Of Note:
Anajak Thai
HLAY
Kato
This link is a “gift”:
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The desserts at Abaca look good!
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… here’s looking at you? really? no shade but… really?
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Lien Ta and Jonathan Whitener’s quirky little restaurant on the edge of Koreatown reopened this year, buzzing with energy, noise and new ideas. It’s one of the restaurants that define the culinary moment in Los Angeles, as it continuously reshapes itself with dynamic dishes that are easy to love and hard to categorize, like frogs’ legs with salsa negra. TEJAL RAO
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I really enjoyed Little Saint. Produce is excellent as expected since they source mostly from Singlethread’s farm. Flavors of their composed dishes were clean and bright. Every dish had varying textures…most importantly, I didn’t miss not having meat at all when I dined there for lunch.
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I could name like 10 other restaurants… honestly even Kinn right around the corner is more inventive and something I’d go back to.
Idk this seems fishy to me. That is all.
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I would have to agree but these lists are so subjective and it is “our 50 favorite restaurants” so really they can put any resto on the list and have it be defensible as opposed to a definitive “best of” or “best new”.
Another question is how often do these ny writers get to eat at all these restaurants and within these cities? If la writers were naming restaurants in NY and other far flung US locales I would def take their opinions with a grain of salt.
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Haven’t been to HLAY in a while, though fwiw I do agree the menu represents an earlier iteration of cutting edge, interesting chef food here @Rodeogig.
In terms of bonafides, I think Tejal Rao lives in LA and is not parachuting in a la previous Times critics. That doesn’t mean she’s ‘right’ or whatever, and I too was surprised by its inclusion. A lot of these lists are partly narrative driven, and at this stage I’m not sure HLAY tells much about where food is/is going.
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Tejal Rao is based in LA.
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Regardless of what SF Chronicle says, I would go back to Little Saint in a heartbeat.
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Well at least she’s LA based!
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I was up there the week before they opened. I wanted to check Little Saint out. Glad you enjoyed!
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Especially when it’s best FIFTY restaurants in the Us and they add like 2-3 LA places… IDK juts to me I think it’s not great representation when people think “LA food” if they think this is the best of the best.
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“Favorite” is quite deliberately not "best "
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+1 and " 50 places in America we’re most excited about right now." is not the same as 50 best. I take it as a deliberate exercise in providing publicity to places they think haven’t gotten enough and provide a good dining experience (in their opinion).
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Hlay has some crazy hold on critics. Addison had it in his essential 38 for the entire country. I’ve no idea what they see that we don’t. But they consistently get that praise, so good for them.
Would love to hear from a big here’s looking at you fan as to what this place does so well.
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Same issue. “Favorite 3 restaurants in LA” and one of them is HLAY would make me have a much different attitude and expectation for what “LA restaurants” are about. If a tourist reads the article and decides to dine based on that I think they’d end up feeling indifferent to disappointed with LA cuisine…
Anajak and Kato are on most lists.
HLAY is a critics’ favorite, though it seems way less consistent than most places that end up on these lists.
I’ve never tried Anajak, I understand why Kato is a top restaurant in LA though it is not my favorite.
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