WHY Bacon in your salad, bacon for your main course, bacon in your dessert. WHAT L.A.’s foodie sensation is a bare-bones room crammed with people who aren’t even mad that they had to wait 45 minutes… with a reservation. It helps that the staff is remarkably kind, but really it’s because who can stay mad [...]
February 4, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY The kitchen knows when to take a fish off the grill and how to bring out the best in each dish—without overcomplicating it. The setting and the food combine to make this the perfect California restaurant. WHAT This lively (i.e. noisy) Abbot Kinney hot spot has a ’70s open-air Big Sur vibe but a [...]
February 1, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY The crispy portobello fries with truffle aioli. Did we mention the fries? WHAT Veteran Rose City restaurateur (Bistro 45) Robert Simon moved his St. Helena restaurant, AKA, to One Colorado in Old Town, and Pasadena is stoked to have a local boy making good in the midst of the chain eateries. The eclectic menu [...]
December 31, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY To enjoy delicious food and drink in an elegant room without a hint of stuffiness. WHAT The team behind Elements Café & Catering operates this attractive white-tablecloth restaurant in the charming, Spanish-style Pasadena Playhouse complex. With a menu organized around key ingredients (‘elements’) that change with the seasons, this is a fun restaurant for [...]
December 16, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY For talented, gregarious chef Mark Gold, and for the Sunday brunch and dinner. WHAT Cozy, minimalist Eva has two faces: the more restrained cuisine, such as udon noodles with clams and scallops served at lunch and dinner most days, and the heartier Sunday dinners. The Sunday four-course prix-fixe meals are a great value, with [...]
December 11, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Because you never know when the urge for a terrific, if Lilliputian, lobster roll (creamy and a bit spicy, stuffed into a warm, butter-grilled roll) will hit. WHAT This seafood-centric spinoff of Animal is tiny and generally mobbed, so it’s nice that a long communal table as well as a few seats at the [...]
November 19, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY The same excellent, expensive rustic-elegant food as at neighboring Gjelina, ready to take out in ten minutes. WHAT It can take six weeks to score a dinner reservation at Venice’s hottest restaurant, Gjelina, but now with GTA (Gjelina Take Away) next door, you can take the food back to work or home or even [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Café fare of a quality never before seen in the Valley, at prices that are more Brentwood than Burbank. WHAT This spacious new place from neighbors and restaurant investors Melina and Christian Davies satisfies all cravings, offering Intelligentsia coffee, breakfast pastries and desserts from Valerie Confections (the salted caramel croissant is flaky bliss; the [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY A parade of cocktail-friendly small plates with a beach breeze. WHAT M.B. Post is chef David LeFevre’s first project since his departure from the Water Grill, a so-called ‘social house’ in the oceanfront location once occupied by the Manhattan Beach Post Office. Not everything wows or works, but there are some very good dishes. [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY Carefully constructed Cal-Med cooking in a gorgeous coastal setting. WHAT The sprawling, luxurious resort on the site of the former Marineland is trying very hard with its seven restaurants to rise above the hotel norm, especially in this flagship dining room. Talented young chef Michael Fiorelli uses produce from the garden right outside his [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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