Coming into Nadine Trujillo’s kitchen is like being invited into her home (with her daughters, Denise and Jackie, too). Everything here is cooked from genuine home brewed recipes, from the salsa to the mole, to the tacos a la crema that are considered some of the best in town.
3510 W Sunset Blvd, Silver Lake, (323) 913-1422
Though it bears his name, Castro Alejo is number one, divorced from his wife who got this location in the settlement, and number two, dead. His ex-wife has frozen the menu in place for probably at least a decade and it’s just fine that way. Even the special menu written on a white-board hasn’t changed in years. The small place is always packed along its family style long tables, and you’ll always see someone who remembered to bring their own wine. Everything on the menu is good. Come to Alejo’s expecting a garlic bomb. When I worked for idiots, nothing would give me more pleasure than eating a whole order of garlic linguini with mushrooms and then working on the CFO’s computer while breathing all over him. What a schmuck. He deserved it. Pasta dishes are about seven dollars.
4002 Lincoln Blvd at Washington Blvd, Mar Vista, (310) 822-0095
My wife and I were married at the Harbor House in Marina del Rey. We’ve gone back to celebrate our anniversary, paying too much for mediocre food but reminiscing at what a fabulous wedding we had. We’d order scallops and steak and maybe a martini or two, talk about what the last year has meant for us, and how we’ve grown together as people and a couple. Now that it’s gone, we needed a new place. Akasha’s proximity to home, beautifully designed interior, and exciting menu seemed like a good fit. My wife got reservations via OpenTable.com (sooner than the 6 week wait we’d heard about), and when I stopped in two weeks before our reservation I mentioned it was our three year wedding anniversary to the host who noted that in his computer. The previous restaurant was an Italian piano bar that avoided closure by tinting its windows to avoid discovery. The renovations were mysterious, masked by large wooden panels. From a distance one could clearly see they were gutting and updating the location with high ceilings and serious interior design work. We knew nothing about Akasha herself, or that the restaurant’s renovation was part of TLC’s Flip this Restaurant. After three years of marriage we’re now just dumb local yokels looking for a nice dinner. Dumb yokels who know what a dining experience ought to be and an axe to grind when it’s sloppy. We were greeted with an enthusiastic welcome and a congratulations on our anniversary. That was sweet. The waiter then added his kind congrats as well. We looked over the menu and gave our entire order at once – martini for the wife, glass of red for me, tumuric seared pear salad with goji berries and chevre, shiitake, roasted squash, and basil pizza as appetizers; Punjabi mung bean bowl and wild pepper scallops entrees. Nice waiter, lovely interior, great wine list and decent prices for all items. Well, mostly lovely interior. The chairs are the leather-strap variety your sleazy uncle had in his apartment in 1984. The pear salad comes out – five minutes after we ordered. No wine. No cocktail. Then the pizza shortly after, simultaneous with the wine and cocktail. I’m annoyed. There’s an order to a meal, and this isn’t it. Fine. We roll with it. The pear salad is stunningly mediocre. Pears aren’t in season and there was maybe three slices of it. I felt like Wody Allen, “the food here is terrible – and such small portions!” Four small bits of chevre and a truckload of arugala. Salad is the Styrofoam packing of the food world and there was enough of it here to ship the chandeliers back to whatever Chinese factory that knocks off Frank Gehry furniture made them. The pizza isn’t really a pizza, it’s a failed foccacia with stuff on it. My wife loved her cocktail, the Emerald City, and my 2005 “Prisoner” red was spectacular. But as we’re enjoying our drinks out of sync with our meal, our waiter comes over and tells us he’s handing us over to another. Not a trainee, just another waiter. OK. New guy is nice enough. But a handoff? “Happy anniversary.” Thanks. Entrees are served – there’s still salad in the bowl and a slice of pizza on the plate. Expediter asks, “do you want me to hold the entre?” No, idiot, I want you to know better than to ask. What’s the deal here, Akasha? You woo me in with your hubbub and then you hustle me through with organic grease? I understand if you’ve got tables to turn but this is ridiculous. We send back what’s left of the styrofoam (having eaten the pear and chevre in the first two bites) and accept the entrees. I’ll take them hot from the kitchen rather than warmed over and held, thank you. The scallops were outstanding and the mung bean bowl was delicious – there is no denying them that. We took our time with them, and had to ward off the busboys from taking them away. Dessert was nice, too, the salty chocolate tart was the right balance of sweet and salty. Coffee was the expected fair-trade hippie garbage. We were given our bill with another sincere congratulations on our wedding anniversary. To be fair, I don’t expect a complimentary dessert, but when the staff is falling over themselves to both acknowledge my special day and get me the hell out of their restaurant I was thinking maybe a mint and a kiss. Nope. The bill before tip was $104. Whatever. It was the next day we found out that a friend had left his credit card to pay for our coffee and dessert. That never made its way to the bill. I would have forgiven the weak appetizers if we didn’t feel like we were being pushed out the door. But because of the shoddy service (even though our waiters were kind, they weren’t expediting) I’m docking two stars. One for the appetizers and another for the mangling of the experience. And it wasn’t like they didn’t know it was a special occasion – they took every opportunity to remind us that they were screwing up our night. So, Akasha, now that you’re booked six weeks out and your TV show has aired how about you fix the thing?
9543 Culver Blvd, Culver City, (310) 845-1700
Abraham Partamian was in his West Adams location for sixty years and saw the neighborhood undergo pretty drastic changes, but his delicious little Armenian pizzas of lamb and peppers have been unchanged for much longer. Upon his death a few years ago he willed the shop to his two long serving bakers. It occupies a modest sized bakery operation supplying goods to the Armenian population of Los Angeles – second only in size to Armenia itself. Armenia is neighbored by Georgia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. They were a very early national convert to Christianity, which placed them in religious opposition to their powerful Muslim neighbor to the west, Turkey. From 1915 to 1923 Turkey, under the Ottoman Empire, invaded Armenia and committed genocide in the mass killing of over one and a half million Armenians. Every April 24th, Martyr’s Day, the Armenian youth of Southern California drive up and down Sunset Boulevard honking their horns and waving the Armenian flag. With a recorded culture of over 3500 years, Armenia is rich in its own traditions and cultural flavors that make it similar to, but distinct from its Persian neighbors and Greek roots. This is one of the things that makes living in Los Angeles so enjoyable – the diversity of cultures that have been able to maintain their identity even as their children are assimilated into the city. There’s a small table in the grocery, but you’re better off picking up a stack of pizzas for five bucks and heading home.
5410 W Adams Blvd, Los Angeles
Everything that’s good about New York pizza – the zingy sauce, the crunch of a good crust, and a savory, dripping slice combined with the insanely good ingredient combinations of California invention without any of the snooty pretension of a Wolfgang or Joachim! You can get your traditional New York pie or go crazy with just about any topping you can imagine. Absolutely try their gourmet combos like the Popeye’s Chicken: spinach, mushroom, onion, tequila lime marinated chicken with mozzarella cheese on a garlic pesto sauce or one of their many cheese monstrosities with land mine detonations of ricotta cheese. Grey Block Pizza (formerly Abbot’s Pizza Company) boasts “home of the bagel crust pizza” and it does not disappoint. Get a poppy/seasame combo crust on your gourmet pie and revel in a yeast-enriched crunch yielding to spongy soft goodness. Best of all, most pies – gourmet or not – are available by the slice so you can experiment on the cheap. Take that, Mozza!