4 things we learned about L.A. cuisine while finding its 101 best restaurants

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

• The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles.
• Ahead of second Trump term, California vows “ironclad” abortion access.
• Tell us: What smells remind you of L.A.?
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper.

Need a restaurant recommendation? We’ve got 101

L.A. dining cannot be defined by one experience. The region is spoiled for choice that can, at times, be overwhelming. So over a decade ago, The Times set out to find the 101 best restaurants in the area.

On Tuesday night, we released our annual list of the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles. For its 12th year, restaurant critic Bill Addison and I co-wrote The Times’ list that celebrates the unique and diverse dining experiences in L.A.

In addition to the 101, there are five new honorees to our Hall of Fame, restaurants that will forever be a part of what makes this city’s dining culture so singular and special. And we introduce seven of our favorite places to get a coffee, glass of wine or pitch-perfect cocktail.

Ben’s Martini at the Benjamin.

(Andrea D’Agosto / For The Times)

Restaurant closures are still roiling the industry

For several months we ate at hundreds of restaurants. It was clear that restaurants are still very much in survival mode, which makes a list like this especially daunting, attempting to award excellence while remaining attuned to the distinct challenges that face our hospitality industry.

There were nearly 100 significant closures this year and the number keeps growing. All Day Baby, Lien Ta’s cheery Silver Lake diner that always managed to strike the right balance of innovation and nostalgia, was slated to be on our list. Ta recently announced that she was closing the restaurant later this month.

Owner Kathy Alston of Kathy’s Kitchen with her Lime, Celery and Ginger Juice.

(Andrea D’Agosto / For The Times)

My favorite juice bar in the city, a tiny shop called Kathy’s Kitchen in a Crenshaw strip mall, was meant to be included on our list of places to drink. Owner Kathy Alston made the difficult decision to close by year’s end.

Menus are becoming more risk-averse

These closures set the narrative for some of the overarching themes we observed while dining throughout Southern California.

Many of the restaurant menus started to look the same, with chefs trading in creative streaks for safer approaches that might better guarantee reservations on the books.

I don’t know that I’ve seen more Italian restaurant openings in a single year. And when I say Italian, I’m not referring to any real sense of regionality, but more of a monolith of flour, water and red sauce.

But as with every year, there were so many bright spots, countless restaurants continuing to shape what it means to dine in Los Angeles at this exact moment. Places with points of views, flavors and stories so vivid and wonderful, they were more than deserving of a spot on the list.

New restaurants are redefining the post-pandemic food scene

Some of the list’s newcomers were pandemic pop-ups that settled into permanent spaces.

The traditional restaurant experiences brought consistency for diners and hopefully a steadier, more predictable income for the teams behind them.

These are chefs who possess the tenacity to start something new during a time of turmoil and turn their pop-ups into permanent fixtures. To count on their doors being open during regularly scheduled hours is a luxury.

Cocobread cutter sandwich, left; callaloo, top; curry shrimp roti; and mac and cheese pie at Bridgetown Roti.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Some of the list’s stellar new entrants, including Malai Data’s Mae Malai in Hollywood, Rashida Holmes’ Caribbean restaurant Bridgetown Roti in East Hollywood, and Cody Ma and Misha Sesar’s Silver Lake Persian restaurant Azizam, all began as pop-up operations.

Diverse dining experiences are still in abundance in L.A.

Komal, a new molino and restaurant at the Mercado La Paloma that specializes in freshly ground masa, started as an heirloom corn project within Holbox restaurant in the mercado, then became a wholesale tortilla business about a year and a half ago. Chef Fátima Juárez is nixtamalizing beautiful indigo blue and sunshine gold corn for her short but powerful menu of antojitos.

Although most of the restaurants that told the richest stories leaned casual, there were still enough excellent omakase experiences to form their own biosphere, with no shortage of openings and customers willing to pay a month’s rent on dinner.

There were reopenings that wowed with unbridled ambition and new directions for some familiar names.

Kwang Uh, right, and Mina Park, a husband-and-wife restaurateur team, pose for a portrait inside their modern Korean restaurant in the Arts District neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles.

(Silvia Razgova / Los Angeles Times)

Kwang Uh and Mina Park funneled the wildly innovative spirit behind the original Baroo into an Arts District tasting menu restaurant where fresh expressions of Korean food seem to manifest nightly. The lush vibrancy of an entire sunshine-filled summer is encapsulated in a single bowl of wild flowers and peas at Jordan Kahn’s reimagined Vespertine.

They were too new to be considered for this year’s list, but with Dave Beran’s return to a tasting menu format at Seline in Santa Monica, and Zabala Aitor’s Somni already taking reservations, Los Angeles is once again part of a national conversation about the future of fine dining.

We hope you use this guide as a blueprint to the city we love, each restaurant an integral piece of what makes Los Angeles one of the very best places to eat and explore in the world.

Today’s top stories

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, talks with state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta on the Assembly floor in the Capitol on Monday.

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

California lawmakers seek to further protect abortion access before Trump returns to power

• State lawmakers have introduced legislation to ensure the availability of abortion pills even if the Trump administration attempts to interfere with their distribution.
• Another new bill would financially penalize cities and counties that block the building of abortion clinics, as has happened in Beverly Hills and Fontana.

A California raw milk producer said RFK Jr. has encouraged him to apply for an FDA position

• Mark McAfee, a raw milk producer who has been at the center of several bird flu-related product recalls, told The Times he applied for the position of “FDA advisor on raw milk policy and standards development.”
• Recent raw milk recalls were the result of positive tests for H5N1 bird flu among McAfee’s cows. His farms have since been quarantined, and the state has suspended all sales of raw milk and cream

Two kindergartners were in “extremely critical” condition after a school shooting in Northern California

• The shooting took place at the Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists, roughly 70 miles north of Sacramento, on Wednesday, authorities said.
• The incident, which ended in the apparent suicide of the gunman, may have been religiously motivated, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said.

A jury awarded $3 million to an ex-SWAT sergeant who alleged a “mafia” culture in the LAPD unit

• Timothy Colomey, a former sergeant in the LAPD’s SWAT unit, filed a lawsuit alleging he faced retaliation for reporting misconduct.
• Colomey has alleged “unlawful killings” by SWAT members and claimed a cadre of senior officers, a so-called “SWAT mafia,” exercised “god-like power” over the unit.

What else is going on

• Fearing a loss of federal funds ahead of the World Cup and Olympics, the Los Angeles City Council approved a contentious airport lease.
• Southwest cut cabin service short to reduce the risk of injuries, the airline said.
• California bans food “Sell by” dates. Will it save you money without getting you sick?
• A British band kicking off its West Coast tour hit a bump when a gunman robbed the members’ tour van at a gas station.
• Tied Galt City Council race comes down to drawing straws to declare winner.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Commentary and opinions

• If Democrats want to change their fortunes, they should start with acknowledging that our public education system is disconnected from the modern workforce, writes Darrell Steinberg, the outgoing mayor of Sacramento.
• The American media is not as important as journalists and their detractors claim, especially now, columnist Jonah Goldberg writes.
• Trump has named a pro-union secretary of Labor. Business columnist Michael Hiltzik asks, Will she be able to do anything for workers?
• America needs to retake Econ 101, argues Aine Seitz McCarthy, an associate professor of economics at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore.
• Times theater critic Charles McNulty reflects on his profession at a time when its very survival seems on the line.

This morning’s must-reads

(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

In the Mojave Desert, a gold rush sparks a mini real-estate boom for old mines. As the price of the precious metal climbs to record highs, prospectors are buying up claims in the Mojave Desert to seek their fortune. But it’s the real estate agents who have the sure bet.

Other must-reads

• A man found dead after a fire at his Los Angeles home was said to have been part of the Rothschild banking family, but The Times found no evidence supporting the claim.
• These L.A. musicians investigated a medical mystery — and their discovery launched a new skin-care line.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your downtime

Los Angeles has its own distinct smells, from taco stands to beach trips to jacaranda trees in the late spring. Tell us what smells remind you of the city.

(Los Angeles Times photo illustration; photos via Getty Images)

Going out

• 👃 What smells remind you of L.A.? We’d love to hear from you about your favorite (or least favorite) smells that remind you of the city.
• 🍽️ L.A.’s most polarizing restaurant reopened after four years. Our critic looks at whether its outlandishness is worth the splurge.
• 📚 The Last Bookstore’s new outpost in Studio City will have its soft opening this weekend.
• 🎻 Youth orchestras delivered the three most powerful performances of 2024, our critic writes.

Staying in

• 💻 Netflix’s latest pitch is “Squid Game” tracksuits and other merchandise.
• 📕 A woman’s journey with the Black Panthers reveals the momentum — and dangers — of activism in the novel “Kingdom of No Tomorrow.”
• 🍎 Here’s a recipe for apple fritter cake with butterscotch glaze.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

A question for you: Which famous Californian, living or dead, would you want to have dinner with and why?

Larry Spinelli writes: “I would love to sit down and have dinner with Walt Disney. He was such an important part of my childhood through his weekly television show and movies.

“It would be great to have a chance to thank him for all the joy and pleasure he brought to so many people and to ask him a litany of questions about all these projects. Our dinner would be particularly timely because this is the 60th anniversary of my two favorite Walt Disney achievements: the movie ‘Mary Poppins’ and his many exhibits at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.”

Email us at [email protected], and your response might be included in the newsletter this week.

And finally ... from our archives

A review of “Beverly Hills Cop” was published in The Times on Dec. 5, 1984.

(Los Angeles Times)

“Beverly Hills Cop” starring Eddie Murphy hit movie theaters on Dec. 5, 1984. The comedy received a glowing review in The Times from then-critic Michael Wilmington.

It is “funny man Eddie Murphy who gives this movie its bite and flash, its heart and soul,” Wilmington wrote at the time. “He’ll get better later on ... but this is one of the movies we’ll all want to remember him for, on chillier nights, when reality once again holds sway.”

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Defne Karabatur, fellow
Andrew Campa, Sunday reporter
Hunter Clauss, multiplatform editor
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Stephanie Chavez, deputy metro editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.