As with a lot of pho places in OC’s Little Saigon neighborhood, Long Beach’s Pho Hong Phat doesn’t look like much from the outside. And given the restaurant’s location near the intersection of Anaheim Street and Redondo Avenue, as well as the city’s ongoing street-construction efforts, the parking situation pretty much sucks. (Locals in the […]
Long Beach Lunch
Guatemalan Restaurant Opens in Long Beach Just in Time for the Country’s Independence Day
It might not be vogue to say this in Southern California, but Guatemalan tamales are superior to Mexican ones. Apologies to all the dense, hand-molded Mexican masa mounds out there, but when it comes to texture and fillings and flavor, los chapínes win. Though harder to find (and even harder to find done right), the […]
Ammatolí Mediterranean Bites Is One of the Most Exciting New Restaurants in Long Beach
In classical times, a large swath of the Eastern Mediterranean—from Turkey through Syria and around the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt—was known as a single cultural region, with a shared history, its own Arabic dialect and a cuisine that reflected its location at the literal crossroads of the world. In Arabic, the area was called Sham […]
Long Beach’s Organic Fork Has Good Tacos and Better Tortas
The first time I went to Organic Fork, I ordered a romaine salad, thinking it would be a flagship that goes with the white walls, open kitchen and “healthy food” mantra. But as I sipped on an alkaline-water jamaica-lime agua fresca and stabbed into a compostable bowl of herbal, seed-loaded crunch (which still felt substantial, […]
Long Beach’s Past, Present and Future MVP’s Grill & Patio
I still don’t understand how I fell into food writing. Was I the only person in Long Beach who never cooked because their apartment is so old that if you wanted a fridge, it had to go where an oven was supposed to be? Besides loving my city immensely, was I qualified at all to […]
Flamin Curry Is New Affordable Indian Fast Food in Belmont Heights
It was only last month that this column space was extolling the virtues of Wok N Roll, a Chinese fast-food institution whose continuously replaced steam trays, cooked-to-order vegan and vegetarian options, and a friendly staff of extended family made it one of the best places in Long Beach putting a two-item combo into a Styrofoam […]
Brunch Life Fest Celebrates Long Beach’s Growing Love of the In-Between Meal
Anne Chua used to have a traditional view of breakfast: pancakes, waffles, a plate of bacon and eggs. But not long after turning 21, she was taken to brunch and discovered the popular Mexican dish chilaquiles. “It’s like breakfast, but also like nachos,” the now-26-year-old Long Beach native says. “Brunch is my favorite because there’s […]
Cambodian Chef Chad Phuong Aims to Launch a Food Truck
In the Battambong province of Cambodia in the early ’70s, Chad Phuong’s grandmother had a stall in their village from which she sold the classic Khmer cold noodle dish nom banh chok. When the brutal Khmer Rouge took over (and made private businesses illegal) later that decade, Phuong’s family fled to a refugee camp on […]
Beach City Food Tours Shows Off Downtown Long Beach’s Culinary Scene
The only food tour through downtown Long Beach starts big — with a fiery flash, a drizzle of lemon juice and a hearty “Opa!” Five days a week, Beach City Food Tours initiates its lunchtime Downtown Long Beach Walking Tour at George’s Greek Cafe, where visitors savor the local institution’s famous saganaki appetizer, a so-called “flaming […]
Long Beach Newcomer Lacquered Needs to Rethink Prices on its Great Food
Of all the recent restaurant openings in Long Beach, none has caused quite as many conflicting opinions as Lacquered. On the one hand, it’s a small counter-service restaurant owned by an enthusiastic Harbor Area husband and wife team who parlayed their respective fine-dining experiences (him: The Fifth Restaurant in Toronto; her: Wolfgang Puck) first into […]
LB Vegan Is Bringing More Animal-Free Pop-Ups to Long Beach
When German Rivera first went vegan 15 years ago, there were surprisingly few restaurants in L.A. where someone could eat a hearty plant-based meal. The animal lover and graphic designer, who came from a food-obsessed family in Mexico, got excited over simple discoveries: the new Native Foods in Westwood, a secretly all-vegan Thai restaurant in […]
Loaded Cafe Is the Mexican-Owned Greasy Spoon the Future Needs
The greasy spoon diner is an icon of mid-century American culture, but it’s most prolific form is really a slice of Southern California. With home-style meals, cozy-booth settings and snappy service, freestanding kitchens slinging pancakes and burgers become important community spaces – where working-class folk from across the community could sit side by side at […]
Blue Bird Cafe Brings More Than Just Vegan Sushi Back to Alamitos Beach
Happy Elephant was Long Beach’s only sushi restaurant that didn’t bother stocking any fish. It was also the only vegan place around that served a full menu of reimagined and deconstructed Vietnamese and Thai dishes, a la Au Lac. The restaurant’s location next to Spicy Sugar in the middle of the Thai Town Gayborhood […]
