Ethnic and Regional Cuisines

Morihiro Onodera: The Chef Throws Pots

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here. For the first decade of the 21st century, people who loved sushi in Los Angeles made a pilgrimage to Mori Sushi, a minimalist restaurant on Pico Boulevard. There, owner and sus ... More >>

Now Open: Indian Gastropub Badmaash in Downtown L.A.

To get a sense of what new Indian gastropub Badmaash is all about, look no further than the three samosa options at the top of the menu -- each one encapsulating a characteristic of the restaurant. Owners Nakul Mahendro and his brother Arjun, along with their father (and executive chef) Pawan worked ... More >>

5 Best Dosas in Los Angeles

There are as many kinds of dosas as there are moms in South India -- which is to say, a lot. This Indian breakfast and snack food is a thin, crispy crepe made from a lightly fermented batter of ground rice and lentils. The batter is ladled onto a hot griddle and then quickly spread to paper thinness ... More >>

Now Open: Osawa Brings Otsumami, Shabu Shabu and Sushi To Old Town Pasadena

At 11 a.m. yesterday, Osawa opened to the public in Pasadena. The restaurant is owned by Sayuri Tachibe, who is the wife of corporate executive chef Shigefumi Tachibe of the Chaya Restaurant Group, though he isn't involved in this project, nor is Chaya. The chef at Osawa is Norio Yoshikawa.

A Dim Sum Crawl in Chinatown

Chinatown was a main hub for dim sum before San Gabriel Valley earned its destination status. Now, the Chinese Business Improvement District is about to reintroduce the neighborhood's eats with a crawl designed strictly for grownups. This Thursday, April 18, the non-profit organization will host a ... More >>

Jet Tila Appointed Thai Cuisine Ambassador

Jet Tila has been appointed the first Culinary Ambassador of Thai Cuisine by the Royal Thai Consul-General in Los Angeles, tasked with spreading awareness nationwide and making official his unofficial -- and longstanding -- role as a guide to the cuisine. Tila was tapped for the position after a m ... More >>

Q & A With Soul of a Banquet's Wayne Wang: Cecilia Chiang Why the Best Chinese Food in the World is in the SGV

Back in 2011, when it seemed like the entire Bay Area was seized with Chez Panisse 40th anniversary fever, Hong Kong-born, San Francisco-based filmmaker Wayne Wang (Chan Is Missing, Joy Luck Club, Smoke) asked Chez Panisse's founder, Alice Waters, if there was a role he could play. Waters suggested ... More >>

Happy Hour: Shin-Sen-Gumi Yakitori & Shabu Shabu in Monterey Park

Place: Shin-Sen-Gumi Yakitori & Shabu Shabu, 111 N. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park; (626) 943-7956. Hours: Beer special runs from Mon.-Thu., 6 p.m.-7 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. For the rest of March, yakitori specials are available Mon.-Thu., 6 p.m.-11 p.m. In April, the specials will only b ... More >>

The Korean Restaurant Guide: Los Angeles 40 Restaurants and Bilingual Text

If you love Korean food but aren't as conversant in the intricasies of either L.A.'s Koreatown neighborhood or, well, Korean, the folks at The Korean Food Foundation have engineered a terrific guidebook for you. Just published in a handy square cornflower blue paperback, the Korean Restaurant Guide: ... More >>

5 Essential Japanese Restaurants in Los Angeles

Our 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants issue came out recently, and we're highlighting a few categories drawing from the list. Today: Japanese restaurants. This is not a definitive list of the best Japanese restaurants in L.A., but it is a sampling of five that we think are each essential in their own w ... More >>

5 Essential Italian Restaurants in Los Angeles

Our 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants issue came out last week, and we're highlighting a few categories drawing from the list. Today: Italian restaurants. This isn't every single Italian or Italian-influenced spot on the list, so make sure you check out the whole thing, but here are five of our favorit ... More >>

Kiyokawa: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Golden Deli: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Tacos Punta Cabras Now Open in Santa Monica: More Fun with the Supper Liberation Front

If you live or work on the Westside and are tired of the long haul across town -- or a few hundred miles south -- every time you want a good, I mean really good, fish taco, you're in luck. This past weekend, Josh Gil and Daniel Snukal opened Tacos Punta Cabras in Santa Monica. You can spend all that ... More >>

Where The Chef's Eat: Rustic Canyon's Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan

Where the Chefs Eat is an ongoing series in which we ask a local chef to give us his or her favorite dining options. This week, we talk to Josh Loeb, co-chef/owner with his wife Zoe Nathan of Rustic Canyon, Huckleberry and Milo & Olive, about where the two eat out when they're not cooking, at home, ... More >>

10 Best Halal Dishes in Los Angeles

Los Angeles can, yet again, boast about having the most variety, if not depth, of something. Home to the most diverse Muslim population in the United States, Los Angeles County is full of halal restaurants. Halal means permitted or lawful according to Sharia (Islamic) laws. In the realm of dining ou ... More >>

Sperm is in Season: Hamasaku Has it Three Ways

There it sits on a plate, shiny and quivery and not unlike a pile of raw sweetbreads. Intertwining sacks, bound by sinew, filled with creamy sperm. Cod sperm, to be more exact. And I'm going to eat a lot of it. Without gagging. In fact, I'm going to enjoy it. Hamasaku, a Japanese restaurant tuc ... More >>

Now Open: RivaBella in West Hollywoood, From Chef Gino Angelini

RivaBella, a collaboration between Gino Angelini and Innovative Dining Group, opens its doors today for dinner in West Hollywood in the former Hamburger Hamlet location on Sunset. Angelini is the chef behind the celebrated and fairly intimate Italian restaurant Angelini Osteria, and Innovative Dinin ... More >>

BierBeisl Brings Something Different to Beverly Hills

Austrian chef Bernhard Mairinger has brilliantly old-school technique

10 Best Eats in Thai Town: Neighborhood Grub Crawl

Some call it East Hollywood, but many more know it as Thai Town, a glowing, neon causeway of great late-night restaurants, karaoke bars and slingers of Chang beer towers. It's an area of town that not only welcomes after-hours consumption, but glorifes it --- filled with brimming bowls of pungent no ... More >>

Ha Tien Quan: Vietnamese Gumbo in the SGV

It begins innocently enough: You have your first taste of pho somewhere like Golden Deli, the noodle shop on the outer reaches of San Gabriel, where the fragrant, stunningly clear broth is as famous as the crunchy egg rolls. Like any proper gateway drug, you soon begin to run the gamut of chintzy p ... More >>

5 Places in L.A. to Get Your Poutine Fix

There was once a time, perhaps, when poutine was consumed mostly by Quebecois with a penchant for late-night drunk food. But ever since it made its way into the playbooks of hip chefs a few years ago, poutine has become a gastropub staple, up there with beet salad and blue-cheesed burgers. In its ... More >>

Nobu Malibu Review

The oceanfront sushi restaurant has a beautiful new home – and the same classics that made Nobu Matsuhisa famous

18: Matsuhisa's Yellowtail Scallion Donburi

Celebrating this year's Best of L.A. issue -- now out in print and online -- we're counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 18: Matsuhisa's Yellowtail Scallion Donburi. You may be able to eat chef Nobu Matsuhisa's stunning Peruvian-influenced Japanese cuisine at one of hi ... More >>

Southern Cooking, Animal-Style

Animal, Son of a Gun and the real takeaway of the Southern food trend

U Sushi: Build Your Own Sushi In Beverly Hills A Sushi Video

The trend of personalized food has reached the realm of sushi. U Sushi, which opened on South Beverly Dr. last December, brings the make-your-own concept to one of L.A.'s favorite foods. U Sushi owner Jeremy Umland, who also owns Ozumo in Santa Monica Place, traces the idea for his restaurant to th ... More >>

Adventures in Veganism: The Spot in Hermosa Beach

The menu at Hermosa Beach vegetarian restaurant The Spot Natural Food Restaurant indicates that the place serves desserts, but unless you're the reincarnation of Andre the Giant, you'll never know for sure. Because only the former Eighth Wonder of the World would be able to complete the Tamale Combo ... More >>

5 Best New Gift-Worthy Cookbooks

The beauty of cookbooks: there is truly something for everyone. Whether you've got a boss who has a thing for handmade pasta, a friend who thinks they're Gordon Ramsay (but doesn't own a pepper mill), or a cousin who's obsessed with every Michelin-starred chef, you can find a cookbook to suit their ... More >>

In-Chan's Little Secret

This family restaurant in Van Nuys delights with northern Thai dishes — as long as you ask for the special menu

The 5 Things You Need To Know About In-Chan

In-Chan Thai Cuisine is the subject of this week's restaurant review. Here's a taste of what you can find in the review, as well as a few extra tidbits: Food: Make sure to ask for the special Northern Thai menu, which isn't given out to most patrons unless specifically asked for. Order of it and yo ... More >>

Men Oh Tokushima Ramen: Chashu, Pork Belly A Ramen Video!

The history of the San Francisco-Los Angeles rivalry is well-documented in many fields, whether it's the Giants and Dodgers contesting the NL West (we're all aware of how that turned out this season) or a frank debate on which city offers the biggest and best representation of West Coast cuisine. In ... More >>

29: Sashimi Special at Sushi Gen

Celebrating this year's Best of L.A. issue -- now out in print and online -- we're counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 29: Sashimi Special at Sushi Gen. In a perfect world, every visit to your favorite sushi bar would entail an omakase meal, an ever-changing elabora ... More >>

Salumi Night at Mozza's Scuola di Pizza

Mozza's Scuolo di Pizza dazzles thanks to chef Chad Colby -- and his salumi bar

The Italian Job

Pasadena’s Trattoria Neapolis aims for the fences, but the food doesn’t live up to the setting

10 Best Moles in Los Angeles

Let's count the reasons we love mole. It's rich and intense. Warm and comforting. Spicy, yet sweet and often savory. A seamless blend of 20 to 40 (or more) ingredients that have been toasted, roasted, ground, blended and cooked. Radiant and colorful. A mix of Old World spices with New World chiles a ... More >>

Men Oh Tokushima Ramen Opens Today in Little Tokyo

It's October on the calendar and thus theoretically great ramen weather. Alas, theory hasn't quite met thermometer just yet, but when it does, it might be a good time to welcome the belated fall season with a nice bowl of noodles from a new ramen joint (yes, another one): Japanese chain Men Oh Toku ... More >>

Taqueria Los Anaya: The Taco Next Door

Man cannot live on taco trucks alone, try as he might. For that reason there are places like Taqueria Los Anaya in West Adams. The family-run restaurant, which opened in March, happens to dabble in the kind of home-cooked Mexican food that inspires weekend drives to La Super Rica in Santa Barbara ... More >>

Culver City's Zam Zam Market Expands Hours Menu

Have you ever been to Zam Zam Market, a Pakistani restaurant down the street from King Fahad Mosque in Culver City? If not, there was probably good reason: The take-out shop was only open from Thursday to Sunday at irregular hours, and often only cooked a limited supply of dishes that ran out quickl ... More >>

10 Best Seafood Tacos in Los Angeles

It used to be, a dozen years ago or so, that there weren't that many spots in town where you could find a decent seafood taco, much less a great one. Fast forward to 2012, and fish and shrimp tacos have gone through something of an evolution. There are plenty of fish in the sea now; you can barely ... More >>

Kula Sushi: Conveyor-Belt Sushi in Little Tokyo

Conveyor-belt sushi restaurants, or kaiten-zushi as they're known in Japan, are big business these days. You might not think so when plates of sushi are priced at just $2 each, as they are at Little Tokyo's Kula Sushi, the newest and most ambitious kaiten joint to hit the L.A. scene. But arrive on a ... More >>

Q & A with David R. Chan: 6,165 Chinese Restaurants, Googling Himself Flying Out To Springfield

Among the Chinese food community, David R. Chan is considered an expert. We've written about the accountant and attorney's herculean feat of eating at more than 6,000 Chinese restaurants (and that number keeps on growing each week). He's been on the radio, magazines, international newspaper and on T ... More >>

Nha Trang: Onward and Pho-ward

When San Gabriel's Nha Trang opened a larger shop in nearby Monterey Park earlier this year, it was cause for excitement. While the original location was celebrated for its deeply flavored, complex versions of Central Vietnamese soups, it measured about the size of a doctor's waiting room, could sea ... More >>

Top Chef Masters Recap: Un-Thaied

Curtis Stone is, in the words of Derek Zoolander, "really, really, ridiculously good-looking," so not the type, we'd imagine, to get tongue-tied around the ladies. But leave it to hometown girl Dita Von Teese, L.A.'s (and the world's) queen of burlesque to make TV's reigning pin-up boy blush. Von T ... More >>

Happy 100th Birthday Julia Child: A Citywide Pasadena Cocktail Party Julia Costume Contests

Today Julia Child would have turned 100 years old, a centennial that has generated a country-wide celebration. All over America, in newspaper food sections and bookstores, in restaurants and on the radio, we're toasting Child's birthday. (Check out Google's homepage! Take the PBS Julia Quiz!) And in ... More >>

Q & A With Yisrael Aharoni, Israeli Celebrity Chef: Chinese Food In Israel, Hollywood Being A DJ

Israel Aharoni keeps himself busy. He's a chef, television show developer and host, journalist and cookbook author. Credited with being Israel's first celebrity chef and bringing Chinese food to Israel, Aharoni studied cooking in Taiwan and has owned and operated several restaurants in Israel, inclu ... More >>

69: Yukhwe Bibimbap at Oo-Kook Korean BBQ

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4), we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 69: Yukhwe Bibimbap at Oo-Kook Korean BBQ It's been a week filled with those days when you glance around the kitchen, throw up your hands, and laments that's i ... More >>

Julia Child's Centennial Celebration

Books: Dearie, The Remarkable Life of Julia Child Happy 100th Birthday Julia!

To kick off Julia Child's nationwide 100th birthday festivities that begin today (her actual birthday is August 15th), we're taking a look at several books released in honor of the Pasadena native. A boeuf Bourguignon centennial book party, in essence (Happy, happy birthday!). We've seen several g ... More >>

At Mezze, Chef Micah Wexler Nails a Menu of Creative, Middle Eastern-Inspired Dishes