It’s that time of year again. Dine LA Restaurant Week, which offfers two weeks of special prix-fixe tasting menus at Los Angeles restaurants, is happening July 14 to 27. With over 360 restaurants participating this year, we’ve helped narrow down what restaurants to seek out for great deals and top-choice menu selection.
Lunch
Ciboteca ($15)
Santa Monica’s slick new Italian café and deli specializes in panino, and as part of their special lunch deal, you get one of their grilled sandwiches filled with Italian meats a cheese, a spinach-arugula salad, a drink, and one of their decadent desserts from the pastry case. And, best part, you’ll probably be able to pull the whole meal off before your lunch hour is over.
Fundamental L.A. ($15)
The sandwich-side-drink-cookie combo at this tiny Westwood restaurant has become a DineLA stalwart over the years, with lunchtime lines sometimes snaking out the front door. If you don’t mind the crowd, you’ll find smoked brisket sandwiches and duck banh mi, tempura avocado, melon soup, and brown butter blondies.
Plan Check Fairfax ($25)
From 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. you can score a whopper of a deal at Ernesto Uchimura’s modern burger restaurant on Fairfax. Choose from one of three signature burgers (topped with ingredients like dashi American cheese, ketchup leather, or candied bacon) served with sweet potato or waffle fries, plus Frito pie mac ‘n’ cheese and a cruller doughnut for dessert. They’re even throwing in a free plum iced tea or mint lemonade too.
Wolfgang Puck at the Hotel Bel-Air ($25)
This would be a bargain even if Wolfgang Puck’s name wasn’t on the front door: Served in a spectacular garden setting, the lunch includes a seasonal amuse bouche, followed by burrata and roasted apricots, tomato gazpacho or a white corn salad. The main course offers fresh pasta with chanterelles or merguez lamb pita along with a dessert dubbed “milk and melon”. Sounds like a refreshing al fresco meal to us.
Dinner
L’Assiette ($25)
You down with steak frites? This bistro on Melrose is offering its signature dish of seared coulotte steak and beef tallow frites (two servings!) along with a hearts of palm salad or sorrel soup and a bonus dessert. The difficulty might come in choosing between the brownie a la mode with sea salt, amaretto cake with créme anglaise, or cream-filled profiteroles.
Tipple & Brine ($35)
Have you heard? The Valley netted a stylish new oyster bar in Tipple & Brine, cheffed by The Parish alum Mike Williams. For DineLA, you can enjoy a three-course menu that starts with braised greens, cauliflower with salsa rustica or fried octopus, followed by mushroom gnudi, market fish and duck fat potatoes, or roasted chicken and biscuits. For dessert, there’s and chocolate cremeux or carrot cake.
Night + Market WeHo ($35)
Kris Yenbamroong always has an ace up his sleeve when it comes to DineLA. At the original West Hollywood location (sorry no DineLA at NM Song!), the DineLA menu includes peel-n-eat shrimp and a new dish called kuay tiew nuea toon, or braised beef noodle soup. West Hollywood diners can also enjoy dishes previously only available at Silver Lake’s Night + Market Song, like the peppercorn-studded Bangkok mall pasta and fried chicken thighs with water bug relish.
Black Hogg ($35)
Load up on the small plates at this Silver Lake gastropub, where you’ll combo two starters like chili limón fries, brussel sprouts hash, Korean BBQ carrots, or a pork belly taco with mains such as the bone marrow burger octopus chana masala or “53rd & 6th” lamb belly and rice. Save room for “five leches” bread pudding or chai-spiced churros afterward.
Día De Campo ($45)
At Tin Vuong’s newish Hermosa Beach Mexican restaurant, you can get your spicy, citrusy, seafood fix for a relatively low price. Start with the “Alvarado St.” shrimp cocktail or salmon ceviche tostada, before choosing second and third courses like chocolate-tamarind duck quesadillas, beer-braised mussels or short rib empanadas. Or, combine your two courses together and go big with a Mexican shrimp boil to share. Try tres leches or coconut cake with guava jam for dessert.
Faith & Flower ($45)
Another newcomer, this Downtown hotspot from chef Michael Hung is offer five courses altogether, including shrimp and grits toast and longanisa sausage with blood-vinegar sauce to start, and main dishes like mesquite grilled skirt steak and seared steelhead trout. And it wouldn’t be summertime without peaches ‘n’ cream for dessert.
