Before the Yelp ratings and “best of” accolades start to roll in, how do you know what’s actually good or not among L.A.’s just-opened eateries? Every month, I put myself through the ringer attempting to visit every new, notable restaurant around Los Angeles. Usually, I enjoy revisiting the city’s best eateries and sipping cocktails at tried-and-true bars, but scouting for the best new restaurants and bars in L.A. is, to put it nicely, kind of a grab bag. Whenever I’m out scouting for the latest openings or my next starred review, I’m just as likely to blow hundreds of dollars on an overhyped dud as I am to stumble upon the city’s next truly great restaurant.
With Time Out’s guide to L.A.’s best new restaurants (with a few exceptions, I’ve personally checked out every single one), you don’t need to sift through pay-to-play influencer videos and user-generated reviews to decide where to head nextwe’ve done the work for you, from looking for parking and waiting in line to trying those ultra-pricey items ($55 short rib pizza, anyone?), since there’s nothing worse when dining out than wasting your precious free time and, of course, money.
How do I decide which restaurants are worth including? I take into account the quality of cuisine, overall ambience and, of course, the final bill. Not every notable new restaurant I try will make my list (which is why you won’t find the Benjamin on Melrose or Cypress Park’s Taqueria Frontera in this month’s update). I offer suggestions on what to order and let you know what to expect in terms of crowd, ambience and cuisine. If necessary, I also make recommendations as to when, and how, to fit these red-hot openings into your schedule and budgetwhether they’re worth going out of your way for or better suited for locals in the neighborhood. Read on for September’s best new restaurants, ranked.
September 2024: The end of summer has been an extremely busy month for openings in Northeast L.A.and seemingly nowhere else. Of our five new additions this month, four of them are in the area, and the last is in East Hollywood. Will the Westside ever keep up? Given real estate prices, probably not. Our newly vetted additions include a modern Sichuan restaurant and a new-school deli in Highland Park, an Eastern European-inspired all-day eatery in Atwater Village, a French-Moroccan wine bar in Lincoln Heights and a Caribbean pop-up’s long-awaited brick-and-mortar across the street from LACC. Of course, this means we’re saying goodbye to a handful of heavy hitters that have graduated off this list, including Azizam in Silver Lake (already one of our favorite spots in the neighborhood) and Koreatown’s K-Team BBQ (easily one of the best new Korean barbecue restaurants in L.A.).
