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Order Secret Dishes Around L.A. With This Off-The-Menu App
The off-menu Jazz Burger at Jitlada (Photo by MyLastBite via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
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From secret s'mores to Thai-style burger, a new app helps you track down the city's best off-menu dishes.
Whether we're ordering from the not-so-secret In-N-Out menu or hacking our ramen, Angelenos love finding ways to order special dishes that aren't on the regular menu. Heck, we even seek out secret menus for our pups. And now there's a new app that lets you track down those elusive off-menu items.
Off The Menu—a new free app—unveils secret menu items from restaurants, bars and cafés in cities across the county, including dozens here in L.A. From high-end destinations to hole-in-the-wall favorites, this slickly-designed app lets you in on tons of delicious dishes hidden from the general public. The app is currently available only for iPhones, but an Android version is expected to come out soon. While some of the dishes will be familiar to foodies always on the lookout for exclusive bites—think Jitlada's Jazz Burger or Doomie's Vegan Big Mac—there's also plenty of lesser-known secrets to be discovered and new ones continually being added to the app.
There's plenty of local favorites featured on Off The Menu to help you earn plenty of food street cred around L.A. And there's even a section for fast food chains, should you get a late night craving and need a Taco Bell hack. At The Escondite downtown, you can order up a monstrously tasty Godzilla Destroys Skid-Rokeo burger, topped with an egg, cheese, gravy and Cholula, or chow on the Thai-inspired fried chicken sandwich from Night Market + Song that's a favorite among the staff and those in-the-know. You'll also find special espresso brews from places like Alfred's Coffee or an off-menu cocktail at spots like the recently revamped BarToni. The app offers nearly 50 locations at last check and some locations offer a few specials.
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The app is very easy to navigate with a simple drop down or scrolling menu to select your city and a left-to-right scrolling menu to browse the restaurants listed with secret menu items. As your scroll through the options, you'll find the name and photo of the location and then you can tap on each one to learn more details. Each listing includes a complete description of the special, the price, contact info and a link to a map. You can also bookmark your favorites to check out later, share a comment or send the info to a friend.
If you have travel plans in your future or want to share the app with friends in other cities, the app is currently available for 17 other cities, including Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans and even Ottawa.
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