The best restaurants in Los Angeles

Los Angeles‘ leading restaurants are garnering enough acclaim to wrench attention away from New York. It’s hard to say what has driven this steady evolution: is it the city’s myriad communities, offering elevated or classic incarnations of Mexican, Filipino, Ethiopian, Korean, Italian, Australian, Cantonese and Lebanese food? Or has this commitment to new culinary heights been propelled by the diners themselves – an army of sunkissed, Californian bon vivantes?

Does it owe partly to the casual nature of southern Californian life in general, meaning diners are as dedicated to a cult taco truck as a Wolfgang Puck rooftop landmark?

Whatever the reasons, Los Angeles is a joy to eat your way around, passionate restauranteurs and food-obsessed locals always happy to guide you. Here is our pick of the best restaurants in Los Angeles right now.

Echo Park

Tsubaki

Best for: Japanese izakaya, intimate setting
Location: 1356 Allison Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Price: ££

Tsubaki offers some of the best izakaya dishes anywhere in Los Angeles. Co-owners and husband-and-wife team Charles Namba and Courtney Kaplan have curated an ever evolving dining experience with bright, interesting flavours and an amazingly in-depth sake collection. As it’s across the street from Dodger Stadium, you might want to keep an eye on the baseball team’s schedule for busy times. If you’re up for something more casual with a simpler bar bites menu but with the same sake collection, head next door to sibling restaurant Ototo.

Glendale

Mini Kabob

Best for: Armenian home-cooking
Location: 313 1/2 Vine Street, Glendale, CA 91204
Price: ££

Mini Kabob in Glendale stands as one of the most adored mom-and-pop fronts in all of Los Angeles, and it’s easy to see why. Led by Ovakim and Alvard Martirosyan and their son Armen, the kabob-peddling restaurant consistently churns out perfectly grilled and flavoured meats along with fresh tabbouleh and salads. Don’t sleep on their daytime hours, because they close at 6pm.

West Hollywood

Madre!

Best for: An expansive Mexican menu
Location: 801 North Fairfax Avenue #101, Los Angeles, CA 90046
Price: ££

For years, hungry Angelenos would make pilgrimages across town to the original Torrance location for Ivan Vasquez’s note-perfect Oaxacan fare. A second industrial-chic site then opened in West Hollywood restaurant, making it easier for travellers to taste the memelitas, mole estofado and tacos that have made this restaurant such a hit. Visit on the weekend for the excellent Oaxacan tasting menu, and try to grab a seat on the patio.

Venice

Gjelina

Best for: Sunset pizza slices
Location: 1429 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice, CA 90291
Price: ££

No Venice restaurant has been more hyped than Gjelina on Abbot Kinney, famous for queues out the door and exemplary vegetable-forward, farm-to-table fare that inevitably makes it all worth it (the charred radicchio and escarole salad with smoked almonds is excellent). Next door is a takeaway counter if you’d rather skip the queue and eat on upturned vegetable crates in an alley, made romantic with strings of fairy lights.

West Adams

Alta Adams

Best for: Southern Californian soul food
Location: 5359 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90016
Price: £££

Southern Californian takes on soul food and tasty craft cocktails amid a lively patio boasting an inclusive environment in the historic West Adams neighbourhood are the wonderful things that await you at Alta Adams. The neighbourhood favourite features a stellar, modernised menu by LA native Keith Corbin, who recently penned a memoir on his life and culinary journey thus far. The fried chicken is renowned, served with homemade Fresno hot sauce, and don’t miss Adams’ wine shop next door to pick up a couple bottles on your way out.

Malibu

Broad Street Oyster Co.

Best for: Oysters and ice-cold beer 
Location: 23359 Pacific Coast Highway #3874A, Malibu, CA 90265
Price: ££

Proof that some good things did come out of the pandemic, this pop-up drive-thru seafood joint is now a bona fide LA institution. On weekends, Malibu residents queue around the corner for the tastiest lobster rolls in town, best eaten with a cold beer at the sharing picnic tables. Travelling car-free and unable to make it up the Pacific Highway to Malibu? There’s another branch in DTLA’s Grand Central Market.

Arts District

Bestia

Best for: A longstanding Italian favourite 
Location: 2121 East 7th Place, Los Angeles, CA 90021
Price: ££

This meat-driven rustic Italian in LA’s Arts District is still home to the hottest tables in DTLA. Everything from the creative pasta dishes like the bone marrow gnochetti to the housemade salumi is served with serious flair at this Arts District joint, run by husband and wife team Ori Menash and Genevieve Gergis. The excellent pizzas are a perfect pre-theatre option if you can’t get a primetime booking.

Damian

Cuisine: Upscale Mexican in a repurposed warehouse
Location: 2132 East 7th Place, Los Angeles, CA 90021
Price: £££

Enrique Olvera, one of Mexico City’s best-loved chefs, brings his signature elevated modern Mexican cuisine to LA’s Arts District with this sleek, spacious, polished concrete cavern across the road from fellow culinary heavyweight Bestia. The Pescado A La Brasa arrives with side bowls of green chayote, mole and salsa cruda, and fluffy tortillas – our menu highlight.

Sawtelle

Big Boi

Best for: Casual Filipino comfort food
Location: 2027 Sawtelle Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90025
Price: £

Local chef Barb Batiste secured the hearts of pleasure-seeking Los Angelenos with her hit dessert joint B Sweet, and now her small restaurant Big Boi is a Japantown staple. Combine big-on-flavour plates of chicken adobo, pork giniling, lumpia Shanghai and pickles marinated in papaya radish, and wash it all down with Calmansi juice. There are only a couple of tables, so be prepared to wait, or make it a takeout.

Boyle Heights

Mariscos Jalisco

Best for: LA’s best taco truck
Location: 3040 East Olympic Boulevard, CA 90023
Price: £

LA residents display the same tribal loyalty to their chosen taco truck as they do to the Dodgers baseball team. For many, the longstanding Eastside taco truck Mariscos Jalisco is the original and still considered one of LA’s best places to eat. Seafood is the house speciality – the taco de camaron, aka crispy shrimp in a corn tortilla, is a true cult dish. The tacos are best scoffed perched on a nearby wall in the carpark, although there are tables inside the adjacent building for bigger groups.

Interest piqued? Delve through the Roadbook city guide to Los Angeles, from recommended boutique hotels to rooftop bars.