Hollywood’s Best Restaurants

Hollywood tours take you past stars’ homes and famous landmarks but it’s known for more than just movie stars. It’s home to some of the best food on the planet. We’ve excerpted this article written by Patricia Kelly Yeo (with contributor Stephanie Breijo) for TimeOut.com to share the top 10 restaurants in Hollywood, CA. (Hint: our fave is Musso and Frank).

From everyday lunch fare to ritzy Michelin-starred seafood, here are the best spots to dine in Tinseltown.

Hollywood may be known for its star-studded walkways, tourist traps and over-the-top movie premieres, but the enormous neighborhood stretching from the city of West Hollywood to Silver Lake also happens to be home to some of the best food in Los Angeles. If you take into account Thai Town, East Hollywood and the newly crowned Melrose Hill, the area’s restaurants—yes, inevitably filled with a celeb or two—include many of L.A.’s best Thai restaurants, plenty of stylish date spots and Michelin stars. No matter what you’re looking for, or what time of day you arrive, you’ll find something to enjoy the next time you find yourself around Tinseltown.

For everything else that’s good to eat: The best restaurants in Los Angeles

1. Jitlada

5233 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Phone: (323) 667-9809

With dozens of celebrity photos and “best of” lists on the walls, chef Jazz Singsanong’s Thai Town restaurant is one of the city’s cult favorites—and serves Angelenos in memory of her brother, L.A. Thai-food legend chef-owner Tui Sungkamee, who passed away in 2017. The Crispy Morning Glory Salad is an obligatory dish: a flavorful mix of crunchy, deep-fried Chinese watercress, plump shrimp, red onions, cilantro, cabbage and bell peppers marinated in the spicy house dressing. If perusing the lengthy menu leaves you dazed and confused, the green mussel curry—succulent New Zealand mussels piled high and bathed in an aromatic Southern curry flavored with lemongrass, sweet pineapples and chiles—is a good place to start on the extensive list of fiery Northern and Southern Thai specialties.

2. The Mozzaplex

6602 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038
Phone: (323) 297-0100

Award-winning celebrity chef Nancy Silverton’s Italian mecca at Melrose and Highland still draws crowds more than a decade in. Whether you’re looking for the Michelin-starred, refined pastas and soulful plates of Osteria Mozza, the perfectly blistered, seasonally adorned pies at Pizzeria Mozza or the rustic wood-fired fare of Chi Spacca, this three-restaurant complex has a little something for everyone and continues, unsurprisingly, to be the city’s gold standard. It’s that good. Just whatever you do, whichever concept you’re in, be sure to save room for dessert—there’s creamy butterscotch budino to be had in the pizzeria.

3. Mother Wolf

1545 Wilcox Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Phone: (323) 410-6060

Located in the heart of Hollywood (with requisite steep $15 valet), Mother Wolf is pasta maestro Evan Funke’s ode to hyper-regional Roman cuisine, as well as veritable celebrity magnet. The Hollywood restaurant’s all-around glamorous dining room, complete with red banquette seats, mirrored columns and chandeliers, might conjure up visions of grand old New York City dining rooms, but the sprawling menu of pane, pasta, pizza and more feel more of-the-moment than anything else. Regulars at Venice’s Felix might recognize a few dishes, but the elegant dining room, elevated approach to service and standouts like the bruschetta di porchetta and rigatoni all’amatriciana make Mother Wolf a must-visit for large groups, longtime fans of the chef and anyone else who loves a damn good cacio e pepe.

4. Luv2Eat Thai Bistro

6660 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Phone: (323) 498-5835

This funky, fun restaurant run by two Thai American immigrant women serves classics and dishes made from the recipes of a 90-year-old Thai grandmother. Enough said. If that hasn’t already convinced you, here’s a little more info: Though the setting is no-frills, we think it’s just all the better to set the stage for some serious Thai heat. The Phuket-style crab curry Kanomjean is the move here, with whole claws and legs shooting up from a thick, spice-sludgy mix to be enjoyed with rice noodles and plenty of herbaceous accoutrements. For people with a lower tolerance for capsaicin, try their elegant jade noodles topped with fish balls, roast duck and red barbecue pork.

5. Providence

5955 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038
Phone: (323) 460-4170

Few restaurants aim for, little less achieve, the level of culinary precision and excellence on display at Providence on Melrose Avenue every night of service. While this hushed, white-tablecloth restaurant is based around seafood, it’s really much more than a fish palace. It’s one of the best fine dining restaurants on the West Coast, with the two Michelin stars to match. Fish just happens to be its primary muse—from farm-raised sustainable caviar to Dungeness crab, Maine lobster, abalone, geoduck clams, Spanish octopus, Santa Barbara spot prawns and wild, line-caught Atlantic striped bass. Whether you’re ordering a la carte or opting for the chef’s menu, there’s always an incredible cut of steak thrown into the mix as well.

6. Musso & Frank Grill

6667 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028
Phone: (323) 467-7788

At 102 years young, Musso & Frank Grill is Hollywood’s oldest restaurant, a steak-and-cocktails joint formerly favored by Charlie Chaplin and Raymond Chandler. Most recently, it’s been featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, though it’s also served as a backdrop for countless films. With its classic steakhouse dishes and individually priced sides (and salad dressings), the menu can be daunting. However, some dishes are fail-safes: At breakfast, grab an order of crêpe-thin flannel cakes; later in the day, a giant slab of steak will do the trick. And every table gets a half-loaf of house-made sourdough bread, the perfect accompaniment to Musso & Frank’s legendary martini, which comes with a little extra in a sidecar on the side.

7. Horses

7617 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046

Serving European-style bistro fare with California influences, Horses is the latest restaurant in the space that once housed Ye Coach & Horses—a Hollywood hideout dating back to the ‘30s. Horses takes a blended preservationist approach to its three-room interior, all while offering top-notch cocktails and lavish dishes, including fried veal sweetbreads, a cheesy, all-endive Caesar salad and a Cornish game hen dressed with dandelion panzanella. Both drinks and desserts, including a must-order dark chocolate tart with milk sorbet, are executed with razor-sharp precision, lifting the upscale Hollywood bistro from “pretty good” to the ranks of “great.”

8. Found Oyster

4880 Fountain Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029
Phone: (323) 522-6239

If you know, you know—Ari Kolender’s little neighborhood joint in East Hollywood is one of the most stylish places in L.A. for seafood cravings, with a couple of caveats. There are no reservations, and the wait here easily climbs past the hour mark, particularly if you’re coming with more than one other person. But good things come to those who wait: a creamy lobster roll in a sauce made of its own condensed bisque; scallop tostadas with yuzu kosho and basil; and the restaurant’s now famous raw bar selection full of creamy oysters, peel-your-own shrimp and sea urchin served straight from the shell. Paired with Found’s excellent natural wine list and the relaxed but cool ambience, a meal here is ideal for solo diners, pairs or groups of up to four (and we wouldn’t recommend rolling any deeper than that).

9. Petit Trois

718 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038
Phone: (323) 468-8916

To watch an omelette being made at Petit Trois is a thing of beauty. First there is the butter, a massive pad that swirls around the pan before being flooded with whipped eggs over low heat. The mixture sits, briefly, then is taken off the stove and gently poked and prodded for minutes until it is finally folded into one uniform, buttercup-hued omelette. Oh, and did we mention that Boursin cheese is piped through the middle? Perceived simplicity is what chef Ludo Lefebvre aims for at Petit Trois. The menu is a sparse list of classic French dishes—steak frites, mussels marinières, chicken leg—in a casual bistro atmosphere. Burger aficionados will also enjoy Lefebvre’s Big Mec. A hulking mass dripping with bordelaise sauce, it’s best eaten with a fork and knife.

10. Ka’Teen

6516 Selma Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Phone: (323) 410-6360

Inside the Tommie Hollywood, steps away from other notable newer openings like Bar Lis, Ka’teen channels sceney Tulum resorts with a reed tunnel entrance, a lush outdoor dining room and an expansive, Yucatan-inspired menu by Wes Avila, who also runs Chinatown’s Angry Egret Dinette. Here, Guerrilla Tacos’ former head chef offers plenty of crowd-pleasing small plates, though larger format dishes like lamb neck barbacoa and pescado zarandeado (grilled whole fish) easily steal the spotlight at Ka’Teen. For those who can snag a reservation, the beautifully designed space is perfect for a dressy girls’ night, a stylish date night and, well, any night for the typical area crowd.

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