Patricia Kelly Yeo

As one of L.A.’s most high-profile neighborhoods in the midst of gentrification, Highland Park is home to an ever-changing mix of excellent brick-and-mortar restaurants and street food stands. Among them are decades-old family-run restaurants, cash-only taco spots and a critically acclaimed Taiwanese fast-casual spot selling the finest thousand-layer egg pancake wraps outside of the San Gabriel Valley. No matter the time of day, you’ll find great places to eat, with the bulk of them concentrated on York Boulevard and Figueroa Street, and if you extend your search beyond the neighborhood to Glassell Park and Eagle Rock (both located about a 10 minute drive away), there are even more amazing destination-worthy Northeast L.A. eateries. Whether you’re looking for breakfast, lunch, dinner or late-night eats, here are our favorite Highland Park restaurants–plus a few more just outside the area. RECOMMENDED: See more in our guide to Highland Park

For a city founded by what were essentially Spaniards, Los Angeles is strangely lacking in their national cuisine. A few newer restaurants are hoping to change that, but by and large you still need to look quite hard to find the bold, garlicky flavors of the Iberian Peninsula across greater L.A. From traditional paella and croquetas to imported jamón, we’ve tracked down the best places to enjoy some Spanish specialties alongside excellent wine or maybe a cocktail or two. Whether you’re craving imported tinned fish, plate-size tortilla española or the most luxurious and modern takes on Spanish cuisine, here’s where to enjoy tapas like a Spaniard—and don’t forget a glass of sangria.

Plant-based dining in L.A. has come a long way from the days when Annie Hall parodied the Source, one of the city’s trendiest (and cult-iest) vegetarian restaurants in the ’70s and ’80s. The word “vegan” hasn’t raised eyebrows or prompted jokes about granola or nut loaf for years, if not decades, and there’s more 100% plant-based options on menus at regular restaurants than ever before. National chains like Veggie Grill have made animal product-free dining easier, if not necessarily healthier, and the last five years have seen an explosion in the city’s plant-based fast food options, whether you’re eating an Impossible patty at Burger King or Carl’s Jr or opting for a local joint like Burgerlords or Monty’s. These days, you can find slices of pizza piled high with veggies and faux meats; fully plant-based takes on Mexican cuisine; L.A.’s always trusty Ethiopian restaurants; and more vegan Italian dining than you can shake a stick at. For those who seek it out, you can also find amazing Asian cuisine sans animal products, including Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese cooking that rivals the city’s best restaurants. In our humble (and vegan-vetted) opinion, here are the very best of the best places for plant-based eats—though some places do serve a few dishes containing egg. Editor’s note: After revisiting all of the city’s new vegan fast food options, we’ve decided on our favorite fast-food joint in town: Monty’s Good Burger. RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in Los Angeles

For many Angelenos, Indian cuisine is something of an afterthought—the stuff of late-night meals, last-minute delivery or whatever’s convenient on the way home. I’ll be honest: Compared to the Bay Area or New York City, Los Angeles isn’t exactly known for its amazing Indian—or Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan—restaurants, for that matter. If you know where to look, however, the city is full of worthy South Asian dining destinations, from chef-driven takes in Silver Lake and Downtown L.A. to a handful of standout Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants in Artesia, Culver City and Koreatown’s Little Bangladesh.  Across the Indian subcontinent—a region that’s home to over two billion(!) people—you’ll find plenty of regional foodways that have nothing in common with your garden-variety garlic naan and chicken tikka masala. Fun fact: The latter dish, a hybrid between butter chicken and chicken tikka (yogurt-marinated grilled chicken), was actually invented in Scotland by a Pakistani British immigrant.  Luckily, L.A. is still home to plenty of desi restaurants that specialize in regional cuisine and hard-to-find dishes. To put together this guide, I traveled across L.A. County, seeking out only the best, most destination-worthy South Asian restaurants, including affordable spots in the San Fernando Valley and Artesia’s Little India, plus notable new-school joints run by second-generation Asian Americans like Pijja Palace and Roots Indian Bistro. If you’re looking for a mo

If you’ve ever found yourself en route to a housewarming or birthday party empty-handed, you’re not alone. Now, more than ever, L.A. is full of thoughtful micro-grocery stores and neighborhood markets (and no, we won’t call them bodegas) stocking the kind of pricey—but well-made—kitchen and home goods, unique snacks and soft drinks, and bottles of booze that make for impressive, seemingly effortless last-minute gifts. At these gourmet mini-marts, shoppers will encounter a regular cast of characters from L.A.’s artisan food scene, as well as knowledgeable staff who are often passionate about what they do. With that in mind, you’ll typically see sticker prices far higher than corporate grocery stores—so plan your budget well, and shop accordingly.  Whether you’re putting together a picnic, in full-blown pre-party panic mode or just happen to be in the neighborhood, these twelve gourmet mini-marts are worth taking the time to drop by, peruse and explore.

For better or for worse, Angelenos are a bunch who love to brunch—try saying that five times fast. To help you in your quest for weekend morning grub, I’ve tried dozens of different variations on eggs Benedict, omelettes, pancakes and fried chicken and waffles in my quest to find the best brunch in Los Angeles.  While my personal taste leans more towards old-school classics and top-notch dim sum, I make every effort to suss out which boozy, more upscale affairs are worthy of your next special occasion gathering. Quality of the food matters above all; if I can tell a restaurant is phoning it in with gloppy hollandaise sauce, overcooked eggs and sugar bombs pretending to be pancakes, it doesn’t matter how great the ambience is. (That being said, if you’re looking to party, I’ve got you covered with guides for drag brunch and bottomless brunch.)Go to any of these restaurants on this list, and you’ll find delicious, well-made food with a distinct point of view and the kind of atmosphere conducive either to celebrating birthdays and other special occasions or catching up with friends or family. In practice, this means we’ll exclude a few great weekday options like Liu’s Cafe from this list, simply because the trendy Koreatown destination curtails its menu on the weekends to better serve the heavy crowds and the cramped space isn’t conducive to groups larger than one or two people. Of the more casual counter-service restaurants I’ve included, I think the meal is worth the wait and

Despite post-pandemic inflation and the rising cost of doing business, L.A. is still home to one of the most innovative, exciting and diverse food scenes in the country. Brick-and-mortar restaurants, Instagram pop-ups, street vendors and food trucks: No matter the form, you can find amazing food in a city whose reputation is built as much on off-the-beaten-path tacos and pop-ups as it is on fine dining-trained chefs making quick work of farmers’ market produce and mainline access to the top-notch Pacific seafood. At its core, L.A.’s restaurant scene thrives on diversity, resulting in genre-bending formats and cuisines that have given rise to some of the country’s best omakase restaurants, fine dining institutions and strip mall hidden gems. Our experts scour the city for great eats and great insider info. We value fun, flavor, freshness—and value at every price point. We update our list regularly to reflect changes in menu offerings, style of service, new locations and the ever-changing pulse of the city’s food scene. If it’s on the list, we think it’s awesome and worth the hype, wait and money —and we bet you will, too. July 2024: We’ve spent the late spring and early summer scouting for the latest and greatest restaurants to add to our guide, and we’re pleased to add one new noteworthy addition to the guide: Dunsmoor in Glassell Park, an upscale Southern restaurant we reviewed early last year. After two years in business, Brian Dunsmoor’s eponymous eatery has found its groo

Los Feliz may not be considered one of L.A.’s prime destinations for dining, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t great food found along its streets. Italian restaurants decked out in red-and-white tablecloths, stands offering fresh fish tacos, and cafés with a vegetarian and gluten-free slant abound, making it easy to cave into any craving that hits. We’ve rounded up our favorite Los Feliz restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner—and if you’re looking for a drink or two, consider one of our go-to Los Feliz bars. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to Los Feliz

After three years of being hosted in the spring, the summer edition of Dine LA is back with a vengeance. (The restaurant week itself is in its 16th year.) Running from July 12 to 26, over 300 eateries will provide special prix fixe lunch and dinner menus running from $15 to $65-plus, with plenty of meal deals involved. This summer, you’ll find scattered among the biannual restaurant week’s dizzying full list of menus more than a handful of L.A.’s best restaurants, as well as our plenty of fresh new faces, offering their signature dishes at a more budget-friendly price point. Not interested in hunting through the list? We’ve scoured the lineup and found our favorite Dine LA lunch, brunch and dinner deals, from upscale date night spots to cozy family-style feasts. Though we’ve found that the discounts have shrunk in recent years, we found the best Dine LA menus that provide the most bang for your buck in terms of quality, price and portion size. Read on, fire up your Resy and OpenTable accounts, and enjoy!

Given the fact that it’s home to the luxury-oriented Rodeo Drive, is it any wonder that the vast majority of dining options in Beverly Hills are expensive? From steakhouses to high-end sushi spots, Beverly Hills is home to plenty of restaurants perfect for power lunches, birthdays and celebrations, as well as a handful of places that won’t totally break the bank. We’ve also included our favorite spots in Century City, since the neighborhood is less than two miles away and encompasses the Westfield Century City mall, a dining destination in its own right. Check out our guide to the best Beverly Hills area restaurants for meals that are worth their price tag, big or small.RECOMMENDED: See more in our complete guide to Beverly Hills

In a city known for its vegetarian and vegan appeal, we sometimes forget about the bounty of steakhouses serving prime cuts of meat around L.A. True, Angelenos tend to prefer their red meat in Korean barbecue form, but there’s nothing like a steakhouse to seal the deal on an important contract or impress someone after a great first date. After six months and a seemingly endless number of martinis, wedge salads and sides of creamed corn, mashed potatoes and char-grilled broccolini, I’m pleased to present you with our guide to L.A.’s best steakhouses. In the process of researching this guide, I visited over two dozen steakhouses, criss-crossed L.A. County and made sure that the spots on this guide are the places in L.A. to find a perfectly cooked dry-aged (or wet-aged) steak, plus killer sides, appetizers and dessert. These protein-heavy joints are the ideal spot to kick back with a martini or two, level up a relationship (or, you know, not) and find solace with other meat-eaters. Check out our list of the best steakhouses in L.A., and keep your knives at the ready. RECOMMENDED: Read more of our guide to the best restaurants in L.A.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner—if our idioms are any indication, fried chicken is as American as a well-made cheeseburger or apple pie. Across Los Angeles, you can find hundreds of iterations of deep-fried yardbird, from lowbrow to upscale. While many of the very best offer regional variations out of the American South, including now-ubiquitous Nashville-style hot chicken, L.A. is also home to countless other variations of fried chicken, from South Korean-style recipes that call for rice flour, double frying and maybe a healthy dollop of soy-garlic or gochujang-chili sauce to southern Thailand’s famous hat yai chicken, served with a side of nam jim dipping sauce. Let’s not forget Taiwanese popcorn chicken, Japanese chicken karaage and even chain restaurants, where many of us were first introduced to fried chicken.Over the last year and a half, I’ve tried over four dozen unique iterations of fried chicken in L.A., building off a lifelong love of the dish in all its glorious, deep-fried permutations. Yes, that includes plenty of fried chicken sandwiches—a genre so wide-ranging, in fact, it calls for a separate guide. Across my top picks, I’ve included sit-down restaurant dishes, casual storefront, classics, one notable gluten-free option and plenty of budget-friendly picks, as well as a range of fried chicken styles. From various Southern styles to saucy Korean wings, you’re bound to find your next favorite near you on this list of the best fried chicken in L.A.

Specializing in South Indian cuisine, with an eye to vegan and health-conscious options, this award-winning Culver City strip mall gem has stood the test of time and won over the likes of the late Jonathan Gold and former Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi. Dishes rich with cumin, coriander and turmeric predominate, as well as creamy stews that sway more sour than sweet. On its massive menu spanning halal and vegetarian options you’ll also find excellent versions of regional specialties like uthappam—a pizza-like pancake that features various toppings cooked into fluffy dosa batter—and unique Kerala-style fish curry with pieces of bubbly, ultra-light appam. The giant, conical ghee roast dosa is also a must order for every table.

For years, this family-run Pakistani eatery has cooked up delicious portions of halal food, including a standout Karachi-style chicken biryani, ultra-fiery chandan kebabs and a decadent Delhi-style nihari (beef stew). Originally based in Culver City, you can now find Zam Zam Foods in Hawthorne, where a new set of owners has maintained the consistency and quality that has made the restaurant’s fiery chicken biryani beloved across the Southland. On the weekends, be sure to order the halwa puri platter with sweet, carrot-based halwa (a type of crumbly, sugary confection), chickpea curry and a deep-fried, handrolled puri. Other menu highlights include the milder, fragrant lamb pulao and the milky-sweet, steaming hot cups of chai.

Specializing in Burmese and Indian food, this halal takeout eatery and grocery store in Culver City offers a pleasing mix of everyday-priced Southeast and South Asian cuisine. Here, dishes like tea leaf salad and panthay khow suey (the Burmese version of Thai khao soi) complement more Indian-style dishes like flattened patties of shami kabab and goat biryani. Technically, Myanmar (previously known as Burma) is in Southeast Asia, but a long legacy of immigration between the subcontinent and Myanmar has lent itself to plenty of culinary overlap—and Jasmine Market‘s menu is no exception. Beloved by locals since its opening in 2008, the family-run spot also has an excellent bright pink falooda—an ultra-sweet rosewater drink perfect in the spring and summer.

This takeout eatery in Koreatown-adjacent Little Bangladesh has little in the way of atmosphere, but the array of standout South Asian specialties, especially the sinus-clearing lamb biryani, are worth coming from out of the way for. Where other Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants might hold back on spices to appeal to a more general audience, Biryani Kabob House takes a no-holds-barred approach to adding coriander, cumin, cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to all its dishes. The naan here is fluffy and warm, which makes for great dipping into stew-like dishes like nihari and chicken karahi. Even standard takeout dishes like saag paneer and chicken tikka masala get their due here and ensure you’ll remember that there’s more to Koreatown than just Korean food.

With elegant Bollywood-inspired cocktails and an elevated approach to South Asian cooking, this New York City import has already upset L.A.’s Indian restaurant status quo. Led by international chef Sujan Sarkar, who also operates restaurants in Chicago, San Francisco and New Delhi, Baar Baar showcases a newer, more modern side of subcontinental cuisine in an airy Downtown dining room (previously occupied by Faith & Flower). Vibrant chaats and fusion-style items like a duck birria taco deftly mix the familiar and novel for an upscale dining experience you likely won’t forget. On my visit, I especially enjoyed the unusually nuanced butter chicken, made with red pepper and fenugreek. I’ve heard reports from recent diners of occasional inconsistencies in the kitchen and less-than-stellar cooking, but as one of the only upscale South Asian restaurants in town, Baar Baar is an obvious choice if you’re looking for a centrally located Indian spot with a special-occasion feel.

Flavorful contemporary dishes make this newer Culver City restaurant stand out within L.A.’s South Asian dining scene, from chicken wings drenched in an Old Monk marinade (India’s iconic dark rum) to a lobster moilee, a rich coconut milk curry from the southern state of Kerala traditionally made with shrimp. Modestly priced classics like pav bhaji—vegetable curry sliders—and chicken tikka kebab come loaded with spices, and everything pairs well with Arth’s playful desi-inspired cocktails. I particularly enjoyed the jal-jeera mojito, which pairs the popular cumin-based north Indian drink with chili-infused white rum and a touch of peach liqueur. At the bar, a robust weekday happy hour (3–5pm) offers $7 well drinks and shaves $2 off cocktails and 50% off on small plates like “sexier” curry fries and a crunchy, refreshing masala papad chaat.

Open mostly during daylight hours, Tarzana’s Apey Kade is one of the only restaurants serving Sri Lankan cuisine in all of Los Angeles. Luckily, it’s also extremely delicious. Run by husband-and-wife team Niza Hashim and Lalith Rodrigo, the no-frills strip mall joint offers a detailed bird’s eye view of the South Asian island country’s staple dishes, from string hoppers (rice flour noodle discs) to lamprais (a portable banana leaf packet of rice, meat, sambal and curried vegetables). Most items let you choose your own protein, including an option for vegetarians, and there’s a hot case of pastries if you’re interested in trying Sri Lankan-style patties, including one stuffed with curried fish, that bear more than a passing similarity in taste and texture to the varieties made across the Caribbean.

Specializing in Rajasthani cuisine, this newer addition to Little India has been making a splash with hard-to-find northwestern dishes like bajra ri roti (millet flatbread) and makki ri roti (corn flatbread) and a dizzying maharaja thali assortment made of dozens of components, including tiny balls known as bati meant for dunking into ghee or dal (lentil stew). The large menu might be borderline overwhelming, but it's always fun to try at least one or two variations on chaat (crunchy street snacks) and puri (puffed wheat crackers, usually filled or topped with chutney, yogurt or spiced water). For a bite of comfort, order one of the kachoris—a crunchy, deep-fried pastry that can be filled with onions or lentils.

Tucked along Melrose’s dispensaries, tattoo parlors and streetwear shops, Roots Indian Bistro serves a noteworthy, thoughtfully executed mix of traditional and fusion Indian cuisine. On any given evening, you’ll see a diverse mix of neighborhood locals, including plenty of South Asian families, enjoying familiar dishes like chicken tandoori and saag paneer. For pairs, family-style combos offer samosas, naan and your choice of curry at reasonable prices. Where I’d rather steer you towards, however, are the more creative items, including the lamb vindaloo soup dumplings, kashmiri chili-spiced tomato cream pasta and a playful chana (curried chickpea) chalupa inspired by owner Anmoldeep Singh’s childhood visits to Taco Bell. With a stylish interior and delicious cuisine, Roots strikes the perfect balance between contemporary and classic—and at a time when Pijja Palace and Badmaash have become household names among in-the-know L.A. diners, I'm surprised more people haven’t caught onto what’s going on in the kitchen at Roots.

Tucked between an international grocery store and a hot chicken joint, this unassuming eatery along Venice Boulevard is a citywide standout even in the context of Culver City’s competitive Indian dining scene. The fully halal restaurant specializes in tandoori-style grilled meats and offers an excellent menu across the board, but where Abhiruchi Grill truly distinguishes itself is with a few hard-to-find Indo-Chinese specialities, including the gobi (cauliflower) Manchurian and chili chicken. The weekday buffet, available Tuesday through Friday, makes the restaurant an obvious choice for an affordable Westside lunch, and there’s plenty of lighter, vegetable-forward options like pigeon pea dal and the vegetable chettinadu, a delicate, slightly peppery mixed vegetarian stew that pairs wonderfully with rice and a side of naan.

Punjabi-style stuffed and grilled flatbreads paired with housemade pickled onions, refreshing raita (yogurt sauce) and your choice of saucy entrée are the name of the game at this counter-service North Indian spot in Artesia—and while parathas are a dime a dozen in this suburban city’s first-rate Indian dining scene, you probably won’t find a version as delicious as the ones served at Paratha Grill. Choose from 13 different iterations of stuffed flatbreads, including the ever-popular aloo (potato) and gobi (cauliflower) options. Pair your choice of paratha with the smoky, subtly rich dal tadka features plenty of ghee-tempered cinnamon and cardamom or the dhaba-style chicken curry, then wash it all down with a cup of steaming hot chai, sweetened to taste.

Koreatown’s dining scene is like a set of Russian nesting dolls—search even further, and you’ll be bound to find yet another complex world-within-worlds, home to hard-to-find delicacies you’ve likely never heard of before. Along the neighborhood’s eastern edge, there’s Little Bangladesh, home to a tiny but mighty collection of Bangladeshi grocery stores selling prepared food out of a deli area, including citywide standout Bangla Bazar. While at first glance the menu offers familiar hallmarks of outsider-legible desi cuisine, including a delicious goat biryani and various proteins prepared vindaloo- and tikka masala-style, the market also serves a killer Bengali-style mughlai paratha. Commonly eaten in the morning or on the street, the omelette-stuffed flatbread is available as part of Bangla’s breakfast and lunch combos—and bears a striking similarity to Chinese and Taiwanese jianbing.

“Very Niche, But Where Can I Find” is a new recurring column where Food & Drink Editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will track down—and in some cases try—hard-to-find food and drink items across Los Angeles.  Have an elusive dish or drink you’d like to know where to find? Email p.kelly.yeo@timeout.com.The Choco Taco™ is dead, long live the untrademarked choco taco. It’s been two years since Klondike discontinued the iconic taco-shaped waffle cone filled with ice cream and chocolate, and I’m honestly still not over it. In one fell swoop, the Unilever division brand deprived America of one of the best mass-produced novelty ice cream items ever produced. Not only did the original Choco Taco have the ideal filling-to-cone ratio—you basically get a bit of waffle cone with every bite of ice cream—the story behind the loosely Mexican-inspired dessert is a true testament to the spirit of America. First invented in Philadelphia by Alan Drazen in 1983, the Choco Taco is the product of one enterprising individual’s ingenuity and ability to trend forecast. According to Eater, the ice cream truck supervisor realized that his company, Jack & Jill, did not have a signature item, and Drazen wanted to change that. One day at the office, as fall approached, signaling the start of his industry’s slow season, an idea popped into his head: a taco-shaped frozen treat.  “Mexican food was the fastest-growing segment of the food industry, and the taco was the most recognizable shape,” he told Eater. His boss a

It’s not every day that a new tiki bar opens in Los Angeles, so when the Lucky Tiki debuted in West Hollywood at the end of March, I knew I had to visit. The only problem? It’s one of the hardest reservations in town. Four nighttime visits, over a dozen different cocktails and a lot of Resy wrangling later, I’m happy to report the speakeasy-style cocktail lounge behind Tail o’ the Pup earned a four-star review from Time Out. Even if you aren’t the biggest fan of rum or sugary drinks, I still think it’s worth heading to the Lucky Tiki, which offers one of the most transportive drinking experiences in the city.  What I didn’t realize, at least at first, is that the Lucky Tiki isn’t new, not entirely. In 2004, Bobby Green, Dimitri Komarov and Dmitry Liberman, the trio behind the prolific 1933 Group, first opened the Lucky Tiki inside a former dive bar in the Valley they’d landed through a probate auction. When a developer decided to raze the entire block, the trio closed the bar after just a year and a half. Over the next two decades, Green and his business partners went on to open other bars like Oldfield’s Liquor Room in Palms and Harlowe in West Hollywood, but they never got the chance to reopen the Lucky Tiki—that is, until now. It might have taken 18 years, but the bar’s not only back in business, it’s one of the buzziest drinking experiences in Los Angeles right now.   Photograph: Jesse Hsu for Time OutEvery inch of the Lucky Tiki is covered in island-inspired memorabilia

To generate more buzz for the full California guide that’ll released on August 5, the Michelin guide has announced 13 new additions to its California guide, including six in Los Angeles. Among them you’ll find Mae Malai, one of the best new Thai restaurants in L.A., which we loved for its flavorful, snack-sized bowls of boat noodles, plus other picks that Angelenos might recognize from our best new restaurant and all-time best restaurant guides. In other words, these newly recognized restaurants shouldn’t come as a surprise to our longtime readers or anyone familiar with the city’s dining scene. To be clear, these six additions to the guide—labeled simply as “new” for now—haven’t been awarded Michelin stars or a Bib Gourmand, but they potentially could receive either of those distinctions in a little under a month. In alphabetical order, the six L.A. area restaurants are as follows, with full inspector notes available via Michelin’s official press release. All restaurants are within city limits unless otherwise specified—and if we also recommend them, they’re hyperlinked here.  Barra Santos Danbi Grá Leopardo Mae Malai House of Noodles Stella Photograph: Courtesy Bonjwing Lee From these picks, it’s clear Michelin’s anonymous inspectors have been casing the city in the last month or so; Leopardo, whose puffy thick-crusted pies have already earned Joshua Skenes’s upscale wood-fired pizzeria a spot on our best pizza guide, only opened in mid-May. That means the guide’s infam

Well, that was fast. Governor Gavin Newsom has signed SB 1524, which excludes restaurants from SB 478, the statewide ban on junk fees that goes into effect today. In the last few weeks, both California’s State Assembly and Senate unanimously passed the exemption. According to the new bill, L.A. restaurants—as well as all others within the state—can keep any surcharges and fees as long as they are “clearly and conspicuously displayed with an explanation of its purpose on an advertisement, menu or other display.” Among others, the new bill was introduced by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the original author of SB 478. As first reported by the Los Angeles Times, the initial interpretation of SB 478 given by the California Attorney General’s Office caused Dodd, along with several co-authors, to reconsider whether to include restaurants in the ban. (Event tickets, short-term rentals and hotels, which are all part of the original junk fee bill, will still need to fold these fees into their pricing.) The Attorney General’s preliminary Q&A, which Time Out covered last month, caused significant blowback among various restaurant lobbying groups, who claimed that the need to raise menu prices (a.k.a. to fold service fees into them) would change consumer behavior and affect the bottom line of all restaurants in the state, from big chains to independently run small businesses.  However, as with SB 478, SB 1524 won’t change the cost of dining out; it will only allow restaurants to continue doing

Watch out, Westwood and Glendale: There’s a brand-new glitzy Persian spot coming to town next year, and I happen to think it’s one of the best Persian restaurants in the country. Slated to open in the summer of 2025, greater Atlanta-based Rumi’s Kitchen is opening a location at Westfield Century City. According to What Now Los Angeles, the restaurant chain recently applied for a liquor license. It’s the sixth expansion for the upscale dining brand, which already boasts three outposts in greater Atlanta as well as satellite locations in Washington D.C. and Houston. Photograph: Courtesy Rumi’s KitchenThe interior of Rumi’s Kitchen in Colony Square, a shopping mall in Midtown Atlanta. Current Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Bill Addison once hailed Rumi’s Kitchen as the ”crown jewel” of Sandy Springs, a suburb in greater Atlanta with a robust Persian dining scene not dissimilar to Glendale. The Century City location (which will take over the mall’s old Pink Taco space) also represents a homecoming of sorts for chef-owner Ali Mesghali, who grew up in Los Angeles. If the new Rumi’s Kitchen is anything like the ones elsewhere, the restaurant will serve an impeccably crafted kebab-centric Middle Eastern menu including several varieties of koobideh, hummus, mast-o-khiar and khoresh bademjan, a creamy roasted eggplant dip topped with yogurt. Housemade sweets like kunefe—a traditional Middle Eastern dessert—and thoughtful house cocktails will round out the all-star menu. Photogr

Picture your average high-end sushi chef in L.A. If you’re remotely familiar with the city’s sushi scene, or have even just watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the image in your mind is likely of an older man of East Asian, most likely Japanese, descent, quietly and deftly slicing raw fish behind a counter. While most of the city’s top sushi restaurants are still owned and operated by men, one highly skilled female chef has entered the chat: Nozomi Mori, the young upstart behind West L.A.’s four-month-old Mori Nozomi, which I recently awarded a five-star review. Compared to her male counterparts, Mori has crafted a standout high-end omakase experience with a focus on grace and aesthetics not dissimilar to chado, or traditional Japanese tea ceremony. This isn’t a coincidence; the self-directed chef spent two years as a student at Yusuian, a Japanese tea room located in Malibu that offers weekly classes for dedicated members and biannual introductory events. While there, she met other skilled artisans who taught her ikebana, or formal Japanese flower arrangement, and how to make wagashi, the category of traditional Japanese sweets that includes mochi. Both art forms elevate a meal at Mori Nozomi and set it apart from L.A.’s often identical-seeming high-end omakase experiences. Photograph: Jesse Hsu for Time OutEach delicate piece of wagashi is one of a kind. The 36-year-old native of Hyōgo—a prefecture within the Kansai region that borders Osaka—also brings years of high-end retail

Editor's note: The original version of this article stated that Din Tai Fung Anaheim will open on June 17, but the opening date had not been announced yet. We regret the error.  Look alive, xiaolongbao superfans: Din Tai Fung just released two small lines of limited-time apparel, including a dumpling-shaped plush bag. The limited-edition merch is only available at the restaurant’s brand-new location in Anaheim’s Downtown Disney District, which softly opened for reservations only on June 24. (The restaurant will be open to walk-ins beginning in July.) Photograph: Courtesy Din Tai Fung USA The “DTF Essentials” collection consists of a green hat (pictured in the image at the bottom of this story); an off-white shirt with an embroidery patch of the very first Din Tai Fung location in Taipei on the front and a smaller secondary logo patch on the back; and a heavyweight black fleece hoodie with a similar embroidery patch of the Taipei original in the back and a red white logo in the front.  Photographs: Courtesy Din Tai Fung USA Photographs: Courtesy Din Tai Fung USA The character-driven Anaheim Collection, named for Din Tai Fung’s soon-to-open location, includes the aforementioned bag; two keychains (pictured below); a heavyweight crewneck (pictured in the hero image); a heavyweight jersey T-shirt with both youth and adult sizes (pictured above); and a forest green baseball hat (pictured below and in the hero image). All of the pieces in the Anaheim Collection feature Bao Ba

I’ve been waiting a long time to review Baroo. When head chef Kwang Uh, along with then-business partner Matthew Kim, opened the original fast-casual version of Baroo in the summer of 2015, I was a rising college junior at UCLA with a fervent but yet-unmonetized interest in food, indifferent towards chasing down food trucks on Twitter and the kind of Lucky Peach-approved L.A. restaurants recommended by toxic chef and editor bros. Across the city, I observed the initial social media-driven hype cycle over Baroo’s first iteration with a leery eye; while the sub-$20 grain bowls were well within the average college student’s leisure dining budget, I was, then as now, allergic to waiting in lines and hype culture writ large. Though I always meant to go, I never made the trek out to East Hollywood before the OG closed for good in 2018. And that seemed to be that until 2021, when Uh and his wife and current business partner, Mina Park, opened Shiku, a fast-casual Korean lunchbox joint in Grand Central Market. As a brand-new editor at Time Out, I immediately loved the kimchi corn and other thoughtfully constructed banchan sides and dosirak combos. “You would have loved Baroo,” other media folks told me. For a while, I even included the pair’s scrappy food stall on our guide to the city’s best restaurants.  Photograph: Courtesy Justin ChungKwang Uh and Mina Park at their Arts District restaurant. But Shiku is not Baroo, and Baroo is not Shiku. My initial experience with Uh’s origina

Outside of Italy, Japan and a short-lived pop-up in the Philippines, the idea of a pizza omakase, or chef’s tasting menu, hasn’t exactly caught on across the globe. Until quite recently, Americans needed to travel outside of the country to experience the likes of Pizza Bar on 38th at the Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo and Pepe in Grani just outside Naples. Now, L.A. is home to one of the country’s only pizza tasting menus, courtesy of William Joo, the Korean American pizzaiolo behind Pizzeria Sei in Pico-Robertson. The so-called $150 “omakasei” menu, which debuted last month, is slated to run every other Tuesday evening at 7pm, with reservations for each subsequent tasting menu generally dropping on Resy at noon the following day. Each menu includes a rotating half-dozen-plus parade of Tokyo-style Neapolitan slices that might be inspired by everything from Pizza Hut to some of the world’s best pizzerias. I’m going to be honest here: I’ve spent the last two years trying about 50 different pizzerias across Los Angeles, and I still think Pizzeria Sei serves the best pies in town. It’s the reason I’ve ranked the no-frills Pico Boulevard storefront number one on Time Out’s guide to the best pizzas in L.A. and included it among the city’s best restaurants. I’ve yet to revisit Tokyo for Seirinkan or Savoy Tomato & Cheese, and I haven’t yet trekked out to New Haven or Detroit to experience those styles in their native element, but that might make me a slightly better judge of L.A.’s buzzy

Los Angeles County might be full of award-winning independent restaurants, but it’s also the birthplace of many of the country’s most beloved and well-known chains. The Cheesecake Factory began in Beverly Hills, the first Sizzler opened its doors in Culver City and Panda Express debuted at the Glendale Galleria, where it remains in the food court as of today. (The other two chains’ original locations are also kicking around, for what it’s worth.) What many L.A. diners don’t know, however, is that Andrew and Peggy Cherng, the billionaire owners of Panda Express, got their start in the restaurant business with a similarly named sit-down Chinese eatery in Pasadena. The restaurant’s name? Panda Inn, of course. As of writing, the flagship outpost is closed for extensive renovations, but three other Panda Inn locations in Southern California (Glendale, Ontario, La Palma) still exist and are open for business today. Along with Andrew’s late father, Ming-Tsai, the Cherngs opened the original Panda Inn in 1972. Despite growing up in L.A. and eating at Panda Express from time to time, I didn’t even know that Panda Inn existed until a few months ago. Once I stumbled upon that fact, I knew I had to check it out (and pay homage to) arguably the most famous Asian-owned restaurant brand in America. Both restaurants’ names were inspired by Richard Nixon’s diplomatic visit to China that same year, according to NBC Asian America. The historic trip led to a gradual thawing in long-icy internati

“The worst part about it, at least for me, is that they tell you about three months in advance.” On Valentine’s Day, beverage director Max Reis learned his bar program at Mírate earned the restaurant a coveted spot on the list of North America’s 50 Best Bars. Coming in at number 46, the Mexican restaurant in Los Feliz is one of just two places in Los Angeles to make the list; the other is the widely beloved, locally acclaimed Thunderbolt in Historic Filipinotown, which ranks in the list’s top ten. On one of the restaurant industry’s busiest days of the year, Reis was completely caught off guard by the regional recognition. Unlike most restaurants and bars, Mírate doesn’t carry major brands like Patrón and Jose Cuervo. Instead, the foliage-lined restaurant serves a highly curated selection of Mexican wine, beer and spirits, including agave spirits—a category that encompasses tequila and mezcal.    Photograph: Courtesy Rachel AyotteReis drew upon his time at Gracias Madre and République in formulating Mírate’s award-winning bar program. In this realm, Reis sources his bottles from a range of smaller, hard-to-find Mexican brands that prioritize sustainability and often have a family history of working in the spirits industry. “I want people to pay $20 for a cocktail here and then go somewhere else and pay $20 for Bacardi,” he adds. “And then it’s like, ‘Why would I do that when I can go somewhere special?’” Another unique aspect of the restaurant’s cocktail program? Pre-Hispan

This week, OpenTable released a list along with PEOPLE magazine of the most beautiful restaurants in the country, with one pick for each state—and, unsurprisingly, California’s top spot went to a Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant in Napa Valley. The Restaurant at Auberge du Soleil, located in Rutherford, won the title of most beautiful restaurant in the state with its “sweeping vistas of lush vineyards” and “manicured gardens.” We’ll readily admit the lush vineyards and luxurious aura of Napa are hard to beat. However, the state-specific division of the list meant that no restaurants in Southern California even stood a chance. While Los Angeles at large might not always be the most beautiful city in the country, it’s chock full of stunning restaurants. Suffice to say, we were miffed, so we took to Facebook to ask our readers what they thought the most beautiful restaurants in the city were. Here are some of the spots that they thought stand out among the city’s most beautiful (unsurprisingly, you’ll find quite a few of these spots on our list of the best restaurants for outdoor dining in L.A.): Nobu (Malibu) Geoffrey’s (Malibu) Inn of the Seventh Ray (Topanga) Meteora (Hollywood) Gracias Madre (West Hollywood) République (Mid-Wilshire) Dama (Downtown Fashion District) Castaway (Burbank) Bacari (Silver Lake)