Los Angeles’ Gifts to the World
The edible, sensual and spiritual pleasures of LA (5 upscale + 5 affordable eats, 3 cocktail bars, 1 hotel and more)
Los Angeles’ endless greater metro area sprawl of nearly 13 million people equals one of the most diverse cities in the world. Partly growing up here, both in my elementary years and ages 18-23, LA has a very special place in my heart and my roots… and its recent, tragic fires broke my heart.
This won’t be a one-off article, like dear countries I realistically won’t be able to visit often in a lifetime (think my recent Ecuador guide). LA is a regular part of my roots, life and fabric, thus I won’t try to summarize its “gifts to the world” in one article (read past recommends here). Expect more a snapshot now in a region I know deeply, city-by-city, hundreds of restaurants, hotels and cocktail bars later.
Making three visits from fall into the holidays of 2024, right up until two weeks before the horrendous fires, I recently did a lot of catching up in the city of my youth. And it was blessed. Since long before I was born, LA has been a haven for every cuisine possible in its widely diverse demographics across hundreds of enclaves (“one hundred cities in search of a city,” as the saying goes). It is a street food capitol offering no end to legit “cheap eats” representing every corner and culture on earth.
I never miss LA traffic and shudder to even think of giving up the eclectic beauty and close access to wild, lush, spectacular nature I have in Northern California — nor the long-advanced dining and drink movements of far smaller San Francisco, my chosen home for my adult life. But I’m thrilled to see LA’s fine dining scene rapidly grow, as shown by the four upscale restaurants I review here, one of them a pioneer from 26 years back. Here, I also review mind-blowingly good casual eats (looking at you, Holbox!) Plus a downtown LA hotel and under-the-radar gems, including one in Orange County.
Writing about LA since 2008 back to my review of Pizzeria Mozza when it was six months old, I’ve written about and visited hundreds restaurants, stands and bars in the City of Angels. These back-to-back recent three visits have held some of my best-ever LA eats… here, 5 upscale + 5 affordable eats, 3 cocktail bars, 1 hotel and more.
The Moment I Fell in Love With LA
To be fair, we moved to LA — the town of La Mirada — when I was six years old from Kansas City, Missouri, so I don't remember my first LA moment. I do remember the first time we went to Disneyland and the beach: Magic. Magic. Magic. Unlike our move to New Jersey when I was 14, the moment I beheld the Manhattan skyline as we circled down into the Lincoln Tunnel, I put my hand over my heart in ecstatic awe with a steep intake of breath. NYC took me over and as a teenager. From then on, I knew I was a city girl.
I never had that moment with LA: the infamous "a hundred cities in search of a city" that spreads on with incessant freeways and neighborhoods, no defining core. However, since my youth, the endlessness of LA is in my bones. Even when I moved back on my own, ages 18 to 23, LA’s ceaseless sprawl punctuated by stark outlines of palm trees made an imprint on my soul. Once I lived in OC (Brea, Fullerton), I’d spend many hours a week driving those palm tree-flanked freeways, trekking home from three different live music shows a week. I saved what meager dollars I had to go to concerts of every genre in LA, the ultimate city for the biggest names of every music genre.