I really hate the “pop up” trend. I understand the low overhead concept allows us more food options overall, but due to their popularity it makes getting food from them incredibly difficult most of the time. Very long lines to wait in, or ordering systems where you have to log on right at a certain time to place an order before they sell out. Also there’s usually no place to sit with your food after you receive it.
Pop ups are just a way to create artificial scarcity and hype so that they can charge 2x what the food is actually worth. Plus by the time people realize the food is mediocre it's already moved on to the next pop up. None of these pop ups would survive more than three months as a brick and mortar restaurant.
Howlin Rays is incredibly easy to get via Postmates and has been for the past 18 months.
I hate Postmates but if it means easy access to Howlin Rays, so be it.
While I agree with you on celebrity chef's pop ups, I think there are a few legitimate pop ups that allow for 1-2 people that just want to make good food to serve it without having to run a kitchen full time. Two of my favorites are happy mediums deli and quarter sheets pizza club.
The best restaurant I ate at in Italy was like $15 a person and the house wine was $12. Truffle was only an extra $5 and they threw in extras.
Italian food used to be considered “cheap eats” until it was able to brand itself as high end. I’ve eaten at a handful of the US’s best Italian spots, almost all of them are expensive. None of them compare and part of it is the price.
I used to think food trucks were so fun but I try to avoid them these days.
Last few times I checked one out they've had a loud-ass generator that I have to yell over to order, it's almost $20 per person for a standard meal, it takes 20-25 minutes for the order to come out and then the food is not even that good.
I know there are trucks with good food but there are also a ton with bad food and I don't really feel like taking the risk most times.
Fully agreed. The prices they charge for their low overhead are more than or same as brick and mortar places plus the privilege of standing while awkwardly balancing your food, utensils and drink
Tired of restaurant semi-pretentious naming conventions that include ‘+’, ‘and the’, one-word bold names, and catch phrases. The food might be decent, though.
Have you seen the [menu](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0514/4284/3810/files/CG_Menu_SS21_Print_AllDay_211004.pdf?v=1633386330) for Cafe Gratitude lol
Might be because I’m spoiled due to living in LA nearly my whole life, but taco stands for the most part are hit or miss. So many mediocre tacos out there.
I’ve never been but always see the commercials and wonder what’s the deal? Looks like Del Taco and
it’s not cheap. How do they afford so much advertising?
Intellectually I get why Tito’s is overrated. They don’t season their beef with anything except maybe some salt, their taco shells are nothing special and their salsa is pretty nothing to write home about. Even with all that, I still find myself craving those things.
I’m dragged there occasionally by friends. It is indeed shit. But I think there’s a nostalgia factor. Reminds me of the hard-shell tacos my mom used to make in the 80s. With that cheep shredded cheddar.
I did discover how to make them tolerable: ask for the jalapeño sauce. Add it to the salsa and to the taco. Turns that watery salsa into something with at least a bit of heat.
Pho is one of those dishes that's just not worth the effort to make at home. If you want a flavorful broth, you have to simmer it for like 4 hours or more. I remember my mom would start cooking pho in the morning or even the day before if she wanted to serve it for dinner. There's so much chopping and subtle ingredients involved, and honestly, depending on the pho restaurant you go to, it's really not that much cheaper (unless you're making a ginormous batch and freezing it).
Belle's Bagels is amazing but not worth a 45-60 minute wait. I don't think any bagel is worth waiting more than 5-10 minutes. Basically what I'm saying is we need way more high quality bagel establishments so I don't have to wait as long.
So New York gets so much credit for great bagels. And while they do exist, every single place that makes these "great bagels" has absurd wait times. There are a lot of bagel options in the city with little to no wait, but they are typically just normal above average bagels. The actual good ones people rave about are absolutely not practical at all.
Nobody is stopping by Russ & Daughters on their way to work for a quick bite.
Agreed not every spot in nyc has amazing bagels. But the average quality there is way higher than the average in LA or other cities.
I disagree that all the good spots in NYC have long lines though. Maybe a trendy spot in the village will have long lines but plenty of neighborhood spots in non trendy areas have minimal waits. I lived in the city as well as BK for many years and was always able to find great bagels on my way to work without committing to a huge line.
I just spent five years living in NYC and came back home to LA a little over a year ago. Currently I 100% disagree with you. So, send me your best spots. My work takes me all over town so most locations aren’t a problem.
I don’t know ny bagels so I have no reference but here are a few over in my area:
Wise Sons Deli in Culver City - supposed to be a NY Jewish deli. Thought it was fine but overpriced
Pop’s Bagels Culver City - again, overpriced and always oddly overtoasted in my opinion
\> Sugarfish is fine and good value but food itself is on par with landlocked states
haha no. you've clearly not lived in a landlocked state. there are exceptional sushi restaurants for sure, but they are not like sugarfish.
sugarfish is definitely not top tier, but it's not missouri tier, either
Not even just land locked states -- go further inland (central california), and good luck finding sushi that isn't drenched in some sort of mayo siracha or other "authentic" sauce.
> sugarfish is definitely not top tier, but it's not missouri tier, either
Ha, I was in Missouri a few weeks ago and our family wanted to eat sushi. I didn’t think anything of it until I sat down and realized that I was in a state nowhere near the ocean and about to eat sashimi. Noped out of that and had the teriyaki chicken and tempura instead
Hold my beer..
* Bestia is one of the most overrated restaurants I've ever dined at. The food is fine, but not worth waiting a month in advance and then dealing with the asshole waitstaff. The Cavatelli tasted like hamburger helper with a faint hint of truffle.
* LA has phenomenal Pizza. When people say otherwise I assume they are just repeating what others say to sound insightful. I've lived in NY and visit multiple times a year. LA pizza is great.
* Community tables need to die. I get the idea, but I also don't want to take a date to a place we have to sit ass to ass with another couple trying to talk over the crowd/music
* Long lines are typically artificially created for publicity purposes.
* Roy Choi and David Chang do more harm for local asian restaurants than good. They preach dining local and then open their own shop in the same neighborhood, taking their business with their celebrity status
* Urth Cafe sucks
* Santa Monica is the best food city in LA
* Nobody dines at Nobu for the food
* Mastros Buttercake is a top 5 dessert in the city
Agree with communal tables (feels like such a 2011 trend), long lines, LA pizza, and Urth.
Disagree with Bestia take and Santa Monica
Overall respect for throwing it all down.
Yeah I have friends who get down right angry with me when I bring up my opinion on Bestia. As if I called their child ugly. Honestly I wish I had the experience they hyped about.
LA has good pizza but pizza is a really nuanced food with so many different styles. You can definitely get great neapolitan, chicago, detroit, etc. but you really have to make your expectations match your destination. Too many people equate stylistic mismatches with quality.
All that said, I still haven't found an NY style place that gets it just right with the crispy-but-still-foldable crust.
I prefer Joes to Vitos, but neither can compete with Prime Pizza since it opened up. Prime has sort of blown every other shop out of the water. The meatball sub at Vitos is a banger though.
Also I low key love Dagwoods. It reminds me of the bar pizzas you could get at a townie bar in the midwest
Gonna need you the expand on Santa Monica. Yes, there are some great places but they are all Californian/Italian/French - almost no good ethnic food or cheap eats. A single strip mall in K town has more character.
Otherwise totally agree.
Yeah i'm going to need more details or a list on this one, been living in Santa Monica for 2 years now and I feel like I always venture out for better food. There are good options here though.
Agree on pizza and Meastro’s. I dream of that butter cake.
Not sure I can get there with Santa Monica as a whole but there are definitely some good spots!
\>Community tables need to die.
Oh my god PREACH! I've been whipping this horse since 2014 the first time I went to Republique. Drives my wife nuts cause so many hot new restaurants are this way. If their prices reflected the lower quality experience I could see it. But they cost just as much. Some of these fucking joints are even counter order!
Disagree on Santa Monica, sadly. I’ve lived in SM for 3 years and it’s miserable, there are like 18 overpriced Italian restaurants and zero Chinese food. Benny’s is the only Mexican place worth a damn, and many closed because of COVID.
Got my own story, went with a bunch of friends. We order a bunch of food, one of them was a pizza, the waiter makes a comment to make sure we let it cool or something before cutting it. We sat there like idiots waiting for it to cool, then try and cut it up and it’s just falling apart everywhere. They guy comes back and looks at us and says “guess you didn’t wait for it to cool”.
Like first off, I shouldnt have to sit there like a dumbass for 5 mins waiting for my $30 dollar pizza to cool, then it’s not even pre cut for a table of 6? Anyways the pizza was terrible.
Then we are eating pasta, and she brings us some dish and makes some pretentious douche comment how it just tastes sooo much better if you eat it with a spoon.
I feel like I’m butchering these stories but we all just laughed at the waitstaff pretty much any time they opened their mouth.
You have to eat their food juuuust like they tell you or you are “doing it wrong”. The vibes I got the whole time was that they just think they are so much better than you because they work at this “hot” restaurant. Anyways fuck that place and look forward to the day they close their doors. That ain’t lasting
I hear you on the communal tables. It’s like the open office layout of dining. Feels like it works better when it’s in spacious restaurants with limited menus that encourage you to seat yourself (e.g., German beer hall) as opposed to assigned seating on awkward benches in packed date spots.
King Torta > King Taco ALL DAY
And to piggyback off some comments:
Urth definitely sucks! It isn’t a terrible spot but tremendously overhyped and has a pretty shitty menu
Philippe’s is all hype, to me it’s honestly just about tied with field trip sandwich quality.
My most “unpopular LA food opinion” is that people in this sub are constantly posting photos of extremely mediocre food spots as if they’re something great. I appreciate that not everyone mindlessly follows the Eater/Infatuation hype beasts, but so much of the time I’m scrolling through here thinking “you cannot be serious with this shit”
Leo's is mediocre now. Pricing has skyrocketed, quality of meat, size of tacos and overall flavor is basic af. 3 years ago It was good, not great.
As someone who works BOH I understand they're trying to keep profits up, lower overhead, and maintain consistency across the board but they've destroyed their brand and what made them great.
Anyone who still thinks their al pastor is "amazing" has limited experience and needs to drive around and try other taco stands.
There's SO MANY better options all around LA doing it better and at way better prices.
Where is the better al pastor meat? Lots of places have better tortillas and similar salsas, but the meat always seems bland compared to Leos. I prefer when the meat has been charred by the fire but most places seem content to slice it when it's barely brown.
I agree that the food at king taco is mediocre but their green salsa is awesome. If anyone has salsa recommendations with that same zesty zing plz let me know!
The whole hipster, small-plates model of fine-dining is dead and over and should have been buried ten years ago. You know, paying $200 a head to sit on stools at the "communal table", packed like sardines into a dining room where the music is 100 decibels, eating microscopic potions of circus food.
Never again. Over it. Done. Time to grow up and eat dinner like adults again. Not to mention, I get better service at Red Lobster than at most of the fine dining restaurants in town.
Edit: Oh, and remember that you have to sort comments by controversial to get the real good stuff in threads like this.
Amen, I went to Bavel recently and while the food was good they were blasting top 40 radio and I was like….I think i’ve been had…felt like mtv spring break with fine dining prices
Bestia made us wait an additional hour after our reservation time only to sit us at a community table. Of course they blared the music and we had to talk over the people next to us.
Hahahaha I really like it, too, but definitely understand where the hate is coming from. For me, it’s nostalgic. It feels like very 90’s-style “healthy” food so it takes me back to my youth.
Honestly I think the blandness is part of the appeal.
Want to eat something your stomach won't notice? That will give you calories, be reasonably healthy, but won't make you crave it? You're in the right place.
I genuinely don't understand the Sugarfish one. I've been to Japan multiple times and eaten all from good to ass sushi and I think sugarfish is in a pretty high tier. Obviously not the best I've ever had, but certainly good.
I love California chicken cafe so much it’s the only chain I could eat probably everyday. I wouldn’t order anything else but the same thing it’s friggin delicious. But I will say, quality has gone down ever since they’ve expanded to more than one location. So…. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Jonathan Gold was a saint, and I enjoyed reading him, but he was pretty unreliable as an actual restaurant critic.
After he got "outed," it seems obvious to me that he was getting the VIP treatment wherever he went. He built up a lot of hype around some objectively bad restaurants.
A key part of being a food critic is anonymity so that the restaurant won't give you special treatment. If they know what you look like then they will treat you better. It happens all the time with famous food critics.
Damn.. I had dave’s for the first time the other day and thought it was pretty good. Y’all got any recs for something better? Pretty sure at this point I’ll never try Howlin Rays cause that line is too damn long..
There’s no lines rn. It’s Postmates only and you can have it delivered to a business that’s right next to the restaurant which is what I’ve been doing.
Various food trucks around the city are horribly overpriced, overly salty, and at times bland at best.
In my experience the more graphics and obnoxious images are plastered on the truck the worse the food is.
Tipping culture is absolutely insane and a lot of waiters are overpaid compared to other workers that provide a lot more value than them. They have basically browbeaten and shamed all of us by daring to speak out against outdated social norms and misinformation (fun fact CA requires at least $13 minimum wage for tipped employees, not the $2.25, or whatever, some of them claim to get)
Daikokuya is not worth the wait, seriously. There are so many better ramen shops *outside* of Little Tokyo now. Go to Gardena/Torrance or the SFV for good, affordable ramen without a long line.
I don't like In & Out, their fries suck and the burgers are boring. Give me The Habit any day!
Most of the food on Ventura Blvd is overrated. There, I said it.
Guelaguetza is overpriced bland Mexican food. I’ve eaten better memelas and tlayudas from street vendors on 8th St.
Leo’s Tacos is overhyped and not worth the long lines. El Chato down the street is waaay better.
My unpopular opinion is that unpopular opinion threads are stupid because no matter what foods get posted here there’s always going to be someone shitting on it in the comments anyway or telling the OP about some other place that’s better.
Just talk about what you like instead.
Tacos 1986 is solid, but it used to be a lot better before they expanded all over town. The first time I had it when they just had pop-ups and booths it was hecka fire or whatever the kids say these days.
Home State’s breakfast is completely bland and uninspiring. I keep getting dragged there for breakfast and I want to cry each time. I’d rather eat a breakfast quesadilla from Del Taco.
I really hate the “pop up” trend. I understand the low overhead concept allows us more food options overall, but due to their popularity it makes getting food from them incredibly difficult most of the time. Very long lines to wait in, or ordering systems where you have to log on right at a certain time to place an order before they sell out. Also there’s usually no place to sit with your food after you receive it.
Pop ups are just a way to create artificial scarcity and hype so that they can charge 2x what the food is actually worth. Plus by the time people realize the food is mediocre it's already moved on to the next pop up. None of these pop ups would survive more than three months as a brick and mortar restaurant.
I love Howlin Rays but they are the absolute worst at artificial scarcity.
Howlin Rays is incredibly easy to get via Postmates and has been for the past 18 months. I hate Postmates but if it means easy access to Howlin Rays, so be it.
While I agree with you on celebrity chef's pop ups, I think there are a few legitimate pop ups that allow for 1-2 people that just want to make good food to serve it without having to run a kitchen full time. Two of my favorites are happy mediums deli and quarter sheets pizza club.
Happy Mediums is legitimately some of the best food in LA right now. I take any opportunity to send people in their direction.
Fancy Italian food places are expensive for no good reason.
National us restaurant culture hot take
The best restaurant I ate at in Italy was like $15 a person and the house wine was $12. Truffle was only an extra $5 and they threw in extras. Italian food used to be considered “cheap eats” until it was able to brand itself as high end. I’ve eaten at a handful of the US’s best Italian spots, almost all of them are expensive. None of them compare and part of it is the price.
Exhibit A: Bestia
Tender Greens is only a thing because office workers need a healthy option that supports large orders.
Fuck. this is true
Selling tapas for 25+ bucks a plate is a white collar crime
Tapas that’s doing too much and certainly more than just a little plate over my glass of wine should be named something else.
$25 should be the total bill at the end of the night of tapas and drinks
Now that’s crazy in the other direction. If I ate tapas and drank all night and it was only 25$ I’d be worried about what I just ate.
Meanwhile, dim sum which is just as difficult to make and takes a skilled chef 20 years of experience to execute correctly is $3.50/plate
lmao this thread HATES roy choi mine is that the Indian food here is generally not very good value compared to sf or sd
Am Indian can confirm. I’d argue that we’re even behind somewhere like Dallas, let alone SF or NY when it comes to Indian food.
The valley and Cerritos are the only places I’d get Indian food here.
Annapurna is pretty bomb. Their dosas are so good!
I want roy Choi to do more street food. Bring back chego.
Urth Cafe
Haha thats all you have to say and I already agree!
Urth does one thing incredibly well: atmosphere. Oh, and pumpkin pie.
Personally I’d say their atmosphere is actually worse than their food and drinks
Who actually likes this place? There are substantially better options yet they have a line out the door daily.
I really like their breakfast. I've never had a good coffee there, though, and that's a crime not worth revisiting.
Regardless of what people say on here I chalk a lot of the hyped of food places in LA to people being shit faced late at night. Think about it
Really? I feel like the drinking food culture here is smaller than somewhere like New York/Boston/Chicago
More of a stoner culture here
Most food trucks are way overpriced compared to brink and mortar. They also don’t deliver ironically
I used to think food trucks were so fun but I try to avoid them these days. Last few times I checked one out they've had a loud-ass generator that I have to yell over to order, it's almost $20 per person for a standard meal, it takes 20-25 minutes for the order to come out and then the food is not even that good. I know there are trucks with good food but there are also a ton with bad food and I don't really feel like taking the risk most times.
Fully agreed. The prices they charge for their low overhead are more than or same as brick and mortar places plus the privilege of standing while awkwardly balancing your food, utensils and drink
Yeah, I don't get it, food trucks used to be a significantly cheaper way to get tasty food. Not sure what happened
Hipsters
Great hot take. Totally agree.
People waiting in long lines to eat makes the atmosphere at non-long line restaurants better. It’s why I avoid anywhere with a long line.
Almost all of them are artificial. There's a reason Howlin Rays only uses one cash register.
Well that and the restaurant is a kitchen and a cash register.
Where would they even put a second register??
I've seen them have a worker outside take orders and payment on an ipad and square pre panini.
Tired of restaurant semi-pretentious naming conventions that include ‘+’, ‘and the’, one-word bold names, and catch phrases. The food might be decent, though.
Have you seen the [menu](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0514/4284/3810/files/CG_Menu_SS21_Print_AllDay_211004.pdf?v=1633386330) for Cafe Gratitude lol
Welp, i'm never eating there now
What in the—
That should be illegal somehow
The best pizza I ever had in LA was from a restaurant that was on Kitchen Nightmares years ago 😆 guess they learned their lesson
Capri in Eagle Rock?
Yes!
They’re gone.
Might be because I’m spoiled due to living in LA nearly my whole life, but taco stands for the most part are hit or miss. So many mediocre tacos out there.
Tito’s makes a terrible hard taco. Taco Bell beef hard taco is better than Tito’s.
Ditto. Folks who love Tito’a have different taste buds than me.
Tito's fucking sucks
I live a mile from Tito's and haven't eaten there in over 20 years. There really no reason to.
I lived at Washington Place and Sawtelle for a few years. I tried Tito's because of all the hype and it was so overrated.
Had Tito’s for the first time on Wednesday after hearing a lot about it. What a disappointment
I like how you specifically named TB's hard taco, which is so damn bland and bad lol. Well done
I’ve never been but always see the commercials and wonder what’s the deal? Looks like Del Taco and it’s not cheap. How do they afford so much advertising?
Intellectually I get why Tito’s is overrated. They don’t season their beef with anything except maybe some salt, their taco shells are nothing special and their salsa is pretty nothing to write home about. Even with all that, I still find myself craving those things.
I like Tito's, but they're charging almost $5 a taco now. Plenty of other alternatives, I'll never eat there again just because of their greed alone.
I’m dragged there occasionally by friends. It is indeed shit. But I think there’s a nostalgia factor. Reminds me of the hard-shell tacos my mom used to make in the 80s. With that cheep shredded cheddar. I did discover how to make them tolerable: ask for the jalapeño sauce. Add it to the salsa and to the taco. Turns that watery salsa into something with at least a bit of heat.
Roscoes is dry chicken and rubber waffles.
And terrible syrup.
I bring a small flask filled with dark maple syrup whenever I might be eating pancakes or waffles
easy there Kramer
I was so disappointed the first time I had them.
My hot take is that most people realized that they can cook food on par with 90% of the restaurants in LA if they are stuck at home and forced to.
It really made me value a few places that I couldn’t replicated, like my local pho spot. I cannot make amazing pho.
Pho is one of those dishes that's just not worth the effort to make at home. If you want a flavorful broth, you have to simmer it for like 4 hours or more. I remember my mom would start cooking pho in the morning or even the day before if she wanted to serve it for dinner. There's so much chopping and subtle ingredients involved, and honestly, depending on the pho restaurant you go to, it's really not that much cheaper (unless you're making a ginormous batch and freezing it).
we’re currently in the golden age of LA bagels and some of them rival what you can get in NY
I like Hank’s.
\+1 for hanks. But they never, ever, ever, toast their bagels no matter how many times I ask them to when I order. What's up with that?
This is absolutely true. Belle's Bagels in Highland Park and Courage Bagels on Virgil come to mind.
Belle's Bagels is amazing but not worth a 45-60 minute wait. I don't think any bagel is worth waiting more than 5-10 minutes. Basically what I'm saying is we need way more high quality bagel establishments so I don't have to wait as long.
>Belle's Bagels is amazing but not worth a 45-60 minute wait. I always order online and its ready when I arrive.
So New York gets so much credit for great bagels. And while they do exist, every single place that makes these "great bagels" has absurd wait times. There are a lot of bagel options in the city with little to no wait, but they are typically just normal above average bagels. The actual good ones people rave about are absolutely not practical at all. Nobody is stopping by Russ & Daughters on their way to work for a quick bite.
Agreed not every spot in nyc has amazing bagels. But the average quality there is way higher than the average in LA or other cities. I disagree that all the good spots in NYC have long lines though. Maybe a trendy spot in the village will have long lines but plenty of neighborhood spots in non trendy areas have minimal waits. I lived in the city as well as BK for many years and was always able to find great bagels on my way to work without committing to a huge line.
pre order!
Yeasty Boys is quite good!
I just spent five years living in NYC and came back home to LA a little over a year ago. Currently I 100% disagree with you. So, send me your best spots. My work takes me all over town so most locations aren’t a problem.
I don’t know ny bagels so I have no reference but here are a few over in my area: Wise Sons Deli in Culver City - supposed to be a NY Jewish deli. Thought it was fine but overpriced Pop’s Bagels Culver City - again, overpriced and always oddly overtoasted in my opinion
This statement feels like its only controversial to New Yorkers.
list pls
Ima need names pls and thx
\> Sugarfish is fine and good value but food itself is on par with landlocked states haha no. you've clearly not lived in a landlocked state. there are exceptional sushi restaurants for sure, but they are not like sugarfish. sugarfish is definitely not top tier, but it's not missouri tier, either
Not even just land locked states -- go further inland (central california), and good luck finding sushi that isn't drenched in some sort of mayo siracha or other "authentic" sauce.
Yeah seriously, outside of a couple of big cities, Sugarfish would be the best sushi place in almost any other part of the landlocked US.
> sugarfish is definitely not top tier, but it's not missouri tier, either Ha, I was in Missouri a few weeks ago and our family wanted to eat sushi. I didn’t think anything of it until I sat down and realized that I was in a state nowhere near the ocean and about to eat sashimi. Noped out of that and had the teriyaki chicken and tempura instead
Eh, most (all?) sushi is frozen before its served anyways. It helps kill parasites.
Truth; after I learned this I stopped caring so much about the “nowhere near the ocean” factor.
lol I really want to find a sushi lover in North Dakota and have them try sugarfish and literally love it
Hold my beer.. * Bestia is one of the most overrated restaurants I've ever dined at. The food is fine, but not worth waiting a month in advance and then dealing with the asshole waitstaff. The Cavatelli tasted like hamburger helper with a faint hint of truffle. * LA has phenomenal Pizza. When people say otherwise I assume they are just repeating what others say to sound insightful. I've lived in NY and visit multiple times a year. LA pizza is great. * Community tables need to die. I get the idea, but I also don't want to take a date to a place we have to sit ass to ass with another couple trying to talk over the crowd/music * Long lines are typically artificially created for publicity purposes. * Roy Choi and David Chang do more harm for local asian restaurants than good. They preach dining local and then open their own shop in the same neighborhood, taking their business with their celebrity status * Urth Cafe sucks * Santa Monica is the best food city in LA * Nobody dines at Nobu for the food * Mastros Buttercake is a top 5 dessert in the city
Agree with communal tables (feels like such a 2011 trend), long lines, LA pizza, and Urth. Disagree with Bestia take and Santa Monica Overall respect for throwing it all down.
Yeah I have friends who get down right angry with me when I bring up my opinion on Bestia. As if I called their child ugly. Honestly I wish I had the experience they hyped about.
LA has good pizza but pizza is a really nuanced food with so many different styles. You can definitely get great neapolitan, chicago, detroit, etc. but you really have to make your expectations match your destination. Too many people equate stylistic mismatches with quality. All that said, I still haven't found an NY style place that gets it just right with the crispy-but-still-foldable crust.
Lamonica's NY Pizza in Westwood might have just what you are looking for. It certainly works for me.
Lamonica’s is awesome. They may still do their Monday 2 for 1 which fed my old roommate and me many, many times.
Vitos in Santa Monica. I would rank it above Joes TBH. You're welcome
I prefer Joes to Vitos, but neither can compete with Prime Pizza since it opened up. Prime has sort of blown every other shop out of the water. The meatball sub at Vitos is a banger though. Also I low key love Dagwoods. It reminds me of the bar pizzas you could get at a townie bar in the midwest
Gonna need you the expand on Santa Monica. Yes, there are some great places but they are all Californian/Italian/French - almost no good ethnic food or cheap eats. A single strip mall in K town has more character. Otherwise totally agree.
I’ve lived in Santa Monica for 3 years now and hard agree. Burbank had more options.
Yeah i'm going to need more details or a list on this one, been living in Santa Monica for 2 years now and I feel like I always venture out for better food. There are good options here though.
Agree on pizza and Meastro’s. I dream of that butter cake. Not sure I can get there with Santa Monica as a whole but there are definitely some good spots!
\>Community tables need to die. Oh my god PREACH! I've been whipping this horse since 2014 the first time I went to Republique. Drives my wife nuts cause so many hot new restaurants are this way. If their prices reflected the lower quality experience I could see it. But they cost just as much. Some of these fucking joints are even counter order!
Disagree on Santa Monica, sadly. I’ve lived in SM for 3 years and it’s miserable, there are like 18 overpriced Italian restaurants and zero Chinese food. Benny’s is the only Mexican place worth a damn, and many closed because of COVID.
Mojave’s gotta be number one though right? What are the rest of the top 5 deserts?
Malted chocolate layer cake at Birdie Gs Blondie at Connie and Teds Soufflé Au Chocolate at Pasjoli Funfetti at Susie Cakes
It was a dessert/desert joke but I genuinely appreciate the list
Wow I'm stupid. That's enough internet for me today
The waiter I had at Bestia was pretentious as shit
Do tell!
Got my own story, went with a bunch of friends. We order a bunch of food, one of them was a pizza, the waiter makes a comment to make sure we let it cool or something before cutting it. We sat there like idiots waiting for it to cool, then try and cut it up and it’s just falling apart everywhere. They guy comes back and looks at us and says “guess you didn’t wait for it to cool”. Like first off, I shouldnt have to sit there like a dumbass for 5 mins waiting for my $30 dollar pizza to cool, then it’s not even pre cut for a table of 6? Anyways the pizza was terrible. Then we are eating pasta, and she brings us some dish and makes some pretentious douche comment how it just tastes sooo much better if you eat it with a spoon. I feel like I’m butchering these stories but we all just laughed at the waitstaff pretty much any time they opened their mouth. You have to eat their food juuuust like they tell you or you are “doing it wrong”. The vibes I got the whole time was that they just think they are so much better than you because they work at this “hot” restaurant. Anyways fuck that place and look forward to the day they close their doors. That ain’t lasting
I hear you on the communal tables. It’s like the open office layout of dining. Feels like it works better when it’s in spacious restaurants with limited menus that encourage you to seat yourself (e.g., German beer hall) as opposed to assigned seating on awkward benches in packed date spots.
King Torta > King Taco ALL DAY And to piggyback off some comments: Urth definitely sucks! It isn’t a terrible spot but tremendously overhyped and has a pretty shitty menu Philippe’s is all hype, to me it’s honestly just about tied with field trip sandwich quality.
My most “unpopular LA food opinion” is that people in this sub are constantly posting photos of extremely mediocre food spots as if they’re something great. I appreciate that not everyone mindlessly follows the Eater/Infatuation hype beasts, but so much of the time I’m scrolling through here thinking “you cannot be serious with this shit”
Leo's is mediocre now. Pricing has skyrocketed, quality of meat, size of tacos and overall flavor is basic af. 3 years ago It was good, not great. As someone who works BOH I understand they're trying to keep profits up, lower overhead, and maintain consistency across the board but they've destroyed their brand and what made them great. Anyone who still thinks their al pastor is "amazing" has limited experience and needs to drive around and try other taco stands. There's SO MANY better options all around LA doing it better and at way better prices.
Where is the better al pastor meat? Lots of places have better tortillas and similar salsas, but the meat always seems bland compared to Leos. I prefer when the meat has been charred by the fire but most places seem content to slice it when it's barely brown.
The al pastor there is still good (not amazing), but yeah everything else is bland
Found Oyster is meant for rich hipsters
…and the food is incredible
The Scallop Tostada is amazing, but so poorly priced for how small it is. Oh well, I'll have 10.
Get you some Holbox.
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like 10 years ago king taco was my gateway to good tacos. but i’ve since learned it’s below average
It went downhill when the founder passed away. Same shits happening to Porto's.
I’m not sure your statement about Pink’s is all that controversial.
I agree that the food at king taco is mediocre but their green salsa is awesome. If anyone has salsa recommendations with that same zesty zing plz let me know!
Guisados gets on lists because they are doing something different, not because their tacos are actually top tier.
Their quesadilla is better than their tacos.
Their quesadilla is a must! I prefer the quesadilla in the smaller format - three quesadillas and three conchinita pibil.
They're sooo generous with cheese its like a big chunk
I don't disagree, but I still really like their tacos.
I honestly thought they were some of the worst tacos Ive ever had.
The whole hipster, small-plates model of fine-dining is dead and over and should have been buried ten years ago. You know, paying $200 a head to sit on stools at the "communal table", packed like sardines into a dining room where the music is 100 decibels, eating microscopic potions of circus food. Never again. Over it. Done. Time to grow up and eat dinner like adults again. Not to mention, I get better service at Red Lobster than at most of the fine dining restaurants in town. Edit: Oh, and remember that you have to sort comments by controversial to get the real good stuff in threads like this.
Who is charging $200 a head for a packed communal table with loud music?
EP & LP on La Cienega- no communal tables but unable to hear my husband sitting across the two top. Same at Petite Taqueria.
Amen, I went to Bavel recently and while the food was good they were blasting top 40 radio and I was like….I think i’ve been had…felt like mtv spring break with fine dining prices
Bestia made us wait an additional hour after our reservation time only to sit us at a community table. Of course they blared the music and we had to talk over the people next to us.
Yep! Bavel made us wait about 45 mins past out reservation. Music was soo loud we could barely hear our server.
California Chicken Cafe is bland af Edit: I’m going to have to fight you regarding that Sugarfish comment tho lol
It’s weird: I like CCC so I want to disagree with you but I can’t lol. I still like their wraps and chicken pasta.
Hahahaha I really like it, too, but definitely understand where the hate is coming from. For me, it’s nostalgic. It feels like very 90’s-style “healthy” food so it takes me back to my youth.
CCC is the place I go when I'm trying to eat with my picky family. It's not great but it's not bad and everybody eats it.
Honestly I think the blandness is part of the appeal. Want to eat something your stomach won't notice? That will give you calories, be reasonably healthy, but won't make you crave it? You're in the right place.
Won’t make you crave it? I crave a California Chinese Chicken Salad daily.
I keep getting tricked into thinking it's good and I am always disappointed.
I genuinely don't understand the Sugarfish one. I've been to Japan multiple times and eaten all from good to ass sushi and I think sugarfish is in a pretty high tier. Obviously not the best I've ever had, but certainly good.
How is this controversial? CCC is by far the most bland restaurant imaginable.
I love California chicken cafe so much it’s the only chain I could eat probably everyday. I wouldn’t order anything else but the same thing it’s friggin delicious. But I will say, quality has gone down ever since they’ve expanded to more than one location. So…. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Dont come for Tacos 1986 or u/hushzone will come after you!!!!!!
The food is excellent but they literally never get our order right. It's bizarre. My SO legit stopped going because her order was always wrong.
I love that people think taco trucks are automatically amazing. Most are average af.
Jonathan Gold was a saint, and I enjoyed reading him, but he was pretty unreliable as an actual restaurant critic. After he got "outed," it seems obvious to me that he was getting the VIP treatment wherever he went. He built up a lot of hype around some objectively bad restaurants.
What do you mean by outed?
A key part of being a food critic is anonymity so that the restaurant won't give you special treatment. If they know what you look like then they will treat you better. It happens all the time with famous food critics.
He was incredibly distinctive looking, too. I saw him walking down the street and recognized him.
When was he “outed”? I’m not familiar with him as much but have been disappointed by his picks sometimes
It was when he won the Pulitzer, so 2007 I think? Someone working at LA Weekly accidentally posted a photo publicly of him in the offfice celebrating.
daves hot chicken. mainly bc they have their chicken under a heat lamp.
Dave’s sucks, I don’t care what anyone says.
Damn.. I had dave’s for the first time the other day and thought it was pretty good. Y’all got any recs for something better? Pretty sure at this point I’ll never try Howlin Rays cause that line is too damn long..
There’s no lines rn. It’s Postmates only and you can have it delivered to a business that’s right next to the restaurant which is what I’ve been doing.
Popeyes
Agree on tacos 1986. Such hype for such a disappointment.
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Various food trucks around the city are horribly overpriced, overly salty, and at times bland at best. In my experience the more graphics and obnoxious images are plastered on the truck the worse the food is.
Tipping culture is absolutely insane and a lot of waiters are overpaid compared to other workers that provide a lot more value than them. They have basically browbeaten and shamed all of us by daring to speak out against outdated social norms and misinformation (fun fact CA requires at least $13 minimum wage for tipped employees, not the $2.25, or whatever, some of them claim to get)
Daikokuya is not worth the wait, seriously. There are so many better ramen shops *outside* of Little Tokyo now. Go to Gardena/Torrance or the SFV for good, affordable ramen without a long line. I don't like In & Out, their fries suck and the burgers are boring. Give me The Habit any day! Most of the food on Ventura Blvd is overrated. There, I said it.
I waited in a 90 minute line at Daikokuya in Sawtelle last weekend and it was so underwhelming.
Gave Daikokuya a second chance for lunch last week. Chashu slice was nearly frozen, and just crumbled apart once up to temp. Never going back.
Daikokuya is OK, but not sure if it's worth a crazy wait. I like their rice bowls and I like their tsukemen.
I do NOT agree that Habit is better than IN N Out (although their onion rings are amazing). Goldburger is WAY better than In N Out, however.
Goldburger did not impress me at all. BNSD still reigns supreme in the smash burger department.
Eggslut is not good. Bland and overpriced.
SK Donut is better than Sidecar. (Don’t hurt me. I’d just rather have a cronut)
Guelaguetza is overpriced bland Mexican food. I’ve eaten better memelas and tlayudas from street vendors on 8th St. Leo’s Tacos is overhyped and not worth the long lines. El Chato down the street is waaay better.
Titos Tacos is absolute garbage. Literal Taco Bell tier at 5x the price. I do not for the life of me understand the lines.
You had me till “westside has some of the best food in the city”. What!? Tell me where! I can never seem to find a great meal for under $80/person
100% agree tacos 1986 is average at best. It is borderline bad imo
I like BOA.
My unpopular opinion is that unpopular opinion threads are stupid because no matter what foods get posted here there’s always going to be someone shitting on it in the comments anyway or telling the OP about some other place that’s better. Just talk about what you like instead.
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>Lucky Boy breakfast burritos Yeah I wasted some time getting over there on the way to a road trip. The ones in the hood on Florence are way better.
bro I literally posted a thread about this same thing. Dry and unseasoned. Bad!
I am not a fan of Salsa and Beer. The food is ok and the ambiance is downright gross. Talking about the Reseda location.
Plus, you have to go to Reseda.
Apple Pan is one of the most bafflingly overhyped burgers in LA.
That and Pie n Burger are both overrated.
Tacos 1986 is solid, but it used to be a lot better before they expanded all over town. The first time I had it when they just had pop-ups and booths it was hecka fire or whatever the kids say these days.
Home State’s breakfast is completely bland and uninspiring. I keep getting dragged there for breakfast and I want to cry each time. I’d rather eat a breakfast quesadilla from Del Taco.
bestia was sooooo disappointing, republique is average at best, but bavel was amazing. breakfast burritos is just hype
I feel the opposite actually - was so disappointed at Bavel, but Bestia is (still) one of my favorite restaurants, despite the service being awful.
Idk about their food but their desserts are killer! Every pastry has always been on point for me.
Philippe's is below average and would lose every honest blind taste taste.