In early August, Food columnist Jenn Harris and I convened at Mae Malai Thai House of Noodles in Hollywood for a lunch meeting. Our purpose (beyond savoring $8.95 bowls of Malai Data’s signature boat noodles): to begin creating The Times’ annual guide to the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles, our second one together.
The 2025 edition — the work of which kicked off over our summer meal — goes live online on Tuesday evening.
I showed up that August day with a copy of last year’s 101 magazine and black and red markers.
We opened the magazine to the back of the list, and started with the sad job of striking through all the restaurants that had closed over the year: Tokyo Fried Chicken (where Jenn and I stood in line with other fans for a final meal days before), Post & Beam, Cassia, My 2 Cents, Bar Chelou, Yangban and Poncho’s Tlayudas (which rebranded as Lugya’h inside Maydan Market, which opened in West Adams in October, too late for inclusion in this year’s version).
They were all painful to cross out, but reaching No. 15, Here’s Looking At You, was the hardest.
I’m going to forever miss the frog legs crusted with salsa negra, and a late-night dry-aged burger alongside an expertly stirred dry martini after especially long days.
RIP to the incredible dry-aged cheeseburger at Here’s Looking At You
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Then we moved into the phase Jenn likes to call the “red wedding.” Which places did we know we’d be cutting from the list? Out came the red marker.
In the margins, in black ink: Which places had opened in the last year that we’d really loved, that would give some fresh energy to the mix?
Finally, we opened spreadsheets of restaurants we’d been individually tallying — newer places we hadn’t tried yet, institutions that might deserve another look, fixtures on the scene we didn’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on.
We plotted meals for the next week, some we’d share and others we’d split up to report back on.
Lunch at Mae Malai was the first of hundreds of breakfasts, lunches and dinners over the next three months, before final decisions and weeks of writing and occasional reversals (Birdie G’s announced its imminent closing in mid-September; Jenn had already written her 101 capsule) and the specific torture of ranking.
Boat noodles and kanom tuay (steamed coconut milk dessert) at Mae Malai.
(Ron De Angelis / For The Times)
We’re still catching up on sleep and exercise, but we’re very excited to share this year’s guide. More than 30 new restaurants appear. Does a new No. 1 crown the list? Quite possibly.
I’ll share this: Mae Malai makes it into the Top 50.
Join us for the 101 Best Restaurants event
We’re celebrating the 2025 101 guide at a reveal party Tuesday at the Hollywood Palladium. Scroll the roster of chefs cooking that night for more clues to this year’s victors. Among them: Gilberto Cetina of Holbox, Jihee Kim of Perilla L.A., Ki Kim of Restaurant Ki, chefs Marcus Yaw Johnson and Abdoulaye Balde of Two Hommés, Teodoro Diaz-Rodriguez Jr. and Jennifer Feltham of Sonoratown and, making sushi as fast as his fingers will allow, Morihiro Onodera of Morihiro.
VIP and general admission tickets are available.
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