The Other Critics

Virbila Praises M.B. Post; Gold Claims IOTA Coffee Is Perfect for Teenage Girls

LeFevre explains it all..
LeFevre explains it all.. Photo: Hadley Tomicki

Ah very “interesting”…The L.A. Times appears to be weaning us from the opinions of our usual critic with an announcement that “Starting this week, The Review and The Find will appear on alternating weeks.” Plus, the paper will carry a new feature called Critics’ Choice with shorter reviews, we suspect by a few new voices. Sure, maybe a big city paper should have a weekly restaurant review, but this still smells like good news. In any case, Virbila goes to M.B. Post today, where she’s impressed by David LeFevre’s commitment. She loves the cooking and can’t figure out how he keeps his prices so low (pssst, see Sweeney Tood and Delicatessen). She sums up her feelings about LeFevre in saying, “a highly trained chef has decided to zero in on the casual…Right now, the crowd at M.B. Post seems to be celebrating the fact that there’s such a terrific new restaurant in town, one that can hold its own against anything in Southern California.” Sounds great, now can someone tell the paper’s IT department to help us see some stars. [LAT]

We could dig it if Brad A. Johnson was The L.A. Times critic, that’d be pretty tight. Today, he assess M.B. post with considerably more style (come on, compare the two reviews if you’d like). He doesn’t like a single dessert, nor the rube sitting next to him, but when it comes to Lefevre’s dishes (and the fries), he sounds utterly charmed. [Brad A. Johnson]

Is anyone else experiencing deja vu here? Jonathan Gold takes another look at okonomiyaki in L.A.. However, it’s a good thing as he’s found another version he can easily digest at L.A. Weekly-obsession The Glowfish Truck, where he finds a version that’s “fresh, hot and gooey; crisp-surfaced; flakes of shaved bonito trembling in the breeze like amber waves of grain … it’s the real thing.” [LAW]

The Eton Tsuno-influenced IOTA Coffee may look “like a reality show waiting to happen” and like, totally, be for teenage girls and stuff, but Jonathan Gold still says, “you’ll find the one thing missing from Koreatown’s many, many coffeehouses: actually drinkable coffee.” Anyway, we give four stars to the Yngwie reference. [LAW]

Today J. Gold is on the hunt for samgyeopsal, griddled Korean pork belly wrapped into a leaf with garlic and bean sauce. So naturally, he’s in KTown, where new Palsaik Samgyeopsal seems to do it right. He writes, “You know you have found a samgyeopsal joint when you see customers stagger out into the night, lips shining with grease, perhaps wishing that pork belly wasn’t quite so well suited to the overconsumption of soju.” But not to worry, as it’s apparently a “health food.” [LAW]

Virbila Praises M.B. Post; Gold Claims IOTA Coffee Is Perfect for Teenage Girls