The Top 31 Places to Drink Near R|O-Rebel Omakase
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- The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
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- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West
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Rank 4. Same Same
Thai Cocktail Bar
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Rank 6. Bestia
Italian
A flaming red domed oven anchors the warehouse-sized dining room, which also has a copper bar, tulip pendant lights, and booths that seem to float slightly above the floor. This is a buzzy Italian restaurant in the Arts District where the crowd's energy and the kitchen's output seem to feed each other. The blistered pizzas and rich pastas are the reason the room is always full, and desserts from the pastry side hold their own.
- Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Time Out #37 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
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Rank 7. Camelia
French Japanese
- Punch Best New Bartenders · Kevin Nguyen
- The New York Times The Restaurant List
- Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
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Rank 8. Camphor
French, Contemporary
A Michelin-starred bistro in the Arts District where the steak au poivre and golden frites hold their ground alongside some genuinely inventive plating. The kitchen leans French but isn't reverent about it, which is part of the appeal. The Provence Martini made Esquire's list of the finest in the country, so the bar pulls its weight too. It fills up fast and the open kitchen keeps the room loud and kinetic.
- Esquire Provence Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Time Out #18 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
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Rank 12. Dan Sung Sa
Old-School Korean
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Rank 13. The Let's Go!
Italian Cocktail Bar
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A former church in Downtown LA, now a contemporary restaurant with an open ceiling that lets the room breathe and the people-watching practically do itself. The crowd comes for small plates and cocktails at the two circular bars or settles into the sofa-stuffed lounge like they own the place. The menu roams globally, though the kitchen keeps one foot planted in the familiar. Loud, beautiful, and a little theatrical.
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Tobin Shea
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 16. Donna's
American Italian
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Linda Douglas
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar – U.S. West
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West
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Rank 17. 1886 at The Raymond
High-end American
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Rank 18. Manuela
Southern
Inside the Hauser & Wirth arts complex in the Arts District, Manuela is a restaurant and bar where conceptual art hangs on the walls and the cooking tilts Southern with a serious commitment to local ingredients, some grown in their own garden. Cocktails use house-made bitters and tonics, and the food is the kind that makes a gallery crowd linger well past closing time.
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Rank 19. Firstborn
Contemporary Chinese
Tucked into Mandarin Plaza on Broadway, this contemporary Chinese American restaurant and bar is the project of a first-generation chef cooking his own story onto the plate. The cocktail program is serious enough to earn national bartender recognition, so start there before the food arrives. Dishes are built for sharing, the kitchen is open to the room, and the whole setup feels more like a dinner party than a transaction.
- Esquire Bartender of the Year · Kenzo Han
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best New Restaurant
- Punch Best New Bartenders · Kenzo Han
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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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An unmarked door at the back of Cole's opens into a dimly lit cocktail bar where jazz plays low and Victorian oil lamps glow against wood-panelled walls. The late Sasha Petraske was a part owner, and the room feels exactly like something he'd have built: serious about its classic cocktails, quiet enough to hear the ice hit the glass, and a little too good at making you lose track of the hour.
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Rank 23. Caña
Rum Cocktail Bar
You reach Caña by walking through a parking garage in the base of a historic Petroleum Building until a podium appears, which is the kind entrance policy that filters out the uncommitted. Inside, a corridor lined with rum bottles leads to a wood-panelled room with leather banquettes and a ribbed concrete ceiling. It's a rum cocktail bar that takes the spirit seriously, and the dim lamplight makes everyone look like they have good taste.
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The California poppy, "copa de oro" in Spanish, cup of gold, lends its name to this Santa Monica cocktail bar a couple of blocks from the beach. Terracotta tile, dark wood, and a resident artist's work on the walls give it a warm Hispanic character that tips, even on a Wednesday, toward a genuine party. The kind of place that starts feeling festive before you've finished your first drink.
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Rank 25. Las Perlas
Mexican
Every bottle behind the bar at Las Perlas comes from south of the border, which means no vodka, no whiskey, and no gin to tempt you off the path. It's a cantina-style mezcal and tequila bar on Sixth Street, candlelit and maximalist, with Del Maguey mezcals and rare 100% agave pours listed by region and paired for the curious. The kind of place that makes an argument without ever saying a word.
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Three antique pool tables on tartan carpet greet you at the top of the stairs, which sets the tone for this whiskey bar doing a convincing impression of a Scottish gentleman's club in downtown L.A. The black walnut bar runs nearly the full length of the room, with shelves so tall the bartenders use a rolling ladder to reach the rarer Scotch, Japanese, Irish, and bourbon bottles, several hundred in all, including single-cask and collectible pours.
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Four oversized bronze chairs whose frames spell out an "R" set the tone before you've ordered a thing. This is the bar side of a sleek Latin-themed restaurant, where the drinks program leans into tequila and mezcal with the same design seriousness the room applies to everything else. It's a long way from neon cantina signage, both in looks and in the glass.
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Rank 29. Edison
Cocktail Bar
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