Eating Late in Little Tokyo

Clifton's

The yakisoba at Suehiro Cafe

By Noah Galuten

The best late night eats Little Tokyo has to offer

After 11 o'clock at night, your dinner options in Los Angeles dwindle considerably. Maybe you're stuck late at work, and haven't eaten anything since that slightly rancid salad you forced down for lunch. Or perhaps you went so far as to eat a healthy, responsible dinner at a reasonable hour, but afterward wound up drinking with friends until last call, and now find yourself desperately needing a fatty, soul-satisfying plate of food to keep your stomach from mounting an insurgency. But then, maybe you're merely hungry, and it just so happens to be 2 o'clock in the morning. Fortunately for you, these are times when Little Tokyo can be your best friend.

An izakaya is always a great place to spend an evening, where numerous, shared plates of salty food encourage joyfully gluttonous drinking. Izakaya Fu-Ga, hidden under ground, is one of the newer and more upscale izakaya arrivals in Little Tokyo, with a full bar and fairly good beer selection. The food is in no way strictly Japanese, but you probably won't care much when you're using a pint of the craft pilsner Mama's Little Yella to wash down a hunk of panko-breaded, deep-fried brie. Actually, if you go to Fu-Ga on the later end, they serve a pared-down menu consisting almost exclusively of fried food. But while the tempura-battered onion rings can be a bit under-seasoned, the fried sesame chicken more than holds up as a drinking buddy.

Then there's Izakaya Haru-Ulala – named after a Japanese racehorse – a far more casual, sparsely decorated, and less refined place, located right amidst the beating pulse of late-night little Tokyo. You could probably eat there with a group of 10 and not come close to working your way through the entire menu. They panko-bread and deep fry cheese there, too, offering a dripping mass of gooey Camembert on a stick (there is an entire section of fried things on a stick). You can toss back your usual Japanese beers and sake at Ulala, all while ordering grilled skewered meats; grilled, stuffed rice balls; crunchy Japanese pickles; fried wings; and a fairly sweet rendition of stewed short ribs with daikon.

The best izakaya still serving after midnight may just be Honda Ya, located on the top floor of the Little Tokyo Shopping Center. There are large wooden tables, and a tatami room off to the side (you sit on pillows on the floor there, a rather useful option if you're too drunk to remain upright in a chair). The pungent but refreshing raw, marinated octopus is surprisingly enjoyable here. And while skewers like the pork belly and chicken skin could do with some more crisping, the grilled chicken hearts were tender and quite elegant. If you like natto (those delightfully slimy, fermented soybeans), you'll probably be pleased with the versions served here, too. Some favorites, though, were actually the heavier dishes like the rice soup filled with spicy cod roe, and the charmingly dense, fried crab and potato croquette.

But there is, of course, a bit more to eat at 1am in Little Tokyo than izakaya fare. The busiest place, and certainly the most universally celebrated, is Daikokuya. Where else, after all, can you expect to show up at 11 o'clock on a Tuesday night, and have to wait 10 minutes before you can procure a solo seat at the counter? There is a certain confident atmosphere to Daikokuya, and it stems not just from the waitstaff, but the customers, too. The servers seem rather certain that their ramen is great, and the customers are eager to agree, confident in the knowledge that there's no place they'd rather be. In fact, should you tell your average local foodie that Daikokuya is not your favorite ramen shop in L.A., they just may come at you, angling to stab you in the neck with a pair of chopsticks. But yes, the thick, fatty, porcine ramen is the draw here, and though it is absolutely not for those with any sensitivity to MSG, it is still the reigning king of Downtown's noodle options. And while they do make rice bowls, chow mein, and a few other things, you're probably not going to order them. However, you would not be deemed foolish if you made room for a side of gyoza to go along with your ramen. They are folded into neat little rectangles, pan-fried until golden and crispy, then hit with a heavy sprinkling of sliced scallions.

Kouraku is another place for ramen, and actually stays open until 3am on every day except Sunday. The menu is dauntingly large, dipping back and forth between Japan and China, and the food is prepared by large men working big, round woks over scorching blue flames. The food comes out very hot, which is why it helps that they have beer on draft. The more traditional ramen bowls may disappoint you, but that's why we recommend indulging your adventurous side and ordering some of the more eclectic ones. After a particularly long and rough day, I was made rather happy by a glass of very cold beer, an appetizer of juicy, garlic-laden spinach, and a big bowl of spicy mabo ramen, containing ground pork, soft cubes of tofu, and a thick, brown, almost gravy-like broth. The best thing about the ramen at Kouraku is the quality of the noodles – yellow, springy, and maintaining a good bite throughout.

Finally there's Suehiro Cafe. They are open until 1am on weekdays and 3am on weekends, and like most of the other spots listed here, serve as many food items as they possibly can. But Suehiro is the old standby for a lot of people, the place where you expect to be comforted by simple foods, low prices, and the ability to sit down with little thought required. When the rest of the city has turned in for the night, sidling up to some oyakodon, that humble bowl of chicken, egg, and rice, can bring so much pleasure. There's no need to worry about being put off by excessive creativity here. It's like the Japanese version of a diner – you can probably order without ever having seen a menu, and the food will most likely come out exactly as expected. The spicy tuna roll is neither innovative nor offensive, the yakisoba is as greasy as you thought it would be, the soup broth as mellow, too, and everything in the world (on this night anyway) seems to be in its proper place.

And at 12:15am on a Wednesday morning – your body wrecked by alcohol, or work, or lack of sleep, or love, or any combination thereof – what else could you possibly ask for?


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