Best of The Hit List Los Angeles
The 10 Restaurants That Defined Los Angeles Dining in 2025
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We asked our contributors to the Resy Hit List to share their top dining experiences in their cities this year — to choose 10 restaurants that define the state of great dining right now. Welcome back our Best of The Hit List for 2025.
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You might think of 2025 as the year Los Angeles grew up. January began with the most catastrophic fire disaster in L.A. County’s history, the impacts of which are still being felt. In June, immigration raids rocked L.A.’s Latino community. And that was just the start.
And yet, whenever a crisis arose, Los Angeles restaurants were there. Delivering free food, organizing fundraisers, and making their priorities known.
They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and L.A. chefs proved it this year: Johnny Lee (Rasarumah), Ki Kim (Restaurant Ki), Tyler J. Wells (Betsy), and Mei Lin of (88 Club) all returned this year with their sophomore restaurants — namely a handsome Malaysian spot inspired by the country’s hawker culture; a deeply personal Korean tasting menu that received a Michelin star within its first year; a chef’s intimate dialogue with a fire-scarred community; and a Beverly Hills parlor where Hong Kong’s banquet culture is on display.
We also witnessed L.A.’s farm-to-table movement propel itself forward, with subversive newcomers Tomat and Baby Bistro. Although the restaurants couldn’t be more different, they embrace the challenge of discovering new, innovative ways to source food with gusto. And there was so much more — the city’s first craft molino, a marriage of Panamanian spirit with L.A. vibes, Caribbean-inspired fine dining. If this is the future of Los Angeles, count us in.
Here’s a look at 10 dining experiences that defined L.A. restaurants in 2025 — and here’s to many more in the year ahead.
1. baby bistro Victor Heights
Baby Bistro reflects Los Angeles in a way that makes us feel seen. It’s 2025, and people no longer yearn for four-hour dinners served in hermetically sealed rooms. So invite us over to, say, a tastefully restored 1920’s home in Victor Heights, and we’re there. The menu rotates through seasonal dishes that bear utterly pronounceable names like “pork belly, figs,” or “blue prawns, tomato.” (And yes, you should consider firing the whole menu. For $145, two people will receive a very fairly priced informal prix fixe.) But there’s more going on: Baby Bistro, at its core, is a rigorous and very serious restaurant, with two industry veterans running the show — chef Miles Thompson (formerly of Michael’s and Konbi), and Andy Schwartz, a seasoned wine pro, overseeing the front of the house. It’s a Trojan horse, of sorts, simple on the surface; while leaving room for the team to try some genuinely daring, exciting stuff behind the scenes. Because while it might be hard to sell “experimental farm-to-table fine dining” to a friend, what about a place called Baby Bistro? See? Genius.
2. Betsy Altadena
Fire is a force of duality, as owner Tyler Wells (All Time) understands all too well. The chef opened neighborhood restaurant Bernee in December 2024 to immediate acclaim. But just one month later, the Eaton fire swept through Altadena, destroying nearly 10,000 structures — including Wells’ home — and left an entire community scarred. Miraculously, Bernee’s building survived, but the restaurant it once housed was forever lost. After a bit of soul searching, and a life-affirming residency at the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano, Wells returned to Altadena and rechristened the restaurant as Betsy. It’s a cozy 39-seat dining room where bottles of wine line the walls and old-fashioned kerosene lamps sit on tables out front. At the center of it all sits a roaring fire, contained in Betsy’s custom-built Boreal Heat hearth. Almost every dish here is cooked over a live flame, including blistered tomatoes, blackened Basque-style cheesecakes, and charred cabbage, “burnt to perfection,” as a server describes it. In December 2025, Wells isn’t playing with fire. He’s reclaiming it as his own.
3. Tomat Westchester
There are countless Los Angeles farm-to-table restaurants that work directly with farmers, growers, and producers, but what sets Tomat apart from them is… a lot. (Their dinner menu lists over 50 purveyors alone.) The menu at Tomat, run by husband-and-wife duo Harry Posner and Westchester native Natalie Dial, pulls inspiration from their lives and travels across the U.K. and West Africa, plus Posner’s Persian heritage for good measure. And that’s just scratching the surface. There are two gardens, one on the roof, and another a few blocks away, where they grow produce for the restaurant with help from Solis Gardens. Tomat also serves a killer breakfast; composts waste; sources wine exclusively from organic, minimal-intervention, or biodynamic producers; and even runs an in-house fermentation program. Oh, and have we mentioned that the food is joyful, beautiful to look at, and delightful to eat? Tomat may defy simple labels, but eating here is an easy pleasure.
4. Beethoven Market Mar Vista
For 75 years, Beethoven Market was Mar Vista’s neighborhood grocery store, and with it gone, said neighborhood feared the space would lose its soul. Quite the opposite. Owner Jeremy Adler prized the community over profits at every turn, and it wasn’t long until Beethoven Market (the restaurant) emerged as Mar Vista’s new favorite neighborhood spot. No dish on the crowd-pleasing exceeds $35. Handmade pastas, expertly crafted by executive chef Michael Leonard (Mother Wolf), remain below $20. Cocktails are capped at $15. Loaves of focaccia arrive topped with whipped ricotta and drizzled in avocado tree honey. Chickens spend four hours slow-roasting in the restaurant’s custom-built rotisserie, and, if you’re lucky, there might be a spot free underneath the olive tree in the adjacent patio, where you can sip an affogato in relative peace.
5. Lucia Fairfax
It feels like a stretch to call any one restaurant “revolutionary,” but at Lucia on Fairfax, the description is apt. Owner Sam Jordan introduced Los Angeles to something we (and most cities) have never seen before: Caribbean-inspired fine dining. The stunning 118-seat dining room is transportive, complete with a towering white palm-tree-shaped bar, soaring ceilings, and seashell inspired Deco-style booths. The food exists somewhere between familiarity, expectation, and the thrill of the unknown. Island staples, like coconut fried chicken, are dusted with coconut milk powder, which adds a touch of sweetness to every bite. Red snapper escovitch is fried until gloriously crisp and golden doused in a delightful surprise: a pineapple-habanero sauce that’s sweet, acidic, subtle, and bright. Though opening chef Adrian Forte has moved on, Lucia has firmly cemented itself as one of the most exciting destinations in town.
6. Komal Historic South Central
Inside the busy Mercado La Palma food hall, chef Fátima Juárez is hard at work, turning dried corn into masa that, with a bit of alchemy, will become Komal’s signature tortillas. Komal stands as Los Angeles’ first craft molino, and by extension, is a vital act of cultural and agricultural preservation. The colors that line Komal’s tiled walls — yellow, brown, and white — mirror the varicolored Indigenous corn Juárez uses, sourced directly from smallholder farming families in Mexico. Fresh masa is ground on site and sold by the pound, alongside a concise menu of pre-Hispanic dishes like tlacoyos — thick, oval-shaped, blue-corn tortillas filled with ayocote bean puree and topped with slivers of cactus — or quesadillas filled with squash blossom flowers and sweet corn sofrito. Komal’s tortillas are also used next door at Holbox, the Michelin-starred mariscos stand where Juárez once worked.
No reservations, more info here.
7. 88 Club Beverly Hills
Following Nightshade’s premature closure in 2020, Angelenos developed a Mei Lin-shaped hole in their hearts. Yes, there was Daybird, the fast-casual takeout window with juicy Szechuan hot chicken sandwiches. But we wanted a sit-down restaurant. We wanted 88 Club. After a five-year hiatus, Lin, along with her partner, restaurateur Francis Miranda, made a return to fine dining with an ornate Beverly Hills restaurant that combines echoes of her Michigan childhood with Hong Kong’s glitzy banquet culture. It’s a delicious, idiosyncratic jumble, where technical brilliance meets nostalgia and whimsy. Mung bean jelly noodles are served with aged black vinegar and chili oil; nam yu chicken is inspired by Lin’s father; and sesame prawn toasts come topped with caviar. The 44-seat dining room is pure elegance, adorned with jade-lacquered walls and vintage chinoiserie. And then, the name: 88 is the luckiest figure in Chinese numerology — “double fortune, double prosperity” — a good omen, indeed.
8. Rasarumah Historic Filipinotown
When chef Johnny Lee closed the doors to his beloved Cantonese restaurant, Pearl River Deli, part of his burnout recovery plan was a trip to Malaysia. There, among the hawker stalls—chaotic, densely packed, with cooks shouting orders and smoke billowing in every direction—inspiration struck. Lee became captivated not only by the region’s amalgamation of indigenous, Chinese, Indian, and colonial influences, but by their dynamic evolution. Soon, a vision for a new endeavor took root, which led to a partnership with veteran restaurant group Last Word Hospitality (Found Oyster, Queen’s) and then, to the creation of Rasarumah. Lee’s Malaysian restaurant in Historic Filipinotown offers dishes like ayam berempah, Malaysian-style fried chicken wings swathed in a tangy sweet chile sauce; wagyu beef cheek rendang; and pork jowl satay made with the tender, juicy meat. It’s a fitting evolution for one of the city’s most dynamic young chefs, and an ode to the multicultural cuisine that inspired him.
9. Restaurant Ki Little Tokyo
In November 2023, chef Ki Kim made the heartbreaking decision to close his first restaurant, the critically acclaimed Kinn. Now, he’s at the helm of Restaurant Ki, a deeply personal exploration of the space between his Korean heritage and his lived experience. Kim draws from an incredible wealth of experience, having worked in the kitchens of Benu in San Francisco, Jungsik and Atomix in New York; and Blanca in Brooklyn. At his new Michelin-starred endeavor, for $300 a person, you can expect dishes like lobster with doenjang and grilled lettuce ice cream. Restaurant Ki offers two profound visions for the future: the first is culinary, as L.A. enters a new chapter in its ever-evolving Korean culinary scene; and the second more human — both a model for growth, recreation, and a more sustainable future.
10. A TÍ Echo Park
Translated as “for you,” this Echo Park restaurant from second-generation Mexican-American chef Andrew Ponce is a natural extension of his 2021 pop-up of the same name. Here, Ponce draws from his heritage and his rigorous, 13-year evolution through several of California’s most acclaimed and definitive kitchens (Jon & Vinny’s, Onda, Taco Maria). Ponce is carving out a new, exciting space in Los Angeles dining, one that reflects his vision of the city back at itself, filtered through his own personal experience. Take the al pastor taco. Instead of the usual shoulder or leg, Ponce opts for Iberico pork coppa, marbled in fat, and cures the meat with Japanese yellow koji to achieve an enzymatic “dry-aged” effect. It’s a technical marvel that ends with an autobiographical flourish: a tiny slice of pineapple frutta mostarda, the Italian candied fruit he learned to make at his alma mater, Bestia.
