Doing Double Duty at Chego & Ford’s Filling Station

After my tamales adventure on Saturday, I went home for a bit of a rest before heading back west to check out Chego. People have described Chego to me as a ghetto Momofuku. Having never gone to Momofuku, I couldn’t really tell you if that is true. However, I’ve been to the Kogi truck (exactly once) and food seemed like an extension of the truck.

It’s either you love it or you hate it. There’s no in-between. That is, until I came along. I thought it was pretty good for what it was. Then you start thinking of the things it could be improved which sucks since I probably would still eat it as is. But I would wonder…

For instance, that charred asparagus we had? Could it be less charred? Yes. But then it wouldn’t be called charred, would it?

And the scallops? Less salty would be great. More of them would be fantastic. Were the three salty scallops still good? Sure.

The calamari fried rice was labeled as sticky. I wondered about that as it wasn’t sticky rice. I would have loved a version like that. Instead, the rice seemed fresh, a no-no for making fried rice. It could have used a bit more flavoring but that’s what Siracha is for, right? Oh, and more calamari.

Finally, the thing I’d been waiting for, the pork belly rice bowl cutely named the “one chubby pork belly” was pretty awesome. Then the mind starts breaking things down. I’d like to add kimchi to it even though it’ll cost an extra couple of bucks. Yeah, $3 for kimchi?! But I think it’ll help cut the fat. It was pretty oily. Maybe we can request less oil next time? But the tiny bits of chopped pepper in it, fried egg, pork belly and fresh cilantro really worked. Could I make something similar? Yeah, probably. But damnit, I’m going to drive all the way to the Westside and hope I find parking just so I can eat at the ghetto Momofuku.

Chego

3300 Overland Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 287-0337

We could have ordered dessert at Chego but we decided to see what was happening in Downtown Culver. We ended up at Ford’s Filling Station where I once had a satisfactory but weirdly serviced lunch. I thought if we just hung out at the bar, we would take care of any potential service horrors.

I tried out a couple of cocktails including the Premium Octane and adding vodka and St. Germain per their suggestion to the normally non-alcoholic Grapefruit Ricky.

We ordered the chocolate pudding cake. Having just had a version at the Tasting Kitchen, I was already pitting this cake against TK’s. Ford’s never had a chance. It was good but simply not great.

I definitely am more open to coming back though after this pleasant night.

Ford’s Filling Station

9531 Culver Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232-2618
(310) 202-1470