Angela Matano

The Pono Burger chef has hopes for change....

If Shakespeare had tasted the new doughnut stars of the Westside he may have never penned the line, “Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?” Unlike the chain shops with their pre-formed pastries that sit for hours packed on trays, the treats crafted in the open......

Now don’t get your panties in a bunch — no one is saying that tacos on the Westside rival those on the Eastside. That's just silly. There is, however, a claim to be made that the state of the taco west of the 405 is improving tremendously. Perhaps the dish......

Like calamari, this once-exotic protein now seems as foreign as mozzarella sticks. But while octopus is common, perfectly prepared octopus is not. Here are eight octopus dishes we find unusually delicious. Smoke.Oil.Salt Every forkful of chef Perfecto Rocher’s food at Smoke.Oil.Salt exudes purpose, and that's because each component of a......

A plate of the tiny, mild smelt fish is the perfect finger-food appetizer. Usually served like calamari — fried up in a pile with some sort of dipping sauce — a small plate is enough to share. Averaging six to eight inches in length, these little guys are high in......

It’s no longer the norm for the vegetable to sit idly on the sidelines as a mere side item. Though meat-focused restaurants are hardly diminishing in popularity, veggie-centered places are having their moment in L.A. and beyond.  Here are five restaurants at which the vegetable truly shines: Commissary Can a......

Instead of being touted as a day of love, Valentine's Day should just be rechristened to “National Chocolate Day," where it will be scrubbed of any treacly, romantic tropes and turned into a day of friendship. It could be a glorious day of gorging and sugar highs throughout the land,......

Venice Boulevard, one of L.A.'s main arteries, has never gotten a lot of love. Always the means, never a destination, Venice is like the perennial bridesmaid, never blessed with a trip to the altar. But in the neighborhood of Mar Vista, on Venice centered between Inglewood Boulevard and Centinela Avenue,......

Suddenly ubiquitous, crudo rivals kale in popularity on Los Angeles restaurant menus. Where tartare used to hold court, crudo now reigns supreme. But what is crudo exactly? Opinions differ — vociferously. Technically, crudo translates to “raw” in Italian. This applies to meat, fish and even vegetables (a close relation to......