LAGuide

12 Great Restaurants Everyone Forgets About

These are the often-forgotten LA restaurants worth remembering.
12 Great Restaurants Everyone Forgets About image

photo credit: Holly Liss

You’re in your car, maybe (probably) stuck in traffic, staring out the window as you wonder whether to actually risk your life and just buy a traffic-immune motorcycle, when you catch a glimpse of that place. The restaurant you always forget is there.

Maybe it’s the place you always make a mental note to remember to go to, but don’t. Or maybe it’s a restaurant around the corner from another, more popular spot. Some restaurants we all forget about are very much worth remembering. Obviously, they’re easier to get into, but they also make you feel like you’re in on a secret the rest of the city doesn’t know about. One with no three-month waiting lists, and some pretty excellent food.

The Spots

photo credit: Jakob Layman

This spot is Permanently Closed.

French

Franklin Village

$$$$Perfect For:Casual Weeknight DinnerDate NightDinner with the ParentsEating At The BarPre-Theater EatsQuiet Meals
Earn 3x points with your sapphire card

There are restaurants you forget about, and then there are restaurants you never really knew about in the first place, like Papilles, a French bistro in a strip mall on a busy part of Franklin. It opened in 2011, but has somehow remained a neighborhood secret since then, meaning you can walk in and get a table pretty much any night of the week. This is a small, low-key spot that’s perfect for when you want to eat a $35 prix fixe meal (that will actually fill you up) and drink too much wine on a Tuesday.


There are plenty of big, impressive restaurants with big, impressive spaces in Downtown LA, and Redbird is one that tends to get forgotten. But this cathedral-turned-restaurant remains a great spot for a pre-theater dinner or a nice meal with an ex-coworker who’s only in town for a night. The menu is huge, with shared plates that don’t stick to any one cuisine, and there’s a Happy Hour for a nice change from the rowdy spot near your office. The food here is very good too - the duck is the kind of entree you keep talking about for way too long, except you can eat it without getting a reservation a month in advance.


La Casita Mexicana is a restaurant in Bell that’s different from any other Mexican place in town. Mainly because this one serves stuffed peppers that will immediately improve your day/life. There’s usually a crowd of people having a great time, so go here when you want a party and excellent food. Trust your servers and try whatever they recommend, but be sure that includes the queso azteca and the chile en nogada.


LA might be drowning in pizza places, but if you still haven’t made it to DeSano, you’re missing out. On a slightly random stretch of Santa Monica Blvd., this Neopolitan spot is in a huge warehouse filled with long picnic tables and people yelling about whatever Serie A match is on, and is just as much fun as that sounds. Make sure you order the Desano (sausage, pepperoni, and mozzarella) and the Bianca (four kinds of cheese and garlic). Bring some friends along so you don’t feel weird about ordering a calzone along with your pizzas.


Just like you have your go-to dry cleaner and fortune teller, you probably have your stand-bys when you’re looking for high-quality sushi at prices that won’t make you skip buying underwear this year. Sushi Ike should be one of them, except this place doesn’t draw the big crowds you might expect given that the quality of the fish is right up there with the best in town. There’s a fantastic lunch combo, and dinner will cost about $50 if you pick and choose off the menu.


When Scopa Italian Roots opened, it was one of those always-wild Venice party restaurants. It’s not quite as busy as it used to be, but we dig the toned down version, too. The menu hasn’t changed much since 2013, and it’s still the kind of excellent Italian food you’ll brave dealing with the parking in Venice for. The lasagna here is going to make you immediately forget you ever swore that frozen grocery store lasagna is “just as good as the real thing.”


This Vietnamese spot on La Brea (there’s one on Sawtelle too) is the perfect place for a night where you don’t feel like cooking, but also don’t really feel like eating out. There’s very little fuss involved here - you’ll find easy parking, the menu isn’t overwhelmingly big, and it’s both quick and affordable. The pho and banh mi are great here, but you’re missing out if you don’t get the cold noodle salad with pork.


RESERVE A TABLE

POWERED BY

OpenTable logo

The best part of camp meals was distracting the counselors so you could steal boxes of Gushers and not have to eat boiled hot dogs. Messhall has excellent comfort food that will help you forget all about the “meat” at Camp Winnipesaukee. This is a great spot for a no-fuss group meal on the Eastside, especially if you sit on the patio around one of the fire pits. And eating dollar oysters next to a fire is going to make you realize how much better camp is with alcohol.


It only took you three weeks to break your lease when you lived on Cahuenga (rats were the least of your problems), and that’s about how long most restaurants last in this area, too. So the fact that Stout has been around since 2009 is pretty impressive, and we suspect it’s because of their very good burgers and small but nearly perfect beer list. This calm spot in the middle of the Hollywood chaos always has a table available, and is an excellent place to start the night when you’re in this part of town.


Chase Sapphire Card Ad

Suggested Reading

Osteria La Buca image
7.6

Osteria La Buca

A classic neighborhood spot, with pasta worth driving across the city for.

Daw Yee Myanmar Corner image

The casual spot brings modern Burmese food to Silver Lake.

13 LA Bars You Aren’t Completely Sick Of Yet  image

13 LA bars for when you’re tired of all the other ones.

Where To Eat At Grand Central Market image

Figuring out what to eat at Grand Central Market can be overwhelming, but this guide will help you narrow things down.

Infatuation Logo

Company

2024 © The Infatuation Inc. All Rights Reserved.

FIND PLACES ON OUR APP

Get it on Google PlayDownload on the App Store