On the surface, Tulsi is a nondescript fast-casual Indian spot, devoid of the large crowds or fanciful flair (and prices) of a more upscale place. But a closer look will reveal a menu with more range and better execution than most places can claim to have. That’s the beauty of Tulsi, where most dishes are under $10 and the menu’s worth a thousand words. The menu — which represents Southern, Northern, and Western India and has arguably the best Gujarati food in the San Fernando Valley, if not all of Los Angeles, has to offer — speaks volumes if you know how to listen. The team works with chefs actually from those areas in India to ensure that the dishes taste like distinct and accurate representations of the areas they originate from. Try the undhiyu, a 10-vegetable medley with sweet potatoes, potatoes, eggplant, yam, coconut, and more. It’s a Gujarati staple that is at once bitter, sweet, salty, and savory, and it’s not easily found in LA.—Virali Dave

The feeling of a bustling dinner party persists nightly at Anajak Thai in its intimate, laid-back dining room lined with bottles of natural European wines. The room brims with the aromas of expertly crafted Thai food from Justin Pichetrungsi and his family, which can be ordered a la carte or in a special tasting menu format (which is nearly impossible to book). Still, there’s something for everyone, from classic pad Thai and sticky fried wings to its inventive Thai Taco Tuesdays, which take over the next-door alley and back parking lot for a natural wine bacchanal. —Farley Elliott

It’s hard to argue with the classicists who say that Pie ’n Burger is the most representative Los Angeles burger. This 1963-era standard is still hitting all the right notes, marrying Thousand Island dressing, pickles, tomato, and a touch too much lettuce to create something so inherently LA it cannot be missed. Pasadena is said to be the home of the cheeseburger, and Pie ’n Burger is its timeless crowning achievement, located within walking distance of CalTech and still carrying its local feel and diner vibes. And yes, the pie is great, too. —Farley Elliott

A slice of Hong Kong nestled into the San Gabriel Valley, Tam’s does all-day favorites from kaya toast and pineapple buns served with Hong Kong milk tea or coffee in the morning, to stir-fried noodles, wonton soup, and rice rolls for lunch. The Cantonese food continues into the evening with deep-fried pork chops with honey garlic glaze, curried brisket bowls, or peppered wok-fried fish filets.—Matthew Kang

Ruen Pair’s bold spicing, fast service, and good value offer wide appeal across the board. A papaya salad with raw crab legs makes for an exciting starter with its pleasant snap and well-balanced lime and fish sauce vinaigrette. The roasted duck red curry with pineapples, tomatoes, and loads of fresh Thai basil teeters deliciously between spicy and creamy. Don’t hesitate to order the ever-popular pad Thai, which is executed with funk and precision. —Cathy Chaplin

Evan Funke has crafted what may be LA’s hottest restaurant with Mother Wolf, the big, lively restaurant in the heart of Hollywood’s Vinyl District. Here the ceilings are high and the champagne never seems to stop flowing, even as servers wind their way through the daunting dining room with plates of Roman-style pasta, blistered pizzas, and roasted meats. This is LA’s most luxurious opening in years, and it’s being run by one of the city’s best chefs.—Farley Elliott

Since opening in 2019, Yang’s Kitchen has worn several hats. While the restaurant’s initial Taiwanese comfort food menu was a hit with diners and critics, the labor- and cost-intensive dishes were unsustainable in the long run. The restaurant’s reinvention as a casual daytime spot with Asian-inflected fare was widely embraced, as was the transition to an additional dinner service offering playful riffs on Chinese classics. With every iteration, Yang’s Kitchen has maintained its commitment to impeccable ingredient sourcing and providing living wages for its workers. For those dining at the Alhambra destination for brunch or lunch, the plate-sized pancake made with blue cornmeal and mochiko flour makes for an awesomely chewy short stack. The dish to get on the dinner menu is the chile butter-glazed Hainanese fish rice made with dry-aged barramundi and served with chicken fat rice, ginger-scallion sauce, and pickled cucumbers. –Cathy Chaplin

Open since 1982, Marouch is an LA staple. Starting as a small shawarma wrap restaurant, it evolved into one of the city’s most consistent Armenian Lebanese spots, nestled into an East Hollywood strip mall. It’s easy to settle into one of the tables and order lamb, luleh, or chicken kebabs. Every recipe has a family origin, including the hummus and baba ghanoush, which surpass many of their competitors’ versions. The only changes are the new owners, who bought the place a few years back, and the sliding glass window that opens an entire wall to face Santa Monica Boulevard. —Mona Holmes

There are pop-ups, and then there is Kuya Lord, the unstoppable Filipino powerhouse that now has a permanent home in LA’s Melrose Hill neighborhood just north of Koreatown. Maynard Llera didn’t create Kuya Lord as a result of the pandemic (he was already cooking his personal Filipino delights like lechon at one-off nights around the city), but the pandemic did move the whole operation into his home garage for a time. There Llera focused on family and flavor, and the results have been nothing short of miraculous. He’s been profiled nationally, written-up and reviewed all over the place, and now has a small and very mighty storefront along Melrose to serve pork belly rice bowls, pancit, supremely delicious grilled prawns, and whatever else he and wife Gigi Llera can think up next. It’s a beautiful thing to behold. —Farley Elliott

There’s a reason why the 17-year-old Providence is sold out almost every night. Chef Michael Cimarusti and partner Donato Poto took the care and time to assemble a crew that executes the best tasting menus in Los Angeles. If the timing is right, Cimarusti might offer a glass from his private whiskey collection, procured during a recent trip to Kentucky. But the emphasis here is on the seafood, a rotating menu with eight courses. The catch is as fresh as it gets, and it’s artfully prepared and presented by an experienced server who explains the process. In all, Providence is the definition of fine dining by a team who cares. —Mona Holmes

Pijja Palace is the kind of spot that’s worth the hype. On the ground floor of a motel, it fits the bill of so many things Angelenos love — sports, pasta, pizza, and flavor-forward regional cuisine. Whether it’s called a pizza parlor, Indian restaurant, sports bar, or something else entirely, the owner Avish Naran doesn’t care. Nor should he, when the food so clearly speaks for itself. The green chutney pizza serves as a testament to how well cheddar cheese goes with a cilantro and green chiles paste, and the malai rigatoni flavored with fenugreek will remind you of the importance of a good spice blend.—Virali Dave

Moo’s Craft Barbecue’s permanent space in Lincoln Heights has quickly established itself as one of the top Texas-style barbecue joints in the city. Founders Andrew and Michelle Muñoz have captured the spirit of Austin with a walk-up counter, wide list of craft beers, and well-executed array of smoked meats with sides. Favorites include the jiggly smoked brisket with a crackly crust, sausages infused with fire-roasted poblano pepper and queso Oaxaca, and barbecue pork ribs, all best served with an assortment of sides like meaty baked beans, creamy esquites, and mac and cheese topped with crispy breadcrumbs. A menu of rotating specials might give diners the opportunity to dig into sticky Korean chicken wings and “thicc” chili burgers. —Matthew Kang

It wouldn’t be fair to entirely call Ototo an “in-the-know” spot, given its James Beard Foundation finalist nomination later this year thanks to its robust sake list. Still, this snacks and sipping hangout in Echo Park, just down the hill from the entrance to Dodger Stadium, is relatively far from the busy restaurants of Hollywood and the dedicated Japanese restaurants of the South Bay or Little Tokyo. Engaging staff love to pull out details to make each pour of sake more personal, while serving up staples like a katsu sandwich, delightful okonomiyaki, and a Japanese-by-way-of-LA burger.—Farley Elliott

The heart of Little Ethiopia is at Rosalind’s, the first restaurant to set up shop on Fairfax Avenue in 1989. The restaurant’s owner, Fekere Gebre-Mariam, made it his personal mission to develop the stretch into a vibrant hub full of Ethiopian restaurants and shops — and he absolutely succeeded. Follow Gebre-Mariam’s advice and order the iconic doro wat, a soul-satisfying, ruddy stew fortified with ground chiles and spiked with warming spices. The national dish of Ethiopia, this chicken-and-egg staple has been on the menu since day one. —Cathy Chaplin

This prototypical premium Korean barbecue restaurant tucked into a strip mall hits all the right notes: heaping platters of tender, richly marbled beef, well-executed banchan, and attentive service. While the restaurant’s interior isn’t modern or sharply designed, by any means, that might be exactly what longtime KBBQ fans don’t want from Soowon, with its worn-in seating and smoky environs. Soowon Galbi may not get the love of its peers like Park’s, Chosun, or even Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong, but its reliability and consistency are proof that not everything needs to be shiny to be good. —Matthew Kang

Yes, the No. 19 pastrami sandwich is an amazing sandwich, but this long-standing deli’s pure pastrami on house-baked rye is simplicity at its best. There’s a reason why people make pilgrimages to try Langer’s pastrami and even corned beef: There is no better version anywhere in town. Try the No. 44, served on griddled rye bread with hand-sliced pastrami, nippy cheese, and sauerkraut, for a decadent take on a Reuben sandwich. But don’t skip the rest of the classic Jewish deli menu either, from potato pancakes to cheese blintzes — it’s all very well executed in one of the best daytime dining rooms in town. —Matthew Kang

Nicole Rucker’s colorful tiny stall at Grand Central Market sells what is, unquestionably, LA’s best pie. And while pie alone may not otherwise be enough to elevate such a space to cult status, when combined with Rucker’s infectious attitude, playful presence, and unambiguous skill, there’s just something really special at play. The heavily-awarded Rucker knows how to coax the most possible flavor from crust and from fruits, whipping up seasonal specialties that are, bite for bite, some of the best things to eat anywhere in Los Angeles.—Farley Elliott

Everyone loves a sleeper strip mall find of a sushi restaurant, and Hamasaku might be the best of the bunch in Los Angeles. Though outwardly billed as a generalist Japanese restaurant with bites like tempura rock shrimp and miso black cod that one would find at any modern Japanese restaurant, the sushi omakase at the counter could be the best bang-for-the-buck experience in town thanks to new chef Ei Hiroyoshi, who cooked for years at Sasabune in Beverly Hills. Hiroyoshi leans into the established LA-style sushi, not ashamed to make tasteful and well-balanced rolls, though the veteran chef also prepares elegant, pristine nigiri with cuts of tuna, sea bream, and uni with expertise. —Matthew Kang

LA’s Brazilian barbecue scene hasn’t evolved much beyond the always-solid Fogo de Chão, a chain with numerous locations, and the excellent by-the-pound grilled meats at Pampas, but H&H Brazilian is looking to change that, with two handy locations in LA featuring organic salad bar ingredients and prime-grade meats. An expansive Beverly Center restaurant offers seared picanha, lamb leg, short ribs, and garlic culotte sliced fresh at the table while the original Downtown outlet has another all-you-can-eat bonanza that works great for after-work feasts.—Matthew Kang

Amid a wealth of excellent Oaxacan restaurants in Los Angeles, Gish Bac might be the best of the best thanks to the work of its chef and owner Maria Ramos, a community advocate and tireless promoter of Oaxacan culture in Southern California. At her classic Mid-City restaurant, she and her family serve a bit of everything from Oaxaca, including razor-thin tlayudas spread with fatty asiente, black bean paste, and quesillo cheese, as well as tortas stuffed with cecina, chorizo, or crispy milanesa de pollo. But the star of the show will always be the goat barbacoa roja, slow-cooked for five hours in guajillo chiles and served with lime, blankety corn tortillas, and cabbage for crunch. —Matthew Kang

Chef Jon Yao and his team have carried the torch of Taiwanese cuisine for almost seven years since its origins at a West LA strip mall. In its now year-old dining room in Downtown LA’s expansive Row project, the new Kato has a menu focused on the subtle, polished flavors served in a handsome but relaxed space. The tasting menu, featuring intricate bites of caviar-studded Dungeness crab with Chinese celery or grilled freshwater eel served over seaweed fried rice, costs about twice what it did in West LA. But the menu boasts a more thoughtful progression of whimsical bites to more substantial explorations of Taiwanese comfort fare, and the service situation is multitudes better than the original Kato. Plus, everything from the wine list to the cocktail menu are close to world-class, with compelling vintage bottles to inventive milk punches and shaken drinks designed by bartender Austin Hennelly. —Matthew Kang

Bestia is the hallmark of rustic Italian located in the heart of the Arts District, in what could be one of LA’s loudest dining rooms. Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis cook blistered Neapolitan-style pizzas, inventive fresh pastas, house-cured salumi (a rarity in Los Angeles), and large plates like a whole-grilled branzino with basil, chile, crispy seeds, and lime. Wines and cocktails are on point, and the desserts from Gergis, like the bittersweet chocolate budino tart and buttermilk panna cotta, prove simple but are served with a perfectionist’s attention to detail. —Matthew Kang

Chef Keith Corbin’s Alta is not just a soul food restaurant, or a California restaurant, or even a cool-kid kind of weekend hangout — though it obviously has shades of all. The deviled eggs and black-eyed pea fritters tell one kind of story, while the smoked tofu with spicy tartare sauce and vegan California gumbo tell another tale entirely. The wine list and cocktails pack a punch, and there’s always room at the end of the night for the one thing that everyone agrees always works: banana pudding and a few spoons to share.—Farley Elliott

It’s been more than a decade since chefs Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida-Nakayama first opened two-Michelin star N/Naka on the corner of Overland and Lawler in the Palms neighborhood of Los Angeles. Since then, the kaiseki restaurant has entranced critics and diners alike with its contemporary interpretation of a centuries-old, multicourse Japanese tradition. The 13-course modern kaiseki is priced at $310 per person. The menu changes with the seasons, along with the chef’s whims, while the flow of the meal adheres to Japanese traditions. Reservations are released a month in advance via Tock, so plan accordingly. —Cathy Chaplin

South LA’s iconic hot dog restaurant Earle’s, founded by Brooklyn natives Duane and Cary Earle, endures because of the brothers’ deep connection to the neighborhood and wide-ranging menu of chili dogs, burgers, Jamaican-style patties, and filling sides, as well as myriad vegan and gluten-free options. The prices are fast food-level but the friendly counter service and ingredients are premium, which is why the place remains cherished after more than three decades. —Matthew Kang