It’s Time For OUR List: Introducing The FTC47, LA/OC Edition

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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Tire Shop Taqueria
Howlin Rays
Northern Thai Food Club
Bestia
Jun Won
Gwang Yang/Parks BBQ
Sapp Coffeeshop
La Unica
Otafuku
Dino’s
Langers
Shunji
Dai Ho
Beijing Pie House
Ruby BBQ

I definitely have more to add. Maybe I will do this by my favorite areas/neighborhoods later…(Koreatown, SGV, Thai Town, South Bay, Little Saigon, etc). So I will post this for now just to throw it out there and if you want to add stuff to do/drink/see/etc I will make it even more longer lol

I could be a freakin tour guide/concierge for LA and OC.

And since so many of our favorite places specialize in 1-3 items I will try to list that as well!! Because we are food nerds always seeking out a specialist

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Forgot about this place! Used to love it. Glad they are still great.

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They re-did the entire restaurant about a year ago! Seriously upped their game in my opinion.
They have ingredients/ do things with them that I have yet to see be done at other spots. I had the best sushi meal of the year there just two weeks ago (which is saying something if I’ve also been to shunji, SGO, Shin, etc. It definitely isn’t as edo-inspired/focused as those though).

Plus the owner is a knife collector so there’s a display of about 40 or so knives all from highly skilled craftsmen. I know the huge maguro knife up there is one of Oatley’s, who is an Australian knife maker and a great one at that. Anyone who has an instagram I recommend following him.

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My 19 (prime number):

Somni – best restaurant in LA.

Vespertine – tied with Somni for most ambitious restaurant in LA

Urasawa – best extravagant meal in LA

Sushi Ginza Onodera – best sushi in LA

Providence – Reliably excellent

Maude – Classic food, best wine restaurant in LA

Hayato – The only restaurant in the U.S. that reminds me of a Michelin starred kaiseki restaurant in Japan. More than reminds – it’s the same.

Kato – Refined and nuanced, subtly inventive Chinese food

Osteria Mozza – Simply delicious Italian

Shunji – Excellent sushi and some cutting edge starters

Sushi Zo (DTLA) – Excellent sushi

Mori Sushi – Excellent sushi

Bavel – Delicious, refined, innovative takes on classic Middle Eastern fare

Here’s Looking at You – Creative, flavorful food; best cocktails in LA

Brera Ristorante – The best risotto and gnocchi I’ve ever had; menu is always changing; classic, underappreciated cooking (like Maude)

Bistro Nas – The second most refined Chinese food in LA

Broken Spanish – Successfully makes Mexican higher end while maintaining great flavor. Awesome mezcal selection. Only complaint: menu doesn’t change often enough.

Wild Living Foods – Innovative, ultra-healthy, and delicious vegan food.

Water Grill. Because someone needs to stand up for a restaurant that has served consistently good, skillfully prepared food for over a decade-- food that is (dare I say) objectively way better than most of the food on the LA Times 100 list.

Beyond this, I don’t have any strong positive feelings toward any other LA restaurant.

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Can you give examples?

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They have Sawagani (originally got them live, now I assume they froze them since it’s no longer in season, but still delicious)
-Seiko crab on the menu when I was there for a reasonable $30
-Sakura ebi dish back around August/September

  • Black sesame tofu with uni dish
  • Sakura Masu “cherry trout”
  • Shirako tempura (I know other restaurants do this but usually those places are omakase only and you would have to muster enough courage to ask for an encore of sperm sac :crazy_face:)
    -Kuruma ebi
    -tempura squash blossoms stuffed with scallops and snapper
    They always have things like nodoguro, truffles, miyazaki wagyu, etc

Not saying they’re the only ones to have these items, but they consistently deliver on amazing hard to find ingredients. All the chefs are super engaging and friendly. I’m suprised they’ve flown under the radar this long, but I suppose I’m perfectly ok with it since It’s easier for me to make reservations. To my fellow FTC’ers however, please give them a try!

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You have lab results?

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@PorkyBelly Redirect Notice

Chef is Mark Okuda who used to be at Asanebo prior.

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Trying not to do too many repeats, but there’s gonna be some:

Majordomo - everything is good

Bestia - still one of the best around

Mozzaplex - specifically chi spacca still cranking out the hits

republique- day time pastries or night time dinner just spot on

Angler - I feel like this place although a little less stiff has taken the place of providence as best seafood based fine dining

Gjusta - everything is good, standouts being copious smoked fish choices, sandwiches, baked goods, and salads. Plus it has the dinner options that everyone loves.

Tire Shop Taqueria - Best tijuana style carne asada tacos in LA hands down. Hand made tortillas, grilled over mesquite carbon, actual slices of beef.

Il Romanista Pizza- best roman style pizza in the city has heavyweights such as nancy silverton and chad colby

La Morra Pizza - favorite neo-neopolitan style pizza in LA great flavors and crust with just the right tinge of searing on the crust.

Ta-eem great kosher israeli food standouts include pargiot, shawerma, and falfafel along with the copious amounts of israeli salads plus the best harissa and skug in town

Holbox- best live seafood ceviche in town although everyones talking about seafood underground which I haven’t been to yet.

Taqueria los anaya - best home style mexican in town

Newport seafood- best place to take out of town asian family to a seafood focused feast

Chengdu taste - a little older but still the standard bearer for sichuan in SGV

Sea Harbour - still best consistent high quality dim sum around

Hangari bajirak kal gook soo- amazing kal gook soo

Jeon ju - ajummas making the amazingly crispy dolsolt bimbimbap bowls along with awesome panchan

Sun -nong dan - kalbijjim spicy no cheese nuf said

Luv2eat thai -cranking out the most consistent cravable thai dishes

Ruby BBQ- best roast pork

Jon and Vinnys - great homage to american italian

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but how can i trust you if you didn’t list chi spacca :slight_smile: cool list

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Thank you. I only went to Chi Spacca once. I remember finding that the centerpiece of our meal – roasted duck – was overcooked and disappointing. I’m also a seafood person, not a meat person.

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Let me give an example: Badmaash. I think that if you buy a good Indian cookbook and go to Artesia and buy the ingredients, and if you have a fair amount of experience as a home cook, then you will make food as good as or better than Badmaash’s food in the first few tries. It just doesn’t take much skill. (Yes, this is based on personal experience.)

On the other hand, if you try to duplicate what they do at Water Grill as a novice home cook, you probably won’t succeed. The cooking at Water Grill is much more skillful.

For this reason, I say Water Grill is objectively better than Badmaash and most of the restaurants on the LA Times list. I would add that the ingredients at Water Grill – a wide variety of fresh seafood – are objectively superior too.

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How do those two relate?

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Something being harder to cook doesn’t make it better.

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Huh? Really??

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Yes sorry. It’s not part of LA for me. I go there twice a year just as much as Long Beach. These aren’t just suburbs, they’re other communities entirely. Why aren’t we including Ventura then? We can get up there faster. Or right there’s not much up there

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I think repeats are good. The best is the best.

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Me too…

They do a great Roast Chicken too.

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Our list is doomed :stuck_out_tongue:

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Oi Asian Fusion
El Huarache Azteca
Ricky’s Fish Tacos
Mariscos Jalisco
Teddy’s Red Tacos
Leo’s Tacos
Guisados
Hiho Cheeseburger
Chengdu Taste
Newport Seafood
Seafood Palace
Philippe
Simpang
Pa Ord Noodle
Sapp Coffee Shop

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