With thousands of office workers to feed every day, downtown L.A has no shortage of restaurants.  But amid the scads of so-so places, there are some truly memorable lunches to be had.  There’s no need to be stuck going to Subway, unless you really want to be. (Although if you do, you’re in luck – there are no less than 10 in the downtown area).

Just a couple of blocks north of the convention center is the 84-year-old diner known as The Original Pantry Cafe, which claims to go through 750,000 eggs per year.  As you might expect from that kind of plaudit, this is a 24/7 restaurant that emphasizes volume, but the quality is actually pretty good too, whether you’re looking for a hearty stack of pancakes or a roast beef plate.  Just remember you have to pay in cash.  For another taste of classic L.A., head to the other side of downtown, where the charmingly spartan cafeteria known as Phillipe the Original serves up what purports to be the original French dipped sandwich (roast beef with the bread slathered in juice from the roasting pan), which you order at the counter and eat at long, family-style tables in a dining room covered with sawdust.  The roast beef makes for a good sandwich, but the turkey, pork, or lamb dips are also worth a try.  You can wash your lunch down with a .70 lemonade or some really cheap beer, but keep in mind that this place is cash only too.

Perhaps the finest sandwich to be had in Los Angeles requires you to travel west a stop on the subway to Langer’s Deli.  In a city where Jewish deli food often disappoints, the tender, spiced pastrami on rye at Langer’s invites comparisons with the best sandwiches you can find anywhere.  (The place even won a culinary award from the James Beard Foundation).  Langer’s doesn’t do delivery, but does offer “curbside” take-out if you have a car, and is right next to the subway station, if you don’t.  You could also head a block west to Mama’s Hot Tamales Cafe, a combination restaurant and community development project that makes wonderfully light and flavorful tamales, with sauces drawn from throughout Mexico and Central America.  (Vegetarians will be glad to hear that the herbivore options are made without lard).  And if you don’t have time to journey over and sit in the dining room, colorfully decorated with painted adobe and a huge mural of a Mesoamerican harvest scene, Mama’s will deliver downtown, for an additional fee of $10.

While Los Angeles has a shortage of good pizza – one of the reasons that car-accessible Mozza has been such a sensation – Pitfire Pizza is your best bet for delivery downtown, if you’re ordering more than $20 worth of food.  Just don’t wait until you’re too hungry to order – they need 45 minutes to get the food to you.  If you need something quick, you could try the well-stocked food bar at the new Ralph’s grocery store at 9th St. and Flower – they also make good rotisserie chicken.  You could also head over to the Figueroa and 8th St. location of Famima!!, the Japanese equivalent of a 7-Eleven – their steamed pork buns will hit the spot.
 
Original Pantry Cafe ($7-15), Ralph’s (rotisserie chicken $6-11), Famima!! (pork bun $1.50) -- 7th St. Metro Center, or a few blocks walk from Convention Center.

Phillipe the Original (Roast beef dipped sandwich, $5.35) – take the red line to Union Station, or the .25 DASH bus, Route B.

Langer’s Deli (hot pastrami sandwich, $11.95) and Mama’s Hot Tamales Cafe (2 tamales combo, $7.50 – Take purple or red line to Westlake/MacArthur Park. 

Pitfire Pizza (15” pizza $14-20) – Take red line to Civic Center, walk three blocks east to Main, one block south to 108 W. 2nd, or take .25 DASH bus, Route D.