The rustic, seasonal brunch menu at Canelé, chef Corina Weibel's homey Atwater Village restaurant, certainly seems innocuous enough. “Thick French toast,” for example, or a “side” of “baked pancake with Meyer lemon custard.” As it turns out, this “thick French toast” is a trio of inches-high slabs of French toast, ridiculously crispy on the outside, wonderfully custardy on the inside. The “baked pancake” is what happens when a pancake meets a tart — a fluffy concoction served in a ramekin and topped with a custard just lemony enough to offset the dough's sweetness. The savories, like the fried faro with eggs and sriracha, are just as good, and that house-cured bacon! It's everything you want in bacon, and then some. That the dishes are nothing you expect — only infinitely better — is endearing, in a way, as if the restaurant is much too shy to ever tell you that the best brunch in Los Angeles is served up between its li'l ol' brick walls. We'll be a pal and toot its horn on its behalf: This is indeed the best in the city. 3219 Glendale Blvd., Atwater Village. (323) 666-7133, canele-la.com.
—Tien Nguyen

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