Clockwise from top left: Crab and seafood boil from Gao’s BBQ & Crab, green sauce pasta from Étra, egg sandwich from Highly Likely, a trio of dishes from Little Fish and a caviar-topped bite from Uchi.
(Photo collage by Brandon Ly / Los Angeles Times; photos by Gao’s BBQ & Crab, Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times and Shelby Moore)
The best places to eat and drink in L.A. right now, according to our food writers
It’s hard to resist the optimism of a new year. Though it’s true that you can set goals at any time, there’s something especially promising about a shiny, brand-new calendar year. And of all the resolutions one can make, food-centered ambitions are some of the most satisfying to fulfill.
Just think: You could gain intimate knowledge of our region’s dining scene by eating your way through the 2023 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. list, commit to cooking more with some of our most popular recipes or explore the stalls at a historic food hall. Especially as so many local restaurants struggle to make ends meet, with more than 65 closing in L.A. in 2023, it’s important to make the time to savor them.
As the holiday fog clears, make it a mission to visit longtime favorites and recent openings you might have missed, including a restaurant that pairs Chinese barbecue and seafood boils in Rowland Heights; a renowned sushi chain from Austin, Texas; a downtown landmark that’s scheduled to shutter soon and more.
Showing Places
(Stephen Kent Johnson)
Ace Hotel
Downtown L.A. American Bar/Nightclub $$
2023 was a tough year for restaurants, with more than 65 closing in Los Angeles. One of the most stunning closure announcements came from the Ace Hotel, which has been a downtown destination for concerts and rooftop pool parties as well as satisfying meals at the lobby-floor restaurant Loam. The property will remain open throughout January, so you still have a few weeks to take in some of our favorite rooftop views and/or book a reservation for Sunday brunch at Loam with disco DJ sets and bottomless mimosas and sangria.
Read about L.A.’s devastating restaurant closures.
Read about L.A.’s devastating restaurant closures.
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All’Antico Vinaio
Venice Italian Sandwich Shop $
One of Italy’s most popular sandwich shops has landed on Abbot Kinney in Venice, specializing in flatbread sandwiches that are already drawing lines down the block. The family-owned shop perfected its schiacciata in Florence over more than 30 years before expanding to locations in New York City and now the West Coast. The menu covers more than a dozen sandwiches, from the signature La Favolosa with layers of fennel-seed salami, pecorino and artichoke cream and spice eggplant, to the newly added Venice Beach with turkey, tomato and mozzarella. Wines by the glass are available to enjoy on the street-facing patio.
Read about the Florentine sandwich shop’s new Venice location.
Read about the Florentine sandwich shop’s new Venice location.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Creamy Boys
Hermosa Beach Ice cream $
One of the best soft serve spots in the city has a new home in Hermosa Beach following successful weekly residencies at Smorgasburg L.A. and the Mar Vista Farmers Market. From Duncan Parsons and Joe Wedd, Creamy Boys is serving up New Zealand-style ice cream that can be blended with fresh fruit, including limited seasonal flavors. Try the Hokey Pokey, a Kiwi specialty that blends honeycomb toffee with vanilla ice cream and sprinkles crumbles on top. Vegan ice cream with a house tapioca base is also available.
Read about the Creamy Boys’ beachside bricks-and-mortar.
Read about the Creamy Boys’ beachside bricks-and-mortar.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Ètra
Italian $$
Now open for dinner service from the same owners behind next-door neighbor Telegrama Cafe, Ètra is an approachable Italian bistro offering crudos, seasonal salads and pastas in Melrose Hill. The moody dining room and covered garden patio are perfect for babysitting a glass or bottle of European wine, which pairs well with ricotta-topped meatballs, lasagna with mushroom Bolognese and New York strip with dried porcini and grilled cabbage.
Read about Telegrama Cafe and Ètra.
Read about Telegrama Cafe and Ètra.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Fat + Flour
Culver City Bakery $$
Culver City has a notable new bakeshop with Fat + Flour from Nicole and Blaine Rucker, who also run a stall in downtown L.A.’s Grand Central Market. In addition to whole pies and slices in signature flavors like Key lime, pear cranberry and double-crust blueberry, customers can order fresh-baked cookies, scones and biscuits. The Westside location also branches into savory menu items such as panini, salads and pastas, with a full coffee bar complete with house-made syrups.
Read about the new Fat + Flour location.
Read about the new Fat + Flour location.
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(Gao’s BBQ and Crab)
Gao's BBQ and Crab
Rowland Heights Barbecue Seafood Chinese $$
A Texas-based chain with locations in Chicago and New York has expanded to a new outpost in Rowland Heights, combining charcoal-grilled Chinese barbecue with Cajun-style seafood boils. Open until 1 a.m. seven days a week, the menu includes meat skewers with beef, prawns, lamb, quail or squid; stir fries and grilled oysters; while the seafood boil blends crawfish, snow crab, potatoes and corn in a powerful broth with Cajun spices and the Chinese shi san xiang 13-spice blend.
Learn more about Gao’s BBQ and Crab’s West Coast expansion.
Learn more about Gao’s BBQ and Crab’s West Coast expansion.
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(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Guatemalan Night Market
Westside Guatemalan $
Every night, the intersection of South Bonnie Brae Street and 6th Street comes alive with Westlake’s Guatemalan Night Market, where vendors offer traditional dishes such as pepián de pollo, chuchitos and garnachas. Now in its eighth year, the market blew up after a feature on the Netflix docuseries “Street Food,” but the regional Central American recipes remain the same. The market begins at about sundown and ends around 11 p.m.; all vendors are cash-only.
Read about Westlake’s Guatemalan Night Market.
Read about Westlake’s Guatemalan Night Market.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Highly Likely
Highland Park Global Breakfast/Lunch $$
West Adams’ popular day-to-night cafe and wine bar from chef Kat Turner has expanded to a sprawling, indoor-outdoor space in Highland Park, which adds a classic-leaning cocktail program with nonalcoholic options and table service during dinner, with new items including steak tartare, pastas and achiote-rubbed chicken, plus desserts such as sweet arancini and caramel apple budino. All-day favorites include cinnamon French toast on Bub and Grandma’s focaccia and a bacon and French fry-stuffed breakfast burrito.
Read about the new Highly Likely location in Highland Park.
Read about the new Highly Likely location in Highland Park.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Little Fish
Echo Park Breakfast/Lunch Seafood $
Little Fish, a pandemic-born pop-up from Anna Sonenshein and Niki Vahle, has found a home in Echo Park’s new Dada Market, where they offer an expanded menu with their crowd-favorite fried fish sandwich plus breakfast items like fish congee, smoked whitefish tartine and cottage cheese pancakes, plus dishes like a broccoli rabe melt and wedge salad with crispy fish skin rounding out the lunch menu. While visiting the market, grab a coffee or stock up on pantry items, tea, wine and other gourmet household products. Two restaurant and bar concepts are slated to open behind the market soon, and Sonenshein and Vahle have plans to launch another Little Fish location in Melrose Hill in 2024.
Read about the new Echo Park location of Little Fish.
Read about the new Echo Park location of Little Fish.
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(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Lulu
Westwood Californian $$
Food General Manager Laurie Ochoa reminds readers of Lulu, a bright and airy restaurant from chef David Tanis (of Berkeley’s acclaimed Chez Panisse) that anchors the ground floor of the Hammer Museum complex. With prix fixe and a la carte options, the seasonal menu always offers deliciously smart surprises, like a circle of goat cheese baked with bread crumbs and a side of salad greens or a spiced chickpea salad with roasted vegetables and radishes. With affordable three-course lunch and dinner menus, plus a thoughtful list of wines by the glass and a short craft cocktail menu that hues classic while showcasing local produce, Ochoa identifies Lulu as a premier option for pleasing out-of-town guests.
Read about perfect restaurant for impressing out-of-towners.
Read about perfect restaurant for impressing out-of-towners.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Nam Coffee
East Hollywood Vietnamese Coffee $
After two years, Vince Nguyen has moved his at-home coffee roastery to a bricks-and-mortar space in East Hollywood, where he’s exclusively using Vietnam-grown robusta and arabica beans for classic lattes as well as Vietnamese coffee drinks, including salted-cream coffee, coconut and purple yam cream coffee and traditional Vietnamese coffee using a phin filter. You’ll find retail bags of Nguyen’s whole beans in addition to phin filters and other tools for at-home coffee brewing. A partnership with nearby Gingergrass Mini Mart will provide the shop with banh mi and other grab-and-go food items.
Read about the Vietnamese coffee shop that landed in East Hollywood.
Read about the Vietnamese coffee shop that landed in East Hollywood.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Olivia
Koreatown Vegetarian $$
A casual vegetarian restaurant that pulls inspiration from head chef Mario Alberto’s L.A. upbringing, Mexican heritage and global travels, Olivia became an immediate neighborhood favorite when it opened in Koreatown in early 2022. The menu spans addictive fried olives, hearty farro risotto and inventive pizzas topped with house-made vegan kimchee or spicy shishito peppers, as well as teas, lemonades, nonalcoholic spritzes and wines by the glass and bottle. It’s hardly surprising that the restaurant is one of seven in California that was teased by the Michelin Guide ahead of the release of its 2024 guidebook. Though you’ll have to wait several months to see whether it’s mentioned as a new restaurant or has earned Bib Gourmand status or a star, you can book reservations now to appraise the food for yourself.
Read about the seven California additions to the 2024 Michelin Guide.
Read about the seven California additions to the 2024 Michelin Guide.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Royal Lobster
Koreatown Seafood $$
After running a successful lobster roll stand in Waikiki for two years, husband-and-wife owners Justin Sok and Ashley Cho finally met the demands of visiting customers who begged for an L.A. location. Operating out of a converted 1940s Texaco gas station in Koreatown that previously housed a coffee shop, the pair offer a simple menu with lobster rolls and salads, piled with quality lobster sourced from a Maine distributor, which can be taken to go or enjoyed on the patio. Cho and Sok plan to add indoor dining soon and to open another location in Beverly Hills with a larger menu to accommodate more lobster-centered dishes.
Read about the new lobster depot in Koreatown.
Read about the new lobster depot in Koreatown.
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(Sweet Maple)
Sweet Maple
Santa Monica Breakfast/Brunch $$
Santa Monica has gained a new brunch destination courtesy of Bay Area-based Sweet Maple from husband-and-wife team Hoyul Steven Choi and Jiyeon Choi. Expect breakfast favorites such as omelets, soft-steamed egg scrambles and Benedicts, plus Korean-influenced dishes like galbi omurice and a short ribs pot with slow-raised Korean beef short ribs, poached egg, mushroom and sauteed kimchi over rice. The sunny and spacious location also features signature sweets from the Choi’s U:Dessert Story that operates under the same roof, including a matcha lava cake and sesame Basque cheesecake. Equator Coffees helms the coffee program and a full selection of teas are available, plus wines, mimosas, micheladas and cocktails if you want to make it a boozy brunch.
Read about the new brunch spot in Santa Monica.
Read about the new brunch spot in Santa Monica.
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(Shelby Moore / Uchi)
Uchi
West Hollywood Sushi $$$
The Austin, Texas-founded sushi chain from James Beard award-winning chef Tyson Cole just launched a new, highly anticipated location in West Hollywood, with plans to open Oheya, an exclusive, 14-seat omakase restaurant, in the same building in 2024. Enjoy fish sourced from Japan’s Toyosu Market, select purveyors in Europe and as far as New Zealand, in sashimi, nigiri and daily specials, plus seasonal small plates and vegetarian options. Fish is also featured prominently throughout the omakase, as well as a “somakase” where servers build courses based on their favorite items. The spacious restaurant encompasses a dining room, sushi and cocktail bars, a patio and a private dining room, with almost 200 seats in total. The bar menu differs from Cole’s other locations, with highlights such as beef tartare with house milkbread. A full beverage menu is available with creative cocktails, sake and Japanese beer.
Read about the new West Hollywood location for Uchi.
Read about the new West Hollywood location for Uchi.
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