Los Angeles Restaurants

Jennifer Jewett makes the chore of preparing meals obsolete. Jewett—the founder and executive chef of Citizen Sprout and a mama herself—and her team whip up fresh, inventive, healthy lunches and dinners from scratch for kids and adults every day. They make it easy: You can drop by their bright Santa Monica location for ready-made salads, smoothies, soups, bowls, and the like, or you can order ahead online. (The Buffalo Cauliflower Salad and the Braised Chicken and Spinach Meatballs are goop-staffer favorites for lunch or an easy weeknight dinner.) Jewett also delivers to select schools throughout Los Angeles, offering littles a rotating, seasonal menu of lunches made with hormone- and antibiotic-free proteins and local and organic produce.

Horseshoe bar, check. Complexion-enhancing lighting, deep emerald walls and dark wood, check. House martinis made with bayleaf-infused vodka, plus aged Flannery steaks, and design by the cool kids at folklor? Next-level Venice dining, unlocked.

Cassia’s chef Bryant Ng and his wife and partner, Kim Luu-Ng, are at it again, but this time with a new rice and noodle concept—or as they like to say, a kitchen within a kitchen—exclusively for delivery and takeout. It’s run by the same culinary team as Cassia and uses the same high-quality ingredients we’ve come to except and love, but the Rice & Noodle Kitchen churns out dishes—as the name suggests—that revolve around rice and noodles. If you’re a meat eater, don’t miss the grilled BBQ pork rice, where the pickled Chinese cabbage and jasmine rice balance the rich and spicy pork to delicious results. And if you’re looking for a filling vegetarian-friendly option, the spicy dry noodles should be first in your cart. Everything is made to travel well (during R&D, Bryant let dishes sit out for hours just to make sure) and comes at delivery-friendly prices.

If team goop were ever stuck on a deserted island, the dish staffers would dream of is an In-N-Out burger. The soft bun, the warm melty cheese, the sweet Thousand Island–style special sauce…we could go on. But there's no reason to be so dramatic, because now we can have a meatless version of our favorite fast burger with incredible sauce and eat it, too, at Honeybee Burgers. The plant-based menu at this petite sidewalk diner rivals that of the famous chain—and is far better for us (and the planet). You can have a meatless burger on a soft bun schmeared with a vegan house sauce that will win the heart of any meat lover. You can munch on crinkle sweet potato fries and crispy tater tots dipped in house-made plant-based buttermilk ranch and tangy ketchup. And if you’re really going for it (and we recommend you do), you can top it off with the Daisy—a coconut-milk-and-orange-blossom "milkshake" that tastes like a Creamsicle.

Danny Trejo has built an LA-wide empire that reaches from Hollywood to Woodland Hills. Hit up any of the locations for an extensive menu that includes all the hits, served all day (including vegan options)—or head straight to happy hour for street tacos and drinks on the cheap. On top of supplying LA with carne asada and jackfruit with avocado cream, Trejo’s holds court at the Original Farmers Market on 3rd Street. We’d expect nothing less from the boxer-actor-seventy-something well of energy: The man has starred in over 250 films, and his life story is documentary material. He’s the kind of entrepreneur you expect to throw a curveball, and here it is: Trejo’s Coffee & Donuts in Hollywood, with flavors that include nacho, lemon papí, and dulce de leche.

Our favorite new but not-so-new Eastside bar. Lowboy is actually one half of the former LA institution the Lost Knight. (The other half is now the fantastic Adamae.) If you're familiar with the location, you'll likely have some nostalgia for its former occupant. But once you enter, you'll be happy to see the space's new life. Lowboy is everything you crave in a bar: It's moody and softly lit, it has cozy booths and a generous beer list, and the bartenders can whip up a perfectly tart Paloma or a breezy and sweet mai tai in less time than it will take you to decide on your bar snack. (The popcorn sprinkled with Old Bay is a real crowd-pleaser.)

Genghis Cohen has been a staple for good Chinese in Los Angeles for more than three decades. And since Marc Rose and Med Abrous, the restaurant partners behind Winsome and the Spare Room, took over ownership several years ago, it's gotten even better. The interiors are dark and moody. The food, umami-rich and satisfying. Go for the New York Style Eggrolls (never greasy, always crispy), vegetarian pot stickers, crackerjack shrimp, and cashew chicken, which is unexpectedly smoky and sweet.

This Jewish delicatessen’s opening was long awaited by Miracle Mile residents, and it’s been packed ever since. Eleven City LA makes most traditional foods—kreplach dumplings, matzo ball soup, challah, corned beef—in-house but sources from local standbys for the best of the rest: Winston Pies pies, Bagel Broker bagels, Langer’s Deli pastrami, and ice cream from McConnell’s. And the classic soda fountain and retro neon signs are cool touches.

If there’s anything you must get when you come to Los Feliz, it’s the focaccia at All Time. Let’s put it this way: It’s loaded with burrata, roasted cherry tomatoes, and olive oil. It’s too good to miss, as is nearly everything you could order off the handwritten dinner menu (it changes frequently). But they know a great thing when they have it at All Time: You’ll always find the focaccia on the menu.

The spot for late-night snacks like house-made flatbread and beetroot hummus, garlicky mushrooms and lamb kofta—Gran Blanco is the trendier (and aptly named) nighttime counterpart to owners Sam Trude and Sam Cooper’s Aussie-chic café Great White Australian for Gran Blanco) located directly across the street. Huddled under the Venice sign, the super vibe-y open-air space has a decidedly beach-lounge feel, with mood lighting, couches and wooden stumps for kicking back, an extensive vinyl collection curated by the owners, and the kind of stiff tiki-bar cocktails that’ll instantly tip you into vacation mode…if only for a night..