The Other Critics

El Parian Gets Gold’s Goat Right; Kuh’s Kudos Go To The Del Rae

El Parian's birria
El Parian’s birria Photo: Hadley Tomicki via L.A. Taco

Jonathan Gold re-revisits a favorite, Pico-Union’s El Parian, to see if the birria stands up to the epic version he tasted at Guadalajara’s Las 9 Esquinas. “It came pretty close,” he decides. [L.A. Weekly]

Virbila has visions of Coco Chanel during an early glance at Bouchon, where “Beverly Hills has never experienced French bistro food so impeccably executed.” [L.A. Times]

“If there is a problem…at Manna, it’s that you’re in one of the wackiest malls in town,” explains Merrill Shindler, who has trouble finding his car after soju at Westfield Culver City’s new all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ outpost. [Daily Breeze]

Need a ham to feed the fam? Jonathan Gold suggests “a sweet, mild city ham from one of the local smokehouses, of which Schreiner’s is undoubtedly the best.” [L.A. Weekly]

In a step from her usual fine-dining habits, S. Irene Virbila takes on our burger craze, finding Umami burgers to be very good, but hardly “the second coming.” [L.A. Times]

Patrick Kuh takes a look at Pico-Rivera classic The Dal Rae’s “dining style that emerged when the social aspirations of the 1950s blended together.” [Los Angeles]

El Parian Gets Gold’s Goat Right; Kuh’s Kudos Go To The Del Rae