Some recent 
eats:
Killer al pastor from Tacos Los Palomos in El Monte
Mitla Cafe. Finally made the stop en route to Vegas, the chile relleno and salsa were 
Bestia. Roasted Marrow Bone still tastes great all these years later
Dunsmoor, absolutely amazing meal start to finish!
Raffi’s Place, classic spot in Glendale 
Cheese laden galbi jjim from Sun Nong Dan
Ruen Pair, classic Thai 
Lamb chops from Ammatoli 
El Ruso still slaps, although i miss the original location in east la…
Where is the new el ruso?
Echo Park/Silver Lake
Did you get any charcoal flavor? Last time I was there it was absent and meats had clearly just been thrown on a plancha, which made it a skip for me personally. But I’m in the area a lot and would love to go back if that’s changed or was an aberration.
Torisoba Tonsho - a chicken ramen place in Beverly Grove just about a year old.
I liked it and will return. Kaedama is well worth it.
Original (tori paitan as opposed to dandan or lemon butter add on)
EDIT: regular with kaedama is still good, smooth flavor and not too salty. the aji-tama is pretty good as well. i don’t really recommend the sides right now - the karaage, gyoza, optional seaweed, so far not at the same level.
parking much easier for lunch. dinner is apparently packed at Fumi Sushi nearby.
You are correct, no charcoal smokey asada flavor like in the past, and it seems like it was thrown on the plancha. However, the buttery flour tortillas remain the same 
Borit Gogae, Koreatown
i love this place
Ooh, that sounds and looks delicious…
Asakura in West LA…small keiseki that opened under the radar in the old Yamakase space… photos and casual review here
Great report!
Asakura is the latest (and first American) outing from Japanese restaurant Makoto Okamoto, who first made his mark with La Bombance in the Nishiazabu area of Tokyo
The “zero marketing” approach is real: I was the only diner at Asakura on my visit last month. But it was a good meal. Ghosts of Yamakase (which held court there before Asakura) were felt. Highlights included a delicious smoked scallion noodle and a fantastic coffee dessert. Give them a shot. Bring Google translator (unless you are fluent in Japanese; Yama-san was off the night I was there).
And “On a bad day”- DTF Century City recently dropped a steam basket on my table that contained EXACTLY zero XLB.
Not the biggest deal - shit, of course, happens - and, to be fair, their Swiss-like assembly line system probably makes very few mistakes of this sort.
But what ensued was kinda hilarious.
They could not (quickly) produce a replacement. That would be a real spanner-in-the-works. The replacement took 20 minutes to manufacture because the order had to go to the back of the line. They had no way to “safely” (according to the manger) and quickly bring forth the replacement without messing up the whole system. Shocking!
They didn’t charge us for the order, and I didn’t charge them for my time!
Yeah DTF esp the dumplings have been on a downhill alert for awhile. Prices going up quality going down
I have noticed DTF prices going up (what hasn’t gone up), but I have not noticed a decline in quality, and I eat there a lot.
What does the bag say?
I asked my brother where he wanted to go for his birthday dinner. He said “Soup 'n Fresh in Rancho Cucamonga.”
IT’SUGAR, stores where you can fill up candy from bulk bins
