Lazy Ox Canteen – 4/9/10
Lazy Ox Canteen
241 S San Pedro
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Lazy Ox Canteen has been a pretty hot restaurant since it opened up a few of months ago. The reviews have been very good, especially from LA Times critic S. Irene Virbila and her three-star review. In it, she had a lot of praise, even boldly proclaiming the “Ox burger, which, to my mind, is now the best burger in town.”
I’ve been three times, and they’ve all been very good. Today, thanks to the tremendous line outside Daikokuya, I came again. Unfortunately, this fourth visit was easily the least pleasing of all of my visits. It wasn’t so much due to the food or service, but their lunch menu is very limited. The chalkboard specials, which comprise most of the available dishes on a given night, are not available. Thus, only the basic lunch menu is available, offering three entrees (one of which was the pork frites, which they were out of).
brick roasted mussels with basil, white wine, house made sriracha & french feta
A small portion here, but the mussels were as plump and juicy as the clams had been on my last visit. Some of the best I’ve had in LA. The sauce was nice and a little spicy due to the housemade sriracha.
Lazy Ox Burger
The burger comes with fries, tossed in fresh herbs and salt. Good. Not great, but good.
The burger here is beautiful. It’s a great lunch portion as it’s somewhat petite. The meat here was cooked a nice medium-rare all around, topped with arugula, red onions, housemade aioli and carmody cheese. While I probably haven’t tried enough burgers in LA to say which is best – this is definitely a good variation. I might prefer the Father’s Office burger, however.
Other dishes I have enjoyed here on other visits include the salt cod brandade croquette, dashi marinated yellowtail, hand-torn egg pasta, and pork frites (exceptional).
Service has just been ‘okay’ on most of my visits. Even somewhat mediocre when it gets busy, which is unfortunate. I will definitely be back here, as I am a fan, but probably not for lunch anytime soon.