Bill Addison

Cheese-extreme khachapuris and lahmajo (aka lahm bi ajeen) are the obvious draws at @tunlahmajo.usa in Burbank. But over the months since the restaurant opened, the menu has expanded to include salads, roasted meats, a range of soups, and herbed stews. Los Angeles already has a lot of Armenian restaurants that excel at one specialty (see: @mini_kabob and @zhengyalov_hatz_glendale) but fewer places delve into a broader mix of Armenian homestyle dishes as Tun Lahmajo does. Lots to love here; warm weather calls for the brothy, herby fish stew (shown in the last video in the carousel).

Latest review for @latimesfood; link up yonder. Less

Some very delicious regional Turkish dishes happening at @soracraftkitchen in DTLA. A variation of içli köfte (a.k.a kibbeh) called kitel uses bulgur pounded into a smooth dough for a meat-filled dumpling. That’s a recipe from chef Okay Inak’s mother’s side. From his father’s family: A dessert of butternut squash (it would be pumpkin in Turkey) soaked in limewater overnight, creating an effect in that when the squash cooks, its exterior retains a thin, crackling shell while the inside melts to cream.

It’s this week’s review. Bonus that @heatheraplatt wrote a side-by-side story on how Inak runs the 16-seat restaurant by himself; the economics don’t yet work any other way. Less

If soup dumplings figure among your L.A. culinary obsessions, the compact guan tang bao at @good_alley in Rosemead deserve your attention. The ones featuring chicken, with their concentrated texture of double stock, are my surprise favorite, though the porkier versions bring it home too.

There's plenty more on the menu. Good Alley lands as part dumpling parlor and part tea house, with the drink selection running the milky, citrus-muddled-cheese foam gamut. It's the sort of attractive cosmopolitan mishmash, culling staples from many of China’s regional cuisines, that would fit seamlessly among the modern cafes in one of Shanghai’s high-design shopping centers. It also happens to land beautifully as a new SGV strip mall destination.

It's the latest review; link up yonder. Less

Are you ready for a wine bar that feels like an adult pillow fort? We are! It’s called @stircrazy.la and it’s located on Melrose a few blocks west of Highland.

“So many small restaurants feel claustrophobic or really cramped. In 500-square-feet, the current owners managed to make a space that just feels really good to the human psyche,” says @latimesfood restaurant critic @bill_addison.

The menu is short & sweet — a dozen or so menu items like celery salad, onion dip with a slice of Ibérico ham, and a German-style sausage served with Japanese-style potato salad.

🍷 Get more details at the link in bio

📸: Shelby Moore

#wine #winebar #melrose #cafe #business #food #kcrw #kcrwgoodfood #goodfood Less