If SF is so diverse why isn't it reflected in its food? (Los Angeles: university, gated)

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by 415_s2k

Oh yeah, definitely. Both those areas are easily walkable, and so are Venice, MDR, Culver, and areas of Palms and Mar Vista that are by major boulevards.

Downtown is walkable. East LA has many walkable neighborhoods. Rampart's walkable... Hollywood's walkable...

The thing that I think gets people about LA is that Hollywood is not walkable to Santa Monica. So, when they come to visit, they have to drive... when they drive, they don't know any alternate routes that will save them time and either go straight down Santa Monica Blvd or straight to the freeway, and they come away thinking that LA is "unwalkable," when the reality is that it's perfectly walkable, it's just ten times bigger than most other cities.

Exactly!

People who haven't spent much time in the area think of LA as Laguna Hills, Hollywood, and Beverly Hills all 2 miles apart.

What a lot of people don't understand about the culture of SoCal is that it's a bunch of really diverse sub-cities that people like to lump into Greater Metro L.A. It's just so vast and large that people from NorCal who haven't spent time in SoCal can't grasp or get their mind around it.

[CousinMaynard]

Originally Posted by NJudah

In my experience, LA has more "low-end" food diversity in addition to high-end stuff. So if you are craving something greasy like most of your examples seem to be, yeah LA might be more diverse.

confirm

personally i wish we had fatburger and bobs big boy up here.

[andyadhi01]

My take on the SF food is this:

What SF has:
1. Lots of pricey restaurants where you can eat and brag about having an expensive meal (not necessarily good)
2. Lots of new American type of food which is by and large hit or miss except the styling and good plating techniques
3. Lots of Chinese restaurants and most of them pretty bad

What SF does not have:
1. Almost stunning lack of authentic ethnic food particularly Indian, Middle eastern, Korean, Mexican etc. They have some dirty low end Pakistani restaurants and people here think that's all Indian food is supposed to be. South bay has good Indian restaurants. Middle eastern food scene here ranges from non-existent to pathetic and just about any city USA is better in that regard.
2. Does not have one single good sit-down Mexican restaurant. People here think taqueria's selling cheap unhealthy burrito is Mexican food. Its impossible to even get those burritos if you are not in Mission. People in SF have segregated restaurant locations by race and taken segregation to whole another level. Texas is miles ahead of CA in Mexican food.
3. Complete lack of late night restaurants. It's virtually impossible to get a good meal here after 9 PM. Even if the place is open till 10 PM all the staff will start packing up at 9 PM. There are couple of places that are open late night but just about any major city has many 24 hr places. You can literally starve to death in this city at night unless you stockpile on food in home.
4. Complete lack of Cajun or Southern style food.
5. Lack of good chain restaurants like Chipotle, Panera bread etc
6. Stunning lack of places where you can good beer and some pub food at affordable price. And of course very conveniently every single bar stops serving food at 10 PM.
7. No restaurant with good amount of space or privacy. Even the expensive places are packed tight and loud.

So I agree.. The food scene here is overpriced and way overhyped. Give me a few 24 hr eating places and good authentic ethnic restaurants and I can forget about all the other snobby, yuppie food places where the 20-year- old-trust-fund-kid-pretending-to-have-taste rich hang out.

SF food scene, if you ignore the overpriced places where the rich dine, is just about as good as any small city in middle America.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by rkwalton

I grew up in L.A. It depends on the neighborhood. When I was an undergrad, walking to restaurants? Easy because my school was near a popular and busy commercial area.

The same when I lived in West L.A. near Santa Monica. I drove there, but once I parked, I could walk the whole 4th St. Promenade and have tons of different places to eat. The same for Los Feliz, which was a stomping ground of mine for awhile, and Hollywood, where I went to school for a bit. I also used to work on Wilshire Blvd and my company was right across the street from a major museum and there were a few places to eat that were definitely in walking distance. L.A. isn't as bad as people make it out to be but it is very much a car-based city.

Of course its unfair to compare a small city like SF with LA. SF has enough restaurants to keep the yuppies entertained with overpriced mockery of ethnic food until they go to bed at 9.30 PM. After 10 PM you can eat dirt in SF

[DocGoldstein]

What I'm talking about is truly authentic ethnic food, S.F seems to have a lot of yuppified ethnic food that is fusion, but not true ethnic enclaves like SoCal where the food is legit. For instance in Cerritos you literally have a "little Pakistan", East LA is pretty much the best Mexican food in the state, or in Chicago you have "little Iraq". Is there even a good Iraqi restaurant in the Bay Area? I haven't found it.

[hsw]

Nearly all ThirdWorld or American or EU grub entails crap ingredients....nominally cheap but rather costly in eventual healthcare costs

What was coffee quality avail in Midtown Manhattan in mid-'90s before SBUX?
Even today, what are decent sandwich/salad/juice choices avail in MidtownManhattan at wkday lunch?

Reality is food in any major city on planet has sucked for affluent in business dt at bkfst/lunch, before era of self-contained corp cafes willing to pay up for good ingreds/chefs, etc ala ORCL, GOOG, AAPL, etc and before CMG for masses

And in any wealthy region like SF/SV or BH or NYC, most of working wealthy arrive in office <7AM, so late-nt grub is universally crap that may sell to a combo of poors and/or drunk yuppies who will eat any crap

Most talented NYC chefs prefer to leave kitchen by 10PM as they have own lives and know that anyone w/money&taste is not dining at those silly hrs anyway....and in SF/BH a large chunk of wealthy who appreciate good food/drinks arrive in office <6AM so late nt hrs for diners are far less relevant than in NYC...would argue dining choices in either SV or BH are world's best for any wealthy workaholic who cares abt his health and civilized settings for dining

[ambient]

Originally Posted by luau

SF is supposedly more diverse than LA, but why is good/diverse/healthy food so hard to come by 24/7? In LA I could either walk or get delivered to me almost any kind of cuisine there was, brazilian, cuban, or even breakfast at 2am! Here? Forget about it. Restaurants close at 10pm. I miss being able to walk into Canter's Deli and get a delicious, fresh, handcarved sandwich. I miss going to Versailles and getting a delicious rotisseries chicken. There's a lack of healthy restaurants here too that aren't vegan. And why can't I get breakfast at 1am?

I don't know. But recognize that there is a difference between the diversity of cuisine in a metropolitan area and the hours of operation. The fact that you could get breakfast at 1 am is not what qualifies it as "diverse."

[mayorhaggar]

If you think SF doesn't have a wide variety of food, then go live in the Mission. And yes, there's more than just burritos there. Much more.

LA is kind of a silly comparison. Maybe there's some place open there at midnight but maybe you have to drive 5 miles to get there. LA is kind of dense and is a long sprawl of vaguely urbane suburbia. There are a lot of choices, but part of the problem is you really have to know where to go (as with anything in LA) and it's not like SF or Oakland where you can just walk down the street looking at menus and looking through the window to take a look. Yes, there's Yelp now, but you just experience a city and its food differently by foot compared with seeing it whiz by.

But a lot of the LA area is just repetitive suburban sprawl, with fast food being the main staple. Something I've noticed about LA, especially in the South Bay and Long Beach areas, is that there are a ton of greasy local burger places that are kind of similar to In n' Out. You know that weird "1/4 lb" place you see here and there in Oakland? It's like if there was one of those on every block, but they all had some weird name like Omega Burgers or Louis II.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by ambient

I don't know. But recognize that there is a difference between the diversity of cuisine in a metropolitan area and the hours of operation. The fact that you could get breakfast at 1 am is not what qualifies it as "diverse."

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to make it to a dinner at a restaurant by 8 PM if you work long hours and commute? The SF dining is scene is good if you get off work early or adjust your hours to meet the need of service providers. In most normal places the service providers adjust their hours to meet clients needs unlike SF. And its not not just food.. every other damn local shops like cleaners, produce markets, shops, hardware stores close by 6-7 PM in this city. The only way you can shop there is if you are unemployed or take time off work just to run errands. SF is a very dysfunctional place and the fact that everything closes early infuriates me almost every single day.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

If you think SF doesn't have a wide variety of food, then go live in the Mission. And yes, there's more than just burritos there. Much more.

In terms of Mexican food Mission has nothing to offer other than those Taquerias. Does SF (or for that matter entire bay area) have a single Mexican restaurant like this:
Mi Cocina Restaurants
I am not even posting pictures to show you the ambiance. Dallas, TX literally has hundereds of places like that.
Mission has a handful of sit-down Mexican places but they are overpriced, ugly and the food is mediocore.

But its not just Mexican food where SF is bad... The city is pathetic when it comes to Indian or Middle Eastern food and just about any major city in US will come ahead of SF.