A Movable Beast: L.A. Weekly's 99 Essential Restaurants

If you have strong opinions on whether pig's feet should be admitted in a bowl of bun bo hue, this may not be the place for you. The chicken pho will not remind you of your favorite pho ga. The fresh spring rolls are stuffed with tofu instead of grilled pork and shrimp. The beef stew splits the difference between Vietnamese flavors and Depression-era diner cooking. And the best dish here may actually be the spicy fries, topped with the mince of cilantro, fresh chiles and garlic you usually see on Vietnamese-Chinese fried crab or squid. Somehow, this is exactly what this neighborhood, and the times, seem to demand. 110 N. Avenue 56, Highland Park. (323) 257-8980, goodgirlfoods.com. Lunch Sat.-Sun., noon-2 p.m.; dinner Sun. & Tues.-Thurs., 6-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 6-11 p.m. No alcohol. Cash only. Starters $4.75-$6.25; main courses $8-$10. Location map here.

The Grill on the Alley
Why, with so many restaurants, would you go to a restaurant whose menu hasn't changed since 1984? At the Grill on the Alley, it's the potatoes, we're telling you, the potatoes — French-fried and baked, hash browns and shoestrings, butter-soaked Lyonnaise potatoes with wisps of onion, and potatoes mashed with garlic, and, best of all, chunky O'Brien potatoes fried with both onions and peppers, which have the most marvelous crust if you ask for them well-done. If a lot of potatoes is never enough, you could supplement your O'Briens with an order of corned beef hash, also well-done, an order that the white-jacketed waiters take down without even rolling their eyes. It is easy to be happy in this dining room, a plutocrats' retreat washed in pale, masculine light. The ribeye is good, the Caesar salad is dependable and the steak tartare is sublime, an ideal companion for a clear, cold gin martini. If you can escape from the Grill without a taste of the essential rice pudding, you are a man, or woman, with more willpower than I. 9560 Dayton Way, Beverly Hills. (310) 276-0615, thegrill.com. Mon.-Thurs., 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m., Sun., 5-9 p.m. Full bar. Takeout. Valet parking; free street parking before 6 p.m. All major CC. $19.75-$43.75 dinner. Location map here.

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Campanile's sauteed trenne

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Leo Bulgarini, gelato impresario

Location Info

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Zelo Gourmet Pizzeria

328 E. Foothill Blvd.
Arcadia, CA 91006

Category: Restaurant > Italian

Region: Foothill Cities

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Guelaguetza
Twenty years ago, there wasn't a decent plate of mole to be found in Los Angeles. Today, the number of Oaxacan restaurants here trails only that in Mexico City and Oaxaca, and the power behind the boom has undoubtedly been Guelaguetza, the first serious Oaxacan restaurant in town, which expanded from a single tamale cart to something like an empire. With the opening of the tlayuda-slinging spinoff Pal Cabron in the original space, the primary location of Guelaguetza has shifted to a cavernous former banquet hall, complete with a mezcal-stocked bar and a stage for folklorico dances, that serves impeccable versions of Oaxaca's dense banana leaf-wrapped tamales, fluffy memelas and unstuffed enchiladas and enmoladas sprinkled with cheese. Guelaguetza's moles — the minty green mole, rich mole amarillo and the spicy goat barbacoa among them — are to ordinary chile sauces what Joel Robuchon's porcini cappuccino is to Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. The classic mole negro is black as midnight, black as tar, black as Dick Cheney's heart. 3014 W. Olympic Blvd., Mid-City. (213) 427-0608, guelaguetzarestaurante.com. Open Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat., 8 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun., 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Full bar. Entertainment. Valet parking. AE, MC, V. Entrées $5.95-$15.95. Location map here.

Hatfield's
If you ever visited Citrus, a restaurant that once lay at the heart of California dining, the new Hatfield's, nestled into the former Citrus location, is likely to make you gawk: The dining room has been scrubbed into its former glory, and there is a gravity, a sense of occasion about Hatfield's that never quite existed before it moved from smallish quarters a few blocks to the west. What used to seem quirky — Quinn and Karen Hatfield's unchanging menu of hamachi croque madame, date-crusted lamb and foie gras sautéed in gingerbread crumbs — now reads more like an artistic statement than it does one of chefly stubbornness, inspired by classic nouvelle cuisine but sparked with sharp Asian flavors. On dishes like seared prawns on a sort of Malaysian crab rice, or beef cooked two ways with fresh horseradish and smoked potatoes, or charred Japanese mackerel with dried pineapple and salsa, the pan-cultural touch of Hatfield's is assured. 6703 Melrose Ave., L.A. (323) 935-2977, hatfieldsrestaurant.com. Lunch, Mon.-Fri., 11:45 a.m.-2:15 p.m.; dinner Sun.-Thurs., 6-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 6-10:30 p.m. Full bar. All major credit cards. Valet parking. Location map here.

Huckleberry
If you wanted to study 2010 Santa Monica, you could do worse than spend a Sunday morning at Huckleberry, observing the passive-aggressive ballet of khakis and Lululemon, the line to get into the line, and the children, dreaming of chocolate eclairs, who scout the goodies in the pastry case. Zoe Nathan, who also does the pastries at Rustic Canyon across the street, is the pastry chef of the moment, a scholar of the fine line between salt and sweet and a master of artfully homey desserts. Customers jostle for tables in front of the serene counterstaff, who have obviously done enough yoga to rise above the petty turmoil of the crowd. At Huckleberry, Tom Hanks and Arnold Schwarzenegger pour their own coffee, just like everybody else. And it is worth a certain amount of trouble to get a crack at Nathan's prosciutto-stuffed croissants, so buttery that they threaten to spurt like a well-constructed chicken Kiev, or her flaky bacon-maple biscuits, her crumbly rustic tarts stuffed with goat cheese or her ultrarich flatbread. Green eggs and ham is reinterpreted as pesto drizzled over sunnyside-up eggs nestled into La Quercia prosciutto on a housemade English muffin, and lunches see fried egg sandwiches, turkey with grapes, and warm braised brisket on ciabatta. Don't miss the fried Jidori chicken served Friday afternoons. 1014 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. (310) 451-2311, huckleberrycafe.com. Open Tues.-Fri., 8 a.m.-7 p.m., Sat.-Sun., 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Street parking. Takeout and retail bakery. AE, MC, V. Breakfast main dishes $9.50-$14.50; sandwiches $8.50-$13.50. Location map here.