At a loss for words about what a bleak landscape for restaurants we are living in. So many things need to change. LA’s dining culture is one of them. Personally very worried that even Bill Addison is writing takedowns now, and that so many people seem to be excited about it. Stinks of a toxic dining culture to me.
I don’t think that is in anyway specific for restaurants in the moment. We are at in a potentially deep downturn for the overall economy in the US and restaurant visits, especially those more upscale (and these are the majority talked about on this board) are feeling it with much less customers and ultimately more closures coming (but that is happening also in other industries like tech or biotech (on an even much larger level)
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I’m not discounting what you’re saying but I cooked for fifteen years in four cities. No doubt there are macro trends making it hard on a lot of people/industries right now but I’m not seeing anything remotely close to what we’re seeing in LA elsewhere.
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I do think, alas, that toxicity is very, very “in” right now (beyond restaurants). 
Agree, but I think LA is/was uniquely dependent on film/TV.
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Restaurants in other cities are dependent on any industry that dominates the local economy. For example, in San Francisco, past downturns in tech have led directly to lots of restaurant closures, and the pandemic switch to working from home has had a huge effect on restaurants in neighborhoods with lots of tech offices.
You talking about Review: Why doesn't Mei Lin's cuisine roar at 88 Club? He’s just doing his job. She’s a high-profile chef who proved what she can do at Nightshade and Daybird. It’s a public service to let people know that the expensive food is hit and miss.
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I’ll just agree to disagree with you on just about everything. We get the restaurants we deserve. We can’t continue to consume restaurants in the way that we do and then pretend to be sad when they close. We have a hand in them closing, and it’s ridiculous to act like that’s not the case.
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Agreed with both of you guys on different levels. @robert I’m with you on Addison - it was a level headed review for me and he’s doing his job. I’m actually glad to see more criticism and it didn’t seem mean spirited to me.
@Bazinga agreed that LA is unique position right now - even the Times wrote an article about the increase in closures. I find that back home in NY many closures are a hype cycle ending and people not supporting restaurants after year one, combined with macroeconomic realities. Here it feels like there was a perfect storm this year of things that fucked restaurants so quickly (in the big picture) after covid that it’s just bleak as hell.
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I think the fact that there is even an appetite for “this restaurant is not good” is part of the problem. For years Addison just wouldn’t write a review if a restaurant didn’t warrant praise. I think it’s fair to ask if something has changed. I look at the landscape and see an appetite for schadenfreude, which is just another expression of the way diners have historically looked to “punish” restaurants and restaurant workers when they don’t get what they want–with bad yelp reviews, bad tips, etc.
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Fair. I found it constructive but you’re right - it’s a bit different than his previous vibe. Interestingly I feel it was a place a lot of people might have wanted a review for - surprisingly it’s a place a LOT of my coworkers who aren’t terribly into food go.
You’re reading some review you made up in your head. Addison’s starts with four paragraphs raving about the shrimp toast, talks at length about how great the food was at Nightshade and is at Daybird, and talks up two more dishes (one of which was inconsistent) before getting into dishes that were just okay or bad. He even tells readers how to eat well there (sit at the bar and get shrimp toast and a cocktail). His point is that Mei Lin can and should do better.
Writing a review Ike that of a place that nobody’s heard of would be a waste of time, but Club 88 has a celebrity chef and publicist.
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If you think shrimp toast and a cocktail is going to keep them open God bless you. I know for a fact that there are circles celebrating the review as a takedown, and that to me is a really bad indicator of where we are at. Is he going to review the restaurant again if Mei Lin does better, or is the damage done?
It’s not the job of any restaurant critic in any city to write reviews to keep restaurants open - I want honest reviews and just because the overall situation might be bad that doesn’t should give more “room” for unjustified friendly reviews. One might argue when the money is tighter for everybody you want even more stringent/honest reviews
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So is SF on tech and biotech and both are in a deep crisis with some calling the biotech one existential at this point
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My point is essentially this: do we care about the industry, or do we care about food, and do we recognize ourselves as a part of the ecosystem? I think the public being largely absolved of any blame is some “customer is always right” bs.
Also think the Hollywood leaving comparison is apt. Good/interesting restaurants will too/already are! Miss me with blaming it on COVID, because last I checked literally the entire world went through that and nobody’s scene is this bad.
Oh, I’m certainly not arguing that other cities aren’t hit hard by things specific to them. All of my clients w/ tech jobs are panicked about keeping their jobs right now.
I don’t know enough about LA’s dining scene, let alone other cities, to compare them. My point was more that, if LA’s dining scene is being hit hard in a different way than are other cities, there could be unique factors at play, like film/TV.
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That’s complex and in general I think the thought of “the customer is always right” isn’t a good one. At the same time, and that is not specific to the food industry, I care to a certain degree about the employees in the different industries but they aren’t the main reason for me to be “involved” (as a customer) with an industry and so in the end it is about the final product, the food
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“There are always restaurants closing and restaurants opening.” said Chris Thornberg, a founding partner of Beacon Economics, a consulting firm in Los Angeles. “The net result here is when you look at the data it’s not quite as end of the world as a lot of these folks are suggesting.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/dining/los-angeles-restaurants-closings.html
I think in large part my point is that I don’t necessqrily believe food to be the final product of a restaurant. In some respects I’d go as far as to argue that a restaurant is the final product of something in between people who comprise it and the people who consume it. I think Birdie G’s being forced to put a burger on the menu is actually a prime illustration of that. I also think more and more people engage with food and restaurants without ever ingesting their food–food is of course a large part of the restaurant experience, but all I am arguing is that the reaction to the experience is dictated in large part by the culture surrounding it–a toxic cultural ecosystem begets toxic diners engaging in toxic dialogue. I am not discounting any of the factors that are making it hard for restaurants to survive, I’m just kind of baffled at the extent to which diners see themselves as separate from the end product.
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I do wish Chris Thornberg gave a more substantive quote. “Not quite as end of the world” can span anywhere from a little bit worse than normal, to incredibly bad but not quite apocalyptic.
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