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For the South Bay’s most ambitious new restaurant: Vinfolk. | Matthew Kang Your handy guide on where to eat from the editors at Eater LA Every Friday, our editors compile a trusty list of recommendations to answer the most pressing of questions: “Where should I eat?“ Here now are four places to check out this weekend in Los Angeles. And if you need some ideas on where to drink, here’s our list of the hottest places to get cocktails in town.
For exceptional coffee shop fare: Coffee Commissary Rebecca Roland For exceptional coffee shop fare: Coffee Commissary. It’s been far too long since I’ve been at Burbank’s Coffee Commissary, which used to be a regular stop when I was a member of a climbing gym out that way. But on a recent rainy day, after a Burbank airport drop off, I found myself in need of caffeine and a snack.
Coffee Commissary is small on the inside, but makes the most of its space with plenty of seating for laptor warriors, or the one person who was sitting in the corner reading Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. The coffee is always great, and served in a mug if sitting down. But, it's the food where Coffee Commissary really stands out from the pack.
The menu offers breakfast burritos, breakfast tacos, a fried chicken sandwich, and even Benedicts on the weekends. The avocado toast is a great choice if you're not looking for too heavy of a meal, and adding an egg on top only makes it better. If it's nice outside, the patio is the perfect place to settle in with a coffee and read for a while.
3121 W. Olive Avenue, Burbank, CA 91505. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/SouthwestFor the South Bay’s most ambitious new restaurant: Vinfolk Matthew Kang For the South Bay’s most ambitious new restaurant: Vinfolk.
It’s impressive to see something like Vinfolk open in the South Bay, taking over a key corner space in Hermosa Beach in late 2024 and turning the former Chef Melba’s Bistro into a lovely Parisian-style wine bar. Helmed by Somni and Maude veteran Kevin De Los Santos, and Katya Shatova (who worked at NoMad LA and Vespertine), this charming neighborhood bistro serves an ambitious modern French menu infused with international influences (with a special focus on Filipino ingredients). Headcheese toast topped with New School American cheese comes on locally baked milk bread; chopped salad incorporates flavors of Caesar and Nicoise with a mild black bean dressing; pea chawanmushi gets the aromas of black truffle and oloroso sherry.
The most striking appetizer was a gorgeous tart of stacked escabeche mussels in a thick fennel and whelk cream, presented like a water fowl of puff pastry. There’s real skill and intricate plating here, and the flavors are usually very successful. Beef tongue assembled in elegant slices gets a dash of Russian flavor from hrenovina, a spicy horseradish sauce, surrounded by gently cooked tatsoi (spinach mustard), blending a bit of Shatova and De Los Santos’s backgrounds.
Desserts are stellar too, like white chocolate souffle encrusted with sugar crystals for a satisfying crunch. Not everything worked —beautiful slices of locally caught mackerel had grains of charcoal that weren’t pleasant to crunch on, but for the most part the ideas and execution at Vinfolk are beyond anything this part of Hermosa Beach has seen in a while. And as a local resident, it’s thrilling to see.
1501 Hermosa Avenue, Hermosa Beach, CA. — Matthew Kang, lead editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest For a modern Indian dinner with some fusion touches in Santa Monica: Fitoor Matthew Kang For a modern Indian dinner with some fusion touches in Santa Monica: Fitoor. More contemporary Indian restaurants are still somewhat of a novelty in LA.
There’s Baar Baar in Downtown and Arth Bar in Culver City, as well as Indian Italian fusion Pijja Palace in Silver Lake, but Fitoor might be the most noteworthy example of modern Indian cuisine on the Westside. Originally from the Bay Area, this ground floor space looks ornate and potentially over-the-top at eye level but disappears into a black-painted ceiling when looking upward. It’s a little strange but once it fills up, which it inevitably will after 7 p.
m., it’s pretty boisterous. Crunchy dahi kachori comes out like an Indian-style seven-layer dip while fried soft shell crab is dusted with poriyal spices and a smear of tomato chutney.
Juicy chicken seekh masala just begs for some garlic naan. Alleppey prawn and fish curry layers in curry leaf and coconut, also best paired with plush naan, though a bit of steamed rice (which we skipped) would help soak up the heady flavors. The format and shape of dishes are new-school but Fitoor’s flavors are pretty solid.
(Pro-tip: park in the building half a block up at the corner of Ocean and Olympic for modestly-priced parking) 1755 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90401. — Matthew Kang, lead editor, Eater Southern California/SouthwestFor a quick trek to El Monte for bold Taiwanese flavors to battle the cool weather: Corner Beef Noodle House View this post on Instagram A post shared by Eva | Ralston (@werkadventures)As the rain fizzles out for a bit with temperatures peaking at 67 degrees throughout the weekend, head to a spot where soups and stews are hot and ready. Luckily, LA has plenty of options.
A drive out to El Monte is made worth it by stopping at Corner Beef Noodle House. This restaurant is one of Southern California’s most notable players that makes Taiwanese sausage and noodles on-site. It’s best to land there with two or three diners that share similar tastebuds and order a bit of everything including the marinated cucumbers, fried pork chop, and especially the beef noodle soup.
Though it’ll be tempting to go with the excellent beef shank, the beef tendon soup is outstanding with tender meat and a pleasant gelatinous texture. Swimming in the soup is bok choy, green onions, and beautifully chewy noodles, finished with a bed of incredible aromatics. 3948 Peck Road, El Monte, CA, 91732.
— Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest.
