The Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

Charcoal-grilled satay mushrooms from Long Beach share a menu with Dungeness crab curry and lip-tingling beef nam tok at this small, casual Thai restaurant in Atwater Village. The team behind it built a following on Northern Thai-style sausage packed for pandemic pickup, and the cooking has only gotten looser and more confident since. The New York Times put it on their list of the 25 best restaurants in Los Angeles right now, which for a neighborhood spot with a takeout window is saying something.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
2. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

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

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. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. AAA Four Diamonds

The birds go in whole and come out deeply browned, every slice carrying crackling skin and a soft layer of fat underneath. This tiny strip-mall Thai restaurant in East Hollywood keeps things focused: duck over rice, duck over thin jade noodles, or duck as the salad. The carcass goes into the pot for a dark broth that becomes duck noodle soup, which regulars treat as a second visit folded into the first.

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

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds

Jollof rice finished with herby lamb chops or jerk cauliflower is the kind of menu decision that takes longer than it should. This West African-Californian restaurant in Inglewood grew out of a pandemic pop-up, and the cooking still carries that energy, all sticky honey chicken berbere and root beer-braised short ribs with whipped yams. The room got a modern refresh and the cocktails are genuinely cooling. The Los Angeles Times put it among the best restaurants in California.

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

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
3. Eater The 38 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

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

A former warehouse on the industrial edge of Chinatown, majordōmo is David Chang's sprawling, loud restaurant where the open kitchen sets the pace for everything else. The menu drifts freely across Asian influences, from snacks through noodles to large-format sharing plates, and it reads less like a document than a dare. Walk-ins can try for counter seats, but reservations go fast and the room fills faster.

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A solo chef running every aspect of a dozen-seat Turkish restaurant in DTLA is either a romantic gesture or a logistical nightmare, and here it reads as both. Order at the kiosk, find a stool at a white wood table under a ceiling of warm wood and hanging greenery, and settle in for Anatolian cooking that has fine-dining technique somewhere in its past but no interest in showing off about it. The Michelin Guide has it selected.

1. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Los Angeles Times #39 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Coca-Cola glazed pork belly and Doritos-dusted chilaquiles set the tone at this taco-forward Mexican restaurant in Cerritos, where the chef brings a fine-dining background to handmade tortillas and spicy salsas. The menu leans into LA's Mexican-American hybrid instincts, with truffle accents sitting comfortably beside beer-battered cod. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a spot on the LA Times taco list.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times Short rib taco · The 101 Best Tacos in Los Angeles

1. US Coffee Championships #2 · U.S. Brewers Cup · Christian Bak

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
2. Eater The Best Pancakes in Los Angeles
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

Handmade flour tortillas and hand-pressed masa are the foundation at this Mexican gastropub in downtown Santa Ana, where a post-pandemic reset trimmed the menu down to tacos, quekas, and churros and made each one count. The Bib Gourmand reflects that focus. Grilled tomato and dried chili salsa ties the tacos together; habanero salsa does the same for the quekas. Happy hour makes running the whole short list an easy call.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times Citrus marinated chicken taco · The 101 Best Tacos in Los Angeles

Housemade corn tortillas are the baseline here, warm and soft, and everything else is a riff on the form that lands somewhere between street food and genuine curiosity. Macheen is a taqueria operating as a pop-up, rotating through Boyle Heights and Smorgasburg, with a menu that might pile daikon pickles and grilled rib-eye onto one taco and sweet smoky beets al pastor onto another. The New York Times put it on their 25 best L.A. restaurants list, which tracks.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
2. Los Angeles Times #93 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
3. Los Angeles Times Brisket taco · The 101 Best Tacos in Los Angeles

1. US Coffee Championships #8 · U.S. Brewers Cup · Joe Han

1. US Coffee Championships #3 · U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · Glen Ackerman

1. US Coffee Championships #3 · U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · Glen Ackerman

1. US Coffee Championships #3 · U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · Glen Ackerman

1. US Coffee Championships #3 · U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · Glen Ackerman

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. Time Out #13 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
2. Los Angeles Times #75 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

1. AAA Four Diamonds

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.

1. AAA Four Diamonds

Corrugated metal walls, open air, and a menu that fits on one page: this rustic Mexican spot in Lincoln Heights runs on stewed meats and soulful broths. The carne en su jugo, a tomatillo and bacon beef soup with pinto beans, is what keeps the regulars coming back, though the birria en consommé gives it a run. Tortillas are made in-house. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the small staff acts like they already know you.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Chifa is the word for the Chinese-Peruvian culinary collision that took root in Lima generations ago, and this Eagle Rock restaurant leans into the mashup with zebra-print walls and zero apology. The menu pulls from family recipes and runs short on purpose, so each dish earns its place. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a room where the food punches well above the price.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

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

Doors open at 11:30 and close a few hours later, which tells you everything: this small Taiwanese restaurant in Temple City operates on its own terms, and the lines that form before opening tell you the neighborhood is fine with that. The menu hangs above the cash register, so you read it standing up. Tea arrives in a Styrofoam cup without asking. Expect to be out in twenty minutes, holding a Michelin Bib Gourmand memory.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Wicker fans spin overhead, leather sofas line the walls, and colorful tile covers the floor in what amounts to a fantasy of old Havana in downtown Los Angeles. DAMA is a full-service Latin American restaurant where the tropical cocktails at the central bar are keeping pace with the kitchen, and the front patio is dense with greenery. The menu runs from aguachile to lamb chops to paella meant for sharing.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The Infatuation The 19 Best Restaurants In Downtown Los Angeles

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

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Greg Dulan

Tucked into the back of a Rowland Heights strip mall stacked floor-to-ceiling with restaurants, this Taiwanese spot is the kind of place you almost drive past three times before finding. Inside, the warehouse floors and generously spaced tables make it unusually calm for a menu that reads like a small novel, packed with seafood, consommés, and rice dishes. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and regulars tend to already know what they're ordering before they sit down.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The line outside this small Malaysian café in Alhambra is the first thing you notice, and it doesn't thin out much once you're in. The menu is short and focused on classics: Hainanese chicken, curry with roti canai, kaya toast. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which feels about right for a neighborhood spot where the takeout tickets never stop piling up. Come with patience and without a reservation, because neither option exists.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

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

A seafood restaurant where the fried fish sandwich at lunch is reason enough to show up, with clean batter, juicy fish, and the kind of balance that makes most sandwich shops look sloppy. This Melrose Ave sit-down spot is the newer sibling of an Echo Park original, keeping the same focus on sustainably sourced fish and California produce. The room is bright, the wines lean natural, and the service knows what it's doing.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

No carts circle the dining room at this Alhambra dim sum house, which tells you something about how seriously the kitchen takes the whole operation. Orders come by menu, servers move fast, and the lobster noodle roll arrives on a platter dressed with the shell itself, a small piece of theater that gets noticed across the room. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, and the crowd on a weekend morning is exactly what you'd expect.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

A sign-in sheet on the sidewalk is your first clue that this strip-mall dumpling shop in Monrovia runs on its own terms. The menu is short, roughly half of it devoted to the namesake specialty, and the kitchen makes everything fresh each morning rather than pulling from a freezer. The pan-fried options tend to disappear fastest. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which explains the lines without quite preparing you for them.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Tin ceilings, tiled walls, and tall mirrors give this osteria on South Broadway the bones of a classic Roman trattoria, which is exactly what it's going for. Handmade pasta is the main event, with a rotating cast of shapes and tomato-based sauces that keeps the regulars from ever opening the menu properly. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, and Grand Central Market is right across the street if somehow you're still hungry.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

A strip-mall butcher shop and deli in Newport Beach where the pastrami is cured in-house and the beef for the smash burger gets ground the same day. The Italian sub runs through Genoa, coppa, and soppressata, and the rotating specials board keeps things interesting. Regulars who already know their order fill the counter fast. Cheese, charcuterie, and house-made salads line the cases for the road.

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants
2. Los Angeles Times #91 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
3. LAist Smashburger · Best Bites

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Food Pioneer · Chris Bianco
2. LAist Mortadella Sandwich · Best Bites

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

Sichuan cooking in a bright, window-lined room in Alhambra, where the mapo tofu and tea-smoked duck have followed loyalists from the old address a couple miles away. The kitchen runs on scarlet numbing oils and chopped chilis, and a bowl of fish in rattan pepper broth will leave your lips buzzing in the best possible, er, notable way. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and a private room handles large parties well.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Cement columns, garage doors rolled open to the street, and a modern bar give this Arts District restaurant a loft-like feel that has nothing to do with the food, which is decidedly old-country Northern Italian. The kitchen makes its pasta in-house and treats regional specificity as a point of pride, not a talking point. The Michelin Guide has flagged it with a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a place this focused.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Edison bulbs cast a warm amber glow over exposed brick in this Old Pasadena Italian restaurant, where all the pasta is made in house and the portions lean toward sharing whether you planned to or not. The spaghetti and meatballs arrives on a platter the size of a hubcap. The cooking is bold rather than fussy, the sourcing is local, and the Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand to prove it isn't a secret anymore.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 20 Honourees · Elite 12 United States

A center hearth anchors this Altadena neighborhood restaurant, and the live-fire cooking radiates outward from there. The team lost nearly everything in the Eaton Fire and kept going anyway, which gives the room a particular kind of warmth that has nothing to do with the flames. Seasonal, irreverent, and Esquire-named among the best new restaurants in America, Betsy pulls off the trick of feeling like a community dinner table without being precious about it.

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
2. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Eater Best Comeback · The 2025 Eater Los Angeles Award Winners

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

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

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 50 Honourees · Elite 30 Canada

The red-orange cushions and pale green backsplash look like someone decorated with the produce order, which makes sense for a neighborhood restaurant that works directly with local farms. Tomat does all-day, but evenings are when the kitchen gets serious about California's seasonal haul. Dishes are meant for the table to share, and the room fills accordingly. The Michelin Guide has it selected, and Esquire put it on its best new restaurants list for 2025.

1. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Los Angeles Times #82 · 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

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

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50

The coffered wood ceiling and vintage frames make this downtown Pasadena bistro feel like someone airlifted a Parisian side street into Southern California. The chef has no interest in deconstructing the classics, which means Burgundy snails arrive glossy with herbed butter and duck à l'orange stays duck à l'orange. Order the soufflé for dessert; it takes time and it's supposed to. The Michelin Guide has it listed.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times #89 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

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

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Dark masa quesadillas filled with Oaxacan cheese, in-house tortillas, and tacos served all day set the tone at this modern Oaxacan spot a short walk from the Venice beach scene. The room looks the part, all bright and California-casual, and the mezcal list gives you something to do while you decide between the barbacoa and the tinga de pollo. The Los Angeles Times put it on its Fifty Under $50 list, which tracks.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds