Gold Dig #44

Similar to Grand Central Market, Far East Plaza brings a bunch of eateries together in a Chinatown shopping center. The plaza as a whole is on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. While I’m conflicted about the notion of including a grouping of restaurants that vary in food type and quality onto a “best” list, it is fun for restaurant-hopping, which I do enjoy.

The Dish

Despite its location in Chinatown, Far East Plaza has a variety of offerings. The big draw at the moment is actually a Nashville hot chicken place called Howlin’ Ray’s, but in his most recent 101 Best Restaurants list Jonathan Gold gave Howlin’ Ray’s its own spot, so I’ve written a separate post (which you can check out here). Other options in Far East Plaza include Chinese, Korean, Filipino, ice cream, and more! Because the line for Howlin’ Rays is hours long, I highly recommend picking up some goodies from these other spots to munch during the insane wait.

Kim Chuy

Kim Chuy is an old-school Chinese restaurant, known for its Fried Leek Cakes. The leek cakes have been drawing people to Far East Plaza for years for good reason. They are crisp and salty on the outside and deliciously creamy inside.

Kim Chuy’s other specialty is noodle soups. You get to choose your soup flavor, and then pick whichever noodle style you prefer. We got the Beef with Noodle in Thick Satay Sauce, and chose the thin egg noodle. The satay sauce was rich with a touch of sweetness, and the noodles had great chew. The beef was the only element that wasn’t as tender and flavorful as I could have hoped for.

Chego

Chego was the first sit-down restaurant by Roy Choi of Kogi BBQ truck fame (check out my Kogi Gold Dig here). Rather than Korean-Mexican tacos, Chego serves up rice bowls. It’s most popular item is the Chubby Pork Belly Bowl, which of course we had to try. The pork belly was not the most melt-in-your-mouth pork belly I’ve ever had, but its savory sweet flavor went well with the pickled veg and fried egg. Best when stirred well!

We also got the Pina Krackalada, which is sweet coconut rice with caramelized pineapple and puffed rice. It’s listed as a dessert, but doesn’t have the same level of sweetness as something like a typical Thai mango rice. The sauce even had a touch of savory to it, which I enjoyed as a dessert but could have also been perfectly happy eating as a side.

Ten Ren’s Tea Time

With all that eating, the thirst kicks in. Not to worry – you can swing over to Ten Ren’s Tea Time for a thirst-quenching boba drink. We got the Coconut Milk Tea with Boba. It hit the spot!

Lasa

Lasa serves Filipino food with California influence. For lunch, you order from this walk-up window and can then take your food inside or eat at one of the picnic tables in the Far East Plaza courtyard. Dinner is served as a sit-down meal, but their dining room is pretty small so reservations are recommended. We got the Lechon Kawali lunch bowl, which is crispy pork belly, yu choy, sweet pickled red onions, and crispy garlic on a bed of jasmine rice. The pork belly had good crunch to it, but was a bit dry and was best with the sauce poured over it. The yu choy was fantastic!

Bao

BaoHaus is the Taiwanese steamed bun spot owned by Eddie Huang of Fresh Off the Boat TV show fame. The first location was in NY, but we’re lucky to now have a BaoHaus in LA. From the handful of bao options, we chose the Chairman Bao (braised pork belly with Haus Relish) and the Birdhaus Bao (fried chicken with Haus Seasoning Salt and lemon-garlic aioli). As you can see from the pic, the piece of fried chicken they give you in the Birdhaus Bao is awesomely large, but I wished that there was more lemon-garlic aioli evenly distributed, as there were some bites that were great while others didn’t get all the flavors. The Chairman Bao was for sure the winner, with super flavorful and tender pork belly pieces.

Scoops

Scoops is the LA ice creamery known for its creative flavor combos. They have new flavors every day, and once they run out of a batch you never know when it will come back, so if you see something that tempts you, get it while you can. The day I was there they had an apple pie ice cream, which was a no-brainer for those of you who know me and my obsession with pie. You can’t tell from the picture, but hidden in that wonderful creamy ice cream were actual chunks of apple pie. Yum!