It’s been a hard year for all restaurants, everywhere, though Los Angeles’s Filipino food scene has taken two particularly brutal blows as a result of the ongoing pandemic. First was the loss of Ma’am Sir, the nationally-acclaimed Pinoy spot on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, which ended its multi-year run back in August 2020. Now LA is mourning the end of another staple in the genre: Lasa, the star almost four-year-old dinner spot at Chinatown’s Far East Plaza. The restaurant, known for its elevated fare served in a moody, mellow evening atmosphere, had for years been among the city’s best places not just for Filipino food, but for a meal period. Now the shop has turned into Lasita, a massively more casual takeout home for rotisserie chicken and natural wine.