8 SoCal Restaurants Added To Michelin Guide

LOS ANGELES, CA — Eight new Southern California restaurants have been added to the coveted Michelin California Guide, giving foodies up and down the coast a new list of must-try eateries.

SoCal is home to the majority of the 13 restaurants added to the guide statewide: Five are in Los Angeles, along with spots in La Jolla, Santa Barbara and West Hollywood.

The guide also added five Bay Area restaurants.

Here's a look at each restaurant, with excerpts from Michelin's reviews:

Ambrogio by Acquerello
La Jolla

"This friendly, cozy La Jolla offshoot of a celebrated restaurant outside of Milan has a vibe somewhere between humble and sophisticated, for a comfortable experience that’s none too precious. The style that chefs Choi Cheolhyeok and Silvio Salmoiraghi shaped at the original is a contemporary, minimalist approach to Italian that incorporates elements of Chef Choi’s Korean background."

Barra Santos
Cypress Park, Los Angeles

Snag a seat outside or in at this small, no reservations restaurant in Cypress Park. Inside, the best seats are at the bar with a view into the kitchen. The focused menu is Portuguese and even features some family recipes. Plenty of items are designed for sharing, including their crispy and tender bacalhau fritters with salt cod, potato, and caramelized onion, or charred cabbage over a bed of white beans studded with Iberico pork and garlic butter sauce.

Danbi
Koreatown, Los Angeles

Chef Lareine Ko's streamlined menu pops with large, shareable plates. The hit list includes mushroom bibimbap with fresh vegetables, as well as a crispy scallop pancake accompanied by a creamy mentaiko sauce. Wagyu Zabuton, cooked over charcoal and served on a hot cast iron skillet over a bed of grilled onions, is a solid winner.

Grá
Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles

There's a welcoming vibe at this hip spot where the focus is on natural fermentation with sourdough pizza, seasonal pickled vegetables, and fermented drinks such as tepache. Grá has indoor and covered patio seating, but all eyes will be on the cooks preparing pizzas in their wood-fired oven. It's all about the thin and crispy sourdough crust with high quality toppings.

Leopardo
Hancock Park, Los Angeles

Chef Joshua Skenes is back on the scene with Leopardo, a likeable spot with a laidback feel where the menu leans on seafood with a few pizzas thrown in for good measure. Come with a group to sample a variety, beginning with crispy red flint waffles with bordier butter and maple syrup, and splurge by adding Ossetra caviar aged for six months with country bacon salt.

Mae Malai Thai House of Noodles
Thai Town, Los Angeles

Just a short walk from their original food stall, this restaurant's strip mall digs are simple but it's a comfortable, welcoming spot with a tempting menu to boot. As the name suggests, their specialty is noodles, particularly boat noodles with a thick, intense broth and your choice of pork or beef, noodle type, and spice level.

Stella
West Hollywood

"Italian food with local California products is the promise at Stella, where a two-story dining room has an Art Deco flair, and the chef's counter offers a mesmerizing look at live-fire cooking."

Silvers Omakase
Santa Barbara

"With just a handful of seats and a small staff, this omakase from Chef Lennon Silvers Lee is ever-changing. Some things change daily, while others change weekly, but one thing you can always expect is well-executed dishes made with rice from Japan that is milled in house, and fish that is sourced both locally and from Japan and then dry aged."

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