if you stay
(Giacomo Bagnara / For The Times)
When you live in Los Angeles, there are far worse fates than being stuck in the city all summer. Our thriving food capital draws diners with sunlit farmers markets, midnight taco stands, multi-generational kebab shops, and laid-back sushi restaurants. Community-oriented breweries, stylish wine bars, and gleaming rooftop destinations complete the scene.
Whether you're a lifelong Angeleno, a new transplant, or just passing through, you'll want to know the 50 essential dining experiences that define food in Los Angeles right now, from a pastrami sandwich at an iconic deli near MacArthur Park to a charred-spotted tlayuda at a burgeoning food bazaar in West Adams and an L.A.-shaped churro from an up-and-coming bakery in Highland Park.
Don't miss our guide to nearly two dozen new bar openings across the city. Finally, a handful of gleaming rooftops recently debuted across the city, offering views of neighborhoods we rarely see from above.
Carefully compiled by our food staff over several months, we invite you to return to these lists whenever you're looking for an answer to that eternal question: Where should I go next? — Danielle Dorsey
if you go
(Giacomo Bagnara / For The Times)
There is no easier way to get to know a new place than through its food. Street markets, eating at food stalls, sitting among locals and fellow travelers in restaurants that embody a city. Their flavors, customs and ways of life are revealed to us during a dinner or even a simple coffee in the morning.
And for those of us lucky enough to make a living writing about food, traveling with a dining mentality gives us a deeper understanding of the places we've read about in cookbooks and novels or seen in movies.
Each of us at LA Times Food keeps a running list of our favorite restaurants in some of the world's great cities and we want to share what we know with you. The recommendations that follow are not intended to be definitive for any given location. These are personal guides by dedicated diners to some of the places we loved during our world travels.
If you would like to share your personal favorites with us, we would love to hear from you in the comments below. — Laura Ochoa
