Our list of the best restaurants in Los Angeles, updated this week, is full of treasures: roasted duck with gleaming, crisp skin, scattered through meaty Thai salads at Pa Ord; Oaxacan tlayudas and grilled blood sausage at Poncho’s Tlayudas; and hot Taiwanese breakfast bowls doused with vinegar and chile oil at Pine and Crane.
The city has been through so much this year — wildfires shook my hometown in January, and several weeks ago, a series of ICE raids started, taking a toll on immigrant communities and the food businesses run by them, and for them.
Restaurant owners are struggling to keep up and protect their staff, but so many food workers here are vulnerable and have no infrastructure. They push ice cream carts and cut fruit on the street. They preside over the city’s network of taco stands and food stalls, forming the most delicious map of Los Angeles.
I stopped for warm beans and soft tortillas the other day at a tiny stand by my gym and I knew this to be true: Sometimes the best place to eat isn’t a destination. It’s the makeshift kitchen in the parking lot you pass on the way home, cooking through the chaos and despite the risk. And these places are worth seeking out, too, if you’re going out in L.A. right now.
Featured below, three new additions to the brick-and-mortar list, worth visiting whether you’re a local or just landed at LAX.
Everything is masa
I love going to Komal as much with friends as with my toddler because we don’t need reservations and we can all get exquisite food in a very low-key communal dining area. The chef Fátima Juárez used to make the tortillas for Holbox (another restaurant you have to check out!) and most of her dishes are built on the sheer excellence of her masa, but I never skip the molotes in mole negro — delicate and delicious cheese-filled plantain dumplings in a mellow, deeply flavored mole.
3655 South Grand Avenue, No. C9 inside Mercado La Paloma, Historic South Central
A set-it-and-forget-it Korean restaurant
When food-obsessed friends are in town, and they’re experiencing decision fatigue, I like taking them to Borit Gogae for a casual, but extravagant feast. We order the barley rice set meal ($34.99) and relax as the banchan and larger dishes arrive, among them mung bean pancakes, acorn jelly salad, snails in vinegar and big bowls of perilla seed chicken soup and pumpkin porridge. (Many of the dishes are mildly seasoned, but sesame oil and jang are on the table so you can adjust everything to taste.)
3464 West 8th Street, Koreatown
All comfort, no fuss
Dunsmoor isn’t new, but this Glassell Park spot newly found its way into my heart with a simple bowl of Carolina Gold rice: a little soupy, the grains perfectly cooked, and lush with the deep, sweet flavors of shrimp. Cheffy restaurants have a way of screwing up perfectly good comfort food with a little too much fuss, but Dunsmoor doesn’t show off about all the work that goes into its satisfying cooking and smooth, confident service. I’ve seen L.A. chefs on cute dates in the beautifully lit dining room several times now, which makes sense — it’s the kind of place cooks go to be cooked for.
3501 Eagle Rock Boulevard, Glassell Park
For your itinerary
If you’re looking to laugh, The Comedy Store has nightly programming, but the Belly Room is especially fun to see comedians you might not know yet. KCRW’s free parties move throughout the city with DJs, live bands and drinks. Coming up are versions at Union Station in DTLA, the Wende Museum in Culver City and Kidspace in Pasadena. And for my fellow ice cream freaks, Smorgasburg gathers excellent frozen treat vendors from all over the city on Sundays at The Row, just for the summer — please, don’t miss out on a smoked milk paleta from Mateo’s.
Tejal Rao is a chief restaurant critic for The Times.
The post We Just Updated Our List of the Best Restaurants in L.A. appeared first on New York Times.
