Counter: It's sizzling, from Mapo Galbi to Costa Mesa

Jonathan Gold • Los Angeles Times • July 18, 2015

Salutations, Koreatown is home to scores of restaurants that specialize in one dish. Mapo Galbi's specialty is dak galbi, a spicy stir-fried chicken, a sweet-hot mountain of meat that is served with cabbage and rice noodles. In my column this...

The full article can be read on the Los Angeles Times website.

'Are you breathing? Hired.' Why SoCal restaurants are still deeply short-staffed

Jenn Harris • Los Angeles Times • April 22, 2022

In the fall of 2021, assistant restaurant manager Jamie Wongaroon witnessed a disgruntled customer berate a host during a busy dinner service at Uzumaki, the small sushi restaurant she manages in Culver City. The next day, Wongaroon spent around...

These are the 13 worst restaurant and food trends for 2018

Anne Valdespino, Brad A. Johnson • Orange County Register • December 26, 2018

We get it: Getting to dine out is a privilege, a part of this job we enjoy. But when you do it a lot, and we do, you notice all the good things — the server who goes the extra mile or the chef who comes out to chat with the patrons — and you...

What Wolfgang Puck thinks the restaurant industry needs most

Jenn Harris • Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2020

Wolfgang Puck is one of the most famous chefs in the world. Arguably the first celebrity chef, he built a culinary empire with a catering company and dozens of restaurants. In Los Angeles, the Austrian chef is known for helping to start a dining...

Delivery Apps Are Forcing L.A. Restaurants to Adjust to a Take-Out World—or Risk Starvation

Maureen Harrington • Los Angeles Magazine • January 29, 2020

Canter’s is the Dodger Stadium of delis. The enormous menu; the nearly 24-hour service; the Kibitz Room, home to generations of rock and rollers and late-night rabble-rousers—none of it has changed in years. And it’s not going to. At least not so...

L.A.’s 10 Best New Restaurants of 2019

Hailey Eber • Los Angeles Magazine • December 17, 2019

From an over-the-top seafood temple to a great noodle joint, here are the city’s best new restaurants for every taste and occasion. Enjoying Angler requires a few mental leaps. You have to overlook the fact it’s in the Beverly Center. And that it...