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At the beginning of summer I decided I would make a list of relatively cheap haunts in Los Angeles with amazing food. So, I am going to try to post more blogs like this at least once a week. As I’ve been going out a lot over the summer, it may even be more often. However let me say, I am a pretty tough critic. For me, good cheap eats are under $12 per person and do not sacrifice quality and taste for its price. Because lets face it, something doesn’t have to be elaborate to be good, it just has to be honest. You do not need expensive ingredients or a lot of different ingredients to make something that has flavor and is memorable. So here’s my 2cents about some of my favorites in LA so far and a few of the places I’ve tried recently.

The Good:

Caveman Kitchen off of Vermont and 22^nd Place- It’s clean, the owners are really nice, and I think it is the best food you can get in the area for that price. It serves primarily rotisseried chicken, burgers, and some random Mexican food. The spices used on the chicken, the cave salad (cucumber salad), and made daily hot sauces are what make this place exceptional. The chicken tostada (all of $3.95) is a meal for me and amazing- white meat chicken, hand made tostada, cabbage, sour cream, cotija cheese, add some hot sauce, simple and perfect. The chicken Combo plates are about $8 for a half of chicken, rice, black beans (that have an excellent flavor, might I add), and more hand-made tortillas. My other suggestion is the taquito plate. For $5.25 you get three white meat chicken taquitos topped with shredded cabbage, cotija cheese, and a side of rice and beans (I replace the rice with cave salad). Simple food, but good quality. Oh and did I mention they rotisserie their chicken in a wood-burning oven?

Komasa Sushi on 2^nd St between Central and San Pedro. Komasa is very clean; it has excellent quality fish, is relatively authentic, and is very fresh. I suggest the albacore, the yellowtail, or hokkigai (surf clam) nigiri sushi, the spicy tuna maki, the broiled mussels or the tempura soft shell crab. This place unfortunately is usually PACKED, so expect to wait 20 minutes, but you can leave your cell phone number and they will call you when your seats are available. Cheap for sushi, the sashimi combo plate is $16, has a good variety of fish and is definitely a meal in itself.

Wurstkuche on 3^rd and Traction- Think ghetto dogs + gourmet + modern architecture + bumpin’/artsy atmosphere = Wurstkuche. This restaurant serves sausage from the classic to the exotic with an amazing selection of imported beers. It also has some pretty amazing French fries with a wide variety of dipping sauces. This sausage ‘sandwich’ of sorts and fries will run you about $9, add a good draft (always a fan of hefe weisse) and your total will probably be around $15.

The Bad:

Café Cuba Central (the only Cuban restaurant in Lil’ Tokyo)- Consists of big servings of tasteless food, the fried plantains where the best thing on the plate. Not that cheap for how cheaply the food is made.

The Stinking Rose off of La Cienega in Beverly Hills- For some reason this place has a following that I will never understand. I think the food is salty, overly processed (aka tastes like a TV dinner), and simply does not have a good use of garlic. As a garlic restaurant (and yes, as the good Italian I am, I love garlic) the use of garlic is horrendous- instead of rendering it in a way that brings out garlic’s sweetness and spice this restaurant manages to make garlic taste bitter. Oh and everything is greasy, yay.

Zencu Sushi (Japanese Village Plaza)- Poor quality fish, farrrrrrr from authentic, and salty. I think you could only enjoy your food if you’ve had quite a few to drink, okay a LOT to drink.

The Ugly:

As a disclaimer, this section is reserved for the places we love most, and because they’re so hard to find this section may be a bit sparse. There are two scenarios that this deep bond between you and your food occurs:

1) Its been a really long day, you’ve been working on Rhino till you aren’t even sure how many changes in daylight you’ve seen, then you realize you can’t remember the last time you’ve eaten. You’re starving and its 3:30am, what is there to eat?

2) It’s been a crazy good night. You met up with friends for drinks which led to barhopping, clubbing, and god knows what else. Now the bars and clubs are closed (why so early!?), you’re hungry and you KNOW you need something to eat to help sober up, so where do you go?

El Taurino on Hoover and 11^th- This place is amazing at 3am. Tacos are a mere $1.25 each. I suggest the Al Pastor taco. The hot sauces are excellent, and by excellent I mean ridiculously hot in a good way (not like when something is so hot it almost tastes soapy, you know?). The red one has a nice smokey taste from the chipotle and adobo. The green one is a little less spicy and has a pleasant tartness. Neither are for the feint of heart, as far as spicy goes.