Acclaimed Southern chef Sean Brock recently launched weekend brunch at his West Hollywood restaurant, with highlights including five-spice fried chicken and fluffy pancakes.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
34 of the best weekend brunch spots in L.A.
- Share via
No city does brunch like Los Angeles. Yes, we have the requisite Benedicts and ever-flowing mimosas, but where else will you find Japanese breakfast sets, plates of chilaquiles drowned in green and red sauces, spreads with Levantine dips and breads, Hong Kong cafe staples and Southern-style fish and grits, all within a few miles of each other?
L.A.’s brunch cocktails prove just as impressive, with local kumquat and passion fruit making their way into bubbly pours along with tableside bloody Marys, low-ABV pulque and martinis garnished with caviar.
About This Guide
Our journalists independently visited every spot recommended in this guide. We do not accept free meals or experiences. What should we check out next? Send ideas to guides@latimes.com.
For Mother’s Day, graduation celebrations and whatever other occasions call for a maximalist daytime spread over the weekend, here are 35 of L.A.’s best brunch restaurants, from an Italian wine bar in Long Beach with frozen slushies to a global food hall in West Adams. —Danielle Dorsey
Showing Place Places
New to the guide
No entries under this group.
Please reset filters to see all entries.
Ammatolí
Long Beach Middle Eastern $$
(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
On a pedestrian-friendly block of 3rd Street in Long Beach, Dima Habibeh serves dishes that celebrate her Palestinian, Syrian and Jordanian heritage in a sun-dappled dining room with vines dangling from the ceiling and on a gated sidewalk patio filled with umbrella-covered tables and olive trees. The sprawling menu is best tackled by a group, with plenty of mezze, fresh-baked pita and manoushe and brunch-only items such as shakshuka and Levantine chilaquiles. Or skip the decision making and opt for the family brunch with shakshuka, fattet hummus, hummus with shawarma, foul, falafel, mutabbal, pickles and olives for $119. Mint lemonade and orange blossom lattes make for a refreshing start to the day, or dig into the wine list that favors bottles from France and Lebanon.
Show more Show less
Member Exclusive
Plan Your L.A. Day
Log in or register for a free account to save L.A. Times recommendations for restaurants, hikes, entertainment and more — all in one place.
Darling
West Hollywood Wood fired $$$
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
The consensus on Sean Brock’s California debut, set in a massive West Hollywood space that includes a hi-fi listening lounge, is that the produce-driven menu needs more of the brainy, feisty Southern cooking on which he built his career. Enter brunch, which began service early last month, and Brock’s latest wild take on fried chicken, variations on which he’s been tinkering with for decades. This one draws on the techniques of Southern cooks (documented by Edna Lewis in her definitive cookbook “A Taste of Country Cooking,” as a starting point) to season frying fat with scraps of rich meats for extra flavor. Brock incorporates five of them — smoked butter, country ham trimmings, schmaltz, lard and bacon fat. The bird, rolled in chile powder, arrives a radioactive shade of red. It resembles Nashville-style hot chicken but dials back the capsicum burn so you can taste all the intricacies. He debones the meat, and this Southerner hopes at dinner he eventually introduces a more true-minded bone-in version. As is, though, the brunch version tastes wonderfully like nothing else in Los Angeles. Also order the excellent fluffy pancakes, fancy fish and grits and the cocktails, with or without alcohol, devised by bar whiz Jason Lee (who is leaving the city soon, a loss for L.A.) around seasonal fruit.
Show more Show less
Due Fiori
Long Beach Italian Restaurant $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Some of Long Beach’s most promising new restaurateurs just followed up their lauded cocktail bar, Baby Gee, with an Italian restaurant. Daniel Flores and Gianna Johns built Due Fiori as part neighborhood restaurant, part wine bar — and it’s almost all patio space. That makes it the perfect place to perch for brunch, sipping a frozen wine slushie and dunking confit-garlic focaccia into eggs in purgatory, mixing the runny yolks with tomato sauce studded with smoked guanciale. The kitchen, helmed by a Bestia alum, churns out pastas, just-charred seasonal vegetables, salads and a killer square pizza that falls somewhere between a Sicilian slice and a cheese-crusted Detroit pie. And yes, during brunch you can throw an egg on it.
Show more Show less
Thoughts on our guides? Let’s hear it!
We’re gathering feedback on how our guides can better serve you and help you find the next great restaurant, hike or activity in Los Angeles.
Gritz N Wafflez
Pico-Union Southern Breakfast/Brunch $$
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Whatever season or weather, expect a weekend crowd milling on the sidewalk near the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Shatto Place, awaiting a table at Jurni Rayne’s Koreatown brunch sensation. Rayne grew up in Dallas, bringing to Los Angeles a gift for Southern cooking and a Texan’s scope for enormity: The menu is a literal catalog of sweet and savory dishes. Waffles are a field of study unto themselves. Order the vanilla-scented option with mixed berries, peach cobbler compote, chocolate chips or, to channel a cinnamon roll, buttercream icing; lean meatier with a bacon-cheddar variation; ask for one deep fried (as shatteringly crisp as you might imagine); or request it as the bookends of a breakfast sandwich filled with scrambled eggs and chicken sausage. A la carte choices allow for easy customization — say, a plate of fried catfish over cheese grits with sides of collard greens and potato salad. The airy room, fed by Rayne’s energy as she races to and from the kitchen, feels exuberant. Gritz N’ Wafflez has become the crown jewel of brunching for L.A.’s Black community. The restaurant operates daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and yes, it’s much easier to claim a seat on weekdays.
Show more Show less
Le Dräq
Downtown L.A. Eclectic $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Chef-owner Josef Centeno closed his Bar Amá restaurant and opened Le Dräq in the same space at the end of last year, its menu a sort of playful amalgamation of the most popular dishes from the former Tex-Mex-ish cantina along with hits from his now-closed Bäco Mercat and entirely new plates from a market-driven concept called Takoria. Just launched in March, the brunch menu is still evolving, with carne guisada and bean and cheese breakfast tacos (you’ll want to upgrade to the cheese-crusted dos caras option), a BLT on Centeno’s signature bäco bread with beef bacon, lemon ricotta pancakes and a migas quesorrito all making appearances. Beverages span wines by the glass and bottle; draft, canned and bottled beer; and a handful of brunch-specific cocktails including a blood orange margarita and a michelada with house-made sangrita.
Show more Show less
Liu's Cafe
Koreatown Chinese Bakery
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The weekend line in front of Liu’s Cafe, a modern cha chaan teng in Koreatown, starts to swell before its 11 a.m. opening. But the line moves fairly swiftly at this order-at-the-counter neighborhood favorite, where Hong Kong French toast lands on every table. It’s a signature dish here for good reason: As soon as you cut into the fused golden-fried slices, rich custard oozes from between the butter-topped milk bread. The tiny carafe of of brown sugar syrup that comes with it seems hardly necessary. Savory brunch dishes on the succinct menu include cold sesame noodles, iconic Taiwanese chiayi chicken rice (shredded chicken over steamed rice, drizzled with chicken fat and topped with fried shallots), spicy wontons and beef noodle soup. Creamy Hong Kong milk tea — served in a thick, white ceramic cup produced by Black & White brand evaporated milk — is requisite.
Show more Show less
Majordomo
Chinatown American $$$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
It’s hard to compete with the sultry nighttime feel of Majordomo, one of the 101 best restaurants in the city, but the new, more casual brunch service holds its own. On weekend afternoons the space — especially the patio — fills with kumquat mimosas and sunlight, and the signature Korea-by-way-of-California dishes get reimagined with brunchy spins. Executive chef James Bailey tweaks some of the stalwarts by flipping the tableside-mixed mushroom crispy rice to a steak-and-eggs version, and the bing flatbread to bing buns, all fluffy as rolls and slathered with black sesame paste. There are entirely new dishes, too, such as crispy-edged corn pancakes with palm syrup and the coconut yogurt parfait adorned with house-made buckwheat granola and seasonal fruit, plus daytime-only sandwiches like the prime rib dip.
Show more Show less
Manuela
Downtown L.A. Southern Californian $$$
(Manuela)
The Southern-inflected restaurant located in the courtyard of downtown gallery Hauser & Wirth has a sprawling patio and its own noteworthy art collection on display throughout its interior, with commissions from artists such as Paul McCarthy, Mark Bradford and Subodh Gupta. The patio overlooking the courtyard’s large-scale sculptures is an ideal setting for big weekend breakfasts. Chef Kris Tominaga’s menu runs the brunch-time gamut. There are impossibly flaky biscuits served with maple butter, beignets showered in powdered sugar, and almond frangipane French toast. Or order seasonally driven dishes such as Cara Cara oranges with salsa macha, Oveja Añejo sheep’s milk cheese and red-skinned peanuts. One favorite is the chilaquiles with crisp tortilla chips doused in salsa verde and topped with crema, pepitas, mint, cilantro and a fried egg. If your definition of brunch includes hanger steak and eggs, popover eggs Benedict (with sweetheart ham) or a venison burger, Manuela matches your vision.
Show more Show less
Maydan Market
West Adams Global $$
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
The global dining hall opened by founder Rose Previte last fall is in full swing now, and many of its vendors have expanded with breakfast, lunch and weekend brunch items. At Lugya’h, Alfonso “Poncho” Martinez offers live-fire Zapotec cooking, including char-spotted tlayudas that were once limited to his Friday night pop-ups, plus newly launched breakfast items such as rolled tacos with fluffy eggs and chorizo and cafe de olla, served Friday through Sunday beginning at 8 a.m. The couple behind Holy Basil runs Golden Mountain Chicken, offering Thai fried chicken and noodles, plus a spicy house burger with Thai chiles, spicy pickles, fresh and fried crispy Thai basil, two Wagyu beef patties and American cheese on a Martin’s potato roll, available in limited quantities. The tamale experts who run the food truck Tamales Elena serve coastal Afro-Mexican specialties at Maléna, including quesatacos with juicy barbacoa and consommé, hard-shell fish tacos stuffed with sofrito sea bass and flights of Guerrero-style pozole. Though Maydan, the market’s only sit-down restaurant with an original location in Washington, D.C., doesn’t open until dinner, the resident Compass Rose cafe is primed with a Lebanese breakfast spread, Georgian khachapuri and a lineup of coffee drinks such as a pistachio foam cold brew, plus cocktails, wine and beer. At Sook, fill up on çilbir Turkish eggs, halloumi and beet borani alongside wines and other products sourced from the Middle East and North Africa. In the back corner of the market is a counter reserved for rotating food concepts — most recently it was Palestinian outfit Mid-East Eats serving falafel nachos and musahkan.
Show more Show less
Mírate
Los Feliz Mexican $$$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
With a 40-foot-tall coral tree — the official tree of L.A. — planted in the center of the restaurant and stretching its branches alongside tables on the second level, Mírate feels like you’re dining in a chic treehouse. But brunch might be the best time to enjoy the lush, tropical vibes, with plenty of windows, breezy indoor-outdoor seating and sunlight streaming in through the slatted ceiling. The weekend-only menu adds chilaquiles with cochinita pibil, barbacoa flautas and coconut milk French toast, but my go-tos are the chorizo-thick queso fundido served with pliant flour tortillas, the taco de cochito with braised pork and chicharrón crumbs and Caesar salad with hemp seed crumbles, all of which you’ll also find on the dinner menu. Try the tart, not-too-sweet tamarind cheesecake with raspberry sorbet for dessert. Cocktails exclusively feature spirits distilled in Mexico and at brunch the list expands with low-ABV pulque, a rosé margarita and a take on the espresso martini with Mexican Coke that somehow just works.
Show more Show less
Saffy's Coffee & Tea
East Hollywood Levantine Breakfast/Brunch $$
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The daytime operation at Saffy’s has blossomed from a few of Genevieve Gergis’ pastries into a full brunch destination on the restaurant’s patio. Order from the counter and choose from a lineup of her husband, chef Ori Menashe’s stuffed pitas, housemade yogurt and shakshuka. The pitas are puffy and blistered, split and filled with lamb kebab patties, chicken shishlik or green falafel. The challah French toast is a favorite, served in a pool of maple syrup and butter and crowned with leaves of fried sage. If you arrive early enough, you‘re likely to find a few potato curry or spinach and feta bourekas in the pastry case. And keep an eye out for Gergis’ seasonal bakes. Recently, there were Portuguese egg tarts with supple, custard filling and buttery crusts. The restaurant is open daily for breakfast and lunch, so there’s no need to wait until the weekend to indulge. And if you can’t find a seat on the patio, the dining room and bar are open for any brunch overflow.
Show more Show less
Si! Mon
Venice Panamanian $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
The new weekend brunch menu from head chef José Olmedo Carles Rojas brings the restaurant’s flare for Central American cuisines to brunch favorites, along with a few new crudo dishes and cocktails. Steak and jammy eggs get topped with a red pepper chimichurri, with plantain fries served on the side. The pancake, heaped with whipped butter with house-made honey koji maple syrup on the side, features crispy edges and a perfectly fluffy interior. But don’t neglect the new surf dishes, like a kanpachi tostada with house-made hot sauce that I would like bottled so I can put it on everything, and fried rockfish ceviche piled with pickled red onion and swimming in a piquant culantro leche de tigre sauce. Cocktails are bright and well-balanced, like the frozen negroni with Mexican bitters, piquillo pepper, cinnamon, pineapple and coconut water, and the carajillo with Menotti’s espresso, sherry and smoked sea salt. Just launched at the beginning of May, expect the menu to shift as the new service gets underway.
Show more Show less
Somerville
View Park-Windsor Hills New American Southern $$$
(Jakob N. Layman)
The swanky supper club from South L.A. natives Yonnie Hagos and Ajay Relan hosts a weekly Sunday jazz brunch, often serving as odes to chart-topping Black musicians, from Duke Ellington to Jill Scott. The menu offers just a couple highlights from dinner, including the caviar fried chicken sliders, with daytime-appropriate additions such as a lemon-ricotta Dutch pancake, blue crab quiche and shrimp and grits with Old Bay butter. Brunch cocktails include the requisite mimosas, a bloody Mary and an espresso martini, as well as a champagne margarita and sangria bobbing with market fruit.
Show more Show less
Wife and the Somm
Glassell Park American Breakfast/Brunch Wine Bars $$
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
After starting their own catering company together, husband-and-wife team Chris and Christy Lucchese opened Wife and the Somm in 2021 in Glassell Park. The restaurant and wine bar boasts both front and back patio seating areas, with the latter shaded by a canopy of grape vines. It’s also home to one of the best biscuits in the city, beautifully golden and equal parts flaky and tender. You can order it on its own with butter and jam, or as the base for a breakfast sandwich with fluffy eggs, bacon and cheese. There are triangles of French toast made with Clark Street Bakery’s challah, house-cured Scottish salmon over fennel pollen cream cheese and plates of Portuguese Linguica sausage and eggs. If you’re imbibing, Chris has a thoughtful, often changing list of wines from smaller producers around the world. And he’s happy to make a suggestion to pair with your biscuit sandwich.
Show more Show less
Woon
Pasadena Chinese $$
The largest morning crowds on the corner of Pasadena’s Washington Boulevard and Hill Avenue are outside Millie’s Cafe, which everyday serves big platters of pancakes, omelets and devil’s messes. Saturday lines also emerge from the coffee bar Lavender & Honey, where its namesake lavender-sprinkled goat cheese toast is drizzled with good honey. But the most intriguing weekend morning eating from this emerging Pasadena brunch hub is across the street at the Chinese cafe Woon, which opened just a week before the Eaton fire.
The original Woon in Los Angeles’ Filipinotown recently began weekend lunch service with a standout orange chicken sandwich, but the Pasadena location is all in on brunch. It’s become my favorite menu from the Woon team, which has devised several delicious ways to serve eggs — starting with tender, soft scrambled eggs topped with Chinese chives alongside milk bread toast, butter and excellent house-made jam. French toast made with milk bread comes adorned with squiggles of oolong tea custard and black tea maple syrup on the side. A bowl of comforting congee or rice porridge is served with a jammy tea-marinated egg. And it’s hard to resist what Woon calls “bacon n’ eggs” fried rice.
One of my new favorite additions to the brunch menu is charred Chinese broccoli with preserved lemon XO sauce, fried shallots and Sichuan cured egg yolk grated on top. Five-spice chicken wings from the dinner menu are usually available at brunch along with a pork chop sandwich served on Woon’s take on a pineapple bun. Don’t ignore the pastry case before you finish your order — an orange spice roll gives off cinnamon roll vibes, but is flavored with Sichuan peppercorns, five spice and orange zest. There are also five-spice doughnuts, black sesame cookies and pineapple buns, sometimes topped with matcha and filled with cream.
The original Woon in Los Angeles’ Filipinotown recently began weekend lunch service with a standout orange chicken sandwich, but the Pasadena location is all in on brunch. It’s become my favorite menu from the Woon team, which has devised several delicious ways to serve eggs — starting with tender, soft scrambled eggs topped with Chinese chives alongside milk bread toast, butter and excellent house-made jam. French toast made with milk bread comes adorned with squiggles of oolong tea custard and black tea maple syrup on the side. A bowl of comforting congee or rice porridge is served with a jammy tea-marinated egg. And it’s hard to resist what Woon calls “bacon n’ eggs” fried rice.
One of my new favorite additions to the brunch menu is charred Chinese broccoli with preserved lemon XO sauce, fried shallots and Sichuan cured egg yolk grated on top. Five-spice chicken wings from the dinner menu are usually available at brunch along with a pork chop sandwich served on Woon’s take on a pineapple bun. Don’t ignore the pastry case before you finish your order — an orange spice roll gives off cinnamon roll vibes, but is flavored with Sichuan peppercorns, five spice and orange zest. There are also five-spice doughnuts, black sesame cookies and pineapple buns, sometimes topped with matcha and filled with cream.
Show more Show less
More of our favorite brunches in L.A.
No entries under this group.
Please reset filters to see all entries.
Azay
Downtown L.A. Japanese French $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Azay opened on 1st Street in Little Tokyo in 2019 and quickly became a community hub, known as much for its classic Japanese breakfast as the French Asian cuisine of pioneering chef Akira Hirose, who died in 2024. His family keeps Azay going, and the sidewalk tables fill up quickly every morning with couples, friends and families. Most of them order the same thing: the Japanese breakfast set menu, served on a lacquer tray, that comes with marinated black cod or tofu; tamagoyaki omelette; fruit; pickles; soft tofu; miso soup; steamed vegetables tossed with yuzu zest or sesame seeds; roasted vegetables daubed with miso; and a bowl of rice sprinkled with furikake or powdered purple shiso. It feels celebratory and simply nourishing at once. Other daytime specials might include the daily bento, crisp-fried potato korokke (croquettes) or chawanmushi savory egg custard . Tables are scarce, and servers rev high. The good news is that Japanese breakfast is served daily, not just weekends.
Show more Show less
Baltaire
Breakfast/Brunch Steakhouse $$$
(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
Brunch at this Brentwood steakhouse feels like a lavish party, with music from a DJ and a crowd that arrives dressed for the occasion. It’s priced at $95 per person and food is served family-style, with a selection of starters for the table. Ribbons of gravlax are plated next to warm blinis. The zucchini bread comes with whipped honey butter. There’s a seasonal citrus salad and a variety of Mediterranean spreads with whipped feta, hummus, baba ganoush and labneh. Each diner chooses an entree from a menu of 10 options. The prime filet Benedict is served with tender slices of steak over a fluffy English muffin and the Wagyu cheeseburger is stacked on a buttery brioche bun with truffle mayonnaise. The menu alone is quite the affair, but the restaurant offers a bevy of ways to upgrade brunch with tableside mimosas, a Champagne cart, a bloody Mary cart, caviar bumps and a raw bar. The most enticing of the offerings may be the cinnamon roll. The pastry is as tall and wide as a birthday cake, wheeled on a cart and slathered with frosting at the table. It’s swirled with just the right amount of cinnamon and served with an extra saucer of smooth cream cheese frosting. A fitting end to one of the most over-the-top brunches in the city.
Show more Show less
Found Oyster
East Hollywood Seafood $$
(Annie Noelker / For The Times)
It’s always summer on Found Oyster’s cozy streetside patio that overlooks Fountain Avenue. That must be why, even though the interior feels like hanging out in a sommelier friend’s dining room after they’ve cleared out your local fish market, the outdoor deck remains my preference for weekend brunch. That said, on a sunny weekend, you’ll find yourself waiting for just about any seat in the East Coast-inspired seafood shack.
The dinner menu is available for brunch. The scallop tostada with apple and yuzu kosho is standard for me, along with a dozen oysters featuring as many varieties as they’ll let me sample, the pucker-inducing Sicilian crudo and lobster bisque roll with fries (and topped with caviar if I’m feeling fancy). The wine here is too good to subdue with juice. Instead, ask your server for a recommendation from the natural-leaning list.
The dinner menu is available for brunch. The scallop tostada with apple and yuzu kosho is standard for me, along with a dozen oysters featuring as many varieties as they’ll let me sample, the pucker-inducing Sicilian crudo and lobster bisque roll with fries (and topped with caviar if I’m feeling fancy). The wine here is too good to subdue with juice. Instead, ask your server for a recommendation from the natural-leaning list.
Show more Show less
La Casita Mexicana
Bell Mexican $$
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Their restaurant may be more than 25 years old, but Jaime Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu, founding chefs of La Casita Mexicana, haven’t stopped coming up with fresh ideas, often inspired by the fruits, herbs and vegetables they grow behind the restaurant’s covered patio. On one recent visit, I loved their take on ceviche maracuya, or passion fruit ceviche, amped with habanero. It was sweet, but not too sweet; spicy, but not too spicy. Of course, there is always mole — either verde, pepian or burnished, near-black mole poblano — and their justly famous chile en nogada filled with ground pork, dried fruits, walnuts and candied cactus topped with a pecan cream sauce and ruby red pomegranate seeds. During brunch hours, the restaurant specializes in chilaquiles served not only with mild red or spicy green salsas (or divorciados style if you want both on the plate) but also with your pick of smoky chipotle salsa, habanero salsa, a creamy seven-chile sauce and two different moles. Omelets can be filled with cactus strips, chorizo and queso fresco or a raja of poblano chiles. It all goes down easy with different micheladas, margaritas and mimosas.
Show more Show less
Luminarias
Monterey Park American $$
(Daniel Hernandez / Los Angeles Times)
At the hilltop public golf course of Monterey Park, in an events building with a sweeping view over the jagged gully of the 10 and 710 interchange, a weekend patio brunch is popping. Here you’ll find Luminarias, a nostalgic spot for San Gabriel Valley natives. Open since 1971, it’s seen countless quinceañeras, weddings and Very Important Dates, not to mention corporate and political happy hours for the ages. Luminarias in recent years is enjoying something of a renaissance. It now calls itself a New American restaurant “with a Latin twist,” so there’s crab cake eggs Benedict with chipotle hollandaise, a Cuban sandwich and a starter of beef birria empanadas that I’d double order for next time. After the valley views, the draw here is the unabashedly theatrical cocktail menu: Ghosted is tequila, mango, lime and cilantro in a sugar-skull mug topped with a chamoy stick; or try the bottomless mimosa special ($27) for endless mix-and-match sipping of four flavors: dragon fruit watermelon, cucumber mint, pineapple jalapeño and lavender activated charcoal lemonade. Brunch can’t get any brunchier than this.
Show more Show less
Manhattan Beach Post
Manhattan Beach Restaurant
(Sydney Krantz / For The Times)
Brunch at chef David LeFevre’s plant-filled, New American restaurant is a raucous affair. Tables and bar seats turn over quickly as locals, families and tourists place back-to-back orders for craggy, palm-size bacon cheddar buttermilk biscuits (two for $12). The menu is ideal for sharing, including a charcuterie board with creamy blue cheese and prosciutto ($49), Ligurian-style sesame focaccia, pecan sticky buns and a loaded breakfast burrito with bacon and crispy tots. If you’re limited to just one item, the eggs Benedict with prosciutto on the signature biscuit combines the restaurant’s greatest hits. Brunch cocktails include bottomless mimosas with orange-mango or guava-lime juice for $24, bloody Marys with bacon-infused vodka and an espresso martini with ube cold foam. This is where to go before or after setting up a blanket on the nearby shores of Manhattan Beach — I prefer a postbrunch beach hang so I can bring biscuits to-go.
Show more Show less
Mardi Gras Tuesday
Sherman Oaks Creole Southern $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Mardi Gras Tuesday brings a dose of New Orleans-inspired Southern hospitality to Ventura Boulevard with live jazz and $10 bottomless mimosas during weekend brunch. The menu takes similar cues with dishes including New Orleans hash with sauteed shrimp and andouille sausage, shrimp and grits, and Benedicts topped with your choice of fried oysters, shrimp or crawfish and featuring crab cakes instead of the usual English muffin. The Southern-fried half-chicken with two waffles proved so similar to versions I’ve had in the Big Easy that, for a moment, I swore I was dining on Bourbon Street (the mimosas might have contributed to that fantasy). The lunch menu with po’boys and jambalaya is also available — get the buttery, char-grilled oysters bubbling with a Parmesan cheese blend to complete the experience. The restaurant has only a beer and wine license; cocktails, including a French 75 and a Hurricane, are made with soju-based spirits.
Show more Show less
Mr. T
Hollywood Restaurant and lounge
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The DJ is spinning soul, disco and other good-vibes records on the patio, which feels like a bit of a party in Hollywood’s Sycamore District. It’s brunch at Mr. T, the Paris-born restaurant that made its way to L.A. in 2022: The mimosas are flowing and the pastries are flying out of the case. Nearly every table sports croissants, cookies and tarts, the spoils of patissier François Daubinet’s hours of labor and pastry expertise. Order several for the table before moving on to chef Alisa Vannah’s sunny, savory food such as salmon tartines topped with tofu, a marinated egg or burrata; pillowy pancakes under confit blueberries and pistachios; and, the best of both worlds, a fluffy-egged breakfast sandwich on one of Daubinet’s must-order croissants. Caffeine lovers can opt for Mr. T’s new and fairly extensive line of canned craft lattes, which arrive in flavors such as tiramisu, pistachio, coconut, toasted marshmallow and mocha.
Show more Show less
Oh La La
Pasadena French Bakery $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
The convivial Pasadena bakery features quirky hanging lamps, draping plants and framed posters advertising French destinations, with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook Colorado Boulevard. It feels like the sort of place that’s been around forever, with a quick-moving line of regulars who pick up French baguettes, wine and fresh-baked pastries to pair with morning coffee. Weekend brunch is busy, but tables turn over quickly and by the time you place your order at the counter, you’ll likely see a few spots opening up. The menu has the standards you’d expect, like a breakfast burrito and avocado toast, but here I’d urge you toward the French-inspired specialties, including the weekend-only veggie quiche, a croque-monsieur with baked Parisian ham, and potato gravlax with layers of crispy, thin-sliced potatoes topped with cured salmon and lemon-chive cream cheese. A selection of coffee and matcha drinks is available, plus mimosas with fresh-squeezed OJ, bellinis turned sweet with a dollop of homemade strawberry jam and sangria bobbing with fruit.
Show more Show less
The Old Place
Cornell
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The journey is part of the beauty of the Old Place: The hearty, flame-grilled food at this mountain gem tastes all the more gratifying after a trek, especially at brunch. Wind through the Santa Monica Mountains to Cornell, a tucked-away community founded in the 1800s. While the Old Place isn’t that old — it opened in 1970 — its original structures date back nearly as long, and the rustic steaks and baked potatoes echo that founding era. Only on weekends can you find the steak-and-potatoes cuisine in brunch form, with oak-grilled sirloin steak and eggs, one of the city’s best breakfast burritos, thick wedges of breakfast potatoes and gooey-centered cinnamon buns coated with thick vanilla frosting. Because only outdoor seating is permitted during brunch hours, the patios at the Old Place come alive with families, motorcyclists, classic-car aficionados and large parties of friends mixing it up at picnic benches and wooden tables surrounded by tall trees. Head to the Old Place for equal parts Wild West fantasy, respite from the city and hearty, comforting, stick-to-your-ribs brunch.
Show more Show less
Pez Coastal Kitchen
Pasadena Breakfast/Brunch Mexican Seafood $$
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
The brunch menu at Bret Thompson and Lucy Thompson-Ramirez’s Pasadena restaurant is a celebration of seafood, with a grand chilled tower, ceviche, oysters and caviar. There’s a whole fried fish, and you can opt for smoked salmon on your eggs Benedict biscuit or avocado toast. The bar slings spritzes, build-your-own mimosas and a handful of brunch-appropriate cocktails. You get the idea. But Thompson has managed to create a menu that also will appeal to the diner looking for French toast or a breakfast sandwich. I suggest starting brunch with the bacon flight, a wooden plank of four slabs of bacon rubbed with various flavorings. Recently there was apple-cinnamon bacon, an apricot mustard variety and chipotle honey. The French toast fingers are more of a meal than the name might suggest, with tiles of perfect French toast that are crisp around all the edges and soft and tender in the middle. The dish is scattered with toasted walnuts and slices of sweet, jammy banana and a drizzle of salted caramel sauce. There should be at least one order on every table.
Show more Show less
Playa Provisions
Playa del Rey Breakfast/Brunch Seafood American $$
(Ryan Tanaka)
There are two ways to experience Brook Williamson’s Playa Provisions, with a walk-up counter to order pastries, grab-and-go salads and sandwiches and ice cream, and the sit-down Dockside restaurant for a full brunch menu with cocktails. Williamson delivers an elevated version of all the brunch classics, with Cream of Wheat and quinoa, Cajun shrimp and Dungeness crab eggs Benedict and a beet-cured salmon bagel with fish cured in-house and all the fixings. Many of the seafood-focused dinner starters are available for brunch, like the smoked trout dip with crackers coated in everything bagel seasoning and the bay scallop and shrimp ceviche with mango salsa. I’m partial to Williamson’s sandwiches, with a BLT that rivals any version in the city. The breakfast sandwich is worth equal praise, with a turkey and pork sausage patty on crusty ciabatta with vinegar collard greens that melt into the runny egg and a lashing of habanero hot sauce. The ideal Sunday involves a breakfast sandwich in one hand and a Pop Secco (a house-made tangerine Popsicle in a glass of Prosecco) in the other, with the ocean breeze cooling my skin on the sunlit patio.
Show more Show less
Redbird
Downtown L.A. American $$$
(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
Sweet or savory? That’s always the question when contemplating Neal Fraser’s brunch menu at Redbird, one of the city’s most beautiful sun-filled restaurants with a glass-ceilinged dining room, part of the complex that was once the Cathedral of St. Vibiana. Each time I go savory, I look longingly at the airy ricotta blueberry pancakes going by and remember how good they are. But Fraser’s shrimp and grits ringed with a charred tomato sofrito is hard to resist. I also like his duck confit chilaquiles sauced with mole, short rib hash and richly spiced Basque baked eggs. And I’m thrilled to see that Redbird is again serving lobster congee, a light and elegant take on the rice porridge I love in the San Gabriel Valley. It’s terrific with a Tobin Shea-designed bloody Mary amped with lemon pepper and “the usual suspects” as the menu puts it. And if you’re looking for a sweet bite with your savory, tender buttermilk biscuits with strawberry-rhubarb jam or a gooey cinnamon roll are good calls.
Show more Show less
République
Hancock Park American $$$
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
It’s not unusual for a line to snake out the door of République and down La Brea Boulevard on weekend mornings. Some are lining up for fresh-baked crostatas and savory hand pies from James Beard Award-winning pastry chef and co-owner Margarita Manzke, while others are hoping to place brunch orders at the counter before finding a seat in the nearly century-old building with vaulted ceilings. At first glance, the brunch menu might not seem groundbreaking, but each item carries the decidedly French ethos of being painstakingly prepared. You’ll find a handful of toasts (the brioche French toast proves most memorable), daily-changing quiche, a breakfast sandwich with pork belly sausage and kimchi fried rice with short rib and a soft-poached egg. Spicy fried chicken and Cuban sandwiches hit the menu at 11 a.m., along with a dry-aged beef burger. Brunch cocktails include mimosas and sangria by the carafe, plus a sriracha-spiked bloody Mary and a house gin and tonic with jasmine tea.
Show more Show less
RVR
Venice Japanese American $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
By night, Travis Lett’s modern izakaya is moody, sexy and low-lit. But Friday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., it’s more like a casual, feel-good party, with records spinning and that Venice sunlight streaming in through the windows and skylights. Here Lett (the Gjusta founder) and his co-chef, Ian Robinson, stray from the typical eggs-and-bacon menu by incorporating a few well-considered, brunch-only dishes into their rotation of temaki, kushiyaki and seasonal small plates. There are tamagoyaki omelets, the egg perfectly bouncy; a katsu sando with bright fermented cabbage slaw; yogurt bowls rife with seasonal fruit; and perhaps the star of the show, the chewy-salty mochi beignets with honey and a generous dusting of pistachio and orange zest. The pour-over coffee features just as much thought, topped with cream that’s hand-whipped to order.
Show more Show less
Saltie Girl
West Hollywood Seafood $$$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Seafood lovers, climb aboard. Ever since docking in West Hollywood, the Boston-founded, seafood-slinging Saltie Girl has served some of L.A.’s best and most indulgent shellfish towers, lobster rolls and sea-tinged pastas, sandwiches and toasts — in addition to a tinned-fish list that’s roughly 150 options long. But brunch is an especially good time to set sail, with dishes such as Eggs & Eggs, where caviar and crème fraîche top silken scrambled eggs; meaty hunks of fried lobster complement a fluffy-interiored waffle with spicy maple syrup and sweet corn butter; and the Benedicts can involve caviar, smoked salmon or lobster. But one item worth launching a thousand ships isn’t seafood-focused at all: Don’t miss the cinnamon roll sweet buns — made in house by Ben Sidell’s SweetBoy bakery — which receive a tableside pour of a thick sweet-salty toffee syrup that will have your whole brunch party licking the mini cake stand clean.
Show more Show less
Trani's Dockside Station
Seafood $$
(Daniel Hernandez / Los Angeles Times)
San Pedro locals, devoted to their union and military port town, have been loyal for generations to the J. Trani family restaurant name. The group expanded in 2023 under chef Dustin Trani, in a refurbished historic port building just steps from the piers at one of the furthest south restaurants you can drive to within city limits. Since then, one of the most satisfying dishes in L.A. for me has been the Peruvian bay scallops at Trani’s Dockside Station. Joyously Thai in effect, the scallops taste even better while the sun is overhead for a Sunday brunch. As the place begins filling with families and the bloody Marys clank, the weekend vibe invariably calls for oysters. Chef Trani’s selection on a bright, perfect-for-brunch day included Baywater Sweets from Washington. The oyster sang with so much creaminess that my mouth was left vibrating with the flavor for several minutes after slurping it. The rest here is California port food with fun splotches of creativity. Trani‘s buttermilk fried chicken is paired with a mass of jalapeño-cheddar French toast and sage brown butter. The current brunch offerings include a fatty bluefin tuna tostada and “new style” local calamari with a sweet Thai aioli.
Show more Show less
Two Hommés
Inglewood West African Southern $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times )
The vibrant Inglewood restaurant from chefs, co-owners and lifelong friends Marcus Yaw Johnson and Abdoulaye Balde is a joyful celebration of pan-African flavors, with a steady soundtrack of R&B hits and Miriam Makeba and Fela Kuti concert posters adorning the walls. Sunday brunch brings a diverse crowd of churchgoers, sports fans (thanks to the mounted TV and convenient location near SoFi Stadium) and neighborhood locals. Dishes bridge cultural influences, such as shrimp and grits smothered in creamy jollof sauce, brown-sugar waffles topped with crispy honey-berbere chicken bites and a breakfast sandwich with a house-made lamb sausage patty topped with a shito pepper sauce. The pillowy biscuits are pure Southern comfort, especially when smeared with honey butter and strawberry jam. A fresh lineup of batched cocktails is at the ready, including a mango margarita and the Sentinela Sour with whiskey, lime juice, soursop and ginger. Try the rotating house lemonade or mocktail if you’re abstaining from booze.
Show more Show less
Yang's Kitchen
Alhambra Breakfast/Brunch $$
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
This Alhambra restaurant is one of the few on this list that serves brunch throughout the week. It’s a favorite destination for a midweek, midday meal, when I’m drawn to the simplicity of the market grill plate after a steady diet of brown foods. The plate includes your choice of protein, grilled farmers market vegetables and pickles. The dry-aged barramundi and dry-aged steelhead are consistently cooked to perfection, each fish with crispy skin and centers that seem to melt. It’s the sort of meal I’d be lucky to eat multiple times a week. On weekends the breakfast plate, a bountiful array of eggs, hash browns, greens, your choice of protein and a side of the restaurant’s scallion ranch dressing, feels more appropriate. Same for the cornmeal mochi pancakes, a revelation when it comes to the genre of breakfast cakes. The hotcakes are made with Grist & Toll cornmeal and Koda Farms mochiko rice flour for a texture that’s more crepe-like than fluffy. The wavy, irregular edges hang over the plate, often with prized lacy corners. And the dollop of fruit compote on top is always seasonal and one of the best parts of the meal.
Show more Show less
No matching entries.
Please reset filters to see all entries.
No matching entries.
Please reset filters to see all entries.
Updates:
8:15 a.m. May 5, 2026: This guide was originally published in 2025 and has been updated with new etnries. The following entries were removed from the 2026 update: Carnal, Ka’teen, Mother Tongue, DTLA Cheese Superette, Edgemar, Zaytinya, Alta Adams, Cafe 2001, Caldo Verde, Alder & Sage, Claire’s at the Museum
More From the Los Angeles Times
Top