L.A. Times restaurant reviews

May 19, 2012

The Review: Water Grill gets back to the seafood basics

At Water Grill, the raw bar rules. Always has. And in downtown Los Angeles, Water Grill is an institution on the order of Tadich Grill in San Francisco (though not nearly as old). I don't know what it is about being away from home, but it seems to bring out a craving for seafood. Conventioneers and tourists staying in hotels downtown zero in on this long-established restaurant to slurp oysters, crack crab legs and generally make merry.

12:31 PM PDT, May 11, 2012

Counter Intelligence: Umamicatessen in downtown L.A.

Everyone knows that Langer's serves the best pastrami sandwich in town. Guidebooks say so. National magazines say so. The subway disgorges so many Langer's-bound fressers that it has sometimes been called the Pastrami Express. Many of us think Langer's serves the best pastrami sandwiches in the United States and consider any variance from its formula to be something close to heresy.

May 5, 2012

Counter Intelligence: A little crunch with your Chianti at Tar & Roses

Any discussion of Tar & Roses must begin, as your dinner probably will, with what is probably its simplest appetizer, a concoction of popcorn tossed with brown sugar, lardons and chile, like a bowl of Cracker Jack with chewy cubes of bacon instead of peanuts. (Why can't there be chewy cubes of bacon and peanuts? That is an excellent question.) The popcorn falls solidly into a genre new in Los Angeles cooking, something we may call an elevated bar snack, a staple of the many, many gastropubs that have come to dominate casual dining here over the last couple of years.

May 5, 2012

The Review: A1 Cucina Italiana in Beverly Hills

It's been years since Alto Palato closed, yet I can't drive down La Cienega past STK steakhouse without remembering the late Mauro Vincenti's last restaurant. I still see Vincenti in a cashmere golf sweater fussing over details. Danilo Terribili choosing the wines and running the dining room. Fredy Escobar in the kitchen. And Gino Rindone (now a manager at Angelini Osteria) manning the espresso machine and turning out authentic gelato.

April 21, 2012

Review: BierBeisl, a modern Austrian for Southern California

"Grammel schmalz," says our waiter, setting down a small bowl of pristine whipped white pork fat sprinkled with bits of pork crackling. I lift up the napkin wrapped around the bread and pull out a glossy brown braided pretzel. Breaking off a piece, I spread the bread with the lard. I take a bite and the warm, comforting taste of pure pig fat floods my mouth.

April 14, 2012

Counter Intelligence: At Rocio's in Sun Valley, moles reign

The first thing you may notice about Rocio's Mole de los Dioses, an immodestly named restaurant not far from the Burbank airport, is the cactus. By this I don't mean that there are potted cactus plants around, or pictures of cactus on the walls, or a blinking neon cactus in the window, but that there is cactus on the plate almost everywhere it is possible for cactus to be. (The restaurant is somehow related to the cactus-intensive tortilleria Nopaltilla next door.)

April 7, 2012

Restaurant review: Aw shucks, it's pure bliss at L&E Oyster Bar

I'm crazy for oysters, always have been. At Hog Island Oysters near Bodega Bay, I've been known to down three or four dozen at a time, all shucked, slowly, by me. Wherever I'm headed, you can be sure I've got the oyster bars mapped out ahead of time. So when news came that a new oyster bar was about to open across from LA Mill in Silver Lake, I was thrilled. Even sweeter, the partners in the new spot are Dustin Lancaster and Matthew Kaner, the duo that brought Los Feliz the quality wine bar Covell. That meant not only oysters, but also, in all likelihood, some seriously interesting wines to go with them.

March 31, 2012

Counter Intelligence: 800 Degrees in Westwood

Pininfarina designs Ferraris. Pininfarina designs Maseratis. But on a sleepy Wednesday afternoon in Westwood, the Pininfarina design that is attracting attention is a soda dispenser in the new pizzeria 800 Degrees. Teenagers approach the sleek, glistening slab like apes drawn to the monolith at the beginning of"2001: A Space Odyssey."

March 10, 2012

Restaurant review: Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air

With the new Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air, the Austrian chef who, along with Alice Waters, begat California cuisine, has finally achieved a quintessentially Californian restaurant, one with a legendary outdoor terrace in a verdant setting with swans gliding through ponds and enormous old trees overhanging walkways and tumbling streams.

February 9, 2012

The Review: Bäco Mercat makes it easy to get carried away

Navigating downtown is — there's no getting around it — tough. Even though I work there, I can never remember which one-way streets go which way. You can turn a corner and suddenly find yourself in the middle of Downtown Art Walk, with sidewalks teeming with thousands of pedestrians, or just as easily find yourself on a deserted avenue, shops closed up tight. The scene switches moods — active, lonely, thriving, haunted — from block to block and street to street.

January 26, 2012

Restaurant review: Short Order

The sign is easily visible as you drive north on Fairfax toward 3rd Street and the original Farmers Market, the name Short Order spelled out in cheerful green neon. Great name, great concept: a burger joint with frills, including a full bar, fresh-baked cookies, a retro soundtrack and, upstairs, a sweet little outdoor terrace.

December 22, 2011

The Review: Pizzeria Mozza in Newport Beach

Five years after Pizzeria Mozza opened on Highland Avenue and Melrose Boulevard, it's still one of the toughest reservations in town. And while the pace of new pizzeria openings, inspired by Mozza's success, has picked up, no other pizzeria so far has put it all together in such an alluring package.

November 24, 2011

Restaurant review: The Strand House in Manhattan Beach

The Strand House in Manhattan Beach commands an enviable position at the edge of the ocean-side town overlooking the pier. No accident, since owner Michael Zislis is already a big presence here with his Shade Hotel and a number of casual restaurants, including Mucho, Brewco and Rock 'n Fish.

October 20, 2011

Restaurant review: Pizzeria il Fico

Monday nights at Vincenti, the Brentwood Italian's chef (and now partner) Nicola Mastronardi turns out some terrific pizzas in addition to the regular menu. I remember some of his pies with great fondness. But Mastronardi has branched out to open the smart Pizzeria il Fico on Robertson Boulevard. That's good news for fans who now don't have to wait for Mondays but can slip in at any lunch or dinner for "La Diavola," spiked with spicy housemade pork sausage, or a pizza topped with grilled chopped vegetables.

October 6, 2011

The Review: L'Epicerie Market in Culver City

At L'Epicerie Market in Culver City, the escargots arrive in a small heap on the plate, not served in the usual shells but napped in a silky white wine sauce with ribbons of ham and velvety leaves of sautéed spinach. The dish is escargots in the style of Périgord in southwest France, and the flavors just sing.

September 22, 2011

The Review: Picca

If you've ever enjoyed a baked potato or an order of French fries, you have Peru to thank. Of course, we all learned in school that the potato came from Peru and that people there enjoy a gazillion different varieties. Anything more about Peruvian cuisine, though, and most people would draw a blank.

September 8, 2011

Restaurant review: Ombra Ristorante in Studio City

In Venice, Italy, friends who've met in the street will go off to drink un ombra, slang for a small glass of wine. That's the name of a new Italian restaurant that opened quietly a few months ago in Studio City. Chef-owner Michael J. Young is crazy enough about wine that he's taken courses at UCLA to learn more about it. He also picked up a lot about Italian wine working as sous chef under Angelo Auriana at Valentino way back when and with Celestino Drago at Drago Santa Monica. He also worked in Parma, Italy, at one point, which must be where he picked up his pasta-making skills.

August 11, 2011

The Review: Hungry Cat Santa Monica Canyon

Beneath an old diving helmet straight out of Jules Verne, a couple seated at a corner of the raw bar feed each other oysters, clams, bites of lobster. They eat slowly, luxuriously, between sips of wine. He whispers in her ear. She laughs and pops a shrimp in her mouth. Behind the bar, a cook deftly shucks oysters, tucks a little more ice around a lipstick-red lobster and slides a plate of peel 'n' eat shrimp over to a guy at the other end of the bar.

July 21, 2011

Good things come on small plates at Mezze

Come summer, mezze, those small dishes drawn from a vast Middle Eastern tradition, are just about the perfect food. The flavors are vivid. Many of them are served at room temperature. No rush. I love this way of eating, a bite here, a bite there, as the conversation ebbs and flows. Plenty of time to savor each bite and pick up the thread of talk, watch the light fade, feel the night. That's the strength of Mezze, the new Middle Eastern restaurant in the former Sona space on La Cienega Boulevard, just north of the Beverly Center.

July 14, 2011

Dining: Cafe Gratitude in L.A., for the vegan Stuart Smalleys of the world

Written on the mirror of the women's bathroom at Café Gratitude, a new raw and vegan restaurant, are the words, "I adore myself and everyone else." The sentiment is part of the positivity campaign that the restaurant has been waging since opening on Larchmont Boulevard and Melrose Avenue five months ago. Even the toilet seat covers are called "awesome covers."

July 7, 2011

Restaurants: Más Malo in downtown Los Angeles

The chewy chips at Más Malo will ruin your appetite if you're not careful. Eat one and the blind flirtation of grease and salt on your tongue will cause you to reach for another, and then another. And before you know it you will become a mindless hand-to-basket-to-mouth machine, dipping these intentionally crunchless, deep-fried curiosities into the pillowy depths of the restaurant's housemade guacamole and through the fiery landscape of its five-part salsa flight.

June 30, 2011

The Review: Sotto

The Test Kitchen — that temporary restaurant with a rotating roster of chefs — is no more, but in its place we get Sotto, a new Italian restaurant from Steve Samson and partner Zach Pollack. And it's ample compensation. The name means "under" or "beneath," and that's literally where it is, down a few steps from Pico Boulevard, in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, beneath Ricardo Zarate's even newer Picca.

June 23, 2011

The Review: Son of a Gun on 3rd Street

Third Street is on its way to becoming the latest restaurant row with a slew of openings slated for the next few months. Already open, a second restaurant from Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo of Animal in the old Cynthia's space just east of Orlando Avenue. It's called Son of a Gun and like Animal, their meat-centric first restaurant, you're not going to forget the name or wonder how to spell it.

June 16, 2011

The Review: The Spice Table in Little Tokyo

On an early summer night, I'm enjoying sitting at a sidewalk table taking in the street action in front of the Spice Table, a 3-month-old Vietnamese-Singaporean restaurant in Little Tokyo. People are walking by, rushing past on their way inside or to some other spot in the neighborhood. A breeze ruffles the edge of the paper menu. Downtown's skyscrapers light up the sky. The vibe is relaxed and festive. How can it not be when spice, chile and fish sauce are calling?

June 9, 2011

The Review: Ray's and Stark Bar at LACMA

Restaurants with a view usually come in two varieties: landscape or cityscape. The new Ray's and Stark Bar at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art have a view. But it's not the ocean or the city lights spread on a starry carpet below. Instead, the new museum restaurant revels in a wide, sweeping view of the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion designed by Renzo Piano. In other words, great architecture.

June 2, 2011

The Review: Public Kitchen & Bar in Hollywood Roosevelt

Is there a more stunning hotel lobby than the one at the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel? With its heavy painted beams, chic leather daybeds and grand proportions, it exudes old Hollywood glamour. A stately hush hovers over the vast room, and most of the time it's quiet enough to talk, a perfect place to meet for a drink after a film at the American Cinematheque.

May 26, 2011

The Review: Playa

On the plate, a wide-eyed Malcolm McDowell stares up at me from beneath his bowler. It's a bit disconcerting to find the violent figure from "A Clockwork Orange" sharing space with seared day-boat scallops at Playa. On another plate, squash blossom tempura is framed by another scene from the brilliant (and creepy) film.

May 19, 2011

The Review: Aburiya Toranoko in Little Tokyo

At the Lazy Ox Canteen on the edge of Little Tokyo, the happy clamor of downtown denizens tucking into chef Josef Centeno's Ox burgers, crispy pig's ears and brick-roasted mussels leaks out the door into the street. But Lazy Ox is no longer the only restaurant on the block. Next door is a second restaurant from Centeno's partner Michael Cardenas. By day, Cardenas is still an integral part of Innovative Dining Group (IDG), founders of Sushi Roku, BOA and more. By night, he's the force behind Aburiya Toranoko, the onetime Matsuhisa general manager's take on izakaya, or Japanese pub food, one with a distinctly urban, hip-hop vibe.

May 12, 2011

The Review: London's St. John Hotel with chef Fergus Henderson and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

Every time I'm in London, I somehow manage to find an excuse to eat at St. John Bar & Restaurant. That's a wonderful rustic restaurant for die-hard carnivores in northwest London from Fergus Henderson, author of the quirky but important cookbook "Nose to Tail Eating." I didn't go there this time, but that was only because Henderson and business partner Trevor Gulliver had just opened St. John Hotel on Leicester Square in the West End and I wanted to eat there.

May 5, 2011

The Review: Lukshon

It's usually the other way around. A high-end chef goes downscale for his or her flagship restaurant's spinoff. Think bistro, cafe or burger spot. But Sang Yoon, chef-owner of the phenomenally successful Father's Office, forges his own path. He's gone from a modest bar with food to an elegant but still casual Asian restaurant, possibly the most anticipated of the season's openings.

April 21, 2011

The Review: Julienne in Santa Barbara

I used to know a guy who would drive up to Santa Barbara just for the afternoon to visit with an old man he respected. I couldn't believe it. In my mind's eye, the Central Coast city seemed much farther than a couple of hours away. Yet it's really not much farther than some unlucky souls' daily commute.

April 14, 2011

The Review: Craig's

I've been going back and forth with myself on this one: one star, half a star? How do you rate a restaurant where the service is as crisp and professional as it gets, where everybody is made to feel welcome and special, where the crowd is a dizzyingly weird mix of aging rockers, minor stars, industry moguls, leggy blonds and some genuine high-wattage figures? Where the retro setting feels like a cross between Musso & Frank and Dan Tana's, but more elegant. Where the room has a happy buzz and even on a weeknight, it feels like a big night in the city. But — and it's a very big but — the food is mostly mediocre.

March 31, 2011

The Review: Ecco in Costa Mesa

A stone's throw from the mega-mall South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, a short ride down Bristol, you'll find the Camp, an "alternative" mall on the order of the nearby Lab. It's a quirky place, with buildings set askew along a winding footpath and even a petite silver Airstream wedged in there like something left over from a hippie encampment. A soundscape of chirping frogs, birds and running water emanates from concealed speakers among the rocks. To add to the corporate grooviness, fire pits, outdoor tables and hammocks are dotted about the property.

March 24, 2011

The Review: Firefly in Studio City

A carload of friends and I are heading west on Ventura Boulevard on the lookout for the Studio City restaurant and lounge Firefly. Where exactly is it? We're scanning the south side of the boulevard for the facade. (I could have found the address and cross street on Google Maps, but that would have been too easy.) It's just past a corner, a bit dark, no sign, I remind everyone. "Oh, you mean the the Chia Pet place?" Chia? I'm thinking a topiary or a lawn. But when we spot the telltale valet umbrella, sure enough, the building is entirely swathed in ivy.

6:05 PM PDT, March 15, 2011

The Review: Hostaria del Piccolo in Santa Monica

Inviting Italians who live here to come out to an Italian restaurant can be a daunting prospect, at least when we're talking those who can cook, and cook well. They have very specific ideas about how things should be done and don't suffer indifferent or lazy food easily. Believe me, you don't want your guests complaining that they would have eaten better at home.

March 10, 2011

The Review: The Royce

Keep the fat lady waiting in the wings. It's not over yet. Fine dining, I mean, and the new Royce at the Langham Huntington is proof.

March 3, 2011

The Review: Fraîche in Culver City

Chefs seem to be caught playing musical chairs more than usual lately, so much so that it's hard to keep up on all the moves. In mid-November, Ben Bailly, the baby-faced French chef at Petrossian, grabbed the head chef job at Fraîche in Culver City, making way for Giselle Wellman to move from Bouchon to Petrossian. Meanwhile, Fraîche's original chef, the hardworking Jason Travi, has been gone for over a year. Right now he's over at Firefly tweaking the Studio City restaurant's menu (and feeding frequent diner, the great Lucinda Williams).

February 24, 2011

The Review: Beechwood restaurant

Until recently, Beechwood on Washington Boulevard at the foot of Abbot Kinney had fallen right off the radar. The Venice restaurant made a splash when it debuted in 2005 with Brooke Williamson and the Brig's David Reiss as partners. As the former chef at Woodside in Brentwood, Williamson was then a hot property and one of the youngest chefs in town.

February 17, 2011

The Review: Petrossian

Weekend mornings, I'm usually happy to stay at home reading, listening to music and generally lolling around. No rushing, all the time in the world for simple pleasures. Toast with homemade jam. Freshly brewed coffee. Or there's breakfast with a friend at Petrossian in West Hollywood, where luxury can be as simple as perfect scrambled eggs garnished with caviar. The cappuccino is well made and strong. You can ease into the morning with a Bellini or a lavender mimosa — and also have the best bagel and smoked salmon in town.

February 10, 2011

The Review: The Old Place

After dinner, we slip out of the old post office — with its wall of cubbyholes stuffed with faded letters — into the Cornell night. The velvety black sky is spangled with the stars you never see in the city. The night smells of wood fire, pine and horses. It's as if we've slipped through time at the Old Place roadhouse in the folds of the Santa Monica Mountains between Agoura Hills and Malibu.

February 3, 2011

The Review: A-Frame

In late 2008, Roy Choi and his buddy and partner Mark Manguera dreamed up the Kogi Korean BBQ truck and harnessed Twitter to send out a block-by-block account of the truck's whereabouts. Kogi's short-rib tacos and kimchi quesadillas went viral, the truck's Korean-Mexican fare so popular that some rabid fans would pay others to wait in line for them.

January 27, 2011

The Review: Chaya Brasserie

Chaya Brasserie, the 27-year-old French-Japanese restaurant, closed for a week in November to freshen up the interior. And when the doors swung open again, it had a new menu and a new chef. Shigefumi Tachibe, corporate chef of the Chaya Group, which includes Chaya Venice, Chaya Downtown and Chaya San Francisco as well as M Cafe de Chaya, fiddles with the flagship restaurant's menu every few years. This time, though, it wasn't just a tweak but a major reinvention. With the kitchen performing better than ever, it's a good opportunity to rediscover this iconic and understated brasserie.

January 13, 2011

The Review: Eveleigh on the Sunset Strip

Snap. Snap. Snap. In my mind's eye, I see a layout for a design or architecture magazine. The salvaged wood boards, some silvery and weathered, a few whitewashed, used for the restaurant's exterior. The wide barn doors leading out to the courtyard in front. Rough timbered walls and a wood-clad high-pitched ceiling. Lampshades stitched from baker's linen. Industrial sewing lamps peering out from the walls over banquettes covered in a large-scale striped herringbone.

January 6, 2011

The Review: Scarpetta at Montage Beverly Hills

For a long time, Los Angeles chefs had the city to themselves. Outsiders might have turned up for a guest chef turn or two, but never much more than that. But then a couple of years ago that all changed, and Los Angeles was suddenly as attractive as Las Vegas to restaurateurs with satellite restaurants to shop. Fancy that.

December 23, 2010

The Review: Salt's Cure in West Hollywood

At Salt's Cure, an endearing new WeHo restaurant, the server brings out a wooden board with a few of the cured and smoked items we've chosen from the day's short printed menu. There's a deep red, thinly sliced duck ham that seems to concentrate the rich slightly gamey taste of the duck breast, and a slab of nicely textured pork liver pâté. And some potted pork, a close relative of rillettes, to spread on house-made crackers.

December 16, 2010

The Review: Cube Marketplace & Café

A few weeks ago I started to follow Cube Marketplace & Café's tweets, and the next Wednesday morning my Twitter feed was bombarded with @cube_la's breathless reports from the Santa Monica farmers market. Beautiful chanterelles at a beautiful price! Radicchio from Maggie's Farm just begging to be grilled and doused in olive oil! Gorgeous fresh flageolet beans! The cafe's chef Erin Eastland was excited about what she was finding and it was making me very hungry, which, I guess, is pretty much the point.

December 9, 2010

The Review: Obikà Mozzarella Bar

I distinctly remember an Italian friend raving to me a few years ago about the new mozzarella bar Obikà she'd just come across in Milan where you could get bufala mozzarella still dripping with milk, fresh from Campania to the south. Now, you have to understand that in Italy, food is always regional. And although, yes, you can buy mozzarella in practically any little deli in Italy, it usually isn't super fresh and mostly it's fior di latte, mozzarella made from cow's milk rather than the much more prized buffalo, which has its own delimited production area just like a wine.

December 2, 2010

The Review: Momed in Beverly Hills

Alex Sarkissian is a natural. I've rarely encountered a restaurateur so relaxed and engaging, whether he's chatting with neighborhood regulars or checking on a table of newcomers. He moves around Momed, his 6-month-old eastern Mediterranean cafe, like Papa Bear, running interference between the waiters and the cooks working in the open kitchen, sometimes taking or delivering orders himself.

November 25, 2010

The Review: Xiomara on Melrose

In a tight red sweater, curvy jacket and a loop of pearls, Xiomara Ardolina looks too young to have started her first restaurant in La Canada way back in 1979. She later parlayed the money she made with that first venture into a French bistro in Old Pasadena named … Xiomara, which was Pasadena's leading French restaurant for quite a while.

November 18, 2010

The Review: Cleo at the Redbury Hotel

This, after all, being Hollywood, if SBE's Sam Nazarian is going to name a restaurant for the queen of Egypt, it's obligatory to vamp it up a little. Set in the crimson Redbury Hotel, a stone's throw from Hollywood and Vine, Cleo references the alluring Egyptian with a giant, black-and-white photo of the silent film actress Theda Bara as a fierce, dark-eyed Cleopatra from 1917. More queens of the cinema grace the walls of the high-ceilinged room, but their Cleos look decidedly tame compared with Bara.

November 11, 2010

The Review: The Yard in Santa Monica

On a mission to suss out the Santa Monica gastropub the Yard, I'd invited a friend who'd lived in the neighborhood way back when but had since moved away. As we negotiated the crowds streaming past us on Broadway a couple of blocks from Ocean Avenue, she looked around wonderingly. Past the sad shops selling touristy T-shirts and gewgaws, a grim bodega and a clutch of people asking for spare change, she grew quiet. None of this was here before, she said. Santa Monica just didn't have this … density.

November 4, 2010

The Review: Wolfgang's Steakhouse in Beverly Hills

"Well, hello," coos one of the svelte babes on either arm of an elegantly attired gentleman crossing the tongue of red carpet in front of Wolfgang's Steakhouse in Beverly Hills. A young manager in a suit is right there to greet the trio, sweeping them off to their anointed table in the swank dining room. Regulars and big spenders, preferably both, get the royal treatment at the 21/2-year-old Cañon Drive restaurant.

October 28, 2010

The Review: Providence

"Take one," the waiter says, proffering a vase sprouting savory lollipops. Each stick holds a round of squid sitting on a cube of dark red chorizo. "Eat them in one bite, so you get both tastes at once," comes the further instruction. I do. The sweet meaty squid and the spicy paprika-streaked chorizo are terrific together.

October 21, 2010

The Review: Amarone Kitchen

With the barrage of notices about new restaurants coming from all sides, sometimes a worthy older one slips through the cracks without a full review. When it opened 3 years ago, I did my due diligence and went to Amarone, the tiny 40-seat Italian on Sunset Boulevard just up from the Viper Room. Maybe it was too early: I remember thinking it was nothing special. Wrongly, as it turns out.

October 14, 2010

The Review: Hotel Shangri-la

Hotel dining rooms don't come much cozier than the one at the updated Hotel Shangri-la on Ocean Boulevard in Santa Monica. The chairs are round, barrel-shaped numbers with deep tobacco-colored leather cushions and a propensity for swiveling, the better to check out the quiet scene. The theme is Art Deco, to echo the 1939 hotel's architecture. And because the dining room is so, well, small, it feels more like a posh private club than like a restaurant that takes reservations.

October 7, 2010

The Review: Savory in Malibu

Every chef dreams about opening his or her own restaurant — someday. For Paul Shoemaker, that day jumped closer when he arrived for work at Bastide one morning in 2008 to find out that owner Joe Pytka had abruptly decided to close it down, just weeks after Shoemaker had earned 31/2 stars from The Times for his refined, sensual cooking. (Bastide reopened a year and a half later with a new concept — bookstore café — and a new chef.) After an experience like that, it's easy to understand why Shoemaker would opt for working for himself.

September 30, 2010

[Chef Change] The Review: Craft Los Angeles

Before the Bravo network ever dreamed up "Top Chef," Tom Colicchio, the show's head judge, already had a remarkable career. He was chef and partner at New York's Gramercy Tavern in the mid-'90s, then in 2001 opened his own restaurant, Craft, a block away, holding down both kitchens for a while. Craft was followed by Craftsteak, Craftbar and the cleverly named sandwich spot 'Wichcraft. Soon he was opening versions in Atlanta, Dallas and Vegas and more.

September 23, 2010

The Review: La Serenata de Garibaldi

In Los Angeles, 25 years entitles a restaurant to, if not a medal, then at the very least the title of institution. And this year (how time flies) marks the 25th anniversary for La Serenata de Garibaldi in Boyle Heights. Way back in 1985, Jose Rodriguez and his wife, Aurora, opened a little place on East 1st Street specializing in Mexican seafood. A short jaunt down 1st from downtown, La Serenata soon became a favorite spot for politicos, lawyers, police chiefs and downtown office workers.

September 16, 2010

The Review: Bann Restaurant & Lounge in Koreatown

A block from the Wiltern, giant ivory silk lanterns in crystalline geometric shapes and finished with a tassel hang from the double height ceilings. The floor stretching ahead is marble, the appointments are a mix of traditional and contemporary Korean elements, which is what the menu is too. Right now, the new Bann Restaurant & Lounge may be the splashiest place in Koreatown.

September 2, 2010

The Review: Saddle Peak Lodge

On a warm summer night, the terrace at Saddle Peak Lodge seduces with its view through a pine tree to Saddle Peak and, beyond, the sky. We're wrapped in the quiet of the Santa Monica Mountains halfway between Calabasas and Malibu, with just enough light to read the menu and the wine list. Heaven, I'm thinking, as the wine splashes into my glass. I hear French two tables over, quiet laughter. We talk easily.

August 26, 2010

The Review: Jocko's steakhouse in Nipomo

As I grab the last free barstool at Jocko's, the guy next to me greets me with a polite "howdy." At the 84-year-old Santa Maria-style steakhouse in Nipomo, the style is easygoing and unpretentious. Though most everyone seems to be drinking light beer while watching the Dodgers and Yankees games on opposing screens, the bartender rustles up a bottle of a local craft brew. Firestone DBA, a cool dark draught with plenty of flavor.

August 19, 2010

The Review: Waterloo & City

When a former L'Orangerie chef breaks ranks with his fellow French chefs, runs a renegade pop-up restaurant and fantasizes about landing the first food truck on the Champs-Élysées, then times, you know, are changing. Over several iterations Bastide has morphed from haute French to casual boite. These days no maitre d' would dare require a jacket in this town. And now two refugees from the world of fine dining, Brit chef Brendan Collins and partner and general manager Carolos Tomazos, have dived into the new dining order with a gastropub on the fringes of Culver City.

August 12, 2010

The Review: South Beverly Grill

This is Beverly Hills?, I wondered, oh so many years ago when a friend took me to lunch in a sweet little house with a fireplace on South Beverly Drive. Chez Mimi later moved to Santa Monica, and Urth Caffé now dispenses soy lattes and iced green tea from that rose-covered cottage. Back then (and now), South Beverly Drive didn't seem fancy at all, more like a small-town Main Street where you'd find shops selling nightgowns and one-piece swimming suits, baseball cards and birthday gifts. Remember, though, Celestino Drago got his start here with his first restaurant, Celestino. And former Rustic Canyon chef Samir Mohajer chose the neighborhood for his first Cabbage Patch restaurant. Chin Chin still gets the crowds, and California Pizza Kitchen too.

August 5, 2010

[Chef Change] The Review: Red O

Pull up in front of the new Red O on Melrose and, before deigning to take your car, a valet in an embroidered guayabera and natty straw hat will lean into the window to ask, politely, if you've got a reservation. It's Mozza all over again. No reservation, no getting in. And on weekend nights, you'll need to reserve a month out. Even on the weekdays, it's the 6:30 or 9:30 routine. Try to get into the bar and the big guy posted outside the door, leaning on a lectern to make him look less like a bouncer, will nix that too. The bar is for patrons waiting for tables.

July 29, 2010

The Review: Church & State

Open almost two years, the downtown bistro Church & State has seen a lot of changes in its brief life. Steven Arroyo (Cobras & Matadors) opened the restaurant in the Biscuit Co. Lofts on Industrial Street in September 2008. The original chef lasted only a couple of months and was soon replaced by Walter Manzke, the former executive chef at Bastide. With his impressive fine-dining credentials, Manzke seemed an oddball choice to head up the funky bistro's frenetic kitchen, but Manzke took on the job with gusto, even making his own charcuterie. Great French bistro cooking and affordable too? Church & State pulled in crowds from all over L.A. But without a financial stake in the restaurant, it was inevitable that Manzke would eventually leave to develop his own project.

July 22, 2010

The Review: Inn of the Seventh Ray

I'm writing this in a purple font, the same color as the seventh ray, or so I'm told, which is why the napkins at Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon are violet. So is the bouquet of wispy wildflowers on each table. And years ago (the last time I ventured to the idyllic spot for dinner), so were the tablecloths. Way back then, I remember incense sticks stuck in the ground around the trees on the terrace heaving powerfully scented smoke into the air. And a rich flower child in a Chanel suit and bare feet with a daisy tucked behind her ear.

July 15, 2010

The Review: First & Hope

As the hostess at First & Hope, the new downtown supper club, looks over her reservation book, I can't help noticing the bunch of bananas tattooed on her arm. Somehow, that cheerful yellow bunch coupled with her dramatic pearl gray evening gown says it all. First & Hope is retro with a sly wink, more playful dress-up than dogged revival of a supper club from the '30s or '40s.

July 8, 2010

The Review: Wolfgang Puck's WP24

The server eases the rectangular plate down on the glass coffee table. Here we go, I think, biting into a tiny pleated dumpling plumped with braised pork belly and slicked with black Chinese vinegar. A trace of chile oil, the melting tender pork, the supple dough: heaven. Between sips of the gin-based cocktail "Lady From Shanghai" we watch the sunset wash over the San Gabriel Mountains and the skyscrapers of downtown L.A. through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

July 1, 2010

The Review: Chaya Venice

I've always had a soft spot for Chaya Brasserie in West Hollywood. I love the soaring emerald bamboo grove in the middle of the room, the charming Asian-accented brasserie decor and executive chef Shigefumi Tachibe's sophisticated French-Japanese cuisine.

June 24, 2010

The Review: District

Four of us stare at our menus at the new District on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. "Duck fat Yorkshire pudding," one friend exclaims when she reads the first item. Let's save that for later, I tell her. Why don't we order some biscuits before we decide anything, hmmm? Baked to order, they look adorable snuggled down in a napkin. The Cheddar-flavored biscuits are flaky and a dark gold, with a little jalapeño lurking in the background. I love having them as a course on their own, they're that good.

June 10, 2010

The Review: Patina

As friends and I step into Patina, the figures of the hostess, manager, bartender, server and sommelier awake from their enchantment. They move forward, murmur a greeting and lead us to a table in the elegant, modernist dining room. Sometimes it feels as if the entire restaurant has been put into a state of suspended animation by an evil witch called the economy.

June 3, 2010

The Review: Root 246

At first encounter, the kitschy side of Solvang can be off-putting, what with all the shop windows filled with cutesy figurines and souvenirs of the Danish-themed town. But on closer acquaintance, when window boxes spill over with flowers and old-fashioned street lamps cast a milky glow on half-timbered buildings, the little Santa Inez Valley town seems utterly charming in its eccentricities. On a recent jaunt there, I pass Hamlet Square, the Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen Museum and a shop called the Mole Hole, among others.

May 27, 2010

The Review: A new chef enlivens Ammo

Chefs come and chefs go. Some don't change a thing. Others don't quite fit in. But sometimes a new chef can bring a breath of fresh air to a tired menu or contribute a whole new spirit to a place.

May 20, 2010

The Review: Culina at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills

The new hotel restaurant is no longer a tribute to overwrought decorating, plush carpeting and ceiling-high flower arrangements. The smarmy maitre d', servers in house livery and dishes flambéed tableside are all long gone. Now that hotel restaurants are feeling the economic crunch, hotels are busy reinventing their dining rooms in hopes of attracting the world outside the lobby for dinner.

May 13, 2010

The Review: La Vida

It wasn't that long ago that I dreaded checking out the latest Hollywood restaurant-slash-lounge. Why? Because, if you managed to get past the inevitable velvet rope and be seated at a table, the food was usually so bad you left hungry — at 2 in the morning. Maybe club owners have finally figured out that you can't get away with that for very long, I don't know. But recent entries in the genre (Beso excepted) have really been playing up the food. And in some cases, it's not just PR hyperbole, but the real thing.

May 6, 2010

The Review: Valentino

Valentino is back.

April 29, 2010

The Review: Elements Kitchen in Pasadena -- all the elements of success

The closing of the Pasadena Playhouse must have been a blow to the new Elements Kitchen right next door. Chef-owner Onil Chibás had to have been counting on business from theatergoers as part of his business plan. But shortly after the renovations were completed and the restaurant moved in, boom: The historic playhouse, named California's official state theater in 1937, shut down because of budget difficulties.

April 22, 2010

The Review: Hatfield's in Los Angeles

Behind the wall of windows that look into the showplace kitchen, cooks in tall toques bob and weave around the stoves in an intricate choreography. Everyone is focused. There's not much talking going on. At the center of it all, look for the compact, closely shaven man sans hat and wearing a striped apron: That's Quinn Hatfield, chef and owner, with his wife, Karen, of the new, improved Hatfield's in Los Angeles.

12:00 AM PDT, April 15, 2010

Review: Lobster with a view in Santa Monica

You'd think that with all of Santa Monica's coastline, there would be more restaurants right on the beach, places where you could enjoy local seafood and revel in the landscape of sea and sand. Not counting hotel dining rooms, the list is far too short. Even then, most are across Ocean Boulevard on the land side of the street. And with square footage prices so high, few independent restaurateurs or chefs have the means to own a restaurant on the shore.

April 8, 2010

The Review: Delphine at the W Hollywood

Not going to be able to catch the Cannes film festival this year? Don't cry. You can still vamp it up at the smart new Delphine, the W Hollywood's ode to the Riviera at Hollywood and Vine. In the bar, vintage black and white photos of the grand hotels along Cannes' Boulevard de la Croisette set the scene. And the sidewalk outside the glass doors, facing the Pantages and just steps from the Metro station, is not a bad stand-in for Cannes' famous seaside promenade and its gawking crowds.

6:36 PM PDT, March 31, 2010

The Review: Latest Bastide is simply a joy

I've never met the man. But by all accounts, commercial director Joe Pytka is talented, difficult, sophisticated, a wine connoisseur, a design savant, and an exacting taskmaster. He's also wealthy -- wealthy enough in the days before he opened his own restaurant to routinely drop thousands of dollars at a time on food and wine at L.A.'s best restaurants. Wealthy enough to keep Bastide closed for months after he tired of its last iteration (its fourth) and thought about what he wanted to do with the space next.

1:24 PM PDT, March 24, 2010

Review: Caffe Roma in Beverly Hills

The name Caffe Roma probably doesn't ring a bell with most Angelenos. Though the Beverly Hills cafe doesn't have the name recognition of Valentino, Osteria Angelini or Drago, say, it has been, for many years, the hangout for a certain louche 90210 set that treated it as a kind of insider's clubhouse.

March 18, 2010

The Review: Carlitos Gardel

For years, I wrote to the sound of tango music from the '20s and '30s — Don Barreto, Roberto Firpo, Ada Falcón and, of course, the king of them all, Carlos Gardel, who died in a plane crash in 1935. Not that I'd ever been to Argentina at that point: I just loved the music. And when I moved to L.A. and found a restaurant named for the singer near West Hollywood, I had to try it. That was 1996, just after the Bozoghlian family from Buenos Aires bought the place and turned it into one of the most welcoming, and festive, restaurants in town.

March 4, 2010

The Review: Bruce Marder’s House Cafe in Los Angeles

A friend of mine, listening to my restaurant-going schedule, asked wonderingly whether I ever just took a night off and went to Bob's Big Boy. Good question. I know he wanted to hear that I occasionally pigged out on junk food. Not really. But when I want an utterly easygoing meal, I do have a few standbys: Hungry Cat, Pizzeria Mozza, Barbrix or Lou, Palate, Spago for Friday lunch. And now the new House Cafe.

February 25, 2010

The Review: The Tar Pit is Campanile chef-owner Mark Peel’s supper club

I've always been fascinated by the photo of my young parents taken at a supper club in New York. They look impossibly glamorous sitting at a small table, my mother, shoulders bared, tentatively sipping a cocktail, my father languidly holding his cigarette. The place? Lost to memory.

February 18, 2010

The Review: Lazy Ox Canteen in downtown L.A.

Something is going on at the new Lazy Ox Canteen. With no sign out front (yet) and a quiet presence at the edge of Little Tokyo, this cozy tavern is, so far, flying under the radar. But locals -- the brave denizens of downtown -- are making it a headquarters of sorts, stopping in for a glass of craft brew and maybe some fried anchovies or red wine-braised beef neck. Some are on the lookout for chef Josef Centeno's baco, his signature flatbread with eclectic toppings. Or the stupendous burger on a house-baked bun.

February 11, 2010

The Review: Il Dolce in Costa Mesa

Behind the tall counter at Il Dolce, a new Costa Mesa pizzeria and restaurant, silver-haired owner Roberto Bigne stretches pizza dough over the backs of his hands in a sure, practiced gesture. The pizza oven behind him glows a fiery orange. Bags of almond wood are stacked on the floor in front of the counter; the 2-month-old restaurant is so small there's nowhere else to put them. Meanwhile, the smell of pizza dough cooking in that wood-fired oven wafts over the counter into the simple dining room with bare-topped tables lined up in rows.

February 4, 2010

The Review: Vinoteque on Melrose

Through an open doorway on Melrose Avenue, up a few steps, is a secret garden with walls washed in burnt orange and tall wooden planter boxes filled with pretty lettuces, feathery fennel, carrots, chard and lemon grass. There, Chardonnay and Zinfandel grapevines clamber over trellises and culinary herbs cast their fragrance into the night air. The sprawling L-shaped patio is paved in terra cotta tiles and set with jewel-toned Moroccan mosaic tables and wicker armchairs. Even in early winter, with the help of strategically placed heat lamps, the patio is magic, an urban oasis reminiscent of the south of France where wine bottles litter the table and guests linger, talking and drinking, until well past midnight.

January 27, 2010

The Review: Ilan Hall's the Gorbals in downtown Los Angeles

When I woke up the next morning, I really thought it had all been a dream. The goth mime sniffing our wine bottle, his cohorts in white porcelain masks circling the table. The gentleman in his 50s who strode in late with three women in his wake and sat next to us at the long communal table, a crude slab of hard wood that looked as if it had just come from the sawmill. One woman celebrating her birthday with sticky toffee pudding, while on the other side, a beauty in a skull T-shirt smooched a guy with an innocent-looking face but heavily illustrated arms.

January 20, 2010

The Review: Bouchon in Beverly Hills

From the avalanche of attention Thomas Keller has been getting for Bouchon, you'd almost think the arrival of the new Beverly Hills restaurant was the second coming. Actually, it is, in a way. For those without a long memory, Keller was executive chef at Checkers Hotel in downtown L.A. in the early '90s, well before the French Laundry, Per Se and his seven Michelin stars. Now Keller is back in Los Angeles in a big way, this time as a phenomenally successful chef trailing all the high expectations and jealousies that exalted status entails.

January 13, 2010

Osteria La Buca is still up to mama's standards

Osteria La Buca, the once tiny buca, or "hole in the wall," near Paramount Studios in Hollywood, expanded up and sideways two and a half years ago, all the while offering the same pasta-focused menu that made this casual osteria a neighborhood favorite. A recent upset, though, has resulted in co-owner Filippo Corvino and his mother, Loredana, who had been the chef, leaving the business. Since her cooking defined La Buca in the early days, when the dining room consisted of a handful of cramped tables, what does that mean for the 5-year-old restaurant?

December 30, 2009

The Review: La Cachette Bistro in Santa Monica

After 15 years, La Cachette, "the hideaway," is no longer hiding out in Century City. Chef-owner Jean-Francois Meteigner suffered years of roadwork on Santa Monica Boulevard that made his French restaurant difficult to get to. And yet now that traffic is rushing by on the boulevard in front, he has decided to pick up and move to the city of Santa Monica and at the same time retool the restaurant as -- take a wild guess -- a bistro.

December 23, 2009

The Review: Whist at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica

Whist, the restaurant in Santa Monica's excruciatingly trendy Viceroy Hotel, opened with a bang in 2002. That was when Tim Goodell (Aubergine, Red Pearl) was doing the food, and it was startlingly good for a hotel restaurant. I remember pork belly filigreed with chile-laced caramel, skate wing with baby artichokes barigoule, potatoes au gratin for two and especially the desserts. If you ordered trifle, you got a whole bowl for the table, apricot pie, an entire pie. But foodies and a raucous bar scene didn't mix.

December 16, 2009

Zero stars

The Review: Fabio Viviani's Firenze Osteria in Toluca Lake

On a recent weekend night, the excitement at the new Firenze Osteria is palpable. It's three-deep at the bar, air-kisses galore, the "ciao, ciaos" and "buona seras" coming fast and heavy. Tablecloths are whisked off tables and silverware and glasses slapped down before the diners who have just finished have even made it to the door.

December 9, 2009

The Review: Umami Burger in Los Feliz

America is full of contradictions. At a time when Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" is a bestseller, novelist Jonathan Safran Foer has just written an exhortation against the eating of meat ("Eating Animals"), and vegans are clamoring for chefs to accommodate them at top restaurants, the country is also becoming even more burger-obsessed than it already was.

December 2, 2009

The Review: Cafe Pierre in Manhattan Beach

When a restaurant has been around for as long as Cafe Pierre, it's not reasonable to expect it to be performing with the same panache and energy as in the early days. Most decades-old places carry on without changing a thing until it's too late. Chasen's went down like the Titanic. Orso, with its lovely tree-shaded patio, is a more recent casualty.

November 25, 2009

The Review: Noir Food & Wine in Pasadena

Mike Farwell and Claud Beltran have been itching to create a wine bar -- their way -- for years. Now, with Noir in Pasadena, the wine buff and the chef, respectively, finally have their chance. Instead of working for other people, the two have gotten together with partner Alex Gallegos and opened this vibrant wine bar on North Mentor Street next door to the Ice House comedy club. It's just as inviting as any wine bar inParis, and with better wines and better food than most.

November 18, 2009

The Review: Eva Restaurant in Los Angeles

It's Sunday night and I've just come off an 11-hour flight rumpled and cross-eyed after reading the last installment of Steig Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy straight through. When my friend picks me up at the airport, she reminds me that I'd asked her to make a reservation at Eva for their prix fixe Sunday dinner.

November 11, 2009

The Review: Marche L.A. in Sherman Oaks

It's back to the Boulevard for Gary Menes, who first made a splash when he was cooking Moroccan-accented dishes at the then-newly opened Firefly on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. Last year he landed as chef de cuisine at Octavio Becerra's Palate Food + Wine in Glendale, where he did some of the best cooking in his career. And now he's joined up with André Guerrero as chef and partner at Marché L.A. on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.

November 4, 2009

The Review: Blue Plate Oysterette in Santa Monica

OK, so L.A. has its Issan Thai restaurants, Sichuan and Shanghai style places, Tuscan trattorie and Provencal bistros, Yucatan and Oaxacan joints. Why not an East Coast clam shack? Well, now we have one, fetchingly called Blue Plate Oysterette.

October 28, 2009

The Review: Bistro LQ

The broth comes, comforting and rich, larded with bone marrow dumplings, a few strands of vermicelli. The waiter tells us to leave a little broth in the bowl for the chabrot, a splash of red wine to finish up the soup. Next come the leeks cooked in the pot; khaki green, they're soft as pudding, served in a vinaigrette with a shower of chopped hard-boiled egg on top. That's followed by a platter of the boiled meats -- oxtail, capon, beef shank and shin, chuck roast, short ribs, brisket and a little partridge, with potatoes and carrots and other root vegetables all cooked in that concentrated broth.

October 21, 2009

Stefan's at L.A. Farm in Santa Monica

For a "Top Chef" finalist, 36-year-old Stefan Richter comes out like a lamb at his new restaurant, Stefan's at L.A. Farm. He's not out to shock or provoke. He's out to cook food that's squarely within most people's comfort zones.

October 14, 2009

The Review: Pinot Provence in Costa Mesa

When Pinot Provence opened in 1998, Joachim Splichal was one of the first big-name L.A. chefs, if not the first, to venture into Orange County.

October 7, 2009

The Review: The Tasting Kitchen in Venice

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That's why Hidden became Caché, Charcoal switched to BoHo, and Max morphed into Marché.

September 30, 2009

The Review: The Sunset Restaurant in Malibu

As we squeak past the last days of summer, it's never too late to make one more trip to the beach. Dinner at the Sunset on Zuma Beach could be just the right antidote to stave off the inevitable sadness as fall comes on with its shorter days and longer nights. Not to mention longer pants and sweaters.

September 23, 2009

Restaurant Review: Cache in Santa Monica

Josiah Citrin peers into the dining room, looking slightly rumpled and just a little anxious. Though he's been cooking in Santa Monica for almost two decades, first at JiRaffe (opened with longtime friend and collaborator Raphael Lunetta in 1996), and then at his own French-accented Mélisse since 1999, this just isn't his usual crowd. Or at least not tonight. It's party time as guests lounge on the red sofas in the two-level patio lounge of this sprawling indoor-outdoor space and a social butterfly in a sparkly dress darts from group to group, Champagne glass in hand.

September 16, 2009

The Review: Studio at Montage Laguna Beach

As friends and I approach Studio, the restaurant at Montage Laguna Beach set on the edge of a bluff, I can see chef Craig Strong silhouetted against a silvery mauve sky as he talks to a table of guests on the outdoor terrace. Palm trees in front are ablaze with the setting sun and in the grass behind him, a trio of bunny rabbits play and nibble. We're seated outside, too, the better to enjoy the sea air and the unobstructed view of the coastline. What a spot!

September 9, 2009

The Review: Boa in West Hollywood

What is up with Boa's new über-chic flagship restaurant in West Hollywood?

September 2, 2009

[Chef Change] The Review: RH at the Andaz in West Hollywood

Hotel restaurants don't have much of a local audience, with good reason: Not that many are truly compelling. That's by way of explaining why I didn't rush right out to try the new restaurant in the revamped Hyatt (now called the Andaz West Hollywood) on the Sunset Strip. I did take a look at the menu, and passed.

August 26, 2009

The Review: Ado in Venice

When I pull up to Ado, the new Italian restaurant that's moved into the old Amuse space on Main Street in Venice, chef-owner Antonio Muré is standing in his whites in the doorway, his dark hair pulled into a ponytail, so chic he looks as if he's waiting for Vogue photographer Steven Meisel to show up any minute.

August 19, 2009

Restaurant review: Le Saint Amour in Culver City

The first time I went to Paris, a friend's old boyfriend, a poet who taught English to the employees of the French phone company, took me in hand and introduced me to his favorite restaurants. This American in Paris was mad about simple bistros and lively brasseries. He never spent more than the equivalent of $25 on a meal and I doubt very much he ever ate at a Michelin-starred restaurant, yet he loved everything about eating in France.

August 12, 2009

Restaurant Review: ParkAve in Stanton

Before it was Beach Boulevard, the Orange County road that leads straight to Huntington Beach was known as Highway 39.

August 5, 2009

Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill opens at L.A. Live

Puck really knows how to pick them. Locations, that is. Wolfgang Puck, who burst onto the scene in 1982 with a little place called Spago, has just opened a new restaurant downtown at L.A. Live. Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill sits center stage, right on the L.A. Live square next door to Nokia Theatre and directly across from the Los Angeles Convention Center. Not one to play it coy, he's emblazoned the name Wolfgang Puck across the front, with tall turquoise lacquer doors to mark the entrance.

July 29, 2009

Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne's Tavern in Brentwood

What if no one had introduced Caroline Styne, then manager of Jones, to Suzanne Goin, who was at the time chef de cuisine at Campanile? We wouldn't have Lucques or A.O.C., two of L.A.'s most beloved restaurants. And we certainly wouldn't have the partners' new Tavern in Brentwood.

July 22, 2009

Domenico Ristorante: innovative Italian dining in Silver Lake

Brentwood is rife with Italian restaurants opened by Italian waiters who used to work somewhere else. Kiss. Kiss. Ciao. Add in a copycat menu of L.A. Italian dishes, preferably Tuscan-inspired, a celebrity or two disguised in scruffy attire: success, even in this cockamamie economy. Everybody loves pasta.

July 15, 2009

The Review: Petrossian Paris Boutique and Cafe

Open a caviar store in this economy? Is that just a little bit crazy, or what? Quietly, seemingly with hardly anyone noticing, the famous caviar purveyor Petrossian of Paris has reopened its Robertson Boulevard shop after a four-month-long remodel and this time around, it includes a cafe open almost all day long.

July 1, 2009

The review: Bottega Louie in downtown L.A.

Passersby stand and stare at the spectacle inside the palatial Brockman Building at the corner of 7th and Grand. Floor-to-ceiling windows put the whole shebang that is Bottega Louie on full display: gray-veined marble floors, imposing pillars and a ceiling high enough that Cirque du Soleil trapeze artists could do their thing. Some of the more decorative touches look like a collaboration between Louis XV (Louie?)and Gianni Versace.

June 17, 2009

RESTAURANT REVIEWS

Minestraio, All' Angelo change courses

Times are hard, especially for fine dining. Rather than stay the course and wait out the downturn, hoping for the best, two Italian restaurateurs, both with once highly regarded restaurants, have taken a tough stance and revised their restaurants from high-end ristoranti to mid-level trattorias.

June 10, 2009

Restaurant Review: Susan Feniger's Street restaurant

At Street, Susan Feniger's new tribute to global street food, look for the slight woman with the high-wattage smile, in canvas shoes, khaki chef's jacket and baseball cap worn backward. That's Feniger, one-half of the Too Hot Tamales, co-founder of Border Grill and at 55, no longer the youngest chef on the block. Nor the most outrageous.

June 3, 2009

The Review: Westside Tavern at Westside Pavilion is an unexpected delight

I can tell you my friends weren't all that excited when I told them where we were headed for dinner: the Westside Pavilion. Granted, dining in a shopping mall doesn't quite have the allure of Providence or the Bazaar by José Andres. But then again, I told them, you never know where the next great restaurant will pop up in Southern California. It could be in the most banal of strip malls, tucked away in Glendale or hiding out in the O.C. That's one of the peculiarities -- and delights -- of this endlessly fascinating area.

May 27, 2009

The Review: Reservoir restaurant in Silver Lake

"Was everything terrific as always?" asked the host as my friends and I left Reservoir in Silver Lake. What kind of question is that? Talk about putting you on the spot. I wanted to put a bag over my head and sneak out without answering.

May 20, 2009

The Review: Chaya Downtown

Not that long ago, downtown L.A. seemed a no-man's land at night, the streets eerily empty while lights blazed in the office towers and hotels. Inside Water Grill or Pacific Dining Car, though, stranded hotel guests and convention goers hunkered down over fish or steaks, while a few blocks away, hard-core sushi fans took a seat at Little Tokyo sushi bars. When I first moved to L.A., I remember desperately searching for the downtown hotel where a friend was staying but not finding one person to ask on the street. And yet when a play or a concert or a sports event let out, suddenly a traffic jam on the 110.

May 13, 2009

Restaurant Review: Cecconi's in West Hollywood

At the latest London import, Cecconi's, an expat Brit orders a cocktail, leans back against the luxurious cushions strewn along the terrace banquette and opens the morning's Times -- that would be the Times of London. Hostesses have a tony British accent, some of the servers too. A gentleman in a bespoke suit with tie and matching hankie tucked into his breast pocket glides past our table at lunch.

May 6, 2009

The Review: Huckleberry in Santa Monica

Waiting for my order at Huckleberry in Santa Monica, I watch the line move, slowly, forward. Ballet flats, flip-flops, bicycle cleats, and Nikes, Manolos, and sturdy walking shoes and even a tiptoeing cane inch their way to the cash register. Sometimes at lunch the line is out the door, snaking past the tall wooden planters filled with herbs and greens and tomatoes, all the way into the parking lot in back.

April 22, 2009

The Review: Fig in Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica

Against all odds, not one, but two excellent hotel restaurants have opened in the last few months. First, we had the Bazaar by José Andrés, the dynamic tapas restaurant in the new SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills. And now we have Fig in the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica.

April 15, 2009

The Review: Pizzeria Ortica in Costa Mesa

Cutting-edge fine-dining restaurant with elaborate tasting menu, solemn servers and profound wine list? Done that. Elegant patisserie turning out pretty pastel macarons and gold leaf-adorned chocolates? Oui. Contemporary French bistro complete with cheese bar and handcrafted cocktails? Done that too.

April 8, 2009

Jitlada restaurant in Hollywood

After a few bites of curry, the tall, curly-haired guy reaches for his water glass frantically. He'd heard about Jitlada from chef friends and he can't believe he waited so long to come, I hear him say, as he takes another long swig of water. Minutes later, his posse of three jumps up and heads outside to cool down from all that searing chile heat. That's when I recognize him: the former fromager -- cheese guy -- at Comme Ça, standing in the glare of the shabby Hollywood strip mall. Suddenly, the woman with him starts turning cartwheels in the parking lot.

8:18 PM PDT, March 31, 2009

The Review: Rivera in downtown Los Angeles

John Rivera Sedlar, the chef who brought us Saint Estephe, Bikini and Abiquiu (may they all rest in peace) is back and back in a big way. At the new Rivera within shouting distance of L.A. Live, the 54-year-old chef is firing on all cylinders. Rivera is terrific, one of the most exciting restaurants to debut in L.A. in the last few years.

March 18, 2009

[Chef Change] The Review: Church & State in downtown Los Angeles

Church & State has to go down as one of the more unusual restaurant pairings in Southern California: owner Steven Arroyo, best known for casual clubby places such as Cobras & Matadors, and chef Walter Manzke, renowned for his meticulous French- California cuisine at Bastide, Patina and L'Auberge Carmel.

March 11, 2009

Saluté Wine Bar in Santa Monica

Yet another small-plates restaurant without any particular hook seems like such a yawn, so you'll forgive me if I didn't rush out to try Saluté Wine Bar in Santa Monica the minute it opened. OK, so the small plates are called piattini ("small plates" in Italian), then what?

March 4, 2009

Review: Kiwami in Studio City

I hear a shush, shush, shush sound and look up to see sushi chef Katsuya Uechi grating a piece of fresh wasabi root, bearing down with all his might. I catch my Japanese friend's eye. Any sushi chef who grates his own wasabi is serious about his ingredients. It's a small touch, but one that's telling.

4:35 PM PST, February 17, 2009

A rare four-star restaurant review: The Bazaar by José Andrés

Olives that flood your mouth with flavor. A foie gras lollipop wrapped in cotton candy. The definitive shrimp with garlic. Innocent-looking bites that shoot smoke out of your nostrils.

February 11, 2009

Drago Centro in downtown L.A.

Seriously, what is wrong with this town? If Celestino Drago, one of the best-known Italian restaurateurs in Southern California, can't get a crowd for his most ambitious restaurant yet, and a very glamorous one at that, then what? The fact that Drago Centro's location -- downtown L.A. -- may be outside the comfort zone of his fan base shouldn't be a deterrent for more intrepid Italophiles.

February 4, 2009

AK Restaurant + Bar in Venice

It might seem that there is little as unlikely as a Scandinavian restaurant in Southern California, but for many years one of L.A.'s most celebrated spots was Scandia on Sunset Boulevard. It had closed by the time I came to town, but Gustaf Anders was still carrying the flame for the cuisine in Costa Mesa. That's gone now too, but I still remember the generous holiday buffet that went on for the entire month of December, the sumptuous platters of crayfish boiled with dill in summer and the pretty princess cake wrapped in green marzipan.

January 28, 2009

The Review: Luau in Beverly Hills

When I invited a friend who grew up in Beverly Hills to dinner at the new Luau on Bedford Drive, she messaged me back that she remembered going to the original with her parents years ago. "Pupu platter, crab Rangoon, ribs -- yum!"

January 21, 2009

Restaurant review: Riva in Santa Monica

In downtown Santa Monica, people walk. Stand in front of the new Riva on Wilshire between 3rd and 4th streets and it's quite the spectacle as buff new mothers jog behind strollers, friends giggle over their haul from sales on the Third Street Promenade, and the down-and-out troll passersby for spare change. Everybody passing by, though, stops to peer in the windows of the lively new restaurant that's sprouted where the Italian steakhouse Scarboni briefly languished.

January 14, 2009

Restaurant review: XIV in West Hollywood

After listening to the waiter try to explain the concept at the new XIV in West Hollywood, we're thoroughly confused. It's social dining, he tells us. But isn't all eating in restaurants inherently social? The menu is all small plates, but he doesn't call it a small-plates restaurant either. "So -- it's a tasting menu," someone prompts the waiter. "No, it's not," he answers. OK, then, could it be considered a do-it-yourself multi-course menu? Something like that.

January 7, 2009

Restaurant review: Talesai in West Hollywood

Several generations of a Thai family are seated around a long table at Talesai in West Hollywood. After they've finished eating, the beautifully dressed elderly man at the center of the table leans forward and begins to sing, his face etched with nostalgia and sadness. His voice is soft and quavery, and as he sings in Thai, he waves his hands to mark the beat. Some of his family joins in from time to time, following the words to this song when they can.

Throwing open the vault: L.A. Times restaurant reviews from 2008 and beyond

We've got a few four-star reviews -- and plenty of clunkers.