Rate-A-Restaurant #182: Loteria Grill Hollywood

Restaurant: Loteria Grill

Location: 6627 Hollywood Blvd. (Hollywood)

Type of restaurant: Mexican

We stipulated: We were heading west to the LACMA — giving us a rare chance to hit Hollywood for lunch. We’ve been big fans of Loteria’s Farmers Market location for years — here’s our 2004 review — but that setting always seemed too frantic and not right for such gourmet Mexican fare. Enter the Hollywood location — not only is the food served in a more pleasant environment, but they mix margaritas there. Sold.

What we ordered: MIKE: Papa con rajas taco (potatoes with roasted poblano peppers, served with finely chopped onion and cilantro, queso fresco and salsa verde, $3); tinga de pollo taco (chicken, stewed with chipotle peppers and homemade chorizo. Served with salsa roja de chipotle, $3.50); cochinita pibil taco (pork, slowly roasted in banana lead, served with citrus-pickled red onion and chile habanero, $3.50); jalapeno margarita ($12). MARIA: Mole poblano con pollo burrito (chicken in mole poblano, served with sesame seeds, chopped onion and queso fresco, $8.50).

High point: The space is cool, comforting and less hectic (obviously) than the Farmer’s Market. And that jalapeno margarita was a nice surprise, tangy and just spicy enough. Also loved the habanero salsa that came with the free chips.

Low point: Flies. Lots of them. Landing on our faces. Distracting us from our food.

Overall impression: A great place for a Hollywood lunch — and not too pricey (other than the margarita, which, I know, I shouldn’t be having on a Saturday afternoon anyway. But hey, it’s summertime). And yes, I know meals like this are partly why I need to lose ten pounds, per my doctor. But food this good is hard to resist.

Chance we’ll go back: Absolutely. And will bring others as well.

For a complete list of our more than 180 restaurant reviews, check out our companion Rate-A-Restaurant site.

Hugo’s Tacos Comes to Atwater Village

The Atwater Village Newbie wrote last month that Hugo’s Tacos is opening an outpost in the ‘hood… and as of today, the “coming soon” signs are up.

The new Hugo’s Tacos is located on Glendale Blvd. in the tiny store that formerly housed Long’s Realty. Not sure how Long’s stayed in business; the only property they ever touted was some 400 sq. foot office space on Broadway in Glendale. Guess it finally caught up to them.

Maria and I were actually thinking the space would be perfect for a small wine bar or other mini food spot. But I gotta imagine Hugo’s has some work ahead of it, as there isn’t any sort of kitchen in the tiny space, as far as I can tell.

We reviewed the original Hugo’s Tacos — itself an off-shoot of the popular Hugo’s brunch chain — in 2006. Here’s our review from then. A highlight:

It still seems weird that brunch staple Hugo’s now also operates a taco stand. But because it’s fairly new, the stand is clean, operates well, and is a gourmet alternative to your typical greasy taco shack. It also offers up vegetarian options, like a soy chorizo and potato taco, as well as a zucchini/corn/string bean one.

Always nice to have yet another dining option in Atwater Village. And since I pass by that old Long’s Realty shack every day on the way home from work, I can imagine plenty of nights in the future where I’m bringing home tacos to the Franklin Avenue 3.

Maria’s Thursday Three

(Flickr pic of a Yuca’s carnitas taco by jslander.)

1. Restaurant Trend: Both Yuca’s on Hillhurst and Il Capriccio on Vermont this year opened secondary new sites not far from their original locations. (The new Yuca’s is bigger, with a large kitchen and a seating area; the new Il Capriccio focuses on pizza.) Now add to that list Din Tai Fung, which just opened a second outfit right next to the first. Is this becoming a trend on how restaurants are dealing with overflow? Both Yuca’s and Il Capriccio’s new sites are on Hollywood Blvd. between Hillhurst and Vermont.

2. Potluck Winner: I have a surefire recipe for Spinach Artichoke Dip. This is very easy and makes for a crowd-pleasing dish to bring to those holiday parties you get invited to. Defrost and squeeze out the water on a 10 ounce package of chopped spinach, drain and chop up 2 cans of artichoke, mix both with 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese and 1 cup of shredded monterey jack (mozzarella or those cheese blend packages will do). Put it in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes and serve with cut vegetables or tortilla chips.

3.Pershing Square On Ice: This Saturday, we are heading to Pershing Square for downtown’s annual winter holiday festival. We went last year and had much fun with Blogger Toddler in tow– playing in snow was the highlight. Meanwhile, Pershing Square has all sorts of programs lined up daily. The Friday tribute band line-up names made me laugh so hard. My favorite? “No Duh,” a No Doubt tribute band that’s scheduled to play tomorrow.

Maria’s Thursday Three

(Flickr pic of a Yuca’s carnitas taco by jslander.)

1. Restaurant Trend: Both Yuca’s on Hillhurst and Il Capriccio on Vermont this year opened secondary new sites not far from their original locations. (The new Yuca’s is bigger, with a large kitchen and a seating area; the new Il Capriccio focuses on pizza.) Now add to that list Din Tai Fung, which just opened a second outfit right next to the first. Is this becoming a trend on how restaurants are dealing with overflow? Both Yuca’s and Il Capriccio’s new sites are on Hollywood Blvd. between Hillhurst and Vermont.

2. Potluck Winner: I have a surefire recipe for Spinach Artichoke Dip. This is very easy and makes for a crowd-pleasing dish to bring to those holiday parties you get invited to. Defrost and squeeze out the water on a 10 ounce package of chopped spinach, drain and chop up 2 cans of artichoke, mix both with 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese and 1 cup of shredded monterey jack (mozzarella or those cheese blend packages will do). Put it in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes and serve with cut vegetables or tortilla chips.

3.Pershing Square On Ice: This Saturday, we are heading to Pershing Square for downtown’s annual winter holiday festival. We went last year and had much fun with Blogger Toddler in tow– playing in snow was the highlight. Meanwhile, Pershing Square has all sorts of programs lined up daily. The Friday tribute band line-up names made me laugh so hard. My favorite? “No Duh,” a No Doubt tribute band that’s scheduled to play tomorrow.

Two Days Until the Great Los Angeles Walk: Eating Our Way Down Pico

(Flickr pic of birria taco at El Parian by larryleenyc.)

Before we all embark on the Great Los Angeles Walk this Saturday, here’s some required reading: Jonathan Gold’s recap of he year he ate down Pico Boulevard.

He writes:

Sunset may have more famous restaurants, La Brea better restaurants and Melrose more restaurants whose chairs have nestled Mira Sorvino’s gently rounded flanks. No glossy magazine has ever suggested Pico as an emerging hot street; no real estate ad has ever described a house as Pico-adjacent. The street plays host to the unglamorous bits of Los Angeles, the row of one-stops that supply records to local jukeboxes, the kosher-pizza district, the auto-body shops that speckle its length the way giant churches speckle Wilshire. And while Pico may divide neighborhoods more than it creates them — Koreatown from Harvard Heights, Wilshire Center from Midtown, Beverly Hills–adjacent from not-all-that-Beverly-Hills-adjacent, neighborhoods your cousin Martha lives in from neighborhoods she wouldn’t step into after dark — there isn’t even a Pico-identified gang.

But precisely because Pico is so unremarked, because it is left alone like old lawn furniture moldering away in the side yard of a suburban house, it is at the center of entry-level capitalism in central Los Angeles, and one of the most vital food streets in the world.

Indeed. It was partly Gold’s gradual eating trek down Pico in his 20s that inspired me to pick Pico for this year’s walk.

So, of course, I had to contact the Pulitzer Prize-winning scrbe. To my pleasant surprise, he emailed back quickly, and even said he read Franklin Avenue! I managed to pick his brain on a few spots we should all consider trying once everyone’s bellies start growling. A selection:

El Salvador Cafe. 575 E. Pico

El Parian. 1528 W. Pico (“I went on record in 1990 claiming that El Parian’s birria was the single best Mexican dish in Los Angeles, and nothing in the thousand L.A. Mexican meals I have eaten since then has done anything to sway me from that belief,” Gold wrote in 2006)

La 27th Restaurante Familar. 1830 W. Pico (Nicaraguan food — Gold suggests “nacatamals and fritanga”).

El Colmao. 2328 W. Pico (Cuban food — Gold suggests “fried pork leg with onions).

Las 7 Regiones de Oaxaca. 2648 W. Pico. (“It is Las 7 Regiones’ coloradito, its version of one of the famous seven moles of Oaxaca, that is a really remarkable concoction — thick and dense and sweet-hot and unctuous, the product of hours of labor and probably 20-odd toasted seeds and chiles and spices,” Gold writes.)

Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. 5006 W. Pico. (“Roscoe’s is the Carnegie Deli of L.A.’s R&B scene,” Gold wrote in an old review.)

Oki-Dog. 5056 W. Pico. (Go for the pastrami burritos, Gold says.)

Magic Carpet. 8566 W. Pico. (Gold once wrote that he used to live close by: ” if I had tasted Magic Carpet’s melawach back then, I might never have moved – a bronzed, pizza-size fried Yemenite pancake that seems to have a hundred levels of wheatiness, a thousand layers of crunch and the taste of clean oil, melawach is one of the greatest dishes in Los Angeles.”)

Twin Dragon. 8597 W. Pico. (Gold admits that he likes some of the Shanghaiese dishes here, writing a few years back: “Although the kitchen is perfectly capable of turning out dishes stunning only in their mediocrity, some of the truly Shanghainese dishes — smoked fish, round steamed dumplings, shredded pork sautéed with salted vegetables — are fine.”)

Pico Kosher Deli. 8826 W. Pico. (Gold recommends the pastrami sandwiches, and wrote in 2004 about its “PLT” — like a BLT, but with pastrami.)

John O’Groats. 10516 W. Pico. (“Smoked pork chops,” Gold recommends.)

Pico Teriyaki House. 10610 W. Pico. (Gold notes it’s nearly impossible to get in, so it’s not a spot to visit during our hike. But for future reference, he says try the robatayaki.)

Torafuku. 10914 W. Pico. (Their izakaya dishes are a little too pricy for he hike, but Gold named it one of L.A.’s 99 essential restaurants in 2005.)

That’s it for now– “Man, it’s a long street. I’ll try and think of some others,” he writes. Thanks to Jonathan Gold for sharing his insight on eating down Pico!

Two Days Until the Great Los Angeles Walk: Eating Our Way Down Pico

(Flickr pic of birria taco at El Parian by larryleenyc.)

Before we all embark on the Great Los Angeles Walk this Saturday, here’s some required reading: Jonathan Gold’s recap of he year he ate down Pico Boulevard.

He writes:

Sunset may have more famous restaurants, La Brea better restaurants and Melrose more restaurants whose chairs have nestled Mira Sorvino’s gently rounded flanks. No glossy magazine has ever suggested Pico as an emerging hot street; no real estate ad has ever described a house as Pico-adjacent. The street plays host to the unglamorous bits of Los Angeles, the row of one-stops that supply records to local jukeboxes, the kosher-pizza district, the auto-body shops that speckle its length the way giant churches speckle Wilshire. And while Pico may divide neighborhoods more than it creates them — Koreatown from Harvard Heights, Wilshire Center from Midtown, Beverly Hills–adjacent from not-all-that-Beverly-Hills-adjacent, neighborhoods your cousin Martha lives in from neighborhoods she wouldn’t step into after dark — there isn’t even a Pico-identified gang.

But precisely because Pico is so unremarked, because it is left alone like old lawn furniture moldering away in the side yard of a suburban house, it is at the center of entry-level capitalism in central Los Angeles, and one of the most vital food streets in the world.

Indeed. It was partly Gold’s gradual eating trek down Pico in his 20s that inspired me to pick Pico for this year’s walk.

So, of course, I had to contact the Pulitzer Prize-winning scrbe. To my pleasant surprise, he emailed back quickly, and even said he read Franklin Avenue! I managed to pick his brain on a few spots we should all consider trying once everyone’s bellies start growling. A selection:

El Salvador Cafe. 575 E. Pico

El Parian. 1528 W. Pico (“I went on record in 1990 claiming that El Parian’s birria was the single best Mexican dish in Los Angeles, and nothing in the thousand L.A. Mexican meals I have eaten since then has done anything to sway me from that belief,” Gold wrote in 2006)

La 27th Restaurante Familar. 1830 W. Pico (Nicaraguan food — Gold suggests “nacatamals and fritanga”).

El Colmao. 2328 W. Pico (Cuban food — Gold suggests “fried pork leg with onions).

Las 7 Regiones de Oaxaca. 2648 W. Pico. (“It is Las 7 Regiones’ coloradito, its version of one of the famous seven moles of Oaxaca, that is a really remarkable concoction — thick and dense and sweet-hot and unctuous, the product of hours of labor and probably 20-odd toasted seeds and chiles and spices,” Gold writes.)

Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. 5006 W. Pico. (“Roscoe’s is the Carnegie Deli of L.A.’s R&B scene,” Gold wrote in an old review.)

Oki-Dog. 5056 W. Pico. (Go for the pastrami burritos, Gold says.)

Magic Carpet. 8566 W. Pico. (Gold once wrote that he used to live close by: ” if I had tasted Magic Carpet’s melawach back then, I might never have moved – a bronzed, pizza-size fried Yemenite pancake that seems to have a hundred levels of wheatiness, a thousand layers of crunch and the taste of clean oil, melawach is one of the greatest dishes in Los Angeles.”)

Twin Dragon. 8597 W. Pico. (Gold admits that he likes some of the Shanghaiese dishes here, writing a few years back: “Although the kitchen is perfectly capable of turning out dishes stunning only in their mediocrity, some of the truly Shanghainese dishes — smoked fish, round steamed dumplings, shredded pork sautéed with salted vegetables — are fine.”)

Pico Kosher Deli. 8826 W. Pico. (Gold recommends the pastrami sandwiches, and wrote in 2004 about its “PLT” — like a BLT, but with pastrami.)

John O’Groats. 10516 W. Pico. (“Smoked pork chops,” Gold recommends.)

Pico Teriyaki House. 10610 W. Pico. (Gold notes it’s nearly impossible to get in, so it’s not a spot to visit during our hike. But for future reference, he says try the robatayaki.)

Torafuku. 10914 W. Pico. (Their izakaya dishes are a little too pricy for he hike, but Gold named it one of L.A.’s 99 essential restaurants in 2005.)

That’s it for now– “Man, it’s a long street. I’ll try and think of some others,” he writes. Thanks to Jonathan Gold for sharing his insight on eating down Pico!

Tacos De La York Blvd.

Brand-new neighborhood blog York Blvd. is off and running, covering the whole Northeast Los Angeles world of Highland Park, Glassell Park, Mt. Washington, Eagle Rock, etc. They’re already compiling at least one ambitious list, the area’s Top 10 Street Food Vendors.

At No. 1 is Tacos La Estrella a taco truck found at Ave, 54 and York, as well as a taco shop a 6103 N. Figueroa. They write:

I know the complaints: (spoken in a whiny voice) “La Estrella is the Starbucks of Highland Park with 3 trucks and an actual storefront”, “they use too much rice in their burritos”, and “they don’t have wifi or Nachos Bell Grande”. Still, they serve excellent carne asada and carnitas that require you to have a drink on hand. I’ve eaten with friends at the stand on Fig while other patrons threw up gang signs to passing automobiles, and I’ve stood pigging out at the truck on York while another customer wrote “A’s” on the truck with a finger, accusing them of being “bitches” for closing just before he arrived. My theory is this: Anyone who has been jumped into a gang must have lived in the neighborhood a while. Thus, it stands to reason that they would know where the best tacos are.

Several readers also chime in. Any other spots you’d add to the list?

Rate-A-Restaurant, #141 in a series

Restaurant: La Cabanita

Location: 3447 N Verdugo Rd., Glendale (Montrose)

Type of restaurant: Mexican

We stipulated: Exploring northeast Glendale (as we checked out the campus of Glendale Community College), we decided to keep driving north on Verdugo. We hit Montrose around lunchtime… and Maria remembered a friend raving about La Cabanita. It didn’t take much convincing; even if the food wasn’t going to be great, I could use a margarita.

What we ordered: I ordered the combination plate that included a chicken mole enchilada, a carnitas taco, rice and black beans. Maria got the frijolito enchilada; Evan, the chicken soup. And yes, I got that margarita, rocks and salt.

(Flickr pic by Ilpo’s Sojourn.)

High point: First off, what a straight-forward, neighborhoody, awesome place. The chicken mole deep, rich and hearty. The chicken soup, so good that I was stealing bites from my own son. Margarita, a little more average. But overall, the food is well worth driving up to Montrose (not a difficult thing to do if you’re in Los Feliz/Silver Lake/Echo Park, just hop on the 2. Westsiders, it’s still worth the trip). One of the area’s better Mexican restaurants.

Low point: The ambience is quite odd — from the outside, it looks dark and filled with atmosphere. Walk inside, and it’s bright and a little less special. But it doesn’t matter when you’re chowing on that chicken mole enchilada.

Overall impression: La Cabanita, we’ve lived so close to you for so long, yet it’s taken too many years to finally visit. That has changed.

Chance we will go back: Yup, we’ll definitely be back again soon.

(For our list of over 140 restaurants, check out our companion Rate-A-Restaurant site here.)

Rate-A-Restaurant, #141 in a series

Restaurant: La Cabanita

Location: 3447 N Verdugo Rd., Glendale (Montrose)

Type of restaurant: Mexican

We stipulated: Exploring northeast Glendale (as we checked out the campus of Glendale Community College), we decided to keep driving north on Verdugo. We hit Montrose around lunchtime… and Maria remembered a friend raving about La Cabanita. It didn’t take much convincing; even if the food wasn’t going to be great, I could use a margarita.

What we ordered: I ordered the combination plate that included a chicken mole enchilada, a carnitas taco, rice and black beans. Maria got the frijolito enchilada; Evan, the chicken soup. And yes, I got that margarita, rocks and salt.

(Flickr pic by Ilpo’s Sojourn.)

High point: First off, what a straight-forward, neighborhoody, awesome place. The chicken mole deep, rich and hearty. The chicken soup, so good that I was stealing bites from my own son. Margarita, a little more average. But overall, the food is well worth driving up to Montrose (not a difficult thing to do if you’re in Los Feliz/Silver Lake/Echo Park, just hop on the 2. Westsiders, it’s still worth the trip). One of the area’s better Mexican restaurants.

Low point: The ambience is quite odd — from the outside, it looks dark and filled with atmosphere. Walk inside, and it’s bright and a little less special. But it doesn’t matter when you’re chowing on that chicken mole enchilada.

Overall impression: La Cabanita, we’ve lived so close to you for so long, yet it’s taken too many years to finally visit. That has changed.

Chance we will go back: Yup, we’ll definitely be back again soon.

(For our list of over 140 restaurants, check out our companion Rate-A-Restaurant site here.)