Langer's Deli

Operating out of the same storefront since 1947, this James Beard Award-winning Jewish deli is a veritable L.A. lunchtime institution thanks to Langer family recipes that’ve been passed down for generations. The hot, hand-cut pastrami—preferably in the form of the #19, which adds Swiss, coleslaw and Russian-style dressing—is the obvious choice here, but you can also snag time-tested deli classics like cheese blintzes, meatloaf and grilled liver and onions. Even as the neighborhood around it has changed, Langer’s lives on, with a well-preserved space that’s a bit of a time warp and an oasis of relative calm in the oft-chaotic neighborhood of MacArthur Park.