Here are the ten most impressive meals I ate in Los Angeles in 2007, regardless of cuisine or price level. I cheated by including neighboring Orange and Ventura Counties for three selections. Deal with it. The entries appear by date of consumption.

1. Rajdhani – Artesia – January 27, 2007

A four-block stretch of Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia is known as Little India due to its densely packed Indian shops and restaurants. Rajdhani is the best Gujarati-style restaurant in the neighborhood. It’s all you can eat, different every day, and at $10.99 per person, clearly one of the best meal deals in Southern California. It’s also vegetarian, but don’t let that dissuade you. Due to the restaurant’s heavy volume, the food remains fresh and vivid. A stream of high-energy waiters zipped through the dining hall, ladling and tong-ing food onto large silver platters known as thalis. Tart, springy Khandvi were addictive pasta rolls made from chickpea flour, dyed yellow by buttermilk, sprinkled with coriander seeds and shredded coconut. Musket ball-shaped pastries known as Kachoris were dense but filled with a delicious pigeon pea and green pea mash. Vaal were spiced white beans flavored with cinnamon. Palak Paneer combined spiced spinach and firm chunks of whole milk cottage cheese. There was a smoky, spice-fused blend of eggplant, peas, and both gold and purple potatoes. The breads: Puffy Puri and ghee-painted wheat flatbread called Chapati. We were each entitled to a single serving of dessert. Gulab Jamun were warm doughnut hole-like orbs of fried milk powder, soaked in cardamom and saffron syrup. Even better was Besan Halwa, a hot dish of gritty roasted gram flour, simmered in milk, sugar, and cardamom, and topped with shaved almonds and pistachios. Lunch at Rajdhani was so good, I didn’t even miss meat or seafood.

2. Break of Dawn – Laguna Hills – July 4, 2007

Dee Nguyen’s fantastic Vietnamese influenced restaurant is pushing the boundaries of breakfast (and from I hear, lunch). A pull-apart cinnamon sticky bun was served hot in a cast iron skillet with coffee syrup, pecan glaze and pecan-studded whipped cream. A generous pile of braised pork featured the “essence of five spices” – cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise and Szechwan peppercorns – and was plated with a sweet “jalapeno grilled corn bake” (cornbread), Napa cabbage slaw with sweet mango, and tempura-fried poached eggs. Chef Nguyen generously offers several of his more compelling entrees as sides, meaning we were able to order more dishes for less money. Biscuit and Gravy incorporated a halved buttermilk cheddar biscuit and Vietnamese style pork ginger meatloaf. The moist, char-grilled pork was drizzled with sausage-espresso gravy. Incredible Corned Beef and Sweet Potato Hash featured diced savory and sweet potatoes, slices of succulent corned beef, tarragon braised cabbage, and whole grain mustard sauce. After sampling Chef Nguyen’s breakfast, 100 miles round-trip felt like a short jaunt.

3. Chang’s Garden – Arcadia – Saturday, August 25, 2007

In the shadow of Santa Anita Park, Henry Chang’s stylish Shanghai-style restaurant offers the only formidable alternative to nearby Din Tai Fung Dumpling House. The restaurant has been around for a few years, but it was never better than on August 25. When the Pork Spare Ribs in Lotus Leaf arrived, we unfurled steaming leaves to reveal chile-flecked glutinous rice and pork spare ribs, tender and aromatic from being steamed in the lotus leaf. Green Bean in Chinese Pan Cake featured a cluster of tender green beans and tiny dried shrimp that was rolled in flaky pastry. Green Onion Pie was as good as it gets, crispy without being dry and surprisingly grease-free. Shanghai Style Rice Cakes were pan-fried with soy sauce until the exteriors were slightly crusty, then tossed with onions, pork and spinach. Fish Fillet With Hot Bean Sauce was a misnomer, firm cod slathered with a garlicky, flame-red chile sauce whose heat built in intensity with each bite. Simple sautéed snow pea shoots were a light respite, flavored with garlic slivers.

4. El Mar Azul – Highland Park – October 7, 2007

Mexico City native Felipe Cejudo and wife Rosie “The Texas Girl” launched their sea blue tostada truck in Highland Park in 1994, parking beside Sycamore Grove Park. In the past 13 years, they’ve gained quite a following by selling a short list of seafood tostadas and cocktails. They’re all good to great, but the most basic is best: the Tostada de Camaron. A fried corn tortilla disc called a tostada was topped with creamy cole slaw, relish and “secrets,” then fanned with plump shrimp and capped with slices of fresh avocado. When given the option of “con chile” or “sin chile,” go con. A few squirts from a squeeze bottle added yet another boost of flavor. The tostada had it all: saltiness, creaminess from the cole slaw, firm shrimp and spice from the chile sauce. With a squeeze of lime, two or three tostadas form a perfect meal. Coctel de Camaron was another classic, a cool mix of diced onions, cilantro, plump shrimp and a blend of Clamato and tomato juice. Salty tostadas provided texture. After devouring the shrimp, I drank the ambrosial nectar like water. El Mar Azul’s success has spawned several adjacent imitators, but none of them can match Felipe’s artistry, balance or flavor.

5. Brooks – Ventura – October 20, 2007

Sandwiched between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Counties, Ventura County has long been a culinary wasteland. No longer. Chef Andy Brooks recently returned home to Southern California after cooking in Chicago and D.C. to open an eponymous restaurant with wife Jayme, who runs the front of the house. Suddenly, the idea of destination dining in Ventura isn’t so laughable anymore. For a paltry $35, I selected three seasonal gems from the prix fixe Classics menu, including creamy chestnut soup poured over a pile of smoked duck and dried cranberries, a slow-braised lamb shank served with spaghetti squash and a wild rice & garnet yam pancake. Particularly impressive dishes from the regular menu were the Sonoma County Margaret duck plated with squash-flecked couscous, white baby turnips and wild blueberry jus, and the grilled gingerbread cake with warm pear compote and ginger-spiced cranberry granita.

6. La Casita Mexicana – Bell – Friday, November 2, 2007

I celebrated my birthday in style by eating lunch in Bell, where Jaime Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu continue to deliver the most innovative Mexican food in L.A. County. Happily, they’ve no longer confined seafood to Lent. My adobo sea bass fillet was cooked with cactus strips in corn husks, yielding a moist spice-infused fillet. This was a dish that could easily net $30 on the Westside. In the South Central hamlet of Bell, it cost a staggeringly low price of $10.95. Did I mention that the fish was accompanied by tortilla chips slathered with three moles and a stellar orange-hued tortilla soup? Jaime and Ramiro have reportedly developed a blackberry mole to replace their white chocolate version. Unfortunately it wasn’t on the menu during my recent visit, but I did enjoy a fried tortilla purse filled with rice pudding and drizzled with pecan cream sauce.

7. Hamjipark – Koreatown – Friday, November 2, 2007

Hwa Shin Kim and daughter Eunji opened this fashionable offshoot of their bare bones Pico original in 2003. After a delicious meal the previous week, I couldn’t wait to return for my birthday dinner. The high-energy restaurant’s signature dish is barbecued pork spare ribs, which arrive spice-slathered and sticky on a sizzling, onion-lined platter. Incredibly, the superior meal excluded the locally famous ribs. Utilizing our hubcap-shaped tabletop grill, we seared sirloin medallions that had been marinated in a scintillating blend of oyster sauce, sesame oil and garlic. Just as terrific were the springy vermicelli noodles set upon a chile-soaked pan-broiled squid – tender tentacles, abdomen and tail meat – sweet onions, mushrooms, zucchini and red pepper strips. To extinguish the heat, we downed a cool bottle of sweet plum wine.

8. Bashan – Glendale – November 18, 2007

In the unlikely locale of Montrose, Chef Nadav Bashan opened a Mediterranean restaurant with wife Romy, who runs the front of the house. Although the couple has only been restaurateurs since September, Bashan can already compete with most of the heavy hitters on the Westside, at a slightly lower price point for the same premium ingredients. Chef Bashan’s approach is highly seasonal, and as a result, he changes the menu every week or two and offers nightly specials based on what he finds in markets around town. Knowing that he previously worked at Providence, L.A.’s top seafood restaurant, I expected big things from his oceanic dishes, and he didn’t disappoint. My visit yielded crisp-skinned renditions of seared barramundi with a phenomenal hash of shrimp, chorizo, Jerusalem artichokes and caramelized cipollini onions; and rosy-hued Columbia River steelhead trout plated with slabs of braised daikon, garlic ginger puree, bacon and Buna-Shimeji mushrooms. The appetizers and desserts were nearly as successful.

9. Ludobites @ Breadbar – Los Angeles – December 12, 2007

Chef Ludovic “Ludo” Lefebvre’s “eclectic culinary adventure” was available at Breadbar through December 21, offering an opportunity to sample reasonably priced dishes from Ludovic, who built a reputation for creativity at L’Orangerie and Bastide. We started with a plank of rosy-hued Prosciutto di Parma served with dishes of creamy mascarpone and honeycomb. A salad of red, green and purple heirloom tomatoes was topped with a blimp-shaped mass of feta mousse, oregano, shaved onion and pitted Nicoise olives. Fillets of silky smoked salmon were strewn with edible flowers and Petrossian trout roe. The accompanying “tangerine gazpacho” was phenomenal, bursting with sweet tangerine pulp. We had mixed success with the “Foie gras tart, maple syrup, lemon” and “Celery roots veloute, whole grain mustard, Parmesan marshmallow,” but found overwhelming redemption with “Sautéed scallop, curried yogurt, spinach.” The bay scallops were perfectly cooked, complemented by an Indian style curry that was swimming with spinach. One main course combined “cherry tomato aigre-doux, rigatoni pasta, poached lobster in tamarind butter.” The meaty lobster claw was excellent, and the melted mozzarella was a nice touch, but the tomato sauce was overwhelmingly sour. Our second main course incorporated “red fish, broccoli, soy sauce caramel, fennel, blood orange,” featuring a caramelized fillet of fish that separated at the touch of a fork into luscious sheets. For dessert, we bypassed Ludo’s caviar topped panna cotta in favor of a more conventional “milk-shake ‘belle-Helene’ pear.” Ludo paid homage to Auguste Escoffier by preparing a take on the famous French chef’s signature dessert, blending pear pulp into a chocolate milkshake. Not every dish worked, but Ludo’s highs were very high and each course was a conversation piece.

10. Chin-Go-Gae – Koreatown – Monday, December 17, 2007

There are only eight dishes on the menu at this dingy Korean restaurant, but the reason to come here is for the first two listings. Yeum So Moo Chim featured chunks of tender goat meat, stir-fried with spinach, chile sauce, and greens and drizzled with sesame seeds. Yeum So Tang – goat soup – combined a similar complement of ingredients, all floating in an orange broth. The greens cooked down, infusing the soup with a pleasant bitterness. We stirred traditional dishes of chile paste, sesame oil and black pepper, good for dipping goat meet and feeding into the soup. Our waitress brought out mounds of steamed white rice and tossed them into a fresh pan. Then she added a huge mound of seaweed and spinach chips and poured on the remaining broth, spinach, garlic and goat chunks.
Our waitress stir-fried the rice and greens with the goat-fortified broth. The rice quickly got crusty in the pan and absorbed the nutrients of the meat, broth and vegetables. Sensational.

ADVERTISEMENT
Trying to find a great restaurant in the Los Angeles area? Los Angeles Restaurant News and information is available at BarrysTickets.com as well as a variety of Los Angeles City News

1. 2007 Top 12 Restaurants Outside Los Angeles
2. 2007 Top 10 Dishes in Los Angeles
3. Park’s Bar-B-Q – Los Angeles, CA – May 6, 2007
4. Sa Rit Gol – Los Angeles, CA – November 8, 2007 [CLOSED]
5. 2007 Top 10 Dishes Outside Los Angeles

1. Pingback: festival del prosciutto di parma on March 29, 2010

This entry is filed under Los Angeles, Special Features.