Must-see restaurants in Los Angeles

  • Rose Café

    Venice, Marina Del Rey & Playa del Rey

    This sprawling Venice institution (established 1979) was recently given a major, very welcome makeover. If the new version is less funky (though you'll…

  • Gjusta

    Venice, Marina Del Rey & Playa del Rey

    The folks behind the standard-setting Gjelina have opened this very casual, very gourmet, very Venice bakery, cafe and deli behind a nondescript…

  • Catch LA

    West Hollywood & Mid-City

    An LA-scene extraordinaire. You may well find sidewalk paparazzi stalking celebrity guests and a doorman to check your reservation, but all that's…

  • Farmer weighing produce at outdoor market,Santa Monica,California,USA

    Santa Monica Farmers Markets

    Santa Monica

    You haven’t really experienced Santa Monica until you’ve explored one of its outdoor farmers markets stocked with organic fruits, vegetables, flowers,…

  • Eataly LA

    Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood & Westwood

    Opened in 2017, LA's branch of this multistory Italian megamarket and restaurant hall is so big that it offers maps at the entrance. Stall after stall…

  • Sora

    Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights

    Meaning 'sky' in Japanese, Sora is a rather fitting name for this conveyor-belt sushi spot 69 stories up. It's hard to decide what's more eye-catching:…

  • Hamasaku

    Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood & Westwood

    It doesn't get much more LA than this. Upscale and buzzy, Hamasaku combines two local obsessions, sushi and the entertainment industry (one-time super…

  • Otium

    Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights

    In a modernist pavilion beside the Broad is this fun, of-the-moment hot spot helmed by chef Timothy Hollingsworth. Prime ingredients conspire in…

  • Mercado La Paloma

    Los Angeles

    If you're near Expo Park or USC, it's totally worth the five-minute walk under the freeway to this fabulous food hall. About a dozen restaurant stalls…

  • Kang Ho-Dong Baekjong

    Westlake & Koreatown

    Looks can deceive: this informal, youth-filled spot serves some of LA's best Korean barbecue, proven by constant lines out the door. Grill-yourself meats…

  • Gracias Madre

    West Hollywood & Mid-City

    Gracias Madre shows just how tasty – and chichi – organic, plant-based Mexican cooking can be. Sit on the gracious patio or in the cozy interior and feel…

  • Connie & Ted's

    West Hollywood & Mid-City

    At this modernized version of a New England seafood shack by acclaimed chef Michael Cimarusti, there are always up to a dozen oyster varieties at the raw…

  • Standing Room

    South Bay Beaches

    New brick-and-mortar incarnation of the gourmet fave, Korean-fusion burger stand that started in Redondo Beach. It's a hipster-cool spot for the Cash…

  • Petit Trois

    Hollywood

    Good things come in small packages…like tiny, no-reservations Petit Trois! Owned by acclaimed TV chef Ludovic Lefebvre, its two long counters (the place…

  • Manuela

    Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights

    This it-kid inside the Hauser & Wirth arts complex boasts a woody warm, loftlike space and an oft-tweaked menu that beautifully fuses California meats,…

  • Daichan

    San Fernando Valley

    Tucked away in an unassuming mini-mall, and stuffed with knickknacks, pasted with posters and staffed by a sunny, sweet owner-operator, this offbeat, home…

  • Gjelina

    Venice, Marina Del Rey & Playa del Rey

    If one restaurant defines the new Venice, it's this. Carve out a spot on the communal table between the hipsters and yuppies, or get your own slab of wood…

  • Din Tai Fung

    Pasadena & the San Gabriel Valley

    It's a testament to the SGV's ethnic Chinese community that Taiwan's most esteemed dumpling house opened its first US outpost here. The menu of dumplings,…

  • Asanebo

    San Fernando Valley

    Although it's in a strip mall (welcome to the Valley), Asanebo is a Sushi Row standout thanks to dishes such as halibut sashimi with fresh truffle, and…

  • Union

    Pasadena & the San Gabriel Valley

    A cheerful, sophisticated energy animates James Beard–nominated chef Bruce Kalman's restaurant, offering California interpretations of northern Italian…

  • Republique

    West Hollywood & Mid-City

    A design gem with the gourmet ambition to match. The old interior of LA's dearly departed Campanile is still an atrium restaurant with stone arches, a…

  • Officine Brera

    Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights

    Hidden down a seemingly barren street is this stylish northern Italian restaurant, an expansive industrial space with rustic wooden accents. Stacked logs…

  • Wolfdown

    Silver Lake & Echo Park

    Young Korean-American chef Jason Kim has created a buzz with his latest venture, a snug, discreet restaurant with a 'deconstructed farmhouse' design,…

  • Bestia

    Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights

    In a once-abandoned Arts District corner, this loud, buzzing, industrial dining space is one of the most sought-after reservations in town; book at least…

  • Musso & Frank Grill

    Hollywood

    Hollywood history hangs in the thick air at Musso & Frank Grill, Tinseltown’s oldest eatery (since 1919). Charlie Chaplin used to knock back vodka gimlets…

  • Kettle Black

    Silver Lake & Echo Park

    Kettle Black belongs to the new Silver Lake guard, a dark, stylish cocktail bar-restaurant with fashionable diners, communal bar tables and a dizzying…

  • Salt's Cure

    Hollywood

    Wood-paneled, concrete-floored Salt's Cure is an out, proud locavore. From the in-season vegetables to the house-butchered and cured meats, the menu…

  • Cafe Birdie

    Los Angeles

    Market-fresh ingredients drive elevated comfort dishes at this slinky Highland Park hot spot, complete with prerequisite marble-topped bar, designer…

  • Ray’s

    West Hollywood & Mid-City

    Seldom does a restaurant blessed with as golden a location as this one – on the plaza of LACMA – live up to the address. Ray's does. Menus change…

  • HomeState

    Los Feliz & Griffith Park

    Texan expat Briana Valdez is behind this rustic ode to the Lone Star State. Locals queue patiently for authentic breakfast tacos such as the Trinity, a…

  • Night + Market

    West Hollywood & Mid-City

    Set behind Talésai, a long-running Thai joint, this related kitchen pumps out outstanding Thai street food and Thai-inspired hybrids such as catfish…

  • Cassia

    Santa Monica

    Ever since it opened in 2015, open, airy Cassia has made about every local and national 'best' list of LA restaurants. Chef Bryant Ng draws on his Chinese…

  • Inn of the Seventh Ray

    Malibu & Pacific Palisades

    If you lived through the 1960s, you might experience flashbacks at this new-agey hideaway in an impossibly idyllic creekside setting in Topanga Canyon. It…

  • Guisados

    Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights

    Guisados' citywide fame is founded on its tacos de guisados: warm, thick, nixtamal tortillas made to order and topped with sultry, smoky, slow-cooked…

  • Saddle Peak Lodge

    Malibu & Pacific Palisades

    Rustic as a Colorado mountain lodge, and tucked into the Santa Monica Mountains with a creek running beneath, Saddle Peak Lodge serves up elk, venison,…

  • Maccheroni Republic

    Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights

    Tucked away on a still-ungentrified corner is this gem with a leafy heated patio and tremendous Italian slow-cooked food. Don't miss the polpettine di…

  • Broken Spanish

    Downtown Los Angeles & Boyle Heights

    Despite retro design nods such as concrete blocks, macrame plant hangers and terracotta lampshades, Ray Garcia's sleek Downtown eatery is all about…

  • Osteria & Pizzeria Mozza

    Hollywood

    Osteria Mozza crafts fine cuisine from market-fresh, seasonal ingredients, but being a Nancy Silverton joint, you can expect adventure – think squid-ink…

  • Sqirl

    Silver Lake & Echo Park

    Despite its somewhat-obscure location, this tiny, subway-tiled cafe is forever pumping thanks to its top-notch, out-of-the-box breakfast and lunch…

  • MB Post

    South Bay Beaches

    There's a lot to love here, from the reclaimed wood-paneled exterior to the exposed rafters and wood-block common tables where you'll munch pomegranate…