632638 Mon Jun 29 15:01:26 -0700 2009 33 2 Los Angeles Area 0 4816054 read the LAT Find review and was going to be traveling to the LB on saturday, so we stopped by and ordered the family pack with shrimp, oysters, sole and sandabs through the bullet-proof glass. in short, it was great. the shrimp was sweet. the oysters are the best fried oysters we've had the west coast. the sole was a favorite with the sandabs a close only because it's bone in which gets messy. the coatings are terrific and we we thought it was well-seasoned. best to eat it on-site. will definitely be back. - cash only - 2400 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach. (562) 424-0298. http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-find24-2009jun24,0,2322460.story Mon Jun 29 15:01:26 -0700 2009 22959 revets2 1 4816646 Nice to know, I was curious when I saw the article. Do you think it's okay to eat there or definitely a take-out place? Mon Jun 29 18:52:42 -0700 2009 4816054 63444 groover808 2 4817140 If you don't have a problem eating standing up, every time I've eaten there, I've eaten on the outside counter, standing up, soaking in sea breezes and friendly neighbors. I honestly have no idea how any human being could resist the allure of freshly fried seafood long enough to drive home. Even if home were 2 blocks away. I mean, there are no heat lamps! Everything is fried and gets to your hand in, like, 30 seconds! Glorious! Tue Jun 30 00:44:01 -0700 2009 4816646 14404 Thi N. 3 4821480 congrats. great article. totally agree. we tried to eat it in the car at first and gave up. it's best right out of the fryer. we brought some good microbrew from Utah and a french rosé to enjoy standing outside. total find. Wed Jul 01 10:24:51 -0700 2009 4817140 22959 revets2 1 4816800 Do they have any fried clams? Mon Jun 29 19:56:39 -0700 2009 4816054 90755 Phurstluv 2 4821482 i did not see any on the menu. Wed Jul 01 10:25:02 -0700 2009 4816800 22959 revets2 1 4821548 The article describes just about any of the Louisiana seafood joints that dot central/south LA. How is this one in Long Beach different from all the others? Just curious. The one I go to is Louisiana Pico Seafood on Pico near Arlington. Been to others like the one on Crenshaw or on MLK. The sand dabs are always a good choice. Wed Jul 01 10:45:29 -0700 2009 4816054 10509 E Eto 2 4821657 The particular frying skills, and battering sensitivity, of this particular proprietor. 1. How many seafood fry places use subtly different tweaked batters for each different kind of seafood? It's like the best soba places, that offer a slightly different broth for each different *kind* of soba, for perfect matching. 2. I think frying, especially of seafood, is one of the high pure arts, like sushi knife work, and a perfect French omelette. It's all in the hands of the owner, the split second timing. Wed Jul 01 11:16:09 -0700 2009 4821548 14404 Thi N. 3 4821788 Still, I can't figure out if you've been to several of the Asian-run Louisiana seafood fry places and found that the Long Beach one is the only one that does the batter tweaking. Who is this batter guy? And for soba, most places don't really "tweak" their tsuyu, even the good ones. The tsuyu is their signature item. Maybe you meant some soba places prefer to use one style of soba in a hot broth and another style for dipping in tsuyu, as they do at Ichimian? But the only difference there is in the thickness of the noodle. Some of the better places in Japan might offer an inaka style as well as a sarashina style soba, but I don't think the tsuyu would be different. Wed Jul 01 11:57:56 -0700 2009 4821657 10509 E Eto 4 4822262 as the OP, this post was not intended as a comparison of louisiana fish fries in los angeles. LOUISIANA BEST was simply tasty goodness. thought folks should know that it lived up to the review and that we didn't mind making the 40+ mile trek despite the annoying detours we took because of the 710 freeway closure. i do remember liking the oysters at LOUISIANA PICO, but haven't been there in over five years. it does compare very favorably to the joints i've frequented in Lake Charles, Louisiana and Beaumont, Texas, though. because you seem adamant about a comparison, perhaps you'll do one and report back! it would be a great and interesting thread. Wed Jul 01 14:10:04 -0700 2009 4821788 22959 revets2 5 4822396 I think you're mistaken if you think this thread is *supposed* to be about a single review of a single place for a single piece of deliciousness. I'm just trying to gather enough data points to assess whether other similar fish fry places with similar names and similar business models are offering a similar kind of deliciousness, perhaps so that interested parties wouldn't have to drive 40 miles to get it, when it *could* be available within 5 miles. The ideal that CH was founded upon was to get a food-loving public to add their data points to this trough of information to allow users to access wide perspectives on where to find deliciousness. My asking for this information was to broaden the topic because there aren't many data points. And it would be informative to know how thorough Thi was in finding this place in LB, when similar places exist throughout south LA. He didn't mention if he had been to others or not. So now that you've added another piece of info on Louisiana Pico, that adds to the spectrum of available info where it didn't exist before. I prefer to know the story-behind-the-story than the review itself, because I find context to be more meaningful, especially since I find the info on CH watered downed for the most part. Comparisons are especially great for that. I have been curious about all the seafood fry joints all around the Pico corridor and south LA that I've never seen mentioned on CH, and certainly, if I lived in LA, or spent more than a couple weeks at a time here, I'd love to start that thread. I'm hoping that there might be more proactive chowhounds who actually live in LA do that, as oppose to simply be reactive as is the norm. Wed Jul 01 14:51:29 -0700 2009 4822262 10509 E Eto 6 4822578 ummmmmmmm......did you like the fish? Wed Jul 01 16:04:07 -0700 2009 4822396 43855 sdv231 7 4822629 yes Wed Jul 01 16:24:32 -0700 2009 4822578 10509 E Eto 6 4836647 OK: data. I've been to something like 20-25 southern-style places that serve fried fish in the area, most in the Crenshaw/Inglewood/Watts/LBC area. I'd say about half were fish-only places. A good number of these were Asian run, can't remember how many. For the article, I went to about 8 or 9 more. About a third were Asian-run? And several others did have Louisiana in the name. (Note: this place has nothing to do with the dreadful Louisiana Fried Chicken chain. The spirit is more like calling a restaurant "Hunan" something or other.) I can say with certainty that I *have not* been to every single "you buy, we fry" place in South LA, but, then again, I've never been to every exemplar in LA of anything. Louisiana Best Seafood is, by a long shot, of all the places I've been, my total favorite. Completely. Hardcore. Without a doubt. When I had my first bite (actually, it started when I first saw the fried fish in my little package), there was this enormous ring of victory and glory in the middle of my soul. My buddy Vin had his first bite and started jumping up and down, pumping his fist in the air and shouting, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" There was glory blowing like a wind through my soul. Pure, burning, fried glory. If you ask me where the best fried seafood is in town, of any type, I will now immediately say, "Puro Sabor and Louisiana Best Seafood." Here, there be frying genius. Some notes: the article may sound less enthused than my normal Chowhound writing voice, but it's a different venue. I can't say, "This is the best place I've ever been to" - well, the superficial reason is that the article is supposed to be in the third person, but the deeper reason, as was carefully explained to me by my patient and ever-loving editor until I got it on a deep and thorough level, is that a newspaper reader doesn't know me, and doesn't know the places I've been to, and probably doesn't care. No history community, no background knowledge, no knowledge of me. Also: Chowhound has a sort of, you know, shared common background of restaurants - reference points. When I say, "Langers good", most of the readers know what I mean. Not so for a larger audience. Anyway, this is boring. You don't need to hear about my pathetic struggles to write in a new format. Anyway: if there's some sense of... archetypality about this place, I was trying for it. The whole start of this thing was when I was reading a thread about seafood shacks on Chowhound, and people had this image of a seafood shack as in the east coast, or the pacific northwest - on the rocky seashore, etc. etc. They couldn't find it here. And I sort of figured the *essence* of the seafood shack was in LA - cheap, fresh, perfect seafood - but not the outer superficial match. So part of the goal was to introduce a *type* - what we have a lot of, the fresh, you buy we fry sort of place, but also to find the best exemplar of the type. I didn't expect to find something as good as Louisiana Best though. It rung my bells. I mean, normally by the time a deadline has passed and I've had to go five times in a row in a short time, I'm sick of it, but I wasn't. I went back. Twice. In the week after I wrote the article. So, to answer your questions: yes, I've been to others. Yes, this is my favorite. Yes, I have in fact driven from Hollywood to Long Beach, down the 110, past tons of other you buy we fry places I know, because my gut had a hankering that would only go for this place. Yes, I love it true. Sorry. Too long. Caffeinated. Tue Jul 07 10:46:10 -0700 2009 4822396 14404 Thi N. 7 4837330 Wow, can't wait to experience this place ! Tue Jul 07 14:17:12 -0700 2009 4836647 19558 mikester 8 4837380 Note of caution. This is not an innovative fried fish place or anything they don't do anything notably different or unusual with the fish. This is not fried fish fusion, or neuvo fried fish. This is JUST FRIED FISH, pure and simple. It just happens to be perfect. Tue Jul 07 14:40:24 -0700 2009 4837330 14404 Thi N. 8 4837381 Also: bone-in sand dabs, bone-in sand dabs, bone in sand dabs. Tue Jul 07 14:41:00 -0700 2009 4837330 14404 Thi N. 7 4840656 Thanks for the background info. Would you rate any of the places in the Crenshaw area within the ballpark of Louisiana Best? I know I've posted questions about some of these seafood fry places buried in other threads, but never got a response, so I'm curious. This topic is such a black hole on LA's CH boards, yet there are so many of these places around. Also, the seafood fry places I've visited (all Asian-run) tend to offer sides like mac/potato salad straight from the Smart & Final cartons. Do any of the ones you visited offer something better? Wed Jul 08 13:46:17 -0700 2009 4836647 10509 E Eto 8 4840969 the same thing at LB in the LB. i ask for every order without the sides and fries. i take my own hot sauce. have Red Hot, will travel. Wed Jul 08 15:09:25 -0700 2009 4840656 22959 revets2 9 4841377 so i shouldn't get any fries or sides with my meal? just the fried fish? Wed Jul 08 17:28:01 -0700 2009 4840969 10866 kevin 10 4842102 I went for the first time yesterday for a late lunch/early dinner. Under COMBO I had 6) 4 Fillets of Catfish or Sandad & 10 M/Pcs. Shrimp......9.49. I picked sandads (their spelling). All combos are"Served with Fries, Salad, Bread, 2 Hush Puppies." I liked everything except the listed salad which was coal slaw and probably from S&F. Next time I'll get potato salad and if it is as mediocre as the salad I'll skip it. Fish and shrimp were excellent, fries were good, no not the best twice or thrice fried Belgian wonders we all have learned to love (damn I miss Benita's Frites in SaMo) but good enough to get next time. I guess the Hush Puppies were good cause I was grumbling to myself that they only included 2 with the combo! The worst thing was the 'tarter sauce' that I usually use as a dipping sauce for chips/fries. If I describe it the mods will surely delete my post. That bad! To sum up, fish, shrimp, hush puppies and fries were winners in my book and I'll be back soon. Keep in mind though that this is not West L.A. it's the hood and while I will return soon some family and friends from the 90210 and adjacent areas would be really uncomfortable here. Wed Jul 08 23:26:05 -0700 2009 4841377 10864 sel 11 4842155 Get the side order of hush puppies. It's, like, $3, for a slightly greasy, glorious brown paper bag of, like, 15 of them. Nice spicing on the hush puppies, eh? Thu Jul 09 01:01:39 -0700 2009 4842102 14404 Thi N. 12 4842712 Nah, I couldn't eat a WHOLE bag of those little puppies! While I don't hail from a region where hush puppies are a common side dish, I do try them when offered and thought these were pretty darned tasty. I guess I'll have to go back soon to consider their spicing as I only had two and I dunked them in the little cup of hot sauce (my sledge hammer palate - sorry)! Thu Jul 09 07:30:09 -0700 2009 4842155 10864 sel 8 4844383 Louisiana Best: I like it more than all of the Chowhound standards... Stevie's on the Strip, far more than M&M. What's the place near the Science Center... called something like... uh... some lady's name, Chef something something Soul Food? Far better. It's also better than Uncle Darrow's in its current incarnation - actually, I'm pretty sure that it's a step better than Uncle Darrow's of five years ago. I'm not being too specific because a lot of the fish fry places I've checked out in the Crenshaw/Inglewood area have a very similar level of quality - very few bad places, and not many exceptional places. Louisiana Best was sort of unique. The *only* place that's in the same neighborhood of quality that I can think of is Flossie's, which I've loved for years. Flossie's is a little more delicate, I think - their batter is a little cleaner. But I think Louisiana Best has the edge over even Flossie's for pure frying skill. See the note below from Professor Salt about slowness, which is an excellent call... Louisiana Best *takes the longest* of any of these place I've been to, and it's for the good. Thu Jul 09 15:46:02 -0700 2009 4840656 14404 Thi N. 5 4822646 I live in OC, so going to Central/South LA is not an easy excursion, but I happily will drive to Long Beach for some grub. I've been craving some good southern food round these parts.... Thanks for the heads up! Wed Jul 01 16:30:17 -0700 2009 4822262 63444 groover808 6 4837394 Pure fried foods I will drive for: 1. Puro Sabor, fried seafood platter, Van Nuys. 2. Louisiana Best Seafood in Long Beach. 3. Flossie's in Redondo Beach for fried chicken, and fried catfish. 4. Kyochon, still the Korean fried chicken champ. If I had to choose *only one*... it might actually be... Puro Sabor. But barely. By an edge. But luckily, I don't have to choose. Flossie's catfish vs. Lousiana Best: Flossie's is a little purer/cleaner in the batter department, Louisiana Best a little funkier. Louisiana, though, has complete mastery of the frying technique, individuated to each fish. Note the difference in color between the fried shrimp, fried catfish, and fried sand dabs. They hit *that same shade* and *same crunch* every time, for each particular seafood variety. Tue Jul 07 14:44:39 -0700 2009 4822646 14404 Thi N. 5 4837453 while we're throwing out disclaimers, besides the CASH-ONLY disclaimer, i should have also listed the NO TABLES & CHAIRS disclaimer. the only chairs are there for you to wait for your order. the outside counter that runs around the outside of the joint is where you stand and eat. think TOMMY'S on beverly. can't wait to go again. don't forget to order the oysters. Thi, do you know if you can call in an order? Tue Jul 07 15:11:04 -0700 2009 4822262 22959 revets2 6 4837752 Yup. People seem to call in orders all the time. People stride in the door and pick up their phoned in orders. Yup: standing outside as the sea breezes kick up again. Tue Jul 07 17:02:11 -0700 2009 4837453 14404 Thi N. 3 4823567 Well, there are quite a number of "you buy, we fry" joints in south la especially there are some in the SFV valley too, Eto. So yeah, I haven't been to many of the them personally, usually when I'm in South LA, I'll just go for cue instead. But I did try the joint on Vernon, the New Orleans Fish Market, which was not half bad but not great. And deepest Long Beach might be quite a trek but you never know. I also remember Flossie's making some great fried catfish and hush puppies on special. Wed Jul 01 23:41:13 -0700 2009 4821657 10866 kevin 1 4844146 This place is in striking distance from work, so I went today for lunch. Overall, superbly skillful frying going on this kitchen. Thanks, all, for the enthusiastic writeup. I had the #6 combo (4 fillets of sole, 10 pieces of shrimp, 2 hushpuppies, fries and slaw) for $9.49. Boneless filet of sole is very thin, so by the time the crust is crunchy, the fish is a tad on the overcooked side. Not objectionably so - crunch yielding to a firm fish texture is ok, especially for those who don't prefer their fish cooked medium rare. I'm guessing even my 9 year old who categorically rejects fish would be ok with it. He'd probably think it's just like the chicken strips that's his favorite restaurant item. Next time, I'll try the bone-in sand dabs like Thi recommends. I'm guessing with the extra thickness of the sand dabs, it should stay a little moister than the sole. While I'm eating and enjoying the greaseless, perfect cornmeal batter on the sole and shrimp, I'm thinking "damn, they'd probably do a killer job with fried clam bellies." Then, "they'd probably do wonders with fried chicken." After tearing apart the onion and scallion studded hushpuppies, I think,"falafel. I wonder how perfect they can make falafel?" None of this stuff I made up in my head is offered. It's wishful menu-bloat on my part. I'm sorry I even thought of asking them about adding stuff to the menu, because yielding to customer demand would ruin a good thing. All they do is their seafood, in their style. I'm thankful for a place that works at perfecting a real narrow menu instead of being an "all things to all people" joint with a 10 page menu where most items are halfassed. One last bit of advice - expect your order to take a while, especially if you notice the waiting room is full. Someone in the back is taking the time to do things right. That means not overloading the fryers and working in small batches. Keeping the oil at the right temperature means things can't be rushed, so be patient. Thu Jul 09 14:20:18 -0700 2009 4816054 10023 Professor Salt 2 4844388 So happy to hear you dug. Have the sand dabs, and the catfish, and the scallops, and the oysters, and see if you agree about the thing about there being subtly different battering and subtly different frying texture goals to match each fish. Catfish is typically the juiciest. (The line in the article about taking a bite out of the corner and then *drinking* a shot worth of fried fish juice right out of the shell [sort of like a soup dumpling!] was from my first bite of a piece of catfish... and isn't exaggerated in the least. A shot of catfish juice. Glorious.) Thu Jul 09 15:46:59 -0700 2009 4844146 14404 Thi N. 3 4844832 Catfish sounds incredible, and I'm not usually a catfish kind of guy. I'll definitely go back and work through the menu. I suspect it'll be like sampling the flavor and texture differences among fish species at a sushi bar, only dredged and fried in the case of Louisiana Best Seafood. Did anyone try the buffalo fish? Having grown up fishing for saltwater species I am a freshwater fish racist. To me, buffalo looks too similar to carp and tilapia, both of which I dislike. I'm squeamishly curious about the buffalo, though Thu Jul 09 18:32:26 -0700 2009 4844388 10023 Professor Salt 3 4855206 i would have thought the "fish juice" referenced the sea bass. have you tried the sea bass? i was aiming for the non-farmed fish options. was there again last week and it was terrific. sole was not overcooked, but the sanddabs are more moist (but messier and tastier). on thi's recc, we pre-ordered 15 minutes before arriving and we could still scarcely pick up the fish because it was fresh out of the fryer. we think it beats waiting. Mon Jul 13 16:24:55 -0700 2009 4844388 22959 revets2 1 4937278 My Mom and I had to drive down to Carlsbad last week. We were hungry and I remembered a little joint off of the 405 that I have wanted to try. So we called 411 for an address and pluged it into the navigation system. This place is a trip, we walked in around 11:30 am, there were already a dozen people waiting for food. We asked for some advice from a few folks and decided to split a combo of 4 sand dabs, 10 oh sooooo sweet shrimp, 2 hush puppies, awesome fries, coleslaw, and a bisquit. The shrimp with that cornmeal coating is to die for. I dipped it in the hot sauce, next time must have more sauce. The sand dabs were a little difficult to eat on the road as they still have all the bones. But, they were tender and delicious. Some of the best fries I have ever had, love them dipped in the hot sauce too. Next time we want to try the oysters. I just have to figure out a better place to eat all this fried nirvana. enjoy! Tue Aug 11 13:01:24 -0700 2009 4816054 166707 JEN10