I’d be all for any Chicago style Greek food (and I live not far from Papa Cristos)! Last time I was in Chicago (a while ago…) I was taken out to dinner in Greektown by a good friend’s Greek boyfriend. I don’t know if he got special treatment for being from Greece, but the food was really amazing! Best octopus ever.
BTW—As far as Greek food in LA, I actually had a work lunch recently @ Ulysses Voyage @ the Farmers Market (3rd & Fairfax) and their food was much better than I expected (It’s not a greasy gyro place, but a Greek restaurant). The fried calamari was very good—nice coating and good frying technique. We also had the gyro, seafood pasta, flaming cheese, grilled octopus, Greek Salad and a couple other things that I can’t remember right now.
I too was skeptical but was told I had to go to Gymkhana. Even my friend’s mother who made us the best goat curry I’ve ever had said it was a must.
We’re talking wild boar vindaloo, quail kebabs, venison byriani cooked in a pastry crust. This insanely tasty Guinea fowl pepper fry which might be a variation of the above Chicken 65 reference. Like $80pp for Indian food which is wild but the flavors were complex and not just heat based.
Nothing outstanding, but several restaurants serve it. Paradise Biryani Pointe in Artesia is one example. Akbar in Hermosa Beach offers it (I haven’t tried it).
Real German food which reflects current food eaten in Germany (many Italian, Turkish, Greek and Croatian influences) due to the millions of immigrants which is little to do eith the lousy tourist food you find in the “German” restaurants in California - and if you serve such tourist food at least donit in a good way - so far only Brummis in Santa Barbara (now closed) had good dishes
May sound odd, but I would love a Momofuku anything in town. I bet Chang and Co. could have a field day with all the various Latino and Asian influences SoCal has on offer. Not to mention our produce. My meal this past January at Ko 2.0 was quite an impressive feast of multiculturalism and creativity. I bet something similar would fit in just nicely here.
You might try the Belizean places on Western by Exposition like Ella’s Belizean, Joan & Sisters, & Tracey’s to find your Conch Fritters. Note some of them only serve them on weekends only.
Modern creative French, Turkish, Greek, Persian, Italian, Spanish.
Great French Bakery.
High quality creative tasting menus for less than 100 pp.
Creative brunch spots that offer more than white French Toast, Eggs Benedict and boring Pancakes.
It is getting better, but still.
I agree we need great BBQ.
Great lunch spots that are open on the weekend and serve the same menu during the day as their dinner menu, like they do In Spain.
I, too, wish we would have good New Orleans food. I loved the CP in Vegas because it was the best New Orleans food I’ve had outside of NOLA. I was sad to see it close. The Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney is a Ralph Brennan restaurant, but, the few times I ate there, I thought it was just OK.
I don’t think we’ll never have good Creole or Cajun food here because we simply can’t get the necessary ingredients at reasonable prices. We’ll never have oysters at less than $1 each, or plentiful and inexpensive shrimp, blue crabs or crawfish, snapper, redfish, etc. I wish we would - even Little Jewel and Orleans and York are close, but the cabbage on the po’ boys at Little Jewel is wrong, and the bread at Orleans and York is too dense. If Orleans and York used the par-baked Leidenheimer that Little Jewel uses, I think that would be about as good as it could get outside of New Orleans.
Also, while I haven’t tried a lot of Cajun/Creole places in LA, none of the places I’ve gone to come close to replicating the flavors. I always feel that restaurants in LA are making Creole/Cajun food that they think LA people will eat, rather than what it actually is. The number of places that serve “jamablaya” on rice is enough proof that these people don’t know and aren’t making real New Orleans food.
Trois mec was biggest shitshow ever last time I went. Over a hundred bucks a literally 2 or three ounces of protein. Tee’d up annoying upsells. Good thing in and out was so close.
