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

Street
In her Street, a hypercool restaurant on Hollywood's southern fringe, Susan Feniger 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: Singaporean kaya toast; 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 wrapped in bits of collard instead of the traditional la lot 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. 742 N. Highland Ave., Hlywd. (323) 203-0500, eatatstreet.com. Open daily: lunch, noon-3 p.m., dinner from 5 p.m.; Sunday brunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Full bar. AE, MC, V. Valet parking. Location map here.

Tacos Baja Ensenada
Why is Tacos Baja Ensenada still on this list? Isn't it time to switch allegiances to Ricky's, or to the Best Fish Taco in Ensenada, or to any of the hundred other places that have learned how to make this glorious dish? I don't know — maybe next year. Because in East L.A., you still 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. 5385 Whittier Blvd., E.L.A. (323) 887-1980. Tues.-Sun., 10 a.m.-9 p.m. No alcohol. Lot parking. Cash only. 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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The Tasting Kitchen
The Tasting Kitchen, a newish trattoria on Abbot Kinney, feels more like a project art collective than it does a proper restaurant, a place at once both strange and familiar, where servers drift in and out like characters in a dream, where details that seemed minor at the beginning of a meal take on enormous proportions by the end of it — perhaps after a 90-minute discussion of Apulian earthquakes or the history of apiculture with strangers at a communal table. As with a surrealist museum show or a performance of Garcia Lorca, you come to experience something unsettling. The dining room is a study in social interaction that just happens to involve food.

Casey Lane came here from Portland's Clarklewis and surrounded himself with a group of his Portland friends. It's a new-breed, Oregon-style restaurant transplanted to a beach town, hundreds of candles, a loud sound track of post-rock and do-me R&B. Lane's style is simple, and over the course of a few meals you will notice an emphasis on toasted bread, strong cheese, braised meats, unaltered seasonal vegetables, grilled nuts and the distinct, bitter taste of char. The basic impression is of Italian cooking translated into an odd American dialect, not quite California dudespeak but something from an odd corner of the coast, where bruschetta of roasted figs and creamy fromage blanc, or melted fontina with bacon and trumpet mushrooms, come on airy slabs of grilled bread rather than on thin slices of baguette, pastas are correct, and grilled anchovies are laid so beautifully on their plate that you rather suspect an art director. Unless you are an expert on obscure Italian wines, you will not be able to choose a wine without consulting your waiter, which may be the point. 1633 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice. (310) 392-6644, thetastingkitchen.com. Open daily, 6 p.m.-close. All major CC. Full bar. Valet parking. Location map here.

Terroni
If I were associated with Terroni, I'd probably be getting angry about now. Because while the original location of the southern Italian restaurant is famous in its native Toronto for its no-substitutions policy, in Hollywood, where we have sushi nazis, noodle nazis and ramen czars, Terroni's refusal to allow balsamic vinegar to touch its insalata Caprese barely rates a yawn. Ban spicy tuna rolls or catsup on French fries, and you've got a story on your hands. Force a 25-year-old man to cut his pizza with a steak knife, and not even Yelp finds it significant.

Terroni may actually feel more Italian than anywhere else in Los Angeles at the moment. There are terracotta serving dishes, decent Italian wines available in half-liter and quarter-liter carafes and a deft espresso pull. Terroni is one of the few restaurants in Los Angeles where you actually hear Italian spoken by both customers and cooks, and the Southern-style pastas are often very good, including possibly the first L.A. appearance of spaghetti ca'muddica, a Sicilian pasta a little like spaghetti alla puttanesca enriched with toasted bread crumbs. But Terroni specializes in pizzas — skinny, 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. No substitutions are permitted. 7605 Beverly Blvd., L.A. (323) 954-0300, terroni.ca. Open Sun.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-10 p.m; Fri-Sat., 11 a.m.-11 p.m. AE, MC, V. Full bar. Valet parking. Location map here.