The highs and lows of LA’s quiet restaurant year
With The Angel’s Emily Wilson
Last week, I ranked my favorite restaurant dishes of 2024, and it struck me how few came from new spots in Los Angeles. I've been going back and forth between New York and LA a bunch over the past couple years. In New York, I'm overwhelmed by hot new restaurants I'm dying to try, many of which have ended up being impressive and interesting. In LA, I often ask around for new recs before finding myself uninspired and ending up at the same classic spots that always deliver.
It's a weird contrast to that 2015-2020, pre-pandemic run when LA felt like the most exciting place to eat out in the country. I wanna explore what's going on — and if I'm just totally off here — so I hit up my friend
for a more in-depth discussion. Emily runs , my favorite publication covering LA food culture. Few people do a better job capturing what's actually happening in the dining scene here, what smart people in the industry are saying and where you should be eating.Emily! Let's start off broad: Do you think there's a real trend going on here with a dearth of new, essential restaurants in LA? Or am I wrong?
Hi! Thank you for having me.
I think you’re right. There weren’t a ton of buzzy, compelling new openings this year (or even last), and of the small number of highly anticipated new restaurants, several fell flat, at least for me. You could argue that LA is in a funk, but the way I see it, we’re in an ebb, not a flow. Every dining city in America — besides New York, where change is constant and the pursuit of innovation is relentless — goes through ebbs and flows. Just because LA is often considered New York’s runner-up, and even though it is forever a fantastic city to eat in, it’s not immune to that. Also, as we know, it's harder than ever to open a restaurant from a financial standpoint, and from what I hear from my friends who own restaurants, people aren't dining out as much (it's too expensive). It's a tough climate for new restaurant ventures. Still, I have no doubt that LA will resurface as a hotbed for inventive, exciting new restaurants.
That said, I love that that's not the case right now. It gives me more time to visit ten-year-old hole-in-the-walls in the burbs and frequent the restaurants I know and love. As an avid eater, as someone who covers food culture, and as a jaded born-and-raised New Yorker, I love how LA feels quieter right now and free from the anxious, have-you-been-here-yet type energy that's so intrinsic to dining culture in New York.
Interesting! I like the ebb framing, and there's certainly a bias coming through in how I think about this stuff. I first moved to LA during that pre-pandemic, buzzy restaurant boom and loved it. I just returned after two years in New York fighting for tough reservations every week. Those meals inevitably pop more when they deliver on the hassle of getting in.
Many of the new spots that did open in LA were a mix of deeply disappointing (Camelia), fairly forgettable (MidEast Tacos, Stella) or fall on the long list of places I have little interest in trying (the Budonoki menu reads like my personal nightmare), while my favorite meals out here all came at familiar classics. Taking my dad to Baroo and watching him gush to that it was the best food he’s ever had. The still kind of unknown Kato a la carte bar option. Bringing people to Luv2Eat Thai, Mariscos Jalisco, Here's Looking At You or Courage Bagels for their first time. A big, comfortable booth at Bavel or Horses. And being able to book any of those only a few days in advance during this quiet period is pretty nice as an avid consumer, though it blows for the industry that way fewer people are dining out.
The newer spots I've liked the most — Stir Crazy, Sam's Place, Liu's Cafe, Étra, Azizam, Petit Grain Boulangerie — feel like they're reliably doing things I've seen done before, which is fine. Petit Grain Boulangerie is unbelievable. It makes me forget I can’t really process gluten. I'm always excited to eat at Stir Crazy, another natural wine bar serving small plates. If it weren’t for the torched Highland Park clientele, I could hang at Sam's Place for hours. They're places I'm glad exist, delivering easy, accessible comforts.
My guess is that the new thing from the All Time crew in Altadena will hit the same notes. If that's informed by economics and the realities of maintaining a happy, healthy life while operating a restaurant, it would be dumb to begrudge that. Sinking a ton of capital into a restaurant is always kind of crazy. Doing it in the wake of the pandemic and two major Hollywood strikes is even crazier. If it were my money, I’d also settle into what’s proven to get people out of their homes consistently.
I admire the way you do your recurring My Los Angeles Right Now lists. It’s a reminder of how I actually like to eat here when I'm fully settled in. My friends who have been in LA for a while all do the same thing. What have some standouts been for you — new or old?
It's a fair point that new openings have veered on the safe side, delivering great versions of what they know people like. And I do think that's on account of the current financial climate. Also, to your point about the realities of maintaining a happy, healthy life, a lot of people move to Los Angeles in search of this, especially those coming from New York. So maybe the spot they open is more sustainable from a lifestyle standpoint — like how Stir Crazy is only open on weekdays. You can make that call in LA. You can't in New York. I think that's great. I think this notion of sustainability — for restaurant workers, for businesses, for food systems — will be at the forefront of the conversation around new restaurants, restaurant culture, etc, for the coming years. LA can lead the way in that conversation.
I'm thrilled that my ideal iteration of a cheffy wine spot, a bar with food, and a French-Californian bakery now exist in Stir Crazy, Sam's Place, and Petitgrain Boulangerie, even if true originality is down in Los Angeles right now. I, of course, love the feeling of going to a new spot and experiencing it firing on all cylinders, knowing that something very exciting is happening there. I felt it when I went to Horses for the first time, Courage Bagels, Dunsmoor (you need to give it another try; let me shepherd you), the list goes on. Chasing that feeling can also be a cheap thrill. It's why, with My Los Angeles Right Now, I want to encourage people to return to the places they love, first and foremost, while still making room to check out new places. Restaurants survive because of their regular customer base. While the high of visiting a brilliant new restaurant is real, I enjoy restaurant experiences the most when it's my fifth or tenth time back (so long as it's consistently great).
It's also worth pointing out that when we talk about buzzy new openings, we're talking about chef-driven restaurants with name-checked operators, right? Often spots with PR. Not the kinds of places Jonathan Gold prioritized visiting — do you agree? Most of the recent standouts for me have been humbler spots. Banh Mi Hoa Phat, a five-month-old San Gabriel shop doling out perfect banh mi. Yama Sushi, a 40-year-old sushi takeaway with sashimi cut to order. The latest iteration of Cafe Tropical, which has leveled up its culinary offerings while staying true to its roots. It's a coffee shop, not a restaurant, but I love what Michelle and Matthew have created at How's It Going to End? The salad at Sam's Place. The chicken over rice at Liu's. The new lahmajo at Zhengyalov Hatz. The spicy and sour dumplings in soup at Chong Qing Special Noodles. The potato pavé on Horses' new brunch menu. A raw bluefin tuna steak, cut thin and dressed with olive oil, capers, shallots, and fish sauce to kick off dinner at KinKan. Now I'm just listing off dishes... and perhaps getting too specific. Mori Nozomi, a special omakase in Sawtelle delivered by an all-female team, was my most memorable dining experience of the year.
Okay, first of all, I can’t believe you’re vouching for any new brunch menu after giving me shit for my devotion to the Frenchette pancake. Brutal.
But yeah, you’re completely right that we’re talking about the kinds of restaurants that would’ve competed for a spot on the BA Hot 10 back when that was something that mattered to a hyper-specific portion of the dining public. There are legitimate reasons for moving past all of that. The humble spaces you mentioned deserve recognition and regular business. Food media is better off with more independent publications like yours (and fewer articles naming Dallas a dining city of the year). Places like Étra can go on that trajectory from pretty good at opening to essential months later without dying out in a hype cycle. That’s all positive.
I do still legitimately love having a coveted res circled on my calendar that ends up overdelivering on all fronts. My first night at Bridges in New York was my favorite dining experience of the year. I think the food was probably, like, an A-. But it was everything else that bumped it to an A+. The beautiful room. Snagging the table right as it was getting impossible to book. Sneaking back to the PDR. Spotting friends at nearby booths, sharing gossip and recs on what to order. Getting too drunk. Flirting with a waitstaff emanating an energy that, two weeks in, they’d pulled off something. Arguing with people for days afterwards about how good the food actually is or isn’t. That does only really happen with chef-driven, PR-fueled buzz, and right now that’s way more common in New York than LA.
Also, there’s buzz, and then there’s influence. I’m obsessed with Bridges, but it’s basically just contemporary Estela. Penny is not all that discernible from Swan Oyster Depot with a nicer counter and 20% more impressive technique. I order all of the same things at the new Mission Chinese Food that I did at the old Mission Chinese Food. I don’t think anyone can write about New York’s current dining influence the way Bill Addison did about California for Eater in 2018, when you saw the tentacles of innovation spreading from LA to the rest of the country. New York’s most pervasive current dining trend is clubstaurants and I hope that stays there.
Maybe LA’s next great wave of influence is the sustainability you mentioned. It’s necessary, and it’s cool seeing that develop here. I’ve rarely been more miserable than working brunch-dinner double shifts at a Brooklyn restaurant that had to be open seven days a week in order to survive. I’d love to have a few more LA spots to Resy Notify in 2025, but my food industry friends being happy, making money and building a better system matters more than that.
Any closing thoughts before I book our Dunsmoor res?
I think you nailed it. We’re on the same page. Including about brunch (it’s a shameful activity, but still, that potato pavé…).
The point about Étra is such a good one and something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I still fall prey to trying a restaurant in its first weeks because I can’t help myself, and yet I am reminded time and time again (including twice in the last week, I won’t name names) that restaurants need time — like, three months — to iron out the kinks, figure out what’s working, and nail what guests want from them. One of my dining resolutions for next year is to exercise more patience before booking a reservation at a brand-new spot. I know I’ll be rewarded with the experience I’ll eventually have. And, if three months in, it’s not very good, I’ll feel more confident in my disinterest in going back.
As for New York, I hope that the coveted reservation as a cultural asset is at its climax right now. It can be a fun game to play if you’re good at it, but it feels like hotness has become the driving factor of why people dine out, and that’s sort of a bummer. Back when I worked at Resy in the early days, from 2017 until just before the pandemic, I fucking loved keeping track of all the buzzy new openings and checking them out, but it wasn’t something that every culturally inclined person in New York was doing, so it felt cooler to be in on it. We’re past that now. It’s why when I go home, I try to hit one, maybe two, new spots and otherwise visit my tried-and-trues.
Innovation was at a high point during the pandemic. LA’s vibrant pop-up scene was one of the driving factors of my move, at least professionally. But once restaurants came back in a real way, everyone just wanted to be in them — we wanted vibe, we wanted old-school, we wanted sexy. Great food, or at least inventive food, was less important. That’s starting to become tired now. I’m hoping that 2025 will bring a new tide.
Thanks a bunch to Emily for doing this. Go subscribe to The Angel here. We’ve got a few more food dialogues coming before the end of the year. They’re good. Get excited.
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