Jonathan Gold’s 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants

* Street
What’s the female equivalent of big, hanging ones? Because while the boys were busy displaying their machismo this year by showing their prowess with big meat, bringing hacksaws to carcasses and sliding their unmentionables into throats all over town, Susan Feniger, the chef and proprietor of Street, was letting her eggs run wild, on top of Korean rice salad, garnishing spicy peanut noodles and served over South Indian tapioca, slid onto a bed of semolina and draped over a Cantonese white radish cake — and on pretty much every table, served almost as a dipping sauce for the kaya toast, the Singapore-style dish of brioche toast spread with soft coconut jam that has become the restaurant’s most popular dish.

In her new, hypercool restaurant, in the space that once housed the coffeehouse Highland Grounds, Border Grill/Ciudad chef Feniger, in her solo debut, revisits some of the transglobal ideas she and Mary Sue Milliken explored in her seminal ’80s-era City Restaurant, but with a direct, accessible twist: Street is a virtual museum of world street food, snacks and savories from every part of Asia — Korean-style mung-bean pancakes studded with bits of anise-braised pork belly; hollow, potato-stuffed Indian ping-pong balls called paani puri; a juniper-laced salad of roasted beets and crumbled walnuts; even a delicious version of the do-it-yourself Thai bundles of roasted coconut, bird chiles, peanuts, tamarind jam and minced lime, among other things, but sensibly wrapped in bits of collard instead of the traditional betel leaf. Half the menu is vegan-friendly, although you probably wouldn’t notice that fact unless it was important to you, and at least as much attention seems to have been paid to the roster of rare beers, spiced lassis and herbal coolers as to the short but appropriate wine list. Don’t miss Feniger’s parfait, a layered concoction of espresso gelatin, chocolate mousse and cream, sweetened with special halvah imported all the way from Canter’s Delicatessen. 742 N. Highland Ave., Hlywd., (323) 203-0500, eatatstreet.com. Open daily from noon for lunch and dinner; from 11 a.m. for Sunday brunch. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, MC, V.

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Anne Fishbein

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Angeli Caffe

7274 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046

Category: Restaurant > Italian

Region: Hollywood

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Angelini Osteria

7313 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Category: Restaurant > Italian

Region: Melrose/ Beverly/ Fairfax

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Tacos Baja Ensenada
In most of Mexico, the words estilo Ensenada signify just one thing: fish tacos. Specifically the fried-fish tacos served at stalls in the fish market down by the docks. In East L.A., you will come no closer to the ideal than these crunchy, sizzlingly hot strips of batter-fried halibut folded into warm corn tortillas with salsa, shredded cabbage and a squeeze of lime, sprinkled with freshly chopped herbs and finished with a squirt of thick, cultured cream. Entire religions have been founded on miracles less profound than the Ensenada fish taco. 5385 Whittier Blvd., E. L.A., (323) 887-1980. Tues.-Sun., 10 a.m.-9 p.m. No alcohol. Lot parking. Cash only.

* Tavern
Tavern is the kind of place the Westside has needed for years, a big, comfortable space that functions as a gathering place for the gentry without locking out the less well-heeled. A lot of restaurants have tried to fill the niche, including the posh outlet of Hamburger Hamlet that used to occupy this spot, but this is the latest project of Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, the creators of Lucques and AOC, and their perfect pitch, their understated California cool, make Tavern absolutely the restaurant of the moment, from the Louis Armstrong floating down on the sound system to the Green Goddess dressing on the salad with avocado and crab; from the roster of gougères and spiced nuts at the bar to a surprisingly comprehensive children’s menu savvy enough to include pasta with cheese and butter but without parsley, which is universally considered yucky by the 8-and-under crowd.

Goin, of course, is the closest thing in L.A. to a farmers market deity, and her dinner menu is almost painfully seasonal — seafood may come with green garlic and tangelos in the spring or grilled in fig leaves in the summer; mustardy deviled chicken, served with a great heap of oiled, toasted bread crumbs, is given its presence by a tangle of sautéed leeks that surely would be ramps if they could. Beef daube, a rich stew that would seem like a consummate winter dish if restaurants in Provence didn’t insist on featuring it in the heat of summer, is given a further summer twist with brown butter and slightly caramelized cherry tomatoes. Tavern’s warm beignets and its version of Lucques’ famous walnut tart are delicious, but I must admit: The first time I visited the restaurant, I felt compelled to order grilled asparagus for dessert. 11648 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, (310) 806-6464, tavernla.com. Breakfast Mon.-Fri., 8-11 a.m.; brunch Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m.-2:15 p.m.; lunch daily 11:30 a.m.-2:15 p.m.; dinner Mon.-Sat. from 5:30 p.m., Sun., 5-9:30 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. All major credit cards accepted.

Terroni
In its native Toronto, Terroni has a reputation not unlike that of the Sushi Nazis here, as a pizzeria whose refusal to alter their pies, slice their pies or allow the customers to choose the toppings for their pies is considered undemocratic — downright un-Canadian. In its Los Angeles incarnation, where an outdoor foosball table draws the kind of expat attention usually reserved for the Juventus-Inter game, nobody seems really to notice. Terroni might actually feel more Italian than anywhere else in L.A. at the moment, with terra-cotta serving dishes, a roster of decent Italian wines available in half-liter and quarter-liter carafes, and the deftest espresso pull this side of Naples. Terroni’s pizzas may not be artisanal masterpieces, but they’re delicious: stretched thin, crunchy most of the way through, served as in Italy in individual uncut rounds, topped with things like broccoli rabe and crumbled sausage; Gorgonzola, honey and walnuts; or plain old mozzarella and tomato sauce. The Southern Italian–style pastas tend to be very good: linguine with clams and the dried mullet roe bottarga, a definitive penne alla Norma with fried eggplant, and possibly the first L.A. appearance of spaghetti ca’muddica, a Sicilian pasta a little like spaghetti alla puttanesca enriched with toasted bread crumbs. The oddest thing about Terroni may be its name, a derogatory term for southern Italians. 7605 Beverly Blvd., L.A., (323) 954-0300. Sun.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. Takeout. AE, MC, V.