Los Angeles Restaurant Recommendations for a Friend who Lives in New York

Sometimes out of town friends ask for restaurant recommendations. The restaurants I love in Los Angeles are spread all over town and they usually aren't ones that are famous. 

I just emailed a short list to a good friend who wants to give a present to an old friend who has just completed a difficult film project.

I thought I'd share the list with you.

Adana Restaurant

6918 San Fernando Road, Glendale 91201 818/843-6237

Delicious food. Written about by me, Mark Bittman and Jonathan Gold. We all love it. The chef, Edward Khechemyan, is a hard working, inventive man. The food is freshly made. Affordable. Delicious.

Here are links to reviews:

Mark Bittman

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/28/magazine/this-armenian-life.html?_r=0

Jonathan Gold

http://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-0307-gold-adana-restaurant-20150307-story.html

David Latt

http://menwholiketocook.blogspot.com/search/label/Adana%20Restaurant

Yabu 

11820 W. Pico Blvd

LA CA 90064

 (310) 473-9757

The best affordable sushi, tempura, udon and soba in LA. An intimate, cozy, friendly space. (There are two Yabu restaurants. The one in West Hollywood I don’t like. This is the one on the west side.)

Here is my review:

http://menwholiketocook.blogspot.com/2011/08/yabu-in-west-los-angeles-authentic.html

Liquid Kitty

11780 W. Pico Blvd

Los Angeles CA 90064

Half a block east of Yabu, on the same side of the street is Liquid Kitty, possibly one of the coolest bars in LA with very large, well-made drinks, walls painted black and soft-core porn or 70s melodramatic movies showing silently on a screen in the back. Out front there is a neon martini glass that changes into a burning cigarette

My favorite evening is a massively large dirty martini up at Liquid Kitty, then dinner at Yabu (tendon (seasoned rice with tempera shrimp & vegetables), uni sushi with a quail yolk, crab handroll, tamago sushi, yellow tail sashimi, black cod with soy sauce). Yum.

La Fiesta Brava

423 Rose Avenue, Venice, CA 90291

310/399-8005

A hole in the wall restaurant owned by a family. When you walk through the front door, you enter what used to be the living room of a home. This is as close as you’ll get to eating in a Mexican family’s home as you will get without going to a Mexican family’s home. The chicken mole is fantastic. Michelle loves the pepper shrimp in the shell with beans and rice. The fish taco is actually a whole grilled fish filet on a handmade tortilla topped with creamy salsa. The food is really good. Unfortunately Rose Avenue is undergoing a very rapid redevelopment, with upscale restaurants and shops taking over the neighborhood. The days are numbered for La Fiesta Brava. It is really worth experiencing as many times as possible before it is forced to leave.

My review:

http://menwholiketocook.blogspot.com/2014/09/la-fiesta-brava-delights-with-old.html