This new restaurant is making the best lobster roll in Los Angeles

Heat lobster roll from Saltie Lady

Probably the most decadent sandwich in Los Angeles would be the heat lobster roll from Saltie Lady, the Boston seafood restaurant that not too long ago opened on Sundown Boulevard. This isn’t a city identified for its seafood sandwiches. Towers of pastrami, sure. A stellar Italian sub, completely. However rolls brimming with chunks of sizzling lobster? Not a lot. At Saltie Lady, you gained’t go various minutes with out spying a server whisking an order to a close-by desk.

Inside of Saltie Lady on Sundown Boulevard in West Hollywood.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Occasions)

“We all the time needed to verify our lobster roll was a showstopper,” chef Kyle McClelland mentioned on a latest name. The New England native grew up going to clam shacks and lobster eating places, the place an abundance of recent seafood was all the time accessible. “There have been sure locations I used to go on the Cape and they might provide you with like two entire lobsters within the roll. We actually needed to showcase that.”

McClelland’s roll is constructed on recent lobster from Maine, buttery rolls flown in from Massachusetts, and plenty and plenty of European butter. There’s a heap of lobster, with chunks spilling up and out from the cut up roll, shiny with what may be greater than a few tablespoons of butter per sandwich.

“You’re getting butter everywhere,” he mentioned.

There’s the lobster butter he makes use of to poach the lobster. The butter he brushes onto the roll and the butter he cooks the bread in. And the butter within the butter sauce, poured onto the butter-poached lobster.

A heat lobster roll with home made salt and vinegar chips is on the menu at Saltie Lady on Sundown Boulevard in West Hollywood.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Occasions)

The meat is nice and tender, lavishly dressed within the butter sauce. The roll is extra like challah than brioche, wealthy, tender and only a tad candy. The chips on the facet are huge, gossamer petals of potato dusted with malt vinegar powder. They’re so skinny and crisp they virtually dissolve in your tongue. Every roll comes with a whole cylinder full, however there by no means appears to be sufficient. Whoever doesn’t order the lobster roll on the desk will inevitably steal a number of or extra. McClelland mentioned they bag them on the location in Boston. I hope they comply with go well with in Los Angeles.

The sandwich conjures an on the spot seaside breeze in your cheeks and the scent of the ocean. The actual mixture of lobster, butter and bread defies geography. However as quickly as you wipe the final of the melted butter out of your lips, the phantasm is gone. You’re within the outdated Wahlburgers house on Sundown Boulevard the place Mark Wahlberg and his two brothers as soon as opened a burger restaurant. Midway by way of dinner an Oscar-winning actress walked by way of the door. And close to the top of my meal, the lady on the subsequent desk leaned over to ask if I used to be a stylist. That is undoubtedly Los Angeles.

Chicharron huarache from Tacos DF

The huarache with chicharron from Tacos DF in South Gate.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Occasions)

The huaraches at Tacos DF are the heavyweight champs of the style, with the heft and measurement of a medium supply pizza and what looks like a full bowl of beans sandwiched between the masa. Whereas others extra intently resemble the slender rectangular form of the sneakers they’re named for, the huaraches listed below are broader, the equal of my dad’s extra-wide New Steadiness. The numerous I’ve tried all through Mexico Metropolis could possibly be categorized as a snack. The Tacos DF huarache is a meal.

Filled with beans then flattened right into a quarter-inch thick disc, the masa is cooked on each side till it’s nearly crisp, like a large sope topped with any protein you want. I favor the chicharron, with numerous diced onion and cilantro and dredged in sufficient salsa to rework the pork into one thing that extra resembles crumbles of sentimental chorizo. It’s completed with loads of queso fresco and each a fiery pink and a inexperienced salsa so piquant it’s nearly electrical.

I’ve seen folks use a fork and knife to chop strips of the masa. Some use their fingers to tear away huge items. I like to select up all the factor and eat it like a large slice of pizza. It lasts longer that method.

Chef Kyle McClelland spoons on beurre blanc sauce whereas getting ready a heat lobster roll at Saltie Lady in West Hollywood.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Occasions)