What You're Eating: Best Noodle Dishes in L.A.
Despite some people's fear of carbs and white flour, pasta isn't going away. Noodles, in all forms, are on menus across the city thanks to chefs' inclinations to bring back the art of handmade pasta and our love for slurpy food. The following are our picks of the best noodle dishes in town.
Carbonara
1212 Santa Monica
1212 3rd Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 576-9996
www.1212santamonica.com
3rd Street Promenade's newest restaurant fills the massive space left open when Monsoon closed shop. Housemade, traditional spaghetti noodles form the base of 1212 Santa Monica's cochon de lait carbonara. The pasta is topped with pulled suckling pig, housemade bacon, shards of aged manchego cheese and a runny poached egg. With a double helping of pork, this carbonara is rich and hearty, combining mouthfuls of roasted pig with al dente noodles.
Pappardelle
Miro
888 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(213) 988-8880
www.mirorestaurant.com
The pappardelle at Miro in downtown L.A., recently named a permanent menu item, is a meat-forward preparation featuring the chef's selection of the day. The current iteration includes veal sausage, Calabrian chili, fennel, cipollini onions and crisped prosciutto, along with those wavy, hand-rolled sheets of pappardelle noodles.
Spicy Ramen with Vegan Egg
Ramen Hood
Grand Central Market
317 South Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 265-7331
www.ramenhoodla.com
Ramen Hood prides itself on a completely vegan menu that features one addition you would potentially never expect - an egg. The restaurant has managed to create an agar-thickened soy milk "white" with a "yolk" made with a natural binder and colored and flavored with nutritional yeast. Add this culinary wonder to the spicy ramen bowl, which comes with earthy king oyster mushrooms, sprouts, scallions, chili threads and nori over noodles in in a broth enhanced by kelp, shiitakes, white miso and sunflower seeds, and you're in business. Make sure to break off bits of the egg, and stir them into the mix for the full taste bud experience.
Taglierini Neri con Bottarga
Obicà
606 Broadway
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 393-6633
www.obica.com
Obicà's newest location hit Santa Monica earlier this year, and the mozzarella, pizza and pasta bar serves a standout, seafood-laden dish. The Taglierini Neri con Bottarga is steeped in Californian-Italian essence with housemade squid ink taglierini (the slightly thinner cousin to tagliatelle). The dish receives a topping of crab ragu, Santa Barbara sea urchin and Sardinian mullet roe, all of which emphasize the sweet treasures found in our oceans.
Chimmi Noodles
TLT Food
1116 Westwood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 443-4433
www.tltfood.com
TLT Food, the food truck-turned-brick & mortar restaurant, offers just the right noodle salad for the summer. TLT Foods adds its unique and customary touch of fusion to udon. The thick, chilled strands are tossed with chimichurri and lime-sambal sauce, and then topped with a smattering of crunchy peanuts, spicy arugula and pickled onions. You pick from a list of meats, seafood or tofu to bulk up the bowl.
Spaghetti Alla Chitarra
Union
37 East Union Street
Pasadena, CA 91103
(626) 795-5841
www.unionpasadena.com
Union's pasta offerings rank highly on the list of outstanding dishes in the city. The restaurant's spaghetti chittara features a local Grist & Toll flour, and it is cut using a stringed instrument-looking tool with the same name. The square-sided noodle holds sauce very well, so you can appreciate every bit of the San Marzano tomatoes, parmesan, and chilies that add so much flavor.
Truffle Splash
Jinya Ramen Bar
11239 Ventura Boulevard
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 980-3977
www.jinya-ramenbar.com
Studio City's Jinya Ramen Bar and West Hollywood's Robata Jinya are the only two locations in this chain's roster that serve the delicious and new truffle splash ramen. The Truffle Splash is a decadent mix of thick noodles topped with pork chashu, brussels sprouts, parmesan, shaved truffles, black garlic oil and raw egg, which adds a creaminess to the dish. But, don't expect a bowl full of broth. This spin on ramen has about one quarter of the broth of typical ramen, so you can focus on the noodles without a facial steam bath even on the hottest of days.
Pappardelle
All'Acqua
3280 Glendale Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90039
(323) 663-3280
www.allacquarestaurant.com
Atwater Village's All'Acqua Italian bistro serves handmade pappardelle with a slow-cooked ragù bolognese that exemplifies its Mediterranean roots. The wide, flat noodles cradle the meaty sauce like a conveyor belt as it moves to your mouth. All'Acqua's dish is meant to stick to your ribs and will probably convince you to book a flight to Italy as soon as possible.
Smoked Salmon Fettuccine
Crossroads Kitchen
8284 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 782-9245
www.crossroadskitchen.com
Crossroads Kitchen, the upscale eatery that is known for refined vegan dishes, features one specific dish that is a culinary trompe l'oeil. The delicious vegan restaurant serves its take on smoked salmon pasta using its signature thin shards of nori-covered, smoked carrots. Draped over housemade fettuccine noodles, it is coated in a prosecco cream sauce, and capers and kelp "caviar" add pops of color to each forkful.
Bigoli Neri alla Bottarga
Osteria Mamma
5732 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90004
(323) 284-7060
www.osteriamamma.com
West Hollywood's Osteria Momma always delivers when it comes to their Italian fare. If you're in the mood for noodles, look no further than their Bigoli Neri alla Bottanga dish. The name of this noodle at Osteria Mamma says it all. Bigoli is a pasta that's all about size. With fat, long tubes of whole wheat flour typical of Venice, Italy, it's a delicious noodle dish you won't want to miss out on. The restaurant flavors and colors theirs with squid ink and tosses the noodles with sweet cherry tomatoes, plump shrimp and grated bottarga.
Daikoku Ramen
Daikokuya
327 East 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 626-1680
Multiple Locations
www.dkramen.com
While at Daikokuya, ordering their house ramen bowl is a must. Even during the hottest days of summer, it's well worth sweating over a bowl of this broth. With a tonkotsu base along with chijire-style noodles, known as wavy noodles, kurobuta pork belly chashu, marinated boiled egg, bean sprouts, and green onions make up the rest of this delicious bowl. Your best bet is to request the kotteri flavor, which is enhanced by the flavor of pork back fat. It'll pump up the volume of your bowl and add an extra kick to it.
Hakata Ramen
Shin Sen Gumi
132 South Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 687-7108
Multiple Locations
www.shinsengumigroup.com
Shin Sen Gumi's hakata-style ramen features a milky, porky, thick tonkotsu broth with thinner noodles swimming in the bowl. Your base order comes with that tender pork chashu, scallions and red ginger, and you're welcome to go crazy by adding a number of toppings. You'll notice the word kaedama on the menu, which means extra noodles, so place an order for those before you get to the bottom of that bowl.
