Gavin's guide, on SPOT
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner: Los Angeles
3 spots · Los Angeles, United States
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner season 1, episode 3, spent eating across Los Angeles with Lena Waithe, and almost all of it in Gardena rather than anywhere a visitor would think to look. A diner counter inside a bowling alley doing oxtail soup and char siu with eggs, a mochi shop pounding and rolling by hand, and an unmarked door off a parking lot that opens onto a Japanese room serving katsudon and dashimaki tamago. Gardena has one of the oldest Japanese American communities in the country and one worth visiting.
#1
Gardena Bowl Coffee Shop
· Hawaiian · $
Chang ate the Hawaiian Royal here, then oxtail soup and char siu with egg foo young, at a diner counter inside a working bowling alley. Lena Waithe came along for the Los Angeles run, and the reason this stop lands is that Gardena, not anywhere on a visitor's list, is where the city's Japanese American cooking actually lives. Get there in the morning while the griddle is busy, and order all three.
Order this
Hawaiian RoyalOxtail soupChar siu and egg foo young
#2
Chikara Mochi
· Japanese
Chang stopped here for hand pounded, hand rolled mochi at the dessert end of the Gardena dinner run. The shop makes it fresh by hand in the morning, which is the reason a small storefront on Western Avenue belongs on a Los Angeles list at all. Buy it the same day you plan to eat it, and remember the shop shuts in the afternoon.
Order this
Hand pounded mochiHand rolled mochi
#3
Otafuku
· Japanese · $$
Chang ate katsudon, sea eel tempura and dashimaki tamago here. Getting in means finding a door off a parking lot with nothing written on it. Arrive early for the dinner service, because the room is small and the hours are split.
Order this
KatsudonSea eel tempuraDashimaki tamago
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