Pot + Commissary in the First Issue of the Larchmont Ledger: How Many Forks?

Commissary's indoor-outdoor greenhouse space

Eating LA is now contributing to both the Los Feliz and the Larchmont Ledgers, two community newspapers that publish monthly in print and online. I'm not sure how it's possible that I never posted about eating several times at Pot (once with Anthony Bourdain and Roy Choi, brag, for a TV show promo of course). But now that I've tried Commissary too, it's time to make it right. Here's my review from the brand-new Larchmont Ledger. Click through to see how many forks it received.

It might not be fair to lump together Pot, a cheeky take on a Korean hotpot restaurant and Commissary, an equally-unorthodox approach to a breakfast, lunch and dinner hotel restaurant. But Koreatown's Line Hotel can be experienced all at once or in bits and pieces.
When Roy Choi, the man who brought food trucks into the 21st century with Kogi BBQ and then expanded into places like A-Frame and Sunny Spot, joined up with the recently remodeled mid-century hotel on Wilshire Blvd., it was clear it would reflect his brash approach to both flavors and marketing, with a weed-scented, hip-hop soundtracked sensibility.

Lobby bar at Pot

Walking into the lobby, a bar with comfy pentagonal booths offers updated classic cocktails and new creations like kimchi soju or tequila with sea urchin. The lobby coffee bar (open til 2 a.m. on weekends) serves Lamill coffee drinks (habanero mocha!), beer and wine along with Korean pastries like hot dog and ketchup buns and of course, clever toast (Laurence Fishbun is topped with anchovies) .
Down a corridor is Pot, an informal canteen offering accessible versions of hot pots and other Korean staples for diners who may or may not have much experience with real Korean restaurants. Servers in street-style chic and tables with clever shelves for flatware along with a pumping soundtrack give the windowless room a cacophonous energy. With typically Choi-esque names from Ganja Tang (pork neck hotpot) to Roger Wants Moore Octopussy grilled octopus, most dishes pack layers of sweetness, heat, salt and fat on top of each other until the diner keels over from either euphoria or a heart episode.

the kimchi fried rice of your dreams

The result is delicious but sometimes overly-rich dishes like kimchi fried rice, terrific potato pancakes and BBQ spicy pork. Hot pots come in pork-intensive, seafood or vegetarian varieties, and should be shared with several people. Come at lunch for a quieter experience and individually-sized hot pots, and don't miss the chili-oil slicked kat man doo dumplings.
Feeling more outdoorsy? Go past the hotel's reception desk and the mural made of plastic bleach bottles sprayed black, past the adorable Poketo gift shop and upstairs to Commissary. Next to the pool, a glass greenhouse-like structure filled with hanging plants, a bar and communal tables glows from within. Parties of two are likely to end up outdoors, where sleek heaters are able to keep out the cold most evenings. At Commissary, too, the vegetable-intensive menu plays tricks: like a children's bingo card, it offers just pictures of cauliflower, a carrot or a fish.

"lettuce"

But the dishes are much more complex than the pictures, and the server can explain each one at length. Beets join pistachios, goat cheese and frisee, while "lettuce" symbolizes an artfully-composed salad of grilled lettuce, bacon, pear and avocado with a curry-scented dressing. Roasted carrots, one of the hot food trends at the moment, are roasted almost to a crisp and topped with a zippy green sauce. Every hotel restaurant needs a club sandwich and a burger, so Commissary offers both, as well as a satisfyingly crispy pork schnitzel that hangs over the edge of the plate in proper German style. Bacon is often a supporting character despite the vegetable focus, in classic clam chowder or in a rigatoni dish where tart capers cut the richness of the cream sauce.
Cocktails continue the garden theme with herbs and touches of rhubarb or persimmon. They're so refreshing that it might be nice if Choi could give up serving them in plastic leftover containers (a nod to the way kitchen workers drink) and let diners enjoy them in proper glasses. Assembling a meal of small plates and cocktails can easily end up around $100 for two people, and though everything is well-prepared, the menu can seem like a bit of a hodgepodge.
But no matter where you eat at the Line, it will no doubt be irreverent, addictive and just a little over the top, just like Choi himself.

Pot and Commissary at the Line Hotel
3515 Wilshire Blvd.
213-368-3030

Beer Belly: Cruncha cruncha burning love

catfish 'n chips in a bag, with shaking and dipping sauces

I've been to Beer Belly twice in two weeks now and I'm already plotting my route on the subway so I won't have to drive home next time. That's the time when I'm going to need to settle in with a beer tasting flight and whatever new items pop onto the ever-changing menu. I might even have to take a friend who has an iPhone, so I can get in on the jukebox action. Beer Belly is a little beer bar hidden in the back of a Koreatown parking lot, that rocks a rotating selection of craft beers, a tightly-edited menu full of crunchy, crispy, salty dishes that pair perfectly with beer and a friendly crew headed by owners Jimmy and Yume Han and chef Wesley Lieberher.
Lieberher can fry like nobody's business, whether it's fried okra, fried boneless chicken, or the catfish and chips, with a crust that shatters like a ninja kicking in a candy glass window. The fish's batter is made with Craftsman Poppyfields Pale Ale; grilled broccoli and cauliflower comes with cheese "whiz" on the side, the cheese sauce livened up with a piquant shot of Victory Prima Pils.

Even hopheads need their roughage

One night, pork belly sliders cozy up to tart pink cabbage; another time, there's smoked whitefish mousse, or mussels steamed in Deschutes Twilight summer ale, or artichoke chips. The duck fat fries are a constant, if heart-stopping companion to 12 mostly Californian brews like Black Market Anglo-American Brown from Temecula or Port Brewing Mongo IPA.
Matt liked the music ("Anyone that plays Nada Surf is ok by me," he says.) My not quite legal son liked the root beer float, and vowed to return for the deep-fried Oreos. And I liked the holy trinity of IPA, catfish nuggets shaken up with seasoning in a paper bag, and fries dipped in gumbo tartar sauce.
There's free parking in the lot next door, you'll likely run into someone you know, and it's near the Metro red line station. Plus, Beer Belly opens at 3 on Sundays, for an even more mellow scene (the room gets a little loud later at night). But wait, there's no patio, you say. Han says that could soon be a reality. Or perhaps you say, if the chef is from Philadelphia, why don't they serve gourmet cheese steaks? Well, that too, will soon appear on the menu. Just as long as they don't take off the catfish.
Beer Belly
532 S. Western Ave.
213.387.2337
(closed Tuesdays)

Pal Cabron: sandwiches with plenty of attitude in Koreatown

Pal Cabron's Bricia Lopez with Deep End Dining's Eddie Lin

Bricia and Fernando Lopez, whose family owns Guelaguetza restaurant, is ushering in a new wave of interest in the cuisine (and mescal!) of Oaxaca with their gradual updating of the family's empire. They launched Pal Cabron last year in Huntington Park, then opened the Natura juice bar on 8th St. and have now moved Pal Cabron to the more-convenient-for-most folks 8th St. space, a former Guelaguetza location. And since it's right next to the juice bar, there's a window in the restaurant for Leche quemada ice cream or passion fruit shaved ice (sorry, no mescal, but she'll be glad to tell you the best places to drink it). Last night Lopez and assorted friends and bloggers celebrated the opening of Pal Cabron with plenty of cemitas -- similar to tortas, they're Oaxacan-style sandwiches on a sesame seed bun filled with mole-sauced meats, barbacoa (lamb), chorizo, chicken, breaded pork, ham and more. Also on the menu are clayudas -- kind of like open-faced corn quesadillas topped with black beans and various meats and other snacks like fiery green chile memelitas (pictured) and mole tamales.
Prices: Very reasonable, everything is under $8. Casual, order at the counter.

Hours: 10 to 10 every day
Good to know: If you can't find a place to park and really need a cemita, they'll offer curbside service. And if you're a customer of R Bar on the corner, ask about special privileges for bar patrons.
Pal Cabron

3337 1/2 W 8th St

(213) 427-0601

Don Dae Gam: Korean barbecue takes the porky path

thin-sliced pork belly before cooking

I first heard about Don Dae Gam from Josh at FoodGPS, who checked it out in its early days last fall. So when an assignment came up to choose a restaurant to try for the upcoming Mid-City Press newspaper, I remembered that Don Gae Gam was on my always-evolving "must-try" list. It's owned by the same people as Park's, which always comes up in discussions of the best Korean barbecue in L.A. But here the focus is on pork, though beef is available in some of the combo dinners. The mini-mall restaurant uses real charcoal, with a powerful ventilation system that mostly gets ride of the smoke from the grills. Korean restaurants often order combo dinners, which will serve two to four people, depending on how many side dishes you order.
We chose the $40 combo, which comes with three cuts of pork -- pork belly, pork neck and shortribs -- as well as several types of panchan, egg custard, a beer or soju, tofu soup and rice soup. We added a kimchi pancake since I've been on a big kimchi kick for the last year or so. I liked the thin pork belly, which was unseasoned and presented a blank canvas for the rice noodle wrappers, soybean sauce, sesame salt and chili sauces. Matt preferred the marinated shortribs, which the server cut up into manageable bits while they were grilling. Pork Korean barbecue seems to have less marinade in general, so it's more about the flavor of the pork. I think I might prefer the sauciness of the beef when it hits the caramelization of the grill, but some of the combos come with beef also, the better to compare grilled meats. Adventurous eaters can also try pork diaphragm or pork intestine. The panchan wasn't quite as wide of a selection as at some places, though it seems to change with each meal. I'd go back for the kimchi pancake alone, which managed to combine crispy, soft, tangy and just a bit greasy in the most delightful way. If you've had Korean barbecue with beef plenty of times already, this is the perfect place to branch out, and even try other dishes like the spicy pork and baby squid stew that sounds fiery and pretty amazing.The restaurant has a couple of nice touches, showing that it's a contemporary style rather than old-school place: A small children's play area is available for tots who tire of unending courses of kimchi and pork, and at the end of the meal the host takes customers' photos and asks you to draw a pig or write a note on a card to hang on the wall.
Don Dae Gam
1145 S Western Ave.
(323) 373-0700

Hae Jang Chon Korean BBQ: An obsession with crispy bits

Saturday night's dining companion came equipped with the L.A. Times' recent 25 delectable dining deals article, so I relaxed and let him pick the restaurant, a refreshing change of pace for a food blogger. I haven't had Korean barbecue in quite a while, so we ended up at Hae Jang Chon, next to Kyochon Chicken on Sixth St. The all-you-can-eat meal for $16.99 includes a choice of a dozen meats. You could probably try all of them, but it's easier to keep track of what you're cooking if you select fewer than a dozen. I picked beef tongue (my new mini-obsession), marinated shortribs, bulgogi, pork belly and squid. The panchan arrived quickly -- it wasn't the most impressive selection I've seen, but we liked the tofu strips and the refreshing daikon slaw. A pile of cut-up kimchi pancake and a heap of kimchi are also placed on the grill, which you can snack on throughout the meal. The tongue cooks really fast, and my friend was surprised to find he liked it better than he thought he would. Pork belly seemed way too thick and fatty at first, but after a while it cooked way, way down and crisped up nicely. Service was really erratic -- the rice wrappers arrived only after we waved down a server, and after the last meats were put on the grill, they basically disappeared so we had to finish cooking the meats ourselves. By that time, we were too full for the kimchi fried rice that finishes the meal, but they never appeared to offer it anyway. I then became enraptured by various crunchy, caramelized nubbins of beef, pork, onion and kimchi. I just couldn't stop dipping them in the sesame oil and salt, wrapping them in rice paper and reveling in the splendor of the Maillard reaction. The quality is decent at Hae Jong Chon and the price is right, but unless you're a starving college kid, you won't really need an all you can eat experience. But no matter where you get your Korean Q, just make sure to save lots of room for those lovely blackened bits that linger on the griddle.
Hang Jong Chon
3821 W. 6th St.
(213) 389-8777

Ondal 2: Life is a bowl of crabby bliss

Spicy crab soup for three at Ondal 2

It's always more fun to eat when there's a little showmanship with the meal. In the old days, this kind of thing was much more popular, with Lawry's mixing up Caesar salads tableside and no end of flaming crepes suzette desserts. Nowadays, tableside preparation is more likely to be found at Korean restaurants. At some, you cook your own meat on the grill in the center of the table; at the nicer ones, the server cooks your meat for you. The crab stew at Ondal 2 has got to be one of the more elaborate presentations. Tipped off by Mattatouille's very comprehensive description, we ventured to the southern fringe of Koreatown with Food GPS. We three very white, very non-Korean speaking diners were happy to find a friendly server who was happy to explain each step. As my father used to say at the Passover seder, here's the Cliff's Notes version of the meal.
While there's quite a few hotpot-style dishes on the menu, the specialty is crab stew. Three flower crabs (similar to blue crabs) will feed three to four people for $55, including all the copious side dishes. The meal starts with a nice selection of panchan including raw sliced sweet potato, potato salad, sweet seaweed dust, octopus, egg custard, a whole mackerel pike fish and chili-coated crab legs (above). Then the hotpot arrives with three crabs stuffed with rice and crab meat. Each diner gets a crab in a bowl of broth, and you scoop bits of roe and meat out while spooning up the broth. When the crab shell is finished, there's still enough soup, thick with mushrooms and bean sprouts and crab legs, for seconds and thirds.
The broth is rich with crab flavor, almost creamy, with a flavor profile that most resembles a spicier version of Provencal soupe de poissons. While there's still some broth in the pot, the dough lady arrives with a fistful of raw noodle dough, which she drops into the broth to simmer like homemade rustic pasta. After all the apps and several bowls of soup, we're starting to get full when the fried rice arrives.
Then the server cleans out the pot and stir-fries cooked rice, kimchi, onions and other vegetables. The rice picks up some flavor from the crab left in the bowl, and all the flavors meld together into some kind of tangy, spicy, rice happiness. The server suggests sipping cold kimchi juice to cut the richness and spicyness of the rice, but we find that a little de trop -- the fried rice alone is delicious enough.
A final bowl of cold barley soup is a refreshing finish to a long meal, although at stop at a Pinkberry or Red Mango after would be an appropriate as well.
A trip to Ondal 2 is well worth venturing outside of Koreatown proper, as much for the ceremonial pasta-cooking and rice-frying as for the richly-flavored stew.
Tip: Order the broth "slightly less spicy than medium" if you don't want to lose your taste buds before the rest of the courses arrive.

Ondal 2
4566 W Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90016
(323) 933-3228

Kyochon Chicken: No going back after you've tried it

chicken bento box...cute, but stick to the sticks (legs)

Although EatingLA loves to eat just about everything, we usually prefer healthyish Asian or European food to categories like fried chicken, hotdogs, hamburgers and doughnuts. But naturally, I make frequent exceptions. So for day three of the staycation, I tried the much-discussed Kyochon Chicken, which is Korean, so it doesn't count as junk food. And besides, the slogan on the wall reads "Healthy food for ecstatic body and soul," so that proves it. Healthy fried chicken. Right. The Koreatown location wasn't too crowded when I got there at lunchtime, and although I did make it through much of the LA Weekly's Best of LA issue before the food arrived, the wait wasn't as long as some people have experienced. The chicken takes 20 minutes or so to be cooked to order, but the wait and the calories are well worth it as this stuff is seriously crispy, juicy, spicy and tangy. It's like if Panda Express' best order of orange chicken ever mated with Roscoe's fried chicken and created a whole new category of habit-inducing twice-fried fowl. It's also a shame, because I never really felt the need to eat fried chicken before, but now I'm going to have to stop by Kyochon whenever I have a few minutes to wait, because once you taste it, you won't stop thinking about it. I tried the spicy variety in a large bento box ($7.50) which comes with two chicken legs, some zesty chicken bulgogi, cabbage doused in ketchup and mayo, fries and rice. Probably overkill, but I'm a sucker for bento boxes. All you really need to do is order three or four legs per person (or wings if you prefer them), take them home, pair with some vegetable side dish, and add beer. Ahh.....
Kyochon Chicken
3833 W. 6th St.
213-739-9292

Quick bite: Pho Saigon is a worthy pit-stop

I finally came down with that Sundance sickness that's been making the rounds, and it's now become Pavlovian for me -- colds = pho. So I stopped in at Pho Saigon, a sparkling, brand-new looking Korean pho place on Sixth St., since it's right on my way home. Arriving at 7:01, I scored a parking spot on the street and ordered up a brisket pho ($6.75) and some eggrolls ($5.75). Just a few minutes later, they were neatly packaged up and ready to go.
I think I prefer the rare beef at the real Vietnamese places, and the broth could have been a touch meatier. But the copious accompaniments were spot-on, and the egg rolls were still warm and crispy when I arrived home. They're open from 7 am to 4 am, should you need some pho at odd hours, and they also have rice plates, noodle plates, chicken pho and shrimp pho.
Pho Saigon Noodle & Grill
3831 W. 6th St. (at Serrano)
(213) 386-6555

Opus: a work in several courses

My review of Opus, both the tasting menu and the Baco night, is up at the Los Feliz Ledger site. (Scroll down past the dog therapy article).
Here's an excerpt from the review:
"Our series of dishes included lots of unexpected touches: celery root panna cotta topped with juniper seeds; clear red balls on top of sashimi impersonated salmon caviar, but were made of red pepper juice. A milky hazelnut soup harbored a lobster ravioli; other tasting menus pair the nut-based soup with foie gras. A seared scallop is a bit overcooked, but it’s resting on top a light and eggy pancake surrounded by a moat of luscious truffle butter—so all is forgiven. We finish with a milk-fed poussin—according to Centeno, the baby chicken is a rare limited edition, but although the green Szechwan peppercorns add a nice tingle, it’s still just chicken. Dessert is a fun take on PB & J, with a peanut butter brulee tart paired with little cubes of fruit gelee."
As many Chowhound posters have pointed out, the $30 tasting menu is an incredible value, and definitely worth a try.

Taste test: Chichen Itza

I loved the little Chichen Itza stand in downtown's Mercado La Paloma, where office workers munch on inexpensive cochinita pibil tacos with a jicama salad and after lunch, you can get some smoked milk or tuna ice cream at the Oaxacan ice cream stand.
Now Chichen Itza's owners have gently gentrified with a new full-service restaurant in a two colorful, pleasant rooms on Sixth St. across from the Park Plaza Hotel, which should be a great option for Koreatown dwellers looking to branch out from Korean and Oaxacan food.
The food: Chichen Itza's Yucatan cuisine combines Mexican and Cuban flavors, with lots of meats marinated in orange juice and tropical twists on familiar Mexican dishes. Tuna chile rellenos (above) were slighty spicy with a mild tuna flavor -- not quite on the level of Mozza's stuffed zucchini flowers, but just as easy to gobble up. Kibi is strangely enough, the same as the ground beef and cracked wheat patties called kibbeh found in Middle Eastern restaurants, apparently brought to the Yucatan by Lebanese immigrants, according to the menu. A mild but deliciously smoky salsa served with the bread basket perks up the kibi and goes well with everything. Fried plantains are piled in a nice Lincoln Log stack and don't seem at all greasy. The cochinita pibil, which is basically what I'm there for, comes with black beans and rice. But it's a tad disappointing, as the large, tender chunks of pork don't get exposed to enough of the achiote/orange marinade to soak up that orangey, porky goodness. Fortunately a basket of corn tortillas is provided; we mush up the pork and make our own tacos, and by the bottom of the dish, it's starting to taste seriously good. But they might want to lose that super-spicy raw habanero pepper garnish -- when someone pops one into his mouth without thinking, he's going to be in for a big surprise.
The verdict: There's something just a touch gringo about Chichen Itza -- maybe because it's so new and clean, or because the manager rushes out to worry that the chile rellenos are too spicy just because we'd asked for water refills. But he's just trying to be nice, and despite a little lag in the kitchen for the main courses, everyone is very eager to please. Prices are slightly lower at lunch, and at dinner, main courses are mostly around $13-$16. And don't miss the cochinita pibil tacos.
Chichen Itza Restaurant
2501 W. 6th St.
(213) 380-0051

Taste test: La Morenita Oaxaquena

La Morenita Oaxaquena, in eastern Koreatown, falls into the area I call Grasshopper Gulch. Roughly bounded by Olympic and Third and Vermont and Gower, it seems to have a large Oaxacan population with several Oaxacan restaurants and trucks, plus the odd mini-mart offering chapulines or grasshoppers and cheap shipping to Oaxaca. La Morenita is a homey, clean little place in the mini-mall at New Hampshire, next to the dubious-looking Hawaiian barbecue restaurant. It's got all the usual Oaxacan specialities -- you got your enmoladas, your entomatadas and your enfrijoladas al gusto. See here for a description of the difference between these three. I picked up some chicken with mole negro and a chile relleno to go. The mole seemed a bit muddy and insipid compared to say, Monte Alban. But the chile relleno rocked, filled with chicken, coated with eggy goodness and drowned in an incendiary tomato picadillo sauce. The owner was really nice, they also have seafood cocktails, grasshoppers, of course, and all kinds of aguas, including tuna. No, not actual tuna, but the cactus fruit drink. I might not get the black mole next time, but they also do an interesting-looking breakfast menu, so I'm sure I'll be back.
La Morenita Oaxaquena
3550 W. 3rd St.
(213) 365-9201

Taste test: Pollos a la Brasa

Here's another installment in my continuing series of places I really should have tried by now. We stopped by Pollos a la Brasa this weekend with the young'uns who will normally eat roast chicken, if not much else. The little stand on the corner of 8th and Western has a pleasant wood-burning scent wafting down the block. Inside, dozens of chickens turn over the wood-fired spit, several people wait for to-go orders, and a few of us cram into the few tables in back. We ordered a whole chicken with salad and fries, at about $12. It takes a little longer to prepare than Zankou, but what doesn't? The chicken is a lovely nut-brown beast, with a slightly spicy marinade and an ok, but not terribly moist interior. The house green sauce has only one taste note: pureed jalapenos. The kids pronounce the fries excellent, and indeed, they're some of the more tasty I've had lately.

Sam, chicken and fries
Sam and Matt are thumbs up on the chicken; Sophie perversely prefers the one I got from the Ralph's warming table last week, but she's picky.
Pluses: On my way home from work, good fries, nice skin. Overall a solid contender.
Minuses: Not sure the fries and salad are worth $4 more than Zankou's bird and pitas. Not to be stubborn, but I still prefer the moistness and garlicky skin at Zankou.
Pollos a la Brasa
764 S. Western
Los Angeles
Archived comments:
brian said...
Tough to compete with the garlic spread and anything at zankou. But then again, a tasty order of fries goes a long way too!
jimmypermo said...
My best roast chicken was the weekend-only King Taco roaster I had this weekend. Still a big Zankou fan, especially with all the condiments
Anonymous said...
They also have a location in the "Moneta" section of Gardena at 16527 South Vermont Avenue. It's north of Artesia Boulevard/91 and west of the 110. The telephone number is (310) 715-2494.