Go Dawgs.
In all seriousness though I wish Little Dacha would open a restaurant or pop up more. Her pig head Khinkhali is pretty awesome.
1 Like
More real tapas joints. Ones that don’t try for some kind of tapas-inspired “vision”. Something along the lines of the old Bar Pintxo in Santa Monica.
6 Likes
Yakitori-ya is still open! It’s my favorite spot
5 Likes
Here’s another one; Kachka! the Russian restaurant in Portland. I remember having a pretty epic meal there with an even crazier vodka tasting. It would be a cool addition to LA. Has anyone been?
5 Likes
Oh god, I forgot to mention my dream LA restaurant concept, which I think I’ll never see in my lifetime.
Hip, modern Sri Lankan spot. The vibes would be akin to Lasita or Hoppers in London— I don’t need a full Kato experience though I’d take it.
4 Likes
Burn your mouth pan pizza for bookit!
Also what happened to their breadsticks they used to be the best
2 Likes
Went this summer and had a great time. Especially loved the varieties of infused vodkas. Fig was a standout (I think).
2 Likes
Indian like Adda/Dhamaka/Semma in NY
Creative/genre-less food like Wildair in NY or ones that straddle french wine bar like Claud/Foul Witch. Maybe Baby Bistro was close to this and will be when it opens permanently. In general, something in the 80-100$ “cook what we want but not super high end” kinds of restaurants.
3 Likes
I love Pizza Hut back in the day!
I remember those cups
At least we got Quarter Sheets with that Pizza Hut style butter crust
2 Likes
Japanese soup curry
Rijstafel.
4 Likes
Biased since I’m from the Delaware Valley, but strong agree with the Philadelphia view. You can great Vietnamese food all around the city and into Upper Darby. Would love to import the lunchtime halal carts and neighborhood corner bars with interesting beer to Los Angeles.
1 Like
Kachka was a highlight when we were in Portland in January!
2 Likes
The no longer extant Ramayani in Westwood was one of the few (if not only) places in L.A. that regularly offered rijsttafel. I seem to recall that Simpang Asia will do it as a special order, though.
2 Likes
Second on that. Georgian-Georgian with all the spices and vegetable dishes, not Russian-“Georgian” like Kinkhali House. San Diego and Sebastopol are kind of a schlep.
That’s most places at the top end of the price range.
Dinner is far more profitable than lunch and at the high end it’s a virtually insurmountable challenge to make it pencil out. You basically need two chefs with two A-team crews.
1 Like
This is very much influenced by whatever places I’ve recently traveled to and was like “huh that’s neat why don’t we have that in LA??”
International Street Drunchies for a scene that’s as multicultural as LA, I find it shocking that so many other cultures don’t even compete against our southern neighbors for dominating the nightly popups for a great meal
- Kebabs - if we have al pastor posted on almost every corner, why not more shwarmas and kebabs? Had an awesome time in Europe over summer where I substituted one vertical grilled meat for another. Imagine how many “next Mini Kabob” spots openning up and slinging great wraps and rice plates at 3am under the glow of a white floodlight
- East Asian Night Markets - Basically endless variety here. Chinese skewers/shao kao, flaky bings and scallion pancakes, noodles in sesame paste, Korean street food, Thai food (more radna siloms)
Sit Down Restaurants
- More French Bistro “Pick an Appetizer + Main course” for a fixed price, and a dessert for an additional $5. Basically, imagine if DineLA was always a thing in many restaurants
- Taiwanese Re Chaos/Beer Drinking Halls - an answer to the izakaya/pocha. Tons of different stir fries that go well with rice and there’s a fridge of grab your own beer where the servers just tally up the bottles to charge your table
- More “Noma & Fermentation” restaurants. Early Baroo was like this, Soban has been like this for generations. Can there be a restaurant that focuses on fermenting things that exists beyond just a Korean concept? Doesn’t even have to be a hyper-expensive tasting menu.
- Southern France Cuisine (Marseille & Nice) - Fun and interesting intersection of French & Italian. There’s already widespread gourmand acceptance of anchovies (ty Mozzaplex AND Southeast Asia for using Anchovy Garum aka fish sauce), and I think this would be a widely accepted cuisine here. Lots of olives, lots of chickpeas, and lots of stuffed vegetables with pesto thats broiled with cheese.
- More African Cuisine - As diverse as LA is, I didn’t get a good glimpse into the incredible flavors of African food until going to Europe. While we do have a thriving Ethiopian community on Fairfax, and a yelp search for “Joloff Rice” shows a few entries, I don’t think it’s quite popular and represented in mainstream foodtalk LA, to the same extent as NYC or Europe. Just like how we do Taco Crawls in LA as a recreational sport, I want to compare and contrast multiple Joloff Rices.
Bars
- More “Double Chicken Please” & Other Cocktail lounges that come with a snack pairing made specifically for the cocktail.
- Tea-based Cocktails - I believe Steep LA already does this, but this would further add another cocktail subculture in LA that would be super fun to explore
14 Likes
Re:East Asian Markets
In my mind that what 626 Night Market should be. Now it’s just ridiculous forced fusion rainbow this and that social media pretty food.
You might like Little Saigon Night Market and Wat Thai in the weekend mornings.
3 Likes
Have you heard of F&Bar? They’re doing a snack/cocktail pairing.
2 Likes
I’ve seen it done in NYC at Le Bernardin and Jean-Georges for example. Is it really that far out of reach for LA restaurants?
That sounds delicious. 
1 Like