Clockwise from top left: ramen from Shimamoto Noodle, a cucumber cocktail from Vandell, an arepa from the Arepa Stand, pasta from Rossoblu, the dining room at Skywalker Grill
(Los Angeles Times collage. Photos by Bill Addison, Ronaldo Bolanos, Stephanie Breijo, Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times )
October brings spooky season, persistent summer temperatures and a spate of new restaurants to the City of Angels, with shorter days that flow into balmy evenings perfect for outdoor dining.
A roasted fig sundae from cooking editor Cody Reiss can help you stay cool amid an early October heat wave or, if figs are out of season at your local farmers market, eat your way through 20 of our favorite sundaes and bananas splits around town. For an easy, seasonally appropriate, bean-forward dinner, try fool-proof recipes for ‘Oops, I Overcooked the Beans’ Emergency Bean Soup and Patti Jinich’s Earthy and Forgiving Chile de Árbol Refried Beans.
Below-the-radar concepts continue to thrive, from micro kitchens turning L.A. homes into culinary destinations to a Peking duck pop-up with a 300-person waiting list and a Black-led collective partnering with local restaurants and urban farms to increase access to fresh, culturally-rooted produce in Black and brown communities across L.A. County.
This month’s most exciting openings include an arepa stand in Mar Vista and a post-apocalyptic bar in Studio City, but don’t forget to support neighborhood institutions like a stalwart Italian restaurant that’s preparing to close in downtown L.A.
Showing Place Places
Aguachiles and Asada on Broadway
Lincoln Heights Mexican $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Cecilia Pantoja and Marcos Moreno ran one of Lincoln Heights’ favorite carnicerias for years, which also served some of the neighborhood’s best mariscos, with the help of their nephew, Edgar Nava. When they closed, Correa’s Market Nava grew the seafood offerings as Correa’s Mariscos in a new location, but Pantoja and Moreno have just opened their own restaurant specializing in both seafood and meat. At Aguachiles and Asada, the husband-and-wife team serves Michoacán-style aguachiles, shrimp tostadas and fish tacos alongside grilled meats. Pantoja’s aguachiles can involve fresh mango sauce, her five-chile salsa macha and more, while Moreno’s asadas make their way into the tacos, quesadillas, burritos and platos. Grab a la carte items or party trays of meat or seafood to go, or enjoy on the semi-enclosed patio.
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The Arepa Stand
Mar Vista Venezuelan $
(Danielle Dorsey/Los Angeles Times)
The popular farmers market stand from siblings Zeus Ferrini and Mercedes Rojas launched a cozy, marigold-painted bricks-and-mortar in Mar Vista, serving the Venezuelan staples the pair grew up with based on recipes from their mother. The menu is focused on creative arepas filled with seasonal, locally sourced ingredients, including the 405 with braised beef, black bean purée, fried plantains, cotija cheese and cilantro, plus rotating specials and house-made aguas frescas that blend flavors such as cucumber, tamarind and mint.
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Chain
Canoga Park Coffee Desserts American Pizza Vegan Mediterranean Ice cream $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Chain, the food-event company backed by celebrities like B.J. Novak and Chrissy Teigen, just opened four new stalls in Canoga Park’s Topanga Social food court, with esteemed chefs offering creative takes on nostalgic dishes from chain restaurants. “Top Chef” winner Mei Lin created the mapo Wagyu “cruncho perfecto” for the residency, inspired by Taco Bell’s crunchwrap supreme, but with mapo-inspired Wagyu, a Mejorado flour tortilla and fried spring roll wrappers, while Kogi BBQ chef-owner Roy Choi is behind a charred-chicken teriyaki bowl with Kogi’s sweet garlic teriyaki marinade. A house menu of burgers, curly fries, tenders and wraps is available along with four dishes from celebrity chefs. Items are priced between $8 and $18. The Chain residency extends through February 2027.
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Flour Pizzeria & Cafe
Burbank Italian $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
After losing his original pizzeria in the Palisades fire, Robert Flutie rebounded by bringing his New York-style operation with hyper-thin crust, by-the-slice options and a bevy of toppings to Brentwood. Now he’s brought it all to Burbank too. Flour Pizzeria & Cafe is open in the Valley with pizza-dough sandwiches, salads, house-made ranch, freshly baked cookies, and whole pizzas with most varieties available by the slice, such as the spicy salami, the burrata-topped House, the jalapeño-and-hot-honey Zabs Zinger and the truffled white pie. Grab a stool at the long low counter and watch the pizzas being made in the open kitchen, or grab some to go for a pizza party at home.
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Gable
Hollywood American cuisine Global $$$
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
One of L.A.’s most storied hotels just debuted a new restaurant that’s named for one of its most famous guests. The Hollywood Roosevelt’s new Gable — as in Clark Gable — is marrying its Old Hollywood setting with a more modern menu overseen by Eleven Madison Park and Maude alum Chris Flint. Flint drew from L.A.’s rainbow of produce, cuisines and cultures to build a diverse menu of bulgogi-and-kimchi pizza that’s torched tableside; tuna crudo laced with guacachile; steak tartare dotted with bone marrow aioli; live-fire grilled meats; and fresh-fennel cavatelli with mussels and clams. Chad Austin, formerly of Bar Benjamin, is leading an inventive cocktail program involving koji-washed vodka, strawberry-and-tomato-infused gin, gochujang, charred corn and fermented cantaloupe.
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Holy Basil Arts District
Downtown L.A. Thai Cuisine $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
One of L.A.’s top Thai spots recently closed its original location downtown, but has expanded nearby in the former home of Guerrilla Tacos in the Arts District. The larger kitchen and dedicated dining room allows owners Wedchayan “Deau” Arpapornnopparat and Tongkamal “Joy” Yuon to expand their offerings with a planned fermentation room and a dedicated bar space for papaya salads set to launch later this year. Currently the new Holy Basil offers a walk-up window for takeout — with a menu of “comfort take away” items such as the fan-favorite Thai-inspired cheeseburger — and full-service dining inside with stir-fried grapow, pad see ew, pistachio Thai iced tea and crab fried rice. Newer options include khao soi paccheri beef and a traditional khao kaeng set lunch menu.
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Izakaya Toki
Downtown L.A. Japanese $$
A new izakaya specializing in yakitori just opened in the former home of Shibumi, offering grilled skewers, traditional small plates, modern Japanese dishes, and a signature yakitori martini that’s garnished with grilled chicken and a shishito pepper. Izakaya Toki, from the team behind Mo-Mo-Paradise and Guzzu Bento-ya, is built as a neighborhood izakaya for creative cocktails utilizing ingredients like kombu-infused tequila, rice syrup, coffee jelly and garnishes such as half of a brûléed grapefruit. Some are priced as low as $12. Order them with skewers and small plates that range including karaage and negima, to entree options such as claypot mushroom rice laced with truffle butter shoyu or a thick slice of braised pork belly coated in a whiskey barbecue tare.
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Langer's Deli
Westlake Jewish Cuisine $$
(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
This year’s L.A. Times Gold Award winner is Langer’s Deli, which Food editor Laurie Ochoa hails as having the best pastrami in the nation. Established in 2017, the award honors restaurants “expanding the notion of what Southern California cooking might be.” Owner Norm Langer preserves classic Jewish deli traditions at the restaurant, open since 1947, while advocating for the surrounding neighborhood, which has battled crime and drugs for decades. Since threatening to close in 2024 if the city did not clean up its streets, Langer has seen improvements and promised to remain open until the 2028 Olympics “and likely beyond.”
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The Last Canteen
Studio City Cocktails $$
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
Find the Last Canteen, a post-apocalyptic-themed bar where a mysterious rotary phone rings and relays eerie recorded messages from an imagined future, a short walk from Universal Studios Hollywood. The new bar takes inspiration from “Fallout” and “Mad Max” with a demolition ball that swings from the ceiling (a prop from Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken”) and fictional news stories hung on the walls. The cocktail menu leans tropical and tiki, with classic cocktails for $14 each and the option to order an off-menu, one-of-a-kind drink for $23.
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Lielle
Pico-Robertson California-Nordic $$$$
(Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times)
Few of the city’s recent fine dining additions have made waves like Lielle. The pared-down but ambitious tasting menu from chef Marcus Jernmark makes this “the new crown jewel of fine dining in L.A.,” according to a recent review by L.A. Times Food critic Bill Addison. Here, the former Aquavit and Restaurant Frantzén chef infuses California produce and cuisine with Nordic sensibilities, resulting in dishes such as dry-aged tuna with wax beans, charred green peaches and preserved gooseberries. The $150 four-course menu, plus supplements, balances comfort with a career’s worth of technique gleaned from Michelin-starred restaurants. “Jernmark,” Addison writes, “is a master of symmetry.”
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Marée
Pico-Robertson French-Californian $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
In September Marcus Jernmark followed his lauded tasting menu restaurant with an upstairs wine bar and bistro. Marée, which sits above Lielle, is a French-leaning, California-inspired restaurant that’s meant to be more casual and walk-in friendly than its downstairs counterpart. Jernmark’s celebrated eye for technique is still present, though the menu is designed to feel simpler: escargots take the form of escargot beignets, mussels get the gratin treatment with blue cheese, and the burger au poivre — pepper-coated, halved and face-down in a buttery sauce — is so popular that it’s selling out nearly every night. Arrive early; according to staff, guests line up 30 minutes before Marée’s doors open and most tables order at least one burger. Read more about Marée’s opening here.
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Mokja
Highland Park Korean $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Last year chef Debbie Lee debuted her long-awaited pocha in Highland Park: Yi Cha, one of L.A.’s best new bars, where Lee serves modern Korean bites that pair with artful cocktails and imported soju. Now she’s opened Mokja, a tandem cafe and market for Korean-leaning coffees, sandwiches, pastries and pantry goods. Enter Mokja through Yi Cha’s back alley and find sweet corn iced lattes, coffees topped with misugaru cold foam, and banana matcha lattes served alongside oxtail hand pies, Seoul-style breakfast plates, gochujang short rib onigiri, tomato-muchim pork belly BLTs, and a DIY ramyun station. In a hurry? Grab Lee’s premade bibimbap, mayak eggs, mandu, japchae and more from the refrigerators. If you’re shopping for your home, find coffee, mochi mixes, ice cream, hot sauce, black sesame spreads and other goods from local makers, plus imported Korean Oreos and chips, on the shelves around the cafe.
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Nandao Rice & Noodle
Monterey Park Singaporean Pan Asian $
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Restaurant critic Jenn Harris reviewed Nandao Rice & Noodle, a pan-Asian, Singaporean-influenced restaurant in Monterey Park. Harris calls it her favorite place to have lunch in San Gabriel Valley at the moment, with a menu that features some of the most popular menu standards served across the region, such as spicy shrimp and pork wontons, standout Hainan chicken rice and Taiwanese-style beef noodle soup. For dessert, she recommends bowls of Fuzhou bing fan and grass jellies bobbing in coconut milk with popping boba for a refreshing treat.
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Petitpain et Chocolat
Santa Monica Bakery $
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
French baker Clémence de Lutz has expanded to a new 500-square-foot walk-up window in Santa Monica that’s just blocks from her popular bakery Petitgrain Boulangerie. At Petitpain et Chocolat, De Lutz is baking croissants and breads that utilize between 50% to 100% whole-grain flour, including whole-grain spelt shortbread and a cinnamon bun. A co-founder of Gourmandise cooking school, De Lutz partnered with former instructor Ruth Kennison on a chocolate program that involves on-site roasting and cracking their own cacao.
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Pontu
Santa Monica Peruvian $
(Pontu LA)
Ricardo Lopez first moved to L.A. 25 years ago and has worked as a restaurant consultant helping to open projects like Soto and the Highland Park Bowl with the 1933 Group. But he always harbored a dream to open his own restaurant dedicated to celebrating the Peruvian staples he grew up with, based on the recipes taught to him by his grandmother and featuring produce sourced from nearby Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. He made good on that goal with Pontu in Santa Monica in March, with a walk-up window and a quaint covered patio. The menu features 24-hour brined rotisserie chicken, lomo saltado, arroz chaufa and sides such as natural-cut Kennebec potato fries, a Peruvian quinoa mix with choclo, turmeric garden rice, plus classic Peruvian drinks like chicha morada, Inka Cola and lemonade with hierba luisa. Once the restaurant’s beer and wine license is approved, Lopez plans to open a small dining room for dinner service and expand the menu with seafood options that hail from northern Peru, where his family is from.
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Rossoblu
Downtown L.A. Italian $$$
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
The Bologna-inspired restaurant from chef-owner Steve Samson and wife and business partner Dina Samson will close permanently on Nov. 1. The Samsons cited slow business and a difficult environment for independent restaurants as reasons contributing to the closure of Rossoblu, while the future of their tandem Superfine pizzeria remains undetermined. The restaurant will revive fan-favorite dishes and host special events with guest chefs in its final month, and will still offer take-home meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Samsons also hinted that an exciting project might be coming to the 7,500-square-foot restaurant space, saying in the Instagram announcement that “the story of this beautiful space isn’t over.”
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Shimamoto Noodle
Irvine Japanese $$
(Bill Addison/Los Angeles Times)
Keizo Shimamoto, the creator of the ramen burger, is now offering noodle bowls alongside his viral creation and take-home ramen kits in an Irvine business park. While restaurant critic Bill Addison says the burger at Shimamoto Noodle is great, he recommends the ramen if you’re going to limit your order to just one dish. He recommends visiting on a weekday so you don’t overwhelm the tiny operation, and checking Instagram for the latest hours.
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Skywalker Grill
Commerce Californian $$
(Ron De Angelis/For The Times)
The long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened in Exposition Park in September, including Skywalker Grill, a rooftop restaurant with cinematic design, sweeping downtown views and a menu that sources ingredients from Star Wars creator George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and draws from the personal tastes of Lucas and wife Mellody Hobson. The menu features a comfort-driven burgers, club sandwiches and mozzarella sticks as well as chicken fingers that are offered with an optional caviar supplement. The beverage program incorporates local produce and Skywalker wines are expected to be added soon.
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Smorgasburg L.A.
Downtown L.A. Eclectic $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
The weekly open-air market at Row DTLA just added a handful of new vendors. Cambodian barbecue pop-up Kreung L.A. is serving plates of lemongrass chicken and beef, slow-roasted pork belly and skewers with coconut lime leaf rice, whole corn and pickled veggies; Knockout Crepes turns out sweet and savory crepes made by a former pro boxer turned chef; Me So Fishy makes nostalgic fish sandwiches with a variety of dips from a food truck; and Eat Camello blends Sonoran and Levantine flavors in heirloom corn pita sandwiches stuffed with lamb neck and fava bean falafel. Plus, plenty more vendors, additional seating, shade and misting tents.
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Vandell
Los Feliz Cocktails $$
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
In a recent review, restaurant critic Bill Addison calls Los Feliz’s Vandell a leap forward for drinking culture, with a street-facing counter and three distinct rooms that are perennially packed to the gills, as well as a beverage menu that spans mini martinis, seasonal tipples and vintage spirits. The food menu is snacky and fun, including an English muffin burger, anchovy toast and mandarin budino with pistachios.
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