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- Los Angeles
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With its countless immigrant subcultures—most still serving the authentic foods of their homelands—L.A. is both the least obviously and the most definitively American city. It's also one of the finest places in the nation to eat. By Peter Jon Lindberg. Excerpted from "Food Lover's Guide L.A. to Z," Travel + Leisure, May 2010. http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/best-restaurants-in-los-angeles
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Ceviche @ Mo-Chica
3655 S Grand Ave Los Angeles, Ca.
At Mo-Chica, in the Mercado La Paloma food court south of Downtown. the ceviche del dia—sea bass, yellowtail, scallop, whatever's fresh—is marinated to order in lime juice spiked with chiles and gussied up with cubed yam, choclo corn, and/or sliced red onion.
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Carne Asada Taco @ Yuca's
2056 Hillhurst Los Angeles, CA
When you're craving Mexican, pull up to Yuca's, the best taqueria in Los Feliz. Order a brace of juicy, smoky, citrus-tinged carne asada tacos to devour on the hood of your car: Los Angeles on a paper plate.
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Spicy Pork Taco @ Kogi BBQ Truck
Los Angeles, CA
Kogi put the food truck on the Google map with its Korean/Filipino-inflected taco: a deeply weird conflation of corn, sesame, cabbage, and sweet-spice pork that manages to evoke a Oaxacan mole, an Alsatian choucroute, a McDonald's salad, and a packet of Fun Dip—in a wholly good way.
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Dry Aged Rib Eye @ CUT
9500 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills,, CA
On a good night—when the dry-aged rib eye is seared just-so, Richard Meier's dining room gleams like a camel-colored Lexus, and Tom Cruise doesn't cut you in line at the hostess stand—Wolfgang Puck's Cut is the best steak house in town.
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Pho Tai Gan @ Pho Cafe
2841 West Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, CA
The long, narrow room is jammed from noon to night with Silver Lake and Echo Park hipsters, each of them nursing an outsize bowl of Vietnam's beloved noodle soup. The pho tai gan, with toothsome beef tendon and ribbons of raw sirloin, is slowly cooked in a clove- and cinnamon-spiced broth.
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Uni @ The Hungry Cat
1535 North Vine Street Los Angeles, CA
The uni arrives fresh each morning from Santa Barbara, and is served in the spiny shell, to be scooped up and savored by some lucky soul with a spoon. Too bad about the charmless dining room—but you'll be too focused on the silken glory of the uni to notice.
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Seared Arctic Char @ The Bazaar
465 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048
This collaboration between the madcap Spanish chef José Andrés, designer Philippe Starck, and hotelier Sam Nazarian dazzles and disorients. Behold the seared arctic char, delivered under a silver dome, which the server lifts to unleash a swirl of applewood-scented "smoke."
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Green Goddess Salad @ Tavern Restaurant
11648 West San Vicente Boulevard Los Angeles, CA
The genre-defining Green Goddess salad, as served at this restaurant-café-food shop in Brentwood, is a virtuous main course of sweet Dungeness crab, poached shrimp, avocado, and bright-green leaves of market-fresh butter lettuce—with a dressing redolent of tarragon, anchovy, and chive.
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Sous Vide Pork Shoulder @ Rivera Restaurant
1050 South Flower Street Los Angeles, CA
A three-point toss from the Staples Center, Santa Fe-born chef John Rivera Sedlar cooks up a juicy puerco pibil so meltingly tender you could cut it with a sheaf of lettuce. The house-made tortillas have sage leaves, fresh chervil, dill, tarragon, and edible flowers pressed into their centers.
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Pupusa @ Atlacatl Restaurant
301 North Berendo Street Los Angeles, CA
Native to El Salvador, the pupusa—a disk of griddled corn flatbread filled with grated cheese and green chiles, shredded pork, refried beans, squash, or artichoke-like loroco flower—can be found all over L.A., though none better than at Atlacatl, on the edge of East Hollywood.
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Eggplant Stew @ Shamshiri Grill
1712 Westwood Blvd Los Angeles, CA
The city nicknamed Tehrangeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside Iran. Find elegant ladies and men in Bijan bonding over piping-hot lavash bread and savory gheymeh bademjan (eggplant stew) at Shamshiri Grill, in L.A.'s west side.
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Abgoost @ Attari Sandwich Shop
1388 Westwood Blvd Los Angeles, CA
On Fridays, cockle warming abgoost, a bowl of hearty lamb, tomato, and bean soup accompanied by sprigs of tarragon and mint, raw onions and radish, warm barbari bread, and a tongue-tingling sour torshi (minced pickle), is the daily special. You'll feel like you're back in Esfahan, Iran.
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Wild Salmon @ Kiriko
11301 West Olympic Boulevard Los Angeles, CA
In sleepy Cheviot Hills, in the Little Osaka enclave off Sawtelle Boulevard, chef-owner Ken Namba gently smokes his Vancouver Island wild salmon over applewood and then pairs it with the collar, seared to a gorgeous, glistening gold.
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Hawaiian Ahi Tuna @ Sushi Zo
9824 National Boulevard Los Angeles, CA
An omakase lunch here might start with yuzu- and spicy radish-dressed Kumamoto oysters, then proceed through sea urchin and squid "noodles" and slices of translucent, ruby-red Hawaiian tuna that glisten like tropical fruit.
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Pizza Stracchino with Artichokes, Olives, and Lemon @ Pizzeria Mozza
641 N Highland Ave Los Angeles, CA
Nancy Silverton's astonishingly flavorful pizza pies are worth every second of the two-hour wait. Order the squash blossom-tomato-burrata combo or the masterpiece of gooey Stracchino, shaved artichokes, olives, and lemon.
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Cochinita Pibil @ Loteria Grill Hollywood
6627 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA
The original Lotería is a Third Street landmark; the newer Grill serves the same note-perfect tacos in a sit-down setting. You'll want the cochinita pibil (marinated pork, slow-roasted in a banana leaf) chased with a michelada or a bottle of Mexican coke (made with real cane sugar).
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Khua Kling Dry Curry @ Jitlada
5233 W Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA
The mind-bendingly spicy cuisine of southern Thailand is at the heart of Jitlada, a cozy Thai Town canteen whose fiery khua kling (a turmeric-charged dry curry with beef or diced pork) will cause you to see through time.
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Braised Pork Belly @ Izayoi
132 S Central Ave Los Angeles, CA
This folksy, convivial Little Tokyo tavern specializes in small plates that evoke "ofukuro no aji" (the taste of mother's cooking)—that is, if your mom made you grilled yellowtail collar, braised pork belly, or flanlike tofu topped with crunchy scallions, baby shrimp, and wispy threads of ginger.
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The Office Burger @ Father's Office
3229 Helms Ave Los Angeles, CA
This fancily dressed haute-burger interloper is made with ground dry-aged chuck, topped with a smokey bacon and caramelized-onion compote, Gruyère, Maytag blue cheese, and arugula, and served on a disarmingly crunchy demi-baguette. It's less a burger than an exceedingly rich steak sandwich.
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Double-Double Burger @ In-N-Out Burger
7009 West Sunset Boulevard Hollywood, CA
You can sample L.A.'s myriad haute-burger offerings and never find one like the Double-Double: a well-balanced assemblage of fresh trimmings and never-frozen beef that evokes all the scarf-worthy pleasures of fresh food, while utterly transcending the genre.
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Wood-Roasted Tahitian Squash @ Gjelina
1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd Venice, CA
Chef Travis Lett;s talent for locavore cooking makes even vegetarian dishes (wood-roasted Tahitian squash with rosemary; braised chickpeas with harissa) taste as hearty as the short ribs. Dine in the candlelit dining room or back courtyard.
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Espresso @ LAMILL Coffee Boutique
1636 Silver Lake Boulevard Los Angeles, CA
Obsessively crafted espresso drinks are the main perk at Lamill, but the note-perfect coffee is equalled by the food, courtesy of Providence chef Michael Cimarusti. Don't miss the eggs en cocotte, a burbling ramekin of velvety yolk swirled around crimini and oyster mushrooms, lardons, and herbs.
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Pastrami Sandwich @ Langer's Delicatessen & Restaurant.
704 South Alvarado Street Los Angeles, C.A.
The 63-year-old Langer's, source of the finest pastrami this side of the Hudson. The meat—smokey around the edges, Kobe-tender—requires not a smidge of seasoning, though mustard comes standard. The rye, par-baked daily in Tarzana, is plush in the center but crisp at the crust.
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Tarte Flambe @ Church and State
1850 Industrial St Los Angeles, CA
At the forefront of Downtown's dining renaissance is this cacophonous bistro, where chef Walter Manzke conjures French classics: lard-cooked frites, charcuterie, and a shockingly good tart flambé with caramelized onions, smoked bacon, and molten Gruyère.
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egg sandwich @ Huckleberry
1014 Wilshire Blvd Santa Monica, CA
Join the perpetual line snaking through Huckleberry's dining room to the bakery counter and order the platonic ideal of egg sandwiches, with Niman Ranch bacon, cave-aged Gruyère, arugula, and tangy aioli on buttered country bread.
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Crudo @ Animal Restaurant
435 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA
Though the menu at this top restaurant has all the pig-happy, nose-to-tail Dude Food that you'd expect in Brooklyn or Chicago, the unexpected gem is the crudo: a combo of raw fluke, yuzu, serrano chile, apple, and pungent mint that's so silky it's downright girly.
