What goes into making The Times’ 101 Best Restaurants guide? Our critic shares his secrets
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Dec. 6. I’m Bill Addison, restaurant critic for The Times. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
- Our 101 Best Restaurants guide is here
- COVID, flu, RSV rise in California
- California’s tallest sand dunes reopen
- And here’s today’s e-newspaper
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The secrets behind our 101 Best Restaurants guide
Every year for a decade, The Times has published its annual guide to 101 remarkable restaurants across our region.
The project’s goal is to point readers toward excellence while also shaping a big-picture narrative about Los Angeles: its communities, its tastes, its nonstop evolution. This is my fifth year writing or co-writing the list, the newest edition of which published online last night and will appear in print this Sunday. (You can also purchase the magazine from the L.A. Times shop.)
I never tire of the city’s endless possibilities — the sense that corner taco stands, tiny strip-mall dining rooms and hushed special-occasion destinations hold equal potential for deliciousness and meaning.
How do I piece together this ever-shifting puzzle of restaurants? A lot of eating, mostly. As The Times’ restaurant critic, I’m usually out to dinner six nights every week, driving to all corners of the metro area.
Our city’s size brings the advantage of specificity. For the regional Mexican cuisines and sushi and pasta alone, we’re a privileged bunch.
A taquero can differentiate himself by recreating the smoky carne asada techniques passed down in his Sinaloan family. One chef finds fulfillment perfecting the classic Edomae-style nigiri she studied in Tokyo; another takes Californian liberties, dolloping caviar over tuna and slipping in a course of spring vegetables hand-picked from the nearest farmers market. An obsessionist can revive a thin, rectangular variation of ravioli that turns emerald-green in the center from Swiss chard.
The same potential awaits for Korean barbecue, dan dan noodles, smoked brisket, stewed oxtails, crab curry … on and on.
Your next great meal is two blocks away, at the other end of Los Angeles County, behind an unmarked door, at roving trucks or weekly events or capricious pop-ups. And while L.A. is the obvious focus, we also highlight a handful of further-afield neighborhoods, such as Orange County’s Little Arabia and Little Saigon with their dense, singular mix of restaurants.
I’ll tell you two secrets before sending you off on your own culinary adventures.
The official title is “101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles,” but I compile the guide more with the word “essential” as my governing philosophy. It seems more honest and ultimately useful for me to ask: What assembly of outstanding restaurants most joyfully reflects our culture?
Also, restaurant rankings might be fun for readers, but they’re agony for the writer. A plea, then, to consider there are thousands of places to dine across the L.A. basin. The number of slots feels smaller every year; each of the places on this list deserves your attention. This is always an imperfect, subjective exercise and everyone has strong opinions: I’m sure you will have yours.
If you love restaurants you’ll likely recognize many of the expected greats, but a quarter of names make their first appearance this year. I’ll also nudge you to check out our ongoing Hall of Fame list, with 10 names newly added — among them is arguably our city’s most famous Thai restaurant.
Yes, a Hall of Fame is a little bit of a cheat, a way to both pack in a few more deserving inductees while also making room for fresh entrants. Truly, though, these luminaries surpass the notion of annual list-making. There’s plenty to debate but I hope you’ll agree these restaurants have a place of honor in L.A. for all time.
Read more here:
- These are the 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles
- These timeless classics define L.A. dining. That’s why they’re in our Hall of Fame
Today’s top stories
Science and medicine
- COVID, flu and RSV are on the rise in California. Is another ‘tripledemic’ coming?
- Could a monthly treatment prevent fentanyl overdoses? Scientists are working on it.
Politics
- Tonight’s GOP debate: Who, when and where to watch.
- The transition of House speakership from Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a proud but subdued Christian, to Rep. Mike Johnson, a fervently devout evangelical, highlights the religious right’s dominance of the evangelical GOP coalition.
- Vice President Kamala Harris sets a new tiebreaking record previously held by John C. Calhoun, among the fiercest defenders of slavery of his era.
More big stories
- SoCal to Vegas in two hours? The bullet train project connecting the Inland Empire and Las Vegas scores a $3-billion award. Brightline West would be the first high-speed rail to operate in the U.S.
- The family of a Tarzana woman is searching for answers after what was suspected to be her torso was found last month and her husband was arrested in the slaying.
- The Los Angeles City Council voted to ban rodeos in the city despite opposition by some in L.A.’s Latino equestrian community, who painted the crackdown as an attack on their culture.
- KIPP charter schools to close three underenrolled campuses, angering some parents.
- They fought eviction and won. Now they’re the only ones left living in a historic building.
- After a Times investigation, L.A. County seeks to add kennels and review policies at animal shelters.
- The U.S. is pulling visas from Jewish Israeli settlers who attack West Bank Palestinians.
- L.A. County aims to collect billions more gallons of local water by 2045.
- SAG-AFTRA members have voted in favor of the contract that ended the actors’ strike.
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Commentary and opinions
- Michael Hiltzik: The GOP is back to attacking Obamacare, and making less sense than ever.
- Opinion: Does Israel’s treatment of Palestinians rise to the level of apartheid?
- Mary McNamara: If Hollywood courts George Santos, the joke’s on them — and us.
- Robin Abcarian: Is one $6-billion payout enough punishment for the family that brought us the opioid crisis?
Today’s great reads
Half a billion: That’s the latest price for a gondola to Dodger Stadium. When the Dodger Stadium gondola was first proposed in 2018, the cost was estimated at $125 million. Now it’s up to $500 million. How exactly it will get paid for?
Other great reads
- Pitbull, Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias bring the heat: A night with three kings on the Trilogy tour.
- Celebrating Navidad and Año Nuevo Part 1: Holiday traditions across Latin America.
- Could disgraced former Congressman George Santos have a future in Hollywood?
- A lot of sports love a runway. But a boxing outfit says you’re ready for anything.
- The Dodgers met with Shohei Ohtani last week, Dave Roberts says.
- Oscar-buzzy queer roles have been depicted by more out LGBTQ+ performers this year than ever.
- Bedouins of the Negev desert face rockets from Gaza and discrimination and arrest by Israel. They seek safety as the war energizes the far right.
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
For your downtime
Going out
- 💏🏽 Wish you could feel more secure while dating in L.A.? Start here.
- ⛰️ In Death Valley, a strange lake dwindles while California’s tallest sand dunes reopen.
- 🖼️ The 10 most memorable museum exhibitions of 2023.
- 🎭 Matthew Broderick portrays a pre-MAGA everyman in “Babbitt,” now on stage at La Jolla Playhouse.
Staying in
- 💿 🎧 Here are our picks for the 100 best songs of 2023 and the 20 best albums of 2023.
- 🍪 Here’s a recipe for holiday sugar cookies your kids will love.
- ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.
And finally ... a great photo
Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.
Today’s great photo is from John Galloway of New Castle, Pa. John writes: “Hilltop Park [is] One of my favorite places in Southern California. I spent many hours here over the 43 years I lived in Lakewood. From a place to take a date, or just chill to watch a sunset.”
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Bill Addison, restaurant critic
Elvia Limón, multiplatform editor
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Laura Blasey, assistant editor
Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.
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