Tinga: Flavors that sing ... but do the prices zing?

Flat-iron steak tacos at Tinga

Tinga has been open on La Brea near 2nd for nearly a year, but many people still haven't noticed the tiny storefront with two tables outside near the larger Cafe Midi. Inspired by the approach of Santa Barbara's La Super Rica, husband and wife team Chris and Jerry Baker didn't replicate the menu, but brought handmade tortillas and the same careful approach to spicing found at the venerable stand. Instead of a scruffy patio, Tinga is tucked into a narrow space with a long communal wood table, blackboard menu wall and industrial feel.

chicken tacos with salsa verde, Tinga

I wanted to be able to say that Tinga's $8.50 taco plate was too expensive or that their compostable plates and utensils were too precious. But after recently eating at an old-school Mexican restaurant with even higher prices, rancid chips and watery salsa, I'd gladly give up on the chance to get a $10 jamaica margarita in exhange for real taste in my food. Actually Loteria's tacos are the same price, and Tinga's tacos are even bigger and meatier. In fact, I almost wish the Pechuga lemon-brined chicken breast tacos or the flat-iron steak tacos were chopped into smaller pieces instead of served in large slices. The taco toppings are dynamite, like addictive salsa verde on the chicken tacos or dog-snout salsa and pickled onions on the steak tacos. For easier eating, try the slow-cooked cochinita pibil pork tacos, which truly are spicy-spicy as the menu advises. The menu has expanded since the August 2010 opening, adding tortas and burritos to tacos and quesadillas. Don't look for elaborate dishes -- this is simple street food, but made with the highest attention to flavor and quality. In addition to the crispy, fresh chips that come with the tacos, don't miss the Elote especial -- a tangy-sweet-spicy combo of roasted corn, lime and poblano chile. There's plenty of other choices for vegetarians, like potato tacos and a mushroom quesadilla that intrigues even a devoted pibil-hound. Aguas like jamaica and watermelon lemonade are strong and not overly-sweetened, while dulce de leche-laden alfajore cookie is just the thing for dessert.
Sure, street tacos are great. But when even Baja Fresh charges $6 for two tacos, it's only logical to pay a dollar or two more for something you'll still be thinking about several days later.
Tinga Buena
142 S. La Brea
323-954-9566
(now open every day till 9 pm, Sundays to 7 pm)

 

Ray's & Stark Bar: Museum lunching goes modern

The lounge area is outdoors in the museum's breezeway

With Ray's Restaurant and Stark Bar, LACMA finally has a restaurant worthy of the sleek new buildings on its campus. And it's really good news for us Variety staffers, since there's not many good places for business lunches -- or post-work cocktails -- within walking distance of our Wilshire offices. Producer Ray Stark wasn't known as the cuddliest of Hollywood honchos -- Tina Brown called him "the hound from Hell" -- but at least his generous daughter Wendy is livening up LACMA with her donation to launch the restaurant with his name under the Patina Group management. 

House-made bread is ultra-fresh

At lunchtime, the glass-enclosed restaurant is bright and peaceful, half-filled with well-heeled docents and their docile husbands, half with Teva-wearing tourists wondering if a $14 burger is their only option, and even kinda real artists like Mr. Brainwash. There's also plenty of dining on the patio, while the Stark Bar area is completely outside, though well-stocked with heaters. Chef Kris Morningstar has toned down the nose-to-tail urges he pursued at Mercantile and District -- there's no beef deckle, no venison chile rellenos at Ray's. The simple menu hits all the spots this crowd expects -- a perfectly cooked piece of Arctic char ($19 at lunch), a premium burger, hangar steak, flatbreads, along with more modish plates like duck salad, Cornish hen or pork belly.

Arctic char romances its sunchoke costar

Most dishes add to the familiar with more exotic touches -- Greek potato skordalia and nutty sunchokes along with chanterelles are awards-caliber, umami-filled supporting players to the crispy-skinned fish. A small loaf of house-baked bread for each table is irresistible. Looking for your silverware and napkin? You'll find them stowed in a neat drawer under the table -- the cheerful, mid-century design of Ray's, though simple, shows Renzo Piano's touch.

Coffee pudding is rich but not too sweet

Desserts include a deeply-flavored pudding made with LaMill coffee and coffee granita -- though it's a cookie cigarette, not a real one, on top. Ray's might want to add a few more casual dishes to the fairly pricey lunch menu as time goes on, to keep the ladies-who-lunch coming back. But for now, it's already a big improvement on the museum's other Patina-owned restaurant, Pentimento, which is currently closed for renovations.

Food trucks watch out: 5900 Wilshire to get real restaurants

When our office moved to 5900 Wilshire, we had to walk several blocks to get food unless we wanted to eat at the LACMA cafeteria. Then a few months ago, the food trucks arrived, both in front of 5900 and at our old 5700 Wilshire buildings. Yesterday saw the debut of LA Bento serving up tasty, if pre-packaged meals in the lobby, so it keeps improving. Now it looks like developers the Ratkovich Company are ready to sacrifice the mid-century fountains, home to a family of ducks, on the front lawn. The rendering above shows a series of four vendors and a large eating area around the front of the building. I can't wait to see who moves in, or how long it takes to eradicate the fountains. Still no word though on the large pavilion on the left, which was supposed to become an upscale restaurant.
LA Bento: A very nice tuna sandwich, but is the bento box worth $10?

Also in Miracle Mile news: Mixt Greens set to open Feb. 23, according to EaterLA.

Tar Pit Bar tarts up La Brea

Cucumber-mint Creole cocktail: gin, aquavit, sherry, muddled cucumbers, muddled mint, fresh lemon juice

La Brea, of course, means the tar, and so people who say The La Brea Tar Pits are really saying The the tar tar pits. Tar Pit Bar is a cute name for the new cocktail bar collaboration between Campanile's Mark Peel and Audrey Saunders of New York's Pegu Club. Last night food writers from just about every publication in town stopped by to see how many cocktails from their imaginative menu it was possible to sample in one evening. Most everyone was expecting some sort of casual neighborhood watering hole but with great cocktails; instead the room (formerly the Pearl) is an elegant art deco space with chandeliers, white leather banquettes, snazzy marble bathrooms and cocktail waitresses in impeccable black sheaths. This is all a bit more high-style than La Brea is used to, and guests wearing tattered flannel shirts and frayed jeans certainly didn't harmonize with the glossy decor, so ladies, try to find a dress to wear, and guys, ditch the flannel.
The cocktails were of course fabulous, and reasonably-priced for the quality at $11. My favorite was the well-balanced Jamaican Firefly: dark rum, housemade ginger beer, fresh lime juice and simple syrup, with candied ginger garnish (at left).
Also delicious, and potent, was Lil Gig: Silver tequila, yellow chartreuse, Thai basil and simple syrup, which starts off sweet and ends with a bracing herbal kick (at right).
The Cucumber Mint Creole, pictured at top, was refreshing and compulsively drinkable. The only one that didn't work for me was the Trident, a mix of aquavit, fino sherry, Cynar aperitif, peach and orange bitters and lemon essence -- reminiscent of a Manhattan made with artichokes steeped in biodiesel fuel. We sampled pickled deviled eggs, duck rillettes and fried artichoke hearts and fried oysters off the bar menu, where prices range from $6-12. There's also a full wine list and dinner menu, which picks up the vintage theme with nearly-forgotten dishes like Steak Diane, Shrimp Louis, Lobster & scallop Newburg and Coq au vin (entrees around $13-17). Also on the menu are a few intriguing modern dishes that bear investigating, like braised pork cheeks & ears with orrechiette pasta, salsa verdi, braised beet greens and dandelion greens or gnocchi with escargots.
That area was ready for some new bar blood, so it's a welcome addition, especially with a full menu and decent prices. And as at the Varnish, the Association and other nouveau cocktail hot spots: try to have an open mind and order something other than a margarita or a gin and tonic. Really, it's worth it.
The Tar Pit Bar (open every night from 5 pm-2 am)
609 La Brea Ave.
323-965-1300

Domaine L.A.: Melrose gets great grapes

Guests mingle at Wednesday's grand opening, complete with wines from La Fenetre and foie gras grilled cheese sandwiches from Ludovic Lefevbre.

Domaine L.A.'s recently-opened Melrose shop is certainly convenient for picking up a good bottle to go with your California Chicken Cafe takeout, but it's also a great addition to the mid-city/West Hollywoodish area that's generally lacking in laid-back, friendly wine shops like Silver Lake Wine and Colorado Wine Co. Owner Jill Bernheimer, a former film producer who has been running online wine shop Domaine 547, says that for right now the store will be sales only, no tasting events, since city licensing is particularly onerous around restaurant-heavy Melrose. One fun feature at the store is the Wall of Affordable Deliciousness, with insouciant recommendations at reasonable prices, including "Not Yellowtail" and Domaine La Bastide syrah-grenache for $9.

Cafe Flourish brings on the greens

Cafe Flourish opened down the street from my office several months ago, and despite glowing reviews from vegan bloggers like Quarrygirl, it took me a while to get there. Why? Well, for one thing, it's vegan, and I'm kind of compulsive about making sure I get enough protein at lunch to get me through the day. Plus, ten blocks might as well be ten miles when you're stuck in a busy office all day.
Feeling like I could use some more vegetable matter in my diet, I finally stopped by for dinner after work the other night, and now I know I'll be hauling some of my vegetarian colleagues back there soon.Cafe Flourish is located in one of the Miracle Mile's historic office buildings, with a clean, modern design. The dishes are saddled with cutesy names like Amen for Almond Hummus and Hooray for Burritos, but don't let that bother you, the food is fresh and vibrant and makes you feel like you've actually eaten enough vegetables for a change (a constant challenge for those who live to sample taco trucks and sushi buffets). For some reason I always order BLTs in vegan cafes. I think it's because I love how they slather everything in pseudo-mayonaise. Flourish's BLT & A (yes, it stands for Be Love Thanks and Abundance) is one of the best I've had. For $9.25, it's a reasonable portion rather than an overstuffed sandwich, with excellent tomatoes, avocado and spicy mayo alongside the tempeh bacon. Each sandwich comes with a side of green salad, tabbouleh or 3 bean salad. Don't be fooled by wan pre-made 3-bean salads you've had before: this one combines kidney beans with edamame and black-eyed peas, with a sweet viniagrette and chopped peppers and celery. It's delicious, plus you feel incredibly virtuous while eating it. There's a few tables inside and a few outside on Wilshire, and they seem to do a very steady takeout business as well.
I'll definitely be back soon, even if I'm forced to ask for a "Flourish Plate, Y'all" or a Mediterranean Gratitude pizza.
Cafe Flourish
5406 Wilshire Blvd.
323-939-3932

Bistro LQ: Laurent Quenioux's creations are offally good

An amuse of one perfect mussel with ginger on soft polenta.

French-born but L.A.-based for many years, Chef Laurent Quenioux hasn't been able to really flex his tongs for a while now. By all accounts, (I never made it there) he turned out some startlingly innovative dishes from the tiny, liquor-licenseless Bistro K in South Pasadena, which closed around two years ago. Then he did a series of dinners and consulted on the menu at Vermont, which certainly classed up their stodgy menu, but it wasn't really his restaurant.

Skate wing is topped with a tomato tart, spring vegetables, sujok and sumac powder.

Now Quenioux has his own real restaurant with Bistro LQ in the old Mimosa space. Smack in the middle of the Beverly/Melrose/3rd St. hot restaurant area, it's probably the best place to be to attract people who can really appreciate and afford his inventive, sophisticated food. The room is light and uncluttered, with modern art on the walls and French fashion model-type waiters. It's a bistro in name only -- the minimalist decor shows no traces of the former Frenchy Mimosa, and the preparations are French-influenced, but with Mexican, Asian and Middle Eastern ingredients and a post-modern culinary slant.
Delicately-flavored sea urchin tapioca pudding with an oyster in yuzu gelee

We got there just a day or so after the liquor license came through, so the restaurant was able to activate the interesting wine list divided into categories like "Sexy Flirt" and "Love and Passion." I was meeting up with friends there, including winemaker Stephen Blum. Bistro LQ is the first restaurant to carry his just released 2006 Sylk Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, and while it's still young, it's a thoroughly delicious cab that's light-bodied enough to work with either seafood or the more strongly-flavored meat dishes. Blum also said that some of the wine is priced much lower than in other restaurants, so there are some real bargains to be found.

Chanterelles, veal sweetbreads, loukoum

Quenioux has turned down the strange factor just a touch -- there's no ant eggs on the menu at the moment, but he continues to be a fan of ingredients like goat, sweetbreads, duck hearts, head cheese and tripe. Animal was called a nose-to-tail restaurant when it opened, but in fact Bistro LQ is much more offally adventurous. But unlike Animal's lusty dishes, Bistro LQ's compositions are restrained and artistic, with all the ingredients carefully calibrated so no matter how unaccustomed you might be to that particular organ, it's not going to overpower. In some cases, the several components of the dishes can seem distracting -- I'm not sure exactly what a piece of loukom candy adds to an earthy chanterelle/sweetbread dish, or whether nicely-cooked salmon with delicate bone marrow custard benefits from being paired with sliced, cooked abalone and extremely salty pork skin cubes. But this is an ambitious restaurant, and it would take several visits to experience all the nuances of the tea service, the cheese condiments, the macaron flavors, the dessert tasting...and the foie gras three ways, with roasted unagi and violet bitter chocolate! So consider this an early taste, rather than a full meal.
In addition to a tasting menu of six courses for $65 with a vegetarian tasting menu available, there's the option of ordering half courses.
One of my favorites was a Nice-meets-Mexico dish of mussels with a deeply flavored sauce of Mexican saffron, epazote and huitlacoche, topped with a chick pea pancake.

They require three half courses per person if you do it that way, but it's a good way to create your own tasting menu, and it was just the right amount of food for us. Desserts are also fascinating architectural compositions, even if beet espuma (like a mousse) doesn't taste quite as good as it looks. Even if you're not a dessert person, they're worth trying since they're not very sweet and really work more as an herbal/vegetal finish to the meal. My favorite was the chocolate ganache shotglass that came out unbidden with an espresso. We ate too much to try the cheese cart, but it looks worthy of a cheese-focused meal on its own, with numerous condiments, gelees and mustards served with the cheese.
Rice pudding with goat milk, cassis sorbet and beet espuma

Verdict: This is beautifully-designed food that that for the most part matches up in the taste department. Personally, I prefer a more informal approach to dining, but right out of the starting gate Quenioux is giving the likes of Sona some formidable competish, as we say at Variety. There are photos of several more courses available on my Flickr page.

Golden State's fish n' chips (or) slaw makes the ideal meal

The ideal meal, for me, anyway. I love me some fried seafood and some good beer. And while fries can be awfully good, a big pile of coleslaw usually makes me feel slightly less bad about consuming all that fried breading. But it's not that easy to get this combo right. The fish needs to be perfectly fried, with a crust that makes a distinct crackle when you bite into it. The coleslaw needs to be lightly dressed, not too creamy, not too sweet, with a tangy vinegar note to offset the fried fish. It shouldn't be too expensive -- Ye Olde King's Head's fish 'n chips is quite good, but it's up to $14 for the small size. Golden State delivers on all my requirements for the perfect $10 fried fish meal, upping the ante even more with jalapenos in the coleslaw and unusual beers like Telegraph's Reserve Wheat Ale. This sour beer was nothing like a wimpy Hefweizen; instead it blends lemon verbena with wild yeas,t making a beer seemingly tailored for fish 'n chips. It's like the jalapeno coleslaw of beers -- refreshing, yet flavorful and hearty. Damn. I could eat this exact meal at least once a week, but I probably shouldn't.

Cafe Flourish: new Miracle Mile vegan

Us Wilshire Blvd. workers are always happy to see new places joining the tired selection of restaurants between Fairfax and La Brea. A new vegan spot, Cafe Flourish opened a few weeks ago in this historic art deco building at 5406 Wilshire. They've got quesadillas, ruben sandwiches, chocolate-peanut butter pie, cookies, cupcakes coffee and more, and a few preliminary reports on Yelp. I was on my way to beef up at Umami, so I didn't try it, but I'll try to walk over soon since I love my veggies just as much as my meat.
Turns out Quarrygirl tried Cafe Flourish yesterday, and says it "truly has its shit together." Jackfruit tacos, huh? Wonder where they got that idea?

Street: a first look finds some dishes lost in translation

Kudos to the clever menu designer

It may take more than one visit to fully crystalize my thoughts on Street, which was still in its first week of service when I had lunch with a friend on Friday. Our first impression was of overall orangeness. The black and orange patio walls, covered by large orange umbrellas, make eating on the patio a tangerine dream, so thank goodness for Auto-color adjust. The menu is divided into dumplings, noodles, salads and main dishes, and it can be bit challenging picturing how the foods of say, Egypt and Thailand will work together in the meal. We ended up with two Asian-inspired dishes and one Middle Eastern one. Shrimp wrapped in rice paper

A dish of puffed millet with Indian spices was brought to the table; "like an Indian rice krispie treat," the waiter said, although the puffed millet was soft and chewy rather than crunchy as I had been anticipating. We started with shrimp and shiso leaf wrapped in rice paper with a pungent wasabi sauce; nice, but not really special, especially at $2 or more per shrimp. I'm not familiar enough with Korean food to know if a beast like the Korean rice salad we ordered exists in Korea, but it's a bit curious: brown rice, edamame sprouts, thin noodles, black cod, tofu and a fried egg all get along happily enough, but a pool of rich, sweet sesame dressing at the bottom makes it hard to go all the way. It's possible that a few too many of the dishes are topped with fried egg, making it hard not to end up with several fried eggs over the course of a meal.Theoretically this is the type of thing I usually feel like at lunchtime: fish, brown rice, vegetables, flavorful sauce, etc., yet it didn't all work quite well enough to make me want to order it again.
Lamb kofta kebabs with Za'atar (below), however, are perfectly spiced, and somehow even more flavorful than the quite good homemade merguez I made last week. Served with a lavash bread spread with smoky eggplant, lebni yogurt and hardboiled eggs with harissa, the Middle Eastern flavors blend nicely and we only wish there were more than two meatballs in a $16 serving. All the exotic flavors I like in my desserts are represented on the dessert menu: rose syrup, pandan leaf and such. We tried Vietnamese espresso jello layered with chocolate ganache and topped with halva; the ganache was rich and smooth, but the jello too stiff and the Intelligentsia coffee it was made with barely made itself known.
Our server was extremely knowledgeable
and helpful and Susan Feniger made the rounds to a few tables of longtime customers.-- everyone looked familiar, with at least two Bon Appetit staffers in the house.
Verdict: I love Feniger's passion for the exciting tastes of world street food, but I'm afraid the excitement is too likely to get lost in the translation to upscale restaurant food and higher-quality ingredients and the pricing those ingredients require. This is just a first look, but I'm not sure it's a good sign that after this lunch I found myself craving Mitsuwa market's deeply-flavored $2 coffee jello and excited to check out something called Kalbi & Kimchi I spotted in a minimall on Santa Monica Blvd. on the way home. Maybe that's the problem with Street: it's on the street, and not in a minimall.

Umami's new flavors: scallop burger, "rare" veggie burger and more

open-faced scallop burger and eggplant fries
Umami Burger has added some awesome new items to the menu, and several new employees have been added to help deal with the crowds, particularly in the evenings. But when I arrived a few minutes before 1 pm on Monday, I was again the only person there. After I sat down, the whole place filled up almost instantly -- strange, everyone seems to eat lunch at 1:15. I had almost decided on the Hatch chile burger with five kinds of chiles when the owner, Adam, told me they were also making the scallop burger he had told me about earlier. He also swore that they had been working on the fries, which most people felt had too much fluffy interior and not enough crispy exterior. So when my friend Diane arrived, she ordered the Umami burger and fries, while I had the scallop burger and eggplant fries -- I can't resist anything with eggplant in it. A plate of various pickles arrived for us to taste, with standout spicy slices, tangy pickled carrots, and a chutney-like mixture. My scallop burger was served open-faced, the better to highlight the flavor of the grilled scallops that were somehow formed into a loose patty enlivened by seaweed, basil and a creamy sauce that was somewhere between aioli and hollandaise. If the scallop burger was this good, I can't wait to see what he's going to do with the lobster roll that's coming soon. The eggplant fries were nice and crispy and the regular fries were improved from the first time, but I hear the malt liquor-battered onion rings are the best way to go. Although this place is all about the meat, the new veggie burger, "full of umami flavors like mushrooms," Adam says cryptically, is served "rare, au jus" with some sort of faux blood (beet juice?) to satisfy the umami-craving vegetarians out there. With easy parking and two minute drive from my office, I think I'm going to have to work my way through the whole menu here.

Cowboys and Turbans: Yippiyay for the naanwich

A very filling chicken naanwich is $7 including spinach, salad or masala fries.

Perhaps Cowboys & Turbans will be the spot to break the curse on the little restaurant space adjacent to the El Rey Theater. If you ate at Electric Lotus in its first two years back in the '90s or later at Electric Karma on Third, you'll recognize C&T owner Baba, who sold both of those restaurants after launching them to focus on his catering and music businesses (he worked with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and other artists).
Cowboys & Turbans is a more modest spot, offering a compact menu of chicken or tofu naanwiches, chicken or tofu tikka masala, dal with spinach, tandoori tacos and chicken skewers and quesadillas. We walked over from the office to try the chicken naanwich, which is basically what happens when you're eating Indian food and load your chicken tikka masala and basmati rice onto a naan and then fold it up like a sandwich. The tikka masala sauce was very tangy and spicy -- maybe even too much for some people but perfect for me. The spinach was also pleasantly zingy. The naan got a bit soggy on the walk back to the office, and the addition of rice made it a little too filling, since I don't normally like rice in my burritos, either. But this food had plenty of flavor, and Laura's masala fries, which were skinny fries sprinkled with a little curry and paired with curryish tomato sauce, were pretty tasty too. Baba's latest venture is just the spot for a quick lunch or dinner whether you work in this restaurant-challenged stretch of Wilshire neighborhood or are catching a show at the El Rey.
Tip: Ask for lettuce instead of rice on the naanwich; get the naan separately for to-go orders.

Cowboys & Turbans
5515 Wilshire Blvd.
323-936-7070 (free delivery)

Cowboys & Turbans: ready for the Slumdog Special?

I kind of feel like I've been burned once too many times by the tiny diner next to the El Rey Theater on Wilshire. There was the barbecue place where the links weren't bad but took forever to come out and the staff seemed stunned to have a customer, the short-lived incarnation of Doughboys that closed abrubtly, another place just called Diner...
So now apparently it's called Cowboys & Turbans: Street Food from India. I'm not sure where the cowboys come in, but there's a nicely-done website with a menu that includes a naanwich with chicken or tofu and tandoori tacos, and the Slumdog Special, presumably some combination of the other dishes. Maybe I'll give it a try next week -- they have free delivery! Let's hope it lasts longer than some of its predecessors.

Golden State freshens up Fairfax

Let's Be Frank bratwurst with fries

With its funky mix of oldtime delis, thrift shops, slick record stores for djs and Yiddish music shops, Fairfax Ave. has always been where alternative meets yenta. In the swinging '60s, Fairfax was ground zero for head shops and oddball coffeehouses in the vein of Nova Express, which formerly occupied the space that owner Jason Bernstein has turned into Golden State. He spent months clearing out the faded auras of underage William Burroughs fans, and the remodeled space is airy and casual with brick walls and an open kitchen.
Four or five taps showcase a carefully curated selection of rotating beers (most at $6 a glass), with extensively annotated tasting notes available to study the choices. Breweries featured include Craftsman, Green Flash and Bear Republic.
The smartest new restaurateurs are building on the best-quality local products to stock their menus. Chef Samir Mohajer, owner of the Cabbage Patch, consulted on the menu which includes natural sausages from Let's Be Frank, Craftsman beers, and Scoops ice cream. It's the first place to buy the famously eccentric Scoops outside of Hel-Mel, and Tai Kim created special flavors for Golden State including chocolate sorbet with Green Flash IPA and Sauvignon blanc pear sorbet.Scoops flavors include fig pistachio, peanut butter Butterfinder and strawberry balsamic

Jeff liked his Farmhouse burger with Harris ranch beef, Fiscalini cheddar and brown sugar bacon, and I tried a savory bratwurst. Sweet potato fries were more baked than fried; tasty but it takes a fork to eat them. Regular fries with curry ketchup and hazelnut romesco sauce went mighty well with my complex Allagash Curieux barrel-aged beer, the only one they carry from outside of California. We sampled a bit of the menu, but I'm sure I'll be back for lunch soon as I want to try the jalapeno cabbage slaw and grilled cheese sandwich (no booze before 5 pm on weekdays though -- too close to Fairfax High.)
Here's more on the great fish 'n chips at Golden State.

The Golden State
426 N. Fairfax Ave.
(323) 782-8331

Umami Burger: A meaty jolt of flavor

Stamping takeout bags with the burger logo for a craftsy touch

"How to review an Umami Burger without using cliché words like awesome and amazing?" I mused as I drove down Wilshire. "Better to just describe the flavors." Beef: freshly ground from cuts including flap steak and shortribs. Toppings: shitake mushrooms, a parmesan cheese crisp, grilled onions and housemade ketchup. Bun: soft, shiny, yet sturdy, sourced from a special Portuguese bakery. It all results in one of the best burgers I've had in a long time, and it's far easier to eat than the Father's Office model. Owner Adam Fleischman, who cofounded Bottle Rock, did his research at all the burger specialists around town but came up with something different and I'd have to say, much better. I had the signature Umami burger, an excellent value at $8 (below), packed with the savory umami taste that Fleischman was striving for.The SoCal burger is more traditional, except that to replicate the superior melting of processed American cheese, they take Comte cheese and re-form it for a better topping cheese. I can't even imagine gilding the lily with some of the other varieties like Port & Stilton or Triple Pork with chorizo, bacon and aged manchego, or Truffle cheese with truffle glaze, but I'm sure I'll try them soon. Fleischman assures that a housemade veggie burger is also in the works, and in the summer, there will be lighter fare like a unique scallop burger. My only complaint? The fries ($3) were too thick for my taste, and could have used more cooking and more salt. The simple menu also includes sweet potato chips, roasted garlic potato salad, LaMill coffee and Cake Monkey desserts. You can also BYOB, and though it's a smallish space, the flagstone wall, comfy chairs and beachy photos on the wall make it pleasant enough to linger over a bottle of wine.
Fleischman says it gets crazy busy at lunchtime, as the Foodinista found out; our evening visit was completely tranquil in comparison.
Tip: Ask for aioli with the fries; or consider a side of the housemade pickles.

Here's more on Umami, including the wonderful scallop burger.

Umami Burger
850 S. La Brea Ave.
(323) 931-3000

Hirozen still rules...just don't overdose on sushi like Jeremy Piven!

I could easily eat Japanese food several times a week (well, except natto). But unlike Jeremy Piven, I mix it up with ramen, soba and several varieties of seafood in addition to the toro and ahi tuna favored by most American sushi eaters. Since tuna is such a big fish, it does tend to be higher in mercury than smaller species. But it's highly unlikely you could eat so much that you'd get mercury poisoning. So if you do eat a lot of sushi, it's best to mix it up with smaller fish like sardines and mackerel. That's easy to do at Hirozen, which in addition to excellent traditional sushi, has a menu of creative specials like Grilled Kasu Marinated Sardine with Pickled Cucumber and crab meat chile relleno. savory steamed red spinach and mushrooms

Hirozen was my favorite restaurant about 10 years ago, but since I'm always trying new places, sometimes I forget to return often enough. I went back for lunch last week and there's still something wonderful about the tiny restaurant hidden in the back of the Beverly Blvd. strip mall which still has the quirky light bulb store up front. I have my favorite dishes at Hirozen -- salmon and ikura donburi bowl, tofu steak, tuna shiso tempura, but I forced myself to order something different this time. I tried an assorted sushi trio and red spinach with mushrooms, while my lunch companion had heirloom tomato salad. It can be so damn hard to find real vegetables when you eat out a lot, but this simple spinach dish made me feel healthy for days. The sushi trio above (tuna, scallops, and ack, forgot the other) was tiny but amazingly fresh. For dessert, we tried a beautiful purple sweet potato yokan with coconut tapioca (above), that made just the right not-too-sweet finish to a simple, healthy meal. This version of yokan was a dense sort of pudding that is just one example of the diverse and interesting dishes at Hirozen, which I'll try not to forget about anymore!
Hirozen
8385 Beverly Blvd.
323-653-0470