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Bahooka

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Oki Dog

5056 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: Mid-Wilshire/ Hancock Park

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Shakas

2300 S. Garfield Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754-7200

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: Monterey Park/ Alhambra/ S. Gabriel

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More About

• Beverly Hills High School
• Rodeo Drive
• Savion Glover
• Sushi
• Meat

In the '70s and '80s, countless Kelbo's and Don the Beachcombers closed, the Torches was razed for condos, and the Luau on Rodeo Drive, where three generations of Beverly Hills High School students purchased their first illicit drink, was replaced by the world's most expensive mini-mall. Take heart, though. The tradition survives at Bahooka, the kind of place you'd expect to find near a scruffy tropical seaport - all rusted nautical gear, stolen street signs and scarred dark wood. There are fish in the foyer, fish tanks surrounding three sides of each booth, fish swimming inside the glass-topped bar and, on the menu, fish puffs, which go better with a Monsoon or a Jet Pilot or a Flaming Honey Bowl than you can possibly imagine. When the steel-guitar lowings on the PA start to sound good, it's time for a Shark's Tooth or a Cobra's Strike. Halfway into one of those, a sticky order of Exotic Ribs seems just the thing. You can also get teriyaki chicken breast, ham with sweet-and-sour sauce, roast beef, or fried golf balls of shrimp. 4501 N. Rosemead Blvd., Rosemead; (626) 285-1241. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Dinner for two, food only, $20-$25. Full bar. MC, V.

Oki Dog

The most famous Oki creation was/is the eponymous Oki Dog, a couple of hot dogs wrapped in a tortilla with chili, pickles, mustard, a slice of fried pastrami and a torrent of goopy American cheese - a cross-cultural burrito that's pretty hard to stomach unless you've got the tum of a 16-year-old, but strangely delicious nonetheless. The teriyaki steak sandwich must contain half a pound of sweet, grilled beef, thinly sliced and plopped into a torta a roll with lettuce and mayo. And the best of the Oki creations, a Chinese-American-Jewish-Mexican thing made by Japanese cooks for a mostly African-American clientele, is the pastrami burrito, a foil-wrapped grease bomb the size and weight of a large brick, bursting with fried pastrami, sauteed cabbage, onions and peppers, mustard and pickles, and a healthy dose of Oki chili. It's enough food to feed a medium-size family for a week. 5056 W. Pico Blvd.; (323) 938-4369. Open daily 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Dinner for two, food only, $3.50-$7. Lot parking. Cash only.

St. Honore

Probably the best of the local Hong Kong coffee shops, a Chinese Ships (R.I.P.) in a sea of Chinese Sizzlers, St. Honore is a fun scene, at least if your idea of fun is big meat in brown gravy: pork chops with mushrooms, Portuguese chicken (Macao style), ox tongue with onions, grilled chicken with bacon, a rather gamy-tasting filet mignon in black-pepper sauce - all served with French fries, vegetables and a big plate of white rice or indelibly garlicked spaghetti. The best stuff here, however, tends to be that which is most Chinese: chow fun noodles with bitter Chinese greens; complex, curry-tinged Singapore-style vermicelli fried with bits of meat and seafood; Hainan chicken with garlicky rice and a pungent ginger dip. And, oh yes, the desserts. Fountain drinks in little glass snowmen - especially the subtle, delicious red-bean ice - are first-rate, a night of serious drinking all by themselves. 141 N. Atlantic Blvd. (in Mar Center), Monterey Park; (626) 281-3281. Open 24 hours, seven days. Dinner for two, food only, $8-$25. No alcohol. Lot parking. MC, V. Also at 8118 E. Garvey Ave., Rosemead; (626) 288-2898. Open seven days for breakfast (dim sum), lunch and dinner. Dinner for two, food only, $18-$32. Beer and wine. Takeout. Lot parking. MC, V.

Shakas

There is sushi. And then there is Spam musubi, a Hawaiian brick of vinegared sushi rice, the size of a chalkboard eraser but with 20 times the heft, burrito-wrapped in a sheet of dark-green nori seaweed and stuffed with a pink, glistening slab of the famous luncheon meat. It's substantial, Spam musubi, porky more in its aftertaste than in its first full frontal assault, with a density just this side of lead. You'll find Spam musubi at Shakas, and the fried Japanese dumplings called gyoza, and a mild chicken curry with potatoes. The Chinese chicken salad, not too sugary, is terrific, spiked with crunchy, toasty bits of bird and shreds of fried wonton skin. The plate lunches - the gravy-soaked hamburger steak called loco moco, the fried chicken cutlet, the Spam and eggs - are absolutely classic, with mounds of rice standing as proudly as the nuclear domes up the coast from Trestles. 2300 S. Garfield Ave., Monterey Park; (323) 888-2695. Open seven days 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Lunch or dinner for two, food only, $7-$13. No alcohol. Takeout. Catering. Lot parking. Cash only.

Spoon House

The Spoon House is a tidy Japanese-Italian spaghetti joint with the California bear painted on the window and a line spilling out the door. And once you get

past expecting anything here to taste like Italian food, some of the Spoon House specialties are actually delicious. Spaghetti is tossed with butter and cod roe until the mixture coats every strand, then tossed with sea-urchin roe, seaweed and cool slices of squid. (The subtle oceanic flavor, cut with the sharp bite of shredded shiso, is remarkable.) You can get the noodles sauced with basil and shiso, or with shiso and tart bits of pickled plums, or with squid and wasabi horseradish. Spaghetti with Japanese clam sauce comes with shiso, meaty sauteed shiitake, plenty of garlic and a big heap of clams - the kind of thing you'd be happy to eat at three times the price at Chaya Brasserie. 1601 W. Redondo Beach Blvd., Gardena; (310) 538-0376. Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dinner for two, food only, $9-$15. Beer and wine. Parking in rear. MC, V.