Urbanhonking recommendations here; includes eating and other stuff to do.

Give Greenblatt's Deli a try! It's on Sunset in West Hollywood and has been around since the 1920s. Not only does it have a fantastic corned beef sandwich, it's right down the street from the Hustler Superstore. Whoo whoo!

If you're looking for some quality food paired extremely well with wine in an intimate, non-tourist setting, Try Lou in Hollywood. Lou opened his place a year and a half ago, and he really knows his stuff. Try the Pig Candy (essentially candied thick cut bacon - believe it or not its highly addictive). He keeps his menu small, and rotates seasonally. Here's a sample from his weekly mail a month ago (he does a once a week family style dinner on Monday nights):

Monday, July 9th: Wild Copper River King Salmon

Shaved salad of fennel, artichoke, and radish
Cuvee les Comtes Cremant de Limoux
Wild Copper River King salmon,
zucchini, eggplant, and pesto pave,
tomato coulis
Don Pietro "Spadafora" Sicilia IGT 2005
Domaine Cauhape Jurancon Sec "'Chant de Vignes" 2004
Cooper Mountain Pinot Gris "Reserve" Oregon 2006
Blackberries, strawberries, fresh figs
with fromage blanc & lavender honey
Bernadou Muscat de Frontignan
-----

here's the address:

724 N Vine St.
Los Angeles CA 90038

Its one block north of Melrose.

Highly recommended.

Here are some choices near where I live in West L.A.

Gyu-Kaku
http://www.gyu-kaku.com/
-Japanese grill dining, relatively inexpensive, good happy hour specials, and the fun of cooking your own meats. On Pico at Westwood in West L.A., south of UCLA.

Hide Sushi
http://www.hidesushi.com/
-Although the website's bare bones, this is an excellent sushi restaurant. It's a family business on Sawtelle near the 405 in West L.A., and the owners also own the next-door market. Bring cash, as they don't accept credit. Good, fresh fish.

La Cabana
http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/150130
-Great Mexican joint on Rose at Lincoln, in Venice (near Santa Monica in West L.A.). Good, cheap drinks, hearty food, reasonable prices, and mariachis!

BLD
http://www.bldrestaurant.com/
-A great brunch joint on Beverly Blvd. just south of Hollywood and West Hollywood. I love their variety of benedicts, but they also have nice cheeses. Yummy. And it's a plus that the restaurant has my initials, first middle and last.

There we go! I enjoy each of those.

Pink's - "Hot Dog to the Stars!"

I just got back from LA and had a blast. As for food, I hit some good places, but mostly bar food/burgers. Toi Thai on Sunset was pretty good.

While you're down there, if downtown, you have to check out The Edison. It is an amazing bar made out of the basement powerplant of a building. Pretty awesome and cool. Also, if you can, just wander around Sunset blvd @ night. Such a scene.

Everytime my friends and I go to LA we end up eating late night breakfast at Swingers www.swingersdiner.com

I'm pretty sure it's good, but usually pretty drunk by the time we get there.

If you are in Echo Park/Silverlake area try the Brite Spot on Sunset. You can look it up on Yelp (sorry, can't cut/paste URL in RSS reader for some reason)

Big Kahuna Burger.

http://gridskipper.com/travel/los-angeles/non+sushi-grub-in-las-little-tokyo-288639.php

I strongly recommend you go to Zankou Chicken. The garlic sauce is incredible and they have those pink pickled radish things.

Pink's has a good dog, but the last time I went the line was like the line for a Disneyland ride. I'm not sure if Oki Dog is still around, but if your are in the mood for a pastrami chili cheese dog in a tortilla you should check it out.

I hate L.A. (being 3rd gen Angeleno) so much that in my two months there this winter I was hitting a flask all day and night to kill the pain, so my memory is spotty, but I can give you some approximations - amazing little pizza place, open super-late, vaguely across from Cantor's on Fairfax (which is itself a must-see if not for the food - also open late, terrific bar); it's a chain but yes, Zankou Chicken, wow; awesome also late night Thai on the north side of Sunset just east of the Thai Town neighborhood sign; my very first falafel was out somewhere in Malibu and I've never forgotten it still, the place must still be there; sidewalk Mexican heaven at El Indio, with branches at Tampa and Roscoe and Reseda Blvd and...Sherman Way, maybe??? if you're caught out in the valley; and there is the American-style, Mexican sit-down place of all time somewhere down near USC, a hundred years old with pictures of silent stars and the kind of demographic mix that is the best thing about the city - I'll come back and tag the name and location onto this comments post after I talk to my bro later tonight...have fun!

Finally from me, I used to have lunch a Korean place whose only English name was Tofu somewhere around Western or Vermont. I have been able to find that spicy tofu soup here in Portland, so it isn't something I think of as unique to LA. But here is a link to a blog with some Koreatown recommendations.

Your stupid fucking filter jerks never freed my very helpful reply. I had two urls! They were maps!

To type less this time: I second (except it was first) Zankou Chicken.

And I also want you to definitely eat at Philippes the Original. They make very good French Dip sandwiches. And they are cheap. The restaurant is filled with woodchips and pickled things, and there's a train museum. The upstairs has a bunch of big empty rooms with red-brick walls scratched with thousands of messages.
It's near Chinatown. And across from the Port Office Terminal Annex. It's where all the undeliverable mail goes to rot. It's a beautiful building.

No specs yet from my bro, but I also just remembered an awesome breakfast place off the SW corner of Sunset and Fairfax, Sunset side, next door to the Director's Guild. The name, again, escapes me. Fairfax is an old Jewish neighborhood and nearly walkable - there's lots of places on the main drag (on Fairfax, south of the high school) that look like they probably have some killer Old Country-type east coast Jewish stuff. Also hit the Farmer's Market even further down Fairfax below CBS. It's a good vibe in a city where good vibes are few. Still a giant parking lot next to it, though. Good food, nice weather, but nothing else to recommend that town.

This website:

http://www.losanjealous.com/

is pretty helpful to read before travelling to LA. They do have some posts about food (see "topics" on left side) and they have one of the most comprehensive lists of shows/events in LA that I have been able to find.

if you want to spend every visit to nicolas' talking about how much better the food is somewhere else, go to maroush. this is the best mid-east food i have ever had!

i think it is on santa monica around western or normandie in hollywood.

i can't find the address, might be spelling it wrong.

oh yeah and like they said before, zankou is good, esp if you are a beck fan.

thanks, everybody! you are all great and i am going to commence eating.... NOW.

welcome to LA, it's dang hot right now. the eastside is where it's at...and this weekend is sunset junction in silver lake.

these are my fave places to grab some grub...

blairs - silver lake
saito's sushi - silver lake
town and country - breakfast - silver lake
el chavo - margs and mexi - silver lake
the york - burgers - highland park
backdoor bakery - breakfast - silver lake

really there's lot's of great food in LA.
have fun!

within about a 5-block radius in koreatown:
you shouldn't miss dansungsa, especially if you coughcoughsmokecough. there's nothing remotely like it in portland.
http://losangeles.citysearch.com/review/37470
http://www.losanjealous.com/2005/07/29/photo-of-the-week-soju-swiller-dansungsa/

then you should get some bingsu for dessert at ice kiss.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/xRvFjnuvPTdLsJBLpfNhAg

you could then check out the hms bounty in the gaylord building (on wilshire, you can't miss the giant glowing green gaylord sign). the food sucks and crummy beer is like $4, but sirhan sirhan had lunch in the restaurant there before offing robert kennedy at the historic and gorgeous ambassador hotel rotting across the street.

really good burritos can also be found at marielas taco for very cheap. the place is not very clean. but again, really good, very cheap. and an interesting evangelism thing is going on, too.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/Y02OrEQ0c_NAT55j3AnKUQ#hrid:Hd3fIEqe-W0xFkw8LbZBpQ/query:mariela's

That's Torung on Hollywood, and El Cholo on S. Western down by USC. El Cholo is probably the coolest place I've been in L.A. - really integrated, old-school city people crowd, great heaps of American style Mexican food but made by terrific Mexican cooks, awesome chill bar with big fishtank. Just a solid, kind of romantic, kind of fun place.