L.A. Times restaurant reviews

The Review: Saddle Peak Lodge

On a warm summer night, the terrace at Saddle Peak Lodge seduces with its view through a pine tree to Saddle Peak and, beyond, the sky. We're wrapped in the quiet of the Santa Monica Mountains halfway between Calabasas and Malibu, with just enough light to read the menu and the wine list. Heaven, I'm thinking, as the wine splashes into my glass. I hear French two tables over, quiet laughter. We talk easily.

The Review: Jocko's steakhouse in Nipomo

As I grab the last free barstool at Jocko's, the guy next to me greets me with a polite "howdy." At the 84-year-old Santa Maria-style steakhouse in Nipomo, the style is easygoing and unpretentious. Though most everyone seems to be drinking light beer while watching the Dodgers and Yankees games on opposing screens, the bartender rustles up a bottle of a local craft brew. Firestone DBA, a cool dark draught with plenty of flavor.

The Review: Waterloo & City

When a former L'Orangerie chef breaks ranks with his fellow French chefs, runs a renegade pop-up restaurant and fantasizes about landing the first food truck on the Champs-Élysées, then times, you know, are changing. Over several iterations Bastide has morphed from haute French to casual boite. These days no maitre d' would dare require a jacket in this town. And now two refugees from the world of fine dining, Brit chef Brendan Collins and partner and general manager Carolos Tomazos, have dived into the new dining order with a gastropub on the fringes of Culver City.

The Review: South Beverly Grill

This is Beverly Hills?, I wondered, oh so many years ago when a friend took me to lunch in a sweet little house with a fireplace on South Beverly Drive. Chez Mimi later moved to Santa Monica, and Urth Caffé now dispenses soy lattes and iced green tea from that rose-covered cottage. Back then (and now), South Beverly Drive didn't seem fancy at all, more like a small-town Main Street where you'd find shops selling nightgowns and one-piece swimming suits, baseball cards and birthday gifts. Remember, though, Celestino Drago got his start here with his first restaurant, Celestino. And former Rustic Canyon chef Samir Mohajer chose the neighborhood for his first Cabbage Patch restaurant. Chin Chin still gets the crowds, and California Pizza Kitchen too.

The Review: Red O

Pull up in front of the new Red O on Melrose and, before deigning to take your car, a valet in an embroidered guayabera and natty straw hat will lean into the window to ask, politely, if you've got a reservation. It's Mozza all over again. No reservation, no getting in. And on weekend nights, you'll need to reserve a month out. Even on the weekdays, it's the 6:30 or 9:30 routine. Try to get into the bar and the big guy posted outside the door, leaning on a lectern to make him look less like a bouncer, will nix that too. The bar is for patrons waiting for tables.

The Review: Church & State

Open almost two years, the downtown bistro Church & State has seen a lot of changes in its brief life. Steven Arroyo (Cobras & Matadors) opened the restaurant in the Biscuit Co. Lofts on Industrial Street in September 2008. The original chef lasted only a couple of months and was soon replaced by Walter Manzke, the former executive chef at Bastide. With his impressive fine-dining credentials, Manzke seemed an oddball choice to head up the funky bistro's frenetic kitchen, but Manzke took on the job with gusto, even making his own charcuterie. Great French bistro cooking and affordable too? Church & State pulled in crowds from all over L.A. But without a financial stake in the restaurant, it was inevitable that Manzke would eventually leave to develop his own project.

The Review: Inn of the Seventh Ray

I'm writing this in a purple font, the same color as the seventh ray, or so I'm told, which is why the napkins at Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon are violet. So is the bouquet of wispy wildflowers on each table. And years ago (the last time I ventured to the idyllic spot for dinner), so were the tablecloths. Way back then, I remember incense sticks stuck in the ground around the trees on the terrace heaving powerfully scented smoke into the air. And a rich flower child in a Chanel suit and bare feet with a daisy tucked behind her ear.

The Review: First & Hope

As the hostess at First & Hope, the new downtown supper club, looks over her reservation book, I can't help noticing the bunch of bananas tattooed on her arm. Somehow, that cheerful yellow bunch coupled with her dramatic pearl gray evening gown says it all. First & Hope is retro with a sly wink, more playful dress-up than dogged revival of a supper club from the '30s or '40s.

The Review: Wolfgang Puck's WP24

The server eases the rectangular plate down on the glass coffee table. Here we go, I think, biting into a tiny pleated dumpling plumped with braised pork belly and slicked with black Chinese vinegar. A trace of chile oil, the melting tender pork, the supple dough: heaven. Between sips of the gin-based cocktail "Lady From Shanghai" we watch the sunset wash over the San Gabriel Mountains and the skyscrapers of downtown L.A. through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The Review: Chaya Venice

I've always had a soft spot for Chaya Brasserie in West Hollywood. I love the soaring emerald bamboo grove in the middle of the room, the charming Asian-accented brasserie decor and executive chef Shigefumi Tachibe's sophisticated French-Japanese cuisine.

The Review: District

Four of us stare at our menus at the new District on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. "Duck fat Yorkshire pudding," one friend exclaims when she reads the first item. Let's save that for later, I tell her. Why don't we order some biscuits before we decide anything, hmmm? Baked to order, they look adorable snuggled down in a napkin. The Cheddar-flavored biscuits are flaky and a dark gold, with a little jalapeño lurking in the background. I love having them as a course on their own, they're that good.

The Review: Patina

As friends and I step into Patina, the figures of the hostess, manager, bartender, server and sommelier awake from their enchantment. They move forward, murmur a greeting and lead us to a table in the elegant, modernist dining room. Sometimes it feels as if the entire restaurant has been put into a state of suspended animation by an evil witch called the economy.

The Review: Root 246

At first encounter, the kitschy side of Solvang can be off-putting, what with all the shop windows filled with cutesy figurines and souvenirs of the Danish-themed town. But on closer acquaintance, when window boxes spill over with flowers and old-fashioned street lamps cast a milky glow on half-timbered buildings, the little Santa Inez Valley town seems utterly charming in its eccentricities. On a recent jaunt there, I pass Hamlet Square, the Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen Museum and a shop called the Mole Hole, among others.

The Review: A new chef enlivens Ammo

Chefs come and chefs go. Some don't change a thing. Others don't quite fit in. But sometimes a new chef can bring a breath of fresh air to a tired menu or contribute a whole new spirit to a place.

The Review: Culina at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills

The new hotel restaurant is no longer a tribute to overwrought decorating, plush carpeting and ceiling-high flower arrangements. The smarmy maitre d', servers in house livery and dishes flambéed tableside are all long gone. Now that hotel restaurants are feeling the economic crunch, hotels are busy reinventing their dining rooms in hopes of attracting the world outside the lobby for dinner.

The Review: La Vida

It wasn't that long ago that I dreaded checking out the latest Hollywood restaurant-slash-lounge. Why? Because, if you managed to get past the inevitable velvet rope and be seated at a table, the food was usually so bad you left hungry — at 2 in the morning. Maybe club owners have finally figured out that you can't get away with that for very long, I don't know. But recent entries in the genre (Beso excepted) have really been playing up the food. And in some cases, it's not just PR hyperbole, but the real thing.

The Review: Valentino

Valentino is back.

The Review: Elements Kitchen in Pasadena -- all the elements of success

The closing of the Pasadena Playhouse must have been a blow to the new Elements Kitchen right next door. Chef-owner Onil Chibás had to have been counting on business from theatergoers as part of his business plan. But shortly after the renovations were completed and the restaurant moved in, boom: The historic playhouse, named California's official state theater in 1937, shut down because of budget difficulties.

The Review: Hatfield's in Los Angeles

Behind the wall of windows that look into the showplace kitchen, cooks in tall toques bob and weave around the stoves in an intricate choreography. Everyone is focused. There's not much talking going on. At the center of it all, look for the compact, closely shaven man sans hat and wearing a striped apron: That's Quinn Hatfield, chef and owner, with his wife, Karen, of the new, improved Hatfield's in Los Angeles.

Review: Lobster with a view in Santa Monica

You'd think that with all of Santa Monica's coastline, there would be more restaurants right on the beach, places where you could enjoy local seafood and revel in the landscape of sea and sand. Not counting hotel dining rooms, the list is far too short. Even then, most are across Ocean Boulevard on the land side of the street. And with square footage prices so high, few independent restaurateurs or chefs have the means to own a restaurant on the shore.

The Review: Delphine at the W Hollywood

Not going to be able to catch the Cannes film festival this year? Don't cry. You can still vamp it up at the smart new Delphine, the W Hollywood's ode to the Riviera at Hollywood and Vine. In the bar, vintage black and white photos of the grand hotels along Cannes' Boulevard de la Croisette set the scene. And the sidewalk outside the glass doors, facing the Pantages and just steps from the Metro station, is not a bad stand-in for Cannes' famous seaside promenade and its gawking crowds.

The Review: Latest Bastide is simply a joy

I've never met the man. But by all accounts, commercial director Joe Pytka is talented, difficult, sophisticated, a wine connoisseur, a design savant, and an exacting taskmaster. He's also wealthy -- wealthy enough in the days before he opened his own restaurant to routinely drop thousands of dollars at a time on food and wine at L.A.'s best restaurants. Wealthy enough to keep Bastide closed for months after he tired of its last iteration (its fourth) and thought about what he wanted to do with the space next.

Review: Caffe Roma in Beverly Hills

The name Caffe Roma probably doesn't ring a bell with most Angelenos. Though the Beverly Hills cafe doesn't have the name recognition of Valentino, Osteria Angelini or Drago, say, it has been, for many years, the hangout for a certain louche 90210 set that treated it as a kind of insider's clubhouse.

The Review: Carlitos Gardel

For years, I wrote to the sound of tango music from the '20s and '30s — Don Barreto, Roberto Firpo, Ada Falcón and, of course, the king of them all, Carlos Gardel, who died in a plane crash in 1935. Not that I'd ever been to Argentina at that point: I just loved the music. And when I moved to L.A. and found a restaurant named for the singer near West Hollywood, I had to try it. That was 1996, just after the Bozoghlian family from Buenos Aires bought the place and turned it into one of the most welcoming, and festive, restaurants in town.

The Review: Bruce Marder’s House Cafe in Los Angeles

A friend of mine, listening to my restaurant-going schedule, asked wonderingly whether I ever just took a night off and went to Bob's Big Boy. Good question. I know he wanted to hear that I occasionally pigged out on junk food. Not really. But when I want an utterly easygoing meal, I do have a few standbys: Hungry Cat, Pizzeria Mozza, Barbrix or Lou, Palate, Spago for Friday lunch. And now the new House Cafe.

The Review: The Tar Pit is Campanile chef-owner Mark Peel’s supper club

I've always been fascinated by the photo of my young parents taken at a supper club in New York. They look impossibly glamorous sitting at a small table, my mother, shoulders bared, tentatively sipping a cocktail, my father languidly holding his cigarette. The place? Lost to memory.

The Review: Lazy Ox Canteen in downtown L.A.

Something is going on at the new Lazy Ox Canteen. With no sign out front (yet) and a quiet presence at the edge of Little Tokyo, this cozy tavern is, so far, flying under the radar. But locals -- the brave denizens of downtown -- are making it a headquarters of sorts, stopping in for a glass of craft brew and maybe some fried anchovies or red wine-braised beef neck. Some are on the lookout for chef Josef Centeno's baco, his signature flatbread with eclectic toppings. Or the stupendous burger on a house-baked bun.

The Review: Il Dolce in Costa Mesa

Behind the tall counter at Il Dolce, a new Costa Mesa pizzeria and restaurant, silver-haired owner Roberto Bigne stretches pizza dough over the backs of his hands in a sure, practiced gesture. The pizza oven behind him glows a fiery orange. Bags of almond wood are stacked on the floor in front of the counter; the 2-month-old restaurant is so small there's nowhere else to put them. Meanwhile, the smell of pizza dough cooking in that wood-fired oven wafts over the counter into the simple dining room with bare-topped tables lined up in rows.

The Review: Vinoteque on Melrose

Through an open doorway on Melrose Avenue, up a few steps, is a secret garden with walls washed in burnt orange and tall wooden planter boxes filled with pretty lettuces, feathery fennel, carrots, chard and lemon grass. There, Chardonnay and Zinfandel grapevines clamber over trellises and culinary herbs cast their fragrance into the night air. The sprawling L-shaped patio is paved in terra cotta tiles and set with jewel-toned Moroccan mosaic tables and wicker armchairs. Even in early winter, with the help of strategically placed heat lamps, the patio is magic, an urban oasis reminiscent of the south of France where wine bottles litter the table and guests linger, talking and drinking, until well past midnight.

The Review: Ilan Hall's the Gorbals in downtown Los Angeles

When I woke up the next morning, I really thought it had all been a dream. The goth mime sniffing our wine bottle, his cohorts in white porcelain masks circling the table. The gentleman in his 50s who strode in late with three women in his wake and sat next to us at the long communal table, a crude slab of hard wood that looked as if it had just come from the sawmill. One woman celebrating her birthday with sticky toffee pudding, while on the other side, a beauty in a skull T-shirt smooched a guy with an innocent-looking face but heavily illustrated arms.

Restaurant Review: Bouchon in Beverly Hills

From the avalanche of attention Thomas Keller has been getting for Bouchon, you'd almost think the arrival of the new Beverly Hills restaurant was the second coming. Actually, it is, in a way. For those without a long memory, Keller was executive chef at Checkers Hotel in downtown L.A. in the early '90s, well before the French Laundry, Per Se and his seven Michelin stars. Now Keller is back in Los Angeles in a big way, this time as a phenomenally successful chef trailing all the high expectations and jealousies that exalted status entails.

Osteria La Buca is still up to mama's standards

Osteria La Buca, the once tiny buca, or "hole in the wall," near Paramount Studios in Hollywood, expanded up and sideways two and a half years ago, all the while offering the same pasta-focused menu that made this casual osteria a neighborhood favorite. A recent upset, though, has resulted in co-owner Filippo Corvino and his mother, Loredana, who had been the chef, leaving the business. Since her cooking defined La Buca in the early days, when the dining room consisted of a handful of cramped tables, what does that mean for the 5-year-old restaurant?

The Review: La Cachette Bistro in Santa Monica

After 15 years, La Cachette, "the hideaway," is no longer hiding out in Century City. Chef-owner Jean-Francois Meteigner suffered years of roadwork on Santa Monica Boulevard that made his French restaurant difficult to get to. And yet now that traffic is rushing by on the boulevard in front, he has decided to pick up and move to the city of Santa Monica and at the same time retool the restaurant as -- take a wild guess -- a bistro.

The Review: Whist at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica

Whist, the restaurant in Santa Monica's excruciatingly trendy Viceroy Hotel, opened with a bang in 2002. That was when Tim Goodell (Aubergine, Red Pearl) was doing the food, and it was startlingly good for a hotel restaurant. I remember pork belly filigreed with chile-laced caramel, skate wing with baby artichokes barigoule, potatoes au gratin for two and especially the desserts. If you ordered trifle, you got a whole bowl for the table, apricot pie, an entire pie. But foodies and a raucous bar scene didn't mix.

Zero stars

The Review: Fabio Viviani's Firenze Osteria in Toluca Lake

On a recent weekend night, the excitement at the new Firenze Osteria is palpable. It's three-deep at the bar, air-kisses galore, the "ciao, ciaos" and "buona seras" coming fast and heavy. Tablecloths are whisked off tables and silverware and glasses slapped down before the diners who have just finished have even made it to the door.

The Review: Umami Burger in Los Feliz

America is full of contradictions. At a time when Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" is a bestseller, novelist Jonathan Safran Foer has just written an exhortation against the eating of meat ("Eating Animals"), and vegans are clamoring for chefs to accommodate them at top restaurants, the country is also becoming even more burger-obsessed than it already was.

The Review: Cafe Pierre in Manhattan Beach

When a restaurant has been around for as long as Cafe Pierre, it's not reasonable to expect it to be performing with the same panache and energy as in the early days. Most decades-old places carry on without changing a thing until it's too late. Chasen's went down like the Titanic. Orso, with its lovely tree-shaded patio, is a more recent casualty.

The Review: Noir Food & Wine in Pasadena

Mike Farwell and Claud Beltran have been itching to create a wine bar -- their way -- for years. Now, with Noir in Pasadena, the wine buff and the chef, respectively, finally have their chance. Instead of working for other people, the two have gotten together with partner Alex Gallegos and opened this vibrant wine bar on North Mentor Street next door to the Ice House comedy club. It's just as inviting as any wine bar in Paris, and with better wines and better food than most.

The Review: Eva Restaurant in Los Angeles

It's Sunday night and I've just come off an 11-hour flight rumpled and cross-eyed after reading the last installment of Steig Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy straight through. When my friend picks me up at the airport, she reminds me that I'd asked her to make a reservation at Eva for their prix fixe Sunday dinner.

The Review: Marche L.A. in Sherman Oaks

It's back to the Boulevard for Gary Menes, who first made a splash when he was cooking Moroccan-accented dishes at the then-newly opened Firefly on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. Last year he landed as chef de cuisine at Octavio Becerra's Palate Food + Wine in Glendale, where he did some of the best cooking in his career. And now he's joined up with André Guerrero as chef and partner at Marché L.A. on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.

The Review: Blue Plate Oysterette in Santa Monica

OK, so L.A. has its Issan Thai restaurants, Sichuan and Shanghai style places, Tuscan trattorie and Provencal bistros, Yucatan and Oaxacan joints. Why not an East Coast clam shack? Well, now we have one, fetchingly called Blue Plate Oysterette.

The Review: Bistro LQ

The broth comes, comforting and rich, larded with bone marrow dumplings, a few strands of vermicelli. The waiter tells us to leave a little broth in the bowl for the chabrot, a splash of red wine to finish up the soup. Next come the leeks cooked in the pot; khaki green, they're soft as pudding, served in a vinaigrette with a shower of chopped hard-boiled egg on top. That's followed by a platter of the boiled meats -- oxtail, capon, beef shank and shin, chuck roast, short ribs, brisket and a little partridge, with potatoes and carrots and other root vegetables all cooked in that concentrated broth.

Stefan's at L.A. Farm in Santa Monica

For a "Top Chef" finalist, 36-year-old Stefan Richter comes out like a lamb at his new restaurant, Stefan's at L.A. Farm. He's not out to shock or provoke. He's out to cook food that's squarely within most people's comfort zones.

The Review: Pinot Provence in Costa Mesa

When Pinot Provence opened in 1998, Joachim Splichal was one of the first big-name L.A. chefs, if not the first, to venture into Orange County.

The Review: The Tasting Kitchen in Venice

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That's why Hidden became Caché, Charcoal switched to BoHo, and Max morphed into Marché.

The Review: The Sunset Restaurant in Malibu

As we squeak past the last days of summer, it's never too late to make one more trip to the beach. Dinner at the Sunset on Zuma Beach could be just the right antidote to stave off the inevitable sadness as fall comes on with its shorter days and longer nights. Not to mention longer pants and sweaters.

Restaurant Review: Cache in Santa Monica

Josiah Citrin peers into the dining room, looking slightly rumpled and just a little anxious. Though he's been cooking in Santa Monica for almost two decades, first at JiRaffe (opened with longtime friend and collaborator Raphael Lunetta in 1996), and then at his own French-accented Mélisse since 1999, this just isn't his usual crowd. Or at least not tonight. It's party time as guests lounge on the red sofas in the two-level patio lounge of this sprawling indoor-outdoor space and a social butterfly in a sparkly dress darts from group to group, Champagne glass in hand.

The Review: Studio at Montage Laguna Beach

As friends and I approach Studio, the restaurant at Montage Laguna Beach set on the edge of a bluff, I can see chef Craig Strong silhouetted against a silvery mauve sky as he talks to a table of guests on the outdoor terrace. Palm trees in front are ablaze with the setting sun and in the grass behind him, a trio of bunny rabbits play and nibble. We're seated outside, too, the better to enjoy the sea air and the unobstructed view of the coastline. What a spot!

The Review: Boa in West Hollywood

What is up with Boa's new über-chic flagship restaurant in West Hollywood?

The Review: RH at the Andaz in West Hollywood

Hotel restaurants don't have much of a local audience, with good reason: Not that many are truly compelling. That's by way of explaining why I didn't rush right out to try the new restaurant in the revamped Hyatt (now called the Andaz West Hollywood) on the Sunset Strip. I did take a look at the menu, and passed.

The Review: Ado in Venice

When I pull up to Ado, the new Italian restaurant that's moved into the old Amuse space on Main Street in Venice, chef-owner Antonio Muré is standing in his whites in the doorway, his dark hair pulled into a ponytail, so chic he looks as if he's waiting for Vogue photographer Steven Meisel to show up any minute.

Restaurant review: Le Saint Amour in Culver City

The first time I went to Paris, a friend's old boyfriend, a poet who taught English to the employees of the French phone company, took me in hand and introduced me to his favorite restaurants. This American in Paris was mad about simple bistros and lively brasseries. He never spent more than the equivalent of $25 on a meal and I doubt very much he ever ate at a Michelin-starred restaurant, yet he loved everything about eating in France.

Restaurant Review: ParkAve in Stanton

Before it was Beach Boulevard, the Orange County road that leads straight to Huntington Beach was known as Highway 39.

Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill opens at L.A. Live

Puck really knows how to pick them. Locations, that is. Wolfgang Puck, who burst onto the scene in 1982 with a little place called Spago, has just opened a new restaurant downtown at L.A. Live. Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill sits center stage, right on the L.A. Live square next door to Nokia Theatre and directly across from the Los Angeles Convention Center. Not one to play it coy, he's emblazoned the name Wolfgang Puck across the front, with tall turquoise lacquer doors to mark the entrance.

Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne's Tavern in Brentwood

What if no one had introduced Caroline Styne, then manager of Jones, to Suzanne Goin, who was at the time chef de cuisine at Campanile? We wouldn't have Lucques or A.O.C., two of L.A.'s most beloved restaurants. And we certainly wouldn't have the partners' new Tavern in Brentwood.

Domenico Ristorante: innovative Italian dining in Silver Lake

Brentwood is rife with Italian restaurants opened by Italian waiters who used to work somewhere else. Kiss. Kiss. Ciao. Add in a copycat menu of L.A. Italian dishes, preferably Tuscan-inspired, a celebrity or two disguised in scruffy attire: success, even in this cockamamie economy. Everybody loves pasta.

The Review: Petrossian Paris Boutique and Cafe

Open a caviar store in this economy? Is that just a little bit crazy, or what? Quietly, seemingly with hardly anyone noticing, the famous caviar purveyor Petrossian of Paris has reopened its Robertson Boulevard shop after a four-month-long remodel and this time around, it includes a cafe open almost all day long.

The review: Bottega Louie in downtown L.A.

Passersby stand and stare at the spectacle inside the palatial Brockman Building at the corner of 7th and Grand. Floor-to-ceiling windows put the whole shebang that is Bottega Louie on full display: gray-veined marble floors, imposing pillars and a ceiling high enough that Cirque du Soleil trapeze artists could do their thing. Some of the more decorative touches look like a collaboration between Louis XV (Louie?)and Gianni Versace.

RESTAURANT REVIEWS

Minestraio, All' Angelo change courses

Times are hard, especially for fine dining. Rather than stay the course and wait out the downturn, hoping for the best, two Italian restaurateurs, both with once highly regarded restaurants, have taken a tough stance and revised their restaurants from high-end ristoranti to mid-level trattorias.

Restaurant Review: Susan Feniger's Street restaurant

At Street, Susan Feniger's new tribute to global street food, look for the slight woman with the high-wattage smile, in canvas shoes, khaki chef's jacket and baseball cap worn backward. That's Feniger, one-half of the Too Hot Tamales, co-founder of Border Grill and at 55, no longer the youngest chef on the block. Nor the most outrageous.

The Review: Westside Tavern at Westside Pavilion is an unexpected delight

I can tell you my friends weren't all that excited when I told them where we were headed for dinner: the Westside Pavilion. Granted, dining in a shopping mall doesn't quite have the allure of Providence or the Bazaar by José Andres. But then again, I told them, you never know where the next great restaurant will pop up in Southern California. It could be in the most banal of strip malls, tucked away in Glendale or hiding out in the O.C. That's one of the peculiarities -- and delights -- of this endlessly fascinating area.

The Review: Reservoir restaurant in Silver Lake

"Was everything terrific as always?" asked the host as my friends and I left Reservoir in Silver Lake. What kind of question is that? Talk about putting you on the spot. I wanted to put a bag over my head and sneak out without answering.

The Review: Chaya Downtown

Not that long ago, downtown L.A. seemed a no-man's land at night, the streets eerily empty while lights blazed in the office towers and hotels. Inside Water Grill or Pacific Dining Car, though, stranded hotel guests and convention goers hunkered down over fish or steaks, while a few blocks away, hard-core sushi fans took a seat at Little Tokyo sushi bars. When I first moved to L.A., I remember desperately searching for the downtown hotel where a friend was staying but not finding one person to ask on the street. And yet when a play or a concert or a sports event let out, suddenly a traffic jam on the 110.

Restaurant Review: Cecconi's in West Hollywood

At the latest London import, Cecconi's, an expat Brit orders a cocktail, leans back against the luxurious cushions strewn along the terrace banquette and opens the morning's Times -- that would be the Times of London. Hostesses have a tony British accent, some of the servers too. A gentleman in a bespoke suit with tie and matching hankie tucked into his breast pocket glides past our table at lunch.

The Review: Huckleberry in Santa Monica

Waiting for my order at Huckleberry in Santa Monica, I watch the line move, slowly, forward. Ballet flats, flip-flops, bicycle cleats, and Nikes, Manolos, and sturdy walking shoes and even a tiptoeing cane inch their way to the cash register. Sometimes at lunch the line is out the door, snaking past the tall wooden planters filled with herbs and greens and tomatoes, all the way into the parking lot in back.

The Review: Fig in Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica

Against all odds, not one, but two excellent hotel restaurants have opened in the last few months. First, we had the Bazaar by José Andrés, the dynamic tapas restaurant in the new SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills. And now we have Fig in the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica.

The Review: Pizzeria Ortica in Costa Mesa

Cutting-edge fine-dining restaurant with elaborate tasting menu, solemn servers and profound wine list? Done that. Elegant patisserie turning out pretty pastel macarons and gold leaf-adorned chocolates? Oui. Contemporary French bistro complete with cheese bar and handcrafted cocktails? Done that too.

Jitlada restaurant in Hollywood

After a few bites of curry, the tall, curly-haired guy reaches for his water glass frantically. He'd heard about Jitlada from chef friends and he can't believe he waited so long to come, I hear him say, as he takes another long swig of water. Minutes later, his posse of three jumps up and heads outside to cool down from all that searing chile heat. That's when I recognize him: the former fromager -- cheese guy -- at Comme Ça, standing in the glare of the shabby Hollywood strip mall. Suddenly, the woman with him starts turning cartwheels in the parking lot.

The Review: Rivera in downtown Los Angeles

John Rivera Sedlar, the chef who brought us Saint Estephe, Bikini and Abiquiu (may they all rest in peace) is back and back in a big way. At the new Rivera within shouting distance of L.A. Live, the 54-year-old chef is firing on all cylinders. Rivera is terrific, one of the most exciting restaurants to debut in L.A. in the last few years.

Church & State in downtown Los Angeles

Church & State has to go down as one of the more unusual restaurant pairings in Southern California: owner Steven Arroyo, best known for casual clubby places such as Cobras & Matadors, and chef Walter Manzke, renowned for his meticulous French- California cuisine at Bastide, Patina and L'Auberge Carmel.

Saluté Wine Bar in Santa Monica

Yet another small-plates restaurant without any particular hook seems like such a yawn, so you'll forgive me if I didn't rush out to try Saluté Wine Bar in Santa Monica the minute it opened. OK, so the small plates are called piattini ("small plates" in Italian), then what?

Review: Kiwami in Studio City

I hear a shush, shush, shush sound and look up to see sushi chef Katsuya Uechi grating a piece of fresh wasabi root, bearing down with all his might. I catch my Japanese friend's eye. Any sushi chef who grates his own wasabi is serious about his ingredients. It's a small touch, but one that's telling.

A rare four-star restaurant review: The Bazaar by José Andrés

Olives that flood your mouth with flavor. A foie gras lollipop wrapped in cotton candy. The definitive shrimp with garlic. Innocent-looking bites that shoot smoke out of your nostrils.

Drago Centro in downtown L.A.

Seriously, what is wrong with this town? If Celestino Drago, one of the best-known Italian restaurateurs in Southern California, can't get a crowd for his most ambitious restaurant yet, and a very glamorous one at that, then what? The fact that Drago Centro's location -- downtown L.A. -- may be outside the comfort zone of his fan base shouldn't be a deterrent for more intrepid Italophiles.

AK Restaurant + Bar in Venice

It might seem that there is little as unlikely as a Scandinavian restaurant in Southern California, but for many years one of L.A.'s most celebrated spots was Scandia on Sunset Boulevard. It had closed by the time I came to town, but Gustaf Anders was still carrying the flame for the cuisine in Costa Mesa. That's gone now too, but I still remember the generous holiday buffet that went on for the entire month of December, the sumptuous platters of crayfish boiled with dill in summer and the pretty princess cake wrapped in green marzipan.

The Review: Luau in Beverly Hills

When I invited a friend who grew up in Beverly Hills to dinner at the new Luau on Bedford Drive, she messaged me back that she remembered going to the original with her parents years ago. "Pupu platter, crab Rangoon, ribs -- yum!"

Restaurant review: Riva in Santa Monica

In downtown Santa Monica, people walk. Stand in front of the new Riva on Wilshire between 3rd and 4th streets and it's quite the spectacle as buff new mothers jog behind strollers, friends giggle over their haul from sales on the Third Street Promenade, and the down-and-out troll passersby for spare change. Everybody passing by, though, stops to peer in the windows of the lively new restaurant that's sprouted where the Italian steakhouse Scarboni briefly languished.

Restaurant review: XIV in West Hollywood

After listening to the waiter try to explain the concept at the new XIV in West Hollywood, we're thoroughly confused. It's social dining, he tells us. But isn't all eating in restaurants inherently social? The menu is all small plates, but he doesn't call it a small-plates restaurant either. "So -- it's a tasting menu," someone prompts the waiter. "No, it's not," he answers. OK, then, could it be considered a do-it-yourself multi-course menu? Something like that.

Restaurant review: Talesai in West Hollywood

Several generations of a Thai family are seated around a long table at Talesai in West Hollywood. After they've finished eating, the beautifully dressed elderly man at the center of the table leans forward and begins to sing, his face etched with nostalgia and sadness. His voice is soft and quavery, and as he sings in Thai, he waves his hands to mark the beat. Some of his family joins in from time to time, following the words to this song when they can.

Throwing open the vault: L.A. Times restaurant reviews from 2008 and beyond

We've got a few four-star reviews -- and plenty of clunkers.