99 Essential - List Only

Beacon: An Asian Cafe

Fitted into an old commercial laundry in the Helms Bakery complex, Beacon was the first major restaurant of the new Culver City renaissance, a high-style café that jimmied elegance into a part of town that had been missing it since Gone With the Wind was shot at a soundstage down the street. Beacon marks the triumphant return to form of Kazuto Matsusaka, who was chef for almost a decade at Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois in the ’80s. His current versions of miso-marinated cod, vegetable nabemono and grilled shisito peppers are all great. Grilled-chicken skewers are powerfully flavored with the herb shiso and the tiny Japanese plum called ume. You’d probably never find anything like Matsusaka’s salad of perfectly ripe avocado dressed with toasted sesame seeds and minced scallions in Tokyo, but the salad follows classical principles, and it is luscious. The hanger steak with wasabi is so successful, the searing tang of the horseradish doing something wonderful to the tart, carbonized flavor of grilled meat, that you might wonder why nobody thought of the combination until now. 3280 Helms Ave., Culver City, (310) 838-7500. Lunch Mon.–Sat. 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m.; dinner Tues.–Wed. & Sun. 5:30–8:15 p.m., Thurs.–Sat. 5:30–9:15 p.m. Beer and wine. Lot parking. AE, MC, V. Asian fusion. $$

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Apple Pan

10801 Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: West L.A.

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Babita Mexicuisine

1823 S. San Gabriel Blvd.
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Category: Restaurant > Mexican

Region: Monterey Park/ Alhambra/ S. Gabriel

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• MC
• Gino Angelini
• Michael Lohan
• North-American Food and Cooking
• Seafood

Bin 8945

This is the other kind of wine bar, a showcase for wine more than a center of conviviality, for culinary fireworks more than expertly curated meats and cheeses, where 10-course tasting menus are not unheard of and a wine list is dotted with values for those willing to pop for a bottle of Merseault-Charmes to go with their foie gras and plantains. Chef Michael Bryant is a protégé of the Caribbean-eclectic chef Norman Van Aken (Bryant was Van Aken’s chef at the late West Hollywood branch of Norman’s), and there are twists in the cooking you might not expect from a restaurant where the food is supposed to be incidental to the wine: thinly sliced hamachi crusted with poppy seeds, curried sweetbreads, a cocoa-glazed pork cheek with chorizo — all of which sommelier David Haskell is happy to pair with an oddly perfect unoaked chardonnay or a Slovenian sauvignon blanc. 8945 Santa Monica Blvd., W. Hlywd., (310) 550-8945. Sun. & Tues.–Thurs. 6–10 p.m., Sat. 6–11 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, MC, V. Asian-Caribbean fusion. $$

Blue Velvet

First among equals and not a crab cake in sight, Blue Velvet is a hyperdesigned lounge fitted into the ground floor of a former Holiday Inn, all glass and iron wrapped around a glowing swimming pool that turns every vantage into a David Hockney painting, with the cool blues of Staples Center and the financial-district skyscrapers just beyond. Some of the herbs and vegetables are harvested from an organic rooftop garden. From a spot by the window, downtown is as glamorous as the view from a penthouse in a Fred Astaire picture. It is doubtful, though, that Astaire ever dined on deep-fried yogurt balls with puréed greens and raisins, or on a vaguely Malaysian squid salad with kumquats, or on a Thai-flavored roast duck accompanied by its tempura-fried liver, or on smoked tofu with black lentils and cherry tomatoes. Kris Morningstar, who did stints at Patina, A.O.C. and the late Meson G, is the chef at Blue Velvet, and his engaged if inconsistent version of the eclectic world cuisine thing ranges over more of the globe than Angelina Jolie. I especially like the squab crepinette, which involves rare slices of the breast arranged over a sort of pillowlike sausage stuffed with puréed corn bread, puréed mushrooms and bits of the bird’s own liver cooked into what tastes a little like Thanksgiving dinner on a small plate. 750 S. Garland Ave., L.A., (213) 239-0061. Mon.–Fri. 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m., Sun.–Thurs. 5:30–10:30 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 5:30–11 p.m. Bar open daily 4 p.m.–2 a.m. Full bar. Valet parking. Takeout. AE, MC, V. California contemporary.$$$

Border Grill

Yes, they were famous TV chefs; yes, they do endorsements; and yes, they have about as much Mexican blood between them as the Swedish bikini team. But Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger don’t claim to redefine Mexican food; they just prepare it well, transforming the taco, the tostada and the homely chile relleno into creatures almost unrecognizable if you’re used to their Cal-Mex equivalents, as well as constructing scholarly takes on elaborate traditional foods like jet-black ­huitlacoche sauces or sweet chiles en nogada. The long, black dining room, delineated by a crazily skewed ceiling painted with rocket ships and wrestling, masked batmen, is roaringly loud, but looks even better now than it did when the place first opened. Border Grill is the rare mainstream Mexican restaurant whose tacos don’t make you yearn for a truck parked by an auto-parts junkyard somewhere in East L.A., truly one of the best Mexican restaurants in town. 1445 Fourth St., Santa Monica, (310) 451-1655. Sun.–Thurs. 11:30 a.m.–10 p.m., Fri.–Sat. till 11 p.m. Full bar. Takeout. Street and valet parking. AE, D, MC, V. Modern Mexican. $$