Lazy Ox Canteen

I will make this review short, sweet and to the point since the Unilocal community reports this restaurant closed.
I had a very good experience here and enjoy the chefs ability to cater to seasonal trends and an ever changing menu that is sourced locally and always subject to change.
Pig ear chicharrones (4 out of 5) Really good flavor, good crunch, good overall taste, but just felt like they were missing maybe just one thing.
Fried Okra (5 out of 5) If you are like me and have never experienced fried okra or even know what okra is for that matter, you should get familiar. It is not as bad as one might think.
Toad in a hole (5 out of 5) A very modern interpretation on a favorite childhood breakfast dish my mom would make for special occasions. Is it better than my moms? I have always said nothing beats my moms cooking… except in this case where I might have to make an exception. **Sorry MOM**
Pumpkin gnocchi (5 out of 5) interesting combination of flavors come together in this unique dish and props must be given to the chefs for their precision with such a tough dish to execute properly given its tough to understand flavor profile.
Rosemary beef ragu (5 out of 5) Perfect flavor, perfect ingredients and properly cooked to perfection. Awesome dish
Lazy ox burger (4 out of 5) Different that your everyday run of the mill burger but no Father Office so that might be the only thing keeping it from getting a 5 from me. What? Im forever spoiled I apologize.
I had a dessert that was on the specials of the day board but cant for the life of me remember what, I just remember it being delicious and so I would recommend their dessert based on that.

I came here on a Friday night and the place wasn’t empty, but it was also far from packet, so service was absolutely great.
They only have beers and wine, so we got a round and settled down to study the menu. There’s stuff to share and individual stuff, and we went the sharing route.
Got the pig ears (which were pretty good, but a bit bland), cauliflower and Brussel sprouts (two separate dishes, both delicious), poutine fries (which we devoured), and meatballs (which were just incredible).
Overall, great experience, but as other Unilocalers has commented, it does seem to miss some of the splendor of its past.

this place has been on my list forever — perhaps for too long! i know when this place was new the ratings were much better… but im always up to try new things so no complain!
everything was just OK. foods were OK (the beef ragu pasta with soft egg on the top was really yum, but that’s just 1 out of the 8 dishes we got), services was OK… drinks were pretty good, but pricey for its sizes.
perhaps this could be a much better happy hour spot, but too bad i am from too far away…

It is a cute tapas place in little Tokyo. The restaurant is not huge, but well composed. Good ambience. They have a good variety of beers, and I would perhaps give them one more star if I was there on a weeknight during happy hour.
The food is perhaps more just normal 4 star flavor. Some dishes are over priced, like the caramelized cauliflower – it is too tangy for my taste, and I think they could have done better than charging 8 bucks for it. The rest of the dishes are good eat, but their chicken wings are just too saucey, a bunch of disharmonious flavor were all dumped in there. I wish it could just be a good clean bar food for that dish specifically. The octopus ceviche was good, although my dear friend did point out that the octopus was cooked, and probably not well massaged before hand – it is a little too chewy.
Happy hour would give a good option to have a lot of the dishes half priced, that in my opinion is worth trying. It is a fusion eatery in the corner of picky LA taste and the hip healthy eating block, so they ought to keep pushing good food to stay in business.

Been wanting to try this place for a while. What better time then during Dine LA where all my dreams come true. I’ve heard good things about their rice pudding and their burger was once #1 on LA Weekly’s top 10 burgers of LA:
The Lazy Ox Burger (³⁄₅) — The burger is a good size. The patty had a beautiful char and was a nice medium rare. What it lacked was seasoning. I found it a bit bland. If I have to add ketchup to my burger than there is a problem. Was not impressed.
Rice Pudding (⁵⁄₅) — Amazing!!! What a great dessert! It’s sweet, but not too sweet. The whipped cream was light and fresh. And the crumbled gave it all a nice crunchy texture. There is no other place in LA I know of that does rice pudding better… There is no other place I know in LA that does rice pudding…
I would come back just for the rice pudding.

I would give this place a 3.5 but shy of 4 stars. Came here for happy hour and ordered all of the items that were eligible for happy hour prices, which included:
–Polenta — very creamy base with mushrooms and a hint of curry
–Poutine — this wasn’t as expected though I suppose the description did say it was with beef ragu. It pretty much tasted like spaghetti sauce with cheese on top of fries.
–Cauliflower — caramelized with a hint of lime and chili
–Pig ear chicarrones — fried pig ears — these were good but I found myself only able to have a few because they were fatty and ended up being rich and filling
–Baby beets salad
–Shrimp fritters — corn dogs but instead of a hot dog it’s shrimp
Overall I thought the food was good and great deal if you can come for happy hour. However, the highlight of the night was their butterscotch pudding — it was the perfect consistency and not too rich. I have to say the best butterscotch pudding I’ve had!

Looks like I’m not alone in noticing that the food is not the same as it was in the past. Granted, it’s been about 5 or so years since my last visit, but I remember it being good. So good that I didn’t hesitate when purchasing the 5-​course meal voucher Travelzoo was offering for the opportunity to go back at a more affordable price.
My reservation was for 7pm on a Sunday. Lucked out and found a street space after a couple sweeps, but parking in Little Tokyo is generally pretty bad if you don’t want to pay. Because we were in the area so early, we decided to show up to the restaurant closer to 6:30pm, and since there weren’t many people there, they seated us right away.
Everything on the Travelzoo prix fixe menu sounded great, but, unfortunately, it all went downhill in the taste department after the first course…
First Course: Carmelized Cauliflower and Pig Ear Chicharrones
Both of these dishes were EXCELLENT. My sister and I are still trying to figure out how to replicate the sauce the cauliflower comes in — some kind of lime/​vinegar mixture that is just delicious. The chicharrones had a nice crunch and were served on a bed of pickled veggies that were also quite good.
Second Course: Yellowtail
While the fish and Persian cucumber were refreshing after all the fried goodness, the fried cilantro seemed out of place and we left most of that on the plate.
Third Course: Porcini Risotto
Other than the risotto itself being cooked well, this dish just didn’t work. It tasted like it may have been infused with liquid smoke, and didn’t achieve the woody effect it seemed to have been going for. The asparagus was as out of place as the cilantro in the previous course. We kept eating more to try to figure out what was going on there, but it really just didn’t taste good.
Fourth Course: Seafood Hot Pot
We weren’t feeling meat, so we went with the seafood. While it was a good variety of shellfish combined with the cod, the broth wasn’t that flavorful despite being overly salty, and did not make for good dipping with the bread they served on the side.
Fifth Course: Chocolate Plate
Okay, so we ate the whole thing because it was chocolate and it was there, but this was not sinful and decadent like I always hope for in a chocolate dessert. It was barely passable. The chocolate waffle was bland and the brownie was barely noticeable buried under whipped cream and freezer burnt ice cream. Sadness.
The service was great up until the hot pot course where our server disappeared for a really long time. Maybe she thought were were still munching? Whatever — not a huge deal.
Probably not going to make another return trip unless I hear that they have gone back to the days of yore taste-​wise. It’s a bummer, Lazy Ox, but I do hope you find your way back.

I’ve actually been wanting to come here for a few years. I heard good things about it so when my friend mentioned we should all grab dinner, this place came up. I called in for a reservation for 7 people and the host said he would call me back. I really thought that was weird. Either you CAN or CANT take our reservation. So we headed down anyway and figured there were other places to grab food at in J-​town if they couldn’t seat us. RIGHT when we got there, the host called me and said if we wanted to, we can take a reservation at 930 (it was 9 when he called me) so I said yes and we walked to the restaurant. Once we got there, some of our party was already seated outside so we just sat down. (I have no idea why he told me 930 if there were seats available)
They took our drink orders, but I was pretty disappointed with their sake selection. They had 4 kinds of sake, which in my opinion were all overpriced and not really affordable. EXNAY on the sake then. We moved inside because a table opened up. For some reason they didn’t really want to take our order right away. Once they did take our orders, it took a long time to get our food. Half of us ordered the lazy ox burger and the other half ordered the Ragu. SO glad I ordered the burger because the ragu tasted like chef Boyardee. Really ordinary and definitely not worth 16 bucks. The burger was really good. It came with rosemary fries and an aoil sauce for dipping along with a mustard sauce. The burger was pretty damn good. Simple but really really good. We also ordered the polenta which never came out. The Bone marrow was okay, ive had better. The brussel sprouts were really good, but like any other place, drenched in oil.
The burger alone I would give it a 4.5 stars. The whole experience in general was about a 2.5. Not impressed overall.

Parking, as you can imagine in Downtown LA, and especially in this particular area of Little Tokyo, is scarce. I was able to find metered parking a couple of blocks away though. Whetted my appetite that way.
Came during dineLA week and it was a great experience. Just don’t bring your kids because nobody (servers and patrons alike) knew how to act and what to do.
Appetizer: Caramelized Cauliflower with toasted pine nuts, chili flakes, and lime. Super super good. The crunch of the pine nuts made eating vegetables more enjoyable.
Appetizer: Brussel Sprouts with garlic, chili, lime, crispy bacon. Super super really really good. The chili lime flavor is genius.
Main: Rosemary Beef Ragu with hand-​cut pappardelle, soft-​egg, parmigiano reggiano. Very filling. Very tasty.
Main: Lazy Ox Burger with white cheddar and whole grain mustard. Super good. Fun to eat.
Dessert: Rice Pudding with caramel, pine nuts, and cookie crumbs. I didn’t think rice pudding could get fancy… and palatable!
Dessert:: Butterscotch Budino with caramel, vanilla, cookie crumbs. Awesome! I would come back just for this!

Lazy Ox has been on my radar for a while and I was able to enjoy a dinner with friends here
/​/​PARKING /​/​Street (metered)
/​/​SERVICE /​/​excellent and friendly service. However, our food was slow to come out despite the quiet night they were having
/​/​FOOD /​/​
+ poutine: marinara sauce instead of gravy which was a fun spin
+ cauliflower: too sour for my taste
+ Brussel sprouts: I love Brussel sprouts and these were tasty, but not very special or uniquely flavored. In addition, these were very oily.
+ lazy Ox burger: loved this! Perfectly medium. The patty was juicy and flavorful. Also loved the fries and fun dipping sauces.
Lazy Ox is a fun and cute restaurant but I was not particularly wowed by their tapas.

A friend and I had been hoping to try Lazy Ox Canteen for quite some time and since he lives practically 3 blocks away, we decided to finally give them a try during dinner time. Parking was not an issue for us as we simply walked from his studio.
Even without reservations, we were seated promptly in their near capacity indoor dining area.
Our server patiently waited upon us as we mulled over the menu. We ultimately settled on sharing a kale salad and each ordered our own Lazy Ox Burger.
Black Tuscan Kale Salad ($ 11.00): ⁴⁄₅
Apple, lemon rosemary emulsion, almond slices, and golden raisins accompanied this curiously interesting kale salad. I was caught off guard by roasted kale being tossed together with raw kale. Ultimately, I really enjoyed the contrasting textures and found that the lemon rosemary dressing provided a nice contrast to the kale’s bitterness.
Lazy Ox Burger ($ 15.00): ²⁄₅
I really wanted to like this burger but it was fairly salty and dry, in spite of medium rare preparation. Sadly, my friend also had similar luck with his burger.
Fries (Side accompanying Lazy Ox Burger): ³⁄₅
These thick cut fries had so much potential but fell short, not so much as a result of lacking crisp outer texture but mostly due to the starchy, chalky interior. Me thinks the kitchen staff could have left these in the fryer a bit longer. Served with a tasty chipotle aioli.
Service was more than attentive and our orders arrived quick. I kind of wished they would have taken a bit more time to prepare our dinner as to yield better results.

I’ve been to the Lazy Ox for drinks but have never tried their dishes. In the past, the menu didn’t look too appealing. Menus do change periodically and it did look a bit enticing so we decided to try. Our waitress was helpful in ordering dishes and she recommended we order appetizers since the entrees weren’t big enough to leave us satisfied.
For starters we tried:
–Caramelized cauliflower with toasted pine nut, chili flakes and lime
–Brussell sprouts with garlic, chili, lime and crispy bacon
–Polenta with roasted mushroom, creamed beet leaf and yellow curry oil
We thought nothing much of these appetizers. Honestly, the cauliflower and sprouts were plain. No one really cared to finish up the polenta.
Our entrees were:
–Pumpkin gnocchi with gorganzola and variety of peas.
–Rosemary beef ragu with basil pasta and soft poached egg
–Laxy Ox burger (nothing special)
–Porchini risotto with asparagus
The entrees were just okay, nothing spectacular and lacked substance for the price.
Except for the burger, the entrees are appetizer size dishes plus ordering appetizers left us less than full even after order a few appetizers.
Left a bit disappointed. After leaving I thought to myself, we would of been better of going to Kouraku just around the corner for ¹⁄₃ the price.

It is pretty hidden from outside. The name is not very obvious, and the door was fully closed. Inside is dark, barely can you see what’s going on from the outside. But when we came in, there is pretty energetic. I like wherever there is a bar setting.
I called 45 minutes ahead and just to check if it is busy on a saturday night. And just booked a seat for 2 just in case. The seats were pretty close to each other, but it was ok for me. I have always see this place has a BBE code with 30% discount. So I wanted to try it out.
I started with a glass of Chardonnay, very tangy and not so smooth, i don’t really like it. Then We started with their famous pig ear and bone marrow. Pig ears were pretty disappointed. It is fried, but some are super crispy while some are pretty soggy. But the pickled vegetables taste good, I like them better. I had better pig ears at Taberna Arros Y Vi in Santa Monica. Way better. Bone marrow was good, just heavy. The topping is like some salty olives, which makes it feel better. Bread served with it was very dry and no fancy.
We tried also their 7 oz burger. The patty was too dry. Not comparable to the good ones I had somewhere else. I don’t really like it. But I like the fries though, thick while crispy. I also tried the yellowtail, not the most fresh ones. Again the cucumber tasted better.
Food here is pretty heavy. Didn’t wanna try any dessert afterwards. Too full. It is a little overpriced. And maybe happy hours are better. When we left, around 8pm, the restaurant was full. But I don’t think I will come back again. Not worth driving all the way from the west.

I want to thank the Unilocalers for guiding me to Lazy Ox, because I almost stopped at Flying Pig or Spitz, but neither had reviews as good as Lazy Ox. I’m giving Lazy Ox 4 stars for amazing food, and then tacking on 1 more star because for some reason on that Tuesday nite, the entire menu was 50% off. I’ll run down what my friend & I got:
pickled vegetables — an interesting mix of green beans, cauliflower, carrots, cucumbers & a few other things. The vegetables are served you to in a dry dish (they are not siting in any liquid). Definitely vinegary, but I would have preferred a little more sweetness to balance everything out. The only thing of the night that I didn’t like.
baby back ribs — this dish arrived from the kitchen in about 5 minutes, but i bet someone was working on this all day. The ribs were very tender & the meat fell completely away from the bone. They are finished with a little sauce on top & excellent. The cole slaw served with the baby back ribs is much better than the pickled vegetables.
ribbon pasta with meat sauce — homemade pasta & a meat sauce baked into an au gratin dish. A little like lasagna without the cheesy top. This was really good. I didn’t really need the poached egg, but thankfully my friend wanted it.
pork chop with kim chee & potatoes — the HIGHLIGHT of the meal, and in many ways I’m glad it arrived last. It’s a very thick chop — imagine stacking 2 decks of playing cards. Yet it was perfectly cooked & nothing burned on the outside. This seems pretty difficult to do. It’s sitting on a bed of kimchee with slightly greenish mashed potatoes. I would figure out what was making the mashed potatoes green. They don’t taste like wasabi.
I’m unsure if every Tuesday is 50% off, but we had all those dishes and our bill was only $ 30, which is almost like someone who paid us $ 30 to eat there. Just go, get the pork chop & thank me later.

I’ve been meaning to try this place for awhile now and finally got the opportunity to a few days ago. I had a Travelzoo deal for 2 lazy ox burgers and 2 beer flights for $ 29 and I have to say, based on their regular price, this was really a deal. The beer flights are normally $ 14/​each and the burgers $ 15/​each.
The beer flights include four 5oz pours of various beers that are selected from a range from light to dark. My favorite one was the 2^nd to the right (as seen in the picture), which was some pumpkin-​flavored ale. You can definitely taste the sweetness of the pumpkin and it wasn’t as bitter as the other ones. I’m more of a light beer drinker and the flight was too bitter for my taste unfortunately.
The burger was really delicious. Very juicy and comes with whole grained mustard on the side, which I found really tasty. You can choose between fries or a salad. I chose the salad, which was just a simple mixed greens salad with a light vinaigrette. I should’ve chosen the fries though… I needed the carbs to help with the beer haha.
Overall, I enjoyed my first dining experience at Lazy Ox. The service was on point and the ambiance is great for a date night (dimly lit with candles). I’ve read a lot about Lazy Ox’s small plates, which are great for sharing, but I can’t comment on that since I had my deal. However, it’s kind of pricey based on the quick glance I took of their menu. Especially for the amount of food you’re getting. Because of that, I highly recommend coming during happy hour or on Tuesdays when their entire menu is 50% off!
Parking is always sucky in Little Tokyo. Meters are $ 3/​hour (after 8pm it’s free). You’re probably better off parking in a structure or a lot.

Come here only if you’re fully prepared to eat a hearty, butch meal. Kinda cool lunchtime, bar experience but not really for me since I’m not part of that pork belly/​fried pig ear eating crowd.
You’ll be slightly saddened if you try to get a scrumptious veggie/​fish dish but guess Its not like they misrepresented their offerings so ill have to choose more wisely next time. A-​ok… Still, personally, I give it a C (especially considering the prices! How is it that a tiny beet salad is more costly than a freaking entrée? …totally baffled); still passing but certainly nothing to brag about.