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Memorable Meals
Nowhere in the world is the marriage of show business and public dining more pronounced than in Los Angeles -- so much so that the celebrity chefs at many top restaurants are just as famous as the film stars and socialites they serve. Yet despite all the glamour and pretension of a typical power dining room in L.A., these high-profile eateries do deliver top-notch meals, even if some of their tanned and tummy-tucked clients pay little mind to what's on the plates. If your budget can handle the big numbers on the menus, a visit to one of the city's premier restaurants can be both a sublime dining experience and a chance to mingle with the Hollywood elite. Top choices include:
Spago Beverly Hills
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Spago Beverly Hills, the flagship restaurant of superstar chef Wolfgang Puck's fine dining empire. Ask for a table indoors with a view of the theatrical open kitchen, or on the romantic outdoor patio. Either way you’ll enjoy consistently outstanding contemporary cuisine and Spago's famously faultless service. |
The Ivy
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The Ivy, a deceptively casual American-style restaurant in Beverly Hills that's one of the best places to go in search of celebrity sightings -- particularly if you score a coveted paparazzi-prone table on the outdoor patio. Prices are high, but the food is good, portions are generous, and there's no extra charge for rubbing shoulders with L.A.'s beautiful people. |
Koi
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Koi, another favorite celebrity hangout offering a range of inventive Japanese-Californian dishes in a richly decorated space on North la Cienega Boulevard in West L.A. The menu offers a choice of artistically presented small plates along with utterly fresh sushi and sashimi and a tempting list of premium sakes. |
Asia De Cuba,
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Asia De Cuba, the Philippe Starck-designed West Coast outpost of restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow's hip Asian-Latino fusion chain. At the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood, there are city views from the cool white-on-white interior and from the fun poolside patio lined with trees growing in supersized terra cotta planters. |
La Cachette
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La Cachette, an intimate Century City hideaway where chef/owner Jean Francois Meteigner serves his well-regarded cuisine naturelle, featuring reduced-fat adaptations of traditional French country fare. The dining room, like the food itself, is elegant without being stuffy. Look for the entrance tucked away in an alley behind the restaurant |
Valentino
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Valentino, a venerable upscale Italian restaurant in Santa Monica with an amazing wine list and a pleasantly serene, romantic atmosphere. For a particularly special treat, try the multi-course prix fixe tasting menu, featuring a formidable series of small plates selected by the chef with optional wine pairing. |
Michael's
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Michael's, longtime Los Angeles restaurateur Michael McCarty's bastion of fresh and flavorful California cuisine near the beach in Santa Monica. The spacious and artsy dining room is pleasant enough, but the best seats in the house are outside on the idyllic, lushly landscaped patio. |
Campanile
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Campanile, a cool California-Mediterranean restaurant housed in a vintage Hollywood edifice originally built in the late 1920s as a private office for Charlie Chaplin. The open kitchen in this cleverly repurposed space dishes up superb French- and Italian-influenced fare under the direction of chef-owner Mark Peel, a veteran of Michael's in Santa Monica and the original Spago. The Monday night prix fixe dinner is a particularly good deal. |
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