The list: Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants - 2014 - Los Angeles Times 2014/05/21 9:57 z Sign in 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) Safari Power Saver Click to Start Flash Plug-in ADVERTISEMENT http://ballots.latimes.com/lists/101-best-restaurants-jonathan-gold/ Page 1 of 103 The list: Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants - 2014 - Los Angeles Times 2014/05/21 9:57 (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 $$ Full bar. Credit cards accepted. fashion district lunchroom into a semi-permanent pan-Asian pop-up in an old-Chinatown dive, which means that the fried rice with pork f t s m p belly and dried seafood, the crunchy sea bass tails and the fried tofu balls feel oddly consonant with the plastic chopsticks and the bartenders whose idea of an old-fashioned includes half a dozen maraschino cherries mashed into a crimson slurry. Do try the clay pot sea bass cooked in a complex Vietnamese caramel sauce. And stick around for the disco, if that's your thing. Show c1 comments http://ballots.latimes.com/lists/101-best-restaurants-jonathan-gold/ Page 2 of 103 The list: Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants - 2014 - Los Angeles Times 2014/05/21 9:57 (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 100 Rocio's Mole de los Dioses Yes I've been I want to go When the subject of mole comes up in Los Angeles, and it comes up z View my list more often than you might think, Rocio Camacho is always part of the 8255 Sunland Blvd., Sun Valley discussion. She has expanded beyond the traditional black mole and (http://guides.latimes.com/101-best- even past Oaxaca's famous seven, to an almost infinite repertoire of the restaurants-map-jonathan-gold/#100) complex, spicy sauce, including moles made with pistachios, with (818) 252-6415 (tel:+18182526415) moleofthegods.com toasted coffee beans and with cactus and mezcal. Is the mole made (http://moleofthegods.com) with the mushroomy corn fungus huitlacoche really the Mole of the 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Goddesses? That's up to you. But you can also get an oddly satisfying Mondays to Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 9 bowl of cream of grasshopper soup. p.m. Sundays $$ Beer and wine. Credit cards accepted. Also at 19321 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, (818) 457-4545. f t s m p Show c1 comments http://ballots.latimes.com/lists/101-best-restaurants-jonathan-gold/ Page 3 of 103 The list: Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants - 2014 - Los Angeles Times 2014/05/21 9:57 (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. Show c0 comments http://ballots.latimes.com/lists/101-best-restaurants-jonathan-gold/ Page 4 of 103 The list: Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants - 2014 - Los Angeles Times 2014/05/21 9:57 (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 Show c1 comments http://ballots.latimes.com/lists/101-best-restaurants-jonathan-gold/ Page 5 of 103 The list: Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants - 2014 - Los Angeles Times 2014/05/21 9:57 (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 Show c0 comments http://ballots.latimes.com/lists/101-best-restaurants-jonathan-gold/ Page 6 of 103 The list: Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants - 2014 - Los Angeles Times 2014/05/21 9:57 (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.