Despite the rising cost of doing business, L.A. is still home to one of the most innovative, exciting and diverse food scenes in the country. Brick-and-mortar restaurants, Instagram pop-ups, street vendors and food trucks: No matter the form, you can find amazing food in a city whose reputation is built as much on off-the-beaten-path tacos and pop-ups as it is on fine dining-trained chefs making quick work of farmers’ market produce and mainline access to the top-notch Pacific seafood.
At its core, L.A.’s restaurant scene thrives on diversity, resulting in genre-bending formats and cuisines that have given rise to some of the country’s best omakase restaurants, fine dining institutions and strip mall hidden gems. Every month, we visit dozens of restaurants across the city looking for amazing eats, great ambience and top-notch customer service. We also crowdsource recommendations from readers and industry insiders on the best places to grab a meal—but a restaurant can’t get onto this guide until we’ve actually visited it multiple times. We prioritize fun, flavor, freshness—and value at every price point. This list is updated regularly to reflect changes in menu offerings, style of service, new locations and the ever-changing pulse of the city’s food scene. If it’s on the list, we think it’s awesome and worth the hype, wait and money —and we bet you will, too.
March 2025: Since my last update in February, Time Out has instituted a sitewide policy change. All food and drink venues, including those listed in guides, must now have star ratings, with five stars corresponding to “amazing,” four to “great” and three to “good.” For more on our new policies, feel free to check out How we review at Time Out. In this most recent update, I’ve added additional information and photography from recent visits to Bavel, Osteria Mozza and Chi Spacca.