Here’s the Google Map someone created from the thread. Laughing at Bay Cities being on it, even though the poster didn’t say where they were from or what home-cuisine it was emulating.
Solid list
This speaks to why LA is the most diverse food city in the world. Is there one more diverse?? I can’t think of any
You can argue Queens.
BUT LA still does it bigger and maybe better.
Korean…okay you got parts of Northern Blvd and maybe Bayside. LA Ktown is bigger and better (better than 32nd St in the city.).
Chinese…I love Flushings Chinatown but from Monterey Park to Walnut!!!
You got some Thai places and a Thai temple in Elmhurst….Thai Town and the valley.
Queens on the other hand has Himalayan, Caribbean, South American, Greek, and Central Asian which So Cal does not really have much of a presence.
Go eat and experience both places
We moved from Queens to LA 5 yrs ago. We miss all the great Himalayan, Malaysian and Greek in NYC/Queens. This is a fun list: type of cuisine ordered by difference gap. let me know your thoughts and we can add/adjust (WIP)
Viet: LA
Mexican/El Salvador: LA
Armenian/Persian: LA
Korean: LA
Chinese: LA
Japanese: LA (thx @EattheWorldLA @CiaoBob @caleb)
African (Ethiopian): LA (thx @EattheWorldLA)
Peruvian: LA (might be close thx @EattheWorldLA)
Thai: LA (thx @EattheWorldLA)
Jamaican: LA (@caleb says Brooklyn rivals)
Middle Eastern (Israeli/Syrian): tied (thx @EattheWorldLA)
Filipino: tied
Indonesian: tied
Bagels/Deli: NYC (thx @js76wisco)
Brazilian/Colombian: NYC/Queens
Indian/Pakistan/Bangladeshian: NYC/Queens
Greek: NYC/Queens
Carribean (Cuban/PR/Dominican): NYC/Q/B
Turkish: NYC (thx @caleb)
Russian: NYC/Brooklyn
Italian: NYC
African (non Ethopian): NYC/Bronx (thx @EattheWorldLA)
Malaysian/SG: NYC/Queens
Himalayan: NYC/Queens
NYC has Turkish all day, Armenian and Turkish are not the same. Also Flatbush/BK would beg to differ on Jamaican.
Bagels/delis/appetizing - slight nod to NYC even though Langers is the best. Still much more quantity and LA has nothing like Russ & Daughters.
Italian - NYC bigly. LA has some great places but if you include Brooklyn, Queens, SI and Arthur Ave it’s not particularly close.
Most is right, but a few disagreements to the list above…
Elmhurst has improved leaps and bounds in the past decade but LA is still MILES ahead for Thai food.
Agree Turkish needs to be its own category, and Bay Ridge and Sheepshead Bay make it a NYC win. Bay Ridge, Astoria and some other neighborhoods also make Middle Eastern at least a draw.
Eastern European (which might be included in the “Russian” category) is better, as well as Balkan. Central Asian food is also better and more diverse.
Jamaican is better in NYC, Canarsie or the northern Bronx have so much diversity. Definitely the crazy amount of Caribbean islands represented all over the five boroughs is worthy of jealousy.
The biggest miss on the list is the omission of Africa. Again, the broad range of diversity of countries represented is jaw-dropping, especially in the Bronx. The exception to this of course is Ethiopian, which is much better/broader in LA. The Nigerians here might also make for stiff competition.
If we include the OC for LA (which we should), Peruvian in Paterson and other parts of NJ close to NYC should be included and tip it for them.
I actually prefer eating Japanese in LA (especially South Bay) because I like the generations-old little shops and am not a big patron of high end stuff. Won’t die on this hill.
Some of the categories are so tilted as to be laughable, like the range of different regional Mexican and Chinese in LA.
Haven’t lived in NYC for 30 years, and rarely eat Japanese when I visit, but I cannot believe the depth of Japanese noodles, gyoza, izakaya, tempura, shabu shabu etc in NYC comes close to LA.
I know that there are some high flyers in NYC in the omakase department, but are they much much better than ours (Ondera, Morihiro, Shunji, Kaneyoshi)?
Agreed, NYC doesn’t even touch the sheer variety of Japanese cuisine offered in the South Bay. Omakase = zzzzzz
LA does not have Bagel Hole.
I don’t know that Langer’s is better for anything except pastrami sandwich. Maybe corned beef sandwich as well. Minus points for the shameful #19.
Solid suggestions, and fortunately this didn’t turn fully into the NYC vs. LA debate that it threatened to. It’s worth noting how many national cuisines that are available around Los Angeles weren’t mentioned on Reddit. What isn’t surprising is the number of folks on Reddit who say “Los Angeles doesn’t have…” who simply haven’t bothered to look (or look that well 
), much like the comments sections and, to be fair, even occasionally at CH. There were plenty of writers covering the international cuisine scene around Los Angeles for more than a decade, and most notably now, there’s Eat The World LA. I get that Los Angeles is a big, sprawling place, and can be daunting, but it’s really no different than any other large city. How did any of these folks complaining that they can’t find something in L.A. find it in their previous hometown? They looked, that’s how 
And don’t even get me started with “There’s no real Chinese food in L.A., where’s the duck sauce?” 
Teleferic has awful paella, can’t recommend