Where To Eat Now

Hollywood/Melrose/La Brea/Fairfax

Brasserie Vert. Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant in the Hollywood & Highland complex may not have much in common with a brasserie, is as restrained-looking as a corporate canteen, and isn’t even green. But Vert is a useful restaurant, a Hollywood bastion of mussels and fries, steak frites with vivid-yellow béarnaise sauce, and a delicious sole grenobloise. Drop in for a Green Bellini, a platter of fritto misto and a shot at the best desserts in Hollywood. 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 411, Hollywood, (323) 491-1300. Mon.–Fri. 11:30 a.m.–10 p.m., Sat. noon–10 p.m., Sun. noon–9 p.m. Full bar. Takeout. Lot parking. AE, D, DC, MC, V. Entrées $16–$24. French/Italian. JG $$

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Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe

2122 W. Seventh St.
Los Angeles, CA 90057

Category: Restaurant > Central American

Region: Westlake

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Le Comptoir at Tiara Cafe

127 E. 9th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90079

Category: Restaurant >

Region: Downtown

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• Tama Sushi
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• Beverly Hills (California)
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• Main Dish Recipes

?LA99? Los Balcones del Peru. A scant block below the glowing Sunset + Vine complex, so close to the ArcLight Theater that it shares its parking lot, Los Balcones del Peru lies at the precise border of redeveloped Hollywood and its shadow, a breath of authenticity a few steps south from the overamped velvet-rope district, and home to camarones a la piedra, a warm shrimp preparation from the tropical northern coast of Peru that is one of the most formidable ceviches in town. Los Balcones also may be the only Peruvian restaurant in town without tapes of Andean panpipe music, which is almost a miracle, at least if you ignore the occasional charanga version of “Feelings.” It is easy to spend hours here after a movie at the ArcLight, eating fried fish, drinking Peruvian beer from the Inca city of Cuzco. 1360 N. Vine St., Hollywood, (323) 871-9600. Sun.–Thurs. 11 a.m.–9 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 11 a.m.–10 p.m. Beer, wine. Validated parking at ArcLight Cinema. AE, MC, V. Dinner for two, food only, $18–$28. Peruvian. JG $$b

?LA99? Providence. Ever since Michael Cimarusti left the stoves at Water Grill, well-heeled Los Angeles fish lovers have been waiting expectantly for his new restaurant in the old Patina space, which was widely rumored to become the Los Angeles equivalent of fish palaces like Le Bernardin and Oceana in New York. At this glowing new restaurant, he managed to fulfill even those super-high expectations — this is among the best restaurants ever to hit Los Angeles. 5955 Melrose Ave., Hancock Park, (323) 460-4170. Mon.–Fri. 6–10 p.m., Sat. 5:30–10 p.m., Sun. 5:30–9 p.m., plus lunch Fri. noon–2:30 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, MC, V. Entrées $30–$40. Modern American Seafood. JG $$$b[Â?

Mid-Wilshire/Koreatown/Central Los Angeles

?LA99? Guelaguetza. Are you in the mood for fried grasshoppers with chile and lime? Even if you aren’t, at Guelaguetza, the best of the Oaxacan-style restaurants by far, you’ll find dishes you may have only read about in cookbooks or glossy magazines. At the original Koreatown location of Guelaguetza, not far from the biggest concentration of Oaxacan restaurants and bakeries this side of Oaxaca, you’ll find tlayudas the size of manhole covers, delicate beverages made from squash, and delicious, mole-drenched tamales. The black mole is rich with textured spice — it’s as simple yet as nuanced as a great Côte Rôtie. 3337½ W. Eighth St., L.A., (213) 427-0779. Open daily 8 a.m.–10 p.m. No alcohol. Street parking. AE, MC, V. Oaxacan. JG ¢b

Taylor’s Steak House. Taylor’s is a real urban steak house, a two-fisted meat-and-martini joint where an account executive can blow his Pritikin thing with massive hunks of well-aged sirloin, at about half what he’d pay in one of those Beverly Hills joints. The filet mignon here is soft, buttery, as rare as you order it, and crusted with char. But the glory of Taylor’s is the culotte steak, a softball-shaped prime thing cut from the top of the sirloin. If you order it rare, the interior is scarlet, dripping juice, marbled with fat, full of the tremendous mineral sourness of great meat. It’s the steak that time forgot. 3361 W. Eighth St., L.A., (213) 382-8449. Open daily for lunch 11:30 a.m.–4 p.m.; dinner 4–10 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, DC, MC, V. $19.75–$30.95. American. JG $

West Hollywood/La Cienega

?LA99? The Griddle. The Griddle is an instant Hollywood institution, an alternate universe of unshaven, bed-headed young actors in muscle shirts and those who would ogle them, of guys from the craft unions, gangs of pretty script readers, and middle-aged men preening in Robert Evans shades. Coffee comes to the table in squat plunger pots, and the enormous pancakes are available blanketed in cinnamon streusel, or spiked with Kahlua and Bailey’s, or smothered under an improbable mass of whipped cream and crumbled Oreos, and they are not the best pancakes in Los Angeles, but they’re good enough. 7916 Sunset Blvd., W. Hlywd., (323) 874-0377. Breakfast and lunch Mon.–Fri. 7 a.m.–4 p.m., Sat.–Sun. 8 a.m.–4 p.m. Beer. Lot parking in rear. AE, D, MC, V. American. JG $b