Los Angeles Food Guide: Where I’d Actually Eat

Order: The lamb French dip, double dipped. Beef is the classic order; the regulars will tell you lamb is the move.

Philippe opened in 1908 at 1001 North Alameda Street, sawdust on the floors, communal tables, and a claim that it invented the French dip. Another downtown counter claims the same thing, and LA has argued about it for over a hundred years. I let the sandwich settle it: meat on a French roll, dipped in the pan juices, simple on purpose. Open daily from 6 AM, which also makes it the best breakfast decision downtown.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @philippetheog

Order: Roasted bone marrow, the alla 'nduja pizza, and a house made pasta.

Bestia opened in 2012 in an industrial Arts District space and reset what Italian food in LA could be. The pastas and pizzas are made in house, the room is loud in the right way, and everything I have read about from this kitchen shows up with smoke, char, or heat on it. This is the dinner reservation you book when you want LA cooking at full volume.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @bestiadtla

Order: Morning: the pastry case, kouign-amann first. Dinner: book ahead and let the French side of the menu run.

République at 624 South La Brea is a chef run room in a tall arched building. Mornings, the café does pastries people line up for. Nights, it turns formal French. The guides put the café at 8 AM to 2 PM daily. Two restaurants at one address, both earning the spot. Get the kouign-amann before it sells out and thank me in the comments.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @republiquecafebakery

Order: The Godmother. Prosciutto, ham, capicola, mortadella, salami, and provolone on the house crusty bread.

The New York Post's sandwich roundup calls the Godmother an unapologetically enormous Italian sub, and enormous is underselling it. Bay Cities has fed Santa Monica for generations, and the Godmother is the westside's answer to every East Coast sub argument. Order it with the works and eat it outside like a local.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @baycities.official

Order: Al pastor, carved off the trompo, with the pineapple flicked on top.

Leo's is the late night al pastor standard in this city. The taquero shaves pork straight off the vertical spit and catches a piece of pineapple on the tortilla in one motion, and the crowd at midnight will tell you it never gets old. Multiple trucks, long hours, tiny prices. This is LA street food doing exactly what it promises.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @leostacostruck

Order: Carne asada tacos on the flour tortillas, and a chivichanga if they are running it.

Sonoratown opened downtown in 2016 and built its name on Sonora style cooking: mesquite grilled beef and flour tortillas so thin they're close to see through, made with pork lard the old way. Mariana in LA's taco guide calls it the spot that filled a regional gap nobody else in LA was covering. Northern Mexico by way of downtown LA. The tortillas alone are worth the trip.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @sonoratownla

Order: The queso taco and whatever Victor is running on the mesquite grill.

Victor Villa started Villa's in 2018 cooking in his grandmother's yard in Highland Park, per Mariana in LA's guide. The lines followed him to a real spot and a Michelin Bib Gourmand listing. Backyard, pop up, institution. That's a pure LA story, and the tacos earn the line.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @villastacoslosangeles

Ray Buhen mixed drinks at the original Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood in the 1930s, then opened this tiny bar on Sunset Boulevard in 1961. His family still runs it. Twelve stools, dozens of rum drinks, and a Wednesday toast to Ray that regulars treat like church. Modern Luxury's LA bars guide counts more than 90 cocktails on the list, including Ray's Mistake, which started as an accident and stayed as a legend. Small room, deep history, strong pours. Get there early or wait outside like everybody else.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @tikiti1961

The Dresden has poured in Los Feliz since 1954: mid century booths, white vinyl, and a lounge Swingers put on the map for a whole generation in 1996. Marty and Elayne played that lounge for close to 40 years, until 2020, per RollCall's venue stories. The room still runs on their kind of night: strong drinks, no rush, a singer at the piano. Old LA nightlife, lights low, pours honest.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @the.dresden

A museum in dim, velvet draped rooms where the exhibits sit somewhere between real science and a straight faced joke, and nobody tells you which is which. Travelivery's offbeat LA list calls it a place that challenges your sense of reality. Microscopic sculptures, strange collections, total deadpan delivery. You walk out unsure what you just saw, and that is the entire point. My favorite kind of weird.

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Simon Rodia, one tile setter working alone, spent 33 years building 17 steel and mortar towers in his own yard, covered in sea shells, broken glass, and tile. Cvent's LA guide puts the tallest details plainly: built entirely by hand, in Watts, now a National Historic Landmark. One guy. No crew. Thirty three years. Stand under them and tell me LA has no folk art scene.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @thewattstowers

A funicular that has climbed Bunker Hill since 1901, billed as the shortest railway in the world. The ride takes about a minute and drops you at Grand Central Market, which is the correct way to arrive at lunch. Travelivery calls it a quick, charming stop worth building into a downtown afternoon. Cheap, old, and still working. LA kept this one. Good.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @angelsflightrailway