Los Angeles’s Restaurant Hot Spots

My husband and I visited sunny Los Angeles last month. I have to confess that I am not the best at planning. We only had three days and I knew I needed to plan our meals. Most of my trips are planned around the food. It’s just that important to me. Each place I have ever visited, I remember because of the food that I ate. So, I researched the best places to eat in Los Angeles and surrounding area. I also reached out to my friend Simon Majumdar  (Food Network judge) who knows all the best places to eat in L.A. So the not planner in me made a plan which meant I had to make reservations. When you grow up in a small town and live in places where you don’t have to make reservations, it takes getting used to. I like just walking into a restaurant but that doesn’t happen in L.A. 

First on my list was to visit Los Angeles’s Eataly. I’ve been to the Eataly in both New York and Chicago. If you have never been, I definitely encourage you to visit an Eataly. Owned by my former Masterchef judge, Joe Bastianich and his mom Lidia Bastianich, Eataly is an Italian market and eatery.

The one in L.A. is located in Century City mall. The space is open and beautiful. It was my husband’s first experience so we soaked it all in by walking every square inch of the place. After working up an appetite, we ate at La Pizza and La Pasta. We decided we needed to try both a pizza and a pasta. We ended up choosing the beef cheeks ravioli with a butter sauce and the Capricciosa pizza. The pasta was cooked perfectly with an al dente bite. It is a lot heartier and more filling pasta than dry pasta. I’m going to have to work on making homemade pasta. The butter sauce was surprisingly light and not as heavy as I would have imagined a butter sauce to be. I also recommend their butternut squash ravioli. I’ve had it a couple times in NYC. 

The pizza crust was chewy with a perfect crispness. The combination of toppings were delicious and the sauce was well seasoned. I would order it again.

Lastly, we visited the gelato and cannoli station. My face lit up when I saw the pile of fresh cannoli shells waiting to be filled. There isn’t just one option for fillings either. There were like 10! I chose the sheep’s milk ricotta. After trying creamy, silky sheep’s milk ricotta at a NYC restaurant once, I became a huge fan. There is really nothing like it. My filled cannoli then took a dip into some shaved chocolate. I asked for a side of their homemade “Nutella” to enjoy with it because why not.

My husband being the ice cream lover went with the gelato. He decided upon the salted caramel gelato affogato style which means topped with espresso. The cold, creamy sweet gelato paired with the warm slightly bitter espresso was a fun play on your palate.  It was a marriage made in dessert heaven.

Next on my foodie stop was dinner at Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica, CA. Besides the fact that Simon recommended the restaurant, it was highly praised online. The chef Jeremy Fox was nominated as a James Beard finalist for best chef in the West. Tasting foods from highly recognized chefs makes me excited because I know they must have an extreme talent and passion for cooking. 

This dish probably doesn’t look like much to you but oh wow was it. This pozole verde with mussels, hominy, radish and tortilla as described on their menu had a complexity of flavors. It had a sweetness from the mussels, tartness from the tomatillos, saltiness from the tortillas, and acidity from lime. The textures were incredible as well. The soup broth was thin, the hominy had a crunchiness yet creamy, the paper thin slices of radish and tomatillos were crispy and the mussels melted-in-your-mouth. I am going to try to replicate this dish for sure.

We also had a stuffed delicata squash with burrata and short ribs with polenta. The whole meal was fantastic. I can’t wait to have dinner there again.

Stay tuned for my last L.A. foodie stop. I’ll share where we had an awesome breakfast in Los Angeles before we flew home. It was worth packing up a goodie box to take with us.