Brick-and-timber Old Port dining room built around a massive wood-burning hearth and open kitchen. The daily menu runs on local Maine catch and harvest, sending out wood-roasted mussels, fresh oysters, and turnspit duck.
Intimate dining room serving inventive French tasting menus at communal tables. The chef’s counter lines the open kitchen, giving a direct view as the team works through the nightly courses.
Lively French bistro serving inventive bar food next door to its acclaimed sister restaurant, Le Pigeon. Counter seats face the open kitchen, where cooks plate steam burgers and foie gras dumplings for a dark, loud room.
Intimate wine bar and bottle shop with the scale and warmth of a dinner party. An open kitchen anchors the candlelit room, serving French small plates and rare pours.
Gluten-free bakery from a James Beard-winning chef, reinterpreting Vietnamese flavors into modern pastries. The signature is the chewy pandan honeycomb cake, served alongside strong Vietnamese coffee in a bright, minimalist space.
Fillmore kitchen serving classic soul food from treasured family recipes. The rosemary fried chicken gets top billing, but the real move is adding hot honey butter to the fresh cornbread.
Warm, red-walled corner restaurant in the Inner Richmond serving charcoal-grilled kebabs and shareable Turkish mezze. Tables fill fast for classic Mediterranean plates backed by a massive list of low-intervention wines.
Loud, festive Oaxacan institution serving complex, family-recipe moles and a deep list of mezcals. Live music from the bandstand fills the sprawling dining room most nights.
Restored Art Deco pawn shop running as an upscale sports bar with an 80-seat central counter and wall-to-wall screens. The kitchen serves pickle-brined fried chicken, tomahawk steaks, and caviar alongside live games.
Sun-washed Culver City bakery serving rustic pies and thick cookies from pastry chef Nicole Rucker. Smooth counters hold a daily rotation of key lime pie, bourbon pecan chocolate chip cookies, and Basque pistachio cheesecake.
Distinctive Culver City A-frame serving casual modern Mexican small plates. Tables fill with duck albondigas, homemade tortillas, and salt-foam margaritas.
Snug Highland Park storefront serving hearty dishes that merge Mexican and Italian cooking. The compact dining room runs warm, spilling out onto a back patio for elote agnolotti and masa-laced pasta.
Black-walled El Sereno taqueria running to a heavy metal soundtrack. The open kitchen slings dark-marinade al pastor on black tortillas, dessert flan tacos, and a full vegan menu out to counter seats and a small back patio.
Old-school Westlake deli stacking hot, hand-sliced pastrami on crispy double-baked rye. Brown vinyl booths and counter stools stay packed with orders of the #19 until the 4pm close.
Neapolitan pizzeria pairing charred, wood-fired crusts with a deep natural wine list. A white-tiled oven anchors the minimal room as tables fill for house-made pasta and bottles.
Bright, wood-lined bakery turning out French-style pastries with Venezuelan roots. Morning lines wrap through the compact space for fresh sourdough, guava danishes, and warm cachitos pulled straight from the open kitchen.
Old-school Midwood pizzeria turning out made-to-order pies from a tiny, dated storefront. The classic round and square pizzas take a while, handed across the counter blistered and finished with scissor-snipped fresh basil.
Historic Jewish deli, the 'Sturgeon King,' where waiters serve platters of smoked fish and scrambled eggs with lox. The bustling room is unapologetically old-school—Formica counters, famously blunt service, and cash-only on weekends.
SoHo patisserie serving the original Cronut and caramelized kouign-amann to a steady line. The narrow shop leads to a trellis-covered garden patio for sitting with a torched frozen s'more.
Japanese cocktail bar set across two floors of a historic carriage house. Downstairs is a classic Ginza-style bar; upstairs, a cozier loft for meticulously crafted martinis and small plates.
Fiery, inventive Sichuan pop-up with a serious cult following. The tasting menu is a go-to for groups, built around signatures like Chongqing chicken wings and thrice-cooked bacon.
