Junior's (Los Angeles, CA)

Rating:

Thanksgiving. Day of cranberry salsa and closed restaurants. We had the bright idea to get In and Out for lunch today. Fortunately we remembered to call on our way to see if they were open. No dice. So we drove around briefly near Helene’s place and found that Junior’s Deli is open on Thanksgiving until 5PM.

I first went to Junior’s on New Year’s Day after a nasty bout with the stomach flu (it was the first solid food I had in 3 days). So while any memories there are suspect, I had a positive recollection of the food. When you first walk into Junior’s you are greeted by a large display case of pastries, including a few kinds of tasty rugelach. Further inside is a fairly standard diner setup, with a NY deli-inspired menu.

Given the large Thanksgiving dinner awaiting us tonight, Shawn, Lauren and I shared a tuna melt and some cheese blintzes.

The tuna melt was grilled on fresh Jewish rye bread, stuffed with freshly mixed albacore tuna salad and the obligatory melted chedder. All in all a very solid tuna melt. We ordered “mini potato pancakes” in place of fries. I was expecting smaller versions of the classic latkes; flat and shredded potato based. Instead we were treated to an entirely new dish — asteroid-shaped potato puffs that were briefly deep fried. Crispy on the outside and a little mushy on the inside they were closer to hush puppies than potato pancakes, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Since we’d likely have our fill of turkey this evening, we opted for a set of cheese blintzes instead of a turkey sandwich. Original plan was to order a mix of cheese and blueberry blintzes, but they were out of blueberry. So we got a trio of cheese blintzes. They were fairly large, stuffed with a sweet ricotta filling, and seared on the outside shell. The blintz sheet was soft (outside of the crispy top searings), and the filling was sweet while remaining on the savory side of the palette.  Personally I would have blintz overload after one of them, so it was fortunate that we were sharing 🙂

 

Overall Junior’s provided a relaxed, tasty lunch and I’ll be happy to return for more deli and ruggies next time we’re in Westwood.

Junior’s
2379 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 475-5771

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