The Best Bars in South Downtown

Jon Yao's tasting menu restaurant lives in the Row DTLA, where polished concrete and an open kitchen set a spare stage for cooking rooted in Taiwanese heritage and San Gabriel Valley muscle memory. The ten courses are not shy about seasoning, and the drinks program, a James Beard winner in its own right, pulls equal weight. Kato holds a Michelin star and a spot on North America's 50 Best, and Yao won the James Beard for Best Chef: California.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
3. The 50 #49 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants

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.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Time Out #37 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

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. The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List
3. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America

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

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.

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Tobin Shea
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

The Standing Room, a subterranean lounge tucked under the Arts District, is the reason to come to this Los Angeles outpost of the New York cocktail institution. Death & Co keeps its speakeasy bones, dark and deliberately moody, while the menu organizes its 25 cocktails by personality rather than spirit, which is either very LA or very useful depending on your mood. Californian wines and global beers round things out for anyone who finds the taxonomy exhausting.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

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.

1. Punch Archie · Our Favorite Cocktails
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Difford's Guide 3 stars · Difford's Guide