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Welcome to the Year in Eater 2024 — an annual tradition that looks back at the highs, lows, and in-betweens of Los Angeles’s restaurant scene. Today, LA’s finest food writers, editors, and reporters highlight the emerging changes they hope will continue into the new year. Farley Elliott, SFGATE SoCal Bureau Chief I’m interested in seeing how Neighborly does in Westlake Village — taking big names out that far from their primary locations, and hopefully offering a new opportunity for both operators and locals.
Kristie Hang, Eater LA contributor I feel like the SGV scene has seen a welcome surge in Indonesian options this year, and I really hope we’ll see more Malaysian and Singaporean additions in 2025. Unfortunately, with rising inflation and the high cost of running a business, we’re losing mom-and-pop shops while big-name chains move in. I hope the coming year brings a revival of small, independent businesses—whether it’s coffee shops, dessert spots, or family-owned restaurants — keeping the community’s culinary diversity alive.
Cathy Chaplin, GastronomyBlog.com Big-name operators and chefs infiltrating LA’s suburban foothill communities. Elina Shatkin, producer, Good Food The widespread rage toward the US’s for-profit healthcare industry.
I love how it crosses all lines of age, race, gender, and political affiliation, and I hope it leads to real change. Nicole Adlman, Eater cities manager Restaurant crossovers happened in fun new ways, championed by no restaurant more this year than Virgil Village’s Budonoki, a Thai Japanese izakaya with a distinctly Angeleno lens. The 2024 Eater Best New Restaurant winner regularly collaborated with other Los Angeles restaurants (the menu with Koreatown stalwart Soban looked particularly good), as well as influencers-turned-celebrity-chefs like H Woo Lee.
I kind of hope these guest appearances/micro-residencies/crossovers/collaborations happen more often, and at more restaurants, in 2025. Hadley Tomicki, Co-Founder, L.A.
TACO I was really charmed by Somerville’s dining room, almost as much as I was by Geter Atienza’s great food. The way the tables are arranged, angled towards each other and very open, creates a great feel of a party among guests, a terrific innovation in making restaurants more social and communal. Add the jazz trio and gorgeously dressed diners and it feels like stepping off the street and into a different, magical time for the evening.
Joshua Lurie, FoodGPS.com founder It will be interesting to see how food halls continue to evolve and (hopefully) meet the needs of their communities. I had a great experience with my daughters at Haven City Market West Covina.
They have destination vendors like Banh Mi Dealer, Taipei OG Noodle Shop, Vchos, Cluck2Go, Baked Dessert Bar and Local Coffee, plus a turf-lined outdoor seating area where kids can run around. I haven’t been there yet, but am excited to see the cooperative business model in action at Neighborly in Westlake Village, and to try food from Mini Kabob, Gaby’s, and The Cheese Store pasta/pizza. Lesley Suter, Special Projects Director, Eater It’s maybe the opposite of innovative — ancient, even — but the way we are seeing chefs start to play with masa and corn at places like Komal and others is thrilling and I can’t wait to see where else this trend takes us.
Mona Holmes, Editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest Daytime DJ sets at coffeehouses. I’ve seen some emerge in 2024 and is an outright rejection of traditional club culture. These can get downright crowded because some folks don’t really want to pay a hefty cover to get into a club with bottle service and dealing with snobby security.
Others don’t want to drink heavily or just hang out during daytime hours. It’ll be interesting to see how it evolves in 2025 and beyond. And now that the entire state of California is protecting the rights and increasing the wages of fast food workers, let’s see if (and when) the rest of the nation follows.
Matthew Kang, Lead Editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest I love seeing a greater interest in accommodating families and children at restaurants. At a recent dinner at Orla in Santa Monica, the restaurant provided top-notch elements for children to enjoy their meals. They had quality plateware, utensils, and seating to accommodate our two-year-old, and even had a better-than-average kids menu with modified items from the regular dinner menu (think steamed salmon, couscous, and broccoli).
Also, I would love to see a common API or user interface for reservations. I know there are multiple systems, and they’re in competition, but diners need less confusing ways to book tables. We should also have an Uber-style rating for diners who renege on tables (unless this already exists and I don’t know about it) so there’s accountability.
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