Yama Sushi Marketplace

Scott Kohno knows when a new customer is about to come into Yama Sushi Marketplace because he hears the locked front door rattling. As the store’s regulars are already well aware of, the front door isn’t used at Yama. There’s a sign out front that directs customers to enter through the back door, where the parking lot is located. The small store is divided into two rooms. Upon entering from the back door, there’s a small table in the center with cute Japanese stationery items, and pantry items and bottles of sake line the shelves to the right. A refrigerator on the left is full of cold drinks, nigiri sushi, and sushi rolls that have been packed that day. The second room is where one finds the heart of Yama Sushi Marketplace: the fish counter. Hungry customers take numbered tickets and wait their turn to get freshly sliced sashimi.

Eastside Italian Deli

In a relatively young city like Los Angeles, not many places have been open for more than 90 years, and even fewer have been open that long while staying relatively under the radar. Eastside Italian Deli is a delicious exception, having been around in the neighborhood that is now known as Victor Heights since 1929 (though it originally opened as Eastside Market). A small neighborhood between Chinatown and Echo Park, Victor Heights is often called the “Forgotten Edge,” but it was once home to a community of Italian immigrants who shopped at places like Eastside Market on a regular basis. These days, Eastside Italian Deli gets a steady stream of diners on weekday afternoons, from blue collar workers to high school students on summer break.

Jose Chiquito

The historic Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles looks very different today than it used to. Opened in 1917, Grand Central Market began as a public market with a variety of vegetable stands and meat and poultry shops, a place for people to get their daily groceries. Over a hundred years later, the market still stands, but a big revitalization project that started around 2013 has transformed this local landmark. While the architecture and interior of the market remains mostly the same, the project has drawn new, hip food vendors to the historic space, now lit with vibrant neon signs. On weekends, long lines form around popular stalls like Eggslut and Broad Street Oyster Co. Among the new vendors, legacy businesses are still holding on, serving both longtime and new customers.

Azay: Japanese Breakfast (and More) in Little Tokyo

Whether it’s a weekend morning or weekday dinner, the 20-seat Azay in Little Tokyo is packed. On a nice day, extra tables are set up on the sidewalk, also filling up quickly. Inside the restaurant, chef Akira Hirose and his son, Philip, work the kitchen, while Akira’s wife, Jo Ann, greets customers. Azay only opened in Little Tokyo in 2019, but the legacy of chef Akira Hirose and his family goes much further, both in the Los Angeles food scene and in Little Tokyo in general.

Best Bites 2023: Los Angeles

Eating in the city of Angels is always exciting, with new restaurants and pop-ups continuously appearing and long-time restaurants still holding their own. Cliché as it may sound, Los Angeles is a true melting pot of cuisines where you can find food from pretty much every corner of the globe, as well as a new generation of third-culture chefs creating dishes inspired by their experiences growing up in a global city like L.A. It was no easy task to narrow our choices down, but these are the memorable meals that made it onto our Los Angeles Best Bites list for 2023.

Mirak: The GOAT of Goat Stew

It’s no secret that Los Angeles has an amazing Korean food scene. L.A.’s Koreatown is the largest in the United States, with over 500 restaurants, so Angelenos are lucky enough to find restaurants that specialize in less common dishes, beyond the popular Korean barbecue or bibimbap. One such dish is yeomso tang (also spelled yumso tang), a stew traditionally made with Korean black goat meat, which we tracked down at Mirak. Black goats get their name, naturally, from the black hair that covers their body. They are native to Korea, where eating black goat is believed to have numerous health benefits. Not only is it a leaner meat, it’s also believed to be very nutritious.

Lu’s Garden: Congee Craftwork

At lunchtime, a line starts to form in front of Lu’s Garden in San Gabriel. Right in front of the entrance is a narrow walkway and a long counter with a line of buffet trays filled with braised pork, lap cheong (a type of dried, sweetened Chinese sausage) and more. Stacked behind them are bowls filled with more dishes like sautéed string beans and bok choy. The kitchen staff can be seen replenishing the various buffet trays seemingly every five to ten minutes, keeping them full as hungry patrons file through. Both dine-in and takeout customers choose their dishes based on what’s at the counter – there are more than enough options, as Lu’s Garden generally has fifty different dishes at a time.