Besha Rodell

article placeholder

The Hungry Cat: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Besha Rodell
When a food writer has a birthday, where does she eat? This food writer went to the Hungry Cat, slurped 30-odd oysters and partook of chef David Lentz's decidedly grown-up brunch, which includes some of the best crudo dishes in town, bright with citrus and chili oils and pine nuts......
Credit: PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Osteria Mozza: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Besha Rodell
If you adore restaurants, if you're addicted to the sounds, the energy and the spectacle of dining out, there's hardly anyplace in L.A. that's more of a thrill than Osteria Mozza. When you step in through the huge, dark doors into the noise and activity, you know you've arrived somewhere......
article placeholder

Superba Snack Bar: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Besha Rodell
Superba Snack Bar slipped so easily into its community, and so quickly seemed inherent to its Rose Avenue neighborhood, that it felt as if it had been there all along. The small, square building, cut open at the front so that the majority of the dining room is actually a......
article placeholder

Alma: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Besha Rodell
This is what the promise of the food revolution was supposed to deliver: young, talented chefs forging their own paths in funky, unexpected spaces, simultaneously elevating our cities and our palates. Alma chef-owner Ari Taymor has carved a very cool niche for himself. His restaurant, on Broadway downtown, is nestled......
article placeholder

ink.: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Besha Rodell
In ink., Michael Voltaggio has created a restaurant that's both broody and as fun as they come, both serious business and pure playtime. The room is all dark and moody, its one bright spot the long, glowing, open kitchen with Voltaggio at the helm, facing outward to survey his domain......
Credit: PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Park's BBQ: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Besha Rodell
If the walls full of celebrity photos (from Korean pop stars to Keanu Reeves) at Park's BBQ don't tip you off, if the Michelin-"recommended" plaque doesn't clue you in, if the lines out the door don't give you some idea that you're somewhere special, well, the smell ought to do......
article placeholder

Tavern: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Besha Rodell
Tavern, Suzanne Goin's Brentwood bistro, takes the idea of "starters" seriously. These are no mini entrees and no creative acrobatics on the plate here. Instead, you'll be reintroduced to the simple pleasures of a salad, perhaps one composed of sautéed mushrooms over greens, or maybe farro with cubes of cheese......
Credit: PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Animal: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Besha Rodell
Five years after its opening, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo's flagship restaurant still feels shiny and new, a standard-bearer for the meat-centric food of the moment. Shook and Dotolo may have started the dude-food craze, but, unlike many of their imitators, they understand the finer points of acid and balance,......
article placeholder

Jitlada: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Besha Rodell
There's hardly anywhere in the country that could give you a better education in Southern Thai food than siblings Sarintip "Jazz" Singsanong and Suthiporn "Tui" Sungkamee's Jitlada, tucked into the corner of a Hollywood strip mall. When the pair took over the restaurant in 2007, the real-deal, spice-laden food could......
Credit: PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Picca: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Besha Rodell
Los Angeles is both lucky and unusual in that it's rich in Peruvian cuisine — even high-end Peruvian cuisine, thanks to Nobu's longtime influence and, more recently, Ricardo Zarate. Zarate's Picca may be this country's most perfect expression of upscale Peruvian, a glorious merging of the lime-, coconut- and potato-heavy......