Los Angeles foodie Phil Rosenthal had a nice meal with The Hollywood Reporter and gives us his best food recs in town! Plus, he reveals the movie that always makes him hungry, what his last meal would be and more.
00:00You know what I heard was the number one complaint of diners?
00:04Do you want to guess, anybody?
00:06Waiting for the check is the thing that people get most upset about.
00:12Because you're finished, your evening is done, you want to move on, and now you're a prisoner.
00:17Let me out!
00:22Hi, this is Phil Rosenthal.
00:24I'm here with The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm giving you some of my food recs.
00:30What's the best Italian restaurant in the city?
00:36Mozza is the best Italian restaurant in the city.
00:38Republic might be the best all-around restaurant in the city.
00:42It's kind of French Californian.
00:43Budunoki is a wonderful Japanese-Californian small-plates restaurant.
00:50Giusta is an incredible Californian cuisine, and pastries and everything there is great.
00:56Sonoratown, some of the best Mexican food anywhere, including the best tortillas you can find, especially flour tortillas, which they come over the border with like twice a week.
01:09A movie that always makes me hungry is Ratatouille, certainly the best food moment in movie history.
01:17When the critic, at the end of the film, the whole thing is riding on this critic, taking a bite of the Ratatouille, he zooms back to childhood.
01:25And that's what you want in a dish to transport you.
01:30That's what you want in a great restaurant, to transport you to a better, happier place.
01:36I like a hot sauce.
01:38I put it on many things.
01:40I just love it.
01:41If I'm being honest, I drink water with most meals, but I love a chocolate egg cream.
01:49My parents had a chocolate egg cream before bed every night of their marriage.
01:54Every night, chocolate egg cream before bed.
01:56It was a ritual.
01:57I like tequila as maybe my favorite spirit.
02:00Ginger ale.
02:01Ooh, root beer.
02:02I've always liked.
02:03I think over-complaining is a faux pas because if you over-complain, it's not to say, you know, this is cold and we need to send it back or, you know, but if you're just fetching about every little thing, you're no fun to be with.
02:19You ruin everybody else's time, too.
02:22So maybe keep it to yourself until after.
02:25I always get asked, like, what would my last meal be?
02:29And, you know, it's kind of this.
02:34It's kind of diner food.
02:36It's hot dogs, hamburgers, tuna melts, fried chicken, roast chicken, the comfort food of childhood.
02:47The dining experience, I much prefer to have a comfortable place where I don't have to dress up, where the food is fantastic, right?
02:56There's no price on delicious.
02:57You can have the best BLT you ever had in your life, or you can have a four-hour French tasting menu.
03:05And at this point in my life, my back hurts just thinking about the tasting menu.
03:09So I would prefer, actually, to have the hot dog or the burger or the BLT.
03:16I want Max and Helen's to be the best diner you've ever been to, while remaining true to what it means to be a neighborhood diner.
03:27Food is the great connector.
03:29And then laughs are the cement.
03:31But it's always about connecting with people.
03:34That's what food does better than I find almost anything.
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