Downtown?

[flowergirl]

Where would you take friends coming from out of town? Looking for a fun, L A experience downtown.

[delayna]

Villains Tavern for expensive but very tasty drinks and good burgers! Post-apocalyptic tent-like structure with neat cozy upstairs.
1356 Palmetto Street, Los Angeles, CA
[phone] ‎ villainstavern.com

[sarahbeths]

My friend did a downtown food-hop. It included the always-happy-hour-in-bar menu at Drago Centro (good deal), Rock shrimp tempura at Katsuya, Guac at Border Grill, and Macarons/dessert at Bottega Louie. not super high-brow foodie, but all tasty stuff. Church and State is very popular with chows, haven't been yet. I like Wood Spoon (brazilian), but it sounds like Lazy Ox is the obvious answer as it is food/bev/LA. You could go to the Edison after, that is a wow factor bar but you have to all be wearing dress shoes.

[soyarra]

The Border Grill is expensive, has mediocre food and crap service. Spend your money at Drago, Bottega Louie, Chaya or Rivera.

[aching]

There are so many options, it really depends what you and your friends are into. Food-wise, I think you can't beat Lazy Ox, Baco Mercat, and Spice Table. For a meal and drinks, you could have French Dip at Cole's and then hit Varnish. Umamicatessan and Bottega Louie and both fun and scene-y, although slightly different scenes, with Umami being more hipster-ish. Speaking of hipsters, Wurstkuche is a great LA experience (and you can get good pie across the street at the Pie Hole). Those are just a few to start with...

[Thor123]

Love Wurstkuche. Great fries too. Order them well done with bbq sauce.

[soyarra]

Skip the Pie Hole - their crusts give new meaning to the words "underbaked," "tough," and "heavy."

Eat all your calories at Wurstkuche - a much better indulgence.

[revets2]

We make it a point to eat pie all over the country and we really like PIE HOLE. Quality ingredients and well executed. The ten or so times we've been there the crust is flaky and well-tailored to the genre of pie.

[AubWah]

Listen to me, this is serious. Take them to Grand Central Market on Broadway. Go directly to Las Morelianas and enjoy the best tacos of your lives.

[ipsedixit]

I personally think everything at GCM is sort of disgusting.

[blackbookali]

Las Morelianas is amazing

[A5 KOBE]

WP24

For some reason not many people give this place any love. A bit pricey but I thought the food was excellent.

[unagithefish]

Mo-Chica. Great cocktails, reasonably priced, totally sharable plates (3 of us shared 5 dishes and were totally stuffed), and fun, buzzy atmosphere by 8pm.

[BSW6490]

Hear negative things about Mo-Chica. Lazy Ox and Spice Table are both very LA.

[unagithefish]

Mo Chica was great 2 weeks ago - beef, ceviche, potato/crab dish, paella...- but yes, I forgot about Lazy Ox. The new chef there is fantastic; they have a good happy hour too.

[granadafan]

I'm looking forward to going to Mo chica during Dine LA.

[Thor123]

Rivera for diner.

[Johnny L]

Tasting menu is a good value, rest of menu is pricey by comparison.

[ipsedixit]

UMAMIcatessen

[PeterCC]

I know many people don't consider Philippe's chow-worthy, but it's very L.A. and I actually steer my friends toward the pork sandwich rather than the beef.