Will you stay close to home or do you plan to travel far this summer? Our dining guides have you covered either way.
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If You Stay
When you live in Los Angeles, there are far worse fates than being stuck in the city all summer. Our thriving food capital draws diners out with sunlit farmers markets, midnight taco stands, multigenerational kebab shops and serene sushi dens. Community-oriented breweries, stylish wine bars and glimmering rooftop destinations round out the scene.
Whether you’re a lifelong Angeleno, new transplant or just passing through, you’ll want to get to know the 50 essential dining experiences that define eating in L.A. right now, from a pastrami sandwich at an iconic deli near MacArthur Park to a char-spotted tlayuda at a burgeoning food bazaar in West Adams and an L.A.-shaped churro from a rising Highland Park panadería.
Don’t miss our guide with nearly two-dozen new bar openings across the city. Finally, a handful of sparkling rooftops recently debuted across the city, offering vistas into neighborhoods we rarely spy from up above.
Thoughtfully compiled by our Food staff over the course of several months, we invite you to return to these lists whenever you’re seeking an answer to that perennial question: Where should I go next?
—Danielle Dorsey
These are the dining experiences that define eating in Los Angeles right now, from East L.A. taco trucks to Thai noodles and Italian subs by the beach.
L.A.’s best rooftop bars and restaurants offer sweeping views of Pasadena, Long Beach, West Hollywood and more. Here are some of the best new spots.
L.A.’s bar scene has something for everyone, from tiki bars by the beach to sake tasting rooms and expansive rooftop views.
The Food team gathered a list of the top 50 dining experiences that define eating in Los Angeles. What did we miss?
If You Go
There’s no easier way to get to know a new place than through its food. Wandering markets, eating at food stalls, sitting among locals and fellow travelers at the restaurants that embody a city. Its flavors and customs and ways of living are revealed to us over dinner or even a simple morning coffee.
And for those of us who are lucky enough to write about food for a living, traveling with an eater’s mindset gives us a deeper understanding of places we’ve read about in cookbooks and novels or seen in movies.
Each of us at L.A. Times Food keeps a running list of our favorite restaurants in some of the world’s great cities — and we want to share what we know with you. The recommendations that follow are not meant to be definitive for any given place. These are personal guides by dedicated eaters to some of the places we’ve loved during our wanderings around the globe.
If you’d like to share your own personal favorites with us, we’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
—Laurie Ochoa
In Melbourne, L.A. Times restaurant critic Bill Addison discovers a city that, like L.A., resists easy labels.
The Victoria port city offers grand European architecture, sparkling beaches, family-friendly pubs and a modern dining culture shaped by diverse immigrant communities.
Balancing tradition with innovation, London is one of the world’s finest food cities. Here are 15 of our favorite places to eat and drink in England’s capital city.
Mexico City is a top-tier destination for food lovers, despite excessive tourism and gentrification fears. Here are the best restaurants.
Home to some of the top-ranked restaurants in Latin America, Lima is one of the world’s great food cities.
From tiny omakase bars to neo-Neapolitan pizzerias and world-renowned coffee roasters, these are the Tokyo restaurants, bars and teahouses that we willfully lose ourselves in.
These are our familiar Paris favorites, from century-old bakeries to casual bistros and modern French institutions.
Find familiar favorites in Hong Kong’s evolving food scene, including an essential bakery for egg tarts, a fishing village that’s home to a trail of memorable restaurants and more.
For hundreds of years, a trade route between Mexico’s Pacific coast and the Philippines brought a ferment made of palm sap. It’s experiencing a revival in the state of Colima.
A spectacular volcano, unfussy beaches, and unique foods and restaurants. Don’t sleep on Colima, my new favorite state in Mexico.
L.A. Times Food writers shared their favorite global restaurants in 12 new guides. Now we want to know: What are the food experiences around the world that you recommend the most?
