The Most Fun Dinner Spots In LA
Those seeking a polite meal, click away now. This guide is reserved for anyone who’s wondering, “Where’s the place to be?” and might have a penchant for mid-dinner photoshoots and post-dinner bar hopping. Chairs aren’t just for sitting in some of these restaurants and, while food is important, a good time takes priority. They range from new spots flooding your feeds to classics where successful meals are determined by how many martinis you drink with your server. These places may not all be the best new restaurants in town, but you'll always walk out with a story or two. And if you happen to be looking for some fun bars in LA, we know just the ones to prioritize.
Just Added
The back patio at Alba has the same energy as Caesars Palace—the one in Vegas, not Rome. Espresso martinis fill every table, bowls of orecchiette with burrata are tossed tableside, and you'll see a few dudes with one too many shirt buttons undone. It’s a scene even by Melrose standards, but thankfully dishes like the agnolotti and spicy-sweet chicken alla diavola hold their own. But even if your only goal is to get dressed up, people-watch, and maybe send a risky text to an old flame later, this is where you want to be.
Just Added
A night at No Bar Bar is frenetic and a bit lawless. Walk into this pizzeria-cocktail bar from the Dudley Market people in Santa Monica and you’ll find dates smooshed up against the bar and groups packed into booths. On Friday and Saturday nights, you’ll probably have to wait in line for a little bit while DJs spin throwback Euro disco over the hi-fi. A spacious table is never a guarantee, but the reward is excellent tiki-inspired cocktails and bubbly-crusted pizza that goes toe-to-toe with the best on the Westside.
Jessie Clapp
Somerville is located on a kind of sleepy street and looks like a cozy wooden barn, but the moment you walk inside, you’re met with a live jazz band riffing on spunky R&B covers, dressed-up people toasting Hennessy cocktails at the bar, and plush booths filled with couples curled up and stealing sips of each other’s drinks. The menu isn’t far from what you’d see at a neighborhood steakhouse, but you can match the excitement of the place by ordering adventurous dishes like the collard greens lasagna and fried chicken sliders with caviar crème fraîche.
Turn on Opentable notifications and wait it out like the rest of us (cancellations do happen). The live band stops at 9:45pm so try to get in as early as possible for the full experience, or show up early for drinks at the bar.
Jessie Clapp
Eating at Evil Cooks is like riding a coaster at Six Flags three times in a row: a head rush and maybe not something you’d share with your sweet grandparents. This heavy metal-themed taquería in El Sereno blasts Megadeath as you eat tender lengua tacos next to a fountain of fake blood, or blackened octopus smothered in a smoky salsa near a locked door that leads to Satan’s Lair. It’s all a bit on the nose in a fun, campy way, which is why we love it. Plus, Evil Cook’s sit-down dinner menu is unlike anything else in LA, with dishes such as pork rib wellington topped with candy floss and lemongrass-y tom yum shrimp aguachile that burns like the ninth circle of hell.
Jessie Clapp
“Hold On To Yer Butts.” “You Can Tell Everybody This is Your Sambal.” These are a few of the messages we’ve read on Rasarumah’s giant back-lit letterboard. They’re also silly tone-setters for a buzzy meal at this Malaysian spot in Historic Filipinotown. You’ll share plates of butter-rich beef cheek rendang and sweet-tangy mango salad, clink glasses of barley shochu, and smear hot red sambal on every dish like you’re at one of those paint-and-sip classes. Rasarumah is a sexy, well-oiled dinner machine, the kind you’d expect from the team behind Found Oyster. Leaving your burnt orange banquette at the end of the night won’t be easy. Get the pandan sundae for dessert to buy some extra time.
Sal's Place
Sal’s is an Italian bistro from Provincetown, MA that we fell in love with last year when they popped up in Weho, and the seasonal snowbirds are back again until summer. Every dinner here features at least one moment when you completely forget you’re at a restaurant. Adjacent tables—people you didn’t know a half-hour ago—merge conversations, while the linen-wearing host drops off a complimentary tiramisu and explains if you don’t have enough money (it’s cash-only), pay her back next time. Is there anything on Sal’s handwritten menu that you can’t find down the block? No. But you’re at this cozy queer space to experience community—a well-dressed Caesar and spicy orecchiette are simply the bonuses.
SBE
Dinner at MXO is the closest you can get to eating at a high-end resort in Mexico without crossing the border. That’s because this clubby Mexican steakhouse on La Cienega from the chef behind Ka’teen offers similar elements: women in Rococo Sand dresses, a bumping bar area with flashy agave cocktails, and a dining room that looks like a millionaire’s dude ranch, complete with patio fire pits. The mesquite-grilled meats here are solid, but MXO works best for a boozy, snacky night out with friends. Start with the impressive (free) chips and salsa spread, a round of michelada oyster shooters, and some sweet potato taquitos. Just be prepared to spend: MXO can feel like a vacation, but it can cost as much as one, too.
Jessie Clapp
Bar Sinizki specializes in the kind of European fantasy that would make Rick Steves jealous: checkerboard floors, copper tile ceilings, a lot of white marble, and people who look like they take month-long holidays every summer enjoying brown butter pierogies and Fernet spritzes. The good news is it can easily be your fantasy, too. This bubbly all-day bistro in Atwater from the Elf Cafe people is walk-in only, so elbow up to the bar or find a table on the leafy patio where you can debate Sartre versus Camus over steak frites until last call at midnight.
Jessie Clapp
This dark and moody bistro on Melrose doesn’t shy away from Old Hollywood touches. There’s a long bar where Manhattans flow, booths the size of jacuzzis, and a wedge salad buried under a metric ton of bacon. But don’t mistake The Benjamin for a living museum. By 6pm most nights, the place packs in a crowd dressed like they’re auditioning for a Stüssy print campaign. Huddle with your personal Brat Pack in the corner over strip steaks and caviar baked potatoes, or join the neighborhood scene at the bar that sneaks in for martinis and burgers. There are many ways to do a meal right at The Benjamin and none of them are snoozy.
Reservations are released at 9am a week in advance, but they're usually snapped up in minutes. The bar area is first-come, first-serve, though and if you arrive by 6pm, there are usually stools available.
Jessie Clapp
Among the countless Koreatown drinking dens nearby, this blonde wood wine bar by the Chimmelier folks belongs in your rotation simply because it can be used in so many ways. Jilli is low-key enough for post-work beers and fried chicken. It’s moody enough for a candlelit wine date at the bar. And if you show up after 8pm with your soju-drinking friends, this narrow restaurant plays 2000s hip-hop to help kickstart a night out. It’s a great catch-all to keep in your back pocket, and the cheeky spins on Korean bar food are so good we’d order them in Buca di Beppo-sized portions.
Jessie Clapp
At this neighborhood izakaya in Virgil Village, the energy in the dining room is so infectious you'll feel like you just hopped off a flight to Vegas. Friends crowd into dimly lit booths passing dishes like fermented Thai sausage and wagyu yakisoba. A glowing Orion beer sign casts a pink sheen over dates ordering shochu cocktails at the walk-in-only bar. Lauryn Hill and '90s Kylie blast over the speakers. We love that drinks arrive in adorable little penguin mugs, and servers will pull up a chair to discuss the restaurant’s Spotify playlist like it’s a family heirloom (it’s that good). It’s rare to find a legitimate party restaurant, let alone one with great food. Budonoki pulls off both.
Jessie Clapp
Arguably one of the best red sauce joints around, Donna’s in Echo Park doesn’t make you choose between a good time and a great meal. Groups crowd into leather booths and use their outdoor voices to discuss friend-group gossip. Complimentary limoncello shots flow like water. And the Italian American comfort food is just as considered as the nostalgia-core backdrop. So if you’re in the mood to take down a plate of chicken parm in a loud room covered in teal floral wallpaper, a night at Donna’s will make you very happy.
Reservations are released daily, 14 days in advance at 10am. Without a rez, try walking when they open at 5:30pm, as a large portion of the dining room is set aside for walk-ins. Otherwise, expect to wait an hour-plus for a table.
Douglas Friedman
Checker Hall feels like a bar and a Mediterranean restaurant wrapped in one, which is why a night here always goes late. It’s located on the second floor of an old masonic lodge in Highland Park and will please all your friends who want to chill in a booth and eat branzino and whipped feta. But no one will feel out of place spending the night flirting at the bar and drinking good cocktails (like the spicy, tequila-based Carmen #6). In reality, everybody in your group will probably partake in both approaches.
This Korean tavern in Ktown is late-night LA canon. It's where one hour turns into three in the blink of an eye. Meats sizzle and knives scrape on the central grill. Smoke hangs over the dark, wooden booths, and groups of friends pound Hite with an exorbitance typically reserved for the end of the world. As for the food, the menu has over 100 different anju designed for snacking while you drink. We recommend loading up on kimchi pancakes, sweet and spicy tteokbokki, and more skewers than you can adequately count. If you don't want to wait an hour (or more), arrive before 8pm.
---2024-11-24t204629.036-min.jpg?sfvrsn=1cec0987_1)
