Critic's Choice: A season of sun — and mozzarella

Come summer, I look forward to interleaving slices of mozzarella and basil leaves with slices of the first luscious red tomatoes to make a...

Jonathan Gold | L.A. restaurant review: RivaBella makes ordinary Italian perfect

Angelini Osteria is almost everyone's favorite Italian restaurant in midtown: an informal room with well-designed trattoria cooking, a place...

Critic's Choice: Chicken dinners that entice you to leave the roost

Funny how the chicken has become our most beloved bird. My neighbor is raising some exotic chicks, but even those of us who don't go to that...

Critic's Choice: Three divine chocolate creations

Remember when you couldn't go to a restaurant without coming across yet another flourless chocolate cake? And when that trend finally...

Jonathan Gold | Restaurant review: Hunan Mao for fish heads and fire

When you tell somebody about a Hunan restaurant, always begin with the steamed fish head. The fish head will be large, probably from an...

Critic's Choice: Cool, creative ceviche

Is ceviche poised to become as popular as sushi or sashimi in L.A.? It could happen. I'm thinking Ricardo Zarate is onto something as the...

Counter Intelligence: Stylish, deluxe Japan-inspired cuisine at Hinoki & the Bird

Hinoki is a fragrant cypress most Japanese associate with extremely expensive bathtubs, popular with the wealthy because the wood is used to...

Critic's Choice: Carpaccio as a blank canvas

According to my "Grande Enciclopedia Illustrata della Gastronomia," carpaccio is the "celebrated preparation based on raw beef sliced as...

Critic's Choice: Appealing to real mussel heads

Brittany, on the Atlantic coast of France, is famous for its shellfish. The most prized oysters come from Cancale, and the bouchot...

Critic's Choice: Neighborhood pizza pros

Some 30 years after Wolfgang Puck introduced a wood-burning oven and his sophisticated pizza at the original Spago, we're enjoying a pizza...

You're in for a treat with these top dogs in town: Critic's Choice

OK, we've all had our holiday fun and feasting. And somehow another roast turkey or standing rib roast doesn't sound as appealing as it...

Counter Intelligence: Josef Centeno gives Tex-Mex a twist at Bar Amá

When you talk to Texas expatriates about the food they miss most from home, after a few grumbly sentences about Los Angeles chili, and...

Counter Intelligence: A little taste of Cortez

What you think about Cortez is going to depend in large part on what you think about crowds, and noise, and screechy jazz, about well-...

Counter Intelligence: The just-right cooking at Bestia

If you want to understand Bestia, you should probably take a look at the cassoeula, a version of a traditional cabbage stew popular...

Critic's Choice: Forget caviar — it's time to indulge in raw oysters

Maybe it's the nip in the air. Maybe it's the proximity to the holidays, but this time of year I'm craving oysters. And I don't mean a...

Counter Intelligence: Ari Taymor's Alma stands apart in L.A.

If you had asked an observer a few years ago whether the future of dining in Los Angeles was more likely to be influenced by its mobile...

Critic's Choice: Hearty breakfasts worth a wake-up call

I'm always receiving emails or texts from friends needing to know (right away!) where to go for breakfast in this or that neighborhood....

Critic's Choice: A nip in the air, a sausage on the plate

It's late November, and only in last few days has the weather cooperated to give us a taste of fall, and with it, a hankering for hearty...

A retro-future corner of Anaheim

Wearing round glasses, a buttoned vest and blue wingtip oxfords, Shaheen Sadeghi can't walk down Anaheim's Center Street Promenade without...

Critic's Choice: Lively gastropubs for fun that can go late

When Ben Ford introduced his Ford's Filling Station in 2006, the fledgling gastropub was mobbed. The right idea at the right time:...

Counter Intelligence: Laurel Hardware nearly nails it

It is 10 in the evening, West Hollywood has just begun to ramp up into the night and three dozen people are lined up outside Laurel...

Counter Intelligence: Tom Bergin's Tavern, reinvented

Have you been to Tom Bergin's Tavern lately? No — not Molly Malone's, the pub with the bands; the other one on Fairfax, a few blocks...

Counter Intelligence: Plan Check, where food meets the future

When I am trying to explain the concept of modernist cooking to a friend who has experienced neither encapsulated olives nor edible menus...

Counter Intelligence: Starry Kitchen breaks hearts with cult dish

Are you a connoisseur of agony? Then drop by Starry Kitchen for a bite some evening, somewhere around 9 p.m. if you can swing it, and listen...

Critic's Choice: Family-style meals on the menu

Campanile may have started the trend for family-style meals years ago with festive globe-trotting menus on Monday nights. Now they can be as...

Critic's Choice: Upscale, and accessible, happy hours

With the economy still not entirely recovered, restaurants — and very good ones at that — are betting on happy hour deals to get...

Critic's Choice: Remedies for pasta cravings

Whenever Italian friends come to stay, I've noticed they can go at most three, maybe four days before they can't stand it anymore: They have...

Critic's Choice: The chef as gardener

How does your garden grow? That's a question that can be posed to a number of restaurants around town. And I'm not just talking old olive...

Counter Intelligence: Hui Tou Xiang Noodles House has a star dish

My first restaurant column for The Times, written when I was still a music writer who answered his phone "Guns N' Rosesdesk," was about...

Counter Intelligence: Shunji is no ordinary sushi bar

We all think we know what to expect from a great sushi meal in Los Angeles, a progression of fish and rice that runs from the vinegared dish...

Critic's Choice: L.A. area restaurants with prix-fixe menus hit the spot

Summertime and the living is easy … that would be the summer prix-fixe market menu. Ease into a chair at a favorite restaurant, and...

Counter Intelligence: Red Hill brings a folky modernism to Echo Park

To understand Red Hill, Jason Michaud and Trevor Rocco's newish place in a converted Chinese bakery just north of Sunset, you could do worse...

Counter Intelligence: At modern Mo-Chica, the alpaca question

Have you been to the new Mo-Chica? Ricardo Zarate's Peruvian restaurant seems to define the downtown thing at the moment: It's a high-...

Miles Thompson shows taste beyond his years

The first dish served on Miles Thompson's five-course tasting menu during the Vagrancy Project's residency at Allston Yacht Club on a recent...

Critics Choice: Seriously good neighborhood bakery-cafes

Having a good bakery-cafe in the neighborhood is a quality-of-life issue just as much as having a serious coffee shop or wine bar. Just as...

Counter Intelligence: The Pikey, simply a pub with better food

It is toward midnight at the Pikey, the lights are fairly low and the Kinks are playing so loudly that you swear you can hear Ray Davies...

Critic's Choice: Theme nights at Jar, Mozza Scuola and A.O.C.

When Campanile introduced grilled cheese night on Thursdays with then-co-owner Nancy Silverton at the panini press, those casual evenings...

Review: True Italian finds a home at Gusto

West Third Street used to have such a quirky charm for a neighborhood shopping district. For the past few years, though, glitzy boutiques...

Critic's Choice: Where to find great smoked salmon

When I was in college, breakfast of toasted bagel, cream cheese and lox eaten with the Sunday paper spread all over the table seemed like...

Counter Intelligence: Lazy Ox Canteen in Little Tokyo

Andoni Luis Aduriz, the chef of Mugaritz, in the countryside outside San Sebastian, Spain, may be the closest thing to a pure artist in...

Counter Intelligence: An E-ticket meal at n/naka

The first time you come to n/naka, a kaiseki restaurant a bit north of Sony studios in the Palms area of Los Angeles, you will...

The Review: Freddy Smalls

No reservations. Loud. A gastropub from the Counter owner Jeff Weinstein and a consulting chef known for his vegetarian cooking. In theory,...

Counter Intelligence: Bizarra Capital, a dreamland Mexican-style gastropub

I'm not sure if it was the influence of some carne asada fries during a recent trip to San Diego or a dinner at Guelaguetza accompanied by a...

Critic's Choice: Sandwiches that are a slice above

Who wants to eat lunch inside on these perfect early summer days? A salad is too messy to eat from your lap unless you carry a cleaning...

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...

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...

Critic's Choice: Where to go for duck in L.A.

I admit, I love my duck. Young and broke and in Paris, I used to save up for the prix fixe menu at a little bistro in the 6th...

Critic's Choice: Linger over lunch at these restaurants

Whenever my friend Roberta comes to town, we try to have lunch at Providence on a Friday. That's the only day the Michelin two-star...