8 Of Our Favorite LA-Area Restaurants | Legendary Eats Marathon | Insider Food

If you're staying in like we are, then you might be looking for ways to stay busy. Join us on a virtual journey to eight iconic restaurants Insider visited in Los Angeles to see what makes them some of the best the city has to offer. Our first stop is in downtown L.A., where a chef at Philippe's accidentally made the first French dip sandwich more than 100 years ago. The French dip is a very simple sandwich. It's traditionally made with roast beef on a French roll. You can add cheese to it, but it was created here as an accident. We're here at Philippe's The Original here in downtown Los Angeles. This is the original spot where the French dip sandwich was invented. It is a L.A. institution. I don't know what to expect. I mean, I've had French dips before. You know, they're kind of hit or miss. I mean, it's just bread and meat with a little bit of juice on there. Just kind of want to see what the big deal is about. I'm meeting my friend Nick. He comes here, he loves it. So this is my first time. I'm very excited. It's all right, buddy. We opened in 1908 here in Los Angeles, and we're the longest continually operating restaurant here. So Philippe, 1918, he accidentally dropped a roll in the pan drippings of the beef he was cooking, and the customer was in a hurry, took the sandwich as it was, and came back the next day requesting it be dipped. So that was really the birth of the French dip, a happy accident. You've been here before. What do you normally get? I'm gonna get a beef dip, double dipped. Well, I want to get like the wet one. I want to get like, I want it like as dipped as possible. Would they just dunk it in there? Dunk it in there? Yeah, yeah. With their hands too? That's the whole thing in there? Yeah, you know, Shaq style. Regular French dip. We'll get that one dipped twice. A pork dip, and he'll make that one wet. However long it would take to ruin the sandwich, take it out two seconds later. Double dipped lamb with blue cheese, clean. Two pickled eggs, table salad. I think we got enough. Yeah, I don't think so. Anything else? Do you think you can get one for pie? I could try a piece of pie. The beef is prepared the same way as all the other meats. They're cooked, seasoned, and throughout the day we add liquid to the roasting pans, and so that's really where we get the flavor for the au jus. So the next day, we use those drippings with the stock we make, and that's what we dip your sandwich in. I take Nick out to lunch, he doesn't help me carry the food, unbelievable. The hot mustard we make here, we make it in-house. The saltiness of the sandwich goes very well with the nasal burning heat of the mustard. Oh my God, with the mustard. Oh my God, dude. Initially what turned me off from coming to places like this is thinking that this thing's gonna be this wet mess I gotta eat with a fork and knife, or get it all over my clothes. But as you can see, it's like, it's very manageable, which I like. My grandma always had just a big vat of them when we'd come visit on the counter. You'd reach in and grab an egg. It's kind of why I look like I do now, I think. Keep our prices very low, and so at lunchtime you can really see the whole spectrum of our clientele. I like the vintage ambiance, I like the authenticity of it. I started coming here about 10 years ago. The first time I came here was four years ago. It's wonderful. 1918 is a year that the French dip was invented. Philippe, the Philippe, his nickname was Frenchie, was making a sandwich for a fireman, and he accidentally dropped the bun in the edges. So the fireman, who apparently was in a hurry, was like, don't remake my sandwich, I gotta go to a fire, or whatever he was late for. The guy dropping the thing in the pan and being like, ah, there's your sandwich, get out of here. People really laxed on health rules back then. One of the firemen got a slice of pie, too. It was like one slice of lemon pie, and they actually dropped in an open vat of meringue they had next to it. And he was like, yeah, just give me the pie, too. I'm in a hurry. And that guy was like, this is my invention. I'll distract him with the sandwich. I got Mr. Meringue. Also in downtown LA, we've got one of the city's most legendary delis. Langer's is a decades-old institution, known best for pastrami on rye, that many say rivals what you can find in New York City. Nearly 15 times, I've never had anything but this. This is all I eat. Langer's Delicatessen was founded by my mother and father on June 17th, 1947, and we've been going strong since. I've been here active, running the establishment since January of 1963. My dad came up with certain specifications and certain recipes for pastrami and corned beef the way he wanted it prepared. And he was my teacher, and I followed it through to this day with all his original recipes, his original products, his original ways of doing things. We like barbecue, like smoked meat and stuff like that, right, so we really love, it's flavorful, it's tender. They don't trim off all the fat, which is a great thing. It has that kind of sweet taste, and the rye bread goes well with it. This might be blasphemy, but I do think that this is better than most of the delis in New York. I'm not gonna name any specifically because they're also very good, but this is up there, if not better. I think the thing in New York is that it's sort of gimmicky, right? It's like, oh, we can make the biggest, craziest sandwich, but here it's like, this is a real sandwich that a human being can put in their mouth and eat. That's what I want out of a sandwich. It's just this savory, salty, delicious meat. I don't think that anyone's ever made a meat so good as pastrami. They nailed it, give up now, we're done. It's pastrami, it won. You know, people ask me, Norm, why are you still here? I'm 73 years old. To me, this is my home. This is where I come every day. This is where I, shall we say, make people happy. L.A. has long been a hub for some of the best Mexican food in the U.S., from delicious tortillas to the juiciest tacos. However, our list would not be complete without a stop at the nostalgic Tito's Tacos in Culver City. Go ahead and forget everything you thought you knew about hard-shell tacos, because this definitely isn't Taco Bell. Tito's Tacos is L.A.'s favorite spot for fresh tortilla chips. They're also known for their hard-shell tacos. All right, so we are here. I am a huge Tito's Taco fan. When I first moved to L.A., I had some friends tell me that I had to go to Tito's, and my initial reaction to that was, why would I go eat a hard-shell taco? That's not what I came to L.A. for. But once you see these tacos and the cold cheese with the crispy, crunchy shell, you will know that it is fully worth checking out, so let's go. I'm here today with my friends Roman and Craig. They're New Yorkers who think hard-shell tacos are just for Taco Tuesdays. They're wrong, and I'm gonna show them what's up. Tito's was founded back in 1959. It's been about 60 years that we've been in business now, and right now, the granddaughter, Lynn Davidson, is still the owner of Tito's, so her grandfather started it, then it was her father, and now it's her. The reason I think it makes it different from other places is the fact that we do cook in lard. It makes it taste even better. I remember coming here with my family, having to wait those long lines. Everybody was like, oh, I'm gonna have to wait. Everybody loves the tacos. They love the burritos. People have memories of Tito's when they've been children. We have customers that been coming here for the past 40, 50 years who remember coming with their parents, who come with their children, and it's just a family tradition to always bring them to Tito's. Tito's signature is the cold cheddar cheese they add to the top of each taco. Honestly, it's the best part. Food's, like, different, kind of in its own way. It has that in-and-out factor, where it's just like you're not gonna get a burger in and out anywhere else. You're not gonna get Mexican food like Tito's anywhere else. They use a lot of tortillas at Tito's, and by a lot, I mean over 8 million pounds of tortillas a year. And they go through over 500,000 pounds of meat, and all that meat goes into the tacos just before they're fried, making them the perfect vessel for that cold cheese. Seriously, I'm getting hungry just watching this. And now for the moment of truth, Roman and Craig's very first bite of Tito's tacos. Like, I think once you try these, you're gonna be, like, converted for real. I'm ready. It's my life. That is so good. Yeah, we're hittin'. Obviously better than Taco Bell. Yeah. We way past that point. Yeah. We was past that point when I smelled it. Okay, well, no, we at the spot. We at Grandma's spot. The cold cheese gives it a good texture. You know you're here at Tito's when you have a crunchy, hard-shell taco with, like, the warm meat and the cold cheese and, like, the crisp, refreshing lettuce on the inside. It, like, holds it all together, and it's just so special and tasty. I love tacos, but I've really been a soft-shell kind of person. Soft-shell does fall apart. This is just one complete bite. Like, everything is together. It's like heaven. Give me a second. Mmm. This is dumber. Can I dip in this? Can I do this? Yeah, go for it. Oh, right, we about to do that. I'm sorry. It's getting wild, boy, it's getting wild. Some of the city's busiest spots aren't in the most obvious places. Check out this gas station on Santa Monica Boulevard, where the Bombay Frankie Company serves flavorful chicken tiki masala frankies. I'm from Bombay, and Bombay street food is Frankie, and this is the only place that actually serves that. And it's kind of authentic, and it's really tasty. This is so good. This is amazing. This is really, really delicious. Oh my God. Take the Mexican burrito, which people know is like a mainstay of L.A. culture, and then you package that up into an Indian offering, but the way you prepare it is Indian in nature, with a naan, and then all the flavors inside, too. People love it. I mean, we had a sign outside for a few months, and people were taking pictures and posting it, and that's kind of how the popularity grew, and then once they started eating the food and tasting the flavors, I mean, they were floored by it. We had a space free here, a fully working kitchen that was empty, and we decided, let's do something with it. Our dad is a big cook, and we've always grown up around food. When we're eating dinner, we're already talking about tomorrow's dinner. Cooking has been such a huge influence in our lives. Ah, it smells so good. I love cooking. My mom loved cooking. My hobby is cooking, so I learned a lot of things from my mom. Frankie's are pretty hard to find in L.A., so this is one of the only spots I know to come to. I like this. It has a lot of gravy, and the cucumber is a nice touch, too. So my first time having a Frankie is gonna be at a gas station on Santa Monica, which I just feel is the most L.A. thing I could possibly think of, other than good old salad pizza. It's stuffed with cauliflower, and it smells so good, and I threw a whole bunch of different sauces on it, and I just know that it's gonna be packed with flavor, but it's vegetarian, which is really nice. It's good to be able to not have to stuff your face full of meat, which is usually what I'm doing while I'm working. There's something really comforting about it, too. I think it's all the cheese, and the potatoes, and the garlicky bread. It, to me, is very similar to what a lot of Americans consider to be comfort food. This is amazing. This is exactly what I want to eat for lunch. It's not a burrito. It's a Frankie. It's crunchy. It's kind of smooshy in certain places. It's sour, and it's spicy, and all of the different things work together really well, and every time you have to go back for another bite, you get something different. You can't figure it out, and that's what's so great. To see someone that's never tried Indian food take this, I guess, risk, and come into a convenience store, and then try gas-dishing Indian food, and then be overwhelmed, and then go to another restaurant, and be like, hey, wait a sec, that doesn't even stack up to the gas-dishing Indian food. So we're overjoyed when we see that kind of reaction. Yeah, dude, that was incredible. Hang on. Wow. If you're looking for a fancier dining setup, Laurie's is the go-to for a perfectly rare cut of prime rib. We have guests that have been coming here since they were like one years old, and now they have their kids coming in. We also have guests that travel the world. Like, this is a destination for them. For a sweet fix, the natural pick is Edelweiss Chocolates, LA's premium handmade chocolate shop. Located in Beverly Hills, the dessert staple is a favorite among presidents, celebrities, and locals alike. Think about every time you walk inside a chocolate shop. You're probably immersed with the smell of chocolate coming from the shelves. But at Edelweiss, the sweet smell doesn't just come from the boxes of chocolate, but from the 76-year-old factory behind the shop's entrance. According to the shop, these chocolates have been favorites for Frank Sinatra and Katharine Hepburn, among other Hollywood celebs. This is how Edelweiss became LA's most iconic chocolate shop. Edelweiss is a petite candy store located in the heart of Beverly Hills. We opened in 1942. The original owner was Mrs. Grace Young, and she opened the shop. It's always been in the same location. We make about 120 different varieties of handmade chocolates. There have been five owners of the business, and my family is the fifth owner. We went straight to where the magic happens, starting with the gourmet marshmallows. The original recipes that Mrs. Young started with were the marshmallows. We have nine different varieties that we do every day, and then we have a lot of different seasonal varieties that we do. So those were her specialties. It's not like the store-bought marshmallows at all. It's so, it's so fluffy. It's so cute. Oh, I want to talk to my food. Edelweiss still uses some of its original machinery. It's all original equipment. It allows us to continue the traditional art of candy-making processed by hand. It's kind of hard to do that without the original equipment, so much of the equipment is older or just around 100 years old. But they've also incorporated new automated machinery into their production. So they're still making tasty, quality chocolate, but faster. Regardless of what machinery the shop uses, they still follow traditional chocolate-making techniques. That includes treats that can best be made with your hands. Being this close to Hollywood and being here for as long as we have, you know, you name the celebrity, the head of state, kings, queens, royalty, presidents, you know, they've all been in this shop. They've all had our product. The chocolate shop also inspired Lucille Ball to film the famous chocolate factory scene from I Love Lucy. Story goes that Lucille would walk through the factory to get to the front shop. One day, she saw an employee trying to keep up with the chocolates coming down the conveyor belt. Lucille witnessed chocolate flying everywhere and a light bulb went off in her head. She later recreated the factory scene on the I Love Lucy soundstage. So obviously, I had to try it out myself too. That is terrible. That's harder than it looks. Lucy, we're both not made for chocolate. I love this assortment. There's so much you can try. There's chocolate-covered apricots. There's lots of buttercream, lots of milk chocolate, dark chocolate. I feel like this box can satisfy anyone. Mm. This is dark chocolate filled with dark chocolate buttercream. I wasn't expecting that burst of buttercream, but I'm happy it happened. This is all peanut butter inside. This is so good. Chocolates and peanut butter, there's nothing better than that. This business, I truly believe, it doesn't even belong to my family. It belongs to this community. We have customers whose families have been shopping here for 70 years. The great-grandparents brought the grandchildren who brought their children who now bring their children. This feels like a second home to a lot of people, and that tradition is also something that we really seek to keep alive because it's so important to the community. It's a meeting area for a lot of people, and we're here to make people happy and to be a part of the community and keep that tradition going. It's easy to crave ice cream in sunny L.A., which is why a lot of people go to Mashti Malone's in Hollywood. The shop serves up Persian ice cream with flavors like saffron rose water, cucumber, and lavender. Here's why Mashti Malone's has the best ice cream in L.A. This is definitely my go-to place for ice cream because the flavors are so good and different, and because everyone here is awesome. Like, it's so fun to be around here. I go to school down the street, and I was looking for ice cream, and it was just here, the closest place. Little did I know, it was the best ice cream I'd ever have for the rest of my life. Couldn't live without it. So, yeah, it's really good. Out of 10, I'd say it's giving me as well right now. Meet Mashti and Mehdi Shirvani. They own Mashti Malone's Ice Cream in Hollywood. They're credited for introducing Persian ice cream to L.A. In a previous video, I crowned them the best ice cream in L.A., and since then, I couldn't wait to go back for more. We're back at Mashti Malone's! Hello! How have you guys been? Very good. Whipping up some ice cream. I'm Mashti Shirvani, the older brother. I came here before the revolution in Iran. In 1980, I opened this business. I had little savings. I bought the business from the landlord, and I started making ice cream for local Iranians. Meanwhile, I was working in the restaurant to support myself. Little by little, I started. It was difficult first, especially, we don't have walking traffic here, so I had to keep the customers. When they were coming, every single person, I was giving them samples. That's how I built my business. What sets it apart are the flavors. We don't create, like, weird flavors. It's mostly floral, or food-based, or herbal-based, things like that. We got the rose water with noodles. First place I ever had Persian cucumber, and that's good. It's great. Yeah, you get all these wonderful flavors that you don't get usually, like, with saffron. So this is, like, saffron and rose water, and it's orange blossom. I don't know what rose water is normally used for, but I love it on ice cream. Saffron, pistachio, rose water has been always a bestseller. Rose was very unusual and unknown to American cuisine. They'd never heard of rose water, so it took him and us so much sampling and kind of lecturing about the ingredients, so those who are not familiar with the flavor to kind of accept that rose can be eaten, too. It's just like vanilla. But the thing is, vanilla is more popular here. Rose is more popular in the other parts of the world. The creamery gets some of its ingredients overseas, including imported saffron from Iran. Right now, there is sanction, but right before sanction, we bought enough for the next couple of years. Everything you see here, that's what we put. As much as possible, I use natural ingredients. It's expensive, but I'm very happy. It's an interesting yellow color. Did you see that? It smells so good, yeah. We didn't put any food coloring, nothing. So the saffron gives it that yellow color. Wow. When you visit, order the Mashti ice cream sandwich. It's Mashti's famous saffron rose water ice cream sandwiched between two wafers and rolled in pistachios. The texture, this gets an A+. It is just creamy and stretchy. It's just, it's so satisfying. Wow. It's really nice because you get little chunks of pistachios that were blended into the ice cream, but also whole pistachios all around the sides. It kind of gives that nice balance from the creamy ice cream to the crunchy pistachio. It's really good. And then you get these nice, chewy wafers. You can tell in the flavor and the texture, everything's really fresh and vibrant, all the flavors. And the thought that goes into everything, I really enjoy. If you go to another ice cream shop, it would probably only be chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, but at Mashti Malone's, there's all kinds of different things. This is our first time here, actually. We're visiting from Oregon, and I've been wanting to come here for three years. It's way beyond my expectations. I guess more than 80% of our customers are non-Persian. They come from every ethnicity and every group. They come here, but this is like a destination for them. They make plan to come and have ice cream. I don't regret my decision for naming it the best in L.A. It's seriously so good, maybe even better the second time around. And lastly, about a 30-minute drive outside of L.A., there's a shop that's known for its gooey, decadent strawberry donuts. It's the go-to at the Donut Man in Glendora, but you can only get them during certain months of the year. Tucked away in the city of Glendora, California, is a small donut shop that's always busy. Locals come in for their daily coffee and donut, but there's one thing that brings people from near and far to the Donut Man, the famous strawberry donuts. Yum, this is delicious. We really love it. It's really good. I got it everywhere, but it's really good. This is my first time having this donut. The fresh strawberries are really, really good. It's definitely worth getting my seat for. Jim Nakano opened the Donut Man in the spring of 1972, but it wasn't until two years later that one fruit changed his business. Well, the reason we got into it is my wife says, let's go for the American dream. And about 1974, a friend of ours who grew strawberry, because this area was all strawberries. On the other side of the hill, you know, that was all strawberries. But in 74, he came to me and said, Jim, you gotta come up with the strawberry donut. He said, I got so much. He said, I'll supply you whatever you want. So we said, okay. And I had another friend that said, I'll help you make the glaze and everything, because he had a bakery and all that. As soon as we tried it, we realized that we had a good product. You could use it for the morning breakfast. It's a good snack, lunch, or dinner dessert. The shop makes hot donuts 24-7. They use potato flour and live yeast when prepping batches of dough. How long the dough proofs and fries for depends on the temperature and humidity inside the shop each day. The team mixes fresh strawberries with homemade strawberry jelly filling before stuffing a generous amount into the donut. The strawberry donuts are only served from February to September, so we had to see what all the hype was about. We're gonna get some donuts. They have the classic chocolate swirls. They have their peach donuts. But I'm here for this bad boy, the strawberry donuts. So a lot of people drive here from all over California to try these donuts. There's been a line out the door since we came, so let's dig in. I'm just gonna go for this one. They're all gonna make a mess, whatever. Ooh, yes, it is glazy. It's just gonna be a mess. Look at that. It's like a burger full of strawberries. Mmm! But it is good. The donut's nice and crispy on the outside, which is pretty good. I love how it has kind of this, like, good texture on the bottom, if that makes sense. But it's not too sweet. It's not like an overwhelmingly sweet donut. My biggest piece of advice is use a fork. Don't do what I did. Not only is the Donut Man famous among locals, but we met people from all over the state who came down to try it for themselves. Well, it was bookmarked on my Yelp for three years, so I was like, one day I'm gonna go. Came to Torrance, and then from Torrance, we came to Glendora. And we're like, where's Glendora? Definitely gonna get the fresh peach and the fresh strawberries, and then I'll see what else is on the menu. I've been coming here for years, yeah. Yeah, and we're on our road trip to San Diego, so. Yeah, a little road trip food. We are going to San Diego. When's the first time you've been here? Hmm. Honest? When I moved here. Probably 22 years ago. Thank you, guys. If you eat it with a fork, you don't blend all the flavors. That's true, never thought of it. This is a true blend of all the flavor. I remember coming here in high school, after the pep rallies and stuff, people would come and hang out in that parking lot back there. And so it's definitely like the go-to area in Glendora, I would say. We're very lucky, because when I started this store, I told my wife we wouldn't be that big of a store because we're such a small community and all that. I would say 60 to 70% of our customers come from more than seven miles away. And that's unusual. And then I get big-headed when you go somewhere, maybe, and then somebody says, oh, I know you run the donut man. Those are my favorite things. I'm not gonna count this as a donut. I'm gonna count this as like a healthy breakfast with a little bit of dessert, because that's what it is. You get more strawberries than you do donuts, which is amazing. It's like you're eating healthy.