Jonathan Gold

Corazón y Miel satisfies heart's desires

"Corazón y miel," your waitress wants it to be known, is the signature dish of Corazón y Miel. Corazón y...

On the M.A.K.E. for raw vegan cuisine

If you are the kind of diner who gets hung up on first impressions, M.A.K.E., Matthew Kenney's raw-vegan restaurant in Santa Monica Place,...

Chi Spacca is all about the meat

The first time you visit Chi Spacca, you are probably going to want the bistecca fiorentina, a sizzling cliff of meat that weighs in at a...

Muddy Leek gets comfortable in Culver City

Muddy Leek is in kind of an odd location, just a block or two away from the restaurants in Culver City's Helms complex yet seemingly well...

Littlefork takes a big-eats turn north

Across the street from the Hollywood post office, a few short blocks from the 1930s complex that calls itself Crossroads of the World,...

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...

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...

Counter Intelligence: Hostaria del Piccolo lives the fantasy — almost — in Venice

California rarely feels more like California than it does from a window seat at the new Hostaria del Piccolo in Venice, where life's great...

Counter Intelligence: Le Ka's a bit of this and that, for the beautiful people

Le Ka is one of those difficult places to figure out, not because the cooking isn't good — it is, very — but because in the...

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: 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: 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...

Counter Intelligence: Spago makeover smooths aging star's wrinkles

The first responsibility of any great restaurant is to keep you in the bubble, the soft-serve cocoon of illusion where you forget the...

Tidings of comfort and latkes

What am I cooking for Christmas dinner? Well a goose, of course, a fine, fat one, cooked in the Barbara Kafka way that involves high heat...

Counter Intelligence: Sqirl sticks to the very basics

Isaiah Berlin, in his famous essay, once divided thinkers into two groups: hedgehogs, who know one big thing, and foxes, who know many...