The Best Mediterranean Food in Los Angeles
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The best Mediterranean food in Los Angeles, according to the experts: the James Beard Awards, Time Out, and Eater have all weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. République comes out on top.
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Gjelina and The Restaurant at Hotel Bel-Air hold the next two places. AAA shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with Eater next.
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Rank 1. République
Mediterranean
The brick-and-skylight nave of a former bakery on La Brea sets the stage for one of those all-day operations that actually pulls off both halves. Mornings belong to the pastry counter, where the team's James Beard Award-winning work draws lines before the doors open. By evening the open kitchen is running a Southern European Mediterranean menu for a full dining room that never quite empties.
The awards
- James Beard Awards James Beard Awards: 2023 · Winner · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Margarita Manzke
- Time Out Time Out: The best bakeries in America
- James Beard Awards James Beard Awards: 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Pastry Chef · Margarita Manzke
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Winner · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Margarita Manzke
- Time Out The best bakeries in America
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Pastry Chef · Margarita Manzke
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Rank 2. Gjelina
Mediterranean
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.
The awards
- Eater Eater: The All-Time Eater 38
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
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Rank 3. The Restaurant at Hotel Bel-Air
Mediterranean
Swan Lake has actual swans, and the terrace wraps around it at the kind of angle that makes dinner feel like a film set. This is a hotel dining room, but one where the garden earns its keep, not just its Instagram. The Mediterranean menu leans into good produce and clean flavors, from tuna tartare with ponzu to Colorado lamb, and the patisserie cart has a way of extending the evening longer than planned.
The awards
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Rank 4. Citrus City Grille- Orange
Mediterranean
The awards
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Rank 4. The Black Trumpet Bistro
Mediterranean
The awards
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Rank 6. Élephante
Southern Mediterranean
A rooftop restaurant on Second Street where a cactus garden gives way to a sunset room lined with wood and stone, and the Pacific sits just beyond the windows. The kitchen works the Southern Mediterranean register in shareable small plates, the kind where flavors land a little sideways in the best sense. Santa Monica's see-and-be-seen crowd fills the room, but the cooking holds its own without leaning on the view for cover.
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
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Rank 7. Crossroads Kitchen
Plant-Based Mediterranean
White tablecloths and a room that doesn't announce itself as vegan, even a little. Crossroads Kitchen is a refined plant-based Mediterranean restaurant on Melrose where Tal Ronnen's cooking reads as fine dining first and a lifestyle statement never. The French onion soup arrives without beef broth and nobody at the table notices anything missing. A-list regulars treat the bar like a neighborhood spot, which is either aspirational or just Tuesday in Los Angeles.
The awards