The Los Angeles Times recently conducted their yearly assignment of researching all the best places to eat in Los Angeles. Not only were they successful in finding the most delicious cuisines of the city, but also managed to provide readers with an inside scoop as to where you could get the most for your dollar. Listed below are their 25 top finds excerpted from Susan LaTempa’s “Striking it Rich” article.
1. Jamón serrano sandwich at La Española Meats, $4.95. Food lovers have long flocked to Harbor City’s La Española Meats for imported Spanish foodstuffs and house-made chorizos and hams. Now there’s one more reason to shop there — at lunch they’ve started serving a sandwich. But what a sandwich. They take a small baguette, drizzle it with Spanish olive oil and then layer it with La Española’s domestic jamón serrano, some dried chorizo, roasted piquillo red peppers and a couple of slices of Manchego cheese, and then bake it until the cheese melts and the crust crisps. With a cup full of olives cured in a tomato sauce, that’s $4.95. Eat it out back on a picnic table under an arbor shaded with bougainvillea. La Española Meats, 25020 Doble Ave., Harbor City; (310) 539-0455.
2. Roasted chicken with beans and rice or fries, tortillas and garlic sauce at Pollo a la Brasa, $5. For anyone who’s gotten blasé about rotisserie chicken, the wood-fire roasted chickens from this Peruvian outpost will change your tune. The burnished skin and juicy meat are intensely flavorful, though this shouldn’t stop you from splashing the awesome garlic sauce onto the bird, as well as onto the beans and rice and tortilla that come with the special. You can spot the place from the pile of lumber buttressing the back wall of the building — and from the lines outside. Pollo a la Brasa, 764 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 382-4090; 16527 S. Vermont Ave., Gardena; (310) 715-2494; and 2100 W. Whittier Blvd., Montebello; (323) 727-1965.
3. Nostalgia breakfast at Chips, $4.50. With its gorgeous aqua towers holding the letters of its name like giant playing cards way above the roof line, this Googie landmark coffee shop is worth visiting just for the late-’50s, early-’60s architectural glamour — but dining’s a delightful throwback too. Fluffy scrambled eggs (or two eggs, any style), creamy grits (or fruit) and toast (or a muffin) are served by super-pro waitresses who adroitly manage many customers, sliding in and out of English and Spanish with ease. They’re happy to bring some fresh salsa and refill your coffee cup. Chips, 11908 Hawthorne Blvd., Hawthorne; (310) 679-2947.
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By Jane Monreal
