Oh no.

It was bound to happen. I have discovered a problem with Los Angeles. I know you're thinking, traffic, right? No. Complaining that there is traffic in Los Angeles is like complaining that there are a lot of people in New York. Here are the two problems I have with LA:

1. Everyone closes too darn early.
Shops: 7ish
Restaurants: 10ish
Bars: 2

What is up with this?

2. It is hard to find tasty mid-priced food. I went to a simply delicious dinner last night at Shima, a brown rice sushi resturant inside a loft in Venice. I had lobster ceviche and an incredible baby red snapper carpaccio with truffle oil (seriously probably one of the best things I've ever eaten) and some sushi (not as impressed with the sushi as I was with the entrees), but the bill before tip for two? $135. Gulp. And we were still hungry (fyi - it wasn't a liquid dinner - we only had one $12 bottle of sake). Thank goodness Pinkberry solved that problem. But really, in New York I used to go to the following yummy restaurants on a regular basis:

Sea (website)
Kate's (menu)
Typhoon (they've since changed their menu so who knows)
Yaffa (website)
Dumpling Man (website)

And I hardly ever spent more than $20.

I am having a seriously difficult time finding such places in Los Angeles. It seems that most tasty food here is wicked expensive. So far, I've found La Cabana and Baby Blues BBQ, but that's about it.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?