Skew’s

I tried Skew’s a few times when it first opened and I was not a big fan. By the time they closed, their clientele had dwindled significantly. I am very happy to see, though, that there is a sign in this location that now reads «Saffron — Coming Soon.» I assume this will be another outpost of the same establishment that is located beneath the City National Bank plaza (i.e., in the basement of the former ARCO tower). I’ve only eaten there a few times — it’s kind of a schlep from Bunker Hill — but the food is tasty, reasonably priced, and fast. I am delighted that Indian food will be coming to Bunker Hill, and happier still that it will be Saffron.

I think this place has good food for the price you pay. Much cheaper than the other places nearby. I usually get the Baja bowl. The service is fast and friendly and the bowls are humungous and very filling. I usually save half and eat the rest for lunch the next day.

I have eaten at Skew’s downtown for many years and have never once had a bad experience. We typically order the West Coast Tacos and they are consistently delicious each time. Others from my office have had a variety of their menu options including the skewers with rice and salad and I have never heard anyone say anything negative about their food. The staff here has always been very efficient with our orders and we often times call in our order to avoid waiting in the long line and our food is waiting for us. Furthermore, their prices are very reasonable for lunch downtown. Keep up the the good work Skew’s!

Even though it was quite busy the service was relatively quick. The pricing is in line with most downtown lunch spots.
I ordered the steak skewers with cold Thai noodles and Asian slaw for my sides. Both sides were very tasty. I really enjoyed the noodles. They had great flavor. The steak skewers were the weakest part of the meal. The flavor was OK, but the meat was chewy.
There is only outdoor seating. Most of it is covered though.

Usually when I’m at California Plaza, I’ll eat at Mendocino Farms, but I saw Skew’s the other day and decided to give it a try… I wish I hadn’t. I got a noodle bowl ($ 7 – 8), and it was not good. The noodles were dry and the chicken was diced into all different sizes. It tasted like something you would get in an airport food court. It was definitely a disappointment. There were other people in line ordering burritos and other menu items, so maybe I was just ordering the wrong thing? I wouldn’t go back, since there are plenty of great options right in the same area.

I ordered one of their baja bowl. To be honest, for the price I paid… this was mediocre tasting. Even with the supposed salsa that was part of the dish… it was bland salsa, clearly for color and not for taste. t
The chicken that came in this bowl was dried and make it a tad difficult to eat.
Yea…pass on this spot. You can probably tell by the place not having much of a line during the hard hitting lunch crowd time.

I probably order the most bland item on the menu – Chicken Breast with Brown Rice and Salad. That being said, I still love it. The menu has many more exciting items, with many being a fusion of mexican and asian cuisine.
Service is meh, but I don’t expect that much.

This was one of my favorite lunch places back when I worked at a corporate law firm in Downtown LA. So keep in mind this review is based on the quality and flavor of their food back in 2006. It’s been so long that I don’t quite remember what I had but I think it was a brown rice bowl with chicken or shrimp skewers. My co-​workers and I really enjoyed this place so much that we frequented at least twice a week.

Should have ordered the skewers.
Definitely, do not order the yakisoba! Yuck!

Years ago, when Skews opened, I went a few times a week and the food was extremely good, fresh and tastey. Since then, Skews has been sold at least once, and i believe several times. The quality of the food has diminished greatly. Contrary to another reviewer, I love the flavor of the Baja Beef. The problem is that cut of meat is extremely fatty and a good portion of what is served is grizzle. I asked whether the meet was fatty when I ate at Skews today and was promised that it was not. The person who took my order was wrong. The meat was so fatty, i left about ¹⁄₃ of my serving behind.
The cesear salad and cold noodles are both quite good, as are some of the other sides. However, if I can’t get meat that isn’t heavily laced with fat, it’s not worth eating here anymore.

We felt like grilled skewered meat, so ate here yesterday, but found the flavors skewed in the direction of too sweet or too salty, they got a few orders wrong, and to top it off, my gut is unhappy today.
Whoever runs this place doesn’t seem to be taking the business seriously, not caring enough to make the flavors decent or get the orders right.
I got the Baja Beef, and it was too salty to eat. It was actually a slop of minced beef in a sauce (yesterday’s leftovers chopped up?), so I tilted the plate and drained off most of the sauce in order to have less salty flavor. I had chinese salad and asian slaw on the side, slaw had no particular favor to merit eating, but the chinese salad was a good relief from the still-​salty beef.
My friend got shrimp skewer and teriyaki skewer, but the flavors were dominated by sweet rather than other ingredients which should be there to enhance the food (he likes a super-​sweet bbq sauce, so if he thinks it is too sweet, it is). The shrimp was cooked just right, but the beef was a bit too hard and dry.
While there, they forgot components of our order, and there were other customers who had to return at the same time for items forgotten out of their orders. Also some of the food (take-​out) was put into outlandishly large containers. Watching the kitchen, they seemed very relaxed and seemed unaware of the number of people waiting for their orders.
I was going to give it two stars, because the sides were decent, and the food was there, and the person who took the orders was very nice. Unfortunately, today I was awoken by an unhappy gut that makes me realize that the lunch was worse than I had realized.

Very dissatisfied. I specifically told them I couldn’t eat gluten, and they said they would give me the appropriate dressing for my salad. Of course they got the order wrong, and gave me exactly the opposite. The rest of my order, which I could eat, was very average at best. Will not be returning.
Just stick with Mendo.

They got some unique offerings here. Eager to try out the various eateries on this side of downtown L.A., I ordered the Maui Chicken skewer with a side of garlic mashed potatoes and Caesar salad. I was worried that one meat skewer wouldn’t be enough to keep me from ordering another meal for lunch, but the sides help! The skewer was really flavorful and the chicken was tender. They have a station of various sauces in case you like to smother your skewer with some more sauce. The garlic mashed potatoes were pretty good and go well if you mix it with bits of the skewer. The Caesar salad, I could probably do without since it was a bit on the more lighter side of taste, but it made for a nice snack later. It’s a little pricy at $ 6.95, but the food fare around here tends to run around the same range.

This place probably has the worst location having to compete directly with Mendocino Farms. Unfortunately, I can’t help the underdog here… Mendos is too good. But, I do eat here occasionally because a friend of mine introduced me to ordering a la carte. Portion is tiny but when you aren’t very hungry, it makes a decent lunch.
I get the chicken breast a la carte with brown rice. Then, I jam pack it with the free pico de gallo and sriracha sauce. Less than $ 4 with tax! Not bad I say. Pretty healthy too. Only problem is they’ve been getting VERY stingy with the brown rice… why? I don’t know. It’s just rice. I thought I was cheap for not ordering a «real entrée» but I guess they one-​upped me.

I hardly (if ever) give a place one star. But unfortunately this place didn’t even make it on my list of places to give it another try. Considering that this place hasn’t had a review since 09 is one thing. My guess is most people didn’t like it enough to remember to review and/​or didn’t think it was worth reviewing. Either way, I recommend you stay away. Sorry Skew’s.
I ordered the beef bulgogi bowl thinking it’s an Asian sounding place and promoting it’s «beyond teriyaki», Asian should be a safe choice? Yet they have burritos, BBQ chicken, and mash? Whatt? Identity crisis. Anyways my beef bowl came with rice and veggies. The veggies were nothing special, steamed with teriyaki drizzled on top. Beef was… odd. I know bulgogi and had it numerous times, but the texture was just weird. It looked like it was the left over beef from someone else chopped more, with ever more chopped up onion. There was also this weird residue, but I couldn’t pin point what it was. A tenderizer possibly that may have made it floury or whatever. Point is… I didn’t like it. And then the rice. Way too wet and over cooked. Hardly touched it.
I think I learned my lesson. Go were the people go. The sandwich place across the way looks like it’s always poppin.’

Today I didn’t have to experience the usual long wait because the admin ordered in lunch. I got the Long Boarder Burrito: Combo of the West Coast and Original with Chipotle sauce.
West Coast burrito is made with California chicken, guacamole, pico de gallo, lettuce, cheese and the Original is made with California chicken, brown rice, black beans, cheese, red sauce, salsa, non-​fat sour cream.
The Long Boarder is really two burrito wrapped in one, so imagine a little separation in your burrito for the two.
It’s a huge burrito but not the best I’ve tasted, and at $ 6.75, i won’t bad-​mouth the place too much

Food is okay
Decent selection
Plenty of outdoor seating
They messed up my order… but made up for it

OOkeee, so I stand corrected ! I am definitely revising my review of this place.
I went to eat here today and O.M.G., yuck is right! Apparently I had amnesia or had fired up the crack pipe before I went last time. Ya the skewer I had was fine and the potstickers were good, but the potatoes were GROSS and flavorless and the cold noodle salad? Mushy ! Yuck I threw most of this out. For $ 8? No thanks, I’ll hit Mendo next time.
I was starving too :(
I went to Mc Donald’s for a vanilla cone to turn this douche of a lunch around, if that tells you anything. Now that’s desperation ! lol
What have we learned from this? Listen to your fellow Unilocalers!

Skews makes me want to puke.
Especially when you have Mendocino Farms right across the way, there’s no reason for you to go to Skews.
I ordered the BBQ bowl with steak, which claims to be «bbq chicken/​steak, mashed potatoes, and black beans topped with com salsa and blue chips». Well, I got the bowl and it was essentially a pool of bbq sauce with some finely chopped beef (I think it was beef?) over powdered mashed potatoes. The bbq was so overwhelming that I couldn’t eat anything touching it (which was basically everything).
Eww eww eww…
Go to Mendocino.

This place should be calls Ews because it is just gross. Or maybe Shit on a Stick.
I went to Mendocino Farms but they were uncharacteristically out of bread. Next door is this place called Skews. I’ve noticed a line here at lunch time, but never really felt the urge to try their wild mix of non-​descript ethnic-​esque food.
I’m sure their gross menu is online, so see the weirdness for yourself.
I ordered the fish burrito (not eating meat these days). It contained rubbery off-​white fish, flavorless and mushy white rice, and some sort of slaw. It would have been nice if it was served with a wedge of lemon to add a little flavor or to disguise the grossness (its the glass half-​full or half-​empty question). Fortunately, there was a decent salsa with which to drown my burrito in.
Service was friendly. Gotta give them credit for that because most service in LA is shitty, owing to the fact that these restaurant are staffed by loser actors who take no pride in the job that actually pays their bills.