Ranking The Best L.A. Restaurants

Curious as to what Los Angeles Magazine thinks are this year's crop of the best restaurants in L.A.? They sent their food critic, Patrick Fuh, on a gut-busting journey sampling a good portion of Los Angeles’s 20,000 or so bistros, gastropubs, and fine dining restaurants and asked him to come up with a list of the 75 best. In the last decade the culinary scene in L.A. has gone from being known for basically Mexican food and Sushi to, as this list highlights, becoming a full blown foodie destination ranking with any major city on the planet for variety, quality and overall dining experience.

Below are the magazine's top 10 picks. Be sure to click on the restaurant name link to get a feel of just how exceptional these places are.

1. A.O.C.
Beverly Grove
ZAGAT praises star chef Suzanne Goin's "splendid" Cal-French small plates (including "top-notch" cheese and charcuterie), while Pulitzer-prize winning L.A. Times critic Jonathan Gold singled out her adventurous cooking and the restaurant's wine list and atmosphere.

2. Trois Mec
Hollywood
This is pioneering chef Ludovic Lefebvre (arguably the king of the "pop-up" restaurants) at his best. Along with Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo ("trois mec" translates to "three guys"), Lefebvre has created another fantastic dining experience. The draw is the $75 multi-course tasting menu, which is less than half what you'd pay for a comparable experience in Paris or New York, that looks beyond mind-blowing.

3. Providence
Hollywood
The Michelin two-star restaurant can barely contain owner/chef Michael Cimarusti's passion for fish and he serves only sustainable seafood. Jonathan Gold's pick for the best restaurant in L.A., Providence has been praised for many of its classic virtues: crisp, white tablecloths, a lovely but understated dining room, and a staff intimately acquainted with Cimarusti's supremely creative cuisine.


4. Orsa & Winston
Downtown
Another prix-fixe format with exceptional value, a group of four can eat family-style (and well) for $50 each. And for those modest prices, you will experience chef Josef Centeno's wide-ranging palate as he experiments with spices, fruits and vegetables from the most exotic spots around the globe.

5. Spago
Beverly Hills
Named the most iconic restaurant in Los Angeles by ZAGAT, Spago has not lost a step since its opening in 1982. The modest prices (for such a high-end establishment), recent remodels, and seasonal menu changes keep Wolfgang Puck's first Los Angeles restaurant in the limelight more than 3 decades after it first opened.

6. Mozza
Hancock Park
This is the restaurant that started the "back to basics" pizza trend with Pizzeria Mozza and then redefined the way Angelenos eat real Italian food with Osteria Mozza. Superstars Mario Batali, Nancy Silverton (the West Coast's premiere bread baker) and Joe Bastianich are the forces behind this dining hot spot.

7. Sqirl
East Hollywood
Sqirl is an ultra hip, inexpensive diner in Silver Lake that specializes in organic jams and healthy vegetable dishes, but where you can also get a roasted salmon dinner with chick peas and charmoula (a Moroccan spread consisting of herbs, oil, lemon juice, pickled lemons, paprika, garlic, cumin, and salt).

8. Angelini Osteria
Beverly Grove
This is another Italian place, like Mozza, that serves excellent food and doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. The menu is short and sweet, the food is very traditional and most people who have eaten there swear it is the best Italian restaurant in L.A.

9. Animal
Beverly Grove
Animal is definitely for serious carnivores. The menu includes everything from quail to guinea fowl to pork ribs to rib-eye. But while known for its proteins, Animal has a serious flare for vegetables so don't skip the seasonal salads and avocado and beet dishes alongside your plate of smoked turkey legs.

10. Night + Market
West Hollywood
The tiny Thai joint has one of the most esoteric wine lists in the city. Chef/owner Kris Yenbamroong is as enthusiastic about oenology as he is about chiles, and his inexpensive wine pairings go well with his low-priced, super flavorful street food like catfish tamales and crispy rice salad with ginger.

The rest of the list is here. What do you think about LAMag's picks and have you eaten at any of the restaurants on the list? I would love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to let me know what you think here or on my Facebook page.