Delicious Deals: More budget-friendly restaurants

Himalayan Cafe in Old Pasadena climbs to new heights with Nepalese cuisine.

Jun Y. Cha, an alum of Katana and other sushi havens, lets his imagination run wild at this only-in-L.A. fusion restaurant. The result is fantastic sashimi, modern Japanese cuisine and Asian American-inspired fast food.

The earthy, fragrant specialties of their native Afghanistan take center stage at the Shinwaris’ Gardena restaurant. The sign says ‘express,’ but stay awhile — this is food to linger over.

At the Taste of Chong Qing in San Gabriel, Sichuan fish, meat and vegetable dishes can be spicy and delicate, sometimes at the same time.

David Padilla and Maria Ramos bring decades of expertise to their barbacoa and moles.

Fresh produce, fish and expert seasoning by owner Jung Ye Jun make this eatery worth seeking out.

A new wave of Los Angeles-area cafes is brewing up more sophisticated flavors with a mix of methods. The result? A jolt to a coffee culture steeped in ho-hum tastes.

Breakfast gets a tasty Taiwanese spin in a diner-like setting.

Guillermo and Susana Giacobbe’s cross-cultural cuisine is satisfying for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and no visit is complete without a visit to their dessert case.

Mario Alberto and Jason Michaud’s walk-up in the Grand Central Market’s courtyard smartly feeds L.A.’s Peruvian appetite.

A 2-month-old cafe excels at safeeha, thin Syrian-style flatbreads loaded with savory toppings

Owner Kibum Sung specializes in stuffed pretzels, while Tommy Kim handles the coffee.

It’s southern Indian, so mainly vegetarian, but there’s some meat with the heat too.

The flavors of New Delhi come alive in a small restaurant tucked away in an ethnic grocery store in Buena Park, where the owner-chef prides himself on from-scratch recipes and freshly prepared dishes.

You will never look at a falafel the same way again after dining at this nondescript Israeli spot in West Los Angeles.

At the chef’s eponymous restaurant in Westminster, Chinese influence colors the lightness and clarity of Vietnamese food.

Bez Compani has studied the art of pizza-making in Naples, and it shows at his new restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard, where the Neapolitan-style pizzas will amaze and satisfy.

The L.A. satellite of a Seoul restaurant specializes in jokbal, or braised pork foot.

With dishes such as arroz con pollo and mofongo, this tiny takeout place offers the soulful specialties of the Caribbean. Order and enjoy at home — it’s takeout only.

This West L.A. restaurant is drawing attention for its spit-roasted meats, deftly prepared the Israeli way. The secret? A saucy marinade.

A wave of restaurants, including some in central L.A. and in the San Fernando Valley, is offering delicious regional dishes.

Jasmine Mediterranean continues a century-old family business of delicious Syrian dishes made lovingly from family recipes. The Anaheim location is a bit isolated, but the atmosphere inside is warm and bright.

Authentic Belizean tamales highlight the menu at the cafe, which has opened after a long revamping. A small, polished restaurant rises.

It takes a tenacious investigation to find the hidden Thai delights at this surprising place.

The Tustin eatery specializes in Okinawan cuisine, in which pork is king.

Chef Greg Daniels and his partners bring tastes of the world to tacos at Taco Asylum in Orange County.

The Find: Homey stews and braises are made into tacos or tamales at this new location from Ricardo Diaz of Cook’s Tortas.

Ever crave liquid pork? Try the exceptional tonkotsu (a broth in which pig bones have simmered). There’s tsukemen too.

The San Gabriel restaurant’s Hainan chicken and its curry are noteworthy, and a rice noodle dish may reel in the most repeat customers of all.

The new Afghan restaurant is in a modest-sized space but has big aspirations with its broad range of dishes. And its chutney is addictive.

At the heart of every meal is warm sangak, a sesame-encrusted flatbread fresh out of the restaurant’s huge oven.

Order savory meat-and-rice dishes off the secret Kalimantan menu and be transported to Indonesia.

The Orange County restaurants make manakeesh — herb- and meat-topped flatbreads — and other eastern Mediterranean dishes accessible to the masses.

A food item often hawked by theme park vendors is elevated to a new level at this small Westside cafe. Its organic-leaning menu is worth sampling too.

Beijing Pie House serves a dozen meat- and vegetable-filled pies, called xian bing, as well as savory pancakes, noodle soups and other northern Chinese specialties.

Cafecito Organico founder Angel Orozco and his eager baristas use organic, single-origin beans and exacting brewing methods.

Antojitos Latinos’ owner has added a full-scale restaurant down the street in Van Nuys, where fans can savor sancochos and other Colombian comfort foods.

Bruxie sets up shop in Old Towne Orange with Brussels-style Belgian waffle sandwiches for those with a savory or sweet tooth.

Koreatown eatery specializes in the rustic, spice-laden soupy stew based on slowly cooked pork spine bones.

The Pico-Robertson eatery serves a wide variety of kosher hot dogs and cured meats. Highlights include a spicy boerewors sausage and an old-fashioned pastrami sandwich special.

The Peruvian restaurant livens up an old KFC space in Long Beach. And yes, you can get lomo saltado, parihuela and seco deo cordero from the drive-through.

The Westminster restaurant’s chefs bring together two distinct Southeast Asian cuisines: Thai and Laotian.

The restaurant’s Uighur cuisine is a mesh of Chinese elements and Central Asian nomad cooking. Mutton kebabs and a Xinjiang meatloaf sandwich are among the highlights.

Workers at the West Hollywood ice cream store blend, freeze, chop and pound out each order while you watch.

The 4-month-old restaurant’s spring rolls compare favorably to Brodard’s. The difference is in the details, including the dipping sauce that takes six hours to prepare.

The main restaurant sets itself apart with the seasonings in its traditional Pakistani dishes. The nearby fast-food offshoot is a halal gastropub for the younger crowd.

The Woodland Hills outpost reflects the owner’s love of regional delicacies and her uncommon skill with vegetables.

San Gabriel’s organic eatery has steadily gained fans with its meticulously prepared Vietnamese-Chinese favorites as well as other specialties.

The newest soondae restaurants in L.A.’s Koreatown add Korean blood sausage to stews, soups, appetizer platters.

Chef Rocio Camacho, who made her mark at Moles La Tia, is focusing on pre-Columbian cuisine.

The Gardena eatery uses the most modest of ingredients to make its savory noodle soups.

Classic Javanese cooking is the specialty at this Indonesian restaurant in West Covina.

The tiny Inglewood restaurant may serve the L.A. area’s best goat dishes. The jerk chicken, oxtails and red snapper are also perfectly seasoned and cooked.

Northern and southern Thai dishes provide a burst of flavor in this Northridge restaurant.

Breakfast is especially good at the French-Vietnamese restaurant named for the host of a Vietnamese cooking show on the Saigon Broadcasting Television Network.

At El Bolivar in Chatsworth, family recipes and meticulous preparation result in refined, subtle Colombian dishes.

The Taiwanese chain finds a following with its sweet and savory Asian pastries and breads, and high-end coffee.

Chef-owner Tony Hyde adds his own inventive twists to Caribbean-style cooking.

Abu Ahmad’s 5-year-old restaurant explores the underserved regional recipes of Palestine, Jordan, Syria and elsewhere.

Dumplings, ge da noodles: Here, it’s all about the dough.

A cuisine with a long history bursts with bold, well-calibrated flavors.

Antonio Pellini’s restaurant in Gardena is not just about pizza and pasta but about performance.

Shera Allen takes from-scratch Malaysian home cooking to a refined new level in West Hollywood.

The specialty of NoHo eatery is mofongo, a mash of fried plantains, garlic and pork or chicken cracklings.

A queue of naked noodles waits to be dressed with delicate daikon sprouts, quivering poached eggs and oil-slicked strips of blackened bell pepper.

From the kitchen of this Bellflower restaurant comes home cooking, Dominican style: mangu, sancocho and chivo guisado.

This homey diner set amid San Pedro’s bustling downtown district brings an Australian flair to simple fare.

Soups, handmade noodles and Mom’s daikon recipe make Mapo restaurant a standout.

The North Hills restaurant turns out flawless dishes in an old hacienda setting.

Brazilian cuisine that’s focused on seafood rather than beef comes to Channel Islands Harbor.

The Lake Forest eatery, now with a second location in Irvine, expertly prepares Persian classics.

When you inhale the aroma of a rich, spicy crawfish étouffée at Bayou Grille on South La Brea, you’re following the scent of Louisiana’s Creole culinary past.

Subtle textures are the rule here. It’s no wonder Vietnamese locals keep going back, even with an hour-long lunch wait.

Yu Garden brings a lighter, but still authentic, style to a complex cuisine. And vegetarians can rejoice.

The Slaw Dogs is re-imagining the humble hot dog with offerings such as a chicken Caesar salad dog, a Thai slaw dog and a Oaxacan dog.

Don’t let the name fool you: This is Filipino food the way mom makes it. You like pork dishes? Welcome to hog heaven.

Liuzhou meets Harbin in a happy marriage of regional Chinese flavors.

You’re almost one of the family at this Lebanese restaurant serving scratch meals.

This restaurant’s tart-sweet mam nem sauce distinguishes its Saigon-style dinner.

Delicate handling of pani puri leads to some tasty rewards at Samosa House East in Culver City.

The emphasis is on Hong Kong-style comfort food and classic favorites, but this darkly handsome eatery also has dishes to some challenge San Gabriel Valley outposts.

The bake shop inside Kusina restaurant in Los Angeles represents a cream-filled tradition and a multi-generational history.

Las Delicias, a spot for local Ticos, brings the country’s traditional cuisine to the Southland.

Executive chef Hiro Miura brings Japan’s kushiage method (think delicate flavors rolled in panko crumbs) to Torrance.

The all-vegetarian restaurant focuses on the flavors of Mumbai, India’s largest city.

The owner of the now-closed Michelia is back with a simple yet excellent pho menu and entrees and salads with a fresh and contemporary snap that speak to the chef’s days in Vietnam.

The restaurant (there’s another location in Inglewood) puts a welcoming, homemade spin on Nigeria’s regional cuisine.

The restaurant serves up an intoxicating dose of Korean funk, soul and stew.

The multi-course seafood dinners are grilled at the guests’ tables.

The Little Saigon restaurant serves family classics in a small but modern space.

In Inglewood, Mutiara’s Islamic Burmese menu offers a deeply flavored mélange.

Chef Jonathan Darakjian, whose mother’s family owns renowned Al Mayass in Beirut, offers lightened-up versions of traditional dishes.

The Thai noodle shop offers a mix of traditional and trendy dishes, plus a surprisingly delicious lineup of desserts.

Amalia Zuleta’s elegant refinements turn the rustic dishes of Guatemala into an urbane cuisine that’s a magnet for her longtime devotees.

The Los Angeles eatery’s cheese steak is in gooey fine form, and its other no-frills sandwiches will melt in your mouth.

The menu at Rio Brazil Café seems a relic of restaurant protocol, a vestigial document that exists only to fulfill standard expectations.

Pastries, cakes and rolls? Not at this Burbank bakery. Instead, it’s all about the khachapuri, burek and other Lebanese-style seasoned and stuffed breads.

The Islamic Indian restaurant offers up intensely flavored goat curries, vindaloo seekh kebab and more.

The restaurant opens a new, more spacious eatery on Beach Boulevard with all of the flavor of good Vietnamese cooking but none of meat.

Afghanistan is mired in poverty. But its cuisine is rich and complex.

The menu includes rich noodle soups, crispy, juice-filled beef pancakes and more Beijing specialties.

Hold the butter and syrup, please. Here, it’s all about baozi, scallion cakes and other griddle-baked specialties of northern China.

Innovative Japanese chef Shigetoshi Nakamura takes a fresh approach to noodle soup in Torrance.

The rustic Valley Village cafe serves up an array of multinational ethnic specialties in a relaxed, convivial setting.

At Long Beach ‘shack,’ the Southern-fried seafood is finger-licking good.

Familiar Mexican dishes happily coexist with the hearty cuisine of Bolivia at the Tustin restaurant.

No ticket needed. Just take a seat as three chefs from around the Caribbean prepare distinct dishes.

Local restaurants, each with its own style and flavors, are tucked away across L.A. Two newcomers stand out.

The menu changes daily at homey, tucked-away Priyani, but the food is uniformly exciting.

Java Spice’s owners were born on different islands with distinct appetites for spice, so the burn level at the Rowland Heights cafe is a compromise. The signature dish features chicken, beef and more.

Follow the aromas -- and the crowds -- to two shipudiot, or skewer houses, along Ventura. The lure? Kebabs, a dazzling assortment of Israeli salads and dips and oven-fresh flatbread.

The Orange County restaurant serves fare similar to India and Indonesia yet wholly its own.

The two San Gabriel Valley restaurants are leading a neighborhood renaissance of fresh, house-made noodles.

At Xiang Wei Lou and other San Gabriel Valley Hunan restaurants, the emphasis is on hot pots, smoked foods and other rural specialties of the Chinese province.

The Salvadoran restaurant in east Hollywood dishes up the sweet tastes of home -- chilates, sopa de res and heavenly plantain empanadas.

At the Monterey Park restaurant, chef Joseph Li layers on the comfort with his spin on the peasant cooking of Hong Kong’s New Territories. Among the specialties: a classic poon choi feast.

The tiny Van Nuys restaurant’s cemitas are a wonder to behold. In true Dagwood fashion, the sandwiches are piled high with a delectable assortment of fillings.

The Moroccan spot offers traditional, delicious dishes and a warm atmosphere.

The modern flavor combinations found in chef Rocio Camacho’s 15-plus moles are inspired by a taste of old Oaxaca.

The city sophisticate near Little Saigon ventures beyond the realm of the traditional with its intriguing spin on Vietnamese cooking.

Restaurant offers a rare glimpse at southern regional Japanese cooking.

The Santa Ana eatery serves up cochinita pibil, a Yucatecan dish, and other commendable fare.

With its well-executed northern Indian dishes, Copper Chimney is a standout in the San Fernando Valley.

The Beachcomber is small but big-hearted, with friendly service, amazing views and food like Mama would’ve made if she’d cooked for a movie star.

Chef Juana Paz cooks up pristine seafood dishes and other powerfully flavored Peruvian favorites.

The Orange County restaurant takes you on a Puerto Rico trip with thoroughly satisfying comfort food.

The ‘Thai-inspired’ restaurant’s comfortable space makes it a treat to settle in and enjoy twists on favorite dishes.

A new Cambodian restaurant combines traditional cooking with improvisation.

Chef-owner Kash Brouillet brings quality ingredients and personal finesse to his diner-style menu.

Plenty of L.A. cafe owners have realized that ethnic food can have enhanced crossover appeal if healthful characteristics of the cuisine are emphasized.

At the Palms restaurant, dishes are prepared with a light touch and the tantalizing flavors of a higher ground.

The new branch of a favorite Ecuadorean-Italian spot is a handsome home for stylish cooking.

Is this Reseda or Istanbul? With all the beautifully conceived Turkish delicacies, it’s hard to tell.

The Ventura restaurant has a sense of occasion to match its smart and appealing menu. Who needs meat anyway?

A go-to spot grows in Playa del Rey. It’s a little-by-little transformation in a ‘landmark’ location.

Varied menus and festive settings combine the contemporary and the traditional at two Southland spots.

The Culver City restaurant’s spice-rubbed meats stand out. And don’t miss the tri-tip chili.

The popular dumpling house in Arcadia branches out.

What’s hot in L.A.’s fashion district? Moroccan matboukha and harissa-spiked Tunisian sandwiches.

Pavich’s makes pies of many flavors but only one size: huge. Eating light? Maybe have a calzone.

A treat for fans of slow-smoked barbecue and well-made sides.

Authentic smoked sausages, stews and other meaty European comfort food find a home in North Hollywood.

Mariscos Chente brings the flavors of two coastal Mexican states to the table along with the shrimp.

Meat skewers dominate at this small Chinese-Korean eatery where you can grill it yourself (and still order dishes prepared in the kitchen).

The lively Northridge restaurant pays homage to Argentina with a freewheeling menu and grill-your-own feasts.

With 375 tequilas and dishes from a variety of regions, this cocina is a Valley contender.

It’s on the proletariat side of fancy, and its charms are many.

This comfy Highland Park newcomer finesses those dishes that taste so good with a cold draft beer.

As in Afghanistan, cultures intersect on this Northridge spot’s menu. It’s a spread fit for a family.

On Ventura Boulevard’s raucous sushi row, the elegant pub-style cafe is a welcome change in Studio City.