Clockwise from top middle: lamb shoulder at Maydan L.A., a diner breakfast at Max & Helen’s, iced pandan and banana lattes at Nam Coffee, a dry-aged tuna hand roll at the Joint Seafood and Uoichiba DTLA and green garlic and spring onion pizza at Colossus Harbor.
(Los Angeles Times photo collage, Photos: Myung J. Chun, Ron De Angelis, Stephanie Breijo, Kayla Bartowski)
The best places to eat and drink this month, according to our Food writers
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Los Angeles didn’t get many April showers, but May flowers are blooming just the same, leaving a lingering scent of jasmine as the star-shaped flower blossoms across the city. Jacaranda trees will soon follow suit, turning the skyline of entire neighborhoods lavender as spring stretches into summer.
Marine layer aside, this season invites us to get outside and make the most of living in L.A. The Metro will soon open the expansion of its D Line, making it convenient to peruse Museum Row, the Grove and bars and restaurants along Fairfax and in Beverly Hills without a car. Local farmers markets are more abundant than ever, with rainbow assortments of stone fruits and tomatoes.
And there are plenty of patios and rooftops for enjoying sunny evenings and taking in city views. Keep reading if you need dining inspiration this month, like exploring a new hand roll counter in downtown L.A., a buzzy Larchmont diner that lives up to the hype and a pan-African destination for customizable “slop bowls” in Gardena.
Showing Place Places
Badmaash Venice
Venice Indian $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Eight years after they opened the second location of Badmaash in Fairfax, the Nahendro family has expanded with a sleek new outpost in Venice off Abbot Kinney, sprawling across two dining rooms with 100 seats, plus another 10 at the bar. The new menu builds on the family’s reputation for creative, modern Indian flavors, with an emphasis on seasonality and local sourcing. New to the menu are items such as steak frites with a meaty masala au poivre sauce and aloo bhindhi with pan-seared okra and potato. A short but thoughtful list of wines are available by the glass and bottle for pairing, as well as a playful list of cocktails, like the Arjun Palmer with Earl Grey vodka, creme de mûre, lemon and soda.
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Baldi
Beverly Hills Italian Steakhouse $$$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
A notable Italian restaurateur has expanded his culinary empire with a new location of Baldi at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, featuring a menu that draws from his early upbringing in Tuscany, including a sformato inspired by his father’s recipe and a family friend’s mezze maniche, in addition to classic Baldi dishes such as sweet corn agnolotti that resembles tortellini and a range of American steaks, along with Japanese and Australian Wagyu, all served with a red sauce and salsa verde that his mother used to make at home.
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Bar Betsy
Altadena Breakfast Wine Bars $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Chef-owner Tyler Wells, behind one of the first restaurants to reopen in Altadena that’s since become a hub for the mountain community, has expanded into the adjacent space with a cafe by day and evening wine bar. The menu at Bar Betsy focuses on seasonal, locally sourced ingredients cooked in the restaurant’s hearth, like a roast-carrot sandwich and pecan cinnamon buns. The wine bar menu leans simple and classic with charcuterie and cara cara tuna crudo, plus a lengthy by-the-glass list.
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Brooklyn Square Downey
Downey Pizza $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The Pasadena pizzeria from a family of former New Yorkers has opened a second location in Downey, offering New York-style and square pies whole and by the slice, hot and cold subs, pastas, calzones, garlic knots and black-and-white cookies.
Colossus Harbor
San Pedro Bakery $$
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
L.A. has its share of bread experts, but restaurant critic Jenn Harris makes the case for satisfying your craving for sourdough sandwiches and pizza at the third location of Kristin Colazas Rodriguez’s Colossus Bread in San Pedro. The breakfast menu features a croissant breakfast sandwich with thick bacon, a fluffy egg and melted Muenster cheese, while the lunch menu offers a mushroom dip sandwich and seasonal salads and dinner expands with Italian American plates, including meatballs, “gnocchi” bread dumplings and special pizzas that rotate each month.
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Electric Bleu
Mar Vista French Californian $$
(Yasara Gunawardena/For The Times)
An unassuming bistro in Mar Vista might be home to L.A.’s most accessible tasting menu. From husband-and-wife team Craig Hopson and Mai Sakai, Electric Bleu adds Californian and hints of Australian influence to French cuisine, including pâté en croûte that restaurant critic Jenn Harris claims is the best in L.A. The five-course tasting menu is just $79, with an optional wine pairing for $69, and it doesn’t require counter seating or your entire party’s participation. Just make sure you order the Electric fries seasoned in chicken powder, vinegar powder and cayenne pepper off the a la carte menu.
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Friends & Family
East Hollywood Bakery $$
(Jakob N. Layman / Friends & Family)
Friends and Family co-owner and baker Roxana Jullapat helped lead a whole-grain revolution when she left her fine-dining career to open her East Hollywood bakery with her partner Dan Mattern nine years ago. In her second cookbook “Morning Baker,” Jullapat shares recipes for incorporating whole grains into one’s everyday routine, including chocolate muffins with rye and shatter-crisp croissants with spelt. And in case you’re not up for rising early to prepare morning pastries, stop by her bakery to grab something from the case.
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The Joint Seafood and Uoichiba DTLA
Downtown L.A. Seafood $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Liwei Liao, one of L.A.’s top fishmongers and purveyors of dry-aged fish, has opened a sprawling new location on the border of the Arts District and Little Tokyo, complete with his Joint Seafood market where he sells dry-aged fish wholesale to some of the city’s best restaurants, his hand roll bar Uoichiba, a retail selection with fresh oysters and miso-marinated salmon and a 32-seat sushi counter. The new downtown store is considerably larger than Liao’s original Sherman Oaks location, and is expected to have triple the output. Liao is preparing to open an even larger facility in Vernon later this year.
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Loli Farms
Pasadena Peruvian $
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
L.A.’s best rotisserie may be at a former gas station in Pasadena, according to restaurant critic Jenn Harris. The Peruvian restaurant and market from owners Sandra Loli and Mauricio Vincenzi is anchored by a wood-burning oven where chickens are cooked after brining overnight and getting marinated in a blend of cumin, garlic, paprika and panca chiles from Peru. Harris also recommends the lomo saltado sandwich that’s served with a cup of zippy, vinegary meat broth for dipping and salchipapas, a street food with fries and beef sausage coins barely visible under generous zigzags of ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. To drink, there’s chicha morada and bottled Peruvian sodas such as Inca Kola.
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Max & Helen's
Windsor Square American $$
(Ron De Angelis/For The Times)
The new Larchmont diner opened by chef Nancy Silverton and “Everybody Loves Raymond” creator Phil Rosenthal drew instant lines when it opened at the end of the year, with waits reaching up to eight hours. The hype has tempered slightly since then — only slightly — but the restaurant remains a top option for nostalgic Americana plates including a savory waffle with maple butter and ham and cheese omelet for breakfast and a classic grilled cheese and dry-aged patty melt on the lunch and dinner menu. To drink, there’s chocolate egg cream thick enough to eat with a spoon and an assortment of milkshakes and malts, plus beer and wines by the glass.
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Maydan L.A.
West Adams Global $$
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Restaurant critic Bill Addison reviewed Maydan L.A., the sole full-service restaurant in West Adams’ buzzy new food hall from owner Rose Previte, with an original location in D.C. Driven by live-fire cooking, the menu features broad influence from Lebanon where Previte’s mother is from, as well as Morocco, Tunisia, Georgia and Turkey, where she traveled with the restaurant’s founding chefs when developing the menu ahead of opening the first location. Addison recommends visiting with a group to sample the $95-per-person “tawleh” (table in Arabic) with hummus and other dips, pickled veggies, salads and one platter to share, such as grilled branzino or smoky lamb shoulder. The wine list takes similar inspiration, with bottles sourced from the same regions and the cocktail menu is overseen by beverage director and Here’s Looking at You vet Danny Rubenstein.
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Nam Coffee
Chinatown Vietnamese Coffee $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The Vietnamese coffee shop and roaster that grew out of owner Vince Nguyen’s Orange County home to an East Hollywood cafe has launched a second location in Chinatown, serving the same specialty drinks featuring Vietnam-grown beans, including Vietnamese egg coffee and pandan and banana lattes, as well as pastries. Now with a full kitchen, Nguyen plans to expand the menu with include sticky rice, spring rolls and Vietnamese bao.
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Sushi Samba
West Hollywood Japanese Peruvian Brazilian $$$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
A chic new rooftop is open in West Hollywood, offering the neighborhood a menu that spans Peruvian, Japanese and Brazilian flavors alongside cocktails and views of the Hollywood Hills. The second stateside location of SushiSamba — find the first in Las Vegas — features a retractable roof and a bar and lounge area with an abbreviated menu, as well as a robata counter and private dining room. Signature dishes include toro tiradito topped with black truffle and pāo de queijo with honey truffle butter, but a slate of new plates are specific to the new location, including the Samba LA roll with snapper, yellowtail, crab, chile garlic crunch, passionfruit sanbaizu and yuzu oil. The cocktail menu leans bright and fruity, like the Shoto Garden with mezcal, lychee cordial, elderflower and lemon juice.
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Urban Comfort Foods Kitchen
Carson Pan African $
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
A new destination for slop bowls — a nickname for the customizable bowls offered at chains like Chipotle and Cava — has opened with Urban Comfort Foods Kitchen in Garden, with a focus on African diasporic cuisine. From owner Jinell Singletary and executive chef Edward Hamilton, the bowls come with one of six bases, with jollof rice being the most popular item, and proteins including suya spiced beef, jerk chicken and brown stew jackfruit. Customize your own with the 20 available toppings or order a composed bowl like the Jollof Heatwave with suya spiced beef, pepper chow, shito pepper jam, with fried garlic and shallots sprinkled on top.
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Venice Steakhouse
Venice Steakhouse $$$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Just one block from the iconic “VENICE” sign is a new steakhouse from chef-partner Sydney Hunter III, formerly of Petit Trois. Dry-aged and large-format steaks are available alongside a selection of house-made sauces, including French green peppercorn with roasted shallots and cognac and a Dijon mustard jus. Salads and appetizers offer California-hued touches, including the B.L.T.A. wedge salad with house-made buttermilk dressing and heirloom baby beets with juniper berry gastrique. Classic cocktails and wines sourced from California and Europe comprise the beverage menu.
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