When Thrillist asked me to make a Bucket List of L.A. sandwiches I took the task very seriously.  Some would say, dead serious.  (Apologies for that. I knew it was terrible the minute I started typing it.) To keep things concise I disqualified pita sandwiches (sorry Dune and Baco Mercat!) and burgers- except for one that’s really a sandwich and not a burger (more on that later).   In the end I keep it to sandwiches I feel like you really need to eat before you die, and in certain cases, only if you want to die.  There are some notable omissions like Mendocino Farms, which I love but couldn’t pick one stand out sandwich you need to eat.  And Larchmont Wine & Cheese, which is a great sandwich shop but also doesn’t compel me to excitement.  After all, it’s not a list of really good L.A. sandwiches.  It’s a list of sandwiches everybody should try at least once if they live here in L.A.

So, there it is… my disclamatory attempt to curb the anger that comes naturally when somebody leaves your favorite sandwich in the universe off of their arbitrary list of favorite sandwiches.  Enjoy!!!

THE L.A. SANDWICH BUCKET LIST>>>

The post My Bucket List of L.A.’s Best Sandwiches first appeared on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles.

So first things first.  What’s the place called?   The Halal Guys

And this is the same exact same “Famous Halal Guys” with the long lines in Midtown on 53rd & 6th?  Didn’t you read the intro?  (If you don’t know who the Halal Guys are, it might be worth reading this. If you want to know about the history of this food in L.A., you’ll want to read this.)

But how did this happen?  Aren’t they just a street meat cart?  How are they now opening brick and mortars all the way across the country?  Last year Fransmart, the company behind Five Guys and Qdoba’s expansion, cut a deal with the Halal Guys to take them international.   The New York Times wrote all about it. 

So is this the first location?  Nope.  Two brick and mortars have already opened in New York City.  And a Chicago location opened last month.

I don’t know.  Doesn’t street meat belong on the street?  Can this stuff be as popular as burgers or burritos?  Good question.  I don’t know.  But I do know this: I wouldn’t drive 50 minutes for a Five Guys burger or anything from Qdoba.  And yesterday I drove 50 minutes for Halal Guys lunch.  I’m super excited to have chicken and lamb over rice with white sauce and hot sauce within striking distance of  my house in Culver City

But isn’t street meat a late night drunk think?  Is it actually good or worth getting excited about?  For some people, it’s that.  But for me, it’s a great fast food lunch.  Imagine eating tacos for lunch every day (or late at night, while drunk), and then moving to a city with no tacos.  If a taco place you liked in L.A. opened a franchise 50 minutes from your new house would you drive for it? Would you get excited about it?  Of course you would.  And I’m sure some people in your new hometown would say “Is it really worth the drive?  It’s just cheap tacos…”  But you wouldn’t be listening because you’d be too busy stuffing your face with that cheap Mexican street meat.

Fair enough.  So, how is the Chicago location doing?  Looks like it’s doing pretty great so far.  And if Instagram followers are any indication, SoCal should be even better.

So what’s the place like?  Well, it’s in a Costa Mesa strip mall, and feels like any fast food chain.  There’s professional signage, plus photos on the wall of one the original Halal Guys’ carts made to convey some sort of history (even though the photos were probably taken in the past year or two.)

Did you look for yourself in the photo?  Shit yeah, I did. I’ve eaten at this cart so many times.  The least they could do was immortalize me in a historical photo on the wall! Sadly, I didn’t see myself or anybody I knew personally in the photos, but totally recognized the indifferent faces of all the sad Midtown office workers waiting in line.

Ok, so let’s talk menu.  What’s the deal?  So the menu is divided into two sections: sandwiches and plates.  I’m guessing there will be people around the country who will order gyro sandwiches (it’s a natural thing to do if you’ve never eaten street meat), and I think you could get that at the original cart in Midtown.  But nobody ever does.  The platter is the way to go, and not just any platter but the classic platter.  Chicken + gyro over rice.

Wait, does that say falafel?  Yep.  Falafel is one of the things they’ve added to the menu that wasn’t originally part of the cart.

Interesting.  What else have they added?  They’ve also added typical Middle Eastern sides, like hummus, baba ghanouj, and tahini, which kind of makes no sense.  You already have white sauce!  Why do you need tahini!?

But don’t a lot of falafel places offer yogurt or tzatziki PLUS tahini as options?  Shut up with your stupid “facts”.

Anything else that’s new?  Yeah.  There are also french fries, plus baklava for dessert.

So what did you order?  I went with the classic platter, of course.

Wait, are there two sizes?  Good eye!  Yep. There are two sizes (another change from the original cart.)  The regular size, which should be familiar to anybody who has visited the original cart, is $8.95.  But they also have a small for $7.95.

$9!?!?!  Isn’t that a price hike.  Yup.  The original street meat plate was $5 for a long time, before they officially raised their price to $6. (Update: A commenter has informed us, the price in Midtown is now $7.)  But the brick and mortar has way more overhead.  I’m not too mad about it.  And, what’s that they say?  It’s cheaper than a plane ticket!

So for somebody who has never had this food before, what’s the chicken like? Is it like shawarma?  Nope.  It’s chopped up chicken, marinated and cooked on a flat top.  In fact, even though these flat tops were larger and inside, the piles of chicken sitting on the griddle were very reminiscent of what you see on the streets of Midtown.  It brought  bit of a tear to my eye.

And the gyro?  The gyro is just the typical gyro tube you find at any Greek restaurant.  In Midtown they don’t have time to let it fully cook on the spit, so they usually cut it off, chop it up and cook it on the griddle.

Is that where they doing at the storefront?  Well, I’m not entirely sure.  I didn’t see any gyro meat on the griddle, just the chicken. And I saw them cut fully cooked gyro meat off the spit, at one point, which is definitely the best way to do it.  But this was just training, and it might be hard to do that at a high volume… so we’ll see.  Either way, they’re scooping your meat out of metal trays Chipotle style.  How it gets there isn’t as important as whether or not it tastes good and right.  And it does.

What about the rice?  Oooooooh… the rice.  For fans of street meat like myself, the rice is actually the best part. And they’ve nailed it.  The bright orange color. The dryness (which you totally want because of all the sauce that goes on top.)  It really is perfect.

Speaking of sauces, how are the sauces?  One of the things Fransmart did when they started working with the Halal Guys was to professionalize all of their sauce production.  The white sauce and hot sauce you get in Costa Mesa is the same exact sauce they’re squirting on the platters on the sidewalk of 53rd street. And they even have sauce packets… which… brace yourself… have ingredient and calorie information.

Holy shit.  A packet of white sauce is only 50 calories!?  That’s not bad at all.  I was thinking the exact. Same. Thing.

Wait, is that the infamous “secret” recipe for the white sauce?  Yeah, although the important part is still secret.  The first ingredients confirm what we’ve known for a long time… that the sauce is mayonnaise based.  But who knows what the hell “spices” means.  Either way, it’s great.

And the hot sauce?  Also perfect.  And just as deadly as the original.  You’ll want to go easy on the hot sauce.

Speaking of going easy, that doesn’t look like a lot of white sauce.  In New York, they put on waaaay more.  It’s true, but these guys were still training. I was assured there would be more sauce… but you can also ask for more, or extra sauce packets on the side.  In fact, if you order it to go, they’ll leave the sauce off and only give you packets on the side.

Anything else on the sauce front?  They also have a sweet and smokey BBQ sauce, which has its fans in NYC.  I’ve never been into it.

Lettuce, tomato, and pita?  Check. Check. Check.   They also offer you onions, green bell peppers, olives and jalapeños.  I’m sure a lot of customers will enjoy some of those options,  but none of that stuff was on the original so I passed.

Does that mean you didn’t try any of the new stuff?  Like I said, this was just training.  So they actually didn’t have falafel or french fries or even the baba ganouj, but I did try the hummus on the side.  It was fine, but in the end if I wanted real Middle Eastern food I’d go to a Middle Eastern restaurant.  If I’m going to Halal Guys, I want street meat.

So, overall how did it compare to NYC?  I have to say… it’s pretty much identical. And they’re using the exact same sauces at all locations, so even if you think it’s different than what you ate years ago on that corner of Midtown, it’s not any different now.

But what about the not taking the street meat off the street?!  That’s true.  It’s weird eating this sitting down in a comfortable chair in the air conditioning.  And it’s missing that little hint of cab exhaust on the back end… but if we’re just talking about food, it’s pretty much exactly the same.

So is this the only SoCal location?  Nope.  There’s a Long Beach location in the works for this year, and they’re currently looking for locations in Los Angeles proper.  (Until then, I will definitely be making the drive again.)

So they’re already open?  NO.  They are not open.  Don’t make the mistake of driving all the way down there until after October 2nd.  That’s their official opening day.

Final question, and apologies in advance for getting gross because it has to be done.   What kind of bathroom issues did you have afterwards?  Actually, none at all!  So, I guess in a way, it’s not exactly the same.

Got any questions we missed?  Feel free to ask them in the comments below or via twitter @midtownlunchLA 

The Halal Guys, 3033 Bristol St. Costa Mesa, CA. 714-850-1080

The post Asked + Answered: Everything You Wanted to Know About the Halal Guys’ New Costa Mesa Storefront first appeared on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles.

In case you missed it, the East Side Food Fest is back for a second year… and this year it’s going to be bigger and better.  It all goes down October 18th at Mack Sennett Studios, and will feature over 30 local vendors including restaurants, celebrity chefs, caterers, locally owned brands, and more (which I helped to curate.) And just like last year there will be a second stage featuring demos and a live recording of the Food is the New Rock podcast, featuring musicians and chefs who live and work on the East side of L.A. Some of the vendors have already been announced, including Dune, Ohana Poke Co, Alimento, Jeni’s Ice Cream, Alexander’s Greek and more. And the best part is, the event benefits PATH– a non-profit organization with local programs benefitting homeless individuals and families in the Silver Lake and surrounding EastSide areas of Los Angeles.

Tomorrow (Wednesday September 16th) is the last day to score cheaper early bird tickets, so don’t want. Get more info and buy your tickets now over http://eastsidefoodfest.com/

The post East Side Food Fest is Back (And Weds is The Last Day For Early Bird Tickets) first appeared on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles.

If you were at FYF Fest this year you likely noticed that the food options were the best they’ve ever been at the L.A. based music festival.  Thanks to Nic Adler and Goldenvoice a handful of well known L.A. restaurants (like Dune, Top Round, Donut Friend and Free Range LA) set up alongside music festival mainstays (like Spicy Pie, arepas, corn dogs and crab fries).  But one fried chicken vendor I stumbled upon that weekend was neither of those things.  They were set up in the shadows of the L.A. Colisseum, at the very very end of a long line of nameless stands selling random stuff like aguas frescas and meat on a stick.  The makeshift booth looked like it could have been dropped in from a church fund raiser, but they had boxes with logos on them that seemed to indicate a real business.  Their name?  Krispy Krunchy Chicken.

To say I was intrigued would be a severe understatement. The whole thing felt like a Los Pollos Hermanos situation.  That thing where you see a fast food brand that looks so real, so good, it has to be an actual thing- but not understanding why you’ve never heard of it before. I found out from the guy in charge of the booth that it was a franchise of a fried chicken company you see all over the south (mostly in gas stations.)  I asked so many questions he accused me of being a narc from the corporate office checking up on them.  That sounds like the best job ever.

Fast forward to last Monday when I found myself in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Mall checking out the lunch specials at Mexicano (side note: they’re pretty awesome.)  Afterwards I wandered into the food court, as is my way, and stumbled upon…

KRISPY KRUNCHY CHICKEN.

It is real!!!  And not only is it real, it’s my new fried chicken obsession.  In my mind, all fast food fried chicken (and even some non-fast food fried chicken) is held to the standard created by Popeye’s.  Why go anywhere else, when some pretty spectacular fried chicken and biscuits can be had quickly and cheaply at any of their over 2000 locations.

Well, the chicken at Krispy Krunchy Chicken is as good as Popeye’s.  Slightly spicy, with a great crunch, the streaks of spice are injected into the meat itself making for a pretty delicious experience from the first bite to the last.  As far as the chicken goes, we’ll call it a draw.  But here are 5 other reasons my next fried chicken trip will likely be to Krispy Krunchy Chicken.

1. Biscuits.  Popeye’s biscuits have finally met their match at KKC.  Not only do they brush the tops of their regular biscuits with a honey glaze but they also have blueberry biscuits as well.  Let that sink in for a second.  Blue. Berry. Biscuits.  And they are glorious.  The blueberry biscuits alone would have been enough to switch me from Team Popeye’s.  But wait, there’s more.

2. Sides.  Beyond the biscuits I’ve never had much love for the Popeye’s sides, so this small victory wasn’t too difficult.  Krispy Krunchy Chicken’s red beans and rice feels like real food, and their sausage filled Jambalaya is pretty good considering it’s from a fast food chain.  No cole slaw is a bit of a disappointment, but the next side more than makes up for it…

3. Boudin Bites.  Not only do they sell this famous cajun rice sausage specialty in deep fried ball form, but it actually tastes good!  The sausage itself is pretty mild (no strong liver flavor or anything like that) but just the fact that they offer it is a win in my book.

4. Wings.  These guys even do wings right.  Super crunchy, with just a quick toss in the sauce, they offer spicy buffalo wings or a Cajun sweet and spicy wing that was better than what you’ll find at a lot of supposed wing specialists.

5. Packaging. Ok, maybe this one is a stretch but look at those boxes!  Who wouldn’t want to take their fried chicken and blueberry biscuits home in a cardboard barn?

In fairness to Popeye’s, I can’t really speak to every single branch of Krispy Krunchy Chicken. This brand new location is pristine, and it’s pretty clear they’re firing on all cylinders.  KKC doesn’t have po’boys and I haven’t done a fried shrimp head to head either.  In other words, I’m sure at some point I will return to my first fast food fried chicken love.  But for now, all I can think of is those blueberry biscuits and boudin balls.

Krispy Krunchy Chicken, 3650 W Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. 323-293-3332

The post 5 Reasons Why Krispy Krunchy Chicken is My New Obsession (Sorry Popeye’s) first appeared on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles.

There is nothing more I love than a good Chipotle hack.  Sure, I’ve had problems in the past with their burrito construction, and called bullshit on their calorie counts, and their off the menu “quesarito”. But I also see a lot of the good in Chipotle, and none of my past run-ins have deterred me from wanting to find a personal go-to order. Aka, the perfect combination of items that will finally get me to embrace Chipotle, with no caveats.  And this week, I’m proud to say, I think I’ve finally found that order. It started with this incredible Chipotle hack article by my new hero Dylan Grosz on a website called Apartment List.  In it he details, with a FiveThirtyEight level of scientific analysis, how to get Chipotle to give you 86% more food than you would get in a normal burrito for the same price as a normal burrito.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a read… but the gist of it is this: get half and half of everything in a bowl (half black beans/half pinto beans, half white rice/half brown rice, half chicken/half steak) plus all the free add ons, including corn and fajita vegetables, and you end up getting way more food than what goes into a normal burrito.  And the best part is, they’ll give you a tortilla (in fact two tortillas) for free so you can roll your own burrito. I went to check this out for myself, with one major change at the end that solidifies this as not only the best Chipotle hack in the history of Chipotle hacks.  But possibly the best fast food hack ever invented. (Can you see where I’m going with this?)

Followed all of Dylan’s instructions to a T, and as promised ended up with a MASSIVE amount of food in my bowl for just $7.40.  This hack is no joke. Admittedly I did shell out the extra $2 for gauc, because what’s a burrito without guac.  Wait until the end to ask for your two tortillas (“Uh, do you mind if I get a couple of the big flour tortillas with this?”), and make sure you order your bowl “to go” so you get the lid. (More on that later.)

The half and half of every ingredient is a genius move, for sure, but even without that there is no secret that ordering a bowl nets you more food than a burrito. And there is no question that a ton of people have long been loading up their bowls at Chipotle and saving half for a second meal.  The real genius behind the hack is the asking for a flour tortilla on the side, which they will give you for free.  And not just one flour tortilla, but two- which they will also totally give you for free!

At this point, this is where my thinking diverged from Dylan. For some reason The Apartment List article suggests that you use the second tortilla to create and reinforce a single hulk sized burrito, a worthy move for the .000001% of supreme fatsos who have been to Chipotle and thought “Gee, I’d really like this massive burrito that I’m killing myself to finish to be 86% bigger.”  Obviously you could share the giant double sized, double wrapped burrito with a friend, but why bother with that when you could just…

… roll TWO. SEPERATE. BURRITOS. It’s a no brainer, right? There’s more than enough food in your bowl to do it and still end up with two huge burritos.

In fact, if you don’t like one kind of beans or one kind of rice or don’t want two kinds of meat I’d be willing to bet you could order a bowl exactly how you like it and still have enough food to roll two burritos that individually would fill a normal size person.  Share with a friend or wrap the second burrito in tin foil for later.

And here’s the best part for people who hate getting too much guac in one bite or not enough of something at the end of the burrito: because you have that lid, you can mix up all the ingredients before stuffing them into the tortilla- making these burrito creations the most perfectly balanced bundle of joy every assembled.  The first bite is exactly the same as the last bite.  And while getting two burritos for the price of one would in and of itself make me like this burrito more than any other burrito I’ve ever had at Chipotle (after all I am a cheap bastard), I actually think that mixing all the ingredients together improves the taste of the Chipotle burrito.  Whether that is the case for all burritos is a longer discussion for a different day.  But there is no question that the mixing combined with the price, less than $5 per burrito when all is said and done and that was WITH guacamole, made this my perfect Chipotle order.

The post How to Get Two Chipotle Burritos For the Price of One on Every Visit (An Addendum to the Now Famous ‘Apartment List’ Hack) first appeared on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles.

Been waiting awhile to announce this big news… super excited to be a part of HOWL, the new premium audio content service from the folks behind Earwolf & Wolfpop.  The service, which launches today, features access to old Earwolf, Wolfpop, and Marc Maron’s WTF podcasts plus new original shows from Paul F. Tomkins, Lauren Lapkus, Jermaine Clement, Joel Stein, Comedy Central, AV club, and little old us!  Jason Stewart (aka DJ Themjeans) and I turned that Lucky Peach dumpling crawl of the SGV from a few months back into a fun show about dumplings that doubles as an audio guide that you can use as you do the crawl.  It features writers Lucas Peterson and Clarissa Wei, plus a mini episode of “Yo, Is This Racist” w/ Andrew Ti.

The service costs $4.99 a month, but use the promo code CRAWL and you can get one month free. Download the HOWL App on iTunes or sign up here to listen online>>

The post SGV Dumpling Crawl Now Available in Audio Form first appeared on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles.

If you follow me on Instagram you know I’ve recently been obsessed with mashing up stuff at Grand Central Market in Downtown L.A.  Think: adding GnB espresso shots to horchata from Ana Maria, or stuffing Belcampo fries into Madcapra’s falafel sandwich.  If you’re interested in getting a full window into my grossness, all 10 of my creations are can be found on Thrillist.  Warning there is a grand finale featuring smoked salmon from Wexler’s, brisket from Horse Thief, a pizza from Olio, a carnitas taco and a sandwich from Egg Slut.  Aka, you’ll probably want to go with friends.

Oh, and you prefer hearing the sound of my voice rather than reading my words, I’ll be on KCRW’s Good Food this Saturday at 11am PST going over the list with Evan Kleiman.

THRILLIST: 10 Ways to Hack LA’s Grand Central Market

The post My 10 Favorite Grand Central Market Mash Ups first appeared on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles.

I was asked to be one of the judges in L.A. Weekly’s Burger Bracket and ended up drawing Apple Pan vs. Pie n Burger. Went to both  around July 4th weekend and while I know that Apple Pan has a ton of fans, I really think Pie N Burger makes a better burger. (And before you shit on me, go to each and try a plain cheeseburger with nothing else on it.)

Next up: Pie N Burger vs. Father’s Office.  Anyone care to chime in?  This could actually be a tougher one than it appears on paper…

The post Sincere Apologies to Apple Pan… first appeared on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles.

When Dune first opened in Atwater Village at the beginning of this year a very specific kind of food writer induced hype commenced, and for good reason.  It’s good.  Really good.  This tiny storefront with less than 10 stools serves up the kind of the things you might expect from a new school Mediterranean take out spot in Atwater. There’s a beautifully simplistic blood orange salad with black olives, tabouleh with organic gluten free quinoa, and a pickled beet sandwich with sheep’s milk feta, an 8 minute egg, and shoestring potatoes.  But the insanely good flatbread makes the two pita sandwiches the thing to order. The lamb meatball one is surprisingly great, especially considering that Dune’s owners also own the vegetarian Elf Cafe.  But today isn’t National Meatball Day.  It’s National Falafel Day, so you’ll want their green falafel sandwich topped with house made pickles, tahini, hummus, tahini, and shoestring potatoes.  Did I mention the flatbread is amazing?

Even newer is Madcapra, a falafel stand that opened recently in the Grand Central Market cut from the same cheffy cloth as Dune.

Don’t let the colors (Red, Green, Orange) on the menu fool you.  The tight, perfectly cooked little falafel balls only come in one flavor, standard chickpea.  The colors refer to the toppings, so red might get you tomato and cabbage, green gets you fennel and cilantro, while orange gets topped with carrots.  The bread here is also pretty special, making the sandwiches a great option.  Although if you can rope in a friend to go with you it’s hard not to opt for the menu’s  “Go Big” option.  $30 will get 2ppl all of the things, including their labneh topped with berberries, babaganoush style eggplant salad topped with chunks of roasted eggplant, pickled stuff, a salad, and whatever vegetable they have that day (we got roast broccoli, which was excellent.)

Dune, 3143 Glendale Blvd., Atwater

Madcapra at the Grand Central Market, 317 S Broadway. DTLA

The post Add Dune and Madcapra to Your L.A. Falafel List first appeared on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles.

Dominoes atrocities aside, pizza and fried chicken are not exactly two things you might associate with each other. New York style pizza and buffalo wings? Sure. But individual size, quick fired Italian style pizzas alongside southern style spicy fried chicken doesn’t necessarily feel as simpatico.  After all, you wouldn’t expect 800 Degrees to turn out a delicious fried chicken any more than you’d expect Popeye’s to start selling a perfectly cooked margherita. And yet that’s exactly what you’ll find at the newly opened Pizza Romana on La Brea.

Formerly Cube Marketplace and Cafe, and still owned by the same people, this new fast casual pizzeria is clearly meant to compete with the new wave of quick serve pizza joints that have sprung up all over L.A. in the past 3 years. The pizzas are mostly $9 and $10, and come out quick with ingredients like proscuitto, broccolini, and buffalo mozzarella. But there is one important Cube holdover that differentiates Pizza Romana from 800 Degrees, Pitfire, Blaze, and the rest.

Their fried chicken.

If you were a big fan of Cube you probably have fond memories of their fried chicken.  Cube was always an overachieving wine and cheese bar which happened to have a great chef, Erin Eastland.  She took her talents to Milo & Olive 2 years ago, but before she did she gifted them with one of the best fried chickens in the city.  Billed as half a semi boneless fried chicken, with two sides, it was crunchy, salty, spicy and practically perfect.  The biggest problem was the price.  It was $28 no matter what time of day, inspiring more than a few meals spent praying to the food gods that one day, somehow, we’d be able to get this chicken at a more Midtown Lunch’ish price.  Well, those prayers have finally been answered.

In addition to pizzas, salads, panini, and some side dishes, Pizza Romana’s menu also has something called “The Best Fried Chicken Ever!!”  for $15.  And it is practically identical to Cube’s fried chicken in the most important ways. Sure it’s a bit smaller and doesn’t come with two sides.  Plus, it seemed like only white meat to us even though it said 1/2 chicken on the menu.  But honestly, no dark meat aside, there wasn’t too much opportunity to care.  The crust is still its same crunchy, salty, spicy self and apparently they’re using the same Mary’s chicken as before.

You can also get boneless chicken tenders as a side dish (with the exact same dredge) for $8, or those same chicken tenders stuffed in pizza dough bread as a panino w/ potato chips for $9.  I know it’s early days, but this sandwich might have to be in contention for top 5 best chicken sandwiches in the city.

Oh right, there’s pizza also!  The fried chicken honestly would have been enough for me to get excited about this place, but don’t sleep on the pizza.  The company that owns Pizza Romana makes most of their money as an importer, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they import their dough frozen from Italy.  What is surprising is how good the pizza is for the price they’re charging. The style is somewhere in between 800 Degrees and Sotto, but their pies don’t get as soggy in the middle as the former and are $5-8 cheaper than the latter.

The pizza is so strong it makes you wonder if their business model is even sustainable.  There was always talk that Cube was just a showpiece for all those gourmet imported goods being sold on their shelves.  And one has to wonder if there isn’t some bigger plan in motion here that involves using this place as a loss leader or a future price hike.

Then again it’s probably best not to ask questions in situations like this.  Just keep your mouth shut, and go enjoy this spectacular pizza and fried chicken deal while you still can.

Pizza Romana, 615 N. La Brea Ave. 323-939-1148

The post Cube Replacement Pizza Romana Will Far Exceed Your Expectations first appeared on Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles.