There is construction going on at the old Lyfe Kitchen spot in downtown Culver City, which is a pretty big space. Some of the initial decorations look vaguely chinese, and the application for a beer and wine license is for a Shi Wei Tian, Inc., which appears to be located in Alhambra. I am not getting my hopes up (this is downtown Culver after all), but anyone know what restaurants (if any) this company is associated with?
Can’t verify, but coincidentally, while my wife and I were walking over to Meet in Paris in DTCC the other night, I pointed to that building and remarked, “Looks like something new is going in there. Sure would be nice if something Asian-y went in there. No Chinese-related food here (in DTCC), no Thai, and that Ramen Roll - what a flop.”
This area showed such promise - what - 10 years ago? If some department or person is in charge of curating this economic zone, they suck.
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The crowd in the area has frankly long been more interested in drinking and casual food than eating. That’s why City Tavern does so well even though the food is shit. It’s hard to assess whether a really good restaurant would survive and thrive because it hasn’t happened. It is nice that Loqui does so well (a bit off the downtown Culver track).
I think for the fact that Loqui, Cannibal, Blue Bottle/higher-end/concept-type places are DTCC-adjacent, better food would work in this area.
It seems that as good food became a more considered topic in society (with the easier access to info via continually more portable electronic devices), good food choices in DTCC headed in the opposite direction (which seemed to coincide with rising rents).
Baco Shop is a step in the right direction. Ramen Roll seemed to be a possibility looking from the outside in. I don’t know - maybe I’m just being wishful, but this area could do better.
There is Golden China just past the Eastern tip of DTCC. Not too bad a choice for basic Chinese food.
Yeah but I think an actual restaurant in DTCC is in order - again, wishful thinking. I remember back in the CH days, “wish list” talk going on about a DTF or Newport Seafood- level place would complement the area well.