My parents, husband, and I are planning a trip to Nola over Thanksgiving. It's a first for me. I'm so excited! We have lot of great high-end restaurant recs, but we're also looking for some down-home local cuisine mom and pop spots. Any recs?

yes, yes, yes. one of the reasons we left the west side was to get away from the overpriced precious eatery scene. That being said, the food was darn good. But yes, give me your favs in the glendale/Burbank/Pasadena area - the less posh the better! Love the "replacement surgery" line. Nice.

excellent -- will give it a shot! Plus, I LOVE meat. From the midwest and all...

got it. Not a problem. One of the reasons we left the west side. No good small hole in the wall places. Or as you said cheap ethnic eats. I've tried Mambo's and was unimpressed. Will definitely check out Porto's next!

fantastic - just what I was looking for. Thank you!

this is so helpful! Thank you! Can't wait to try them all! They sound right up my alley.

any thoughts? Also, Thai? Chinese? Korean? Or any other cheap ethnic secret spots?

New to Burbank. Just moved here from Venice. Is there anything clean, sophisticated, hip, relatively inexpensive and casual like AXE, ROCKENWAGNER, HAL'S, WABI SABI, HIKO SUSHI, CITY BAKERY, and/or CLEMENTINE? I hope so! Urban Eats and Krust underwhelmed me. Hoping there's more!