Copyright Los Angeles Times
Is it possible to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in L.A. for under $25 total? Fresh off the heels of the Food team’s guide to 50 L.A. restaurants where dinner costs $50 or less, including tax and tip, we sought to slice the savings even further and set out to find three square meals for less than $25 total, including tax and tip. For this challenge, we sought out casual, takeout-friendly restaurants, spanning a Cantonese noodle house in San Gabriel Valley, an Argentine bistro in Exposition Park and more. Breakfast Bagels By Kneady Sugar Mamma half-bagel, plus tax and tip: $6.49 USC Village continues to draw attention from non-USC-attending Angelenos with the addition of several exciting new food and beverage tenants. Earlier this summer, popular Smorgasburg vendor Softies opened its first brick-and-mortar in the university-adjacent complex, and now you’ll find Bagels by Kneady, a daytime bagel pop-up at the Rock & Reilly’s on the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover Street. Bagels by Kneady comes from chef Michael Bakert, director of operations and head of culinary for Rock & Reilly’s USC. He first began experimenting with bagels to supplement the menu at Eruta Nature, a coffee concept that operates out of the pub during the day, but the rings proved so popular Bakert decided to launch a separate bagel brand. The sourdough bagels are hand rolled, boiled and baked fresh daily, with creative flavors such as a seven-spice or turbinado caramelized bagel and paired with equally experimental toppings, like the Pastrami Mami with hand-sliced pastrami, mustard cole slaw, pickles and pimento cheese spread. Eruta Nature offers embellished coffee and matcha drinks to rival the menu at Starbucks just a few doors down. The spacious tavern, which has plenty of seating available for dining in, is busy in the morning as students swing by for their daily caffeine and bagel fix, but slows down as classes get underway. In order to make the most of my $25 budget, I opted for the cheapest item on the menu, one-half of the Sugar Mamma bagel ($5), crusted with flakes of raw sugar and topped with maple cream cheese and berry jam. The jam is tart and the maple cream cheese lends a slight caramel flavor. It’s not too sweet and not overly filling, just enough to power me through the rest of my morning. Even if you’re looking for a heartier option, the rest of Bagels by Kneady’s menu is approachably priced. The most expensive bagels top out at $12 and are crowned with cheesy scrambled eggs and candied bacon bits, or lox and all the fixings. — Danielle Dorsey Historic South Central: 3201 S. Hoover Ave., Los Angeles, instagram.com/bagelsbykneady/ Tam’s Noodle House Barbecued pork rice noodle roll with hot tea, plus tax and tip: $9.29 When it comes to pitch-perfect Hong Kong-style noodles and breakfasts, few do it better than Tam’s Noodle House. Chef-owner Alex Tam operates two locations, one in San Gabriel and one in Rowland Heights, where locals share large bowls of congee, bountiful stir-frys, milk teas and more in homey dining rooms. The Cantonese cuisine is comforting and affordable well into the night, but breakfast reigns: Hearty combos featuring congee, rice noodle rolls, eggs and beyond can be found between 8 and 11 a.m., with tea or coffee included, for $12.99. (Note: The team’s other restaurant, the nearby HK Macau Bistro in San Gabriel, also serves a range of $12.99 breakfast specials.) One of these breakfast combos can fill you until dinnertime, but for the sake of three square meals under $25 I opted for an a la carte order of one of Tam’s signatures: the steamed rice paper roll, which runs $4.50 to $6.50. With barbecued pork they’re only $5.50 apiece, and they’re generous in size and quality for the price. Freshly made, chewy and sticky, these glutinous rolls come studded with meat, scallion and cilantro, then drowned in a sweet-savory sauce. I added a bottomless cup of hot tea for $1.50 and felt more than ready to take on the day. Both Tam’s locations sell frozen bags of house-made noodles, dumplings and wontons — for as little as $20 per bag of 50 wontons — making this an affordable stop for restaurant-quality food at home too. —Stephanie Breijo San Gabriel Valley:120 N. San Gabriel Blvd. #J, San Gabriel, (626) 782-7666; 19035 Colima Road, Rowland Heights, (626) 820-9977, tamsnoodlehouse.wixsite.com/home Lunch Guisados Fish taco, plus tax and tip: $6.42 There are many days that I crave Guisados: a near-remarkable feat given how many phenomenal taquerias can be found throughout L.A. Maybe it’s the De La Torre family’s recipes for long-simmered namesake guisados — or stews — that call to me, or maybe it’s the chew of their freshly made corn tortillas. Whatever the case, I often find myself thinking about the family-run local chain, which launched in Boyle Heights in 2010 and now maintains nearly a dozen locations from the Eastside to South Bay. Most often I’m thinking about its fish taco, a dense, compact thing of balance and beauty. At $4.95 it’s a deal, considering that it’s so stuffed it practically bursts from its fresh, warm tortilla and onto its tinfoil wrapper. There’s plenty of protein thanks to a hearty smear of black beans below the grilled, meaty piece of white fish, and both are topped by cabbage, chile de arbol, pico de gallo and an avocado crema. It’s hot and cool and it always hits the spot. Of course Guisados offers a range of high-quality budget-minded bites: Most tacos top out at $4.25, including the breakfast varieties, and if you can’t decide, the sampler plate serves up six mini tacos for $11.75. If you’re visiting the Echo Park location, take your taco to-go, head north on Sunset and eat it with a (free) view of Echo Park Lake. —S.B. Various locations, guisados.la Fuegos L.A. Empanada, plus tax and tip: $6.49 This Argentine wine bar from Fede Laboureau and Max Pizzi is a cozy place to settle in for lunch, with its vintage mismatched furniture and a rusted pickup truck permanently parked in the lot outside, complete with a grill set up in the bed for cooking short ribs, pork flank and blood sausage. Alongside grilled meats, milanesa Napolitana and sandwiches, fresh-baked empanadas ($5 each) are the major draw here. The flaky pockets come stuffed with hand-cut sirloin that’s marinated in Malbec wine with red bell peppers and onions; spinach, mushroom and vegan cheese; smoked ham and mozzarella; and other ingredients, many of which are sourced directly from Argentina. One empanada might sound like a light lunch, but the pastries are more filling than they appear. If you’re interested in sampling the different flavors, you can purchase a dozen for $60. Or, if you head to the bistro in the morning you can try a breakfast empanada with egg, bacon, cheese and chives; buttery media lunas; pain au chocolate oozing with dulce de leche; and yerba mate tea. — D.D. Exposition Park: 3957 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 403-2133, fuegosla.com Dinner The Win-Dow Single cheeseburger, add smashed avocado, plus tax and tip: $7.72 The Win-Dow doesn’t just serve some of L.A.’s best smash burgers — it’s also home to some of the most affordable. The walk-up window serving $4.50 cheeseburgers and other budget-minded fare is a sibling concept to Venice and Beverly Grove steakhouses American Beauty, and it was through those steaks and meat trimmings that owners Paul Hibler, Jeff Goodman and Bruce Horwitz thought to extend their operations with a burger stand. Their more casual business — now with five Win-Dows spread throughout L.A. — offers single smash burgers for $4.50, doubles for $7.75, a vegetarian version for $8.50, and chicken sandwiches for $7.50, plus shakes, salads and sides of fries. For the sake of coming in under budget I opted for the single smash burger, then added smashed avocado for $1 more. This is a budget burger that doesn’t eat like one: it’s sizable, even for a single patty, and comes dripping with melted American cheese, pickles, a tangle of grilled onions and a slick of creamy house sauce atop it all. My total for the day came to $23.43, and I didn’t feel dissatisfied once. —S.B. Various locations, thewin-dow.la La Pupusa Urban Eatery Pupusa, pastelito and empanada, plus tax and tip: $11.86 The Pico-Union restaurant from Stephanie Figueroa and Juan Saravia blends traditional Salvadoran cuisine with L.A. flair, featuring pupusas that come with classic fillings like loroco and Salvadoran chorizo, as well as unique options such as the pupusa a la Mexicana that’s topped with your choice of carne asada, chicken or al pastor, pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream and cotija cheese. Tamales, pastelitos, empanadas and large plates including mojarra frita and yuca con chicharrones round out the menu, with a spate of breakfast specialties in the morning. On weekdays from 3 p.m. to close, the restaurant offers a deal where three pastelitos, empanadas and pupusas can be combined for $3 each. I sampled one of each, opting for the classic pupusa revuelta with chicharrón, beans and cheese. The pastelito was a savory pastry shaped like a half moon and filled with veggies and pork, while the empanada — an oblong pastry of caramelized plantain filled with custard and sprinkled with sugar — adds a sweet bite for dessert. If you’re worried that the $9 deal doesn’t have enough veggies, I’d direct your attention to the accompanying Ziploc bulging with curtido, a tangy Salvadoran slaw that should be piled onto every bite of your pupusa and pastelito. That brings my total for the day to $24.84, and I even had some leftover empanada to enjoy the following morning. — D.D.
