know has taught me as much or made me laugh as much as Kurt Vonnegut, but you are right behind him.” He loved that. Goes without saying that was said many years before @kevin became a writer – so now Gold is third, I suppose.
Gold is a super-nice, really well-meaning and gifted fellow; we are lucky to have him, even if he doesn’t turn up as many diamonds-in-the-rough as he once did. Still, I sure don’t understand this list. But, nobody ever gave me a fucking Pulitzer.
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JGold has bilingual scouts to find the hole-in-walls now.
Speaking of him I was able to buy Counter Intelligence at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove. Good read. I have not seen this book at Skylight, Soup, or Last Bookstore
Lukshon does nothing for me. It’s everything I hate about L.A. chef/restauranters. Boring and pretentious, both the food and service.
no one tops Kurt v. (see back to school), but then again kevin is one funny writer.
Gold is much better than the previous critic, S. Irene Virginia
I always tried to figure out what the S. stood for, but now it doesn’t seem to matter.
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I for one am most disappointed in his “ethnic” food choices. Sapp, Coni, Chichen Itza, Shanghai No. 1, Meals by Genet, Attari… year after year he lists the same spots.
Hell, I like most of them, maybe even love some of them, but you can’t tell me there isn’t a Thai contender that could oust Sapp (hello Luv2Eat) or a better Iranian spot or another SGV spot that hasn’t been praised for years, etc.
Its’s an easier list e.g. less work for him, if he writes a list with not many new entrants.
Less work is …
The S in S. Irene Virbila’s name stands for Sherry. I went to Berkeley the same time she did, and while I didn’t know her, we had a mutual friend. This is going back to the very early '70s. Ruth Reichl, the renowned critic that was Sherry’s predecessor at the Times, got her the job is what I heard. They were part of a collective in Berkeley that ran a little cafe at the campus art museum called The Swallow (Alice Waters was also part of this group right before her Chez Panisse days!) Sherry was never a chef, not really a restaurant expert AFAIK, and not well known before she got the Times job. By the way, I have no idea why she thought S. Irene was a better nom de plume than Sherry. I was never a fan (though I didn’t hate her opinions) and was amused by her being outed by the Red Medicine guys. Does anybody know what she’s doing now that she got the buyout from LAT?
To each there own, but I couldn’t disagree more. [quote=“Funtimes, post:26, topic:4503”]
Gold is much better than the previous critic, S. Irene Virginia
[/quote]
She’s most likely retired I would think.
I don’t think Gold keeps the same places on his list because it’s less work, since he reorders them and writes new blurbs.
You might not share his opinion, but I think he does an excellent job of explaining his choices.
The LA Times has so far as I can find never reviewed Luv2Eat at all, which is such a weird omission that it makes me wonder if someone has a conflict of interest. Either that or Gold somehow doesn’t think the food is as good as many of us do.
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As best I can tell, the last review of thai food Jonathan Gold wrote of thai food was for night market song in 2014. Before that, the last one was of Night Market, in 2011. I know from his chats he still frequents many, but I get the sense he’s not really venturing out beyond the ones he knows he likes. Places like Isaan Station and Luv2eat, which surely would have received the J. Gold treatment when he was at the Weekly, do not get reviewed at the Times. I’d bet it is an editorial decision at the times more than anything.
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I know what you mean. Some of the things I’ve read at other forums are Wikileak/Trump rigged conspiracy level allegations. There’s 101 restaurants on the list. There HAS to be at least a few entries and rankings you’re not going to agree with, or that you love and Gold absolutely hates.
I’m super surprised that Q Sushi which many hate is on there.
Gold explains exactly what he likes about Q and notes that it could “be invisible to diners who may not be looking for it.”
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At one point last year, my husband said,‘no more restaurants from the list!’ He was so tired of the average food and/or horrible service we encountered at the restaurants. I suspect that Gold has a very different experience at many of these places than regular folk.
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I mean, there are for sure misses, or, let’s say, disagreements on the list, but it seems like it would be fairly challenging to actually avoid all of the places on the list.
Kind of curious which places you went to on the list before deciding to treat it as a blacklist?
17 of the 18 I’ve been to from the current list were great, and the food was great at the otherwise deplorable Gjusta.
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Republique stands out as the most arrogant service that I’ve ever had in Los Angeles, plus the pan drippings that paled to any I’ve made. Their head cheese was okay, but Chi Spaca blows theirs away. I’ve no doubt a food critic gets much better treatment than we did.
Some of the other places were just taste difference, like we prefer our own Thai places to Night&Market.
I did continue to try places off the list, so was not really a blacklist. I just took husband back to his fave places when we dined out.
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