The Other Critics

Chego’s Got Soul, Sings Gold; The Lobster’s Overcooked Eats Underwhelm Virbila

Chego
Chego Photo: Hadley Tomicki

Chego’s rice bowls have little to do with “the skanky, stringy underseasoned” ones at so-many Yoshinoyas, Jonathan Gold opines, but are “multifaceted, soulful things, utterly un-Korean in concept but Korean to their core.” [L.A. Weekly]

S. Irene Virbila recommends the beef deckle at District in a review that uses terms like “Steampunk” and “killer apps” that she must have overheard some young intern saying. [L.A. Times]

Virbila also revisits The Lobster, gets punished by her old nemesis, noise, and finds the food is still so-so Though new chef Colin Crannell has improved the menu, the kitchen is inconsistent and with those epic views and endless demand, “it just could be so much more.” [L.A. Times]

Los Angeles dares to call kaiten sushi “gimmicky,” but likes Beverly Hills’ high cheekbone-and-collagen-implant-plagued Tiger. [Los Angeles]

Manhattan Beach’s The Farmhouse, lands “somewhere between Middle American gluttonous and West Coast consciousness…You’ll leave well fed, but not gasping for breath.,” writes Merrill Shindler. [Daily Breeze]

Live in L.A. and dating someone from the O.C.? Mr. Gold suggests almost meeting halfway at Manhattan Beach’s Petros, which “won’t make you forget that glorious summer on Mykonos but is a nice place…with good sourcing and very decent grilled octopus.” [L.A. Weekly]

Jonathan Gold reports that Forage is a smash-hit Silver Lake hotspot that offers “a new way to look at the Los Angeles dream.” [L.A. Weekly]

Chego’s Got Soul, Sings Gold; The Lobster’s Overcooked Eats Underwhelm Virbila