October 2019 Rundown

boogiebaby · October 7, 2019, 12:32am

Gracias Madre with an old friend transiting in LA. She’s vegan and gluten free, and I’m dairy free, and GM was central to both of us, so it made sense. I hadn’t been there in a couple years, so it was a good choice for us to relax and catch up.

Started with spicy mezcal margaritas. Really good!

Ordered the young coconut ceviche. We both really enjoyed this! It was nice and tart, and the textures were great. I could have made dinner out of this.

Next up was a cucumber tomato salad. I thought it was ok; friend really liked it.

House sangria for our second drinks. Not too sweet, which was nice.

We shared the flautas and the enchiladas for our entrees. Both were very good, with the flautas edging out the enchiladas. The black beans with the enchiladas were amazing - they had so much flavor. The kale side was meh. But we polished everything off.

Dessert was key lime cheesecake. So good! I dont get to eat cheesecake very much anymore so this hit the spot. It was very rich though so we had to leave the last couple bites.

Overall, it was a nice enjoyable dinner. Better than my last visit a couple years ago. We had limited choices due to my friend’s gluten allergy, so that ruled out a couple items that sounded good. We had a good server who kept checking on us, portions were nicely sized and cocktails were good.Total bill before tip was $134.

hungryhungryhippos · October 7, 2019, 4:07am

Ham and cheese croissant and coconut/apricot scone at tart one sycamore along with an iced americano. I usually shy away from filled croissants other than almond but this one was solid. Scone was delicious biscuity but soft and not dry with very nuanced apricot, seeds, and coconuts sprinkled through each bite.

Spot prawn and scallop aguachile with fried heads super sweet shrimp and scallops in a zesty aguachile that was not surprisingly spicy. Fried heads were super crunchy. Holbox
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Seared whole branzino tasty and well cooked. Did not wow me but I always love a well cooked piece of

Roast pork belly siu yuk so juicy with crunchy skin. Consistently the best siu yuk I’ve had in LA.

Beef nasi goreng with egg and chicken sate, the shrimp chip adds a great crunch adding some sambal and kecap manis takes me back to Indo, great wok he at simpang, always great food served there wish we lived closer.

JeetKuneBao · October 7, 2019, 11:33am

Is that my baby Ruby BBQ?

paranoidgarliclover · October 7, 2019, 5:04pm

Holy f*ck, all of that looks AMAZING from Holbox!

My contribution is afternoon tea from the London ($48/person w/ a “magical tea” for the youngin’ at $18). The plate that has the chicken tender and the tiny slider is the kid’s meal. The kid’s meal also include cotton candy as the dessert.

Perfectly pleasant, and I’d happily go again. Sandwiches (the usual suspects for a tea) were tasty and well-seasoned, the list of tea was blissfully short and listed from darkest to lightest, and the panna cotta was like crack. And they had clotted cream for the scones!!! Seating area is also VERY spacious (good for adults and kids), and the service (as expected) was very polite and unobtrusive. Nothing was amazing (except for the panna cotta), but it’s exactly what you expect… That plus the comfortable seating w/o being overly formal makes this a winner, IMHO.

attran99 · October 7, 2019, 7:47pm

That looks darling!

glazedonut · October 7, 2019, 8:25pm

Tire Shop Taqueria daytime setup! 1012 Hooper Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90021

I got a few carne asada and chorizo tacos, and they were awesome. I’d only been to their tire shop location a couple years ago, and it was even better this time. It’s been a while since my last time at Los Poblanos, but I thought this was just as good, if not better as others have said. It’s nice to have this daytime location and more centrally located too, thanks @Sgee for the heads up!

Curious about one thing. This location calls themselves Taqueria San Miguel (yelp photo below). Recent yelp photos of Tire Shop still show them as Tire Shop Taqueria. Otherwise, the menu design/font/prices are all exactly the same. Is Tire Shop just re-branding, or is this an off-shoot?

Bacio Di Latte (Century City) - I loved the chocolate sorbet here - really dark and smooth, not too sweet. I give the slightest edge to Carmela’s chocolate sorbet, which adds a little salt and might even be a little darker, but this was up there for me. I also tried the pistachio and giandujotto (sp?), which is their take on gianduja with whole hazelnuts and a little fudge ribbon. I liked both but they were a bit sweet for me.

Thanks @Haeldaur for the rec. I see what you mean about gelato texture, as these were all really smooth and creamy.

Beard Papa - They currently have a pumpkin filling, which is delicious! Sorta like pumpkin pie filling but creamier of course, goes really well with their regular puff. Prob good with their eclair puff too.

Northern Cafe (Monterey Park) – I was curious to try the youpo noodles having read so much about the dish at Best Noodle House. Sadly, I never made it there. But I enjoyed Northern Cafe’s version - a nice combo of spicy, salty, vinegary, and sweet although I would have preferred a little less sweet. Of course, the noodles are awesome as always. I also got the beef add-on for $1, which is a really good deal for the portion. Then again, the entire menu has generous portions!

Also tried the beef roll - the components tasted great, but the bing was only lukewarm when we we got it. It was still crispy, but either it sat too long before they rolled it, or the cold beef/filling just cooled it down too much. It’s a shame because it could’ve been a great dish.

JeetKuneBao · October 7, 2019, 8:28pm

Re: the name “Tire Shop Taqueria”

Bill Esparza coined that I believe and it caught on.

glazedonut · October 7, 2019, 8:34pm

Yeah it doesn’t ultimately matter what the name is as long as the tacos are great! Just curious if there was some intra-taqueria drama since the Tire Shop location doesn’t use the San Miguel name afaik.

Chowseeker1999 · October 7, 2019, 8:36pm

Hi @glazedonut, @JeetKuneBao,

On our last visit to Tire Shop, their official sign says “Tire Shop Taqueria” now, so your sign looks different. Not sure if it’s the same owners, or as you said, they suddenly rebranded.

glazedonut · October 7, 2019, 8:40pm

The plot thickens … I guess I’ll just have to go back to both and get the scoop haha.

hungryhungryhippos · October 7, 2019, 10:33pm

Yessir…or maam!

That place is really good!

J_L · October 11, 2019, 5:51pm

Nagoya hitsumabushi, from Azay (Little Tokyo)… Outstanding.

JeetKuneBao · October 11, 2019, 6:41pm

Thanks I learned something new today!

Do you like the eel plain, with condiments, or with the dashi?

And what a cool place. Japanese breakfast, bento of the day, Nagoya Hitsumabushi (might be the only place serving this), and some French classics.

Bang it up with the Hayashi Rice at Suehiro and a imagawayaki across the street. Or the Mentaiko Butter Udon at Marugame Monzo. Let the hordes wait at Daikokuya.

Starchtrade · October 11, 2019, 7:32pm

Much love for Suehiro.

The local play is Suehiro’s Higawari Teishoku Lunch (Special Lunch). The price has risen slowly (was $4.75 when I used to go) but steadily in recent year, but if you work in the area it is an excellent value.

I remember that Wed is assorted tempura. Another day is karaage, Another day was ginger pork. Another day was crab croquette.

They come with rice, miso soup, pickles, small salad, and hot tea and will be listed on the wall (picture from Yelp, 2015):

Somebody that has been more recently can fill in the missing details.

J_L · October 11, 2019, 10:42pm

Precisely.

beefnoguy · October 12, 2019, 11:23pm

Niku miso itame (eggplant, minced miso pork, chili oil, stir fry) from the specials board at Izakaya Mayumi SF

Old school kappo washoku (Kiss Seafood SF), Chef Naka san originally from northern tip of Hokkaido, worked in Tokyo at legit places then did his own thing in SF. Trumpet mushroom and dried scallop chawanmushi

Japanese saba from Sushi Maru (San Jose Japantown)

$15 corkage at Din Tai Fung, found a sake pairing for XLB

JeetKuneBao · October 13, 2019, 12:36am

Shanghai Dumpling House

No breakage here, these are some of the juiciest XLB’s. The skin is medium-ish thick. I’ll be back if the mood strikes. I got the Salted Egg Yolk XLB’s…hmm a play on savory mooncake??? Yup underground parking, but I parked at Focus Plaza because I need to pick some stuff at 99 Ranch.

Alices Kitchen

The milk tea was okay, I think Hong Kong Cafe does it better. The warm pineapple bun with cold butter is always a delight with the milk tea. Got the Satay Beef Noodle (egg noodle instead of the traditional instant noodle and no toast/omelette on the side).

I am a sucker for Baked Pork Chop Rice and Tomato Beef over Rice so I’ll give them a repeat visit.

Gaenali Bon Ga
More good eats on Garden Grove Blvd…

Come Friday or Saturday, your banchan comes with spicy gejang (raw marinated crab). Suck away! The nice owner brought me a second helping without asking.

I went on 2 different visits and they seem to rotate banchans. The celery banchan pictured here is killer! Never had anything like it in OC/Cerritos area/Koreatown. Koreans really know how to make celery taste good! Another good celery banchan is Soban’s. I like the thinly sliced radish as well.

The kimchi is good too not as danky funky like the soup places.

The dishes:

Seafood Pancake. The bottom is not too crisp but damn they stuff this with squid, octopus, and green onion. Good stuff. Just wish it was more crisp.

Octopus Bibimbap. The Jeonju style Bibimbap is probably the most popular non-bbq Korean dish. Always tasty but this variation of Octopus is just as good. Spicy-sweet sauce, and crispy bottom. A winner.

I’ll be back for the jorims and jigaes. I saw a few tables with a platter of noodles with squid.

Service is excellent.

Chowseeker1999 · October 13, 2019, 3:13am

Nice report @JeetKuneBao! That Bibimbap looks delicious.

I love Shanghai Dumpling House as well; one of our favorites for a juicy XLB.

DoughnutsFC · October 13, 2019, 5:29pm

Upper West in Santa Monica. Fried sweet potato with chimichurri sauce. Salmon over couscous. My version of fish and chips

Ms Chi in Culver City. I had been wanting to pay another visit after my lackluster meal shortly after their opening week. What a difference a year makes. Lots of new items on the menu. Food came out hot, not room temp like yesteryear. Standouts were the vegan dumplings and Kung Pao cauliflower with a level of heat you’d expect in the SGV. Outstanding.

J_L · October 13, 2019, 5:54pm

Whoa, that’s not the Ms Chi I know… Gotta go back. Thanks for doing the mulligan!