DTLA: Wraps & Rolls Now Open

 

South Park denizens and office workers rejoice! There is now a new option in Downtown Los Angeles. Wraps & Rolls serves Vietnamese cuisine and is part of the Belasco complex. Earlier this year, we saw the opening of Vintage 10-Fifty which after a few tries, I decided to wait until it “got better.” However, I’ve been to Wraps & Rolls which just opened last week 3 times and I can honestly say I like it. Even better, they’re offering 40% off until October 12.

Wraps & Rolls is  still working out its kinks. On my first visit, I had the chicken noodle soup but they neglected to give me the accompanying bean sprouts and lime. Be sure to ask for that. The meat is all-white meat and the broth is very flavorful, if albeit oily.

My friend had the Korean BBQ Beef. She found it to be a little underdone but since I like my beef medium-rare, this was perfect for me.

We also shared some meaty eggrolls consisting of ground pork and shrimp.

Wraps & Rolls is fairly small. After ordering from the counter, you can claim a table and serve yourself some sauce from the station in the corner. However, it’s a tight squeeze and I’m wondering if some sauces could also be re-located to the front counter since people picking up to-go orders have to crowd around seated diners.

The crispy pan-fried crepe has both pork and shrimp though my pescatarian friend ordered it without pork on my next visit to Wraps & Rolls. I am hoping they get some dishware for the restaurant because eating food out of to-go containers at the restaurant seems environmentally-unfriendly.  But then I saw they served the crepe today on an actual dish while everything else was still in take-out boxes. However, the diner didn’t realize you are supposed to wrap up the crepe with the provided greens. I saw she cut up the “salad” while muttering they should have done that for her. Ah! You are supposed to eat the crepe wrapped in the provided lettuce and stuff it with the herbs. Then dip into the sauce. She treated the sauce like salad dressing which in all honesty probably could have worked too.

On this day, I had the roasted chicken. Wraps & Rolls also needs to get some knives. They’ll give you a real knife if you ask but if you’re taking-out, I don’t know what to tell you. I ended up having to tear this chicken apart with my bare hands. Well, that is eco-friendly. The chicken was very tender and I liked the rice. I can’t figure out the salad dressing. There’s an herb I can’t identify but when asked, they said the dressing is just soy, honey and a “real onion.” Hm. Perhaps it’s in the honey.

For the uninitiated, all this extra lettuce is confusing. Like the crepe, you’re supposed to wrap your egg rolls with the lettuce. It makes eating a bit messy but fun!

For a restaurant called Wraps & Rolls, there are only 2 actual wraps on the menu- the chicken lettuce wraps and the combination lettuce wraps. I have not tried either. However, we have delved rather heavily to the rolls menu. Pictured above are the pork spring rolls (didn’t try– but love the look of the chives), summer rolls (like a breakfast roll with egg and pork sausage) and BBQ pork spring rolls.

 

Today for lunch, I tried the shaken beef. At $12.50, this is the most expensive item on the menu. I am going to miss that 40% off when the special goes away. Although the scoop of beef doesn’t look like much, it’s actually quite a lot of food.

I got the scoop for the new sign on the corner advertising Dos Chinos (Latin and Asian grub). It is owned by one of the 10 owners of the Belasco and may share the kitchen with Wraps & Rolls. I hope they open soon. Things are a’changing on this little corner of 11th & Hill.

 

Wraps & Rolls

151 W. 11th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015 – 213-746-5610