The Top 100 Places to Eat and Drink Near The Cinema Bar
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Rank 3. Fat + Flour
Bakery
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Nicole Rucker
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Nicole Rucker
- LAist 2023 · Cookies · Best Bites
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Rank 4. n/naka
Kaiseki Japanese
Chef Niki Nakayama's intimate tasting room presents a graceful interpretation of kaiseki that moves between delicate broths and grilled wagyu, drawing on Japanese and California sources with a light hand. Her signature abalone spaghetti with cod roe and black truffle never leaves the menu, a flourish that signals her vision even as each course shifts.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Chef · Niki Nakayama
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Chef · Niki Nakayama
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Rank 5. Tito's Tacos
Mexican
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Rank 7. Sushi Masuyoshi
Omakase Sushi
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Rank 8. Nardò Culver City
Southern Italian
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Rank 10. Hatchet Hall
Southern
A sprawling Southern dining room with a pergola-shaded patio that fills with groups and noise, vintage leather banquettes backing an L-shaped bar where the energy never flags. The menu ranges wide across regional classics—deviled eggs, collard greens with smoked turkey, fried green tomatoes—each executed with the confidence of a kitchen that knows its tradition.
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Rank 11. Kogi BBQ
Korean
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Rank 12. Kusano
Omakase Sushi
Chef Kusano works his counter alone, pouring drinks and plating nigiri with equal focus in this pocket-size omakase. The fish arrives spare and direct—mostly nigiri glazed with nikiri, though uni arrives dressed under squid and seaweed, a moment of theater in an otherwise austere meal. What emerges is omakase stripped of pretense, efficient and reasonably priced.
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Rank 13. The Belvedere
French
The dining room at The Belvedere maintains the formal grandeur of old Hollywood without apology, all starched linens and architectural restraint. It is the kind of place where the ritual of a long meal feels less like indulgence than inheritance.
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Rank 14. Mori Nozomi
Omakase Japanese
Chef Nozomi Mori conducts an eight-seat omakase with the restraint of someone who trusts her ingredients—flown weekly from Japan, paired with Santa Monica produce—to speak without ornament. From the silken chawanmushi that opens service to the final matcha, each piece arrives as evidence of her knife work and her conviction that refinement lives in what you leave out.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Esquire 2024 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- The New York Times 2025 · The Restaurant List
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Rank 15. RVR
Japanese
- Esquire 2025 · Restaurant of the Year
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant
- The New York Times 2025 · The Restaurant List
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Rank 16. Vespertine
Contemporary
Jordan Kahn's avant-garde tasting menu unfolds in a striking red-steel structure, each plate a visual and technical marvel—scallop with passionfruit and horseradish tuile, flowers suspended in tomato water. The meal sustains its invention through dessert, with zero-waste ethos woven throughout.
- Michelin Guide 2 Stars
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #33 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
- Bon Appétit 2018 · America's Best New Restaurants
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Rank 17. CUT
Steakhouse
Inside the Four Seasons on Wilshire, Wolfgang Puck's steakhouse commands a polished dining room built for high-stakes dinners. Creekstone filet mignon arrives with Armagnac peppercorn béarnaise; the wagyu tallow fries linger in memory long after. A temple to beef and power meals, unapologetically expensive.
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Rank 18. HomeState
Tex-Mex
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Rank 19. Beethoven Market
Italian
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Rank 20. Jikoni
Kenyan/Nigerian
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Rank 21. Si! Mon
Central American
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · José Olmedo Carles Rojas
- Eater Chef of the Year · José Olmedo Carles Rojas
- LAist 2025 · Afro-Caribbean shrimp dumplings · Best Bites
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Rank 22. Pizzeria Sei
Japan-Italy Pizza
At Pizzeria Sei, a handful of counter seats frame the kitchen where chefs shape individual pies with a Japan-Italy hybrid sensibility—the cornicione puffed and mochi-tender, the Bismarck topped with a poached egg, the Margherita faithful. Gas and wood fire finish them equally well. Pizza as shape-shifter, refined and playful at once.
- 50 Top Pizza 2025 · #2 · 50 Top Pizza USA
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Time Out #23 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
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Rank 23. Seline
Californian
Chef Dave Beran's tasting menu at Seline pivots between high-concept ambition and playful surprise, serving ice cream mid-meal and edible succulents in caraway soil. Black cod with wild bay laurel and lamb with burnt strawberry jus demonstrate his gift for balancing sophistication with an edge.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: California · Dave Beran
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #13 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 25. Alta Adams
Southern
A string-lit patio draped in vines sets the stage for soulful cooking that rewards group dining—golden fried chicken arrives juicy and spiced, alongside sweet potatoes and herb-touched black-eyed pea fritters. The buttery coconut cake tastes like an heirloom recipe, unpretentious and complete.
- Eater The All-Time Eater 38
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #44 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 27. Pasjoli
French
Dave Beran's Santa Monica bistro channels unapologetic French cooking in a wood-and-brick dining room that hums with purposeful ease. Brioche with chicken liver mousse and pressed duck for two stake his claim; a chocolate soufflé clinches it.
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
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Rank 28. Tomat
Californian New American
A pale-green dining room dressed in rust-leather banquettes sets the stage for seasonal cooking that takes shape as evening falls. The kitchen moves deftly through local produce—charred vegetables nested in ajo blanco, a Liberty Farms duck split and crisped, dressed with pomegranate-walnut mole—and closes with sticky toffee pudding and burnt-milk gelato. The effect is farm-direct without the fuss.
- Esquire 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #82 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 29. Destroyer
Contemporary
Jordan Kahn's Destroyer strips the room down to white walls so the plate becomes the only spectacle: avocado confit with onion ash, rice porridge layered with restraint and texture, chocolate crémeux dusted in frozen cucumber cream. Each dish reads as a small architectural problem solved.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #14 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 30. Gjelina
Mediterranean
Brick floors and climbing vines frame a garden-like room where young crowds gather for simply prepared Mediterranean cooking. Saffron spaghetti with bottarga and grilled hanger steak anchor a menu built around vegetables—Japanese sweet potato with jalapeño yogurt, oyster mushroom with tarragon butter—sourced largely from local suppliers and treated with evident care.
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- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Jeremy Fox
- Time Out #22 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
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Rank 32. Din Tai Fung
Taiwanese
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Rank 33. Spago
Californian
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Rank 34. Petitgrain Boulangerie
French Bakery
- The Infatuation Our Favorite Bakeries In The Country Right Now
- Eater Best New Bakery
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 35. Hakata Izakaya Hero
Japanese
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #72 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 36. Somni
Spanish
Chef Aitor Zabala has restored Somni into a Catalan dream of meticulous small plates—mussel escabeche, gazpacho, shiso tartare tempura—where kitchen and service move in perfect synchrony. The hushed dining room, anchored by a colorful bull's head, channels Spain through endless textural invention and restrained elegance.
- Michelin Guide 3 Stars
- The Infatuation 2025 · #2 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #50 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 37. Chulita
Oaxacan Mexican
Chulita's spare, sun-flooded dining room near Venice Beach sets the stage for Oaxacan cooking tempered by California sensibility. House-made tortillas wrap tender barbacoa and charred steak; the quesadilla de calabaza, filled with local cheese and topped with pipián, announces serious technique. It's a place where tacos arrive all day and vegan churros somehow don't feel like an afterthought.
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Rank 38. Two Hommés
West African/Californian
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · The 101 Best Restaurants in California
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #29 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 39. Pasta Sisters
Italian
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Rank 40. Mélisse
Modern French
Chef Josiah Citrin's Santa Monica flagship enters through a discreet side door into an underground room where French decadence—truffles, wagyu, dry-aged duck—arrives with tableside ceremony. Two decades running, it remains unabashedly luxurious, indulgent without apology.
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- Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Brunch Venue
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · United States' Best Hotel Restaurant
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Rank 42. Funke
Italian
In a 1930s art deco shell with soaring ceilings and red leather booths, Chef Evan Funke showcases handmade pasta through a glassed-in kitchen, each shape a small architecture lesson. Agnolotti filled with taleggio fonduta and finished in brown butter sauce announces an Italian restaurant confident enough to let its craft speak without apology.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Time Out #21 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #19 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 43. Nozawa Bar
Sushi
Tucked behind a Sugarfish storefront, this intimate counter serves omakase with quiet precision: jellyfish with ponzu snap between your teeth, snapper is sliced tableside, halibut fin dissolves on the tongue. Chef Osamu Fujita respects tradition while mining novelty, letting impeccable local seafood speak without ceremony.
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Rank 44. The Serving Spoon
Soul Food
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Rank 45. Rustic Canyon
Market-driven New American
Rustic Canyon treats the farmers market as its playbook, building a menu of unfussy, sturdy dishes—terrines and roasted chicken alongside bay scallops in saffron—within a Santa Monica dining room whose warm light and close booths feel made for lingering. The seasonal cocktails arrive with the same market logic, and twenty years of community traffic has only deepened the place's sense of purpose.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- LAist 2025 · Chochoyotes · Best Bites
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #48 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 47. 1 Pico
Coastal New American
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Rank 49. Orla by Michael Mina
Refined Mediterranean
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Rank 51. Citrin
French-California New American
Chef Ken Takayama's kitchen marries French discipline with California's seasonal abundance, offering both à la carte and prix-fixe paths through dishes like artichoke agnolotti and skin-on rouget in bouillabaisse. The cooking justifies its ambitions whether you're gilding with caviar or content with the craft alone.
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Rank 52. Juliet
Contemporary French
The patio at Juliet glows with the ease of a Parisian afternoon transplanted to Culver City. Chicken liver mousse in a delicate tart, sea bream with ratatouille and pistou, éclairs that justify their own course—the kitchen executes French fundamentals with quiet confidence, wine by the glass chosen with care. This is cooking that knows what it is and trusts you to notice.
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Rank 53. Cosetta
New-School Italian
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Rank 54. Din Tai Fung
Taiwanese
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Rank 55. Shunji
Sushi
Chef Shunji Nakao's counter in this minimalist Santa Monica space opens with delicate appetizers—smoked mackerel, sesame tofu—before progressing through nigiri of uncommon precision. The sea perch and eel justify prices that reflect uncompromising sourcing and a sushi veteran's refusal of the ordinary.
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Rank 56. Brothers Cousins Tacos
Mexican
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Rank 57. Cobi's
Southeast Asian Thai
A pink cottage with mismatched tables and petal-strewn corners serves spirited Thai and Malaysian food, from crispy curry puffs to wood-grilled prawns in ginger sauce. The dining room's floral chaos matches an ambitious menu that refuses to settle on a single Southeast Asian voice.
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Rank 58. KazuNori
Japanese
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Rank 59. Chinchikurin
Hiroshima-Style
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Rank 60. Killer Noodle
Ramen Noodles
Killer Noodle fuses Japanese tan tan ramen with Sichuan heat, balancing peanut-forward broths against ground pork and tofu in bowls served hot or dry. The six-level spice menu demands the water pitcher; the screaming-red room matches its casual irreverence.
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Rank 61. Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant
Ethiopian
Light pours through the windows of this family-run spot in Little Ethiopia, where a warm team presides over a spare, homestay-like room. Oversized silver platters arrive lined with injera, their vegetable dishes alive with berbere and turmeric, their finely chopped kitfo—particularly the spicy Somali version with prime beef and jalapeño—revealing an unshowy mastery of technique and seasoning.
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Rank 62. Taste of Tehran
Persian
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Rank 63. République
Southern European Mediterranean
A sprawling bakery and restaurant with soaring brick ceilings that pulses from dawn pastries through evening service, République channels a bustling European market hall. The Southern European menu pivots on impeccable ingredients—warm beignets, silky risotto, braised beef—executed with unfussy precision.
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Winner · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Margarita Manzke
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Brunch Venue
- Time Out The best bakeries in America
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Rank 64. Dear Jane's
Seafood
Glass walls frame the marina at Dear Jane's, where old-school seafood and Continental cooking arrive in generous, theatrical portions—caviar scattered across plates, shrimp Louie assembled tableside. The blackened salmon holds its char against a bracing parsley-caper sauce; a wedge salad swaps cream for vinaigrette without apology. Confident, unironic cooking that knows exactly what it is.
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Rank 66. Lumière
French
Inside the Fairmont Century Plaza, Lumière delivers French brasserie cooking with genuine ease: silken chicken liver mousse with olive jam, pristine seafood, steak frites with fries worth the visit alone. The room feels unhurried, the staff genuinely helpful, and the classics—seared sea bass with onion soubise, a proper crème brûlée—arrive as they should: without pretense.
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Rank 67. Charcoal Venice
Steakhouse
Josiah Citrin's Venice steakhouse wields fire with precision: grass-fed ribeyes from premium ranches hit the grill alongside seasonal vegetables and handmade pastas, each charred to a specific point of intention. The room—concrete, minimalist, alive with a cocktail crowd—suggests backyard barbecue stripped of nostalgia and rebuilt as something cleaner, more deliberate.
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Rank 68. Marea
Coastal Italian
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Rank 69. Pizzana
Neapolitan Pizza
Crisp-centered Neapolitan pizzas emerge from an imported Italian oven, their dough treated with ritual precision and topped with San Marzano tomatoes or local improvisation. The glass-walled kitchen and Mediterranean-blue dining room make the traditional craft feel like theater.
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Rank 70. Ayara Thai
Thai
Vanda Asapahu commands this family spot with wood tables and a patio, moving deftly between canonical Thai—a papaya salad with genuine heat, green curries built on fresh chili paste—and French-inflected desserts like Thai tea flan with bitter caramel and berries. The kitchen respects heat tolerance without apology, treating spice as negotiable only after the dish's essential character is set.
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Rank 71. Somerville
Progressive New American
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Rank 72. Lulu
Seasonal New American
Tucked in the Hammer Museum's courtyard, Lulu operates on the principle that a restaurant's ingredients deserve top billing. David Tanis and Alice Waters shape daily-shifting menus around what's seasonally ripe, whether that's blood orange salad or Meyer lemon gelato, letting simple technique and produce quality do the talking.
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Rank 73. Hokey Pokey LA
New Zealand
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Rank 74. Matū
Wagyu Steakhouse
A Beverly Hills steakhouse that pairs New Zealand wagyu with an open kitchen and romantic warmth, defying the genre's usual bombast. The wood-fired beef arrives tender and juicy at prices that won't require a second mortgage.
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Rank 75. Toranj Restaurant
Persian
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Rank 76. Milo & Olive
Wood-fired Pizza
A cheerful Santa Monica corner where wood-fired pizzas emerge with leopard-spotted char and paper-thin crusts. Tender gnocchi arrives tinted orange from garnet yam, studded with hazelnuts and charred radicchio; a wood-fired pound cake finished with honey and whipped cream closes the meal with quiet authority. Seasonal cooking built on farmers' market sourcing, executed with genuine craft.
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Rank 78. Tempura Endo
Japanese
A copper cauldron gleams at the counter of this Beverly Hills temple to tempura, where the chef fries each piece—sweet corn, Hokkaido scallops, shiso-wrapped snapper—to a lacy, almost transparent shell and sets it before you alone. The tasting menu unfolds at leisure, each bite a study in the difference between frying and the precise art of it.
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Rank 79. Dulan's Soul Food Kitchen
Soul Food Southern
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Greg Dulan
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Greg Dulan
- Time Out #25 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
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Rank 80. Fia Steak
Contemporary
Beneath century-old pines strung with lights, Fia unfolds as a sprawling courtyard where Italian sensibility meets Los Angeles ease and local sourcing. The spicy tuna arancini and porcini tortellini signal a kitchen that refreshes tradition without pretense, finishing with lemon mousse and Limoncello granita.
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Rank 81. Dulan's On Crenshaw
Southern
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · Fifty Under $50
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · #56 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
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Rank 82. Sushi K
Japanese
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Rank 83. Avra
Greek
A cavernous room channels the unhurried elegance of Greek islands, all whitewashed ease and sea light. The kitchen excels with pristine seafood—St. Pierre arrives crisp-fleshed, tuna sashimi melts on the tongue—and knows the value of restraint, letting roasted peppers and barrel-aged feta speak for themselves. This is Greek cooking stripped of fussiness, refined without pretense.
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Rank 85. IMA
Japanese
A spare, minimalist dining room with tabletop grills becomes the stage for methodical consumption of A5 Wagyu in both sukiyaki and shabu-shabu preparations. The meal unfolds from cold appetizers through beef tongue and three grades of Yazawa, ending with truffle-scented rice porridge that tastes like benediction.
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Rank 86. Cento Pasta Bar
Contemporary Italian
In a West Adams courtyard strung with lights, Chef Avner Levi's Italian-contemporary pasta bar balances refinement with ease. Beet pasta twirled in brown butter and poppy seeds, topped with whipped ricotta, arrives as both visual statement and genuine pleasure, while a Key lime pavlova offers tart-sweet closure. The food is careful without pretension.
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- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. West
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Rank 88. Lorenzo California
Florentine
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Rank 89. Lugya’h
Mexican
At a counter inside Maydan Market, Chef Alfonso Martinez hand-presses tortillas and cooks them over live fire in cast-iron comals, then loads them with beans, cheese, cabbage, and salsa. The moronga—a blood sausage that tastes of spice and depth—elevates these tlayudas into something substantial enough for two, and the casual, convivial setup makes them feel like a gift.
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Rank 91. Darling
Southern
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Rank 92. Colapasta
Modern Italian
A few blocks from the Pacific, Chef Stefano De Lorenzo's modern trattoria trades pretense for clarity: hand-rolled pasta, a rotating soup, simple antipasti. The calamarata arrives tender in bright tomato sauce with stracciatella and oregano, each element tasting of deliberate choice rather than excess.
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Rank 93. Meals by Genet
Ethiopian
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Rank 94. HomeState
Tex-Mex
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- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
- Wine Enthusiast 2023 · Forward 50 Restaurants
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Rank 96. Sonoratown
Sonoran Mexican
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Rank 97. The Lobster
Seafood
A seafront dining room with Pacific views and tightly packed tables devoted to Maine lobsters and regional catches. The kitchen steams them to perfect tenderness, the butter almost ceremonial; crab cakes arrive seared and meaty, their crisp edges tempered by peppery greens. Efficiency over intimacy, but the ocean and the shellfish justify the trade.
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Rank 100. La Dolce Vita
Italian