The Best Places in Los Angeles

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

John Pawson's cedar-doored, travertine-and-tropical-greenery tower sits exactly where the Sunset Strip bleeds into Beverly Hills, and the hotel doesn't pretend that's a coincidence. Rooms run spare and luxurious, with city or Hills views, while downstairs the restaurant, lobby bar, rooftop, and subterranean nightclub form a full ecosystem for people who want refinement and decadence in the same evening. The spa exists, diplomatically, to make tomorrow possible.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
3. Time Out The 17 best hotels in Los Angeles

A French-Japanese bistro in an Arts District warehouse, where the croque-madame arrives on house-made shokupan with ham katsu standing in for the ham. The team behind sake-focused Japanese spots has gone full Paris here, or almost full Paris, because the ponzu jelly scattered over the burrata keeps reminding you exactly where you are. Come for an aperitif and stay until the kitchen stops feeding you.

1. Punch Best New Bartenders · Kevin Nguyen
2. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
3. The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List

Cochinita pibil marinated in citrus and achiote, pulled and served with fresh tortillas, is the kind of dish that makes Yucatán cooking click. This modern Mexican restaurant in Tustin focuses on the smoke- and spice-driven food of the peninsula, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Mezcal cocktails come customized with tamarind and mole bitters, and the charred habanero salsa arrives whether you ordered it or not, which is the right call.

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

No ocean in sight from this busy East Hollywood corner, but the seafood at Found Oyster doesn't seem to notice. It's a no-frills bar and seafood spot where the team applies a firm philosophy: impeccably sourced shellfish needs little beyond a squeeze of lemon to do its job. The oysters come from the general manager's family farm, which is either charming or unfair competition, depending on how you look at it. The New York Times and the LA Times have both taken notice.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
3. Los Angeles Times #78 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

Flowers cascade through the lobby and gardens wind between the buildings, giving this Beverly Hills luxury hotel the feel of a greenhouse that happens to offer room service. Rodeo Drive is a short walk away for anyone who brought a serious credit card. The fourth-floor pool draws a loyal mix of locals and guests, and the patio at Culina stays busy with people who know exactly what they're doing on a Tuesday afternoon.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

The warm English muffin that arrives before anything else has, by all accounts, developed a following of its own, which tells you something about how Mar'sel operates. This fine dining room at Terranea Resort on the Palos Verdes Peninsula pairs ocean views and a fireplace with New American cooking that takes its time. Forbes Four Star service matches the setting. Dress accordingly, and leave room for the caramel pot de crème.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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

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

The tenth floor of a downtown hotel turns out to be a fine place to stare at Walt Disney Concert Hall while José Andrés's team works through a menu of modern Californian cooking with a Spanish lean. The facade opens fully, making the room feel more rooftop than restaurant. A Forbes Four Star. Earth tones, greenery, a busy bar, and a tomato tartare that arrives looking like the beef version but absolutely is not.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The popovers arrive with housemade tomato jam before you've even settled in, which tells you a lot about how this Anaheim steakhouse operates. Saddle-and-spur decor sets the mood at this meat-forward room, though produce from the restaurant's own farm keeps things from feeling purely carnivorous. The prime rib and scalloped potatoes are built for sharing, as is everything else, unless you've skipped lunch with conviction.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The line outside on Sunday mornings tells you what kind of place this is before you even read the menu. A Southern breakfast institution in Inglewood, The Serving Spoon draws the post-church crowd in numbers that would alarm a fire marshal, all coming for pancakes that arrive buried under butter and maple syrup. A 2026 James Beard America's Classics winner, it's been a neighborhood anchor for decades and shows no sign of quieting down.

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · America's Classics: California
2. Eater The Best Pancakes in Los Angeles

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Food & Wine The 10 Top Bars in the US

A no-reservations Portuguese spot in Cypress Park where the counter seats facing the open kitchen fill up fast and everyone else negotiates the small room. The menu leans on family recipes and sharing plates, with salt cod fritters and charred cabbage over white beans doing a lot of the heavy lifting. A James Beard semifinalist in multiple years, including Best New Restaurant, which tracks for a place this small running this confidently.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Holly Fox and Adam Weisblatt - Last Word Hospitality

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

1. Time Out The best Chinese restaurants in America

1. Time Out The best Chinese restaurants in America

Evan Funke's eponymous Italian restaurant occupies a three-story art deco building in Beverly Hills, where a glassed-in room lets you watch pasta being made by hand before it reaches your table. Red leather booths, stone tables, and tall ceilings set a tone that takes itself seriously without taking the fun out of dinner. The menu moves through handmade pasta and wood-fired dishes, the kind of Italian cooking where focaccia alone gets its own moment.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Time Out #21 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
3. Los Angeles Times #19 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

1. Food & Wine Best New Chefs · Wedchayan "Deau" Arpapornnopparat

Ivy creeps up the facade of this all-suite boutique hotel one block from the Santa Monica Pier, where every room faces the Pacific and comes stocked with Frette linens, local art, and a minibar that takes itself seriously. The courtyard pool, ringed with lemon trees and James Perse loungers, is the kind of spot that makes you cancel afternoon plans. Sandpiper, the open-air restaurant, leans into California seasonal cooking.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

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

Anchored in Fashion Island with floor-to-ceiling windows pulling California sunshine into every room, this hotel earns its Michelin Key for putting SoCal polish ahead of resort cliche. Art deco interiors run through 295 guest rooms, a sleek steakhouse, and a pool bar pouring Baja-flavored bites alongside cocktails. Ocean views are easy to come by here, which is either the point or the whole thing, depending how long you plan to stay.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

1. Punch Real Charmer Daiquiri · Our Favorite Cocktails
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. West

The room at this Venice restaurant runs tropical colors over midcentury furniture, one block from the boardwalk, and the menu moves just as freely. Chef José Olmedo Carles Rojas brings a Panamanian upbringing and a Central American pantry to dishes that range from uni shooters to double-fried patacones with ajillo. A 2026 James Beard Emerging Chef Semifinalist, he's on Eater's Essential 38 and the LA Times 101.

1. Eater Chef of the Year · José Olmedo Carles Rojas
2. Los Angeles Times #52 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
3. LAist Afro-Caribbean shrimp dumplings · Best Bites

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Esquire Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. Esquire Musso + Frank Martini · The Best Martinis in America

A neighborhood wine bistro a block from the Hermosa Beach strand, Vin Folk has a Michelin Bib Gourmand and the kind of regulars who look slightly smug about knowing it's there. The menu roams globally, with shareable plates that lean on good technique without announcing themselves. Reservations are genuinely worth planning around, which for a casual wine bar says something the room doesn't need to say out loud.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times #31 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
3. Eater Best Place to Be a Regular · The 2025 Eater Los Angeles Award Winners

1. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
2. Los Angeles Times #43 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality

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

BBAD is a daytime counter in Pasadena that stands for Breakfast Burritos All Day, and it commits to the bit with a menu of just four burritos. The tortillas are wrapped tight enough to hold a full breakfast plate, soft eggs, crispy potato that can pass for bacon, and slow-roasted pork with a tart tomatillo salsa on the side. The Infatuation put the chile verde burrito on its list of the best breakfast burritos in America.

1. The Infatuation Chile Verde Burrito · The Best Breakfast Burritos In America

Cafe Los Feliz is a neighborhood bakery and cafe on Hillhurst, where the line for the soujuk breakfast burrito is a cross-section of Los Angeles. Soujuk is a spicy, dry-cured Armenian sausage, and it arrives with salsa and chipotle aioli in case the kick wasn't loud enough. Locals and the occasional TV face queue up in the same sunglasses, which in this city counts as an equalizer. It's counter service, so wear whatever you slept in.

1. The Infatuation Soujuk Burrito · The Best Breakfast Burritos In America

1. The Infatuation 11 Of The Best Donuts In America

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

Craftsman timber beams and a stone hearth the size of a small house anchor the lobby of this Disney resort hotel, which opens directly onto California Adventure and Downtown Disney. More than 900 rooms means it's never exactly intimate, but the proximity to the parks is the whole point. Tenaya Stone Spa offers a quieter corner when the churro fumes get overwhelming. Cast members handle everything with unsettling cheer, which is either magical or unnerving depending on your caffeine level.

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

Dudley Market is a Venice seafood restaurant a short walk from the sand, where the move is a few oysters followed by a burger that arrives with caramelized onion-bacon jam. The Infatuation put that burger on its list of the best in America. Expect sunglasses worn indoors by people who are not squinting at anything, and a bill that assumes you flew in from somewhere with a different zip code.

1. The Infatuation The Best Burgers In America

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Greg Dulan
2. Time Out #25 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Greg Dulan

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

A scarlet lobster logo, shells painted gold and silver on the wall, and half the tables splitting one at any given hour make the signature self-evident at this Cantonese restaurant in Alhambra. Henry's is an unassuming room doing homestyle cooking that's increasingly hard to find, selected by the Michelin Guide and named to the LA Times' 101 best. Come at dinner when the full menu opens up, and ask what vegetables are in season.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
3. Time Out #34 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

1. The Infatuation Potato Fritter · The Best Potato Dishes In America

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Esquire LDV Gibson · The Best Martinis in America
3. Eater The Best Beverly Hills Restaurants

1. Esquire Okra Martini · The Best Martinis in America

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. Esquire House Pickle-Brine Martini · The Best Martinis in America

1. Esquire House Pickle-Brine Martini · The Best Martinis in America

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

A vintage sky-blue VW van parked out front is the hotel's first word on what you're getting into. Paséa is a beachfront hotel right on PCH next to the Huntington Beach Pier, and it leans hard into the surf-and-sand premise, from complimentary flip-flops to a wave photograph spanning your headboard. The rooftop bar and two pools face the water, and the Balinese-inspired spa is a genuine non-sequitur that somehow fits.

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

Large metal bowls of steaming pho arrive trailing the scent of anise, and the broth is sweet enough that people come back for it the way some people return to a therapist. This Westminster pho shop splits its menu into beginner and adventurer sides, with noodle style and cut of beef chosen at the counter. The Los Angeles Times named it among California's 101 best restaurants, and the Michelin Guide has it listed too. Bring patience; the room fills fast.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
3. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Time Out The best bakeries in America

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

The Art Deco bones of this West Hollywood hotel go back to the golden age, when the apartment tower housed the kind of tenants whose names still sell magazines. The renovation kept the earth-toned, mid-century atmosphere without turning it into a theme park, which is harder than it sounds on the Sunset Strip. Michelin has given it a Key. The guests leaning into the bar look like they have meetings, not autograph books.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Time Out The best bakeries in America

1. Time Out The best bakeries in America

1. Time Out The best bakeries in America

Perched on the Palos Verdes Peninsula with Catalina Island sitting offshore like a postcard prop, this Forbes Four Star coastal resort sits just 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles and manages to feel like another country entirely. Eight restaurants and bars, a sprawling spa with treatment rooms facing the water, kayaking, tide pooling, and falconry keep guests occupied long enough to forget the freeway exists.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Yachts outnumber cars in the parking situation here, which tells you what kind of hotel this is. The Ritz-Carlton sits on a large man-made marina about five miles from LAX, and the water views are relentless, from the pool deck to the guest rooms. A Forbes Four Star property, it offers paddleboarding, parasailing, and jet-skiing alongside a spa for those who prefer their recreation horizontal. LA's beach chaos feels surprisingly distant.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

An Echo Park izakaya with exposed red brick and a sake list the servers are eager to walk you through. The menu is built for sharing, running from chawanmushi with dungeness crab to grilled skewers and delicate tempura, all of it casual in presentation and careful in execution. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and ranked among the Los Angeles Times' top restaurants in the state. Book well clear of a Dodgers home game unless you enjoy circling the block.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
3. Los Angeles Times #37 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants

The strip-mall facade on Las Tunas gives nothing away, but inside, the room goes full imperial, red and gold and blue, with the kind of scale that makes you feel a dinner party is the minimum viable unit. This is fine dining rooted in royal Manchu cuisine from the Qing court, so luxury ingredients arrive without apology. Come with a crowd and order widely; the menu rewards the ambitious table. A Michelin Guide selected restaurant.

1. Chinese Restaurant Awards Elite 12 United States
2. Los Angeles Times #88 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

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

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.

1. Esquire Provence Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Time Out #18 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

Chengdu Taste does not negotiate with your spice tolerance. This Alhambra Sichuan restaurant has been packing in crowds for years without once softening its approach, and the dining room smells like chili oil and vindication. Toothpick lamb, heavy with cumin, is the move that everyone talks about. The Michelin Bib Gourmand is on record here, and lunch is the local's trick for skipping the line that forms most evenings.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Time Out #36 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

The dining room looks straight out over the water at Newport Beach, which would be enough for most restaurants to coast on. This modern New American spot holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and earns it by pairing that view with a menu that swings from inventive vegetable dishes to an ambitious slow-roasted porchetta. The crowd comes for the scenery and stays because the food keeps surprising them.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

Pakistani-Indian restaurant on a Fullerton strip that otherwise runs to taquerias and carnicerias, which tells you something about how much confidence it takes to open here. The room is bright and a little hip, with a craft mocktail bar in the back. Beef is quietly central to the menu, though chicken and vegetable dishes hold their own. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and on Eater's list of essential Orange County restaurants.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

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

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

The booths at this Beverly Hills Hotel restaurant have been hosting power lunches and quiet deal-making for about as long as anyone can remember. The menu leans American with a nod toward Italian, built around local and organic ingredients. In the evenings, a pianist keeps things warm and a little old-fashioned in the best way. The crowd tends toward people who don't need to check the prices.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. AAA Three Diamonds

Dinner inside a working greenhouse, with outdoor tables ringed by citrus trees and herbs, sets the mood before a plate arrives. Poppy & Seed is a fine dining room in Anaheim's Packing District built around organic, locally sourced Southern cooking, the kind where shrimp and grits shares a menu with steak tartare brightened by pickled sea beans. A James Beard semifinalist, it draws a crowd that dresses up without overdoing it and lingers well past sunset.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Michael Reed

1. The 50 SevenRooms Icon Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Hotels · Ian Schrager

1. Esquire Saltie Martini · The Best Martinis in America

Sushi Gen is a Little Tokyo sushi bar that's been around forever, and the line out the door suggests nobody has told it to slow down. The move is a sampler plate of the house favorites, priced like a normal weeknight dinner. If you'd rather steer, grab a seat at the counter and order nigiri à la carte while veteran chefs turn out piece after piece without breaking a sweat. It's casual and cash-friendly, so wear whatever you like.

1. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
2. Time Out #32 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now
3. The Infatuation The 19 Best Restaurants In Downtown Los Angeles

1. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America

Eight private cottages and a Tournament of Roses suite signal what kind of hotel this is before you've even seen the pool. Set on 17 acres in Pasadena, the Langham Huntington is old-money grand, the kind of place with multiple historic ballrooms and two gardens, where tennis courts get lit at night and the spa has its own philosophy. Forbes Four Star. Summer afternoons tend to dissolve at the pool bar.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

Deer graze the golf course while guests roast s'mores at the fire pit, which tells you something about the vibe at this resort tucked into two canyons just across PCH from the beach. Eighty-seven acres of hills and ravines give it more of a nature retreat feeling than a seaside hotel. Laguna Beach has an old artist-colony identity beneath the resort gloss, and the Ranch, with its ranch-style rooms and coastal-chic sustainability angle, leans into that quieter story.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Perched on a 150-foot bluff above the Pacific, this Forbes Four Star resort has been the Southern California coastal fantasy since forever, and a recent head-to-toe renovation leaned hard into the setting. Rooms run sage, sky blue, and petal pink; the spa goes jewel-toned and misty. The lobby on a weekend holds a cheerful cross-section of the country, united by saltwater taffy at check-in and strong opinions about which pool to claim.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

1. Esquire The Martini You Drink Before You Fly · The Best Martinis in America

The barbari bread is baked fresh each morning, which tells you something about how seriously this casual Silver Lake cafe takes Iranian cooking. Azizam runs on the kind of labor-intensive prep that doesn't announce itself, from herb-packed sandwiches to the kofteh Tabrizi, a single family-size meatball in tangy broth. Named to the New York Times Restaurant List and the L.A. Times 101 Best, it landed on Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurants list, too.

1. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
2. The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List
3. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

Pillowy pita, blistered or fried, arrives alongside hummus and baba ghanoush worth skipping the entree for, though that would be a shame. Bavel is a stylish Middle Eastern restaurant from the team behind Bestia, set in a high-ceilinged Arts District warehouse that smells exactly like somewhere you want to be. The menu draws on Israeli, Moroccan, Turkish, and Egyptian cooking, and the room fills with people who booked ahead and dressed accordingly.

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Time Out #4 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

1. Food & Wine Borekas · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year

1. Food & Wine Borekas · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year

1. Food & Wine Borekas · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year

A set meal here arrives as a Korean feast built around barley rice, with banchan multiplying across the table until there's nowhere left to put your elbows. Fried kelp, acorn jelly, mung bean pancakes, and snails in vinegar are just the opening act before the soups arrive. Seasoning runs gentle, so the gochujang and sesame oil on the table are less condiment, more instruction. The New York Times put it on their Los Angeles shortlist.

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

The Spanish Revival bones have been here forever, and a top-to-bottom renovation brought them back to the kind of formal California glamour that makes you feel underdressed just checking in. This is a Fairmont hotel in downtown Long Beach, so expect crisp service and rooms that skew sophisticated over breezy. The rooftop bar looks out to Catalina on a clear day, and the Sky Room above it pushes all the way to the L.A. skyline.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

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

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

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

The wood-fired oven does most of the talking at this compact Santa Monica pizzeria, turning out perfectly blistered pies with paper-thin crusts and a pound cake finished with honey and whipped cream that tends to upstage everything before it. Pasta and seasonal produce from the farmers' market round out the menu. Counter seats put you close enough to watch the whole operation, which is half the reason to sit there. Weekend brunch draws a crowd.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Chef Morihiro Onodera mills his own rice and throws his own ceramics, which tells you most of what you need to know about how this omakase operates. It follows a cha-kaiseki structure, composed dishes first, then nigiri, with seafood flown in from Japan. The handmade bowls and plates are his, which gives the counter a quietly personal feeling that most sushi rooms charge twice as much to approximate. A Michelin star.

1. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
2. Los Angeles Times #7 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now

Coffee drinks topped with salted egg yolk set the tone at this all-day French-Vietnamese cafe in Fountain Valley, where the kitchen leans into the Vietnamese morning routine and the iced coffee is strong enough to renegotiate your afternoon plans. The menu runs to things like curry crab omelet, and the room fills fast with people who clearly know something you don't. A James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: California.

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Viet Nguyen

A small banchan shop with a courtyard that turns a quick lunch into something you'll spend the afternoon on. The menu changes with whatever caught the chef's eye at the farmers' market, so the marinated okra or rolled omelet you're hoping to find may or may not show up. Korean fermentation and California produce, in a conversation neither had planned. A James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: California.

1. The New York Times The Restaurant List
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
3. Los Angeles Times #18 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

The malai rigatoni, ridged noodles in a creamy tomato masala, is what half the room orders without looking at the menu. Pijja Palace is a full-on Indian sports bar doing bar pies, hot wings, and dosa-battered onion rings from a ground-floor spot in a Silver Lake Comfort Inn, which sounds like a bit, but isn't. The crowd is loud, the games are on, and the cardamom soft serve closes things out. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant.

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
2. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
3. Time Out #28 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

The line stretching down 8th Street is basically the sign out front at this downtown taqueria. Sonoratown runs a tight counter-order operation: tacos, burritos, and quesadillas, all built on house-made flour tortillas in the Sonoran style. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which explains why finding a seat, indoors or out, is mostly a matter of luck and timing.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50
3. Los Angeles Times Caramelo with costilla · The 101 Best Tacos in Los Angeles

Eight seats, weekends only, two seatings a night: Sushi Sonagi runs on its own terms, and regulars plan weeks out to keep them. The omakase here comes from a second-generation sushi chef working a deeply personal menu, where female snow crab arrives in a stone pot, gets pressed into a crispy crust at the table, and then disappears fast. The Michelin Guide has had its eye on this Gardena counter, and the room fills accordingly.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Time Out #20 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

The tortilla gets toasted in the fat dripping from the al pastor spit, which tells you most of what you need to know. This is a Tijuana-style taqueria doing the kind of taco that Tejal Rao named one of the best dishes she ate across the country in 2025, at $3.75 a pop. Two salsas, one creamy and calm and one aggressively hot, swirl together differently in every bite. Cash, counter, no fuss.

1. The New York Times 2025 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. The New York Times 2025 · Taco al Pastor · The 23 Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

A tiki bar so small it was once a violin-repair shop, which tells you everything about the square footage and nothing about the ambition. Three generations of the same family have been pouring Mai Tais under the thatched canopy on Sunset since the sixties, and they do not serve beer or wine, so don't ask. Modern tiki bars tend to look like this place photoshopped. The original is still doing it straight.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

Sweet smoke from the grill drifts across a Highland Park parking lot, and the line at this taqueria doesn't move an inch. The queso taco, built on a blue corn masa tortilla and finished with a melted skirt of Monterey Jack, is the reason most people are here. The homemade salsas run from bright to ferociously spicy. A few picnic tables outside, a Bib Gourmand on the record, and tacos that arrive colorful and structurally ambitious.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Los Angeles Times Pierna de pollo queso taco · The 101 Best Tacos in Los Angeles
3. Eater The Best Restaurants in Highland Park

Perched on a cliff above the Pacific in Dana Point, this Waldorf Astoria resort fans out across lush gardens that step down through pools, a sculpture garden, and a Robert Trent Jones Jr. golf course before hitting a private beach club. Six ocean-view restaurants, a full spa, and enough on-property activity to make nearby attractions feel like homework. A Forbes Four Star property where "casual elegance" is less a cliche than an actual operating philosophy.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

Red booths, a Rat Pack haze, and martinis that mean business: A Restaurant is the kind of old-school American steakhouse that Newport Beach keeps expecting someone to replace and never does. Niman Ranch pork chops and Mary's organic chicken anchor the menu alongside the steaks, and the chicken pot pie appears only on Mondays and Fridays, which somehow makes regulars plan their week around it.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants