Hama chili is a signature dish at Uchi.
The holiday season is over, and the no-days-off Los Angeles dining scene is humming with prominent restaurant openings. From curry in Beverly Hills to cake in Chinatown, here’s a look at LA’s new hotness.
Uchi
Acclaimed chef Tyson Cole’s Los Angeles debut is a West Hollywood stunner where guests eat beautifully composed nigiri with carefully calibrated hits of salt and acid and umami. Whether you’re enjoying nodoguro or toro or madai or hirame, the restaurant urges you to turn each piece upside down so you taste the fish before the rice. You’ll notice global influences and a deep attention to detail in specials like hotate no tataki, which is a whole in-the-shell scallop with strawberry XO, vermouth butter and Thai basil. The menu features banger after banger, including Cole’s beloved hama chili with yellowtail, ponzu, Thai chili and orange supreme) and creative desserts like habit-forming fried milk.
Chubby Curry
Japanese curry is made with nuance and grace in Beverly Hills.
With wagyu and Rohan duck dry-aged on-site, a comforting curry blend (featuring 25 spices and caramelized onions, apples and carrots in a silky roux) and palate-stimulating add-ons like pickled Thai chilis, chefs Shin Thompson and Liga Sigal are upgrading homestyle Japanese curry in Beverly Hills. Plus, Thompson and Sigal (who also run the kitchen at contemporary yakiniku spot Niku X downtown) serve textbook pork katsu and a funky, ultra-beefy wagyu burger. A side of strikingly spicy habanero-apple kamikaze sauce amps up everything at Chubby Curry, but be careful.
Flouring
Dessert is art at Flouring.
Heather Wong’s highly anticipated Chinatown cake shop is having its grand opening this Saturday, January 13. Wong, known for her gorgeous, elaborate, deeply artistic, high-degree-of-difficulty special-occasion creations, makes whole cakes but also individual-sized cake bars and even smaller cake tiles, meringue-topped brownies, floral citrus shortbread cookies and more. A box of cake bars, with fruit-forward flavors along with crowd-pleasers like cookies-and-cream, is an ideal introduction to Wong’s exuberant baking.
ADKT
Soak up the scene at ADKT.
A vibey supper club with French and Asian influences in the storied former No Name space on Fairfax Avenue, ADKT attracts a stylish set that gets dressed up for big festive nights out (like jazz performances on Wednesdays or late-evening weekend dinners with lots of seafood, including plump filets of wild Chilean sea bass that are nicely cooked with vermouth butter and topped with kaluga caviar). The cocktails are made with care and creativity, so power yourself up with a Le Pause Cafe: This lovely riff on an espresso martini showcases Toki Japanese whiskey and housemade almond orgeat.
Din Tai Fung
Din Tai Fung has a new Glendale location.
In select Los Angeles circles, this soup-dumpling powerhouse’s move from The Americana at Brand to the Glendale Galleria down the street is the most dramatic restaurant relocation imaginable. You probably already know the DTF order: kurobata pork xiao long bao (or the pork-and-crab xiao long bao if you prefer), hot-and-sour-soup, fried rice (with shrimp, chicken or pork chop) and maybe some string beans and black pepper beef tenderloin. This is a delightful and delightfully consistent restaurant, whether you’re dining solo or with a big group.
