Unrated: This is a restaurant we want to re-visit before rating, or it’s a coffee shop, bar, or dessert shop. We only rate spots where you can eat a full meal.

Verdict: The success rate of the donuts here hinges on the flavor, and the cream donuts are better than the custard ones. The highlight is the simple strawberry, which tastes like a peak-summer strawberry shortcake.

The words “not too sweet” are plastered all over Knotted’s branding, which is funny because most things here are, in fact, pretty darn sweet. This wildly popular Korean donut chain’s first overseas location in the Century City mall has nearly two dozen flavors on the menu. All of the donuts are about the size of a child’s fist and fall into one of two categories: cream-filled, which are cut open like little sandwiches and stuffed with flavored whipped creams, and custard-filled, which are piped and sealed.

The Verdict: Tu Cha’s glossy, geode-like treats are more impressive as visual illusions than actual desserts. But we did love the miniature mango orb, with its silky filling that tastes like a very real, very ripe mango.

This small dessert shop in Koreatown is built for the algorithm, with a glass display case up front filled with chocolate-shelled sculptures that crack open like geodes, and pink berry sorbet blocks that look like Rubik's cubes. It’s also owned by a culinary influencer from Australia, which might explain the multiple TVs on the wall looping TikTok content like a screensaver. Most desserts run small for the price, but they also double as party tricks and are fun to crack open.

Verdict: Gong Gan’s main appeal is posing with a chunky mug that looks like a cloud in front of a squiggly mirror. Most of the dessert-like drinks aren’t as sweet as they look, but this Korean cafe isn’t where you go for a purely taste-the-coffee experience. Their matcha, however, is quite nice.

This periwinkle-toned Korean cafe opened in NYC before relocating to Silver Lake, and it appears no whimsy was lost in the move. Expect squiggly mirrors, blue meringue affogatos, and abstract furniture that looks like it was pulled from Jonathan Adler’s warehouse. On weekends, the place gets packed with aspiring content creators, but come weekdays, you can easily find a table for your laptop and an over-the-top beverage. Though you can order a regular latte here, it’d be a missed opportunity not to witness the elaborate concoctions baristas whip up, like an iced americano with a cap of sweet corn cream, or a soy black sesame lattes garnished with a rice cake skewer.

Verdict: The signature iced strawberry matcha and salted caramel cold brew at Chamberlain Coffee both remind us of drinks from Starbucks on a good day, but that’s fine—you’re paying $9 for the scene rather than a fancy pour-over anyway.

This blue-tiled coffee shop is on the top floor of the Century City mall, and is the first IRL concept for influencer/entrepreneur Emma Chamberlain’s coffee brand. The menu is mostly classic cappuccinos and lattes, with an option to get them “Emma’s Way” with almond milk and dairy-free creamer. But since you’ll likely be giving up 30 minutes of your day to wait in line with Century City high schoolers anyway, better to get one of the signature drinks.

Verdict: Mamie makes a solid focaccia panini, but there’s no reason to wait in line for an hour on the weekend to get one. We like the sandwiches at Tre Mani and Bread Head even better, and the waits are much shorter.

When Mamie opened in summer 2024, we were thrilled that LA’s focaccia sandwich craze had reached West Hollywood. The breezy, counter-service cafe at Fairfax and Santa Monica offers thick Roman-style pizza slices, various cold case salads, and tasty paninis that work for a quick lunch. The sandwiches are the biggest sellers here, made with imported meats and cheeses on buttery focaccia that crackles with every chomp. There are 18 varieties on the menu (including six vegetarian options) but for first-timers, we’d suggest the Monaco with tuna and Calabrian chiles, or the Cardinal with turkey, roasted tomato, melted comté, and artichoke cream.

Verdict: This fast-casual Chinese spot is a hungry college student’s dream. For less than $20, load up on mini bowls of dishes cooked in automated woks.

If Panda Express served food that was more traditional Chinese than Chinese American, it might look like this fast-casual spot on Sawtelle, which blew up on social media for cooking its dishes with self-tumbling “robot” woks. The more obvious reason for Tigawok’s popularity, though, is the big portions of good food for cheap. A tray loaded with mini bowls of stewed wagyu with rice, black bean pepper pork, orange peel chicken, sauteed shredded potatoes, and stir-fried tomato-egg costs around $20, plus they offer sides of chili paste and pickled radishes for free. Everything is well-seasoned, the long lines move quickly, and you’ll have enough food for lunch the next day. What’s not to like?

Verdict: Ggiata’s Perfect Chicken Caesar Wrap is a satisfying lunch, though the idea is better in theory than in practice. We prefer the version with buffalo chicken.

We’ve been fans of Ggiata’s gussied-up Italian sandwiches for years, but this new-school deli chain recently dipped into the wrap game with its Perfect Chicken Caesar Wrap that promptly went viral. The reception has been divisive—not just online, but in our own office, too. We all agree this salad-stuffed bundle is great in theory, but less so in practice. The warm, chopped chicken cutlet wilts the romaine lettuce if it sits too long, the dressing tastes closer to ranch than ceasar (though it’s still delicious), and we’re on the fence whether big crunchy croutons inside a toasted flour tortilla is carb-on-carb overkill. That said, this is still a satisfying lunch, especially after you drizzle on the extra dressing you're given. Our real hot take, however, is that their buffalo chicken wrap—made with honey buffalo sauce, crunchy celery, and tangy pickles—is superior.

Verdict: Solid extra-crispy, thin-crust pizzas that will satisfy East Coast expats. A fun stop if you're in the area, just make sure to bring cash and call ahead.

Petramale Pizza is a weekly pop-up run out of the Venice Church parking lot every Friday that's played host to the usual cast of LA food influencers. Driving by, it's hard to miss the large gas oven trailer and tall stacks of pizza boxes. The menu features whole pies with classic toppings like sausage and roasted peppers, and you'll likely see Westside locals picking up a few whole pies for a party, or a group of friends sharing pepperoni slices on a picnic table. The thin pizzas here sport very crackly crusts, though we're not quite as enamored with the cooked-down pizza sauce. If you're nostalgic for NY-style pizza like you'd find at a standard slice shop, or just want to support a community cause, Petramale is worth a visit.

Verdict: Decent sandwiches, but there are better alternatives. Come during the week because the nightmarish weekend lines are not worth it.

The hype swirling around this sandwich shop imported from Florence is as thick and palpable as the stracciatella they spread on their focaccia sandwiches. But while said sandwiches are undeniably tasty, we wouldn’t send someone here unless they were already on Abbot Kinney. The bread here is the weakest link: it has a nice crunch, but is a bit dense and sticks to the roof of your mouth even after it’s softened by the thick layer of stracciatella. The fillings are the real business, though, like the generous amount of mortadella and pistachio cream in the La Paradiso. Given the general chaos of street parking, long lines, and the overall claustrophobia of Abbot Kinney on the weekends, consider pushing your Italian sandwich plans to Monday—or maybe heading to Lorenzo or Tre Mani instead.

Verdict: The drinks and donuts are delicious, even if that means eating so much dairy you bloat like a cream puff.

If everything tasted as good as it looked, every influencer-riddled restaurant would be a hit. But that’s not how the world works, and why we expected Memorylook to be another eye-grabby gimmick. But we were wrong. This sleek, modern coffee shop in Koreatown makes cream-topped einspanner lattes that are, surprisingly, not too sweet. They’re rich and airy like a milk-flavored cloud, so you can still taste the espresso or matcha poured inside. The unnecessarily fancy donuts are also a hit, especially the creme brulee flavor that’s roughly 80% vanilla cream and coated with a glossy, shattering sugar finish. It’s dairy-on-dairy, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Verdict: A sad excuse for an izakaya. Even if you’re looking for somewhere “vibey,” this is a third-tier option.

We had high hopes for this Echo Park Japanese spot from the HiroNori people, with its paper lamps and moody red lighting. But after stepping through the PVC flaps dangling in the doorway, things took a turn for the worse. The cramped bar feels like a bad parody of a “cool Japanese drinking den,” with speakers blasting obnoxious techno music while clichéd samurai films play on mute behind the L-shaped bar. And despite its name, there are only two kinds of gyoza on the menu (both underwhelming). The pork ones are slightly better than the bland vegan option, but neither are an improvement over the much less expensive ones you’d find in the frozen aisle at the supermarket.

Verdict: Is a bagel without a hole technically a bagel? Either way, we’re into these fluffy, fresh-baked bread circles.

At Calic Bagel in Koreatown, you’ll order everything from an oversized touchscreen like a Target customer in self-checkout. It’s a nice touch that helps speed up the line of people waiting to get one of their stuffed bagels, which have been reviewed on TikTok more times than we care to count. There’s no denying these puff-ball bagels filled with sweet-ish garlic cream cheese and dunked in garlic butter are delicious, but they’re way too rich to finish in one sitting. We much prefer the non-stuffed bagels, which are baked fresh every 30 minutes. They're extremely fluffy on the inside, with a thin, blistered crust that's designed to be ripped apart and dipped in cream cheese. While the dip flavors might seem gimmicky, we love the off-the-wall options like sweet corn and fig pecan. There’s usually tons of street parking right out front, plus they have a huge patio where you can sit in the sun with your bagel.

Verdict: A bizarre but fun ice cream shop. Come for a late-night hang if you're already in the area.

Think you’ve seen all that LA’s ice cream scene has to offer? Try Fluffy McCloud’s. This Echo Park dessert shop looks like a retro soda fountain designed by Pee-Wee Herman (may he rest in peace). There’s an old-school gumball machine dispensing Lactaid pills, a jukebox sporting deer horns, and a Saturn-shaped lamp towering over the ice cream case. Naturally, TikTok is obsessed with it. And, if you enjoy a good banana split sundae, you will be too. Fluffy stays open until midnight, so it's a good place to linger with friends after drinking wine at El Prado or crowd-surfing at Echoplex.

Verdict: A clickbait cafe with good, expensive cake.

Harucake was born to go viral. They serve corn lattes topped with baby cobs. And nearly everything inside this Koreatown cafe—from the walls to the icing on their mini sponge cakes—follows a strict buttercream color scheme. Chances are you’ve already seen a video of someone reviewing Harucake’s bouncy little poufs of milk cream. Here's our take: the place knows how to bake silky chocolate earl grey and earthy mugwort injeolmi cakes. But these slices will cost you (each one is about $14-$15, though they're pretty big). Come on a weekday or risk a two-hour wait for a mostly sold-out menu.

Verdict: Great coffee. Possibly the most beautiful cafe in Los Angeles. Saturday lines are nightmare fuel.

A nightclub is one of the scariest places to find yourself in LA during the daytime. Not in Cafe Nido's case. This is an indoor-outdoor operation at Tenants of the Trees in Silver Lake (though the two businesses are not connected) where you order your latte at the bar and drink it on a stunning, green-tiled patio. It's objectively delightful. Big trees offer shade as you eat prosciutto sandwiches and there's a parked trailer full of used books that you can read. Our only complaint is that weekend lines can get long. (We've even heard reports of it taking an hour just to get coffee.) Avoid all that and come on the weekdays when Cafe Nido is tranquil and devoid of influencers looking for coffee vibes, whatever those are.

Verdict: Come the next time someone else is paying for drinks.

Splashy dining rooms and designer bucatini are popping up all over Beverly Hills this year, but Dante is the one making sugar babies go ballistic. That’s because this rooftop spot sits on the ninth floor of the Maybourne Hotel, where you can get views of the Hollywood Hills from the comfort of a blue velvet booth. Just like the original NYC location, Dante Beverly Hills has a cocktail menu with the breadth and depth of your typical wine list. You'll see sections dedicated to martinis, negronis, spritzes, agave spirits, and zero-proof cocktails. Most drinks cost over $20 and are very good if not a little precious (prepare for your bartenders to spray olive brine mist on the rim of your dirty martini or scorch green chilis for your spicy margarita). Still, the view is Dante's real draw. And you can skip right past the Italian dishes.

Verdict: A treat for people who love lines, tough parking, and crowded spaces. Come on weekdays only.

New York has an abundance of rats, bad pizza that's somehow still good, and Levain locations. Good for them. And now LA can claim its own iteration of the bakery known for hockey-puck-sized cookies. When it comes to visiting the Larchmont Village Levain, you must ask yourself if a cookie is worth spewing colorful language at someone over a parking spot. For us, the answer is no. That's why we suggest stopping by Levain on weekdays when the lines are shorter and full of parents praying a chocolate chip cookie will put their kid on Do Not Disturb mode. These colossal things taste like molten rocks from a fudge volcano. They're crumbly on the outside yet hot and gooey on the inside.

Verdict: A legitimately cute cafe with good coffee.

Mandarin Coffee is the rare cafe that'll please anyone who believes frequenting cute coffee shops is a surrogate for a personality and people who simply want good caffeine. Only four adults can comfortably fit in this Pasadena cafe, but the cramped space is part of the charm. That, and the fact Mandarin Coffee Stand is inside a British-themed shopping arcade, complete with a red phone booth for photo-ops. The real reason there's so much hype around this place is their coffee drinks. Their pour-overs are all made with beans sourced from China. Other combinations are balanced and smart here, like espresso tonics that get brightened up with tart pineapple jam and the Vienna latte that's silky from sweat cream without overpowering the espresso. Come during the week to avoid a wait. 

Verdict: Quick, delicious, and reliable. The sidewalk patio has the best seats in the house.

Woon has been around since 2019, but food TikTok can't shut up about how convenient, delicious, and fun this place is. We can confirm that all of the above is true. In roughly ten minutes flat, this casual Chinese spot in Historic Filipinotown serves chewy beef noodles, clouds of scallion pancakes, and pork belly bao so tender it basically disappears like Houdini. Woon only accepts walk-ins, and it's usually not too difficult to snag a spot. Order at the counter and then sit on the sidewalk patio where friends in matching corduroy drink Taiwanese beer on plastic stools. It's really that easy. Add Woon to your last-minute dinner rotation if you haven't already.

Verdict: The Courage Bagels of the Westside (with way shorter lines).

This Santa Monica bakery specializes in tangy sourdough bagels that crunch and smush like the best of 'em. Toppings range from classics (cream cheese, tomatoes, herbs, smoked fish, pickled onions, you name it) to less typical stuff (lemon zest, chili flakes, PB&J, avocado, hummus). Order a bagel sandwich—like the one topped with gloriously smooth cream cheese, juicy blood orange, and honey.

Verdict: A shell of its former self. 

There was a time (2017, to be exact) when we would’ve emphatically told you Dave’s was making some of the best hot chicken in LA. But that was a long time ago—our night serum regiment is much stricter now and Dave’s Hot Chicken is no longer a destination. That’s partly because this chain with East Hollywood roots can now be found in over 21 states, but also because the quality of food here has nose-dived faster than a Cessna in the Bermuda Triangle. If you’re completely hammered walking down Fairfax at 1am, their slider combo will probably hit the spot. Otherwise, this dry, poorly built sandwich can be skipped.