LA’s New Restaurant Openings

A new coffee shop in Historic Filipinotown, Doubting Thomas looks interesting for a couple reasons. The owner is a pastry chef, so the pastries are always changing, and possibly most importantly, they serve a breakfast quesadilla that involves pork shoulder, and a $5 breakfast sandwich.

APL is a steakhouse on Hollywood & Vine, but that doesn’t mean you should stop reading this. The space is big and modern (with no red carpeting in sight) and the guy behind it is in something called the Barbecue Hall of Fame. The menu involves almost every steakhouse classic you can think of, and all the steaks are aged in-house in a basement under the restaurant.

No More Heroes has taken over the old Now Boarding space in Weho and swapped out the old airplane theme in favor of just being a regular bar. They have a Happy Hour that runs from 7-8pm (so you might actually be able to get there after work), plus frozen (and non-frozen) cocktails alongside beer and a few wine options.

Until now, Downtown LA hasn’t had a serious oyster bar, but Rappahannock is here to change that. In the still-not-quite-finished Row development on Alameda, they’re serving oysters from their own farms in Virginia, in addition to sandwiches you’d find at a Maine seafood shack - like lobster rolls and tuna melts.

We checked out Rappahannock and put it on our Hit List.

After a couple of months as a brunch pop-up, Little Prince is now a permanent spot on Main St. in Santa Monica. They’re still serving their interesting weekend brunch (there’s a green pea pancake on the menu) along with dinner things like a steak sandwich and octopus with potatoes and garlic.

Hock and Hoof is a new spot serving French-Asian food in Downtown LA. There’s unexpected stuff, like pig head, beef heart tartare, and tripe and tendon with fry bread, and if offal isn’t really your thing, there are also more traditional dishes like a big, $120 steak with mashed potatoes.

This new spot on Beverly is from the same people as Luv2Eat in Hollywood, one of our favorite places to eat Thai food in LA. The menu is pretty similar to the original, with some larger additions like lamb chop curry and grilled salmon. The prices are a bit higher, but if the jade noodle dish is the same as the one in Hollywood, we’ll pay the extra couple dollars to eat them further west.

The inside of this new French place in Weho looks like a set from Moulin Rouge, and serves food you might expect to find in a French bistro, like radishes with butter, mussels, endive and beet salad, and steak frites. We’re not sure if French bistros also make their own absinthe, but Barbette does that too.

We checked out Barbette and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

This excellent Australian coffee shop on Fairfax now has a new location in Downtown LA, in the same development as Rappahannock. They’re serving a daytime menu in a big, bright dining room, where you can watch them roasting beans as you drink your flat white.

Good news for Valley residents: you now have a Petit Trois you don’t have to drive over the hill for. Because this is Sherman Oaks rather than a Hollywood strip mall, the new space is much bigger and there are more options on the French bistro menu. Plus, they’ll be open all day - we’ll be needing to try the croissants very soon.

We checked out Petit Trois and put it on our Hit List.

Originally a Greek place in Manhattan where finance people do deals over lunch, Avra now has a new location in Beverly Hills where entertainment people will probably do deals over lunch. The menu is very seafood-heavy, with raw options, a big selection of grilled whole fish, and a handful of non-seafood options for that one person you work with who still won’t eat salmon.

There are lots of bars on top of hotels in Downtown LA, and the one at The NoMad is another to add to your list. You’ll need a reservation just to get up there, even if you’re only drinking, but there’s a full food menu too. The dishes are a little more hotel-y than what you get downstairs at The Mezzanine. But when you’re hanging out next to a giant sculpture spitting water into a hotel pool, a Cobb salad might be exactly what you want.

Veranda is another rooftop spot - this one’s on top of Hotel Figueroa and has a very big outdoor dining space with a pool and a fireplace. They serve mostly Italian food from a wood-burning oven, including a potato and leek flatbread, branzino, and a whole roast chicken.

The people behind the eternally-slammed Bestia are doing something different for their second Arts District restaurant - Middle Eastern food. They’re serving dishes like duck ’nduja hummus, foie gras halva, lamb neck shawarma, and more, in a big converted warehouse a couple of blocks away from the mothership. Get in to check it out now, before the rest of the city descends and you have to be cool with eating after midnight on a Wednesday in three months’ time.

We checked out Bavel and put it on our Hit List.

Classic Italian sandwiches are weirdly hard to come by in LA, so this place has us interested. It’s a small spot on a busy part of Melrose, serving panini with all the options you’d expect - meatballs, chicken parm, sausage & peppers - plus one called The Godfather that we’ll have to try to see if it measures up to The Godmother at Bay Cities.

We checked out Pirolo’s and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

Employees Only was one of the first famous speakeasy cocktail bars in NYC, and 14 years into its existence, it’s expanding to LA. Like the original location, the West Hollywood spot (in the old Baby Blues BBQ space) will serve expensive cocktails and share plates, and have a psychic stationed at the entrance to tell you if your trainer is actually into you or if he looks at all his clients that way.

We checked out Employees Only and put it on our Bar Hit List.

Ooak in Culver City is a Chinese restaurant that’s fully meatless. They serve traditional Cantonese dishes vegetarians can eat, as well as plenty of vegan options. We’ll be checking it out to see what exactly vegan roasted duck is.

There aren’t many omusubi (rice balls filled with things like fish or meat) spots in LA, but one just arrived in the Arts District. If you work in DLTA, it could be a good option for a grab-and-go lunch.

This new izakaya in Downtown LA serves bento boxes for lunch and a larger Japanese pub-style menu at night with things like sashimi, some fancy tofu dishes, and a lot of yakitori options.

We checked out Hatch and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

You might have thought you’d seen all you could possibly have seen at bars on Cahuenga, but Tramp Stamp Granny’s is actually offering something new. As well as the usual Cahuenga bar things like cocktails and a rowdy crowd, it’s a piano bar, which means there’s a man at a piano encouraging you to sing along to ’90s pop song and Broadway hits. We’re already warming up.

We checked out Tramp Stamp Granny’s and put it on our Bar Hit List.

In a big dining room near the ocean in Redondo Beach, Gabi James is serving a mix of Spanish dishes like squid paella and fancy jamon alongside French dishes like steak au poivre. It looks like it could be just the right level of upscale for the South Bay - nice enough for a date, but also fine for a post-beach dinner.

We checked out Gabi James and put it on our Hit List.

Yardbird is a classic fried chicken spot in Miami that, in recent years, has started to expand to places around the world like Singapore. Now they’re in LA, with a big space in the Beverly Center and a menu with Miami Beach prices. We’re expecting a bit of scene, but still, it seems worth checking out.

We checked out Yardbird and put it on our Ride-Along-Report.

Silver Lake isn’t exactly overrun with good places to watch a game, so we’re interested in Trophy Wife, which looks like it takes all things sports pretty seriously, with plenty of large TVs, craft beer, and wings on the menu.

Kasih is a modern Indonesian restaurant in Little Tokyo serving things like roast pork belly, satays, and rendang (slow-cooked spicy beef). It’s on the bottom floor of a fancy-looking apartment building, but with nothing on the menu over $15, seems like a place to keep in mind for an affordable dinner.

We checked out Kasih and put it on our Hit List.

Bluebird is a restaurant that brews beer in Sherman Oaks, and it looks like the inside of a monastery, complete with massive chandeliers and brick archways. Their menu is Belgian-ish (including moules frites), all the beers on tap are Belgian-inspired, and they also serve their own beer made on site.

We checked out Bluebird Brasserie and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

This is a new, high-end seafood spot in Sherman Oaks serving a lot of lobster, fish, and pork. The big selection of fresh seafood - like a whole crispy striped bass - is what could make this worth a trip to the Valley.

Read Piencone’s name correctly and you’ll find out what they do here - (pizza) pies and (ice cream) cones. They have a big space in Eagle Rock, some topping combinations worth investigating (like salami with fermented honey), and interesting ice cream flavors like brown butter lavender and sesame caramel.

The second location of a Hawaiian-Cajun spot originally from Waikiki, Crackin Kitchen is a new spot in Pasadena with a giant seafood menu. You might also want to investigate the malasadas, Hawaiian/Portuguese-style donuts coated in sugar.

The dumpling restaurant you’ve at some point waited too long for has opened its first Westside location at Westfield Century City. It looks to be the exact same setup as their many other locations: spend a lot of time in line, order a lot of soup dumplings, and save room for the off-menu chocolate xiao long bao.

Croft Alley can feel like a calm oasis in the designer label chaos that is Melrose Place, and hopefully their second location inside The Standard can manage the same trick with the Sunset Strip. They’re open 24 hours a day, and are serving all the breakfast and lunch things from the original spot, plus more dinner-appropriate dishes like chicken schnitzel, glazed duck breast, and prime rib.

We checked out Croft Alley at the Standard and put it on our Ride-Along-Report.

The burger at the Larchmont was one of our favorites in LA, and we’ve been driving past the empty restaurant looking longingly inside for a little while now. So we’ll be interested to check out the new residents - Fin, the second location of a Japanese spot doing small plates and cocktails.

On a stretch of Robertson that doesn’t have a whole lot of places to eat there’s now all-day operation The Henry. It should come in handy for people who work nearby looking for a spot where they grab a coffee and breakfast before heading into the office or drinks and a snack at the end of the day.

We checked out The Henry and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

What used to be Soppresata in Silver Lake (and before that was Black Hogg), is now Black Hogg. Again. While they’re serving most of the sandwiches they had before, there are also new things like pork belly tacos, a headcheese and pate banh mi, and whatever popcorn bacon is.

Named for the jersey number that owner and former Italian soccer player Alessandro Del Piero wore, No. 10 is a fancy Italian restaurant on 3rd Street with a huge menu that actually looks pretty solid. Still awaiting word if David Beckham is the sommelier.

The second location of the super popular, fantastic Tex-Mex spot in Los Feliz is now open in Highland Park. The menu is exactly the same as the original, but perhaps most importantly, the space is much bigger, with a side patio as well. Hopefully, that means much shorter waits in line for tacos.

The best taco truck in Los Angeles just opened up a brick-and-mortar in Pomona, meaning if you live in the Inland Empire and don’t make it to East LA very often, you’re in luck. Right now, the menu is exactly the same as the truck, but they plan to add new items.

There’s now a second location of this popular craft brewery in Chinatown. The space is double the size of their first spot inside The Hermosillo in Highland Park, with a whole outside area as well. Sounds like a perfect excuse to drink some of the best craft beer in LA.

It’s been slow-going for new restaurants openings on the Westside this year, but we finally got one in Tumbi, and this upscale Indian restaurant in Santa Monica looks worth trying. The menu is stacked with familiar dishes like butter chicken and palak paneer, but there are also more unique-looking things like Pakistani fish and rice fries and a Patagonian sea bass marsala.

We checked out Tumbi and put it on our Hit List.

This is the second location of the Grand Central Market food stall that’s one of our favorite Thai spots in the city. Unlike the original, this place is a full sit-down restaurant with an expanded menu. And that includes their beef panang, which is still one of our favorite curries in the city.

We checked out Sticky Rice and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

Farmhouse, the latest restaurant to open inside the still-being-renovated Beverly Center, is run by an “executive farmer,” who has created a wide-ranging menu of “seed-to-plate” dishes. We don’t know what any of that means, but we’re down to find out.

We checked out Farmhouse and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

This is a plant-based, daytime-only restaurant in the old Hot Hot Food space in Silver Lake. But with items such as pad thai, forbidden fried rice and charcoal-crust pizza, the menu seems a bit more interesting than your typical vegan/vegetarian spots.

We checked out Jewel and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

A new sushi bar at Melrose and Vine. The space itself actually seems fairly large, and their lunch menu is mostly comprised of large sushi combo platters, chirashi bowls, and a full omakase as well.

We checked out Nagoya and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

Somni is a tasting menu-only restaurant located inside The Bazaar, which is located inside the SLS in Beverly Hills. The space is a 10-seat bar looking into the open kitchen, and its 25-course “multi-sensory” menu starts at $235 (before alcohol, tax, and tip). Start saving yesterday.

An all-day Taiwanese/Chinese spot in Highland Park from the people behind one of our favorite all-day Taiwanese/Chinese spots in Silverlake, Pine & Crane. The modern interior and order-at-the-counter setup seem pretty similar to Pine & Crane, but the menu is full of new stuff, including a bao section we definitely want to get involved with.

We checked out Joy and put it on our Hit List.

In this edition of Which Australian Cafe Opened In LA This Week, we bring you Roo Cafe in Silver Lake. The tiny spot in Sunset Junction has a fairly standard flat-white-and-avocado- toast-heavy menu, but given its fantastic location on that park-like triangle (next to Pine & Crane) and front patio, it already got at least a couple things right.

Back from its eight month facelift, Crustacean has reopened in Beverly Hills, giving the area yet another beautiful restaurant for people to sit in and talk about their actual facelifts. Here’s the more important news though - the modern Vietnamese menu also got an update, and it actually looks pretty good.

A new cocktail bar in Historic Filipinotown. Genever’s aesthetic looks like it reads closer to a high-end Hollywood lounge than anything else, but given its quiet surroundings, we’re intrigued.

We checked out Genever and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

One of our favorite pasta spots in town, Pasta Sisters, has opened a second location in Culver City. While their original stripmall location on Pico was tiny, with only three or so tables, their new spot appears to be much bigger, with an expanded menu as well. They also serve beer and wine. See you there.

We checked out Pasta Sisters and put it on our Hit List.

An all-day cafe inside the high-end accessory store, Mansur Gavriel, on Melrose Place. Because after a hard day of spending $1,000 on a bucket bag, the shopping gods want you to have some avocado toast.

We checked out Cafe Flora and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

The all-day Mediterranean-ish restaurant inside the newly renovated Hotel Figueroa downtown, from the people behind the Tasting Kitchen (who also recently opened another hotel restaurant, Viale Dei Romani, in West Hollywood).

We checked out Breva and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

Another day, another rolled ice cream shop that nobody asked for. But wait, this one serves waffles? And smoked salmon sandwiches? This tiny shop in West Hollywood could be a total disaster, but there’s enough weirdness going on here to warrant a drop-in.

The people behind one of LA’s classic diners, Nick’s in Chinatown, have opened a new breakfast spot in Eagle Rock. Despite a name that makes it sounds like a sing-along restaurant at CityWalk, this place looks like the kind of eggs-and-bacon diner we need more of in LA.

A new French bistro right on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City. With items like French onion soup, mussels in garlic sauce, and coq au vin, the very traditional menu reads like a French food Hall of Fame inductee list, but its aggressive-looking 19th Century parlor room aesthetic is definitely something we need to see in person.

We checked out Montresor and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

Tired of arcade bars? Us too. But this low-key spot in a sleepy part of Eagle Rock looks more like a neighborhood dive bar with some pinball machines in the back then a full-on arcade bar. There’s a solid beer list and $3.50 hotdogs.

We checked out Walt’s Bar and put it on our Bar Hit List.

A vowel-adverse breakfast and coffee shop just opened on Vermont in Los Feliz, bringing another all-day option to a neighborhood that clearly wants as many as city planners will allow. They’re serving housemade pastries and coffee now, with an expanded food menu coming soon.

The people behind one of our favorite bars in West Hollywood, Surly Goat, just opened a bar right on the Sunset Strip. With a light-up dance floor, pizza by-the-slice, and the promise of mostly 80’s music, this place will no doubt be a mess on weekends, but one we’re actually excited to check out.

The third restaurant from the mini-Thai food empire that is Night + Market is open in Venice, serving a similar menu to its other locations with some new additions - like a Peking duck pizza that we are very excited to try.

We checked out Night + Market Sahm and put it on our Hit List.

The people behind Mozza and Everson Royce Bar - two of our favorite places to eat and drink - have teamed up to open this new by-the-slice Roman pizza spot in Highland Park. You order at the counter, tell them how much pizza you want to eat, and then you pay by weight.

We checked out Triple Beam Pizza and put it on our Hit List.

The Philadelphia-born craft coffee company has opened a giant new cafe right along the LA River in Frogtown. If you’re planning a bike trip anytime soon, you can stop here for a coffee and pastry or a sandwich beforehand.

A fried chicken sandwich spot is now open in DTLA’s Corporation Food Hall. And if you’re someone who’s picky about your fried chicken, you’ll be happy to know that there are eight types of sandwiches to choose from.

What was formerly H Coffee House in Los Feliz is now a Mediterranean restaurant serving small plates from the chef at Home restaurant next door. Right now they’re open for breakfast and lunch, with dinner coming soon.

One of our favorite Eastside brunch spots is now open for dinner too. They’re serving a lot of the same French/Mexican food they do for lunch, as well as some new additions - including a short rib burger we’re excited to try.

A sushi restaurant in Pasadena that looks like it could be a good place for a fancy date night. They serve classic a la carte sushi and rolls, as well as a $70 tasting menu, which appears to just be omakase.

A new upscale Italian restaurant in Hermosa Beach, with lots of pasta and wine. It seems like it’ll be a neighborhood restaurant, but a fancy one.

That breakfast sandwich you once waited an hour for can now be found further west than Grand Central Market, this time at the Beverly Center.

A modern Mediterranean restaurant opens tonight for dinner down the street from The Grove. The space is big and bright, and kind of looks like a sidewalk cafe you’d find in Greece. The food looks like pan-Mediterranean, with things like Israeli crudo and avocado hummus.

We checked out Jaffa and put it on our Hit List.

The new La Peer hotel in West Hollywood now has a seafood-focused Italian restaurant from the people behind The Tasting Kitchen. We’ll be visiting to see if it’s another surprisingly good LA hotel restaurant.

We checked out Viale Dei Romani and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

At this point, we’re not allowed to publish a list of new restaurants without an Australian cafe on it. But another one opened on Melrose, serving things like avocado toast and egg sandwiches.

We checked out Point Five and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

David Chang, the guy behind Momofuku in New York, has opened up his first LA restaurant in Chinatown. The Asian-fusion menu has Chinese bing (kind of like a flatbread), Korean pork belly, and a cacio e pepe-style noodle dish. You can pretty much expect it’s going to be slammed early on.

We checked out Majordomo and put it on our Hit List.

Soon LA will be entirely Australian cafes and famous NYC imports. In the latter category, the Nomad hotel has opened a downtown LA location, with a super fancy restaurant called the Mezzanine, a coffee shop, and a bar.

We checked out the NoMad and put it on our Hit List.

Modern Times, the craft beer maker whose cans you’ve probably seen in your cool friends’ fridges, has opened up a taproom/all-day cafe in downtown LA. They serve coffee and pastries in the morning, and then stay open for lunch/dinner/beer tastings. Also, their menu is entirely vegan.

We checked out Modern Times and put it on our Bar Hit List.

We estimate that by 2021, there will be more Australian coffee shops in LA than dogs. The most recent one to land in the city is Pollen, on Echo Park Blvd. They’re serving the same breakfast classics and coffee as their Australian brethren, but if you’re in the area, it looks like a pretty place to hang out.

We checked out Pollen and put it on our Hit List.

There’s not a whole lot of Indonesian food in LA, so it’s good that Rinjani is changing that. This new Glendale spot does a bunch of vegetable-heavy, classic Indonesian curries and soups, and looking at the menu makes us very hungry.

We checked out Rinjani and put it on our Hit List.

An apothecary-themed bar from New York is now open in Chinatown. If you like heavy themes and complicated cocktails, this might be your place.

We checked out Apotheke and put it on our Bar Hit List.

Westsiders no longer have to cross the 405 to eat marlin tacos. Or any of the other simple, excellent seafood dishes that Coni’seafood has to offer. The Inglewood favorite (and the only place we know to get marlin tacos) has opened a new location in Del Rey.

We checked out Coni’seafood and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

If you were one of the people who’d frequent that parking lot next to Tabula Rasa for this really good hot chicken pop-up, you’ll be happy to hear that Dave’s has opened a permanent location on Western Ave. off of Santa Monica Blvd. It could be a good choice if you don’t want to wait in line for three hours at Howlin’ Rays.

Hillhurst Ave. in Los Feliz isn’t short on coffee and breakfast spots, but one more can’t hurt. All Time serves classic cafe food and will probably make it into our morning rotation sometime soon.

We checked out All Time and put it on our Ride-Along Report.

A new Italian seafood restaurant has opened in Santa Monica in what used to be a theater. The space has a lot of stained glass windows, which kind of makes it look like you’re eating dinner in church.

Yet another fast-casual option in DTLA. This one serves donburi (Japanese rice bowls), and we’ll be checking in soon to see if it’s worth your lunch hour.