San Pedro
SAN PEDRO
WHITTIER
By Joshua Lurie
For dineLA.com
We already featured Reseda, South Los Angeles and Inglewood, but realized it was worth casting an even wider net to bring Angelenos more full-tilt flavors on the fringes. This month we highlight compelling eating options in three more unsung neighborhoods.
MAGIC WOKArtesia is best known for its Indian cuisine, but just off the main drag, chef Rudolfo “Rudy” Abuyen and wife Marivic, who runs the front of the house, have built a bastion of Filipino food. Magic Wok debuted in 1981 and continues to draw crowds to its inconspicuous strip mall location. Choose from 79 savory offerings, including several iterations of the stir-fried noodle dish known as pancit and myriad preparations of pork. Sisig features cubes of crisp-skinned, vinegar-washed hog meat. They also prepare an entire fried pata (pig’s trotter) and crisp-sheathed egg roll cylinders called lumpia.
- 11869 Artesia Blvd., Artesia, 562.865.7340
MEHFILThe name of this two-year-old restaurant encourages diners to “get together” for Moghal Hyderbadi specialties and Indian-influenced Chinese dishes. The space is well worn, with blue booths and globe lanterns that could easily double as birdcages. Still, it’s Chef Osman Molana’s food that draws diners. Highlights include a tomato-based goat curry featuring tender, bone-in chunks of bleat meat. They’ve got creamy beef and lentil cakes called shami kebabs, which are burnished in the tandoor and tamed with creamy mint chutney. A tantalizing vegetarian option involves tiny Asian eggplants that are served on the stem and bathed in a rich, curd-y sauce that pairs especially well with fluffy naan.
- 18155 S. Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, 562.860.5445
MUMBAI KI GALLIYON SESailesh Shah and wife Shruti serve Mumbai-style street foods at their tiny café while Bollywood movies illuminate a flat-screen TV. The couple features nearly 100 vegetarian options, including a section devoted to Indo-Chinese Fusion. Some of the more popular items include Dahi Batata Puri, delicate sea urchin-shaped bread shells that the Shahs fill with sprouted mung beans and top with tangy yogurt, crispy noodle strands, sweet-tart tamarind-date sauce, green cilantro sauce and fresh-clipped cilantro. Dabeli are inventive sliders involving buttery rolls, spiced mashed potatoes, peanuts, crunchy raw onions, sweet raisins, green grapes, and either pomegranate seeds or pomegranate molasses, depending on seasonality. Piyush is a tangy yogurt-based drink flavored with saffron and showered with crushed cardamom, pistachios and almonds.
- 17705 Pioneer Boulevard, Artesia, 562.860.6699, www.mumbaikgs.com
MISHI’S STRUDEL, BAKERY & CAFEMichael "Mishi" Schueller worked as a mathematician for companies like IBM and Raytheon, but after getting laid off seven years ago, he had to form a new plan. Mishi and Transylvanian wife Aniko opened one of LA’s only Hungarian restaurants in late 2007 using his aunt’s traditional recipes. The menu sports two symbols that are worth noting, the restaurant's logo for "Aniko & Mishi's secret recipe" and Hungarian flag for "traditional Hungarian specialties." Hearty Hungarian Goulash Stew combines chunks of beef, smoky bacon bits, green peppers, caraway, garlic, onions and olive oil. The stew's mild or spicy, depending on the amount of paprika. Given the name, it should come as no surprise Mishi has more than a dozen flavors of flaky, sugar-dusted strudel, including apple, cherry and seasonal pumpkin, plus a traditional variety with a gritty black ooze of poppy seeds, apples, raisins, honey, pear and lemon juice. They also have savory cabbage, spinach and beef strudels and crepes with chestnut puree or fruit jam.
- 309 W. 7th St., San Pedro, 310.831.6474, www.mishisstrudel.com
PAVICH’S PIZZAFEZdenko Pavic and wife Mirela own a Croatian-accented brick oven pizzeria in a strip mall on the Palos Verdes border. They top pizzas with familiar toppings like mushrooms, tomatoes and mozzarella, plus Eastern Bloc ingredients like smoked beef and Feta. Croatian flair practically radiates from cevapcici, plump thumb-sized beef sausages that are grilled and piled onto pull-apart somun bread with diced red onions. Thinking of dessert? Look no further than the countertop, which hosts trays of flaky apple strudel that are dusted with powdered sugar. The Pavic family also owns a takeout café with an identical oven and a more limited menu in south San Pedro.
- 29701 S. Western Ave., San Pedro, 310.832.1200
SAN PEDRO FISH MARKETMackey Ungaro debuted the market in downtown San Pedro as Vista Seafood in 1957. He eventually moved to the waterfront Ports O’ Call Village, where son Henry and friend Tommy Amalfitano took over. To become a vertically integrated seafood destination, they added a restaurant, which debuted on Good Friday in 1982. Now the Ungaros and Amalfitanos can seat 2000 people at a time, many of which come for the views of the cruise ships, Port of Los Angeles and squawking sea gulls. Most customers order plates (or trays) of seafood fajitas loaded with griddled shell-on shrimp and/or sea bass fillet and/or lobster, all lavished with a fajita topper of grilled onions, green bell peppers, tomatoes and potatoes. A cocktail bar dispenses shrimp, oysters, ceviche, octopus, crab or scallops. Grab a mallet if you want to bust open some crab, or return to the market to source ulterior finds. Consider rosy shark fillets with ruby patches, tiny smelts, or torpedo-shaped barracuda. They’ll cook anything that swims.
- 1901 Nagoya Way, San Pedro, 310.832.4251, www.sanpedrofishmarket.com
THE BOTTLE ROOMCraft beer lovers already view The Bottle Room as a destination thanks to the high-test taps and compelling brewmaster dinners. On a regular basis, Chef/co-owner Tony Alcazar presides over the brick-walled gastropub in Uptown Whittier, turning out some of the more interesting pub fare in the city. The burger rates with LA’s best, partnering egg-washed brioche with rosy-at-the-center sirloin, Swiss, molten blue cheese, arugula and caramelized onions that are bolstered with brown sugar and balsamic. Other intriguing options include “pigs in a blanket,” a massive crepe that’s filled with pulled Kurobota pork rib and topped with tangy tomatillo salsa and a fried egg. They’ve also got jumbo BBQ prawns, plated on cheddar grits with a chunky Cajun-style Andouille, pepper and onion sauce.
- 6741 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier, 562.696.8000, www.thebottleroombar.com
FENIX 5-4This health-oriented juice bar and sandwich shop is named for the last two digits of its address and for the four phoenix statues that top the Uptown Whittier building. Since June 2009, owner Kyle Koestler has sold sandwiches and salads, but juices star at the Fenix, which promises “certified clown free food” and even presents fast food star Jack’s head in a box, along with plenty of other clown imagery. Johnny Love is a particularly compelling vegetable juice named for former employee involving carrot, beet, celery and cucumber. They recently added organic wine and beers and already offered an array of bottled kombucha, the funky fermented tea. Informative blackboards help to preach the gospel, proclaiming Alkaline Foods “raise the amount of oxygen in your blood,” and Yerba Mate “induces mental clarity.”
- 6754 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier, 562.693.9780, www.fenix54.com
SETAChef Hugo Molina, previously of Pasadena’s Parkway Grill, leads the charge at this Latin- and Asian-tinged steakhouse. They have a number of “comfort dishes,” but primarily focus on Prime, corn-fed, dry-aged steaks that are grilled over mesquite and customizable with a choice of side, sauce and rub. One possible path involves a 16-ounce rib chop with four-pepper garlic rub, green pepper corn sherry cream sauce and side of Portobello steak fries. Prefer to stick on a Latin kick? They’ve got a shrimp-stuffed chile relleno with guajillo and huitlacoche sauce, and a spicy ramekin of sautéed calamari with white beans, Spanish chorizo and stamp-cuts of roasted red pepper.
- 13033 Philadelphia St., Whittier, 562.698.3355, www.dineseta.com
