When it comes to LA, there are plenty of resources one might consult when deciding where to eat a particular meal. Kevin Eats is a must-read. EaterLA regularly updates their “heatmap,” which provides a list of the 18 hottest restaurants in the city at a given time. They also offer a list of the 38 best restaurants in the city at a given time. There are other blogs offering other lists. Some are broken down by category (SGV Chinese! Taco Trucks! $$$$!), some are divided by meals (lunch! brunch! other meals!). Then a few months ago an acquaintance who I see regularly through my job told me he started his own new website, simply called “Twenty Meals.” The idea was incredibly simple: “A list of places to eat in Los Angeles.” No pretensions, no rules, just a list of his twenty favorite places to eat in the city. I liked the idea so much I’m going to copy it and make it a regular (as in, updated…sometimes) feature on this website. The only catch is, when I say “Los Angeles” should that extend to Santa Monica, Venice, Culver, or Studio City? Or should it really be LA proper? I guess, until somebody says otherwise, I’ll go with places whose addresses are officially in the city of Los Angeles. I anticipate by the time I remember to update this list I will have forgotten all about this “Los Angeles address” rule, and you’ll see a bunch of places I like more (Comme Ca, Tasting Kitchen, Superba, Rustic Canyon, etc.) and I’ll include them because…fuck it. Is Tasting Kitchen that much more of a hassle to get to than Tsujita? One’s further west, but one’s right by the 405 (ugh).
Like in any venture, Version 1.0 will be vastly different from Verison 2.0.
Without further ado, here’s volume one of my favorite places to eat in Los Angeles:
Allumette
Eastside Market Italian Deli
Seongbukdong
Hungry Cat
AOC Wine Bar
Cacao Mexicatessen
Valerie Echo Park
Golden State
Red Medicine
Meals By Genet
Kanpai
Jar
Square One
Horse Thief BBQ
Tsujita
Red O
Maximiliano
Dan Sung Sa
Church & State
Yang Chow
Teeth Of The Sea – Only Fools On Horse [MP3]
