Where to Eat Now: New to the List

My Taco The specialty of My Taco is barbacoa, a soft, spicy, well-blackened mash of long-stewed lamb sizzled to a crisp on a hot griddle, flanked with chopped onions and cilantro, and served with a Styrofoam cup of sharply clove-scented goat consommé, which actually seems more apt to its task than the lamb consommé served with barbacoaat most of the Guerrero-style restaurants where it is a specialty. You grab a bit of the lamb with a tortilla, fold it into a taco with onions and salsa, and chase it with a shot of the soup. Or you moisten the lamb. Or you scoop up lamb with your spoon and wet it in the soup. It reminds me a little of the Iranian dish dizie, at least as served at the Westwood Iranian sandwich shop Attari, but dizie is never speckled with those delicious crunchy bits, dizie does not leak chile-stained orange grease, and dizie is rarely served with rice and beans. Barbacoa is reason enough to visit My Taco. 6300 York Blvd., Highland Park, (323) 256-2698. Mon.-Wed. 8 a.m.-9 p.m., Thurs.-Sun. 8 a.m.-10 p.m. No alcohol. Lot parking. MC, V. Mexican.

South Los Angeles

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Orochon Ramen

123 S. Onizuka St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Restaurant > Japanese

Region: Downtown

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Pitfire Pizza Company

108 W. Second St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Restaurant > Pizza

Region: Downtown

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More About

• Culver City
• Christiano Bollini
• Santa Monica
• Thai Food and Cooking
• Meat

J N J Burger & Bar-B-Q There may be no more evocative location for a barbecue pit than the one currently occupied by J N J Burger & Bar-B-Q. A bit east of the Culver City Media District, the ramshackle structure is bordered on two sides by the local firewood outlet, in the shadow of fruitwood mountains and hillocks of oak, drifts of stacked logs that reach two or three stories in height. The brawny, dripping beef ribs are great, and the chicken is fine and moist. It is the spareribs, however, that make the barbecue stand. J N J's long-cooked babies are compelling — blackened, rendered of most of their fat, tending almost toward a jerkylike chaw, saturated with smoke, and profoundly spicy even without the sauce, which blankets the pork like a winter coat. It is a family business: Jay Nelson Jr., the namesake "J.N.J.," does the barbecue; his wife works the burger-stand side of things; and his mother bakes the splendid sweet-potato pies. J N J may be the closest thing you are going to find to a country-road shack within the confines of Los Angeles. Recommended dishes: pork ribs, barbecued chicken, sweet-potato pie. 5754 W. Adams Blvd., L.A., (323) 933-7366. Mon.-Thurs. 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. No alcohol. Street parking. Cash only. Lunch or dinner for two, food only, $6-$28. American.

South Bay/LAX

Jay-Bee's House of Fine Bar-B-QueThis place would seem to have everything going for it: an epic pork-shoulder sandwich, decent ribs, superhot barbecue sauce, and a location on a traffic island equally convenient to the Japanese commercial district of Gardena and the part of Compton that N.W.A made famous. And it goes without saying — the dining room is the front seat of your car. 15911 S. Avalon Blvd., Gardena, (310) 532-1064. Mon. 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Tues.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10:45 p.m. No alcohol. Lot parking. MC, V ($20 minimum). Barbecue.

Shin-Sen-Gumi Hakata Ramen Restaurant Of the many ways to translate the flavor of sputtering hardwood into meat, the Japanese art of kushiyaki is perhaps the most efficient, a straightforward gesture of toasting skewers of marinated protein over a hot, fragrant charcoal fire until the surfaces brown, the smoke insinuates its way into the flesh, and the chicken tails, or bacon-wrapped asparagus, or bits of beef tongue cook to a luscious medium-rare: the center barely touched by the heat and the outside brown and crisp. As practiced at Shin-Sen-Gumi, a mini-mall kushiyaki bar on the southern edge of Gardena, the process is extraordinarily precise, with each delicate meatball, each chunk of chicken thigh cooked just enough and no more, and with an entire busy restaurant being fed from a grill that looks not much bigger than two or three steel shoeboxes welded end-to-end. Recommended dishes: gyoza, hakata ramen. 2051 W. Redondo Beach Blvd., Gardena, (310) 329-1335. Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. & 6-11:30 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 11:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Beer, wine and sake. Lot parking. MC, V. Also at 8450 E. Valley Blvd. #103, Rosemead, (626) 572-8646. Japanese.

San Fernando Valley

Boneyard Bistro Chefly barbecue, of course, is supposed to be an oxymoron. Decent barbecue is the stuff of distant roadsides, lonely highways and the wrong side of town. Until recently, creative American chefs spent their time reinterpreting stuff like burgoo, tamales and macaroni and cheese, but left the barbecue, which tends to leave dining rooms rather fragrant, to the other guys. But Leonard Schwartz, who practically invented the idea of high-end American comfort food, left his well-regarded kitchen at Maple Drive to open Zeke's, a barbecue chain. Carolina-style pulled pork is showing up in upscale kitchens almost as often as goat cheese. And Aaron Robins, whose résumé includes a long stint with über-chef Charlie Trotter in Chicago, opened Boneyard Bistro, a full-fledged, beef-intensive barbecue restaurant with a strong side competency in things like pistachio-crusted baked Brie, whiskey-brined pork chops and porcini-crusted salmon. Does the barbecued brisket match up well with Woody's? Is the smoked duck spring roll as skillfully put together as it would be at Chinois? It's not even close. But sometimes it is pleasant to eat spareribs and drink Chateauneuf du Pape. 13539 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 906-RIBS. Mon.-Thurs. 5-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5-11 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Beer, wine. Street parking. Major CC. American bistro.