The New Kids In Town: Lola's Baja Tacos and Main Kitchen Cafe
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Ceviche. |
After food truck night, the corner of Balboa and Chatsworth
is on its way to becoming Granada Hills’ new favorite dining destination, with
two recently opened spots — breakfast and lunch joint Main Kitchen CafĂ©, and
ceviche specialists Lola’s Baja Tacos. Both are delightful in their own ways,
and both should serve as notice that the perpetually disappointing Pampas,
right next door, better step up its game.
Pampered Granada Hillsians typically whine if there’s more
than 20 feet between their parking place and their destination’s door, yet
ironically, it's the ample parking that may be Lola’s Baja Taco’s undoing. Set back
from Chatsworth Street behind a small parking lot, the place is easy to miss,
especially since buildings on either side come right up to the sidewalk, and
since the same location has been home to at least a half dozen unnoticed
failures over the course of its history. Yet Lola’s, one desperately hopes,
will finally be different, because they do nearly everything right.
The near blinding acid yellow of the paint on the wall is a
hint of what’s to come. Order the watermelon mint or cucumber lime aguas
frescas, but don’t finish your beverage before the entrees arrive — save some
to accompany the meal. Lola’s food is aggressive with spice and tang, to great
effect. It’s just the lively flavors one hopes for but so often doesn’t get,
especially this far north of downtown. We had to order a second basket of chips
to offset the acid of the ceviche and the heat of the salsa, but it was a good
kind of hurt.
Dessert was a fried glazed mango and ice cream dish, which I
was afraid might be cloying, but was actually a delightful balance of hot and
cold, rich and sweet. Some complain about the prices at Lola’s, which are way above the typical taco stand’s, but Lola’s isn’t the typical taco stand — it’s
way above.
Not as aggressively cute as that other breakfast and lunch joint, Joe’s Cafe, Main Kitchen occupies
a space that’s a wee bit more spacious and a lot more sunny. The dĂ©cor is plain,
yet fresh and clean, the best feature being a counter nestled right up against
the kitchen, making diners feel like part of the action as you watch your food
being lovingly yet efficiently prepared by the chatty chef/co-owner, who sings
along to 80s and 90s tunes on the radio as he works.
There’s the breakfast basics, plus a few nice additions like
frittata, eggs Benedict, a breakfast burrito, and a lemon ricotta granola
parfait. Lunch is similarly based in fundamentals — burgers, BBQ pulled pork
and turkey Panini sandwiches, as well as a pesto chicken salad and a flawlessly executed fried chicken
sandwich.
How you feel about lunch here will in large part depend on
how you feel about tater tots. They're served with everything. It’s a campy
alternative to ubiquitous French fries that brings back warm, oily, salty
memories of grade school cafeterias and college hangover breakfasts. But if
you’re the sort of person that thinks s/he’s outgrown that sort of thing, stick
to the salad.
I could quibble (though it was still a good sandwich, the
pesto chicken seemed essentially pesto-free, and I wanted a higher-rent cheese
in the beet salad), but that seems like a waste of time given the scarcity of charming,
independent, bricks-and-mortar dining options in this franchise-dominated town. I'd rather just spend my time sitting at that counter, sipping coffee, and watching
the cook sing.
Lola's Baja Tacos, 17027 1/2 Chatsworth St., Granada Hills
Main Kitchen Cafe, 17013 Chatsworth St., Granada Hills
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