Bill Addison

The 2025 @latimes 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles is live online and in print! This is the seventh LA 101 I’ve been a part of, and my second year co-writing the guide with @jenn_harris_ , the finest collaborator a guy could ask for. In a relentlessly challenging year for the city, perhaps you will find some joy by swiping to the second frame, capturing the moment at the 101 event on Tuesday when the beautiful talents of @mercadolapaloma learned we had named this center of community in the number one slot this year. Throwing in some photogenic moments from meals at @komalmolino in the Mercado, @lossabrososalhorno , @bridgetownroti , @morihirosunset , @bar.etoile , @lumkanaadthai , and for some dessert fun, @funke_la , @tomat.la and the summer-sensation watermelon cake at @cafe2001.la . A team of ever-patient editors, photographers (chiefly @myung_chun !) and designers gives months of their lifeforce to this project. Link up yonder in the bio. Yes the 101 lives behind a paywall. Please consider supporting journalists and journalism if you don’t subscribe. We love you, Los Angeles.

Every restaurant critic knows the right moment to show their face (or to decide never to hide it). I’ve been at this work for nearly 24 years. It’s time. And it’s surreal! And weird! And maaaaybe freeing, I don’t know yet. Poured all the thoughts I could form on the subject into an essay at @latimesfood . Hitting “post” on this, I feel so grateful to @therealchristinahouse for putting me at ease during my first professional photo shoot since taking bad actor headshots as a 22-year-old (thankfully long lost to history). The midcentury-modern vibes at @cameliadtla felt right. For fun: The last pic (after the one of me in 2002, so young!) is my favorite disguise ever, from the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles event in 2022. POV: You’re Shaggy from Scooby Doo who grew up to be a 50-year-old AD who lives in Atwater Village. And there’s another 101 event tonight, unveiling the guide I wrote this year with @jenn_harris_ . See you there?

“Facelessness has a shelf life in this niche line of work, and I’ve reached mine,” writes @bill_addison . “After seven years as restaurant critic for The Times, I’m voluntarily dropping any pretext of anonymity. It’s time, for lots of reasons.” Read his essay at the link in @latimesfood ’s bio. 📸 @markpottslat

In anticipation of @latimesfood annual 101 List, I sit down with @bill_addison who shares his Five Rules for Navigating a Food list. Link in bio.

Meals and scenes from two recent weeks in #Paris. —grand aioli at Clamato, next door to and part of the @septimeparis group, great for a casual seafood lunch — @datil.restaurant , the vegetable-centered restaurant from @manonfleury__ that I can’t stop thinking about —An incredible cheese workshop with @chezlouloufrance , via @parisbymouth ; can’t recommend this experience enough —To continue the theme: Inside the walk-in cheese cabinet (!) at @plenitude.paris —Apricot dessert from the mind of pastry chef @maxime.frederic at @plenitude.paris , as stunning in taste as in presentation —The career-spanning “David Hockney 25” exhibit at the @fondationlv —Galette complète at @breizhcafe_fr , which should be consumed with pear cider and followed by the crêpe Suzette sparked with yuzu —The requisite mint tea after salads, couscous, lamb and a good bottle of gamay at @restaurantletagine —Hummus at @kubriparis , instantly one of my favorite Lebanese restaurants in the world —Cabbage with pickled apricot and so much more, another crowd fave at @kubriparis —A snack to start the meal at @tram.restaurant with the wonderful @lindseytramuta —The perfect bistro dining room at @chezgeorgesruedumail , right before things got thrillingly chaotic —Tortellini, but make it mapo tofu, at @chevaldorparis —Nico on the AeroPress at @telescopecafe . No matter your choice of coffee, order the banana bread —Joachim Morceau doing his thing a reservations-only @substancecafe Wrote much of this up for the week’s @latimesfood Tasting Notes newsletter; check the link for more.

From Mendocino to San Diego, LA Times restaurant critic @bill_addison spent a lot of 2025 driving around to pick California’s 101 Best Restaurants. A few of his choices: Sacramento: @josephineauburn , @jimdennys_sac , @magpiecafesacramento San Francisco: @mijote_sf , @mr_rintaro , @reemscalifornia , @misterjius , @dalidasf East Bay: @bomberaoakland , @popoca.oakland , @tanziescafe Central Coast: @the.marshall.store , @hiddenkitchencalifornia , @bellslosalamos His 29 Los Angeles selections include: @ammatoli , Barbacoa Ramirez, Henry’s Cuisine, @holboxlosangeles , @langersdeli , @mealsbygenet , @providencela , @quartersheets , @tsubakila Find the full list at the link in bio #california #restaurants

Cheese-extreme khachapuris and lahmajo (aka lahm bi ajeen) are the obvious draws at @tunlahmajo.usa in Burbank. But over the months since the restaurant opened, the menu has expanded to include salads, roasted meats, a range of soups, and herbed stews. Los Angeles already has a lot of Armenian restaurants that excel at one specialty (see: @mini_kabob and @zhengyalov_hatz_glendale ) but fewer places delve into a broader mix of Armenian homestyle dishes as Tun Lahmajo does. Lots to love here; warm weather calls for the brothy, herby fish stew (shown in the last video in the carousel). Latest review for @latimesfood ; link up yonder.

This week, we’re diving deep into the art of restaurant criticism with TWO incredible food writers! First up, we chat with Bill Addison, the esteemed restaurant critic for The Los Angeles Times. Bill shares insights into his unique approach to critical writing, his most memorable dining experiences, and the ever-evolving California culinary scene. You won’t want to miss hearing about his recent monumental project: compiling the One Hundred and One Best Restaurants in California for The Los Angeles Times! Then, we head to the Midwest to hear from Wini Moranville, a talented restaurant critic based in Des Moines, Iowa. Wini opens up about how her early days as a server shaped her current work and the distinct considerations of restaurant criticism in smaller cities. She’s also the author of the delightful memoir, “Love is My Favorite Flavor: A Midwestern Dining Critic Tells All,” and you can find more of her work on her Substack, Dining Well in DSM. 🎧 Listen to the full episode at our bio link 🔗 or wherever you get your podcasts! /episode/2025/06/13/life-of-a-restaurant-critic-with-bill-addison-and-wini-moranville #splendidtable #podcast #publicradio #food #foodpodcast #RestaurantCritic #FoodWriting #CaliforniaCuisine #MidwesternDining 📸: SeventyFour | iStock / Getty Images Plus

Gave myself over for much of the last year to traveling and eating (and eating) and thinking about our state. To paraphrase what I wrote for the @latimes Essential California newsletter today: Given the ugly past week in Los Angeles, and the many obfuscations across social media and national coverage in their portrayals of L.A. and Angelenos, it should be said plainly: The glory of culinary California feeds and influences the nation and the world, and it would not exist without our immigrants. I hope you take the time to read over the guide and see that, in the spirit of usefulness, these 101 (unranked) restaurants are jumping-off points. There is too much brilliance to highlight at every level in California. So along with many of the write-ups, you’ll find “extra helpings” of restaurants similar in style or cuisine or geography. The number of hands and minds that went into creating this guide! Biggest thanks to editors @bettyhallock and @danielledorky for their patience with me, and to @laurie.ochoa , @longdrivesouth , @brandonkit for their leadership. For their generous advice and shared meals across the state, I’m grateful to @mackenzie_fegan , @fukufoodz , @_candicewoo , @lesleybs , @denomarcum , @virginiamiller.sf … and to @gustavo_arellano and @streetgourmetla for both independently steering me to Mi Ranchito in Stockton. Ok, enough words. California forever! Let’s eat; link in bio.

What makes a great California restaurant? That question was top of mind for our restaurant critic, Bill Addison, as he ate his way through the Golden State for the past year while writing his first-ever list of the 101 best restaurants in California. See The Times’ guide to 101 exceptional eateries in the state at the link in @latimesfood ’s bio. 📸 @bill_addison , @markpottslat

Some very delicious regional Turkish dishes happening at @soracraftkitchen in DTLA. A variation of içli köfte (a.k.a kibbeh) called kitel uses bulgur pounded into a smooth dough for a meat-filled dumpling. That’s a recipe from chef Okay Inak’s mother’s side. From his father’s family: A dessert of butternut squash (it would be pumpkin in Turkey) soaked in limewater overnight, creating an effect in that when the squash cooks, its exterior retains a thin, crackling shell while the inside melts to cream. It’s this week’s review. Bonus that @heatheraplatt wrote a side-by-side story on how Inak runs the 16-seat restaurant by himself; the economics don’t yet work any other way.

If soup dumplings figure among your L.A. culinary obsessions, the compact guan tang bao at @good_alley in Rosemead deserve your attention. The ones featuring chicken, with their concentrated texture of double stock, are my surprise favorite, though the porkier versions bring it home too. There's plenty more on the menu. Good Alley lands as part dumpling parlor and part tea house, with the drink selection running the milky, citrus-muddled-cheese foam gamut. It's the sort of attractive cosmopolitan mishmash, culling staples from many of China’s regional cuisines, that would fit seamlessly among the modern cafes in one of Shanghai’s high-design shopping centers. It also happens to land beautifully as a new SGV strip mall destination. It's the latest review; link up yonder.