LA Eats: Smorgasburg Food Coma and Plenty of Fried Chicken
It's been a while since my last post, but I realized I never shared my last trip to L.A. with you guys! Like the last time, it was a lot of eating, but it was also my first time at Sugarfish (so good, must go again) and my first time EVER at Smorgasburg. If you've never been, prepare yourself by just not eating anything that morning and arrive before the doors open at 10am. There are so many vendors you can easily do appetizers, entrees, and dessert 😂 That's basically what we did!
Here are some highlights from the trip (food-wise):
1. Kobunga Grill
A fast, casual Korean spot at the UC Irvine campus. These kids are so lucky they have a food village and Trader Joe's there! My favorite dishes here were the pork belly and the brisket because they were so tender and had tasty marinades.
2. Same Same Thai
I would totally come back here with some friends! It had a cool lounge-y feel, but they had some pretty tasty modern Thai food. The Khao Soi noodles were my favorite, but I also liked the coconut soup we got.
3. Bruxie's
We hit fried chicken overload when we went to Bruxie's! In addition to an order of the OG chicken (my favorite), we got waffle sandwiches, mac and cheese, and even some dessert waffles. It was definitely a lot of food...but everything was delicious!
4. Dolly Llama
We have egg puff desserts in San Francisco (Gadani in Berkeley is an example), but there's something about the cute pics of Dolly Llama on Instagram that made me want to check it out! We each got a different flavor, but I liked the Red Velvet one I picked the most. True to their Instagram, the girl who made our desserts was seriously an artist and made them look so cute!
5. Quarters Korean BBQ
For this trip, we stayed in an Airbnb in Koreatown, and it just so happened to be by Quarters, which is a Korean BBQ place that we had wanted to check out anyway! This place was CRAZY packed and there was a line the entire time we were eating there. Luckily for us, we put our name down, went back to the Airbnb, and then headed back to the restaurant after 45 minutes because they said the wait would be about an hour.
The meat was GREAT and the service was super fast—any time we asked for more kimchi or something, they delivered it like 30 seconds later!
6. Poppy + Rose
On our last day, we grabbed brunch at Poppy + Rose...you guessed it, we got more fried chicken and waffles 😂 Just scroll down and check out the insane fried chicken Bloody Mary! They also have beautiful brunch cocktails and tasty homemade biscuits. If you want a cute photo op, they have art of fried chicken wings on the wall outside so it looks like you're soaring away on fried chicken—I personally loved it, of course!
If you've got some time, there's also an AMAZING flower market right across the street in a giant warehouse. There are so many different flower vendors in there, and it smells amazing as you walk around just looking at all the beautiful, colorful flowers!
7. Smorgasburg LA
And now, what you've all been waiting for...Smorgasburg! Hot tip that someone gave us: arrive at Smorgasburg before they even open at 10am. Apparently, the parking lot gets crazy packed and there's plenty of people waiting to get in. Just like he said, there was already a small crowd of people waiting outside the gates of Smorgasburg when we got there! As soon as 10am hits, the security people open up and you're free to roam the aisles of vendors.
We hit up a couple of different spots, but the coolest things to get (and eat) were the Shrimp Daddy, Sip Matcha, Chichidango, Lobsterdamus, and Bolo stands. See below:
The first three are actually all owned by this famous Instagrammer called @stirandstyle (real name June), and we got to meet her! She was super nice and took a picture with us after helping drizzle the condensed milk on our shaved ice 🤗 The food from her stands are all very photogenic, but they also luckily taste pretty good!
Something I would not recommend getting is the colorful dumplings you keep seeing on Instagram. They were overpriced (3 for $22) and did not taste that great!
8. Milk Tavern
To end the whole trip, our final stop was at this boozy dessert bar called Milk Tavern. It's actually a really cool space with a video game area, a ping pong area, and a bar. They serve boozy ice cream, cereal ice cream blends of your choice, tasty crepe cakes, and more! Their unicorn crepe cake and rainbow grilled cheese were BEAUTIFUL though 😍 and I would come back just to chill.
And just to top it all off, here's a glamour shot of the seasonal cronuts at Dominique Ansel when we went: the genmaicha!
