The Best Places in Los Angeles

A Thai breakfast and dessert shop tucked into the back corner of a strip mall in Gardena, where congee bubbles away in the kitchen while the rest of Los Angeles is still eating eggs. The jok, thick with pork meatballs and fresh ginger, is the right place to start. Mango sticky rice appears when it appears, and regulars know to order it before it's gone. Counter service, paper lanterns, turquoise accents, and no pretension whatsoever.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The handwritten menu changes nightly, which tells you almost everything about how seriously this strip-mall sushi counter takes itself. Tucked into an unremarkable Garden Grove plaza, Taira runs as both omakase and izakaya à la carte, so you can commit fully or just graze. The Michelin Guide picked it up, and the warm, personal hospitality from the team makes the modest room feel like considerably more than its address suggests.

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

A Craftsman bungalow with a front porch, herringbone floors, and a brick fireplace that makes a convincing case for staying all evening. This is a refined Southern restaurant where fried chicken, biscuits, gumbo, and fried green tomatoes anchor the menu, with the kitchen adding enough unexpected turns to keep things interesting. The crowd tends toward date-night and linger-over-a-second-glass, which fits the room's cozy, parlor-like logic perfectly.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A dark wood counter, a few floral arrangements, and very little else: the room at this Woodland Hills sushi shop keeps the focus where it belongs. The chef runs both omakase and an à la carte menu that pulls from solid Japanese sourcing, so regulars debate the chirashi bowl against the nigiri the same way people debate anything they plan to order again. The Michelin Guide has it listed, and the price point keeps the seats full.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The dining room hangs right over the Santa Monica Pier, close enough to the water that the views do most of the decorating. This is a proper sit-down seafood restaurant, Maine lobster at the center of the menu, crab cakes and the rest fanning out from there. Tables are close together and the pace moves, but the steamed lobster arrives in good enough shape to make the butter beside it feel optional.

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 pita comes straight from a pizza oven on the sidewalk, still puffed with steam when it hits the table. Yerord Mas is a tiny, no-frills Armenian restaurant in a former doughnut shop on San Fernando Road, and no, they don't do takeout. The chef pulls from diaspora kitchens across Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and beyond, treating the differences as a single, coherent argument for why Los Angeles exists. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List.

1. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. The New York Times 2026 · The Restaurant List

Servers in hanbok and a warren of curtained private rooms signal that this isn't your average Koreatown Korean restaurant. Yong Su San specializes in royal court cuisine, the elaborate dishes once prepared for Korea's aristocracy, and the setting leans into that history with carved wooden seats and cushioned booths. Large groups tend to arrive for set menus, but the à la carte banchan spread alone makes an argument for a quieter table for two.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The counter runs the show at this handroll shop on East 3rd Street, a stretch that's become one of the better reasons to venture east of downtown. The room is dark and pared-down, the kind of place that hums without trying. The menu skips the usual handroll playbook, leaning into combinations that read strange on paper and make sense in your hands. Regulars fill that counter fast, so arriving early is its own form of planning.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Focaccia sandwiches stacked with Italian cold cuts are the entire point here, and Lorenzo California commits to that premise with no apologies. The tiny cafe on Santa Monica Boulevard does Florentine-style sandwiches from a small counter, with a few seats inside and a handful of tables outside for watching Beverly Hills do its thing. The Los Angeles Times put it on their 101 best restaurants list, which is a lot of recognition for a sandwich shop, and yet.

1. Los Angeles Times #65 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
2. Eater The Best Beverly Hills Restaurants

1. AAA Approved

Flour tortillas, not corn, are the whole argument here. This Sonoran taqueria brings the traditions of San Luis Río Colorado to Los Angeles, where the lard-rich, hand-made tortillas get charred on a griddle and wrapped around mesquite-grilled asada or slow-cooked cabeza. The caramelo and the oversized burritos draw regulars who already know their order before they reach the counter. A casual, counter-service spot where eating light is genuinely hard.

1. Los Angeles Times #26 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

Directly across Pacific Coast Highway from the break that gave it its name, the Surfrider Malibu is a boutique hotel that took a Fifties building and quietly made it the thing Malibu somehow never had. The team behind it, a Californian architect and a couple of improbable partners, kept the bones and let the ocean do the decorating. Rooms fill fast with people who'd rather wake up to surf reports than room service carts.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Bon Appétit The Very Best Bagels in the US (Yes, Outside New York)

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Jason Lee

A twelve-course tasting menu on Melrose where each course somehow feels like a different restaurant made it, in the best possible, wait, a genuinely different key. Daniel Patterson, who built his name at Coi in San Francisco, is back in fine dining here alongside a former music producer and a pastry chef whose desserts read as slightly unhinged in the most compelling way. The New York Times put it on their 2026 Restaurant List, and the room earns the attention quietly.

1. The New York Times 2026 · The Restaurant List

1. LAist Totti · Best Bites
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Michael Procaccini and Stefano Procaccini

1. Bon Appétit The Very Best Bagels in the US (Yes, Outside New York)

1. Bon Appétit The Very Best Bagels in the US (Yes, Outside New York)

1. Sunset Inspired Italian · Where to Eat and Drink

1. Sunset Inspired Italian · Where to Eat and Drink

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Holly Fox and Adam Weisblatt - Last Word Hospitality

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Holly Fox and Adam Weisblatt - Last Word Hospitality

1. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

The smartest move Accomplice ever made was opening next to Taiwanese restaurant Little Fatty, so when the cocktails do their work, crab rangoon and shrimp chips are one door away. It's a moody cocktail bar in Mar Vista where the drinks lean into unexpected flavors, Japanese whiskey and oolong sharing space with goji berry and ginger. The 50 Discovery named it among their finds, which tracks.

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. West

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. West

1. Time Out The 17 best hotels in Los Angeles

1. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Highland Park

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

Knife-cut noodles in long-simmered chicken broth are the reason people keep coming back to this Koreatown noodle shop, which has been a fixture on Wilshire long enough to feel like part of the neighborhood's furniture. The kalguksu is chewy and restorative, the mandu arrive either boiled or fried, and on hot days the cold spicy jjolmyeon earns its keep. Bright lights, no fuss, and regulars who know the menu by heart.

1. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Highland Park

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West

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

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West

The walls are buried in British memorabilia, which is either charming or a lot, depending on how you feel about commemorative royal plates. Either way, this is a proper English pub in Fullerton, the kind that's been around forever and makes fish and chips, bangers and mash, and homemade baked pies without apologizing for any of it. The fish and chips have a following. Scratch-made soups and desserts round things out.

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

The beef noodle soup here has a peppery, slow-built broth that earns its reputation quietly. This is a Taiwanese-Chinese casual spot in Irvine, the kind of place where the noodles, crispy pork chop over rice, and spicy wontons keep the room perpetually full. A few Sichuan dishes round out the menu, including a beef tendon with garlic sauce that regular customers seem to order without looking down. Fast service, warm room, zero pretension.

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

Part cafe, part specialty grocery, Alta Baja Market anchors downtown Santa Ana with one of the largest selections of Mexican wines you'll find under one roof, alongside heirloom corn, beans, and grains worth browsing. The breakfast and lunch menu leans New Mexican and border-crossing, with green chile eggchiladas built on La Princesita tortillas. Order a michelada and you'll understand why people linger here longer than they planned.

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. LAist Square Slice · Best Bites
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

Vegan croissants that make you forget to ask whether they're vegan: that's the opening argument at this pastry shop in East LA, run by a chef whose work with nondairy butter has quietly shifted what the format can do. The Danishes lean on fruit from the Santa Monica Farmers' Market, and the annual pithivier has developed its own following. The New York Times named it among the top bakeries in the country.

1. The New York Times 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now

1. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

The wood-burning oven was built in Naples by Stefano Ferrara and runs close to 1,000 degrees, which explains the blistered, char-edged crusts that come out of this Neapolitan pizzeria in downtown Fullerton. The mozzarella bar stocks cheese imported weekly from Caserta, so the margherita is taken rather seriously here. The dining room fills fast with locals who have clearly done this before, so plan accordingly.

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

The house falafel recipe here is so closely guarded that the family started selling it wholesale rather than let anyone reverse-engineer it at a competitor's table. This cash-friendly falafel shop sits in Anaheim's Little Arabia District and gets properly packed at lunch, so the outdoor patio exists for good reason. The baba ganoush and hummus are the moves, though the feta fries suggest the kitchen isn't precious about tradition either.

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

Shakshuka and a Negroni sounds like a contradiction until you sit down at Mayfield, a modern Mediterranean restaurant in San Juan Capistrano where Levantine and North African flavors run alongside classic California instincts. The menu moves from Turkish eggs with labneh at brunch to za'atar fried chicken at dinner, with a harissa-aioli burger at happy hour for anyone who needs convincing. The cocktail list keeps pace.

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Time Out The 17 best hotels in Los Angeles

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

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

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

1. Time Out The 17 best hotels in Los Angeles

Galbi tang arrives at the table still furiously steaming, the short rib broth deep enough to make a cold evening feel like a solved problem. Yigah is a casual Korean restaurant in Garden Grove where the portions trend generous and the menu runs from boiled pork belly with napa cabbage to sizzling hot-stone bibimbap. The room is unfussy, the lighting is not dim, and nobody is performing for anyone.

1. Eater The 38 Essential Orange County Restaurants

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.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A French spirits lounge on Melrose where the cocktail menu is divided into categories named Parfum and Potion, which tells you immediately what kind of evening they have in mind. The team also runs La Descarga and Harvard & Stone, so the theatrics are deliberate. Low lighting, a Parisian lounge sensibility, and a crowd that dressed for it. The menu leans heavily on calvados, armagnac, and eau de vie, which is either your thing or a prompt to try something new.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A New Orleans cocktail bar where the inside has been dressed up to look like an outdoor street scene, the way a film studio backlot would imagine the French Quarter. Barrel-aged cocktails are the house move, and the 1920s theme is committed enough that someone looked up the etymology of sassafras before naming the place. The crowd tends toward people who wanted something more atmospheric than a standard Hollywood dive.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

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.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Eater The Best Soft Serve in Los Angeles

1. Eater The Best Soft Serve in Los Angeles

1. Eater The Best Soft Serve in Los Angeles

1. Eater The Best Soft Serve in Los Angeles

1. Eater The Best Soft Serve in Los Angeles

1. Eater The Best Soft Serve in Los Angeles

1. Eater The Best Soft Serve in Los Angeles

1. Eater The Best Soft Serve in Los Angeles