The List: Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants - 2014 - Los Angeles Times 2014/05/21 9:57

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The list: Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants - 2014 - Los Angeles Times 2014/05/21 9:57

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f t s m p Jonathan GOLD’S 101

High-end restaurants construct entrees out of what used to be considered weeds. Uni BEST has replaced foie gras as the go-to luxury. And when you ask a local food-obsessive Restaurants about her favorite restaurants, she is far more likely to mention a Thai noodle shop or a renegade taquero than she is anything with a Michelin star. Welcome to the Los Angeles restaurant scene, 2014. — Jonathan Gold (http://www.latimes.com/la-bio-jonathan- gold-staff.html)

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(Christina House / For The Times) 101 Starry Kitchen

Yes I've been I want to go The restaurant has grown up, proprietor Nguyen Tran assures you. He z View my list almost never wears his banana suit anymore. His kitchen crew doesn't

943 N. Broadway, Chinatown necessarily show up to events dressed as wookiees. And Thi Tran's (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- spicy-sweet Singapore chili crab, probably the only palatable version in restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#101) Southern California, still needs to be reserved a couple of days in (213) 814-1123 (tel:+12138141123) starrykitchen.com advance, because he has to order the plump creatures from a guy he (http://starrykitchen.com) knows up north. In the last year, Starry Kitchen has transformed — but 5 to 9:45 p.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays it has transformed from a semi-permanent pan-Asian pop-up in a sleek $$ Full bar. Credit cards accepted. fashion district lunchroom into a semi-permanent pan-Asian pop-up in an old-Chinatown dive, which means that the fried rice with pork f t s m p belly and dried seafood, the crunchy sea bass tails and the fried tofu balls feel oddly consonant with the plastic chopsticks and the bartenders whose idea of an old-fashioned includes half a dozen maraschino cherries mashed into a crimson slurry. Do try the clay pot sea bass cooked in a complex Vietnamese caramel sauce. And stick around for the disco, if that's your thing.

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 100 Rocio's Mole de los Dioses

Yes I've been I want to go When the subject of mole comes up in Los Angeles, and it comes up z View my list more often than you might think, Rocio Camacho is always part of the

8255 Sunland Blvd., Sun Valley discussion. She has expanded beyond the traditional black mole and (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- even past Oaxaca's famous seven, to an almost infinite repertoire of the restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#100) complex, spicy sauce, including moles made with pistachios, with (818) 252-6415 (tel:+18182526415) moleofthegods.com toasted coffee beans and with cactus and mezcal. Is the mole made (http://moleofthegods.com) with the mushroomy corn fungus huitlacoche really the Mole of the 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Goddesses? That's up to you. But you can also get an oddly satisfying Mondays to Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 9 bowl of cream of grasshopper soup. p.m. Sundays $$ Beer and wine. Credit cards accepted. Also at 19321 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, (818) 457-4545. f t s m p

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(Kathy M.Y. Pyon / Los Angeles Times) 99 Kobawoo House

Yes I've been I want to go In Koreatown, the question is not what the best restaurant might be, z View my list but what the best restaurant might be for the particular food you might

698 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles be craving at the moment: Jeon Ju for bibimbap, Soban for marinated (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- crab, Dae Bok for spicy blowfish soup, Bon Juk for abalone porridge. restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#99) In Koreatown, and in Korea, restaurants specialize. Which is why, (213) 389-7300 (tel:+12133897300) 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily when you walk into Kobawoo, every table will be sporting an order of $$ bossam: a combination plate of boiled pork belly, turnip kimchi, sliced Valet parking. Beer and wine. Credit chiles and fermented tiny fish, which you wrap into spicy cabbage-leaf cards accepted. bundles. Kobawoo may be a great place to go for crisp seafood f t s m p pancakes, game hen stuffed with ginseng and sticky rice, and pig's feet pressed into a cool, gelatinous terrine, but its bossam is unsurpassed.

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(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 98 Mexicali Taco & Co.

Yes I've been I want to go The Mexicali-style tacos are pretty spectacular at this tidy storefront z View my list near Dodger Stadium, packed into the small, plump flour tortillas the

702 N. Figueroa Ave., Los Angeles owners bring up from Baja a couple of times a week. You can even get a (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- vegan taco if that's your thing. You sprinkle them with pickled onions, restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#98) moisten them with fluid taquería guacamole and a spoonful of (213) 613-0416 (tel:+12136130416) mexicalitaco.com habanero salsa, and you're good to go. But like everybody else, you will (http://mexicalitaco.com) probably end up with at least one vampiro, a large flour tortilla folded Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to over chorizo, chicken or charbroiled carne asada, maybe all three, as Thursdays, 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays well as a squirt or two of garlic sauce and what can technically be $ described as a boatload of gooey, stretchy melted Mexican cheese. Street parking. No alcohol. Cash only. f t s m p

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(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) 97 Golden Deli

Yes I've been I want to go A lot of the people I know have defected to the new Pho Filet in z View my list Rosemead for its northern-style pho with filet mignon, and Pho Thanh

815 W. Las Tunas Drive, San Gabriel Lich in Little Saigon is probably worth an hour's drive from anywhere. (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Why then does the line outside Golden Deli stretch halfway to infinity restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#97) on weekends? Because it always has; because the restaurant has set the (626) 308-0803 (tel:+16263080803) goldendelirestaurant.com pho standard in the San Gabriel Valley since Duran Duran was at the (http://goldendelirestaurant.com) top of the charts; and because the cha gio, crackly skinned imperial 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays rolls stuffed with pork and crab among other things, are good on an and Thursdays; 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays; 9 almost intergalactic level, even if the purists claim that they're a little a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sundays too big. $ Lot parking. No alcohol. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) 96 Nickel Diner

Yes I've been I want to go "Polenta?" asked co-owner Kristen Trattner. "You're coming here and z View my list you're ordering polenta?" Nickel Diner may attract more loft-dwellers

524 S. Main St., Los Angeles than artists these days, there are leeks and fontina in Monica May's (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- scrambled eggs, and pastry chef Emily Acevedo has been exploring the restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#96) universe beyond bacon-maple doughnuts, but this is still deep (213) 623-8301 (tel:+12136238301) nickeldiner.com (http://nickeldiner.com) downtown, a half block from the infamous stretch of 5th Street that Breakfast and lunch, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. troubadours like Tom Waits used to sing about. Pancakes and thick-cut Tuesdays to Sundays; dinner, 6-10 p.m. bacon, fried catfish and corn cakes, Lowrider burgers and onion rings Tuesdays to Saturdays $ — that's why you go to the Nickel, which caters as much to the local No alcohol. Street parking only (or street people as it does to the tax attorneys who roll in on skateboards. nearby paid lot). Credit cards accepted. I relent and get an order of biscuits and gravy, with a chicken-apple f t s m p sausage on the side. The polenta, by the way, is excellent.

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(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 95 Hunan Mao

Yes I've been I want to go Hunan cooking, which tends toward simmered organs, fermented z View my list vegetables and oiliness, is not, at first encounter, the friendliest of

8728 Valley Blvd., Rosemead China's cuisines. At Hunan Mao, house-cured ham is forest-fire smoky, (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- like Memphis barbecue times 10, even when chopped and fried with restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#95) handfuls of dried long beans, a handful of garlic cloves, and the vivid (626) 280-0588 (tel:+16262800588) 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily red and green chopped chiles that dominate almost everything here. $ The giant steamed fish heads are comically large, frosted with the No alcohol. Lot parking. Credit cards chopped blend of dried, fresh and fermented chiles that give Hunanese accepted. cooking its reputation for head-snapping heat. Mao's braised pork, a f t s m p sweet, slightly spicy clay-potful of thick-cut braised pork belly and garlic named for Hunan's favorite son, is almost unbearably rich. And the wall TV is occasionally tuned to things like a broadcast plenary of the National People's Congress, which is distinctly not the Dodgers game. Should you go anyway? You don't want to miss the cucumber toss-fried with shiso.

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(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 94 Border Grill

Yes I've been I want to go Mexican cooking in Los Angeles has changed a lot since Susan Feniger z View my list and Mary Sue Milliken opened their first Border Grill in the 1980s, and

1445 4th St., Santa Monica it is no longer unusual to find ingredients sourced from the Yucatan, (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- margaritas made with top-shelf tequila or standard dishes transformed restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#94) with expensive, organic ingredients. The restaurant, its chefs and its (310) 451-1655 (tel:+13104511655) bordergrill.com (http://bordergrill.com) cookbooks have been around so long that it is easy to take them for 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to granted, as breathtaking as its stuffed steak and pescado Veracruzano Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. were when we all first tasted them. But still, nobody has managed to Fridays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays marry the freshness of the California kitchen with the deep, complex $$ flavors of Mexican cooking in quite the way that Feniger and Milliken Full bar open to midnight. Takeout. do, and if you ran across their ceviche, pork-steak carnitas or squash Street and valet parking. Credit cards accepted. tacos in an Eastside dive, you would be as happy as a lime-marinated clam. f t s m p

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(Stefano Paltera / For The Times) 93 Bulgarini Gelato

Yes I've been I want to go The foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains are home to some of the z View my list best ice cream in California, including the all-American Main Street

749 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena creaminess of Mother Moo in Sierra Madre and the farmers market (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- freshness of the original Carmela. But even the glories of Mother Moo's restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#93) three-milk ice cream fade in comparison with the gelati of Leo (626) 791-6174 (tel:+16267916174) bulgarinigelato.com Bulgarini, who is nearly as fanatical about his gelato as he is about his (http://bulgarinigelato.com) hometown AS Roma soccer team; he is especially adept at capturing 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to the flavors of ripe, local fruit. It is hard to say what is better: his goat's Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. milk gelato with toasted cocoa nibs, the yogurt gelato with sea salt and Sundays olive oil, the blood orange sorbetto or the gelato he makes with the $ ultra-pricey Bronte pistachios he hand-carries from Sicily. House Lot parking. Also at 8686 Washington Blvd., Culver City, (310) 815-1723. Credit policy at Bulgarini mandates a three-scoop minimum, at $2.50 per. cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Cheryl A. Guerrero / Los Angeles Times) 92 Musso & Frank Grill

Yes I've been I want to go If you are a certain kind of food guy, it is almost a sacred duty to z View my list dismiss the Musso & Frank Grill, where a large part of the menu

6667 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood remains largely unchanged from 1919 and where the avocado cocktail (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- and kidneys Turbigo could not be further from the kinds of things they restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#92) are serving at Red Medicine or Trois Mec. The steaks, chops and sand (323) 467-7788 (tel:+13234677788) mussoandfrank.com dabs are fine, although you'd probably do better at Mastro's or even (http://mussoandfrank.com) Taylor's. Yet it is hard to imagine Hollywood without Musso's wooden 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesdays to booths, Manny's martinis or the chicken pot pie on Thursdays. The Saturdays $$ Welsh rarebit and shrimp Louie are unchanged from when you and Full bar. Validated parking in rear. Credit your grandfather were children, and the flannel cakes are still the best cards accepted. consolation for late risers in town. f t s m p

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(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times) 91 Coni'Seafood

Yes I've been I want to go There are many ways to become famous in Los Angeles, but I'm z View my list guessing Sergio Peñuelas may have been the very first chef to make his

3544 W. Imperial Highway, Inglewood reputation as a master of snook. Pescado zarandeado is an important (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- preparation in coastal Sinaloa, but the odd techniques involved, which restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#91) include smearing whole, butterflied snook with seasoned mayonnaise (310) 672-2339 (tel:+13106722339) 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, and jiggling the fish over hot charcoal until the flesh caramelizes, are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays not quite in the traditional poissonnière's repertoire — although once $$ you taste the snook, you may think they should be. Coni'Seafood may Beer and wine. Street parking. Credit cards accepted. also have a large menu of delicious seafood cocktails and shrimp dishes, some made with seafood the restaurant brings up itself from f t s m p Mazatlan, but it is not the aguachile that has inspired a generation of Angelenos to make sure Peñuelas is in the kitchen before they hop in the car. The restaurant is fairly close to LAX and the Forum.

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(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 90 Kang Ho-dong Baekjeong

Yes I've been I want to go When you are up for Korean barbecue, you could choose the restaurant z View my list that features Piedmontese beef, the restaurant that lets you cook over

3465 W. 6th St., Los Angeles coconut charcoal or one of the many, many places that specialize in all- (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- you-can-eat volleys of charred beast. Or you could get in line and wait restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#90) for a table at Kang Ho-dong Baekjeong, where you will pass between (213) 384-9678 (tel:+12133849678) 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily life-sized cardboard cutouts of Mr. Kang himself, sit around a tabletop $$ grill under a wrestling poster and eat ungodly amounts of barbecued In Chapman Market. Beer, wine and pork neck, bulgogi and pork belly, probably chosen from one of the two soju. Valet parking in Chapman Plaza. Credit cards accepted. set dinners. Oddly, Baekjeong may be your best option, if only for the bottomless troughs of corn cheese and scrambled eggs set into the grill. f t s m p

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(Kathy M.Y. Pyon / Los Angeles Times) 89 Newport Tan Cang Seafood

Yes I've been I want to go The typhoon-shelter crab at Seafood Village is good. The suckling pig z View my list at Lunasia can be splendid. But while there may be a more festive

518 W. Las Tunas Drive, San Gabriel Chinese dish than the house special lobster at Newport, it is hard to (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- think of what it might be. The fearsome beasts, 5 pounds and up, fried restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#89) with fistfuls of chopped chiles, scallions and garlic, are more than a (626) 289-5998 (tel:+16262895998) 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sundays to match for any tableful of ravenous, nutcracker-armed souls. You will Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays almost certainly order the sweet-spicy Vietnamese-style "shaking and Saturdays beef," the pea leaves sautéed with garlic and maybe the clams with $$$ Beer and wine. Lot parking. Credit cards basil, but it is the lobster that will set you free. accepted. f t s m p

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(Los Angeles Times) 88 Chichén Itzá

Yes I've been I want to go Each fall, Chichén Itzá's Gilberto Cetina junior and senior make it a z View my list point to serve mucbi pollo, vast, rustic tamales made from special masa

3655 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles that are crunchy where you would expect them to be moist and that are (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- at the center of the Yucatan's Day of the Dead feasts. It would be hard restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#88) to imagine a preparation more typically Yucatecan, almost Maya, (213) 741-1075 (tel:+12137411075) chichenitzarestaurant.com especially if you accompany it with a glass of agua de chaya, a sweeted (http://chichenitzarestaurant.com) drink made from an old Maya herb. And it is hard to imagine a Los 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, Angeles restaurant more Yucatecan than Chichén Itzá, a lunch counter 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays $ in the La Paloma complex named for the vast temple complex north of In Mercado La Paloma. Cancún, whose menu is a living, habanero-intensive thesaurus of the panuchos and codzitos, sopa de lima and papadzules, banana-leaf f t s m p tamales and shark casseroles that make up one of Mexico's spiciest cuisines. Chichén Itzá could pass for one of the better market restaurants in Mérida.

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(Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times) 87 Patina

Yes I've been I want to go We have been enjoying Joachim Splichal's cooking for decades in Los z View my list Angeles, from his earliest days at the Seventh Street Bistro, through

141 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles the brilliant Max au Triangle in Beverly Hills through the original (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Patina on Melrose, which opened 25 years ago and launched a sleek, restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#87) new era of local cuisine. More great chefs may have passed through (213) 972-3331 (tel:+12139723331) patinarestaurant.com Splichal's kitchens than any other in town — and it is hard to believe (http://patinarestaurant.com) that this grand, luxurious restaurant in Walt Disney Concert Hall is 5-9:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays, 4-9 itself 10 years old. Has Patina settled a bit into grande dame status p.m. Sundays $$$$ these days, perhaps more intent on getting its patrons out in time for Full bar. Valet parking and garage. the symphony than in pushing the boundaries of cuisine? I suspect Credit cards accepted. even its most loyal customers might agree — except during game f t s m p season, when the notion of wood pigeon and hare tends to flush gourmets from hiding.

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 86 Picca

Yes I've been I want to go Nobu Matsuhisa is a Japanese chef who formed his style at sushi bars z View my list in Peru. Ricardo Zarate is a Peruvian chef who spent his formative

9575 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles years working at sushi bars in London. Zarate's Picca is a look at the (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- mash-up of Peruvian flavors and Japanese techniques from the other restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#86) side of the divide, where the difference between yakitori and (310) 277-0133 (tel:+13102770133) piccaperu.com (http://piccaperu.com) anticuchos is a matter of semantics, where causa becomes sushi with 6-11 p.m. Mondays to Sundays mashed potatoes in place of rice, and where the line between ceviches $$$ and sashimi probably has more to do with the sweet potato on the side Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. than in the quality of preparation or the fish. Peruvian izakaya is a concept whose time has come. The Julian Cox-designed Peruvian f t s m p cocktails are sublime.

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(Cheryl A. Guerrero / Los Angeles Times) 85 Mariscos Jalisco

Yes I've been I want to go Specializing in seafood cocktails, ceviches of fish or shrimp marinated z View my list in citrus, or aguachiles of raw seafood soaked in lime and puréed

3040 E. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles chiles, the mariscos truck is as much a part of Eastside culture as the (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- murals, pan dulce and música norteña. Your favorite truck is as much a restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#85) part of your identity as your favorite ranchera singer. But first among (323) 528-6701 (tel:+13235286701) 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily them is the Mariscos Jalisco truck in Boyle Heights, eternally parked in $ front of a former wholesaler's office, where Raul Ortega also serves his No alcohol. Cash only. famous crunchy fried shrimp tacos in the style of San Juan de Los f t s m p Lagos, his Jalisco hometown. Ortega tends to sweep the field in street- food competitions — if life were just, Ortega would be a wealthy man, and you would see his face plastered on airport concessions, glossy chain restaurants and cerveza ads.

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(Bret Hartman / For The Times) 84 Park's Barbeque

Yes I've been I want to go You may prefer the posh of Chosun, the user-friendliness of Genwa or z View my list the funk of Soot Bull Jeep. Nobody will look down on you if you yearn

955 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles for the sweet, cold noodles at the Corner Place as much as you do its (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- unmarinated galbi or pine for the all-you-can eat mayhem at Oo Kook. restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#84) But when your priorities in a Korean barbecue restaurant run more (213) 380-1717 (tel:+12133801717) parksbbq.com (http://parksbbq.com) toward high-grade meat than toward a particular ambience, you are 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily probably already a fan of Park's, where the pricey Wagyu boneless $$$ short ribs, prime rib-eye and butter-soft beef tongue are of the highest Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. possible standard, and the stone-pot octopus and hand-chopped beef tartare with pear and sesame oil are among the very best in town. f t s m p Places like Soowon and Star King are edging forward in Koreatown's world of luxury meats, but Park's still has the top end of K-Town barbecue to itself.

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 83 Superba Snack Bar

Yes I've been I want to go Do you like octopus bacon? Of course you like octopus bacon. It's z View my list chewy, crisp and smoky, made with this year's it mollusk and comes

533 Rose Ave., Venice with both a bit of pine nut panna cotta and a sweet caper purée. You (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- could put a recipe for the dish into a time capsule and, 200 years from restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#83) now, it will still taste exactly like 2014, provided octopuses, capers and (310) 399-6400 (tel:+13103996400) superbasnackbar.com pine trees still flourish on the Earth. Superba, Jason Neroni's open-air (http://superbasnackbar.com) restaurant in a neighborhood where the fixed-gear bicycles can Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. outnumber cars, serves what you might call abstracted Italian, Thursdays and Fridays; brunch, 10:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Saturdays and incorporating tastes and textures associated with Italian cooking into Sundays; dinner, 6-10:30 p.m. Mondays dishes that would be unrecognizable in Rome: grilled cauliflower T- to Thursdays, 5:30-11:30 p.m. Fridays to bones with puréed basil, citrus and olives; "porchetta di testa" cured to Saturdays, 5:30-10 p.m. Sundays $$ resemble pastrami on rye; and cacio e pepe enhanced with miso. If the Limited reservations. Beer and wine. restaurant has a specialty, it is probably the pastas: handmade, slightly Street parking only. Credit cards accepted. stiff and leaning toward excess. Bring a good book — there's going to be a wait. f t s m p

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(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 82 Mantee Cafe

Yes I've been I want to go When people complain about the restaurants on Ventura Boulevard, z View my list Mantee is probably the kind of place they have in mind. The main

10962 Ventura Blvd., Studio City dining room is as tchotchke-infested as your great-aunt's house, and (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- the dining patio feels like somebody's backyard. The menu is almost restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#82) identical to that of a dozen other Middle Eastern restaurants you've (818) 761-6565 (tel:+18187616565) manteecafe.com (http://manteecafe.com) been to, and whoever runs it is overly fond of the Gipsy Kings. Yet a 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sundays and single bite of the suave, garlicky hummus, flaky cheese borek or the Tuesdays to Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 impossibly thick drained yogurt called labneh is enough to let you p.m. Fridays and Saturdays $$ know you are at a different kind of Lebanese-Armenian restaurant No alcohol. Street parking. Credit cards here, one related to one of the better-known Armenian restaurants in accepted. Beirut. The kebab in sour cherry sauce, the purslane-intensive toasted- f t s m p pita salad fattoush and the namesake dish, a platter of tiny beef dumplings sizzling in a bath of garlicky yogurt, are like nothing else in Los Angeles.

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(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times) 81 Meals by Genet

Yes I've been I want to go Ethiopian food should by all rights be the most exotic of world z View my list cuisines, governed by an elaborate schedule of feasting and fasting,

1053 S. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles scented with fiery aromatics that rarely make it out of the area and (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- based on a floppy, sour flatbread that looks, as Calvin Trillin once restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#81) wrote, as if it has a hundred industrial uses, not including being used (323) 938-9304 (tel:+13239389304) mealsbygenet.com as food. The gift of Genet Agonafer is that she is able to weave (http://mealsbygenet.com) Ethiopian flavors into something as familiar as Sunday dinner at your 5:30-10 p.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays, grandmother's house, at least if your grandmother was in the habit of 5:30-9 p.m. Sundays $$ simmering the chicken for her doro wot with cloves and bishop's weed Beer and wine. Catering. Street parking. for the better part of three days, arranging vegetarian stews around a Credit cards accepted. platter with an artist's aplomb or mincing raw beef for the spiced f t s m p tartare kitfo with the careful abandon that a Thai master shows his larb. Looked at in isolation, Agonafer's cooking may be as wild as that of her funkier Little Ethiopia neighbors, but the final impression is of a genteel, old-fashioned bistro.

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(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) 80 Sapp Coffee Shop

Yes I've been I want to go Sapp passed its first couple of decades as Thai Town's quiet z View my list underachiever, a drowsy lunchroom where you found yourself because

5183 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles the glamorous restaurants in the neighborhood never opened before (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- dark. Then everybody realized that Sapp's fragrant roast duck noodles, restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#80) jade noodles with Chinese barbecue and grilled sausage with peanuts (323) 665-1035 (tel:+13236651035) 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays to Tuesdays were what they wanted all along: Thai food cooked for people who ate (closed Wednesdays) Thai food every day. The gray-looking nam sod, a ground-pork salad $ spiked with slithery bits of pig's ear and a generous shot of lime, is the No alcohol. Takeout. Lot parking. Cash only. sort of thing you find yourself craving the moment you step onto an outbound plane. And in a part of town devoted to boat noodle soup, f t s m p the funky, spicy amalgamation of beef broth, ground blood and offal, Sapp's version is the one you want to be facing down after a night of excess.

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(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 79 Mayura

Yes I've been I want to go You've probably heard that the place to go for Indian food is the Little z View my list India neighborhood in Artesia, and this isn't wrong. You can find a lot

10406 Venice Blvd., Culver City of pleasure at the better regional restaurants on Pioneer Boulevard, (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- including Jay Bharat, Rajdhani, Woodlands and Mumbai Ki Galliyon restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#79) Si. But Mayura, just a block from the studios in Culver City, is the only (310) 559-9644 (tel:+13105599644) mayura-indian-restaurant.com place in the Los Angeles area to specialize in the complex cooking of (http://mayura-indian-restaurant.com) Kerala, a largely vegetarian region on India's south coast, and if you 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays are adventurous enough to try the buttery cashew rice called ven $$ No alcohol. Lot parking. Credit cards pongal instead of biryani, fermented-rice appam instead of roti, and accepted. the coconut-zapped avial instead of almost anything, you will be deliriously happy here. The dosas are pretty great too. Mayura has a f t s m p separate kitchen preparing halal meat dishes in the north Indian mode, so if you're craving tandoori chicken or Pakistani-style nehari, you'll be fine.

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(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 78 Cooks County

Yes I've been I want to go Fried Chicken Monday — sure, there's Fried Chicken Monday. More z View my list than one person we know likes to arrange her week around Daniel

8009 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles Mattern's crackly pan-fried chicken and a cut of Roxana Jullapat's ice (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- cream pie. But if you are the kind of person who stops by a farmers restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#78) market twice a week, seeks out grass-fed lamb and daydreams about (323) 653-8009 (tel:+13236538009) cookscountyrestaurant.com selling jars of lemon curd on Etsy, the food at Cooks County is going to (http://cookscountyrestaurant.com) seem pretty familiar. Mattern's cooking incorporates not just the Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays seasons but also the microseasons of Southern California produce so to Fridays; brunch, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; dinner, 6-10 that you can probably set your watch by the moment wild nettles join p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, 6-11 p.m. the green garlic with the lamb. It's not a particular dish you fall in love Fridays, 5:30-11 p.m. Saturdays, 5:30-10 with here, it's the sensibility — and maybe the grilled seafood soup, the p.m. Sundays $$ asparagus fries and Jullapat's homey fruit desserts. Beer and wine. Street parking. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Mariah Tauger / For The Times) 77 Guisados

Yes I've been I want to go If you were going to design the perfect taquería, it might look a lot like z View my list Armando De La Torre's original Guisados in Boyle Heights. The

2100 E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Boyle tortillas are made from fresh nixtamal ground several times an hour at Heights (http://guides.latimes.com/101- the tortillería next door, and the fillings tend to be long-simmered best-restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#77) stews. Vegetarians are as happy with the stewed calabacita as (323) 264-7201 (tel:+13232647201) guisados.co (http://guisados.co) carnivores are with the cochinito pibil. And fire eaters take pleasure in 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, the chiles toreados, made from peppers De La Torre grows in his 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays backyard. I once heard a rumor that I was in the habit of eating three $ No alcohol. Takeout. Credit cards chiles torreados tacos in a sitting, which I believe to be a physical accepted. impossibility. But if you should ever be tempted to give it a try, you can take comfort in knowing that the White Memorial emergency room is f t s m p just down the street.

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(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 76 Attari Sandwich Shop

Yes I've been I want to go The Westside Tehrangeles neighborhood is thick with Iranian z View my list restaurants of every description, many of them plush dining rooms

1388 Westwood Blvd., Westwood with long menus of kebabs, thick stews and tanor bread made to order. (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- You'd probably choose Flame or Javan for a feast of fesenjan or grilled restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#76) lamb. But Attari is a slice of Tehran high society transplanted onto a (310) 441-5488 (tel:+13104415488) atarisandwiches.info leafy Westwood patio, exquisitely tailored expats sipping tea and (http://atarisandwiches.info) eating the thick Iranian soup called osh or crisp French bread 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays sandwiches stuffed with slices of kuku, a bright-green frittata that is at $ No alcohol. Street parking. Cash only. least half fresh herbs by weight. On Fridays, the mandatory order is abgoosht, a complex, delicious stew of lamb and chickpeas mashed f t s m p into a thick, homogeneous paste with the texture of refried beans, alongside a bowl of its expressed essence served as soup. The full- service Attari Grill, with an extensive Persian menu, is next door, but things always seem happier at the original sandwich shop.

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(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) 75 Ración

Yes I've been I want to go When you wander into Ración after a movie in Old Town Pasadena, z View my list you may be expecting the basic tapas you find everywhere in Los

119 W. Green St., Pasadena Angeles. Instead, there are crisp, gooey chicken croquettes, grilled (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- leeks with smoked olive oil, lamb meatballs, duck sausage-stuffed restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#75) squid and pintxos (bruschetta, more or less) of crab salad accented (626) 396-3090 (tel:+16263963090) racionrestaurant.com/ with anchovy, squid griddled with lemon and onions, or sliced tongue (http://racionrestaurant.com/) with pickled scallions. Loretta Peng and chef Teresa Montano are Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays to serving their version of Basque-style tapas, the stuff of San Sebastian's Saturdays; dinner, 6-10 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, 6-11 p.m. Fridays, 5:30-11 back alleys, inspired by rather than exactly duplicating Basque flavors. p.m. Saturdays, 5:30-10 p.m. Sundays Montano's cooking is becoming more assured by the month. The wine $$$ list includes not one but three Txakolinas, as well as Basque ciders and Beer and wine. City lot parking around the corner. Credit cards accepted. the hard-to-find Rueda from Belondrade y Lurton, which is among the most delicious of all Spanish whites. f t s m p

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(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) 74 Mo-Chica

Yes I've been I want to go Do we mourn the original Mo-Chica in the La Paloma complex two z View my list miles south? Indeed we do. The vortex of Peruvian flavors, sushi-

514 W. 7th St., Los Angeles quality seafood, skilled chef and working-class customers marked a (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- special moment in the democratization of cuisine. But Ricardo Zarate restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#74) is building a restaurant empire now. And the food at this Mo-Chica is (213) 622-3744 (tel:+12136223744) mo-chica.com (http://mo-chica.com) really good, mostly Peruvian classics reinterpreted as cocktail snacks, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays to which is to say papas a la huancaina, carapulcra, tiradito and lomo Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., saltado reduced in size, zapped with Peruvian chiles and served with Fridays and Saturdays $$ Pisco sours and Peruvian beer. If you've been yearning to try an alpaca Full bar. Valet parking after 7 p.m. Credit burger, at Mo-Chica you have your chance. cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 73 The Sycamore Kitchen

Yes I've been I want to go Many people come here for the sticky pecan rolls, the walnut galettes z View my list or the chewy peanut-coconut bars, and it is hard to blame them. The

143 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles Sycamore is the breakfast-lunch restaurant of Quinn and Karen (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Hatfield, and it is a chance to taste Karen's pastries without the restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#73) expense or trouble of the tasting menu at their restaurant Hatfields. (323) 939-0151 (tel:+13239390151) thesycamorekitchen.com There are salads too, big ones with perfect greens and tiny sparks of (http://thesycamorekitchen.com) things like hazelnuts and blue cheese; bruschetta topped with things 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily like homemade ricotta and a mosaic of citrus fruit; and sandwiches $$ No alcohol. Street parking. Credit cards stuffed with turkey, cherry mostarda and just-ripe Camembert. The accepted. BLTs are enhanced with oozing slabs of pork belly. The potato chips are disks of the purest crunch. And if you get there before they sell out, f t s m p you should also get the pastry called kouign amann, a.k.a. buttercup, whose perfect caramelization should be taught at every cooking school in the world.

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(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) 72 Taco María

Yes I've been I want to go The first thing you should know about Taco María is that it doesn't z View my list serve tacos, not at dinner anyway. It's a prix-fixe tasting menu

3313 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa restaurant from Carlos Salgado, who used to cook at highbrow places (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- like Coi and Commis in the Bay Area, and now runs this tiny dining restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#72) patio in the new OC Mix design center. Four courses, plated as (714) 538-8444 (tel:+17145388444) tacomaria.com (http://tacomaria.com) beautifully as anything you'll see at Alma or Providence, run $52, Lunch, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays to which is not expensive for this level of cooking. Salgado calls what he Saturdays; dinner, 5:30-9:30 p.m. does "Chicano cuisine," which also may not prepare you for dishes like Wednesdays to Saturdays $$ his delicate asparagus velouté with Meyer lemon zest, spring garlic and In the OC Mix complex. warm curls of chicharrones; roast guinea fowl with mole; or his trompe l'oeil chorizo made with spiced mushrooms instead of meat. Then f t s m p again, if he sold his fiery kanpachi aguachile from the window of a truck parked in Santa Ana, he might have a line of mariscos-crazed regulars stretched around the block.

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(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) 71 Plan Check

Yes I've been I want to go Recreational space travel may be some years in the future, and none of z View my list us is yet commuting in flying cars, but at least we can all experience the

1800 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles burger of the future, warmed in a high-tech oven before it is seared on (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- the griddle, frosted with seaweed-enhanced cheese, flavored with a restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#71) translucent square of ketchup leather and tucked into an otherworldly (310) 288-6500 (tel:+13102886500) plancheck.com (http://plancheck.com) crunch bun. Ernesto Uchimura's creation is a burger, except that it's 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays to not quite a burger, except that it really might be, like the re-engineered Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. sports cars that drive better than the real thing. Anyway, there is Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays Japanese whiskey to drink with it, if you're into that sort of thing, $$ homemade sodas and French fries sizzled in rendered suet. Awesome. Full bar. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Los Angeles Times) 70 The Grill on the Alley

Yes I've been I want to go It is hard to believe that the Grill on the Alley is turning 30 this year, z View my list its upscale homage to places like Musso's and San Francisco's Tadich

9560 Dayton Way, Beverly Hills Grill nearly as ancient, at least in Hollywood terms, as its inspirations. (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- If it is possible to measure out one's life in whiskey sours, cowboy rib- restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#70) eyes and Caesar salad, then many of us have done that here, although I (310) 276-0615 (tel:+13102760615) thegrill.com (http://thegrill.com) suspect some of the Hollywood players who populate the restaurant at 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays, 11:30 lunchtime may just be pushing their Cobb salads or whitefish around a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays, their plates. (Perhaps, if fashions were otherwise, they might have 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Fridays to Saturdays, 5 to 9 p.m. Sundays ordered the corned beef hash well done.) But everybody looks good at $$$ the Grill, which is lighted as carefully as a George Hurrell photograph. Full bar. Valet parking after 6 p.m. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 69 Corazón y Miel

Yes I've been I want to go It still feels odd to spill through the doors of this former cocktail z View my list lounge, and you might want to temper your enthusiasm for sangrita-

6626 Atlantic Ave., Bell backed tequila shots if you're the one driving home from Bell. But (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Eduardo Ruiz's wonderland of chopped-and-channeled street food and restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#69) cheesy Mexican booze has mellowed into a pretty serious restaurant, (323) 560-1776 (tel:+13235601776) corazonymiel.com the slithery pigskin salad and giant turkey legs tempered by long- (http://corazonymiel.com) roasted pork shoulder, braised Argentine short ribs and wild-boar 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays. Bar chilaquiles. Open your mind: That carnitas terrine with Coca-Cola open late Thursdays to Saturdays $ gelee may be exactly what you crave. Full bar. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times) 68 La Casita Mexicana

Yes I've been I want to go La Casita is twice the size it used to be, you'll be happy to hear. You can z View my list get a glass of wine now (although you'll still want the alfalfa drink), and

4030 E. Gage Ave., Bell you can call for a reservation if you want one. Jaime Martin del Campo (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- and Ramiro Arvisu's modest cenaduría has evolved into the showcase restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#68) it has always deserved to be, the place to go for lengthy Lenten meals (323) 773-1898 (tel:+13237731898) casitamex.com (http://casitamex.com) or a quick plate of morning chilaquiles, lavish feasts of vegetables 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays pulled from nearby community gardens or straightforward plates of $$ carne asada, fish grilled in hoja santa leaves or an improbably good Beer and wine. Street parking. Credit cards accepted. version of chiles en nogada, the meat-stuffed chile lavished with pomegranate seeds and sweet cream that is Mexico's national dish. f t s m p

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(Cheryl A. Guerrero / Los Angeles Times) 67 Gjelina

Yes I've been I want to go It is a cool night, and you have made it past the throng at the bar, and z View my list you are out on the patio at Gjelina, not far from the fire pit,

1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice contemplating the wonder of a crisp little pizza with shaved asparagus (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- and egg, or fennel salami and caramelized fennel, or eggplant, green restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#67) zebra tomato, garlic and parmesan, or maybe a plate of grilled pork (310) 450-1429 (tel:+13104501429) gjelina.com (http://gjelina.com) collar with house-made kimchi. There are a lot of vegetables here — 11:30 a.m. to midnight Mondays to Travis Lett's vaguely Italian cooking has what you might call a co- Fridays, 9 a.m. to midnight Saturdays dependent relationship with the farmers market. The scene, heavily and Sundays $$$ populated with actors, may be as crunchy as the wood-fired pizza crust. Full bar. City lot behind restaurant. Credit Gjelina is everything that might persuade a snowbound New Yorker to cards accepted. change coasts. f t s m p

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(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 66 Langer's

Yes I've been I want to go Everyone knows that Langer's serves the best pastrami sandwich in z View my list Los Angeles. Guidebooks say so. National magazines say so. The MTA

704 S. Alvarado St., Los Angeles Red Line disgorges so many Langer's-bound fressers that it has (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- sometimes been called the Pastrami Express. Distinguished chefs restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#66) flirting with putting pastrami on their menus rarely do so without at (213) 483-8050 (tel:+12134838050) langersdeli.com (http://langersdeli.com) least a nod to the noble deli masters of Westlake. Still, if you haven't 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays been to Langer's in a few years, you might be surprised to see the long $ lines outside the delicatessen on a Saturday afternoon, supplicants Beer and wine. Curbside service (call ahead). Validated lot parking (at waiting for their shot at the No. 19, a baroque concoction of hand-cut Westlake Avenue and 7th Street). Credit pastrami, Swiss cheese, cole slaw and Russian dressing on double- cards accepted. baked rye bread. The Westlake neighborhood may have lost its last f t s m p vestiges of Jewishness sometime before the Vietnam War, but the pleasures of pastrami will not be denied.

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(Playground) 65 Playground

Yes I've been I want to go Is the most attitudinous gastropub in Los Angeles located in Echo z View my list Park? It is not. Playground is in downtown Santa Ana, which may be

220 E. 4th St., Santa Ana the few blocks of Orange County that most bring to mind the words (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- "urban grit." You will have heard of maybe two or three of the beers on restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#65) their lengthy tap list, you will wonder how Lime Truck vet Jason Quinn (714) 560-4444 (tel:+17145604444) playgrounddtsa.com managed to score A5 Miyazaki rib-eye cap to grill and you will wonder (http://playgrounddtsa.com) why he serves his grilled octopus with pickled pig's tongue. Did all the Dinner, 5-10 p.m. Tuesdays to good new chefs in Orange County come from the world of food trucks? Thursdays; 5 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays; Sunday brunch, 11 a.m. It is beginning to seem that way. to 3 p.m. Sunday supper (reservations only) 5-9 p.m. $$ Beer and wine. Street parking. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 64 Bucato

Yes I've been I want to go Bucato's mission, broadly defined, is to combine strong pungencies z View my list and seasonal vegetables with the suppleness of fresh, well-cooked

3280 Helms Ave., Culver City pasta — mixed by hand, rolled out by hand and shaped by hand. Evan (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Funke's Italian training came in Emilia-Romagna, home to egg- restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#64) enriched pasta, but the noodles he prefers are made with only flour, (310) 876-0286 (tel:+13108760286) bucatola.com (http://bucatola.com) water and salt: hand-rolled pici, like thick, Tuscan spaghetti, with a Dinner, 5 to 10:30 p.m. Sundays and long-cooked rabbit sauce; corzetti, flexible pasta coins from Liguria, Tuesdays to Thursdays, 5 to 11:30 p.m. with a mortar-ground walnut sauce; or a delicious but anti-Roman Fridays and Saturdays; brunch, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays cacio e pepe that breaks every known rule. Bucato is a great place to $$$ stop into for a glass of Vermentino and a snack of fried squash Beer and wine. Lot parking in Helms blossoms stuffed with goat ricotta. And on the patio on a warm night, it complex. Credit cards accepted. is easy to imagine that you are on the terrace of an Italian country f t s m p restaurant instead of outside a former industrial laundry in downtown Culver City.

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(Cheryl A. Guerrero / Los Angeles Times) 63 Little Sister

Yes I've been I want to go The latest hero on the anti-fusion block is Tin Vuong, chef and owner z View my list of the Manhattan Beach restaurant Little Sister. Vuong grew up in the

1131 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach San Gabriel Valley, worked his way up through grand hotel kitchens (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- and has spent the last couple of years as chef at the Hermosa Beach restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#63) gastropub Abigaile. His beef tartare melds Korean raw-beef dish yuk (310) 545-2096 (tel:+13105452096) littlesistermb.com hwe, Sichuan peppercorns, French bone-marrow paste, Vietnamese (http://littlesistermb.com) herbs and Indonesian-style cassava chips. His salt-and-pepper lobster Dinner from 5 p.m. nightly. comes straight out of Hong Kong too, but its fragrance hints at the $$ Credit cards accepted. Beer and wine. lush, tropical flavors of southeast Asia. And the takes on nem nuong, Valet parking. banh xeo and chao tom come straight out of Little Saigon. There has always been a dark vein of anarchy just beneath the beachy surface in f t s m p the South Bay, and in his own quiet way, Vuong wants to blow your mind.

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 62 The Hart & the Hunter

Yes I've been I want to go Whatever cultural tide it was that brought us gourmet pimento cheese, z View my list garage sale crockery in expensive restaurants and French wine

7950 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles decanted into jelly jars has probably passed. But it can't be denied: (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- However ironically the Southern grandma-cooking revival may have restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#62) been, the food was pretty good. It turns out that you don't have to have (323) 424-3055 (tel:+13234243055) thehartandthehunter.com skinny jeans and interesting facial hair to enjoy fried chicken skin with (http://thehartandthehunter.com) homemade Tabasco sauce, crab dip or lemon ice box pie. And when Breakfast, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays to you're ready for cheese grits, hushpuppies or feather-light angel Saturdays; brunch, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays; lunch beginning at 11:30 a.m. biscuits with blackberry preserves, the Hart & the Hunter will be Tuesdays to Saturdays; dinner, 5:30 to waiting for you. 10 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays, 5:30 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 5:30 to 9 p.m. Sundays $$ In the Palihotel. f t s m p

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(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 61 Matsuhisa

Yes I've been I want to go There may not be another Los Angeles chef whose name is invoked as z View my list frequently as that of Nobu Matsuhisa, whose introduction of the sushi

129 N. La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills chef into the traditional restaurant line may have been one of the most (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- important innovations since Escoffier and whose marriage of Latin restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#61) flavors with modern Japanese technique sometimes seems to have (310) 659-9639 (tel:+13106599639) nobumatsuhisa.com inspired half the restaurants in Los Angeles. And as flashy as his Nobu (http://nobumatsuhisa.com) restaurants can be, as vast as his global empire has become, the heart Lunch, 11:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Mondays of Matsuhisa's cooking still seems to be in his modest original sushi to Fridays; dinner, 5:45 to 10:15 p.m. Mondays to Sundays bar, the place where new-style sashimi with heated olive oil, turbo- $$$ charged ceviche and Ferrari-sleek tiradito first learned to speak Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards Japanese. accepted. f t s m p

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(Bret Hartman / For The Times) 60 Marouch

Yes I've been I want to go The Lebanese kitchen is at the center of Middle Eastern assimilation, z View my list the place where flavors from the Mediterranean and central Asia,

4905 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles Europe and the Levant come together into a cuisine as shimmeringly (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- multicultural as that of Los Angeles itself. And at the center of restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#60) Lebanese cooking here are Serge and Sosi Brady, whose splendid array (323) 662-9325 (tel:+13236629325) marouchrestaurant.com of the garlicky small dishes called mezze, their roast chicken and (http://marouchrestaurant.com) barbecued quail, fried sardines and grilled sausages, Lebanese wine 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays to and house-made jallab have defined the local Lebanese-Armenian Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays $ kitchen in Hollywood for more than 25 years. The photomurals of the Beer and wine. Lot parking. Credit cards Cedars of Lebanon have become a bit tattered, but the cooking accepted. becomes more vibrant year after year. f t s m p

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 59 Colonia Taco Lounge

Yes I've been I want to go Your table is covered two-deep with tiny plastic plates. You have seen z View my list the bottom of a michelada or two. You are at Colonia Taco Lounge, the

13030 Valley Blvd., La Puente newest and possibly most consequential restaurant from Guisados (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- founder Ricardo Diaz, a land of horchata-battered shrimp tacos, lamb restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#59) barbacoa tacos, cheese and chayote tacos and tacos made with chicken (626) 363-4691 (tel:+16263634691) 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays to tesmole, an herb-intensive Oaxacan preparation thickened with corn. Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays The best tacos in the house may be the ones made with florets of and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. battered, fried cauliflower — crunchy, soft and then crunchy again; the Sundays $ sulfurous funkiness of the vegetable mellowed and made soulful by the Full bar. Lot parking. Credit cards sharpness of the capers in the salsa and the merest touch of cream. Are accepted. we living in the golden age of the California taco? We may be. f t s m p

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(Los Angeles Times) 58 Din Tai Fung

Yes I've been I want to go The Din Tai Fung experience, it could be argued, is essentially that of z View my list waiting in line; the keen anticipation of xiao long bao, Shanghai-style

177 Caruso Ave., Glendale soup dumplings, drawn out into a soft note of purest longing. The (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- miracle is that when you finally pop the plump, round dumpling into restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#58) your mouth, searing the top of your mouth when it bursts into a flood (818) 551-5561 (tel:+18185515561) dintaifungusa.com of fragrant broth, the moment is as exquisite as you'd dreamed it might (http://dintaifungusa.com) be, although the flavor melts away far more quickly than the pain. XLB 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, is a fixture on the menu of every restaurant that even pretends to serve 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays Shanghai-style cooking in the San Gabriel Valley, but the version at $$ Din Tai Fung, the first U.S. branch of the most famous dumpling parlor Full bar. Valet and validated lot parking. in Taipei, is on a level by itself. If you're into that sort of thing, note Credit cards accepted. Also in Arcadia at 1088 S. Baldwin Ave., (626) 446-8588, that the new Glendale location also offers XLB with truffles. and 1108 Baldwin Ave., (626) 574-7068. f t s m p

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(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 57 Sqirl

Yes I've been I want to go Last year, when the crafty do-it-yourself aesthetic seemed poised to z View my list overtake the Earth, Jessica Koslow's tiny Virgil Village cafe seemed like

720 N. Virgil Ave., Los Angeles the most important restaurant in town for a few minutes, the (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- embodiment of a subculture that held coffee, well-made jam and restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#57) impeccably grilled toast as proxies for the small things that could be (213) 394-6526 (tel:+12133946526) sqirlla.com (http://sqirlla.com) controlled in a world controlled by huge corporations. An individual 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays; couldn't do much to combat global warming, but she could make sure 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays that the apricot preserves she consumed were made with ripe, $ No alcohol. Takeout and retail. Street sustainably grown fruit; that her rice was seasoned with organic yogurt parking. Credit cards accepted. and local sorrel, and that her fried eggs, sourced from pastured hens, were splashed with house-fermented hot sauce. A year later, doubled f t s m p in size and splashed with paint, Sqirl is just a really good place to have lunch. And somehow, that's OK.

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(Mariah Tauger / For The Times) 56 Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Village

Yes I've been I want to go A lot of local restaurants serve Shanghainese food, which is z View my list understandable. Eastern China has one of the great culinary traditions

250 W. Valley Blvd., San Gabriel of the world. But Shanghai No. 1 is a full-on Shanghainese restaurant, (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- in the sense of being a bit of Shanghai transplanted directly to Los restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#56) Angeles, a branch of a small Shanghai-based chain, down to the (626) 282-1777 (tel:+16262821777) 10 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. daily rhinestone-studded velvet banquettes, the lacquered walls, the massive $$$ chandeliers and the thick, glossy, full-color menu with nearly the Beer and wine. Underground lot parking. weight of a September Town & Country. You could browse for hours, Credit cards accepted. but the waiters know that you are going to get the braised Old Alley f t s m p pork, the crab with garlic, the stone pot fried rice, maybe the steamed chicken with scallion oil and the shen jian bao, which are slightly doughy soup dumplings whose bottoms are pan-fried to a crisp. Lunchtime dim sum is much better than you might expect — the morning crew unexpectedly speaks Cantonese among themselves.

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(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 55 The Hungry Cat

Yes I've been I want to go Where should I go before a play at the Pantages? Where should I go z View my list after the Hollywood Bowl? What's good for oysters near the Cinerama

1535 N. Vine St., Hollywood Dome? Some weeks it seems that every question that pops up in my (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- email box can be answered with a referral to Suzanne Goin and David restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#55) Lentz's seafood-intensive Hungry Cat, whose cocktails are as assured (323) 462-2155 (tel:+13234622155) thehungrycat.com as the langoustines and sea urchin from the raw bar, whose first wild (http://thehungrycat.com) salmon and halibut of the season tends to show up before it makes it Lunch, noon to 3 p.m. Mondays to anywhere else, and whose takes on Maine-style lobster rolls and clam Fridays; brunch, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; dinner, 5-10 chowder are reliably delicious. p.m. Sundays, 5:30-10 p.m. Mondays to Wednesdays, 5:30-11 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays $$ Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. Also at 100 W. Channel Road, Santa Monica Canyon, (310) 459-3337. f t s m p

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(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) 54 Bludso's

Yes I've been I want to go You would not be sad if your afternoon brought you to the uptown z View my list Bludso's Bar & Que, which serves a pretty close approximation of

811 S. Long Beach Blvd., Compton Kevin Bludso's Texas-style barbecue along with Pabst Blue Ribbon on (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- tap. But you might as well drive down to the original in Compton, restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#54) which shares a dining room with a storefront church and where the (310) 637-1342 (tel:+13106371342) bludsosbbq.com (http://bludsosbbq.com) brisket, coarse hot links and beef ribs are fever-dream good, all smoke, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays to animal and salt. Most of Bludso's barbecue is sold to go, but five will Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and get you ten that your order never makes it out of the parking lot. Saturdays, 12:30-7 p.m. Sundays $ No alcohol. Limited lot parking. Takeout. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 53 Post & Beam

Yes I've been I want to go If you follow restaurants in Los Angeles, you have known about Govind z View my list Armstrong since he was a teenage prodigy on the line at the original

3767 Santa Rosalia Drive, Los Angeles Spago. In Venice, his Willie Jane is the most accomplished Southern (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- dining room in town. But it is probably Post & Beam where you find restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#53) Armstrong at his best, a happy place of shrimp 'n' grits, buttermilk- (323) 299-5599 (tel:+13232995599) postandbeamla.com fried chicken and sweet potato pie that may be the most ambitious (http://postandbeamla.com) restaurant ever to open in the Crenshaw district. If you want to Noon to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and understand the power structure of South Los Angeles, you could do Wednesdays, noon to 10 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays, 5:30-9 p.m. Sundays. worse than to eavesdrop over smoked-salmon hash and a bloody mary Brunch, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays at Post & Beam after church on a Sunday afternoon. $$$ Full bar. Lot parking. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) 52 Chengdu Taste

Yes I've been I want to go If your experience of Sichuan food is mostly from the Chongqing-style z View my list kitchens in the San Gabriel Valley, you will probably find Chengdu-

828 W. Valley Blvd., Alhambra style cooking lighter, cleaner and less likely to wake you up in the (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- middle of the night with chile-oil induced nightmares. The food is restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#52) flavored with a vast array of fresh, dried, pickled and ground chiles, but (626) 588-2284 (tel:+16265882284) 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Mondays to the vivid scent of Sichuan peppercorn comes to the front, and the Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. sensation is of numbness rather than pain. Even a half-dozen visits Sundays aren't quite enough to exhaust the menu here — as soon as you check $ No alcohol. Street parking. Takeout. toothpick lamb, tea-smoked duck and garlic leeks sautéed with dense Cash only. house-cured bacon off your list, you still have sliced fish with tofu pudding, flour-steamed pork and numb-taste wonton yet to try. It is f t s m p almost impossible to visit without a taste of boiled fish with green pepper, a seriously addictive dish whose complex of chiles can make your lips buzz like a Las Vegas marquee. The wait for a table will be long.

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(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 51 Allumette

Yes I've been I want to go American kids used to want to be astronauts or baseball players when z View my list they grew up. These days, I suspect a fair number of them want to be

1320 Echo Park Ave., Echo Park chefs at the kind of tasting-menu restaurants that serve spring peas (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- with juniper or gnocchi with wood pigeon. In his scant 18 months restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#51) behind the stoves, Miles Thompson has transformed Allumette from a (213) 935-8787 (tel:+12139358787) allumettela.com (http://allumettela.com) clubby beer-and-burger joint to a buzzy showplace for his vegetable- 6-10 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays intensive modernist cuisine. And you have left the world of kale salad $$$ far behind — left it behind for the pleasures of poached monkfish liver Full bar. Street parking. (Nearby city lot on Echo Park Avenue, south of Sunset served with peeled sea grapes, turnips with rhubarb gel, suckling goat Boulevard.) Credit cards accepted. with candied carrots and hops, or whatever else may show up on his constantly shifting tasting menus. (The menus are reasonably priced at f t s m p $45 and $60, although that still makes Allumette the most expensive restaurant in the history of Echo Park.) I'm not sure even Thompson knows quite where his multi-layered conceptions are taking him, but it is going to be an interesting ride.

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 50 Tar & Roses

Yes I've been I want to go "Tar and roses" is the standard wine-geek description of the scent of z View my list Barolo wine. Tar & Roses, on the other hand, smells a lot like the

602 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica smoldering oak that Andrew Kirschner passes most of his food (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- through, onto or around in what is probably the purest distillation of restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#50) the grill-centered small-plates fixation. Been a while since you've (310) 587-0700 (tel:+13105870700) tarandroses.com encountered popcorn with bacon, roasted marrowbones with (http://tarandroses.com) sourdough or chicken oysters on a stick? You'll find them here, along 5:30-10:30 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, with kale salad, cauliflower steak and a dish of wood-roasted peas with 5:30-9:30 p.m. Sundays $$$ mint and sea salt that is among the most delicious things to come out Beer and wine. Valet parking. Credit of this decade. In 2025, Tar & Roses is the restaurant we're all going to cards accepted. be nostalgic for. f t s m p

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(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 49 Drago Centro

Yes I've been I want to go Downtown is thick with experimental restaurants, funky restaurants, z View my list cocktail-centered restaurants and representatives of national chains.

525 S. Flower St., Los Angeles What seem to be missing from the area are grand restaurants, which is (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- where Drago Centro comes in. Because if there can be said to be restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#49) anything lacking in the seat of Celestino Drago's restaurant empire, it (213) 228-8998 (tel:+12132288998) dragocentro.com is not a sense of occasion. It is thrilling to walk into the triple-height (http://dragocentro.com) dining room with its industrialist's view of downtown, to settle on a Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays bottle of Barbaresco and to have a meal of Ian Gresik's burrata with to Fridays; dinner, 5-10 p.m. nightly $$$ favas, spaghetti Trapanese and duck breast with beets presented to you Full bar. Evening valet parking on as if they were great gifts. Game is especially wonderful in season, and Figueroa Street between 5th and 6th there are small bites at the bar up front. streets. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) 48 Sea Harbour

Yes I've been I want to go Sea Harbour is the best Hong Kong-style restaurant in the Los Angeles z View my list area, a comfortable dining room with impeccable live seafood and deft

3939 Rosemead Blvd., Rosemead interpretations of Chinese luxury dishes. If you are looking for bird's (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- nest, braised sea cucumber or sun-dried abalone preparations, I would restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#48) recommend the restaurant without hesitation. You can blow thousands (626) 288-3939 (tel:+16262883939) Dim sum, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. of dollars, but if you stay away from the allure of the live tanks, you can Mondays to Fridays, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. get away with spending very little. It also serves the best dim sum in Saturdays and Sundays; dinner, 5-10 the San Gabriel Valley, the har gow, shiu mai and sugar-crusted p.m. nightly $$ custard buns to which the other dim sum parlors aspire. Its rear dining Beer and wine. Lot parking. Credit cards room is lined with signed photographs from the Hong Kong singers accepted. and movie stars who frequent the place when they are in Los Angeles. f t s m p

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(Los Angeles Times) 47 Angelini Osteria

Yes I've been I want to go Gino Angelini is among the most skillful of the old-school Italian chefs z View my list in town, renowned for his delicate fish dishes and his vegetable-

7313 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles thickened sauces since the last days of Rex, and for his updates of the (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- classic dishes of his native Rimini. But while Angelini Osteria does not restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#47) feature Angelini's most refined cooking, it is everyone's favorite, an (323) 297-0070 (tel:+13232970070) angeliniosteria.com informal room with well-designed trattoria cooking and a place to (http://angeliniosteria.com) settle into for a plate of bombolotti or oxtail on Wednesday, Grandma's Lunch, noon to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays to green lasagna or peppery pollo alla diavola — and where whatever diet Fridays; dinner, 5:30-10:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays, 5:30-11 p.m. you happen to be on at the time will be accommodated without a fuss. Fridays, 5-11 p.m. Saturdays, 5-10:30 Some nights, it feels as if everybody in the room knows one another. p.m. Sundays $$ Beer and wine. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times) 46 Salt's Cure

Yes I've been I want to go When you get into the habit of visiting the Salt's Cure Facebook page, it z View my list is really hard to stop. Each afternoon brings a photograph of that

7494 Santa Monica Blvd., West evening's chalkboard menu, shot from an oddly low angle. Each photo Hollywood of the chalkboard inspires daydreams of Tamworth pork chops or (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Hampshire pork chops, milk-braised pork shoulder or porter-braised restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#46) (323) 850-7258 (tel:+13238507258) pork shoulder, creamed soup made with celery, asparagus or leeks. saltscure.com (http://saltscure.com) You always kind of get the same thing there, sitting at the long counter 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. — meat or fish seared into rude deliciousness, a big plate of vegetables, daily $$ a bottle of rough red wine — but somehow it is always different, Beer and wine. Street parking. Credit depending on what kind of produce flows through the kitchen. And cards accepted. even if you're not one of the people who show up here two or three f t s m p times a week, by the end of a meal, you kind of wish you were. Salt's Cure is also notable for its weekend brunches of oatmeal pancakes, house-cured bacon, grapefruit pie and hot biscuits with jam.

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(Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times) 45 Manhattan Beach Post

Yes I've been I want to go In the last 10 years, Manhattan Beach has gone from a slouchy beach z View my list town to an overheated destination, where the boutiques no longer

1142 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach specialize in only costume jewelry and beachwear. And if any chef (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- could be said to be propelling condo prices in the neighborhood, it is restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#45) David LeFevre, whose Fishing With Dynamite is the superb raw bar (310) 545-5405 (tel:+13105455405) eatMBPost.com (http://eatMBPost.com) this neighborhood has always needed and whose Manhattan Beach 5-10 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, 11:30 Post right next door is a redoubt of meaty, spicy, vegetable-intensive a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to gastropub cooking. With its barbecued lamb belly, grilled local sword 10:30 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays squid with lemon curd, bacon-cheddar biscuits and soft hunks of $$ braised hog jowl in Vietnamese-inspired fish-sauce caramel, MB Post Full bar. Credit cards accepted. is exactly the restaurant you'd want to cater your tailgate party. f t s m p

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(Susannah Kay / Los Angeles Times) 44 Sotto

Yes I've been I want to go Sotto is a southern Italian place dedicated to local produce and z View my list sustainable, artisanally produced meat; a shrine to the awesome heat

9575 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles of its 15,000-pound oven insulated with imported Neapolitan dirt. (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Chefs Steve Samson and Zach Pollack come from Ortica, the South restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#44) Coast Plaza restaurant that redefined Orange County pizza, and the (310) 277-0210 (tel:+13102770210) sottorestaurant.com pies emerging from the wood-burning Vesuvius are soft-centered, (http://sottorestaurant.com) elastic and leopard-spotted with character-building circles of char. If From 5:30 p.m. nightly you should happen across a special of lamb innards or fennel-crusted $$$ Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards pork chops, make sure to order it the second you sit down. Even the accepted. pastas tend to be southern things we haven't seen locally, like fileja Calabrese with sausage and greens or the twisted noodles here called f t s m p casarecce (which means nothing more than "homemade") with a thick paste of simmered lamb thickened with egg yolk and sheep cheese. For dessert — take the cannoli. We swear.

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(Los Angeles Times) 43 Vincenti Ristorante

Yes I've been I want to go Brentwood must be the world capital of a certain kind of Italian z View my list restaurant, the kind with carpaccio, tricolor salads and three kinds of

11930 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood pasta with vegetables, chicken under a brick and tiramisu. Brentwood (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- is also where you will find Vincenti, which could pass as the go-to restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#43) businessmen's restaurant in a large Italian city, with Nicola (310) 207-0127 (tel:+13102070127) vincentiristorante.com Mastronardi's superb roasted meats, pastas made with house-cured (http://vincentiristorante.com) guanciale and the grilled cuttlefish salad against which all others are Lunch, noon to 2 p.m. Fridays; dinner, measured. Vincenti was born from the late Mauro Vincenti's Rex, the 5:30-10 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays $$$ restaurant that did more than any other to introduce Los Angeles to Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards sophisticated Italian cuisine. accepted. f t s m p

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(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times) 42 Guelaguetza

Yes I've been I want to go Sometimes I'm not sure what Los Angeles would do without z View my list Guelaguetza, which is practically the Oaxacan consulate in town; it's

3014 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles the prime mover in the mole thing and the birthplace of the local craze (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- for mezcal. When you're in the mood for shared botana platters, you restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#42) can get vast piles of white Oaxacan cheese served with lard-soaked (213) 427-0608 (tel:+12134270608) ilovemole.com (http://ilovemole.com) memelas, the giant Oaxacan pizzas called tlayudas, heaps of fried 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 8 empanadas or mole-soaked enmoladas, or even a platter with chicken, a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 10 bowls of four kinds of mole sauce and the fresh tortillas to eat them p.m. Sundays $ with. If you're drinking, the micheladas are excellent — chile-spiked Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards beers served in frozen, salt-rimmed mugs. After a few micheladas, you accepted. may have the courage to tackle a plate of the fried grasshoppers with f t s m p chile and lime.

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(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 41 Kiriko

Yes I've been I want to go Sushi has never been easier to find in Los Angeles. Great sushi whose z View my list cost does not rival the price of an economy ticket to Narita is somewhat

11301 Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles more difficult to locate. Of the fine sushi bars in Los Angeles, Kiriko is (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- perhaps the least forbidding, a place where you know you can get restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#41) perfect shirako or sea snail but which still treats mackerel with great (310) 478-7769 (tel:+13104787769) kirikosushi.com (http://kirikosushi.com) respect; where the chef rejoices when bloody clams or baby octopus Lunch, noon to 2:15 p.m. Tuesdays to comes into season and where the great specialty is actually Fridays; dinner, 6-10 p.m. Tuesdays to cherrywood-smoked salmon with mango, which you are unlikely to Sundays $$$$ taste at Zo or Q. And while great sushi is never cheap, Ken Namba's Beer and wine. Lot parking. Credit cards traditional yet creative $80 omakase is almost a bargain. accepted. f t s m p

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(Bret Hartman / For The Times) 40 Fig

Yes I've been I want to go If you follow local cooking events, you may know Ray Garcia as a hero z View my list to the nose-to-tail crowd, apt to remake Mexican tamarind candy with

101 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica pig's blood or whip up offal-infused tamales that could make an (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- abuelita weep with joy. Fig, his restaurant in the Fairmont Miramar in restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#40) Santa Monica, is rather more sedate — a comfortable, airy farmers (310) 319-3111 (tel:+13103193111) figsantamonica.com market-driven restaurant that never takes its diners too far from a (http://figsantamonica.com) comfort zone of baby kale salad, meatloaf, spinach-leaf lasagna, and Breakfast, 7-11 a.m. daily; lunch, 11 a.m. red quinoa with chard and apples, although his bacon-wrapped bacon to 2 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays; dinner, 5-10 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays; and veal tongue with tomatillo salsa have always had their fans. Will brunch, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays this be the year Garcia's transgressive side shows up at Fig? There are $$$ always the biscuits and gravy at breakfast. In the Fairmont Miramar Hotel. Full bar. Validated valet parking. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 39 Kogi

Yes I've been I want to go The Roy Choi phenomenon is worldwide by this point: the bestselling z View my list gangsta-gangsta food memoir, the throngs that show up at book

300 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles signings and the patronage of Anthony Bourdain and David Chang, (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- among other things. Kogi is credited with hot-wiring the Twitterization restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#39) of American cooking, the food-truck craze, and the shotgun marriage kogibbq.com/ (http://kogibbq.com/) $ of Korean flavors and the L.A. street taco. So sometimes it is good to Several locations in Los AnFollowers step back a bit and realize that the miracle of Kogi lies chiefly in the keep track of Kogi's whereabouts on its four trucks that cruise Southern California every night and that Korean frequently updated Twitter feed, @kogibbq. No alcohol. Credit cards short-rib tacos, Kogi dogs and blackjack quesadillas taste really good, accepted. even if you do have to wait 30 minutes in line for them. f t s m p

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(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 38 Hatfield's

Yes I've been I want to go The Hatfield's of the mind is probably a stubbornly idiosyncratic bistro z View my list in an off-center neighborhood, the kind of place you find pleasant and

6703 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles odd on your honeymoon, and are happy to discover 20 years later that (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- it has remained exactly the same. Quinn and Karen Hatfield's elegant restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#38) restaurant isn't small — it occupies the former premises of Citrus, one (323) 935-2977 (tel:+13239352977) hatfieldsrestaurant.com of the temples of California cuisine in the 1980s — and its (http://hatfieldsrestaurant.com) neighborhood is not obscure. The clientele tends to be less romantic 6-10 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, 6- couples huddled over red wine-braised octopus and Champagne than 10:30 p.m. Fridays, 5:30-10:30 p.m. Saturdays, 5:30-9:30 p.m. Sundays entire sitcom writing rooms out for a working dinner. The cooking is $$$ still idiosyncratic and a bit more expensive than you think it is going to Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards be. Both the date-crusted lamb and the yellowtail-enhanced croque accepted. madame are likely still to be on the menu in 2024. But it is possible to f t s m p spot the contours of a modern tasting-menu restaurant here, as tempted as you may be to order the pork belly with lentils every time. The menu performs the great trick of being simultaneously unchanging and precisely seasonal. The Hatfields must do it with mirrors.

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(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) 37 Barnyard

Yes I've been I want to go Is Barnyard a major destination restaurant? Because if your idea of an z View my list important meal involves sous-vide, a team of foragers and whole

1715 Pacific Ave., Venice Berkshire hogs purchased from a small farm in Vermont, you're (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- probably out of luck. Jesse Barber's gift is in his talent for deceptive restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#37) simplicity — you are fooled into thinking that this is food you could (310) 581-1015 (tel:+13105811015) barnyardvenice.com prepare yourself if you had the time, that you are at Barnyard because (http://barnyardvenice.com) it is pleasant and because you forgot to go to Whole Foods last night. 5:30-10:30 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, This is an illusion. The menu at Barnyard, another one of those noon to 4 p.m. for brunch Sundays $$ Westside places connected by umbilical cord to the Santa Monica Beer and wine. Valet parking. Credit farmers market, seems to change almost by the hour, but you can cards accepted. usually count on finding excellent terrines, grilled half-chicken f t s m p brushed with reduced vin santo and crunchy, chewy risotto alla pilota.

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(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) 36 Lukshon

Yes I've been I want to go Do we have to talk about the no-ketchup thing? Because we can if you z View my list want to. Sang Yoon started the no-substitutions thing at his gastropub

3239 Helms Ave., Culver City Father's Office, and you cannot get ketchup on your burger there. Yoon (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- likes to do things his way. He was also probably the first chef in town restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#36) to apply rigorous French technique to the Asian flavors he grew up (310) 202-6808 (tel:+13102026808) lukshon.com (http://lukshon.com) eating. The cooking at Lukshon resembles nothing you will encounter Lunch, noon to 3 p.m. Tuesdays to in Taipei, Myanmar or Malaysia — his dan dan mian, tea-leaf salad and Fridays; dinner, 5:30-10 p.m. Tuesdays crab fritters approach the originals in intent, but they're his. What to Thursdays, 5:30-10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays matters is that they taste good. $$$ Full bar. Lot parking. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 35 Girasol

Yes I've been I want to go You've probably run into Chris "CJ" Jacobson at your farmers market. z View my list He's the tall dude waving a jar of vinegar starter as if it were the keys to

11334 Moorpark St., Studio City a new Tesla or hugging a crate of mulberries to his chest as if they (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- might escape. A lot of chefs take produce seriously, but CJ seems to restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#35) regard it, especially the foraged produce, they way a lot of us regard (818) 924-2323 (tel:+18189242323) girasolrestaurant.com our pets. His Girasol in many ways is a typical Studio City restaurant, (http://girasolrestaurant.com) as popular for its strawberry ricotta crepes at brunch as it is for its Dinner, 6-10 p.m. Sundays to fennel-crusted steelhead, but Jacobson's recent stay at Copenhagen's Wednesdays, 6-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Sunday brunch, 11 a.m. to 3 Noma shows. His talent may lie less in expressing L.A.'s cultural p.m. diversity than in layering the sunny fragrances of California onto what $$ might seem to be straightforward New American cooking: the branch Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. of yarrow with the meatballs, the cactus fruit in the mimosas and the charred pine needles dusting the steak. f t s m p

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(Jar) 34 Jar

Yes I've been I want to go A dozen years in, it seems almost a little odd to see Suzanne Tracht at z View my list her modern chophouse Jar, her ideas about Asian-inflected cooking

8225 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles limited to a first-rate chashu pork chop and a bit of lemon grass with (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- the chicken; her mastery of the New American kitchen mostly directed restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#34) toward big chunks of meat. She should be winning national awards, (323) 655-6566 (tel:+13236556566) thejar.com (http://thejar.com) but she is content with making a great wedge salad and the best pot Dinner, 5:30-10 p.m. Sundays to roast in town. But she's not slumming. Jar, which looks like a set from Thursdays, 5:30-11 p.m. Fridays and a Doris Day movie, is as timeless as a well-fitted A-line skirt. This is to Saturdays; brunch, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays say your grandparents would have liked it, although they may not have $$$ understood why the chicken was scented with kaffir lime leaf or why Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards they had just been served sautéed pea tendrils instead of actual peas. accepted. f t s m p

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 33 Connie and Ted's

Yes I've been I want to go Michael Cimarusti, it must be conceded, knows how to cook a fish. And z View my list while any New Englander worth her salt pork has remarkably specific

8171 Santa Monica Blvd., West preferences about how lobster rolls, stuffies, steamed cherrystones and Hollywood clam chowder should be prepared, at his cavernous homage to Rhode (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Island shore dinners, Cimarusti has his own. So of the clam chowders restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#33) (323) 848-2722 (tel:+13238482722) on his menu, the one you want is the Rhode Island style, a grayish, connieandteds.com salty distillation of the sea. The crisp fried clams are served either with (http://connieandteds.com) or without their tender, juicy bellies. For the miracle known as stuffies, 5-11 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, noon to 11 p.m. Wednesdays to Sundays chopped quahogs are mixed with bread crumbs, sausage and sweet $$$ peppers, then stuffed back into their shells and baked until crisp. And Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards there may be no restaurant in Los Angeles that treats its oysters with accepted. more reverence. Just to mix things up, Connie and Ted's also serves f t s m p one of the best burgers in town, lavishly greased with Hook's cheddar and cooked to a bloody medium rare.

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(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 32 Bäco Mercat

Yes I've been I want to go Josef Centeno's kitchens may have been where the local convergence of z View my list haute cuisine and pub food began. His menu here reads almost like a

408 S. Main St., Los Angeles graduate exam in culinary post-structuralism, mixing flavors and (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- structures from Spain, France and western China, and Mexico and restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#32) Peru. His ideal customer might be someone who knows what the (213) 687-8808 (tel:+12136878808) bacomercat.com (http://bacomercat.com) Catalan almond sauce salbitxada is but who also doesn't get upset if Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays she accidentally splashes a little on her shirt. A bäco itself is Centeno's to Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. invention, a kind of flatbread sandwich, halfway between a taco and a Fridays to Sundays; dinner, 5:30-11 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, 5:30 p.m. to pita construction, stuffed with chicken salad, fried veal tongue or a midnight Fridays and Saturdays, 5-10 complicated layering of that salbitxada, bits of pork belly and crunchy, p.m. Sundays porous cubes of what Centeno calls beef carnitas. Will you want a bowl $$ Full bar. Street parking. Credit cards of his noodle-enriched posole? You will, and some banana cream pie accepted. for dessert. f t s m p

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(Cheryl A. Guerrero / Los Angeles Times) 31 Guerrilla Tacos

Yes I've been I want to go An Alain Ducasse disciple quitting his job at an haute cuisine pop-up to z View my list serve charred octopus tacos on a downtown street corner? It happens.

826 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles So while you can approach Wes Avila's Guerrilla Tacos as you would (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- any other truck, making a lunch of an overstuffed taco and a bottle of restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#31) Mexican pop, the tacos you get at Guerrilla, which parks outside a guerrillatacos.com (http://guerrillatacos.com) downtown coffee bar a few days a week, are pretty much the ones he $ decides to sell you, which are as likely to be stuffed with diver scallops, Find the latest hours and location at Tuscan kale or even French black truffles as they are to be heaped with guerrillatacos.com. Credit cards accepted. shrimp or carnitas — carnitas Avila makes by slow-roasting Cook Pig Ranch pork shoulder. His biggest fans know to get there early: The f t s m p lamb shoulder or sea urchin you've been craving may be sold out within minutes.

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(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) 30 Tsujita

Yes I've been I want to go Tsujita ramen is unbelievably good: gossamer noodles in a complex z View my list broth made with chicken, Kurobuta pork and a bit of dried fish. The

2057 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles burlier version called tsukemen, dip ramen, may be even better, served (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- with a reduced broth as a dipping sauce on the side. Even the restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#30) simmered egg, its yolk a vivid, reddish-yellow custard, is superb. But in (310) 231-7373 (tel:+13102317373) tsujita-la.com (http://tsujita-la.com) the restaurant's wisdom, the ramen and tsukemen are served only at 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. to midnight lunchtime — dinner sees a multi-course, if noodleless, izakaya menu. daily The Tsujita Annex across the street serves ramen and tsukemen at $$ Beer and sake. Street parking. Cash both lunch and dinner, but a somewhat different if equally pork- only. intensive ramen, which might be delicious if you weren't thinking so hard about the ramen that you should be eating instead. f t s m p

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(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 29 Marché Moderne

Yes I've been I want to go Visitors to Los Angeles are always surprised by the great strip mall z View my list restaurants here, by the unexpected discovery of transcendence in a

3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa storefront between the dry cleaners and the 7-Eleven. Visitors to (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Orange County, I suppose, are just as shocked to discover fine dining restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#29) in mega-malls, the spiritual home of Mrs. Fields and Hot Dog on a (714) 434-7900 (tel:+17144347900) marchemoderne.net Stick. But at the top of its escalator, Marché Moderne is an oasis of (http://marchemoderne.net) calm, an unexpected place of guinea hen with calvados and scallops Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily; with cauliflower mousseline, moules frites and bone marrow with dinner 5:30-9:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 5:30-8 p.m. Sunday dense sauce bordelaise — classic French bistro cooking with just the $$$ occasional modern hint of a chorizo emulsion or a yuzu gelee. The $25 In South Coast Plaza. Full bar. Credit prix-fixe lunch is one of the better bargains in Southern California. cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 28 Hinoki and the Bird

Yes I've been I want to go The morning after a meal at Hinoki and the Bird, your memories tend z View my list to be complicated: steel-edged elegance and the fumbling of all the OK

10 W. Century Drive, Century City Cupid dates going on around you; wisps of cauliflower shaved over a (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- coconut soup and the slightly gritty texture of the charcoal-infused restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#28) buns used to make the lobster roll; the ethereal scent of cedar smoke (310) 552-1200 (tel:+13105521200) hinokiandthebird.com on the salmon and the sour aftertaste of cocktailian overindulgence. (http://hinokiandthebird.com) Chefs David Myers and Kuniko Yagi are obsessed with the complex Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays seasonal rhythms of kaiseki cooking. On the other hand, as the owner to Fridays; dinner, 5:30-10 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays of Comme Ça as well as a small chain of Tokyo cafes, Myers is also a $$$ master of high-volume upscale dining. So is Hinoki and the Bird, Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards hidden under a Century City skyscraper, a boozy small-plates accepted. restaurant reliant on luxury ingredients or an atmospheric Japanese f t s m p restaurant overlaid with American excess? Kind of both.

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 27 Son of a Gun

Yes I've been I want to go Pig guts are manly, as Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo discovered at z View my list Animal. Seafood can also be manly, as at their Son of a Gun, as long as

8370 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles you get rid of the twee beurre blanc and court bouillon, concentrating (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- instead on plunking grouper into ham broth, serving shrimp restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#27) sandwiches on white bread and making sure that the amberjack (323) 782-9033 (tel:+13237829033) sonofagunrestaurant.com sashimi and lemonfish poke are at least as chile-smacked as a street (http://sonofagunrestaurant.com) taco. Fried chicken sandwiches and big plates of Kentucky ham don't Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays hurt. They just got rid of the communal tables, so it is both a bit harder to Fridays; dinner, 6-11 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, 6 p.m. to midnight Fridays to buttonhole your neighbor on the subject of hockey and to land a seat and Saturdays on a Saturday night. $$$$ Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times) 26 Mélisse

Yes I've been I want to go If Angelenos are splashing three bills on dinner, they're probably going z View my list for sushi. So it is almost by force of will that Josiah Citrin's very French

1104 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica Mélisse, which is still the most formal restaurant to open in Los (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Angeles since the 1980s, maintains its momentum — not to mention its restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#26) truffles, caviar, Wagyu beef and specially imported Uruguayan rice. (310) 395-0881 (tel:+13103950881) melisse.com (http://melisse.com) Actually, compared to an omakase at Q, the $125 prix fixe may even be 6-9:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays, 6- a bargain. There is an opulent vegetarian tasting menu these days, but 10 p.m. Fridays, 5:45-10 p.m. Saturdays Citrin's customers still look like the parents of the people who go to $$$$ Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards Animal. accepted. f t s m p

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 25 The Factory Kitchen

Yes I've been I want to go The most sensational new pasta dish of the year was probably the z View my list Factory Kitchen's mandilli — fragile handkerchief pasta crumpled over

1300 Factory Place, Los Angeles an almond-thickened pesto, which essentially melts the second it hits (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- your tongue. Angelo Auriana's new restaurant is a compelling hybrid, restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#25) an informal trattoria with rather formal northern Italian cooking. The (213) 996-6000 (tel:+12139966000) thefactorykitchen.com dishes are composed and careful: sea robin roasted with olives and (http://thefactorykitchen.com) cherry tomatoes, pancotto with fried duck eggs, and complex casonzei Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays pasta with browned butter and sage. Focaccina di Recco is a marvelous to Fridays; dinner, 5:30-10 p.m. Sundays and Mondays, 5:30-10:30 p.m. Tuesdays thing, a kind of crisp, translucent Genoese version of a Lebanese borek to Thursdays, 5:30-11 p.m. Fridays and stuffed with herbs and milky Crescenza cheese. Saturdays $$$ Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Night + Market) 24 Night + Market

Yes I've been I want to go It may be an optical illusion, but Night + Market is looking more like a z View my list rec room with every visit: bright colors, banners on the walls, china

9041 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood made out of cheap tin. It's as if Talesai, on the other side of the wall, is (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- where the parents are having a sedate dinner, and Night + Market, restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#24) whose chef Kris Yenbamroong is actually the son of the Talesai owners, (310) 275-9724 (tel:+13102759724) nightmarketla.com is having a loud party for his friends. (Night + Market Song, the new (http://nightmarketla.com) spinoff in Silver Lake, looks even more like an apartment building's 6-10:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays common room done up for a birthday party.) Yenbamroong is cooking $$ Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards strong, unmodulated northern Thai dishes here: fiery nam priks, accepted. grilled pig collar, steamed blood cakes, sour sausages and other pungent drinking food from the countryside around Chiang Mai. f t s m p

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(Cheryl A. Guerrero / Los Angeles Times) 23 Pot

Yes I've been I want to go To understand Roy Choi's new restaurant, you've probably got to z View my list swallow a lot of haterade. Because the bareness of the hotel-lobby

3515 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles restaurant, the pounding hip-hop and the menu of unreconstructed (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Korean stews speaks to an extremely specific Koreatown experience restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#23) that many of Choi's contemporaries do not share. He charges a buck or (213) 368-3030 (tel:+12133683030) eatatpot.com (http://eatatpot.com) two for kimchi instead of giving it away, which may be the local 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily equivalent of spitting on the flag, and his newspaper-sized menu, $$ decorated with an enormous photograph of an elderly Burmese woman In the Line Hotel. Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. smoking a cheroot, makes his customers order vast tureens of Boot Knocker instead of budae jjigae, Jamaal Wilkes instead of soondubu f t s m p and Shorty instead of galbi jjim. The uni dynamite rice bowl, the closest thing to a must order, is slicked with spicy sauce. The soju cocktails are flavored with things like kimchi and curry. Somebody's having a good time — everybody's having a good time — but it is possible to find more fully realized versions of most of the dishes, even the crisp, LP-sized potato pancakes, elsewhere in Koreatown. But this is Choi's homage to the broad L.A. Korean American food universe in which he was raised, and it is vital and engaging in a way that even the best of the more sedate specialists in dak dori tang or eun daegu jorim can never be. Pot isn't a careful re-creation of a Seoul buljip. It is a raucous, sizzling, loving creature of Koreatown L.A.

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(Bret Hartman / For The Times) 22 SAAM

Yes I've been I want to go A few years ago, most chefs associated with the movement popularly z View my list known as molecular gastronomy, after the book by the same name by

465 S. La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills French writer Hervé This, decided that they'd rather be known as (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- modernists. All food, they insisted, was made of molecules, and the restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#22) hydrocolloidal magic tricks they performed were more or less (310) 246-5545 (tel:+13102465545) thebazaar.com (http://thebazaar.com) extensions of what chefs had been doing for centuries with egg whites 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays to and gelatins. But as with its counterpart in the art world, modernism Sundays turned out to be just another style. El Bulli's Ferran Adrià was a great $$$$ In the SLS Hotel. Full bar. Credit cards chef, but his foams, gels, mists, snows and edible plastics were less the accepted. Valet parking. end-point of culinary history than a scenic stop along the way. And SAAM, the chef's tasting room within Bazaar, the restaurant by José f t s m p Andrés, Adria's most successful disciple, is no less than a museum of modernist art. A (mandatory 22-course, $150) tasting menu may include a cocktail crowned with a flowing head of truffled mist, a duck- (HTTP://WWW.LATIMES.COM/) Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants filled dumpling whose skin is fashioned from pale cotton candy, a

The List (/lists/101-best-restaurants-jonathan-gold/)madeleine fashionedMy 101 fromThe chilled Map (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best-restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/) parmesan ganache, aged-rice risotto Rank Name Price enhanced with melted cheese, and a bit of uni with a mango pouch,

Photos (http://www.latimes.com/food/jonathan-gold/la-jonathan-gold-101-best-restaurants-2014-pg-photogallery.html)just because. The dishes are exquisitely constructed: An encapsulation of liquid cheese that might be bouncy and over-thick in Bazaar's main Videos (http://www.latimes.com/la-jonathan-gold-101-video-playlist-premiumvideoplaylist.html)dining room will be delicate at SAAM. You will encounter more edible gold than you have ever seen in your life, including a gold-plated, truffle-infused take on a Ferro Rocher candy. You will take a dozen 101 | $$ Starry Kitchen Instagram photos. And as at a Buzzcocks reunion show or a Picasso retrospective, you will become nostalgic for an era you may have never known.

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100 | $$ Rocio's Mole de los Dioses

99 | $$ Kobawoo House

(Jo Stougaard) 21 Jitlada 98 | $ Mexicali Taco & Co.

Yes I've been I want to go You could try to eat your way through the typed list of specials at the z View my list back of Jitlada's menu, a roster of ferociously spicy southern Thai

5233 1/2 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood dishes mostly unavailable outside Nakhon, but Suthiporn "Tui" (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Sungkamee will make it pretty difficult for you to succeed. The list of 97 | $ Golden Deli restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#21) regional specials balloons by the week, beyond the acacia blossom (323) 667-9809 (tel:+13236679809) jitladala.wordpress.com omelets, stuffed fish balls and beef with cassia buds to exotic curried (http://jitladala.wordpress.com) innards, eel with stinky sator beans, frog legs with turmeric and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5-10:30 p.m. hundreds of other things, in such profusion that most of us tend to end Tuesdays to Sundays $$ up with the coco mango salad and the fried morning glory once again. Beer and wine. Lot parking. Credit cards If you're lucky, Sungkamee's sister Sarintip "Jazz" Singsanong may accepted. volunteer to make you one of her notorious Thai hamburgers. 96 | $ Nickel Diner f t s m p

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(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 20 République

Yes I've been I want to go Your feelings about République may well depend on whether you mind z View my list paying a $5 supplement for mind-blowing Normandy butter

624 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles ("ordinary" butter is free), whether you would prefer pan drippings (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- and whether you consider an evening of cheese, duck-liver mousse and restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#20) Margarita Manzke's scorching-hot baguettes to be an evening well (310) 362-6115 (tel:+13103626115) republiquela.com spent. République occupies the former Campanile space, chopped and (http://republiquela.com) channeled into an enormous bistro, and the chef is Walter Manzke, 6-10 p.m. Mondays to Wednesdays, 6- whose suave, modern French cooking you may remember from Bastide 11 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays $$$ and Church & State. You find a lot of big-flavored bistro tropes here, Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards including cured headcheese with lentils, Alsatian tarte flambé, a wide accepted. selection of oysters, steak frites, snails en croute and Santa Barbara f t s m p spot prawns Provençale. Manzke is very good at this stuff. There's also a lot of the crunchy-groove cooking, the wood-roasted Brussels sprouts and curried cauliflower, that the cool kids are all cooking now. Will République grow to encompass Manzke's considerable skills with haute cuisine, or will it remain populist and delicious? At this point, it's hard to tell.

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(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 19 Church & State

Yes I've been I want to go You can find something like Church & State in every arty warehouse z View my list district in America, a dim, loud bistro with industrial flooring and

1850 Industrial St., Los Angeles skeins of Edison bulbs, serving familiar French dishes to a crowd (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- looking for its personal Montparnasse. The formula is so classic by now restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#19) that everyone has forgotten whether the snails under little caps of (213) 405-1434 (tel:+12134051434) churchandstatebistro.com pastry are supposed to be ironic or whether you're eating them because (http://churchandstatebistro.com) the herbed garlic butter tastes so good, or whether that glass of Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays absinthe is louche or a little bit passé. What the rest of those to Fridays; dinner 6-10 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, 6-11 p.m. Fridays, 5:30-11 restaurants don't have, though, is Tony Esnault in the kitchen, a chef p.m. Saturdays, 5:30-9 p.m. Sundays long associated with Alain Ducasse whose sturdy terrines, burnished $$$ meats and carefully composed vegetable dishes are remarkable in their Full bar. Valet and street parking. Credit cards accepted. depth of flavor. You may never taste a better coq au vin, underpinned with a deep bass note of thyme. f t s m p

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(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times) 18 n/naka

Yes I've been I want to go The ideal of Japanese kaiseki, multi-course feasts designed to express z View my list the mood of a season, has quietly supplanted the more conventional

3455 S. Overland Ave., Los Angeles French model in ambitious California restaurants. But n/naka may be (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- the first dedicated kaiseki restaurant in Los Angeles, at least the first restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#18) outside the Japanese expatriate community, and the sheer level of (310) 836-6252 (tel:+13108366252) n-naka.com (http://n-naka.com) cooking in this modest bungalow eclipses what you find in most of the 6-9:15 p.m. (final seating) Tuesdays to city's grand dining rooms. Niki Nakayama, a veteran of both Mori Fridays, 5:30-9:15 p.m. (final seating) Sushi and kaiseki-oriented Japanese ryokan, grows the vegetables and Saturdays $$$$ herbs for her restaurant in her Arcadia backyard, inflects the hairy crab Reservation only. Beer, wine and sake. or madai with nasturtium petals and truffles as well as the expected Limited lot parking. Credit cards flourishes of yuzu or grilled maitake mushrooms, and isn't beyond accepted. incorporating flavors from Italy or Hong Kong, although the soul of her f t s m p cooking remains wholly Japanese. It is occasionally difficult to ascertain whether the most impressive bit of a dish is the chewy slab of Japanese halibut fin or the thimble-sized cucumber used as garnish, whose texture has been transformed into something almost luxurious through a hundred tiny slashes of her knife. The restaurant is expensive, serving only 13-course kaiseki meals at $165.

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(Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times) 17 AOC

Yes I've been I want to go AOC has been an institution for so long that it seems almost odd to z View my list settle into the Moorish patio at its new grown-up location. Ordering

8700 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles the same old bacon-wrapped dates feels a bit awkward. But then you (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- settle in with a bowl of wood-oven clams with green garlic and a glass restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#17) of vinho verde, and it seems like old times. If you've been to Lucques or (310) 859-9859 (tel:+13108599859) aocwinebar.com (http://aocwinebar.com) Tavern, you know Suzanne Goin's style: strong flavors, puddles of 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays, 11:30 broth and extremely seasonal produce; slivers of lemon peel where a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays, 10 other chefs tend to use zest; lots of olives, fennel, thyme, chiles and a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays other hints of the Provencal palette even when the dish in question $$$ comes from elsewhere. Duck confit or "Ode to Zuni" roast chicken you Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards expect; Balinese suckling pig you may not. But you could be happy here accepted. ordering nothing but vegetables: black rice and chewy farro with pine f t s m p nuts; lightly curried cauliflower, or soft, almost soupy polenta with spears of charred asparagus.

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(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 16 The Tasting Kitchen

Yes I've been I want to go Casey Lane is the dark prince of "No Substitutions nor Modifications" z View my list in Los Angeles, a chef who tacitly blurs the lines between restaurant

1633 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice and art project, or did for years anyway, and maintains a menu that (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- seems to consist mostly of variations on pasta, salad, beans and toast. restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#16) It is delicious toast, of course, thick, made with great bread, and wood- (310) 392-6644 (tel:+13103926644) thetastingkitchen.com grilled, served with things like soft butter, old balsamic, bone marrow, (http://thetastingkitchen.com) house-made ricotta or goat cheese and figs. The basic impression is of Dinner, 6-11 p.m. nightly; brunch, 10:30 Italian cooking translated into an odd American dialect, in which a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays $$$ grilled anchovies are laid so beautifully on the plate that you rather Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards suspect there's an art director, and plates of asparagus with grapefruit accepted. or garganelli with pickled chiles and the Italian bacon called tesa are f t s m p remarkable for their purity of flavor. The fairly expensive wine list is impenetrable even to experts in Brunello and Chianti, but the staff is well-versed in its intricacies. The brunches, which include things like short-rib hash and bacon-stuffed waffles with fried chicken, are legend even in brunch-obsessed Venice.

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(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 15 Rivera

Yes I've been I want to go We should all be a little more obsessed with John Sedlar than we seem z View my list to be at the moment, following his experiments with tamales,

1050 S. Flower St., Los Angeles modernist tortillas and dim sum-style lonchera carts with the raptness (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- we devote to gifted food-truck impresarios and tracking his flirtations restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#15) with Spanish, Soviet and pre-Columbian kitchens. He didn't single- (213) 749-1460 (tel:+12137491460) riverarestaurant.com handedly invent new Southwestern cuisine, squirt-bottle saucing and (http://riverarestaurant.com) high-end pan-Latino cooking in the 1980s, although he might as well Lunch, noon to 2 p.m. Mondays to have, and as chef of Rivera, the most ambitious Mexican restaurant in Fridays; dinner, 5:30-10 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, 5:30-11 p.m. Fridays and the city at the moment, he has coaxed the old flavors into the context of Saturdays his sleek, modern cuisine. If a thing can be done with masa, wild $$$ mushrooms or chiles, he has done it, probably twice, and in ways that Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. are occasionally difficult to comprehend. But his cooking is before all delicious, and Julian Cox's Mexican-influenced cocktails are f t s m p mysterious, smoky and deep.

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(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 14 Bestia

Yes I've been I want to go Bestia exemplifies the modern Italian restaurant in Los Angeles, z View my list deeply invested in curing its own meats, preparing just enough offal to

2121 E. 7th Place, Los Angeles satisfy the nose-to-tail crowd and not only making its pasta by hand (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- but also serving it a little underdone so that the fusilli in lamb sauce restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#14) almost hurts. Grass-fed beef heart tartare? Sea urchin crudo with (213) 514-5724 (tel:+12135145724) bestiala.com (http://bestiala.com) lardo? Veal tartare with tonnato sauce? Ori Menashe is right there with 6-11 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, 6 p.m. you, even if you're just at Bestia for Genevieve Gergis' Carnaroli rice to midnight Fridays and Saturdays pudding with fruit. If you have heard of one bottle in five on the rustic- $$$ Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards leaning list, you are probably studying for the master of wine exam. At accepted. this point, Bestia may be best known as the downtown restaurant you can't get into, so you should probably plan your next dinner there a f t s m p month in advance.

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(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 13 Red Medicine

Yes I've been I want to go Red Medicine isn't a Vietnamese restaurant anymore — not that it ever z View my list persuaded most people that it was one in the first place. The locavore

8400 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills neo-Nordic principles always lurking beneath the spring rolls and (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- porridge have come to define Jordan Kahn's cuisine. You will scoop restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#13) English peas, unsweetened lemon custard and trout roe from the (323) 651-5500 (tel:+13236515500) redmedicinela.com bottom of goldfish bowls sealed with glaciers of frozen peapod juice, (http://redmedicinela.com) and you will learn to appreciate burnt lettuce leaves as a condiment. 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily You will have waitresses treat you as a slow schoolchild when you don't $$$ Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards immediately grasp that the coal-like lumps in a crab dish are pickled accepted. pioppini mushrooms rolled in coal ash. You will encounter as many kinds of yarrow in a dish of uni with almond milk as exist on heaven f t s m p and on earth — they like to forage here — and you will encounter sequoia shoots both as an herb and as the piney flavoring of a dessert. There has always been something a little punk-rock about Red Medicine, where the talents in the kitchen are sometimes offset by spectacular PR missteps, but it has become hard to imagine the Los Angeles restaurant scene without it.

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(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times) 12 Alma

Yes I've been I want to go In the year since we last checked up on it, Alma was named as the best z View my list new restaurant of 2013 by Bon Appetit, Food and Wine chose Ari

952 S. Broadway, Los Angeles Taymor as a best new chef and the tiny restaurant, next to a taxi-dance (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- joint on South Broadway, decided to serve only a $95 tasting menu. restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#12) Taymor still uses his share of foraged chickweeds and oxalis blossoms, (213) 244-1422 (tel:+12132441422) alma-la.com (http://alma-la.com) but nearly all of the produce comes from Courtney Guerra's Flower 6-10 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays Avenue garden in Venice. You are just as likely to run into the tofu- $$$$ seaweed beignets, broken beets with apples, and frozen duck liver with Beer and wine. Lot parking just north of restaurant. Credit cards accepted. smoked maple and carrots, but it all seems a little more purposeful these days, from the tiny English muffins served with uni to the f t s m p grapefruit with the Dungeness crab. Does Alma deserve the flood of praise? A qualified yes: Taymor occasionally seems too interested in aesthetic problem-solving, and his effects tend to be less than grounded in anything beyond themselves. Still, dinner here is never less than fascinating.

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(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) 11 Orsa & Winston

Yes I've been I want to go What ties Josef Centeno's cooking together? What might a plate of z View my list grilled greengage plums with fresh ricotta, rhubarb and tamarind have

122 W. 4th St., Los Angeles in common with a Japanese egg custard flavored with sunchokes, (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- celtuce and smoky wild mushrooms? Why would a gifted chef spend restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#11) hours composing a dish expressing the various textures of a yellowtail (213) 687-0300 (tel:+12136870300) orsaandwinston.com head? What is the point of sprinkling a savory panna cotta with (http://orsaandwinston.com) pungent cypress seeds? Centeno is obsessed with detail; the tweezer- 6-11 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays placed herbs, the drops of exotic oil, and the miniature, perfected scale. $$$ Beer and wine. Street or nearby lot He uses local produce when relevant and global products when they're parking. Credit cards accepted. not. He has the knowledge and will to mix traditions without losing sight of the fact that they are traditions. The intimate omakase f t s m p restaurant Orsa & Winston is the showcase Centeno's followers have been hoping for since he burst onto the scene a decade ago, and the menu, which changes daily, is as multicultural as the city it serves.

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(Los Angeles Times) 10 Cut

Yes I've been I want to go It is possible, I think, for a restaurant to be too good, to realize its given z View my list task so efficiently that it basically renders itself obsolete. Much of what

9500 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills we look for when we go out to good restaurants, after all, is the pursuit (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- of perfection — the idea that the next sip of Burgundy, the next restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#10) spoonful of crème brûlée, will finally be the one that approaches its (310) 276-8500 (tel:+13102768500) wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants/fine- Platonic form. And while Wolfgang Puck's steakhouse Cut is admirable dining/3789 in so many ways — its science-fiction-severe Richard Meier design, the (http://wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants/fine- bone-marrow flan and the crisp little knishes that sometimes show up dining/3789) 6-10 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, 6-11 as an amuse bouche — the Wagyu rib-eye imported from Japan is so p.m. Fridays, 5:30-11 p.m. Saturdays rich, so perfectly beefy, that it is unnecessary to eat more than a bite or $$$$ two. This is not a bad thing. It leaves room for chef Ari Rosenson's In the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Full bar. Valet parking off Rodeo Drive. Credit truffled lobster, sliced tongue with salsa verde and lightly curried short cards accepted. ribs. f t s m p

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(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times) 9 Animal

Yes I've been I want to go Do you remember the first time you tasted a bacon dessert? Did you z View my list notice the moment that every restaurant in town seemed to be serving

435 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles beef tendon puffed into airy snack crackers, and did you ever wonder (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- why? A visit to Animal can occasionally feel like a forced march restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#9) through an anatomy handbook, but Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo have (323) 782-9225 (tel:+13237829225) animalrestaurant.com a gift for making curried brains, fried pig's ear, crunchy sweetbreads (http://animalrestaurant.com) and oxtail poutine seem as routine as steak and roast chicken, and by 6-11 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, 6 p.m. the time you work your way to the smoked turkey legs and balsamic- to midnight Fridays and Saturdays $$$ glazed country ribs, you may be wondering why you didn't order the Beer and wine. Valet parking. Credit crispy pig's head or veal tongue instead. Animal is the kind of cards accepted. restaurant that other chefs dream about, a kitchen that renders its f t s m p darkest, and happiest, thoughts in smoking, dripping flesh.

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(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) 8 Trois Mec

Yes I've been I want to go Ludovic Lefebvre is either the chef who saved French cooking in Los z View my list Angeles or is the hell-born agent of its destruction. Personally, I think

716 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles he may be both. He is a protégé of Pierre Gagnaire, Marc Meneau and (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Alain Passard who is perhaps best known for his fried-chicken truck restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#8) and his snarling Gallic presence on reality cooking shows. He (No phone.) (tel:+1Nophone.) troismec.com (http://troismec.com) introduced the city to full-bore modernist cuisine and then kicked his Dinner, Mondays to Fridays liquid nitrogen canister to the side of the road. He is a master of the $$$$ nuanced tasting menu who found his voice cooking at pop-ups in a Reservations only through online pre- paid tickets. Beer and wine. Lot parking. sandwich shop. Seats at his tiny restaurant, hidden in a former chain pizzeria that still bears its sign, can be as hard to come by as courtside f t s m p seats at a Lakers game, and trying to land one can make a potential diner yearn for a culinary Stub Hub. As good as his truffled grilled cheese with buttermilk and honey or his potato pulp with bonito flakes and Salers cheese may be, repeat visitors may wish that he would occasionally change things up. But it is the possibility of surprise that brings you back and back again, of experiencing what a supremely gifted chef can do with rare Iberico pork, beef with smoked peanut butter or sushi rice with brandade. He has made the grilled cabbage leaf practically a sacrament, and not just because he dusts it with crushed almond candy. For all of its maddening drawbacks, Trois Mec is the closest thing in the United States to the ecstatic improvisational cooking at Parisian bistronomy shrines such as Frenchie and Le Chateaubriand.

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(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) 7 Ink

Yes I've been I want to go If you cherish good reasons to hate a new restaurant, you will probably z View my list find everything you're looking for at Ink. The walls of the dining room

8360 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles look as if somebody rubbed them down with shoe polish, and the (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- music is unbearably loud. If you're down on celebrity chefs, you'll be restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#7) happy to learn that Michael Voltaggio is probably the Joe DiMaggio of (323) 651-5866 (tel:+13236515866) mvink.com (http://mvink.com) "Top Chef," a guy not beyond inflecting his steak tartare with 6-11 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, 6 p.m. horseradish and liquid nitrogen, transforming naked egg yolks into to midnight Fridays and Saturdays gnocchi or serving his Brussels sprouts with pig's ears and thin sheets $$$ Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards of lardo. That couple at the next table, the ones eating potato charcoal accepted. with vinegar and braised beef cheeks with parsnip bark, look altogether too pleased with themselves. But then you try the melty-soft f t s m p cuttlefish with toasted hazelnuts or the lamb belly with yogurt curds, and you know. Voltaggio is as obsessed with that potato polenta with bone marrow in front of you as you have ever been with anything in your life.

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(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 6 Rustic Canyon

Yes I've been I want to go If you are even remotely interested in the restaurant world, you z View my list probably know the odd trajectory of Jeremy Fox, the former Manresa

1119 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica chef who transformed Ubuntu, a yoga studio annex in Napa, Calif., into (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- the most important vegetarian restaurant in the United States. And restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#6) here he is at the wine bar Rustic Canyon, serving crisp little pig's foot (310) 393-7050 (tel:+13103937050) rusticcanyonwinebar.com patties with yuzu-scented aioli, half-melted Raclette cheese with an (http://rusticcanyonwinebar.com) oniony chicken broth and tiny Jaime Farms radishes, leaves and all, 5:30-10:30 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, with a bit of lardo beaten until it resembles whipped cream. Fox is one 5:30-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays $$$ of the farmers market guys, but you wouldn't confuse Rustic Canyon with a health food restaurant, especially after a bottle or two of f t s m p biodynamic Syrah. You will want the Castelvetrano olives jolted with fennel and orange zest. Fox's odd composition of beets, smashed berries and ripe avocado may be the first bowl of purple quinoa you will ever eat with pleasure. Even the kale salad is delicious, thoroughly massaged into submission and tossed with dates and Parmesan. If Fox can make raw kale taste good, imagine what he can do with green pozole spiked with mussels and clams.

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(Cheryl A. Guerrero / Los Angeles Times) 5 Lucques

Yes I've been I want to go When people chat about restaurant cooking, the conversation usually z View my list flirts with ingredients, influences and technique. But when it comes to

8474 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood the food at Lucques, the seat of Suzanne Goin's small but swelling (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- restaurant empire, discussion tends to come around to first principles: restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#5) the small but telling details that make each ingredient taste most fully (323) 655-6277 (tel:+13236556277) lucques.com (http://lucques.com) of itself; the essential qualities of the French-leaning pan- Noon to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Mediterranean food. I could probably go on for half an hour about a Saturdays, 6-9:30 p.m. Mondays and recent citrus salad: the half-dozen varieties each at the peak of its Tuesdays, 6-10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 6-10:30 p.m. Fridays and season; the way each fruit was sliced to accentuate its particular sweet- Saturdays, 5-9:30 p.m. Sundays tartness or bitterness and presented at slightly different temperatures; $$$ the bland smoothness of the fresh labneh cheese and the sharp Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. fragrance of the mint; the subtle, rubbery crunch of the chopped pistachios. The short ribs, the ricotta dumplings with English peas and f t s m p the rabbit with noodles are detailed too. If you have cooked out of Goin's "Sunday Suppers at Lucques" (or have eaten family supper at Lucques on a Sunday), you know that behind her simplicity lies not just the expected California farmers market fixation but also patience and extraordinary rigor.

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(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 4 Shunji

Yes I've been I want to go There has never been a better time to eat sushi in Los Angeles, whether z View my list your tastes run toward the hot-rice school led by Nozawa, the

12244 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles Peruvian-Japanese hybrid pioneered by Matsuhisa, or Hiroyuki (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Naruke's purist edomae sushi at Q. But the most satisfying sushi meals restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#4) of all may issue from the chili-bowl-shaped sushi bar of Shunji Nakao, (310) 826-4737 (tel:+13108264737) shunji-ns.com (http://shunji-ns.com) who dances you across the Pacific, fish by fish, as suavely as Gene Kelly Lunch, noon to 2 p.m. Mondays to skipping down the street. You may be served an impossibly luxurious Fridays; dinner, 6-10 p.m. Mondays to concoction of julienned raw squid, squid ink, sea urchin and black Thursdays, 6-10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays truffles; freshly made sesame tofu with a crumpled sheet of yuba; or a $$$$ tangle of slivered sardines. The sushi is different every day, but the Beer, wine and sake. Lot parking. Credit omakase will invariably include a species or two new to you: needlefish cards accepted. woven into a thick, fragrant braid, or even exquisite kohada, marinated f t s m p just long enough to soften its fishy edge. You will find a small but beautifully composed list of the junmai daiginjo sakes that go so well with Shunji's food.

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(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) 3 Mozzaplex

Yes I've been I want to go The consensus hit of L.A.'s meat world this year is probably Chad z View my list Colby's tomahawk chop at Chi Spacca, a monumental cross-section of

641 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles pork rib, hefty as a squash racquet, rubbed with fennel pollen and (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- grilled slowly until it glows with flavor. And Colby's coppa and lardo restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#3) are the most carefully cured in town. Pizzeria Mozza is among the best (323) 297-0101 (tel:+13232970101) pizzeriamozza.com pizzerias in the United States, famous for its organic ingredients and a (http://pizzeriamozza.com) risen, unconventionally fermented crust good enough to eat even Noon to midnight daily without the squash blossoms and burrata. The Pugliese-style focaccia $$$ Pizzeria Mozza: Beer and wine. Osteria sold Mondays at Mozza2Go is formidable. Osteria Mozza goes from Mozza: 6602 Melrose Ave., L.A., (323) strength to strength, from the northern Italian pastas to Matt Molina's 297-0100, osteriamozza.com. 5:30-11 pungent roast guinea fowl, from the deep all-Italian wine list to the p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 5-11 p.m. Saturdays, 5 to 10 p.m. Sundays. Full encyclopedic mozzarella bar commanded by co-owner Nancy Silverton. bar. Chi Spacca: 6610 Melrose Ave., Any of the components of the sprawling Mozzaplex would be among L.A., (323) 297-1133, chispacca.com. 6- 11 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 5-11 p.m. the better restaurants in town; together, they command L.A.'s universe Saturdays, 5-10 p.m. Sundays. of urban rustic cuisine. (The usual disclosure applies here: Silverton, Mozza2Go: 6610 Melrose Ave., L.A., who runs the complex under the distant supervision of Joe Bastianich (323) 297-1130, mozza2go.com. Delivery and takeout, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Mario Batali, is a family friend.) Mondays to Fridays, noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. f t s m p

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(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) 2 Spago

Yes I've been I want to go You have to give it to Wolfgang Puck — he is really good at this z View my list reinvention thing. So if you haven't been to Spago in a while, it may

176 N. Cañon Drive, Beverly Hills seem odd to walk into the Minimalist-chic dining room with Ed (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- Ruscha prints on the walls, wine racks reaching halfway to space and a restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#2) tasting menu that has become newly locavore — all California, anyway (310) 385-0880 (tel:+13103850880) http://bit.ly/1e6ywyc — with a rigor that even the hip downtown places aren't quite showing (http://http://bit.ly/1e6ywyc) at the moment. And while you may be eating Santa Barbara sea urchin Lunch, noon-2:30 p.m. Tuesdays to with freshly made tofu, bincho-grilled squab with charred maitake Saturdays; dinner, 6-10 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 5:30-10:30 p.m. Saturdays and mushrooms and Sonoma lamb smoked over the foraged herb called 5:30-10 p.m. Sundays rabbit tobacco, the table next to you may be enjoying Wiener schnitzel, $$$$ a giant côte de boeuf with cheesy pommes aligot, or agnolotti with Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards accepted. peas. Spago, the most famous restaurant in the observable universe, might have coasted forever on its 1980s fame, but Puck and his chef f t s m p Tetsu Yahagi reinvented it for the second time, as a proto-modernist restaurant on the international model. But you are still at Spago. Life is good.

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(Mariah Tauger / For The Times) 1 Providence

Yes I've been I want to go Once again, the best restaurant in Los Angeles is Providence, that z View my list refuge of fine dining just north of Hancock Park. Michael Cimarusti's

5955 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles training is in haute French cuisine, but a broad streak of Japanese (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- kaiseki runs through his cooking. He uses only wild-caught fish (his restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#1) menus are 90% seafood) and refuses to serve species, such as (323) 460-4170 (tel:+13234604170) providencela.com swordfish or bluefin tuna, considered threatened by environmental (http://providencela.com) watch groups. He promotes local farmers but does not hesitate to use Lunch, noon to 2 p.m. Fridays; dinner, 6- exotic seaweeds or imported calamansi limes when they suit a dish. He 10 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 5:30-10 p.m. Saturdays, 5:30-9 p.m. Sundays is conversant with all the latest modernist techniques, but aside from $$$$ the occasional encapsulated daiquiri or sous-vide cephalopod, its use is Full bar. Valet parking. Credit cards rarely apparent. When he devises a better way to make a clam chowder accepted. or fold Santa Barbara uni into soft-scrambled eggs, he won't stop f t s m p serving it for frivolous reasons, but the menu is highly seasonal, and every time you visit you are likely to encounter dishes you haven't yet seen: a botanical fantasy of nasturtium leaves folded over minced Japanese tai and garnished with its sesame-stuffed blossoms, a shot of smoked halibut broth concealing tiny spring peas, or perhaps a barely seared Santa Barbara spot prawn moistened with a sauce made from the juices from its own head and Brittany salt butter. Cimarusti may be a supremely creative chef, but his restaurant has many of the classic virtues: crisp white tablecloths, a lovely but understated dining room, a deep but surprisingly reasonable wine list and a staff intimately acquainted with his cuisine.

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