Why LA's Favorite Restaurants Are Hidden in Strip Malls

Beneath the endless tide of flashy, multi-million-dollar restaurant build-outs, LA is quietly defined by a quintessential local staple: the strip-mall restaurant. Some of our favorite places to eat -- often opened and run by immigrants representing a pantheon of world cuisine -- are located in no-frills (or at least low-frills) spaces flanked by swaths of asphalt and sitting beside check-cashing outfits and convenience stores.

Yes, big-name chefs like Ludo Lefebvre et al. have gained attention for being “avant garde” enough to open up shop in some of these ancient shopping centers, however the majority of strip mall dining tenants are unsung spots that cater to their own neighborhood, serving lunch to nearby workers and dinner to local residents. Sure, you're bound to find some underwhelming strip mall meals out there -- mom-and-pop restaurants aren't immune to being bad -- but they can just as often be revelatory, and it’s for good reason that Los Angeles holds strip mall restaurants in especially high esteem. It's just an LA thing, much like mild winters or Carmageddon on the 405.

If you want to understand why Angelenos love strip mall restaurants, it helps to understand why they're so pervasive in the first place. Strip malls might seem like an odd choice to the uninitiated, but for a restaurateur with a modest budget navigating a city of sky-high rents, the lower monthly operating costs at these properties can be alluring -- especially when some of these second-gen spots turn over, leaving behind kitchen equipment that can be reused. It’s a scenario that can prove especially valuable to first-time entrepreneurs and immigrant families new to the US who want to open a restaurant here; to borrow a phrase from LA's dearly departed critic laureate Jonathan Gold, these strip mall opportunities can be "a miracle of entry-level capitalism." Gold himself became a champion of these strip mall businesses over the course of his career, bringing newfound fame to longstanding spots throughout the city and prompting Angelenos and visitors alike to make pilgrimages to restaurants they might otherwise have never known existed.

When chef Kwang Uh decided to open his first restaurant in 2015 (with college pal and former business partner Matthew Kim), he cast a wide net around Los Angeles, ultimately choosing a space in a not-so-attractive strip mall on the corner of Santa Monica and Wilton in East Hollywood. “We didn’t have that much money to start a business… we checked out other sites at the time, anything that was available, and that location was the best deal,” says Uh, a native of South Korea who attended the CIA. That oddly located gem with its signature minimalist look (which Uh attributes to a coat of white paint and an Ikea-curated collection of furniture and decor) went on to become Baroo, the acclaimed “freestyle experimental kitchen” with a focus on fermentation. Visitors encountered wildly flavorful (and just plain wild) dishes like pineapple fermented kimchi fried rice, and bowls of house-made noodles and pureed celeriac dusted with powdered celery ash -- all of it served inside a signless storefront dwarfed by the 7-11 next door.

So how does a strip mall restaurant gain traction these days? Smartphones help, for starters: no matter the neighborhood, you’re never more than a few taps away from finding “good Thai food near me,” often powered by (love it or hate it) the review-happy users of Yelp. Our increasing appetite for food journalism plays a part, too -- sometimes, all it takes is one positive published piece to set off a snowball effect of discovery. Eater LA was the first to cover Baroo during its soft opening in August 2015 with a headline that asked, “What’s Up With This Bizarre Fermentation Restaurant in a Hollywood Strip Mall?.” Glowing reviews of the inventive culture-blending cuisine by LA Weekly and the LA Times soon followed, and, by the following year, Baroo had found itself both a James Beard semifinalist and fifth on Bon Appetit’s list of best new restaurants in the entire country. Of course, success is no guarantee of longevity: Baroo closed its doors last October after a three-year run due to “many complicated factors,” according to Uh. Fortunately, it's partially been reborn in takeout stall form as Baroo Canteen inside the nearby Union Swapmeet marketplace, and Uh plans to fully reopen later this year.

Part of the allure for patrons is in the unassuming strip mall location itself. There’s an element of adventure that comes with hunting down a new spot in a potentially unfamiliar neighborhood, stumbling into dining rooms that range from fluorescently-lit and sterile to reminiscent of your Aunt Rose’s tchotchke-and-family-photo-filled apartment. When diners seek out a restaurant devoid of elaborate interior design, craft cocktail programs, and big-name chefs, the expectation is that the food itself will pull the weight -- and often times, it does. If it doesn't, though, chances are it wasn't an especially expensive meal, so the risk factor wasn’t too high to begin with, and diners just move on to the next.

“It’s part of a general change in dining that de-emphasizes location,” says Richard Foss of the Culinary Historians of Southern California. “In the ‘50s, Restaurant Row in Beverly Hills was the destination dining spot, and any business with a La Cienega Boulevard address could charge a premium. While location still matters, especially proximity to a theater or other tourist destination, people will now go almost anywhere in a metropolitan area and expect to dine well.”

Below, you'll find a handful of our favorite strip mall spots in LA to park yourself for a meal -- but the picks are by no means comprehensive. At last count, there were (roughly) more than 1.2 trillion restaurants in strip malls across the city of Los Angeles, which means there are undoubtedly some diamonds hidden in the rough. Simply asking around (bartenders, barbers, and bodega owners will almost always steer you right) can lead you to new favorites hiding in plain sight. And the best way to find LA's undiscovered gems is to take a page from Mr. Gold's book: Get out there and explore for yourself.

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