The Top 5 Dishes in North Hollywood

The name Coffee for Breakfast doesn’t reveal much about this vibrant NoHo café, but Caracas native Giuseppe Frisina, wife Jennay, daughter Ana, and daughter-in-law Julie specialize in Venezuelan comfort food. Cachapas are savory griddled corn pancakes stuffed with molten mozzarella cheese. They’d be satisfying on their own, especially paired with stewed black beans and two eggs, but the Frisinas take the plate over the top with beef strips sautéed with onions and peppers. They also offer a chicken version.

Hayat’s Kitchen is a longtime Lebanon strip mall gem from chef Hayat Shatila and husband Hassan. They’re well known for kebabs and baklava, but don’t sleep on samke harra, a specialty from northern Lebanon that draws influence from the Mediterranean Sea. Charbroiled (or fried) trout features flaky meat, crispy skin, and a chunky sauce crafted from crushed walnuts, pine nuts, jalapenos, and cilantro. To soak up the sauce and fish juices, choose between rice and the restaurant’s signature garlic parsley French fries.

Peter Georges teamed with business partners Dave Dickert, Joseph Gitto, and Joe Veni on Rodini Park to showcase versions of Greek dishes he grew up on in Astoria, Queens. This modern, fast-casual restaurant in the NoHo Arts District devotes prime counter space to slabs of savory pie filled with ingredients like spinach, chicken, leek, and beef & lamb. Still, their salmon torte stands out most of all. Georges hired a Greek grandma to teach him the recipe, which involves brushing flaky phyllo sheets with butter and canola and washing with egg yolk to help get a burnished top layer. Peppers, spinach, Swiss cheese, Feta, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, nutmeg, and ground cayenne round out the tantalizing flavor profile. Choose from sauces like tangy tzatziki, nutty tahini, punchy garlic oregano, and judiciously spicy green chile to complement your slice of pie.

Noy started her culinary career at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok and traveled the world cooking Thai food for the luxury hotel chain before settling in L.A. Sri Siam Cafe in a North Hollywood strip mall has been her domain since 1984. She prepares an excellent version of nam khao tod - crispy rice salad that’s popular in Laos and their neighbors in northern Thailand. Crunchy rice grains are tossed with roasted peanuts, spicy julienne ginger, scallions, cilantro, and funky, fatty cubes of sour Thai sausage. Balance with chile lime sauce, peanuts and mint leaves, and crumble dried chilies atop the salad if you dare. This dish is traditionally piled into crisp lettuce leaves.

Sisig is one of the most devastating dishes in the Filipino culinary pantheon, originally crafted by late chef Lucia Cunanan. Classically, you’ll find fatty cuts of chopped pork belly and face – snout, ears, and all - served on a sizzling platter. At Tatang, a modern Filipino restaurant from Chef JR Martin and wife Chiho, they take a lighter approach, skipping “everything but the oink” in favor of Rocky free-range chicken. Chopped skin and thigh meat is mixed with red onion and spicy vinegar and served on a sizzling dish with a poached egg, chives, and sweet-tart calamansi. Pair Tatang’s sisig with pungent garlic rice that incorporates the powerful cloves in three ways: oil, chopped, and fried.