The Top 100 Restaurants Near Funke

A rainbow bull's head salvaged from the original location watches over the 14-seat counter like a totem, and that detail tells you everything about the mood here. Somni is a Spanish creative tasting menu in a converted bungalow just off Santa Monica, with three Michelin stars and a courtyard that feels like it was designed inside a dream. The chef trained at El Bulli, and the cooking lands accordingly: intricate, theatrical, and dead serious about having fun.

1. Michelin Guide 3 Stars
2. 50 Best #46 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
3. The Infatuation #2 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Time Out #38 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

The barrel-vaulted ceiling and windowless room give Lielle the feeling of a place that doesn't need to be found easily. It's a tasting menu restaurant on Pico, holding a Michelin star, where chef Marcus Jernmark runs Californian cooking through a precise European sensibility without tipping into fussiness. Scoring a reservation takes some effort, and the room, once you're in it, is intimate enough to make that feel deliberate.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Wine Enthusiast Top 50 New Restaurants

Sukiyaki and shabu-shabu get equal billing here, with A5 Wagyu as the through-line and a table grill waiting at every seat. The room pulls off cool and intimate at once, blonde wood and bamboo blinds keeping things calm while the beef stays the main event. It's the kind of Japanese hot-pot spot that makes Beverly Hills feel less Beverly Hills, if only for the hour or so it takes to cook through three cuts of premium beef.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Tempura Endo is a counter-focused omakase in Beverly Hills devoted entirely to the art of frying things in hot cottonseed oil, which sounds reductive until you're watching each piece emerge with a coating so lacy it barely registers as batter. Sit at the copper cauldron, not the tables. The tasting menu runs expensive, and the chef places each item in front of you one at a time, the way a ritual should go. A Michelin Selected Restaurant.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Time Out The best Chinese restaurants in America

A single pasta course, spaghetti with abalone and black truffle, never rotates off Niki Nakayama's menu at this intimate kaiseki tasting room in Culver City. Everything else shifts with the seasons, moving through delicate broths and grilled Miyazaki wagyu in a long, unhurried procession. Getting a table is a project in itself, but Nakayama comes out at the end to say hello, which feels less like a formality and more like the point. It holds a Michelin star.

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Chef · Niki Nakayama
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Chef · Niki Nakayama
3. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Dark-wood paneling and a white marble antipasti counter signal that this is not your red-checkered-tablecloth Italian place. Nancy Silverton's Melrose osteria holds a Michelin star and takes bread and mozzarella with a seriousness most kitchens reserve for the main course. The pastas are the draw for regulars, but the team is equally intent on pulling you toward the less obvious corners of the Italian table.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
3. Time Out #11 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

Jordan Kahn's two-Michelin-star tasting menu operates inside a structure Culver City locals call "The Waffle," a red steel lattice that looks like it landed from somewhere with better architecture. The food inside is just as committed to the bit: courses that are visually theatrical and technically serious, edible flowers floating in tomato water, flavors that feel like they were calibrated rather than cooked. Dress accordingly; this is not a casual Tuesday.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
3. Los Angeles Times #33 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

An eight-seat counter where the seafood flies in from Japan several times a week and the Santa Monica farmers market fills in the rest. This is omakase at its quietest: minimal room, soft-spoken service, no flourishes competing with the fish. The knifework on a piece of squid nigiri is the kind of thing you notice without knowing why. A Michelin star, and a spot on the New York Times Restaurant List.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times The Restaurant List
3. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America

The chicken liver mousse comes with olive jam, which tells you exactly what kind of brasserie this is. Lumière sits inside the Fairmont Century Plaza and runs a classic French playbook: fruits de mer, steak frites, a charcuterie spread with aged Iberico hams, crème brûlée done properly. The staff actually know the menu and will talk you through it, which in Los Angeles passes for a minor miracle.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Los Angeles Times #65 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

A Michelin-starred counter tucked into the second floor of a Sawtelle strip mall, which tells you something about Los Angeles. Chef Hayato Kojima runs an intimate omakase for a handful of diners at once, no printed menu, no fixed courses, just whatever he sourced that morning explained warmly by staff who bridge the language gap. Everyone eats together, so arrive on time or the whole table waits.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

String lights and climbing vines turn the back patio into the kind of dinner setting that makes you forget you're in the middle of a city. Alta Adams is a Southern restaurant on the West Adams corridor, and the kitchen cooks with the confidence of someone who has been making fried chicken and coconut cake their whole life. Portions run generous, which makes it a natural for groups. The chef was a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: California.

1. Eater The All-Time Eater 38
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Los Angeles Times #44 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Tangled greenery, trance music, and moody lighting set the scene at Jordan Kahn's tasting menu restaurant on Melrose, where the room feels like a forest you wandered into by accident. The cooking is live-fire and zero-waste, pulling from sustainably sourced wild and organic ingredients, and the drinks follow the same logic, no refined sugars anywhere. It holds a Michelin star, which tracks for food this particular about its own convictions.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants

The patio at this Culver City contemporary French restaurant seats as many as the dining room, which tells you something about how the place pictures itself. Dinner is when the kitchen finds its stride, moving through chicken liver mousse in a delicate tart, clean fish preparations, and proper desserts. The wine list leans hard into by-the-glass options, which the room seems to appreciate.

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The dining room at this West Hollywood EDITION hotel restaurant looks like a luxury spa that decided to feed people: white velvet booths, staff in beige, and enough greenery to require a groundskeeper. The menu leans vegetable-forward but keeps dry-aged lamb and steaks around for the unconvinced. Prices sit firmly in hotel territory, which the hotel guests seem not to notice.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West

A wood-burning oven does the heavy lifting at this intimate Italian steakhouse tucked into Nancy Silverton's Melrose compound. The kitchen leans hard into live fire and big cuts, with cooking that's boldly seasoned and more seasonal than you'd expect from a place where meat is basically the religion. The wine list runs deep into Italy. Booking is tight, and the room fills fast with people who clearly did not come to order a salad.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
3. Time Out #14 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

An Ethiopian restaurant sitting quietly in the Little Ethiopia stretch of Fairfax, where injera-lined silver platters arrive on the table and a fork is beside the point. The family-run team keeps the room simple and lets the food argue for itself, which it does. The kitfo draws regulars back, and the Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand. Come with a group large enough to order widely, or you'll spend the meal regretting what you skipped.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times #86 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

The counter seats maybe a dozen people, the room is barely wider than a hallway, and it runs noon until late without a break. Petit Trois is a French bistro in Hollywood doing the classics straight: escargots, steak frites, a legendary omelet. French hip-hop plays while the kitchen ignores it completely and turns out textbook bistro cooking. The "Big Mec," a double cheeseburger finished with bordelaise, is the one concession to the neighborhood.

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Time Out #24 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Winner · Best Chef: California · Lord Maynard Llera
2. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
3. Time Out #19 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

Skylights flood the slender dining room here, which helps explain why Fairfax regulars have been packing it since forever. Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo run this easygoing Italian-American cafe built around a long counter and a wood-fired oven that handles both pizzas and pasta with equal confidence. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the servers move like they know it. Expect lightly charred pies and house-made pasta in a room that never feels like it's trying too hard.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

A hand-cranked rotisserie sits at the center of the open kitchen, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Italian restaurant on Beverly. The room has the warm, dark energy of a place that knows it's good, with backlit booths and a crowd that books early. Hearty pastas, big proteins, and vegetables that actually want to be there. The New York Times put it on their LA list, and the Los Angeles Times ranked it in their top ten statewide.

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California

1. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles
2. Los Angeles Times #72 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Eleven seats at a counter, hidden behind a door inside Bar 109 in Melrose Hill, with reservations that will take some planning to secure. Corridor 109 is a seafood tasting counter where the chef draws mostly from Japanese fisheries, serving much of it raw with a Japanese-leaning sensibility. The single non-seafood course, wagyu over oxtail jus, lands near the end like a punctuation mark on an otherwise ocean-driven menu.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Time Out #30 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Jeremy Fox
2. Time Out #22 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now

You enter through a discreet side door, which sets the tone for Josiah Citrin's long-running Santa Monica tasting menu. Inside, the room feels like a velvet underground with good silverware, and the French decadence runs toward the gratuitous side, which is the point. Tableside saucing, antique silver press, dry-aged duck, truffles on everything. Two Michelin stars.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. Los Angeles Times #23 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Jordan Kahn's daytime cafe in the architecturally eccentric Hayden Tract looks like a place that takes itself very seriously, and then the food shows up and you realize it has earned the silence. The interior is stripped to near nothing, which focuses you entirely on plates that are genuinely intricate without announcing it. A morning or lunch stop, but not a casual one.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times #14 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Thai Taco Tuesdays draw lines around the block at this family-run Sherman Oaks restaurant, where a second-generation chef holds a James Beard Award and runs a monthly omakase that books out before most people know it's open. The rest of the week it's classic Thai with a wine list that gets written about on its own terms. Warm, buzzy, and very Los Angeles in the best sense, which is to say it's completely unpretentious about being excellent.

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Winner · Best Chef: California · Justin Pichetrungsi
2. The Infatuation Infatuation’s Highest-Rated Restaurants In America
3. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants

1. Time Out #17 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
2. Los Angeles Times Al pastor taco · The 101 Best Tacos in Los Angeles

Tucked into the courtyard of the Hammer Museum, Lulu is a seasonal New American restaurant where the menu changes daily and fresh produce stacked around the room is less decor than advance warning. Alice Waters shaped the philosophy here, and it shows: lunch reads like a snapshot of whatever the farms had that morning. The crowd tends toward the between-galleries, notebook-in-bag crowd, which keeps the pace civilized.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A French-leaning wine list runs deep at this cozy New American bistro on Western, but the kitchen earns its share of the attention. The menu is short and seasonal, built around what the market turned up that week rather than any fixed idea of itself. The cooking is restrained in the way that actually requires confidence. Wine Enthusiast named it one of the top new restaurants in 2025, and the Michelin Guide has it selected.

1. Wine Enthusiast Top 50 New Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Los Angeles Times #59 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Cumin is in the name and in the air at this Fairfax District restaurant, where ikat fabrics drape the wood furnishings and the menu reads like a Silk Road itinerary. Zira Uzbek Kitchen serves the food of Uzbekistan, a cuisine that lands somewhere between Central Asian and Middle Eastern, with hand-pulled noodle soup, shashlik off the grill, and fat dumplings that regulars argue over. The Michelin Guide includes it among its selected restaurants in Los Angeles.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Bottled sauces on a shelf near the door signal what kind of osteria this is: the food is good enough that people want to bring it home. On Beverly Blvd, Angelini has been around forever by LA standards, which is almost a punchline in a city that abandons its favorites by spring. The service runs old school and warm, and the lengthy Italian menu leans comfortably on what the regulars already know they're ordering.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Dark wood, a full bar, and a reservation that fills faster than you'd expect for a Korean American restaurant on Sawtelle. The menu reads approachable but lands with precision, moving from kimchi pancake and steamed dumplings through charcoal-grilled short ribs to a caramelized cinnamon hotteok served warm with vanilla ice cream. The wine list gets taken seriously, which is either a pleasant surprise or exactly what you came for.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The screaming-red dining room telegraphs the mission before you've ordered: this is a ramen shop built around tan tan noodles, a cross between Japanese tantanmen and Sichuan dan dan. A sister to Tsujita down the street, it runs a spice scale up to six, and the pitchers of water at every table are not decorative. Bowls come soupy or dry, and both hit hard on peanut, garlic, and chili oil.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Hand-pressed tortillas cooked on a comal over live fire are the opening act at this casual Mexican counter inside Maydan Market. The tlayuda is the main event: a hearty, meal-worthy situation loaded with beans, cheese, cabbage, and salsa, built to share if you add one of the proteins. The moronga is the one to get. Order at the counter, find a seat, and arrive with an appetite.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles

Citrin sits in the same building as the tasting-menu-only Mélisse, but it offers a more flexible format, with prix-fixe and à la carte alongside each other. The kitchen runs on French technique and California produce, classical at the bone but with modern, global instincts. Caviar and truffle upgrades are available for the inclined, though the cooking holds its own without them. It holds a Michelin star.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Ice cream mid-savory-course is either a provocation or a mistake, and at Dave Beran's Seline it's very much the former. This is a high-concept California tasting menu built around themes like the arc of the seasons, where a miniature garden of edible succulents arrives before lamb with burnt strawberry jus. Beran holds a James Beard Award for Best Chef: California, and the room earns the attention it gets.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Best Chef: California · Dave Beran
3. Los Angeles Times #13 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Boat noodles are the draw at this Thai noodle shop tucked into a Hollywood strip mall, where the broth runs thick, dark, and serious, and you pick your protein, noodle type, and heat level before the bowl hits the table. The portions are small by design, which is the shop's way of nudging you toward ordering two. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and on the LA Times 101 list. The stir-fried holy basil with pork is not an afterthought.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California

1. Sunset Inspired Italian · Where to Eat and Drink

1. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
3. Los Angeles Times #66 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

1. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California

1. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles

A courtyard anchored by a large tree strung with twinkling lights sets the mood at this West Adams pasta-forward Italian restaurant. Chef Avner Levi started as a pop-up, and the laidback ease of that origin stuck. Pasta is the point, housemade and taken seriously, though the lamb ossobuco braised with mole earns its place on the menu too. The crowd tends toward neighborhood date-night, which the setting handles without trying too hard.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Time Out #35 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

Order at the wood counter, catch a glimpse of the kitchen behind it, and try not to eat the pastries before your food arrives. Liu's Cafe is a small, low-key Chinese diner on 6th Street where the seats fill fast and the menu leans into comfort: wontons, braised pork belly rice, chili oil noodles, a pot of milk oolong on the side. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the sesame cold noodles won a LAist Best Bites nod.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. LAist Sesame cold noodles · Best Bites

1. Esquire Restaurant of the Year
2. The New York Times The Restaurant List
3. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California

1. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles

Matt Groening is a regular, and his illustrations hang on the wall alongside the framed press clippings, which tells you something about the Jitlada experience. This Southern Thai restaurant occupies a well-worn strip mall on Sunset, but the menu runs to hundreds of dishes, split between familiar Thai standards and a deep catalog of southern specialties that most LA Thai spots don't touch. A James Beard nominee, and the kind of place regulars will talk your ear off about.

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Best Chef: California · Sarintip “Jazz” Singsanong
2. Time Out #8 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Sarintip “Jazz” Singsanong

A pasta bar in Koreatown where the menu reads like a thought experiment: what if Italy and Korea had sorted things out earlier? Husband-and-wife chefs run a tight, dimly lit room with bar seating wrapping the space, the kind of setup that makes a solo dinner feel intentional rather than sad. The Korean-Italian mash-ups go all the way through to dessert, so order broadly and let the table sort out the overlaps.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Wood smoke from the rotisserie drifts a block down Western before you even see the place, which is as good an advertisement as any. This Koreatown Peruvian spot has been an old-school institution for decades, turning out whole chickens over live fire with a crispy, marinated skin that keeps the family recipe firmly in-house. The twice-fried fries and the spicy green aji sauce are not optional. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the wait will remind you why.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The live-fire hearth in the open kitchen sets the mood at ALTO, a fine dining spot in Studio City built around the flavors of Argentina and Uruguay. The menu runs toward generous, shareable plates, with breads and empanadas opening things up before proteins cooked over fire take center stage. South American wines get their own serious list. The Michelin Guide has it selected, and the Los Angeles Times placed it among the city's 101 best restaurants.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times #55 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

A California-meets-French bistro in Mar Vista where the open kitchen puts every plate in plain sight and the room fills fast enough that weekend reservations are less a suggestion than a survival strategy. The menu moves between sautéed foraged chanterelles and duck with dates and saffron, with a prix fixe if you'd rather hand over the decisions. The wine list leans French and the lime tart has its own following.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The website is ilovemole.com, which tells you everything about what this Oaxacan restaurant is here to do. The orange façade announces it from blocks away, and inside, the grill station fills the room with the smell of blistering peppers before you've even sat down. The moles, particularly the negro and rojo, are the reason regulars keep coming back. Complimentary chips arrive already drizzled with mole coloradito, so you're committed before you've ordered.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Time Out #39 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

The draw at this Koreatown restaurant is a whole duck roasted in a clay pot, stuffed with chestnuts, sweet potato, rice, and herbs, and it requires a day's notice, which is either a dealbreaker or the first sign you're dealing with something serious. The bird arrives bronzed and carved tableside. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, it's the kind of place that rewards anyone willing to plan ahead and bring a group to share the thing properly.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Udon carbonara with smoked pork belly and parmigiano tells you everything you need to know about where Leona's is coming from. This high-end Japanese fusion restaurant in Studio City pulls creative types into a room that earns the effort, then feeds them a menu that treats tradition as a suggestion rather than a rulebook. Seafood gets serious attention, and the chef's specials shift with the season. Selected by the Michelin Guide.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Rooftop Restaurant

Brick floors, creeping vines, and a crowd that seems to have been cast by a Venice Beach location scout. This Abbot Kinney institution is a Mediterranean restaurant built around wood-fired pizzas and shared plates, with vegetables doing serious heavy lifting on the menu. It's spawned a bakery, a to-go counter, and a cookbook, which is a lot of offspring for one room. A Michelin Selected spot that's also on the all-time Eater 38.

1. Eater The All-Time Eater 38
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
2. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles

Persian crispy rice arrives with egg yolks that make sharing a genuine moral dilemma. Kismet is a casual Middle Eastern restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard where seasonal vegetables and bright flavors run the show, and nothing on the table feels heavy. The Michelin Bib Gourmand room draws a Los Feliz crowd that looks like they biked here and also know exactly what they're ordering. The staff matches the energy perfectly.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
3. Los Angeles Times #27 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Dave Beran's Santa Monica bistro leans hard into France with no apologies and no asterisks. Wood beams, exposed brick, and white kitchen tile set the scene, and the pressed duck for two is the kind of centerpiece that makes the table next to you lean over and ask what you ordered. The marble bar handles a more casual drop-in just fine, with Champagne and caviar if you're feeling it. A New York Times pick for the city's best.

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now

The photo wall by the door, stacked with chefs, actors, and politicians, tells you everything about how long Park's has been the go-to Korean BBQ spot in LA. Servers manage the tabletop grills for you, slicing and flipping prime cuts from bulgogi to galbi, with American Wagyu for the committed. The kimchi pancakes arrive on cast-iron skillets, hot and crisp, and the cold noodles cut through all that smoke.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
3. Time Out #29 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Emerging Chef · Rashida Holmes
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Rashida Holmes

1. Time Out #9 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

1. Time Out The best Chinese restaurants in America

The name translates to "butcher shop," which tells you exactly where the kitchen's priorities lie. This sprawling Korean BBQ spot on Western Avenue runs on premium beef, grilled tableside over your own flame, with banchan that keeps arriving and service that actually keeps up. The tomahawk feeds a table of four with ease. Everything else, from dry-aged prime rib to marinated short rib, gets finished with little more than soy and salt.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Servers in traditional garments, each one quietly wired with an earpiece, set the tone at this upscale Korean barbecue institution on Olympic. The menu leans into the classics, short ribs and galbi done with evident kitchen seriousness, and the banchan spread alone warrants the trip across town. Tables fill with large groups feeding the grill, and the waits run long, so treat the room as the whole evening rather than a stop along the way.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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The pergola-shaded patio alone explains why this Culver West neighborhood restaurant fills up fast. Inside, tufted leather banquettes and an L-shaped bar give it the feel of a Southern roadhouse that got a little lucky with real estate. The menu leans into biscuits, pork, and seasonal vegetables with genuine conviction, and the vegetable section is substantial enough to build a whole meal around without anyone feeling cheated.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The chicharron, crispy pork belly in garlic mojo, is the dish that people apparently plan their week around. This is a Mexican restaurant from chef Ray Garcia, running a compact menu of bold, nostalgic cooking that skews contemporary without making a show of it. The room fills fast, so reservations are not optional. Start with the aguachile negro and work your way forward; skipping anything tends to feel like a mistake in hindsight.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Named for a Caribbean island off the Yucatán coast, this Michelin-starred coastal Mexican seafood counter sits inside Mercado La Paloma in South Central, sharing the space with six other vendors and no liquor license, so lemonade it is. The chef grew up spearing fish on that same peninsula, and the ceviches, aguachiles, and grilled lobster on heirloom corn tortillas taste like it. North America's 50 Best lists it at number 26.

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Chef · Gilberto Cetina
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star
3. 50 Best #26 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar

1. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles

The menu lists the farmers by name before it lists the dishes, which tells you everything about this Santa Monica neighborhood restaurant. The room has been around forever, and the lighting and leather booths have earned their intimacy. Market-driven New American means the cocktails change with the seasons too, a detail the bar takes seriously. The Michelin Guide has it selected, and the Los Angeles Times put it on their 101 best restaurants list.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times #48 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
3. LAist Chochoyotes · Best Bites

A lineup of house sambals lands on the table before you've made any decisions, which is a useful way to begin at this easygoing Malaysian restaurant on Beverly. Chef Johnny Lee's Chinese-Malaysian cooking runs from satay and charred okra to beef rendang with buttery roti, and the plates are sized for sharing, which softens the slightly higher tabs. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The Infatuation #9 · LA’s Best New Restaurants
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Holly Fox and Adam Weisblatt - Last Word Hospitality

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Evan Algorri

The No. 19, a hot pastrami on rye with Swiss, coleslaw, and Russian dressing, is the thing strangers stop you to ask about when you're carrying it to your table. Langer's is an old-school deli, been around forever, with booths, a full menu of latkes and chopped liver, and breakfast served all day. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, which feels about right for a place where the sandwich does all the talking.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles

1. Eater Chef of the Year · José Olmedo Carles Rojas
2. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles
3. Los Angeles Times #52 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

A tasting menu restaurant tucked into a strip mall on Ventura Boulevard, which is either a joke or a dare. The format is intimate and genuinely theatrical: drinks and a snack up front in a bar, then a procession of modern Italian-leaning pasta courses that push well past Italian tradition. The cooking holds a Michelin star, and the staff seem to know it without being insufferable about it.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles

1. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · America's Classics: California

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants

The clay pot of three-cup Jidori chicken arrives at your table still simmering, which tells you everything about how seriously this casual Taiwanese restaurant takes itself. Exposed brick, concrete floors, and a laid-back South LA vibe don't telegraph the kitchen's precision, but the Michelin Bib Gourmand does. Vegetarian takes on mapo tofu and dumplings hold their own alongside the meat dishes, and the lotus root salad is quietly worth ordering.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
3. Los Angeles Times #76 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Meats arrive in quarter-pound portions here, the menu structure doing double duty as the restaurant's name. This is an upscale Korean BBQ spot in Koreatown where the lines wrapping the block suggest the neighborhood has already made up its mind. Reservations help, or an early lunch will. Solo diners are required to order at least two cuts, which, given the marbled short rib coming off the grill, is less a hardship than it sounds.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The open hearth at this Middle Eastern restaurant in East Hollywood runs hot enough that you feel it from your seat, which is either thrilling or a heads-up to dress accordingly. Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis (of Bestia fame) built the menu around long-skewer kebabs and wood-fired bread, though the grilled lobster in green harissa suggests the kitchen has range. Getting a reservation requires patience, or luck, or both.

1. Esquire #8 · The Best New Restaurants in America
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Los Angeles Times #28 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

The pink building with green trim on Main Street signals something a little different, and the floral wallpaper and mismatched furniture inside confirm it. Cobi's is a lively, affordable Southeast Asian restaurant running Thai, Malaysian, and beyond on one broad menu. The Michelin Bib Gourmand crowd tends to look pleased about the curry puffs, the wood-grilled mains, and the fact that dinner here rarely requires a difficult conversation about the bill.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50

Concrete floors, hanging plants, and a long bar anchoring the room set the tone at this sleek Korean restaurant in Koreatown. The menu is built around shareable plates, with wagyu cooked over charcoal and a crispy scallion pancake with mentaiko sauce doing most of the heavy lifting. Save room for the pastry course, which lands closer to art project than afterthought.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A pasta station sits front and center at this modern trattoria a few blocks from the Pacific, so you can watch the dough come together before it arrives at your table. The menu is short and focused, running through a soup of the day, a handful of antipasti, and handmade pastas that are the clear reason to be here. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a room that feels neighborly but cooks with real seriousness.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Emerging Chef · Fátima Juárez
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
3. The New York Times Molotes de Plátano · The Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S.

1. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
2. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Los Angeles
3. Los Angeles Times #29 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

1. Los Angeles Times #26 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

1. Food & Wine Turkish Coffee Cream Pie · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year

Jon Yao's tasting menu restaurant lives in the Row DTLA, where polished concrete and an open kitchen set a spare stage for cooking rooted in Taiwanese heritage and San Gabriel Valley muscle memory. The ten courses are not shy about seasoning, and the drinks program, a James Beard winner in its own right, pulls equal weight. Kato holds a Michelin star and a spot on North America's 50 Best, and Yao won the James Beard for Best Chef: California.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
3. 50 Best #49 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants