Hidden in plain sight along Manhattan Beach’s breezy main drag, Sushi I-Naba looks like someplace you’d find in a quiet suburb of Tokyo: a spare, nondescript storefront not much larger than a single-car garage. There are six seats wrapped around a polished wood counter and little else, save for Yasu Hirano, the sole chef, who […]
3 New Restaurants You Have to Try This April
From Japanese comfort food in WeHo to Peruvian touches in West L.A., here are three new L.A. restaurants worth checking out this month. Pacifique At a clubby black-and-white space on La Cienega, Joe Miller and Danielle Sobel give Japanese comfort foods a cerebral makeover. Sea urchin and scallops are set against smoked daikon. Cured egg […]
How David Chang Catapulted a Little-Known Korean Cafe Into the Spotlight
The windows advertise shave ice and homemade waffles, but there’s a bowl of mandu-guk on nearly every table at Spoon by H. The cozy 15-seat Korean cafe, sandwiched between a Papa John’s and a GameStop in a Fairfax District strip mall, is experiencing what you might call the “David Chang effect.” Six months ago, the Momofuku […]
Inside the Complicated Journey of Baroo, L.A.’s Most Quixotic Restaurant
Kwang Uh and Mina Park, the couple at the heart of Baroo, have taken a different path than most restaurateurs. The pair met at the Jeollanamdo, Korea temple of Buddhist monk Jeong Kwan, who in addition to his Zen practice, is also an acclaimed chef (and is even featured on an episode of Chef’s Table) and […]
3 New Restaurants You Have to Try This March
From vegan German classics in Highland Park to a surprising strip-mall ramen in Koreatown, there are a lot of new restaurants to check out this month. Here are our picks for March’s buzziest new restaurants. Hinterhof The notion of a plant-based German restaurant might prompt a few eye rolls, but the crisp seitan schnitzel at […]
Bloom & Plume Coffee Is Bringing Some Color to the Cafe Game
It’s the second week of February, and for florists that typically means no sleep till Valentine’s Day. But for Bloom & Plume‘s Maurice Harris, life has been crazy for another reason altogether. After nearly a year of construction delays, the artist and floral designer extraordinaire finally unlocked the doors to Bloom & Plume Coffee, a […]