LoL. The 2 phenomenal places I went to aren’t even on this list! I’m going to have to make return trips
I don’t know the Chicago scene at all, so not sure if those qualify for the “of note” part, but at a glance, a lot seem to be bistros. I found this list from Eater for LA:
I’ve only been to 4 on the list: Petit Trois (if you count Hollywood), Oriel (love!), Republique (French??), and Papilles (thumbs up), but can’t really speak to the rest of those.
Not saying LA has the most bustling French scene, but it seems to be more than three restaurants. Though I am super grateful that Pasjoli and Bon Temps opened.
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106 Seafood Underground is too expensive.
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Now that you mention it, I do recall thinking that of the restaurant (and also recall thinking that the price hadn’t really been mentioned in all the previous threads).
To be fair, though, is there another local place doing similar food at a better price point?
Seafood aint cheap to buy, y’all. But yea, his opex is low as fug
At 106, I spent $85 on pescado zarandeado ($45), coctel de pulpo, camarones borrachos, and a soda. I was happy to experience 106 once, but next time I will be going to Holbox.
I’m sorry, are we calling $45 for perhaps the best version of a dish on Earth, one that can easily feed two people on its own, too expensive? Absurd.
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I don’t think anyone is arguing that seafood isn’t cheap. I certainly wouldn’t go to a seafood place where the prices seemed to “low.”
At the same time, I do also recall thinking on my first visit (to Coni Seafood 2, no 106) that some of the seafood, in terms of quality, wasn’t particularly good (one of the shrimp dishes, but I can’t recall which). I don’t mean that the shrimp was spoiled or inedible; it’s just the shrimp didn’t seem particularly pristine or interesting.
And I’ll be honest; the first time I had the zarandeado, I found it rather boring w/o the side of the onions… The second time was fine (Sergio was def cooking), but I like the smoked marlin tacos the best…
I guess this means you enjoyed my Hot Take? 
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How many people? How much was it per person?
2 people
$100 all-in
$50pp
Was there enough food if you had 3-4 people?
3 yes
4 might want to add another item
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Are the prices higher than Coni? When I used to go to Coni’s for lunch, it was usually around $25pp.
pretty comparable
For a bit of clarity here and I’m going to assume a lot of things in this preceding post so please don’t quote me per se.
Let’s say Sergio is using the same type of fish that was used at Coni which JGold mentions was snook. Snook(or Robalo) a fish that is not readily available on a weekly basis in fresh form but can be substituted with a similarly shaped and tasting fish of striped bass. Striped bass that is coincidentally farmed down in baja and available on a regular basis in fresh form in LA. Let’s assume some more and say he’s using that, which is traded at approximately $4.50/lb for distributors. Throw a safe markup of 25% to food service and call it $6/lb whole round fish. Now Sergio would be able to save himself some processing costs here if he’s taking it whole round but even so he’s losing another ~10-15% of body weight by losing the guts and gills and splitting it. Call it $6.75 and you’ve now got a fish that weighs 2.5-3lbs? A plate cost of $20.25. 50% mark up and you’re at $40.50, not too far off $45.
Lot of assumptions made there and the most glaring being that he actually could actually be using a frozen snook product that gets traded around the $3/lb level and then he’s raking in way more than I could grasp and if that’s the case, good for him because we all love it.
TBH this is a tiny bit out of my comfort zone but since it is a hot takes thread and I’m waiting on some intel to some back to me so you can take it for what it’s worth right now.
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The hot take is that the man is trying to make money and business economics guide one to raise the prices if the demand isn’t decreasing. So it’s not the cost basis per se, it’s what the market will bear/bare/bhair.
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The lukewarm take is that I was bored and wanted to run through the food cost model outside of my pay grade zone.
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Even without grease chalice-shaped pepperoni, Joe’s Pizza (Santa Monica location only) serves up a better New York slice than Pizza Wagon.
But admittedly, it’s a close call…
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I’m glad you did. That was interesting. 