The Resy Hit List: Everywhere In L.A. You’ll Want to Eat Right Now

Mexican street food is synonymous with Los Angeles, from taco stands to fruit vendors to seafood trucks. Mariscos Jalisco, parked in Boyle Heights for over two decades, is an exemplar of the latter category. Here, owner Raul Ortega and his team dish out perfectly crisp tacos dorados de camarón unlike any other in the city. The famed dish consists of a corn tortilla filled with a proprietary minced shrimp blend, which is deep fried and topped with avocado and a heaping spoonful of fresh salsa. It’s required eating for Angelenos and visitors alike. While there, try a couple of tostadas and the markedly spicy aguachile, too. Beyond the original, Mariscos Jalisco has three other locations—one Downtown, one in Pomona, and another in Mid City.

No reservations. Find more info here.

This tiny Armenian take-out joint in Glendale, run by the Martirosyan family, specializes in revelatory kabobs, from yogurt-marinated chicken thigh shish to lule kabobs hand-shaped into tender divots. These come over absorbent basmati rice with a puddle of silky hummus, a tangle of white onion and parsley, and fire-roasted tomatoes and jalapeños. Better yet, husband-and-wife Ovakim, Alvard, and their son Armen treat every customer like an old friend. Do note that Mini Kabob requires planning: call ahead to place your order, bring cash, then eat your food as quickly as possible while it’s still hot. (The trunk of your car is well-suited to this purpose.)

No reservations. Find more info here.

The #19 sandwich at Langer’s is a rite of passage for … well, for nearly everyone. Pastrami, which the 77-year-old deli brines, smokes, and steams in-house, is complemented with Swiss cheese, coleslaw, and Russian dressing on rye. It is excellent. Still, the famed sandwich is only part of the appeal at this old-school MacArthur Park institution. There’s also the steamy matzo ball soup station, the crinkle-cut French fries, and the lifelike paintings that date back to 1968, to name a few more. Langer’s will never change, and it never should.

No reservations. Find more info here.

Prior to Aunt Yvette’s Kitchen arrival in Eagle Rock last fall, one had to travel to Little Ethiopia to satisfy a craving for tibs, wat, and injera. Now, Yvette and Russell Platoff, career chefs who have long dreamed of opening their own spot, have Eastsiders lining up to eat with their hands. Despite the restaurant’s small footprint, the interior is thoughtfully put together, with details like zebra-print chairs, tree trunk tables, and a green-tiled bar. As for what to eat, heed your server’s advice and spring for a vegtable combo, plus a protein of choice. Finish with a scoop of berbere ice cream, which highlights Ethiopia’s distinctive spice blend in surprising and delicious fashion.

Upon entering Soban, your eyes dart to the giant tubs of fermenting foods that line the bar. These are the building blocks of this homey Korean restaurant’s cuisine, where the three signature dishes are galbi jjim (braised short rib), eundaegu jorim (braised black cod), and ganjang gejang (soy-marinated raw crab). Pick one to share—or several if your party is four or more—alongside an order of the exemplary seafood pancake. Many types of banchan are a given, and all are great. Soban is women-run and family-owned, both facts that can be felt in the cozy dining room. (It’s also where director Bong Joon Ho famously celebrated alongside his cast after winning Best Picture for Parasite in 2020.)  

Bistro Na’s is a world unto itself and a tribute to the glorious dining culture of the San Gabriel Valley. Situated inside a crowded strip mall (be sure to leave time to find parking), the Imperial Chinese restaurant opens up into an opulent, palatial dining room, ripe for celebration — or simply a whole lot of fun. Bistro Na’s is made for groups; that way, you can order the chili tofu skin salad, the spicy poached chicken, the heavenly crispy shrimp, the dry-braised black cod, and the stir-fried pea sprouts with mushrooms (feel free to ad lib with other options as well). The real pro move here is to pre-order the Peking duck several days in advance, the recipe for which was recently perfected by chef Tian Yong — and we mean it when we say perfected.

Call 626-286-1999 to make a reservation.

Photo courtesy of Pijja Palace

Only in Los Angeles does a cheffy Indian sports bar in a Silver Lake strip mall make sense. Namely because L.A. is home to Avish Naran, an Indian kid from Echo Park who grew up on wings, pizza, the Dodgers, and the Lakers, and who as an adult combined those passions into the whirlwind that is Pijja Palace. The chef at the helm is Miles Shorey, an ideal match for bringing Naran’s personal history to the plate. His crispy dosa batter-fried onion rings, crushable aloo tiki sliders, and spicy Goan sausage-topped pies are unlike anything you’ve had before. Come with an appetite, revel in the game-time energy, and make sure to ask about off-menu specials.

Let the swarm of people surrounding the entrance on a typical Friday at noon be an indication of the enduring — and warranted — popularity of Sushi Gen. This Little Tokyo institution sits somewhere in between a luxury omakase counter and a neighborhood sushi restaurant, a sweet spot that makes it a go-to for sushi-loving Angelenos. Since 1980, its team of sushi chefs have worked in lockstep to cater to diners at the counter, rattling off fish types, as well as bigger parties seated at tables, dishing piece after piece of fresh fish over rice. Order scallop nigiri, toro, and ikura, plus whatever else in the case is looking good.

No reservations. Find more info here.

Chef Aaron Lindell and pastry whiz Hannah Ziskin are a culinary couple that compliment one another quite well. Case in point: Quarter Sheets, their pizza and cake restaurant that puts childlike joy front and center. The pizza is crunchy-crispy, chewy, and high on flavor —  loosely inspired by the pies of Detroit, but really, it’s Lindell’s own Los Angeles-style invention. (Quarter Sheets serves bar pies, too, on Wednesdays and Sundays.) The cakes come in Princess and seasonal slab form, alongside other ever-rotating desserts, like ice cream and pie. Both Lindell and Ziskin are masters of their craft, and their pairing is about as perfect as it gets. 

No reservations. Find more info here.

From Northern Thai Food Club’s herb-flecked sai ua to Ruen Pair’s crispy egg salad, Thai Town brims with fantastic, fiery fare. Of the neighborhood’s countless restaurants, however, Jitlada shines through for its masterful execution of a sprawling, 400-dish menu and its buoyant atmosphere. Magazine features, newspaper reviews, hand-drawn cartoons, and trinkets from Thailand fill every inch of space across the restaurant’s two dining rooms, and every night of the week, tables are packed with diners sharing big bottles of Singha and entirely too much food. Order as much as possible from the dedicated Southern Thai “real chili, real spicy” section, but do get the crispy morning glory salad and the taepo duck curry. Jitlada has been open since the late ‘70s and owner Sarintip “Jazz” Singsanong is a local celebrity in her own right. 

No reservations. Find more info here.

Photo courtesy of Queen Street

Chef Ari Kolender had an immediate hit in Found Oyster, the tiny East Coast-style seafood counter he opened in 2019, serving raw bar platters and lobster bisque rolls. Then, last year, the chef unveiled his sophomore restaurant Queen St. in Highland Park, bringing us yet another stellar seafood destination—and this time, with more seats (meaning reservations, too). Here, Kolender hones in on his Charleston roots with Southern-leaning dishes such as hushpuppies with trout roe and Cantabrian anchovy and tomato bread pudding, in addition to certified crowd-pleasers like yellowfin tuna frites. Sheralyn’s Derby Pie, a decadent chocolate-pecan number, is the chef’s grandmother’s recipe. Order it à la mode. 

In a city brimming with salads, Tsubaki’s Japanese Caesar — laced with bonito threads, nori, panko, and miso-parmesan dressing — is a strong contender for the best. Their charcoal-grilled chicken oyster skewers, dabbed with yuzu kosho, are a bona fide signature L.A. dish. Simply put, chef Charles Namba’s food at this compact Echo Park izakaya is consistently dynamite. But the sake list adds a whole new dimension: Namba’s partner is Courtney Kaplan, whose sake expertise and dedication to craft breweries is showcased here and at next-door sake bar, Ototo — whose sake program was the first to win a James Beard award. Take your time reading Kaplan’s descriptions; “sake whisperer” doesn’t even begin to describe her work. 

Make a reservation here.

Dunsmoor is one of those restaurants that gets everything thing right, from its spectacle of an open kitchen (anchored by a giant hearth) to a dining room bedecked in dark wood and candlelight, plus truly original cooking, genuinely good service, and six-layer slices of chocolate-mayonnaise cake for dessert. Chef-owner Brian Dunsmoor understands that constraints breed creativity, so everything is handmade and cooked over live fire here. The cuisine is “American heritage,” which translates to spins on pre-Gilded age recipes like pork and green chili stew and Pennsylvania Dutch-style slippery dumplings. For a more casual affair, head to the restaurant’s back wine bar, for snacky bites like pickled mussels and chopped chicken liver laced with bacon and onion preserves.

Call (323) 686-6027 for reservations. 

Weather, produce, lifestyle, nature. These are some of the most common factors that drive people to Los Angeles, and All Time embodies all of them. Citrus and fig trees line the perimeter of the entirely outdoor dining room, part of which is fashioned like a greenhouse. Simple, satisfying California cooking is served all day, starting with an exemplary berry scone and an expertly crafted breakfast burrito in the morning, followed by an enormous leafy salad (appropriately dubbed the “Good Ass Salad”), burrata toast, crispy fish over rice, and lots of wine in the evening. As a bonus, All Time is also minutes away from the entrance to Griffith Park, making it a wonderful place to unwind after a hike. (Psst: The Cook Book of All Time is on shelves 4/2!)

Old-school Hollywood glam is a definitive category within L.A., and La Dolce Vita is the genre’s buzziest contender — and thus a tough table to score (we have tips). The clubby Beverly Hills Italian restaurant and former Rat Pack haunt (Frank Sinatra once had a dedicated seat) dates back to 1966. But last year, Marc Rose and Med Abrous of Genghis Cohen and the Spare Room took over, adding cheetah print carpet and custom stained glass while still retaining the history of the dining room, including its original booths. Meanwhile, chef Nick Russo upped the ante on food with bucatini al limone, a hubcap-sized bone-in veal Parmesan, branzino piccata, and slices of spumoni. The drink program here is not to be overlooked, from martinis to amaros and limoncello with dessert.

Soon after opening in 2017, Botanica swiftly cemented its status as a Silver Lake staple for its vegetable-centric cooking and its shop-within-a-restaurant utility. Owned by former food writers Emily Fiffer and Heather Sperling, the restaurant is at once bubbly and soothing, with a transportive patio to boot. And although it’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, from Wednesday through Sunday, it offers a whole lot: baked goods in the pastry case, three meal services a day, a full bar, and a tinned fish-focused happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. The latest big news out of the kitchen is the arrival of the Botanica burger—grass-fed beef with pink chicories, pickled shallots, aioli, salsa verde, and goat gouda on pan de mie—the restaurant’s first ever in seven years of operating. It’s very tasty and very on brand.

Photo courtesy of Alta Adams

“California soul food” is how chef Keith Corbin describes his cooking here, which pulls from West Africa, the South, and Los Angeles itself. That translates to cornbread with honey butter, spicy purple sweet potato soup, fried chicken with Fresno hot sauce, and oxtails and rice, in the tight-knit community of West Adams. The dining room is cozy and warm, with colorful printed pillows to lean on, and art curated by next-door gallery Band of Vices. Cocktails are a highlight, too, including a “teenie tini flight” of three 1.5 oz. martinis, and a Cognac-based sour with candied yam syrup and spiced sweet potato liqueur.

Angelini is tried and true, a Beverly Grove staple by Italians, for Italians. It’s also for all lovers of Italian cuisine, which, who isn’t? Humming on Beverly Boulevard since 2001, the osteria is known for its lasagna verde and tagliolini limone. Other very nice dishes include the warm swordfish carpaccio, chopped salad, and fried zucchini flowers in tomato sauce. The atmosphere is charmingly weathered and European-feeling, both inside and out, and the regulars are manifest. It’s ideal for date night, dinner with in-laws, a business lunch, or even a chic solo vibe. Do note, portions are small, so order more, then share it all.