The Best New Restaurant Openings in Los Angeles

Chef-partners Timothy Hollingsworth and Rory Hermann have enlivened the San Fernando Valley dining scene with a tasty mix of barbecue, craft cocktails, and delicious country side dishes like braised greens and a buttery hoecake culled from Hollingsworth’s family recipes. Brisket, pork spare ribs and free range chicken are smoked overnight in a state-of-the-art smoker and cooked to be enjoyed as part of a Texas-style picnic. This is no one-hit barbecue shrine, but a place where dinner means an invitation to Hollingsworth and Hermann’s Southern cook out.

Many have eagerly anticipated the first restaurant by one of L.A.’s most talented chefs, Ray Garcia (formerly of Fig), who is opening Broken Spanish in the former Rivera space near L.A. LIVE. This Mexican and Latin focused restaurant is the most ambitious project in recent years by one of our homegrown Mexican-American chefs, who is bringing familiar flavors like house-made chorizos and cooking them in corn husks. Garcia will look to capture the Mexican flavors he grew up on - ceviches, tacos, and classic sauces that have evolved naturally throughout Garcia’s career.

Ever since the Spice Table closed to make way for the Metro over a year ago, fans of Food and Wine Magazine’s Best New Chef 2012, Bryant Ng, have impatiently waited for his return. The new Santa Monica restaurant - the team includes Bryant's wife Kim and partners Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan of Huckleberry, Milo and Olive, and Rustic Canyon - will feature more Vietnamese influences to augment Ng’s Singaporean explorations. The new concept will serve whole Singaporean white pepper crab, less famous than chili crab but just as coveted in Singapore, laksa (a spicy coconut seafood bowl popular in hawker stalls), and charcuterie fried rice filled with Asian delights.

Like a songwriting duo out of Motown, chefs  Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo can crank out chart-topping hit restaurants: Animal, Son of a Gun, Trois Mec and Petit Trois (with chef Ludo Lefevre). Next up is Jon and Vinny’s, opening soon in the old Damiano’s pizza space on Fairfax. Like all hit-makers, they must produce a new act to escape their own success - their newest concept is all about dining with the family. Everyone can relate to gathering up the kids and heading out for great pasta, pizzas, a little wine and a well-made eggplant parmesan or meatballs. Jon and Vinny’s will have a little something for everyone, mixing Italian American cuisine with a bit of California and Jersey thrown in.

One of L.A.’s most talked about chefs, Gary Menes has been a hard reservation to get in recent years as he only had a pop-up, until he opened Le Comptoir at the newly renovated Hotel Normandie in Koreatown. Menes uses the finest ingredients - some from his own garden - and prepares a $69 seasonal tasting menu in front your eyes as vegetables are coaxed into rapturous textures and flavors. You can get a mostly vegetarian menu and not miss a thing with combinations like the vegetable and fruit plate, which delivers around a dozen fruits and vegetables meticulously prepared with various techniques.

Following a couple of name changes, the popular Pete’s Café has been transformed into Ledlow by Downtown L.A.’s Historic Core restaurant czar, chef Josef Centeno. Ledlow is the latest showcase for Centeno’s unique brand of American-style cooking. Centeno is a master of contrasting flavors, like the savory beef tongue sweetened with cranberry and apples, or the unconventional grilled seafood cocktail with hints of saffron. The corner of 4th and Main is the starting point of a Centeno tour that includes Orsa & Winston, Bar Amá, Baco Mercat and this inviting café. The prices at his newest restaurant make it the place locals can frequent for innovative cuisine from one of L.A.’s brightest culinary stars.

When chefs Jaime Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu opened La Casita in 1998, they ushered in an era of gourmet cenadurias (supper houses serving antojitos) in Los Angeles, which has continued with Mexicano, their newest location in the Baldwin Hills Mall. The chef duo have kept some of the classics that they’re known for but also included regional plates from their home state, like pollo a la valentina (chicken in a seasoned tomato sauce), a slurp worthy carne en su jugo (meat cooked in it’s own juices), and the rare and complex mole xico, a mole from Vera Cruz that has a mildly sweet profile.

One of the current restaurant trends has to be chefs cooking the way they like to eat. When it's one of L.A.'s top culinary couples, Quinn and Karen Hatfield, it's an invitation to enjoy American-style churrasco (barbecue) with dry-aged sirloin cap and rare wagyu steak in a rich bearnaise sauce. The duo closed their white table-clothed institution, Hatfield's to open Odys + Penelope and offer a more approachable cuisine that appeals to guests looking for a regular spot that serves dishes like tai snapper with beets and fried kale followed by Karen’s famous desserts. A variety of woods are being employed in their South American-style barbecue for cuts meant to be enjoyed with vegetables and sauces, which is the way grilled meats are served in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay with a nod to such nearby traditions as tri-tip in Santa Maria.

Chefs Alvin Cailan and Johnny Lee (the team behind Eggslut, one of the marquee stands at the Grand Central Market), have teamed up with Nathan Asamoto of Men Oh Tokushima and joined the Chinatown revival. Ramen Champ features slow-cooked ramen full of local produce and has achieved instant cult status. Be ready to order creamy tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen with artisanal noodles and tender wedges of pork belly while you wait in line, Japanese-style. There’s a shio (salt) ramen prepared with chicken submerged in a rich full-flavored broth spiked with schmaltz (chicken fat) - order a rice bowl and ladle in any leftover stock.

Five years after closing Grace, one of the most important restaurants in L.A., chef Neal Fraser has returned with Redbird, featuring a New American menu that shows the creativity and confidence that’s a breath of fresh air. Those who are devoted to flavor are making the pilgrimage to the former Vibiana cathedral in Downtown L.A., where the new religion includes dishes like chicken pot pie with thyme scented thighs and hearts under a thin crust, John Dory paired with a delicately flavored blood sausage, and clams in bouillabaisse flavors.