Our critic’s favorite new restaurants so far in 2023

Restaurant openings feel accelerated and ceaseless in Los Angeles. I see plenty of notices for Italian and sushi newcomers, and for places serving cuisines of all kinds banking on the enduring notion of comfort.

What do I look for as a review subject when faced with countless choices? Without committing myself to any one set of criteria, I look for places where the menus don’t look like carbon copies of similar restaurants, and often where there’s a narrative behind the cooking that conveys something about, or contributes something fresh to, the story of Los Angeles.

At the cusp of the fall season, when the annual task of considering the dining scene’s breadth becomes my focus, I’m looking back at the reviews I’ve written so far in 2023 and which restaurants linger in my thoughts. Others are still to come, certainly, including musings on Evan Funke’s latest blockbuster. Since I’m including relatively recent openings, I’ll point you separately to excellent Kinn in Koreatown, which is coming up on its second anniversary and on which I took a rewarding long game to write about.

I’ve listed the following standout restaurants in alphabetical order rather than ranking them, though I do point out my very favorite among them. For a deeper dive, the name of each place includes the link to the original review.

Seven favorites

Bar Chelou

Housed in the same 98-year-old Spanish Colonial Revival building as the Pasadena Playhouse, Bar Chelou brings some welcome eccentricity to local — and regional — dining. I remember Douglas Rankin’s modernist plates at the maddeningly named, now-closed Bar Restaurant in Silver Lake, and I’m happy that he’s reunited at Bar Chelou with Raymond Morales, his pastry chef from that era. Grasp Rankin’s style in his bravura approach to vegetables. Not all of them shout “plant-based.” Snap peas wallow in anchovy cream under a shower of grated cured egg yolk and crumbled chistorra, a thin Basque sausage. The gist is bacon bits and vitello tonnato out together on a farmers market run; the result is uncanny and delicious. The rainbow trout entree arrives sauced in nouvelle cuisine squiggles of garlic-chive oil and pil pil (traditionally made by blending salt cod, garlic and olive oil) and served over rice pilaf caramelized in corn juice is magnificent. Trust Kae Whalen, one of my favorite sommeliers in Southern California, to guide you through the natural-leaning wine list. 37 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena, barchelou.com

Bhookhe

Bhookhe opened in February on a stretch of Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia already crowded with myriad expressions of Indian cuisines. The restaurant — a window into the cuisine of Rajasthan, as expressed by chef Pooja Dwivedi and her co-owner husband, Anshul — is a fresh reminder that the area is one of Southern California’s vital dining destinations. Nearly every table has at least one person absorbed in navigating the restaurant’s maharaja thali. Its plates and bowls, covered in crinkly-smooth sal leaves, hold nearly two dozen components of breads, pickles, chutney, rice and dishes like chickpea dumplings submerged in yogurt sauce. The thali’s presentation of flavors and textures can open the door to other Rajasthani paragons. They include mirchi vada, green chile fritters filled with seasoned potatoes and fried in chickpea batter for a mellow, golden crispness; a curry of makhana, also known as fox nut, bathed with cashews in a silky, sweetly spiced base of milk and cream; and sev tamatar ki sabji, a simmered tomato-based dish popping with garlic, cumin and chilies, and then garnished with squiggly sev. 18633 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, (562) 523-0589, bhookhe.business.site

The must-order maharaja thali platter at Bhookhe in Artesia.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Luyixian

Fried rice? Kung pao chicken? Dan dan noodles? Flip through Luyixian’s menu booklet and the dishes leap through regions of China: Sichuan-style cold meats and boiled fish in scarlet broth; spicy beef noodle soup reminiscent of the version beloved in Taiwan; vegetables like garlic water spinach tinged with fermented tofu that remind a Cantonese friend of home; and ubiquitous renditions of dumplings. I’d urge you to home in on the variations of braised meat over rice based on family recipes from married owners Chun Hua Tao and Yao Ye; they both grew up in Zhejiang province, a coastal stretch south of Shanghai. The fundamental version — #44 — is a soothing collage presented on an oblong platter. A mound of white rice, presauced with a spoonful or two of braising gravy, sidles up to a heap of browned, glazed pork belly chopped into bite-size squares. Condiments flank them: a small pile of snipped and pickled long beans, some plain braised cabbage, a spoonful of minced red chile and a soy-braised egg cleaved in half. This excellent home-style kind of cooking strikes universal chords of warmth and goodness. 2 E. Valley Blvd., Suite #1E, Alhambra, 626-766-1568, luyixianalhambra.com

Saltie Girl

A meal at Saltie Girl in Boston five years ago was a lightbulb moment in my appreciation of conservas, the tinned seafood tradition from Spain and Portugal preserved with a level of care that rockets their straight-from-the-container pleasure far beyond Chicken of the Sea basicness. Quality tinned seafood isn’t as much of a novelty in Los Angeles these days. When Saltie Girl recently charged into the arena with its impeccably designed West Hollywood outpost, it came to town to compete, with a collection of more than 100 conservas divided into 17 categories of fish and shellfish. The breadth of the restaurant’s tinned seafood program initially pulled me in, and several top-notch dishes overseen by executive chef Kyle McClelland keep me returning. Yes, you also want a lobster roll. The cold version, with the lobster meat lightly dressed in mayonnaise, arguably best evokes Maine’s fleeting summer, but I prefer the warmed buttery version loaded into a toasted bun. 8615 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, saltiegirl.com

Sincerely Syria

In July I wrote about two recently opened Syrian-run shawarma restaurants, Sincerely Syria in Sherman Oaks and Mama’s Shawarma in Northridge. They both stand out in a city fueled by meat carved from revolving spikes and folded into flatbreads outlining our wealth of cultures. I’ll own a particular fondness for Sincerely Syria. Adham Kamal’s narrow, handsomely spare restaurant grew out of his success on another crowded urban corner: Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. In late 2021 he took over Hollywood Shawarma, a storefront squeezed between a juice bar and a tattoo studio. A Lebanese friend mentioned he thought it was the best shawarma he’d had in Southern California, and when I went the next day I agreed. Sincerely Syria follows the same stripped-down formula. Of the two shawarma options, one is a mix of lamb and beef, referred to as lahme in Arabic, and the other is chicken, or djej. Each has its own canon sauce: tahini-based tarator for the lahme, toum (whipped garlic sauce) for the chicken. Choose between hand-held wraps, or 12- and 24-inch “combo” versions that come with extra pickles and fine-enough fries. The handiest tip I can pass along: Ask for a shawarma wrap made with one side of a pita. The thinner layer superbly balances the ingredient ratios. 14518 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, (818) 464-0126, instagram.com/sincerely_syria

The shawarma spits stand front and center in the open kitchen behind the counter inside Sincerely Shawarma.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

Villa’s Tacos

Victor Villa, a nonstop cannonball of energy, opened his first taqueria in Highland Park after several years of pop-ups in the same community. The tiny space doesn’t accommodate seating. There is only room for a kitchen, a cooler full of aguas frescas, an ordering counter near the back and a logjam of taco lovers often trailing out the door. Claim some space at one of two sidewalk picnic tables or a small table abutting the restaurant’s exterior to eat right away, which I can’t recommend more. Villa’s style epitomizes the L.A. dreamer, the go-getter. His queso taco — large and lavish on blue corn tortillas with meats or black beans jumbled with diced nopales, lacy halos of griddled cheese and finishing layers of cotija, squiggled-on crema and dolloped guacamole — is deftly engineered chaos. It’s a taco built on charisma. It takes pretty much two hands to wrangle. Its salty-crisp deliciousness demands your attention until nothing remains. 5455 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, (818) 741-8011, villastacos.com

Villa’s trio at Villa’s Tacos in Highland Park.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Yess Restaurant

Even after several meals and hundreds of words, my favorite restaurant among the year’s reviews to date is difficult to encapsulate succinctly. Familiar signposts of an Arts District remodel — exposed rafters and piping, concrete everywhere, craggy red brick freed from layers of plaster — flow into a gleaming command ship of an open kitchen, flanked by dramatic floating half walls hung with enormous, textured art works titled “Salt Painting” by artist Moeko Maeda. Chef Junya Yamasaki encapsulates his cooking as “progressive Japanese.” I wish the phrasing wasn’t so vague, and “Japanese seafood restaurant” doesn’t quite describe its breadth either. It translates to dishes like whole rockfish stuffed with fennel, lemon and other aromatics, cooked in parchment just until opaque and splashed with gentle citrus ponzu. Or a few small hunks of grilled black cod, shaved corn and mochi rice steamed in fig leaves until they’ve absorbed its distinct herbal-nutty earthiness. Or a deeply satisfying stack of hay-smoked tataki layered with mounds of herbed grated daikon and papery sliced lime. And there’s the “monk’s chirashi-sushi,” a density of farmers market loot arranged like chunky gems over a bed of gently astringent rice.

It’s the walk-the-walk approach to seasonality and talent for direct flavors that brought Yamasaki acclaim early in his career in London. And it’s why, if you’re up for a bit of a splurge and a shift in sensibility, I’d nudge you to make a reservation at Yess. The restaurant is closed for a few weeks for an end-of-summer break, but it isn’t too early to plan a night for mid-September or beyond. 2001 E. 7th St., Los Angeles, instagram.com/yess.restaurant

Chef Junya Yamasaki sears sustainably caught blue fin tuna at Yess Restaurant in the Arts District.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Have your Food Bowl tickets yet?

Tickets are already sold out for two cornerstone L.A. Times Food Bowl events celebrating Restaurant of the Year Holbox and 2023’s Gold Award winner Jenee Kim of Park’s BBQ. Many more events in the monthlong festival sponsored by City National Bank remain available, among them a launch party on Sept. 6 featuring Singapore’s Michelin-starred chef Malcolm Lee, three special dinners curated in partnership with Outstanding in the Field and our weekend-long Night Market Sept. 22-24 with chefs from all over Los Angeles and beyond.

The lineup from local standouts includes Bridgetown Roti, Broad Street Oyster Co., Ditroit Taqueria, Heritage Barbecue, Moo’s Craft Barbecue and Pasjoli. Also on hand will be Justin Pichetrungsi of Anajak Thai, last year’s Restaurant of the Year. He stopped by The Times Test Kitchen recently to show how makes his take on laab moo, a classic Thai dish with pork, puffed rice, cilantro, lime, fish sauce and crushed red chiles. Could Anajak, a runaway hit since Pichetrungsi took over from his parents, exist anywhere but Los Angeles? Watch to hear his thoughts.

Also …

Local vegan chain Monty’s Good Burger serves plant-based classics such as meatless burgers, loaded fries and thick, creamy milkshakes.

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)