Plugs — Steff Barros Valencia

L.A. food, drink, and leisure recs from Lasita's proprietress + LINKS

Plugs is The Angel’s recs column. Every week, you’ll get six picks—a restaurant, a bar, a shop, an ingredient, a person, and a treat—from someone in Los Angeles who knows what they’re talking about, plus a selection of Angel-curated links. (Plugs are for paid subscribers of The Angel only; upgrade your subscription to receive all six!)

To highlight the community that’s doing so much right now, I’m devoting an entire month of Plugs to restaurant industry players. Support restaurants! <3

#68 is Steff Barros Valencia, the life of the room at Lasita, where she’s a co-owner alongside her husband, Chase Valencia, and the chef Nico de Leon. Steff also serves as the CFO of the Chinatown Filipino rotisserie and is a James Beard Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL) fellow. When I first moved to L.A., Lasita was pretty new, having recently transformed from the fine dining LASA to serve crispy pork belly lechon and addictive pancit in a warm glowy space with flowing wine. I loved it then, and I love it now. After I got to know Steff and Chase, it made sense: they are thoughtful operators and fun-loving people with excellent taste. Here’s Steff with her L.A. Plugs.

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Restaurant — Budonoki

Ahhhh! Budonoki is such a fun place! I feel like I’m stumbling into a neon-lit izakaya on a side mission in the video game, Cyberpunk, where I get distracted eating too much perfectly charcoal-grilled wagyu and yummy crispy pork jowl while I’m supposed to be saving the world. (Can I put that baby penguin cocktail mug in my inventory?) Every time I’ve been here, I forget about everything else outside their doors in Virgil Village. Maybe it’s all the umami and beautifully bold flavors of Chef Dan’s cooking, all the sake I end up drinking, the random friend I find there at the same time, or all the fun conversations I’ve had with the staff about karaoke and Japan. I looooove this place.