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No salad says L.A. like the Caesar. 10 of the best to try right now

It doesn’t seem to matter whether a restaurant is a trusted L.A. standby or a rising destination; you can always count on a variation of the Caesar salad on the menu. Los Angeles’ fascination with the Caesar salad can be traced back as far as the 1930s, about 10 years after the salad’s storied invention, when restaurants like Beverly Hills’ Chasen’s offered the dish with a tableside presentation.

The Caesar, commonly composed of romaine lettuce, croutons, Parmesan cheese and a garlicky anchovy dressing, is said to have originated in Tijuana in the 1920s at Italian-born Caesar Cardini’s restaurant at Hotel Caesar, where it is still on the menu today. It was Cardini’s ties to Los Angeles, however, that secured the dish as an unequivocal local staple.

Cardini was a California-based restaurateur who opened his restaurant across the border to escape Prohibition, and it quickly became a popular destination for wealthy Angelenos and San Diegans looking to do the same. Legend has it that one busy night at the restaurant — some say the Fourth of July — supplies were low and Cardini used the remaining ingredients in the kitchen to create what’s now known as the Caesar salad. He tossed stalks of romaine lettuce in olive oil, egg yolk, Parmesan cheese and Worcestershire sauce and served it to delighted guests as finger food, with the white stalks acting as a natural handle.

Another version of the story credits his pilot brother Alex for coming up with the salad, naming the dish “Aviator’s Salad.” Others claim it wasn’t the Cardinis at all but Hotel Caesar employee Livio Santini, who learned the recipe from his mother back in Austria in 1918 and made the salad for himself before regulars got wind of it and began ordering it too.

A server wheels a cart toward the diner at the Hotel Caesar restaurant in downtown Tijuana to begin the ritual of a tableside Caesar salad, invented here, according to lore.

Jan. 30, 2024

When Prohibition ended, Cardini returned to Los Angeles, where his daughter Rosa Maria Cardini helped him bottle the popular dressing and sell it at local farmers markets. After her father’s death in 1956, Rosa Maria took over the family business and even patented her father’s Caesar salad dressing.

Rosa Maria was adamant that anchovies were not part of the original recipe, but the pungent fish has become synonymous with modern Caesar salads. It is unclear how this variation began, though it is widely believed anchovies were substituted for Worcestershire sauce. Today, many L.A. chefs have done their own editing to the classic recipe, reinventing the Caesar for a new generation of diners.

“For me, a Caesar salad is an excuse to shovel dressing and croutons into your mouth,” said chef Bryant Ng of Cassia in Santa Monica. “Everything else in the salad is just there to balance that.”

Ng’s Vietnamese Caesar salad’s not-so-secret-ingredient is fish sauce. But this list of reimagined Caesar salads from Southern California chefs features equally creative additions like fried capers, nori threads, cilantro and parsley-dusted rice crackers. While the true origins of the Caesar salad are unclear, there is one thing that is: L.A. diners hail Caesar.

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Vietnamese Caesar Salad by Cassia's chef Bryant Ng.
(Abby Mahler)

Cassia

Santa Monica Southeast Asian $$$
L.A. Times’ 101 Best Restaurants
| 2023
I always have a hard time deciding what to order at chef Bryant Ng’s restaurant Cassia in Santa Monica, but there are two menu items that are non-negotiable: Curried chickpeas and the Vietnamese Caesar salad. I first had the salad in 2018, and it has remained in my top five Caesar salads ever since. The dressing is creamy and pungent with Red Boat fish sauce, salted anchovy purée, lemon juice, Worcestershire, parmesan cheese and coarse-ground black peppercorn from Pho Quoc Island in Vietnam. The salad also comes dressed with an assortment of fresh herbs commonly found in pho, like cilantro, basil and red shiso..

“A traditional Caesar salad looks fairly simple, but when you eat it, there are nuances that you may or may not pick up that make it special,” said Ng.
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Crave Restaurant's kale Caesar salad.
(Crave Restaurant)

Crave Restaurant

Santa Ana American $$
Crave, a casual breakfast and lunch spot in downtown Santa Ana, is responsible for helping me achieve something I never thought I would do: enjoy kale. The citrus-forward Garden Kale salad is a variation on the classic Caesar that’s also offered on the menu, but in the Garden Kale version the traditional Caesar dressing gets swapped for lemon vinaigrette. You’ll find bread crumbs, shards of parmesan cheese and croutons made daily from house-baked sourdough bread in both versions .

“What makes a good Caesar salad is the best fresh ingredients,” owner Judy Fleenor said. “Nothing out of a jar or a bag.”

According to Fleenor, adding avocado or grilled chicken is a popular move at the restaurant, but I ask for a scoop of their albacore herb tuna salad to really make a meal out of it.
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Dear John's tableside Caesar salad.
(Sarah Mosqueda / Los Angeles Times)

Dear John's

Culver City Steakhouse $$$
L.A. Times’ 101 Best Restaurants
| 2023
The tableside Caesar salad is a throwback to the original Caesar salad that was prepared before Hotel Caesar guests for added flair. The classic menu at this swanky Culver City steakhouse includes a tableside Caesar salad for two: Olive oil, Worcestershire and lemon juice get mixed in a wooden bowl and tossed with perfect, bite-sized pieces of lettuce and croutons. The salad is an appropriate complement to retro dishes like lobster Thermidor and oysters Rockefeller, and there truly is enough for two. The tuxedo-clad servers lean into the theatrics of the tableside preparation and their showmanship isn’t just reserved for the Caesar — steak tartare also gets the tableside treatment.
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24 month aged Parmesan cheese tops the Caesar salad at Folks Pizzeria in Costa Mesa.
(Sarah Mosqueda / Los Angeles Times)

Folks Pizzeria

Costa Mesa Pizza $$
Unlike the wedge salad, the Caesar rarely requires a knife. The hearty rendition from Folks Pizzeria in Costa Mesa may be the exception. Partners Chloe Tran and chef Joey Booterbaugh are behind the California-style pizza shop that gives the same amount of attention to the starters and salads as it does to its pizza dough. The Caesar is piled high with whole fronds of little gem lettuce, similar to the way Cardini Caesar is said to have presented it. Folks’ take includes 24-month-aged parmesan and plenty of lemony dressing, bread crumbs, soft herbs and a side of marinated anchovies. I recommend dumping them directly on to the salad, along with any residual juices, before taking a stab at this robust Caesar.
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Grilled chicken bonito Caesar from Kodō.
(Yuji Tyler)

Kodō

Downtown L.A. Japanese $$$
Kodō offers omakase and an a la carte menu for dinner, but there are also gems to be found on the lunch menu at this modern Japanese American bistro. The Bonito Caesar salad stands out with crispy chicken strips that are lightly coated with potato starch and eat like karaage, nestled on a bowl of gem lettuce. The katsuobushi-heavy dressing activates the salivary glands in a way that makes it hard to stop eating, while crouton crumbles made from milk bread provide texture and sesame crackers add a deep nuttiness that all work together to make this a memorable Caesar.
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Pizzana's Cesare is made with Cetara anchovies and fried capers.
(Sarah Mosqueda / Los Angeles Times)

Pizzana

Italian $$
In a story similar to the fabled Italian inventor of the Caesar salad, chef Daniele Uditi is an Italian-born chef who came to California to open restaurants. He teamed up with Sprinkles Cupcakes’ Candace and Charles Nelson to launch a pizza concept focused on his signature pizza dough, which is fermented for two days before being baked in a brick oven. At Pizzana, he offers a modern take on Neapolitan pizza and a solid “Cesare” salad. The dressing blends anchovies sourced from Cetara, Italy, and cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil sourced from Coratina. Croutons are made from the same slow-fermented dough as the pizza with the same blistery texture. Fragments of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese fill out the dish, but it’s the fried capers that add a briny crunch to this perfect salad.
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The Thai Cesar Salad
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)

Poltergeist

Echo Park Global $$
L.A. Times’ 101 Best Restaurants
| 2023
Croutons are easy to toss into any salad but at Poltergeist, Diego Argoti’s neo-fusion pop-up inside Echo Park’s Button Mash video arcade, the toasted cubes are reimagined as an entirely different garnish. Parsley-dusted fried rice paper is stacked like a fort around his Thai Cesar salad. The salad composed of frisée with fresh basil and lime leaf is refreshing in itself, but it is the blending of lemongrass oil into the anchovy dressing that brings in elements of Thai cuisine. A light snow of parmesan brings the Caesar flavor home. Use your iridescent fork to shatter the rice paper over the salad for crunch in every bite, but if you really want to get weird, spoon the salad onto the rice paper to eat it like a tostada.
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Cilantro Caesar Salad at Porto's Bakery includes cotija cheese, roasted pepitas and crushed Mariquitas.
(Sarah Mosqueda / Los Angeles Times )

Porto's Bakery and Cafe

Glendale Cuban Bakery $
I know, I know. Who goes to Porto’s for a salad? I am not suggesting you visit the famous Cuban bakery and skip the guava cheese rolls. But should you want to temper your pastry order with some roughage, I encourage you to order the cilantro chicken Caesar salad. It has all the makings of a great Caesar but there are also some conscious substitutions, like salty cotija cheese in place of parm and roasted pepitas in addition to house-made French baguette croutons. Nutty mariquitas, or crushed green plantain chips, give the salad a Cuban flair, and a zesty cilantro Caesar dressing finishes this excellent fast-casual salad.
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A Caesar salad with large anchovies and a mix of little gems and chicory
(Sarah Mosqueda / Los Angeles Times)

Ronan

Fairfax Italian $$
This neighborhood spot from chef Daniel Cutler and wife Caitlin is known for wood-fired pizza and seasonal plates. But you may also hear praise for the Caesar salad that leans into anchovies — hard. The pungent fish often is emulsified into modern versions of Caesar dressing, but Ronan keeps them whole and on full display, studding a mountain of little gem lettuces along with a healthy handful of purple chicory. Thanks to the small but mighty fish, each bite bursts with briny, garlicky delight.
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Tsubaki's Japanese 'Caesar' salad uses a creamy miso-Parmesan dressing and shredded bonito threads.
(Sarah Mosqueda / Los Angeles Times)

Tsubaki

Echo Park Japanese $$$
L.A. Times’ 101 Best Restaurants
| 2023
Tsubaki is one of those restaurants where you might convince yourself you don’t need a salad. With izakaya choices like charcoal-grilled Jidori chicken gizzards and salt-grilled Spanish branzino, you could insist on getting your full serving of vegetables from market tempura served with the miso soup-inspired sour cream and onion dip and no one would fault you. But the Japanese Caesar salad, lightly tossed in rich miso-Parmesan dressing and sprinkled with panko, threads of bonito and nori, will be the bite you go back to. The tangy, acidic salad is the perfect punctuation for anything on the menu.
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