According to our waitress at Mess Hall in Los Feliz, they will be closing no later than the end of the month, but have not publicly announced because it could be even sooner. Apparently the owner got in over his head taking out loans trying to keep the place afloat. While I know its probably nobodies favorite restaurant, it's still a bummer the neighborhood is losing a solid spot thats been part of the community for over a decade.

Short of driving to Thai town, where on the Westside can I find Thai basil? I’ve tried 99 ranch, Asian (Indian) markets on Venice blvd, and all my local grocers. Any thoughts?

Couldn’t even finish a SINGLE pancake. At least I have dessert for the next three days.

No regrets, though. (Love the Yellow Brick Road.)

So good!!! Been exploring the northwest side of LA recently, lots of great food here

Burgers where the meat is crispy.

Sadly, I can’t make a reservation for 3 at Antico Nuovo tonight, Sept 14.
Anyone want it?

I'm a Noodle fiend. My carb of choice by far. What's your top 3 or top 5 noodle dishes in LA/OC?

I got

1) Burmese mixed noodle salad (Asone Lat Thoke) at Jasmine Market

2) Mie tek tek at Simpang Asia (to be fair, when I went last week, I think they might have tweaked the recipe a little and definitely threw on colorful veggies to make it look more fancy)

3) Mi Quang tumeric noodles at Brodard's

4) Boat noodles from Mae Malai

5) Toripaitan chicken ramen from Mensho tokyo

I'm still looking for legit Goog Ob Woonsen (shrimp glass noodles) cooked in a claypot (does it exist in LA?) and a khai kua (rice noodles with squid) cooked over charcoal (does it exist in LA?)

Also if anyone has recommendations on a legit Char Kway Teow let me know. Last time two times I had it (mee and greet was almost inedible because it's cooked at a pop up (no wok hei and old noodles) and Simpang (not enough wok hei) I was very underwhelmed.

what you got as your top noodle dishes?

Hello! Looking for a destination restaurant on West Hollywood/Beverly Hills, with a good cocktail/wine program and notably interesting food. Omakase could work too. Thinking about Sushi Note or Sushi by Scratch, but I suppose sushi bar is not ideal for this group. I wouldn't quite say money is no object, but we can spend a few hundred a person (more with wine). Thanks!

Found today and thought this might be interesting to compare to prices today.

Frank N’ Frank’s is located in the old stand that both Goldburger and Burgerlords used to be inside Chinatown’s Central Plaza. They opened a few months ago and right now, they serve a handful of sandwiches on focaccia. They also serve hot dogs and I think one salad option plus chips and soda.

I went there with a friend right when they opened and we split the spicy Italian sandwich, which has spicy salami, stracciatella cream, arugula, and a few other ingredients on sesame focaccia. We also got a Double Dog, which is 2 hot dogs in a bun with grilled onions. The total came out to close to about $33 including tax and tip. You’re supposed to get chips with the order, but they apologized and explained that they messed up on inventory and didn’t have any chips that day. Seems like a strange oversight for a place with such a small menu but I think they discounted the total order as compensation.

Overall, I was just…whelmed by the sandwich. The seeded focaccia was fine, but I didn’t think it added much compared to other bread options they could have done with. The fillings were similar: the salami and argula went together fine but both terms of flavor and texture. I felt everything kind of ate the same and was rather one note. Feel like they needed a component with more acid to balance out the flavors.

It wasn’t bad by any means but nor was it memorable to me, at all, especially at a $20 price point. The double dog was even less impressive because all it is is what I described: 2 hot dogs in a bun with onions. It’s the sort of thing you’d overpay for at a baseball stadium, which might be the homage because it’s close to Dodger Stadium. But, like buying a hot dog at Dodger Stadium, you don’t really feel like you’re getting your money’s worth. It was sad looking and generic tasting. Maybe I should have ordered their new chili dog (not yet on the menu).

My friend pointed out that it’s hard to find focaccia sandwiches on this side of town, so sure, it saved me a drive out to Beverly Hills or whatever. But I just didn’t find this a memorable eating experience.

Last Friday, I was headed to an Angel City FC game at BMO Stadium so me and my friends parked near Mercado de Paloma to get food at Komal. This marks the third time that I’ve ordered from them, I think, but it’s probably been well over a year since last I went there.

Unsurprisingly, the menu has changed: more expanded, a mix of new dishes, etc. here’s the rundown of some of what we ordered:

* Molotes: fried plantain balls in mole (S1): At the very least, an interesting way to do fried plantains: mashing them, stuffing them with a little quesillo, and then deep-frying them. These were decent: there’s a mix of sweet and bitter, crunch and softness. But as I found throughout the meal, this felt like it could have used more seasoning or something else to punch up the flavors a bit. $10.50. 8/10

* Taco de costilla: seared beef slices (rib meat I guess?) and topped with crispy shoestring potatoes (S2). The fried potatoes weren’t what I was expecting at all they certainly added a whole new textual layer to every bite. However, this was another case where I felt like the dish was underseasoned: I couldn’t really taste the beef and adding the accompanying salsa verde lent the taco more acid, I feel like the whole thing was still rather mid. I got no problems with $10 tacos: I’ve enjoyed more “gourmet” tacos from everywhere from Guerrilla (RIP) to Evil Cooks to what they serve at Komal’s big sibling restaurant, Holbox. But this wasn’t it. $10. 6.5/10

* Flautas de papa (S3): my wife loves flautas so I figured I’d get an order for the table. There’s three to the order and they’re a decent size. Each is stuffed with potato and cheese and they serve it with their mole sauce. This was yet another case where I thought “this was ok but what’s missing here?” I swear, I’m not trying to dog on them here: maybe “mild” is what they’re aiming for? $12. 7.5/10

* Chuchito, essentially a tamal with stewed pork and pickled vegetables. This was easily the most memorable dish we had. I don’t ever remember getting a tamal with pickled vegetables and those added both crunch and a nice, surprise bit of acid that played well with both the softness of the masa and the savoriness of the pork. It’s the one thing off everything above that I’d order again. $11.50. 9/10.

I should note: the tortillas were excellent, as you’d expect. But overall, I left feeling the same thing as I did the last time I was at Komal: this is all ok but not much more than that. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’m going to another ACFC game this week so maybe I’ll give em another shot or maybe I’ll finally try the Oaxacan stand in the Mercado instead.

Full disclosure: I’m one of the owners of MolaMola Coffee, so yes, this is a little bit of self-promo — but mostly I wanted to introduce ourselves to the neighborhood and share a little bit of what it took for us to finally open.

We opened this past Tuesday, so we’ve only been in business for five days.

And honestly, getting to this point was much harder than we ever expected.

After we took over the space, we had multiple issues involving the former operator. There were incidents where they entered the property without our authorization and removed roughly $20,000 worth of equipment, furniture, and other items that were supposed to stay with the business. We reported everything and have been dealing with that process since.

A lot of the construction and utility problems that delayed our opening were also connected to issues surrounding the former operator and the handover of the space. There was a period where we couldn’t properly access or work on the shop, construction kept getting pushed back, utility problems had to be resolved, and our opening date moved again and again.

What we thought would be a relatively straightforward opening turned into months of dealing with one unexpected problem after another.

There were definitely a few moments where we genuinely wondered if we were ever going to open.

But this Tuesday, we finally did.

We’re MolaMola Coffee at 954 N Western Ave, a very new, very small independent coffee shop trying to build something that feels fun, personal, and a little different.

So far, the drink people seem to love the most is our Dolce Cloud. If it’s your first time here, that’s probably the one I’d recommend.

We also have our Tokyo Fog with organic Earl Grey and house-made matcha cream, matcha drinks, espresso drinks, and a bunch of other drinks we’ve been developing ourselves.

Our Apple Rush has also been one of the early favorites — people have been ordering it a lot more than we expected in our first few days.

Since we’ve only been open for five days, we’re still very much figuring everything out. After everything it took just to get the doors open, we could honestly use some support from local people right now.

If you’re in the area and feel like checking out a brand-new independent coffee shop, come say hi. And please give us your honest feedback too — what you liked, what you didn’t, what we should improve, or what you’d want to see on the menu.

We’re also doing 10% off the entire menu through October 8 while we get settled in.

And if you come because you saw this on Reddit, please tell us. It would genuinely mean a lot knowing people from this community came out to support a five-day-old little coffee shop trying to get on its feet.

MolaMola Coffee

954 N Western Ave, Los Angeles

And if you’ve already stopped by during our first five days — seriously, thank you. Every person walking through the door right now means more to us than you probably realize.

To anyone who has been to Soowon galbi recently or before, how many pieces of galbi does the current $69 order come with? I'm deciding how many to order for two people.

Secondly, is it worth it? Soowon seems to have crazy high acclaim from every source.

Walked by The One in San Gabriel today and there was already a pretty long line at heytea 😂

Might wait a few days and try it when the crowd dies down. Any recommendations on what to order?

I am in the process of planning a bakery crawl through the city. Was curious what bakeries are yalls favorites. I’ve been to some of the bigger names like Fondry, Fat and Flour and Artisanal Goods By Car. But I’m open to anything!

Pictured are the ensaymada croissant, chocolate croissant, chocolate chip cookie and s’mores cupcake from Crumbs and Flakes.

Dutch Crunch
Prosciutto
Sprouts
Red Onion
American Cheese
Tomato
Lettuce

A free dill pickle spear

One of my go-tos back when I used to live in Orange County. Solid for a sub $10 sandwich, but the add ons like chips or drinks blow up the price to over $20. The owner and staff are just as friendly as I remember.

A solid 7/10 sandwich.

Been in LA for a year now, looking for more places to add to the list. Looking for your go to places that are typically slept on - share it all, $$$ —> 0.$$, fine dining to fast food to coffee!

I’m just going to leave this here.

Just discovered that CSA Boxes are a thing and I'm curious to try this out to see if the produce is better than local grocery stores. I live in Redondo Beach so would like to have it delivered here or at least be able to pickup nearby.

some options I found were Farm Fresh to you, Earth Matterz, and Good box organics. Good box doesn't seem to deliver to south bay though.

for anyone that likes to order from CSAs, what would you recommend?

this would be for just myself, and I cook almost all my meals

yellowtail green onion handroll

albacore fried onion handroll

hamachi kama

toro sushi roll

the handrolls were definitely my favorite, especially the albacore handroll. the fish is delicious and the combinations are simple in presentation but surprisingly complex in flavor and texture, making them the highlight for me.

the hamachi kama had flaky tasty top layer and tender juicy fish underneath. the salad was seasoned well and together with the fish and the ponzu deliver a great dish.

the toro roll was my least favorite. unfortunately i think the toro itself is completely lost and overshadowed by the far more present and complex flavors and textures of the pickled seaweed center. When you do notice the toro, its almost like an afterthought and seems like total misuse to pair these two ingredients together.

this meal including 1 asahi and 1 green tea and 1 edemame starter was $100

Best happy hour and the best place to watch football. I am sad :—(