The Best Places To Eat In LA

Felix Trattoria

A sister restaurant to the showier Mother Wolf (also on this list), Felix Trattoria in Venice is included here for its comforting plates of handmade pasta. Its outstanding renditions of Italian classics – linguine al limone, tonnarelli cacio e pepe, rigatoni all’amatriciana, we could go on… – justify the punchy prices. As do the ingredients, which have been as carefully and locally sourced as they would be back in the old country. 

Visit FelixLA.com

The Terrace

The Maybourne’s pretty terrace is a great spot for people watching. The hotel’s all-day restaurant serves seasonal California-inspired food and cocktails in an elegantly relaxed outdoor setting overlooking the Beverly Cañon Gardens. Inside, you’ll find a room of smoky blue circular banquettes and a bright, large-scale mural by local artist Jessalyn Brooks. The floor-to-ceiling windows fill the space with sunshine, creating an airy indoor-outdoor atmosphere. The signature homemade corn agnolotti with black truffle fast became an ‘It dish’ in town when it landed on the menu, so don’t forget to order a bowl alongside a round of Maybourne Margaritas.

Visit MaybourneBeverlyHills.com

Damian

Mexican chef Enrique Olvera is behind a couple of the world’s best restaurants (Pujol in Mexico City and New York’s Cosme). Damian is his newer place in LA. In a high-end warehouse space with a leafy terrace, his kitchen team make good on his directional cuisine. Menus change with the seasons, but you might start with ceviche, ginger turnip relish and green tomato, before moving onto duck carnitas, cola confit and taquero accoutrements. The cocktails are excellent too.

Visit DamianDTLA.com

The Ivy

This long-time celeb favourite remains one of the best places in Beverly Hills for some lunchtime stargazing. Out on the patio, where Laura Ashley-style fabrics fight for attention with actual country garden flowers, old red brick walls and a white picket fence create a transatlantic vision of a bucolic idyll. A classic Cali menu has all the luxe standards, from lobster tagliatelle to wagyu ribeye. Over in Santa Monica, The Ivy on the Shore adds beach vibes into the maximalist mix.

Visit TheIvyRestaurants.com

Osteria Mozza

Nancy Silverton’s Osteria Mozza recently added a green star to the original Michelin orb it’s held since 2008. From its mozzarella bar to its pasta tasting menu, it’s a pure Italian crowd-pleaser. Just one crucial bit of advice from us: leave room for a dessert, whether it’s a cornetto of roasted cherries and almond gelato, or something from the sorbetti selezioni.

Visit OsteriaMozza.com

Maude

This tiny Beverly Hills restaurant emerged from lockdown with a new purpose: monthly tasting menus built around a single ingredient were gone, replaced by a seasonally adjusting focus on great SoCal produce. Today’s tasting menus are ever evolving but you might get lucky and land on spiny lobster, salted Persian cucumber, buddha’s hand and aguachile rojo – or abalone, seaweeds, California koshihikari rice and oyster mayonnaise. Serious thought goes into all the dishes, but they are presented playfully in laidback surrounds with outstanding service. 

Visit MaudeRestaurant.com

Bavel

In a spruced-up Arts District warehouse, Bavel draws a fashionable crowd to dinner each night. Beneath huge skylights and hanging plants, founders Ori and Genevieve present broadly Middle Eastern menus inspired by their peripatetic lives. To give a sense of their range, opening spreads run from baba ghanoush to chicken liver pate – don’t hold back on the delightful breads that accompany them. Mains might include braised wagyu beef cheek tagine with beets, pomegranate, black lime, apricot herb sauce and coconut rice. 

Visit BavelDTLA.com

Ysabel

Low-lit, mid-century interiors give this sceney WeHo restaurant an intimate vibe, but the patio is the place to be on warmer evenings. Pasta and steak are prominent on its modern American dinner menu, but there are also multiple veggie and vegan options. They also take brunch seriously here – a dedicated cocktail list runs from a blood orange margarita to the Big Sur Energy (Old Forester 86 bourbon, Braulio amaro, Skinos mastiha, hazelnut, Aztec chocolate bitters).

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Citrin & Mélisse

Citrin & Mélisse is really two restaurants in one, with 14-seat open-kitchen Mélisse sitting within the bigger Citrin. The smaller space holds two Michelin stars and is where chef Josiah Citrin showcases his classical training and understanding of Asian flavours with tasting menus that often start with luxe snacks like shima aji tart, yuzu kosho and keluga caviar. The à la carte and prix fixe menus in the surrounding Citrin have earned a Michelin star of their own, with caviar, truffle and lobster all still to the fore in a buzzier, less reverential setting.

Visit CitrinAndMelisse.com

Avra

Like its sisters in New York and Miami, Avra Beverly Hills is a light, bright temple to seafood. Produce arrives daily from the Med, the Atlantic and beyond – fresh as can be for a buzzy crowd that enjoys choosing its individual fish and exactly how it’ll be cooked. The rest of the menu leans Greek, with cocktails like the Santorini martini or starters of saganaki, sea bass souvlaki and grilled halloumi. Kick off, though, with oysters from the raw bar.

Visit TheAvraGroup.com

Poltergeist

This restaurant at the eastern end of Sunset Boulevard is not for everyone. But if, in a globalised world, you want an experience you won’t find at home, make your way to Poltergeist. Chef Diego Argoti made his name creating some wild pasta dishes at pop-ups around town. His creativity still knows no bounds. Start with the Thai Caesar salad and go forth into uncharted territory from there – the green curry bucatino and the lamb neck both have the power to wow.

Visit ButtonMashLA.com 

Destroyer

In Culver City, about halfway between Downtown and the ocean, Destroyer is a casual daytime-only place that should be taken as seriously as any highfalutin dinner spot. Chef Jordan Kahn honed his craft under the illustrious Thomas Keller. Having struck out alone, he seeks to break new ground with intricate, multi-layered dishes like wagyu beef tartare, smoked egg cream, quinoa, pickled mushroom, crispy potato and tarragon. There are no reservations, so be prepared to eat in a stark café-style setting inside or out on the street.

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Jilli

New for 2024, this Koreatown joint bills itself as a purveyor of ‘modern sool jib’. The drinks list is to the fore, with the kitchen’s sharing plates all designed to pair well with beer, wine or soju – look for crowd-pleasing crossover dishes like rigatoni in kimchi vodka sauce, or perilla and kimchi bruschetta toast with burrata. The combinations are good enough to make Jilli a destination in itself, but the hip-hop soundtrack might also power you up for a bigger night out.

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Pijja Palace

On Sunset Boulevard, where the famous street cuts through Silverlake, Pijja Palace embodies a concept we hadn’t heard of before: the Indian sports bar. Stay with us – the food is worth it. Inventive dishes apply south Asian flavours to American staples: imagine dosa onion rings, red wings (Kashmiri red chilli, garam masala, ginger, garlic) and tandoori spaghetti. The pijja that gives the place its name is a kind of crispy pizza – try one topped with kasoori methi tomato sauce, mozzarella, green chilli chutney and crunchy masala. 

Visit PijjaPalace.com

Here’s Looking At You

If you don’t have a reservation, make sure you’re outside this small Koreatown restaurant when it opens at 6pm on Thursdays through Sundays. It’s a popular place worth making an effort for – hundreds of community donations helped it reopen after a long lockdown. The cuisine is a melting pot of local ingredients and exotic influences – you’ll feel the flavours of both East Asia and South America. The menu changes regularly, but there are some daring favourites like frogs legs, salsa negra, scallions, lime, salt and pepper.

Visit HeresLookingAtYouLA.com

Mr T

The original Mr T is a small bistro in Paris’s cool Marais district. The Hollywood offshoot has added a big terrace and a hip-hop soundtrack but is just as chic. There are some extra LA touches to the menu too, Japanese crudo and Cantonese branzino appear alongside French staples like steak tartare, moules et frites and duck a l’orange. Service is slick, and there are plenty of booths and big tables for groups.

Visit MrTRestaurants.com

Yess

Chef Junya Yamasaki used to be head chef at Koya, the Soho restaurant that’s introduced so many Londoners to udon. Want to know what he’s up to now? Go Downtown to Yess. It’s got a big, shiny open kitchen so you’ll see exactly what he’s doing. He calls his cooking now “progressive Japanese” and it even involves him catching some of the experimental seafood he serves here. 

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Holy Basil

The names of the dishes are familiar – pad thai, tom yum, green curry – but the depth of flavour might not be. With Holy Basil, chef Deau and his partner Joy have achieved greatness in simple surrounds, using just innate talent and carefully sourced ingredients. They opened a second place in Glendale early in 2024, but it’s not much bigger than the original that you can still find within a Downtown food hall. If there’s a queue, join it.

Visit HolyBasilDTLA.com

Great White Cafe

There are three Great Whites lurking around LA. A couple of blocks back from the ocean, its Venice Beach place is a photogenic new-wave café that serves breakfast until 3pm – modern favourites like avocado toast, overnight oats and banana bread are all here. Later on, there are poke bowls and pizzas to consider too. It’s a similar setup at the locations in West Hollywood and Larchmont Village.

Visit GreatWhite.cafe

Erewhon

At ten locations across town, viral smoothie sensation Erewhon combines an organic grocery store with a café and ‘Tonic Bar’. The group remains true to the ethos of the Japanese couple who founded it in Boston as America’s first natural foods store all the way back in the 1960s. Its cafés offer balances and healthy ‘Combo’ plates alongside salads, sushi and wraps; the bars are all about coffee, smoothies (order the Hailey Bieber Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie), juices and ice creams. 

Visit ErewhonMarket.com

Gjelina

Gjelina in Venice Beach is pure LA. In its early days back in 2008, it was known for its pizzas and its creative use of great local veg – both rare things in the city at the time. Today, it still does the pizzas and has a long veg section on the menu (try the coal-roasted conehead cabbage, bagna cauda and breadcrumb) but the restaurant has matured into a reliable neighbourhood favourite. Close by, you can also find a bakery, grocery and flower shop run by the same family. 

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Jon & Vinny’s Italian

Jon & Vinny’s is a Fairfax pizzeria (between Downtown and West Hollywood) that gives an unusual level of thought to everything else on its menu. Alongside signature pies like the LA Woman (local burrata, tomato, basil, olive oil, sea salt), there’s an array of salads like shaved zucchini, arugula, fennel, hazelnut, white wine vinaigrette and pepato, as well as house-made pastas. Such has been the success of the original, there are now three more outposts around the city, including one in Beverly Hills.

Visit JonAndVinnys.com

The Butcher’s Daughter

The Butcher’s Daughter is a ‘vegetable slaughterhouse’ with locations in Venice and West Hollywood. Covering breakfast to dinner and weekend brunches, its vegetarian menus change daily – count on artful options like jackfruit ‘crab cake’ benedict or a burger with a beet and akua kelp patty. Interiors are airy and modern with lots of living green accents, and its juice game is predictably strong.

Visit TheButchersDaughter.com

Bub & Grandma’s

Towards the bottom end of Eagle Rock Boulevard, Bub & Grandma’s is a diner worth travelling for. Its core business is a well-loved wholesale bakery that serves restaurants across LA, but this retro-feel café is the place to enjoy a deeper American experience. Get there before 11am to try a simple breakfast sandwich for the ages.

Visit BubAndGrandmas.com

Maru Coffee

One for the java heads to bookmark, Maru has three coffee stations around town (Beverly Hills, Downtown’s Arts District, and Los Feliz). Beans are sourced from high-altitude growers around the world, then roasted in the Arts District. As a marker of Maru’s quality, its coffee is served in Damian (also on this list). 

Visit MaruCoffee.com

Gjusta

Brace yourself. Gjusta is going to be busy. It will also be a battle to get the table you really want on its patio. But it will be worth it. This Venice deli-bakery is an Insta institution for a reason. Using SoCal produce wherever possible, it turns out pastries, sandwiches and salads that each approach greatness in their own way. Bigger groups can try multi-person fish, cheese and charcuterie platters. 

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Gracias Madre

On Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, Gracias Madre is a vegan Mexican restaurant set within a beautifully light and bright old antiques centre. If the weather’s good, there’s a patio and outdoor bar. Its inventive takes on Latin American classics include empanadas filled with Swiss chard, caramelized onions, jalapeño, corn, cranberries, mozzarella, guacamole, chipotle salsa and cabbage coleslaw. There’s also a roasted cauliflower mole that comes with baby heirloom potatoes, sautéed garlic greens, corn and tomato salad. 

Visit GraciasMadre.com

Cobi’s 

Flowers are everywhere at Cobi’s in Santa Monica, but they are not the true stars of the show. Its menus pop with big Asian flavours. For brunch, there are salads, satays and roti wraps. Later on, there’s an array of curries from beef rendang to a hot devil chicken, or dry-aged branzino cooked on a wood grill and served with yellow curry, mint, cilantro, Thai basil. The place gets loud and lively as evenings draw on, even in the garden.

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Quarter Sheets

North of Downtown, in Echo Park, Quarter Sheets makes some of the city’s best pizzas. A small place, it has the lines outside to prove it, but it has also started taking reservations now. Its ‘Detroit-ish’ pies can come thick and crispy, or thinner and chewier. Whether you stay classic with pepperoni or take a chance on Mike’s Baked Onion (spring onion, mozzarella, garlic cream, bloomsdale spinach, serrano and gouda), toppings are exceptional.  

Visit QuarterSheetsPizza.com

Pikunico

This cool daytime spot in Downtown is all about Japanese fried chicken. Its house-made kaarage comes in a golden turmeric bun (with pickled daikon, watercress, alfalfa sprouts, lemon aioli, jalapeño and miso jam) or in a basket. There are bigger baskets made for sharing, as well as a Pikunico bowl of fried chicken tenders, seasoned egg, pickled vegetables on top of ginger rice. 

Visit Pikunico.com

With Mexico just a few hours away by car, taco culture is strong in LA – great news if you’re ever in town and looking for something fast and flavourful. To give you as many leads as possible, we’ve collected all of our names to know here. Women-run Guerilla Tacos started in a truck, but has gone brick in Downtown’s Arts District and won a Michelin Bib Gourmand for creative dishes like its wild boar picadillo taco with potatoes, peas, carrots, lime crema, avo salsa, cheddar and pico. Leo’s Taco Truck has gone in a different direction, building a fleet of ten vehicles that are easily tracked around town. Grilled pork tacos al pastor are its signature. The USP of Simón is that it’s a mariscos truck – which means seafood tacos are its thing. It’s usually parked up in Silver Lake, north of Downtown, and its fish al pastor, with pineapple, achiote paste, onions, cilantro and guac, is worth the trip. Over in the Fashion District, tiny Sonoratown stands out for the quality of its handmade tortillas and wood-fired meat fillings, so much so it’s added a second location in Mid-City. Guisados has grown from small beginnings too; thanks to its ‘homestyle braises on handmade corn tortillas’, father and son have built a mini empire of nine places in and around the city. Boyle Heights is its OG outlet – order the mini tacos platter that gets you six different ones to try at once. Finally, Tacos 1986 now has a few places around town and they can be hard to walk past once you’re familiar with its hard-shell vampiros. Just remember, this is a scene where things can change quickly. For the latest intel on the hottest new places, keep an ear to the ground and take recommendations from locals.

LA is where sushi arrived in America in the 1960s. It’s become an Angeleno obsession since then, and the city now has a serious claim to be the best place to eat sushi outside Japan. With some tasting menus now touching $300 before drinks flights, we want you to choose wisely, so – remembering we’ve already mentioned Nobu above – here are some of the other places that make the sushi scene here so special. N-Naka embraces the art of kaiseki, presenting the freshest seasonal ingredients in their natural states. Chef Niki Nakayama has two Michelin stars, her own organic garden, and a 13-course tasting menu featuring some exquisite sashimi. The same team’s N-Soto is a more casual izakaya-style place worth keeping in mind, while Downtown’s Hayato is a kaiseki alternative that’s as garlanded as N-Naka. Another one with multiple Michelins, West Hollywood’s Sushi Ginza Onodera exemplifies the Edomae style of sushi, using aging processes to preserve its fish, develop umami flavours and create more tender textures. Like Onodera, Kato is an omakase restaurant at which you put yourself in the hands of your chef, who will tailor your tasting menu to the day’s ingredients – don’t be put off by the Downtown strip mall location. For a similar experience at a place where the tasting menu is two figures not three, try Hamasaku in West LA.