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Culver City has always been better known for its famous movie studios, including Sony Pictures Studios and Culver Studios — where films like King Kong , Gone With the Wind , and The Wizard of Oz have been made since 1912 — than its culinary scene. However, the city’s food offerings have grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, welcoming newcomers like schnitzel temple Lustig and Afuri ramen, while beloved legends like Mayura and Father’s Office continue to satisfy the community. Here are the 17 essential restaurants in Culver City.
Hatchet Hall With an expansive outdoor patio, charming indoor dining room, and a Southern-inflected menu, Hatchet Hall remains a solid Westside dining option for dinner and brunch. The restaurant, owned by Louie and Netty Ryan, has seen several chefs come and go throughout its nearly decade-long run including Brian Dunsmoor and Wes Whitsell but the menu continues to deliver with crowd-pleasing hits like the cast iron cornbread, loaded baked potato gnocchi , and baked oysters. — Cathy Chaplin, senior editor Also featured in: The 18 Best Restaurants With a Fireplace in Los Angeles 18 Spectacular Patios for Al Fresco Dining in Los Angeles Sobar This soba noodle temple opened in 2023, drawing in curious diners who had never tried a traditional soba noodle dining experience, as well as those familiar with the tradition.
The organic buckwheat noodles are served cold with dipping sauces (most are soy-based, but one tamari option makes this a viable option for gluten-free diners); a leveled-up order might be choosing the ribeye niku soba with seared ribeye and a poached egg. Small-plate starters like spicy edamame, agedashi tofu, and lightly battered shrimp and vegetable tempura round out the offerings. Also featured in: The 17 Best Cold Noodles in Los Angeles Lodge Bread Open since 2015, Lodge Bread is an enduring Los Angeles bakery that is still making terrific bread alongside pastries, and other breakfast and lunch items.
Expect a full array of naturally leavened sourdough loaves, plus the famous oversized cinnamon roll. Also on the menu, find the fantastic (and vegan) fat pita, a breakfast sandwich, and a few different pizzas. Lodge Bread also has more locations across Los Angeles in Woodland Hills, Beverly Hills, and Pico-Robertson.
A forthcoming store is slated for Pasadena in 2025. — Rebecca Roland, associated editor Also featured in: The Best Pies in Los Angeles 20 Exquisite Cookie Destinations in Los Angeles Copenhagen Pastry Founder Karen Hansen wanted to serve a beautiful, buttery slice of her homeland Denmark at this lovely 11-year-old bakery. Serving delightful Danishes, cakes, and other baked treats that balance all the right levels of sugar, fruit, and pastry, Copenhagen works great as a morning pick-me-up or as a shareable office treat.
The princess cake, borrowed from nearby Sweden, is a must-order for cake aficionados. — Matthew Kang, lead editor Also featured in: The Best Cakes in Los Angeles 17 Essential Bread Bakeries in Los Angeles Dear John's It’s hard to say exactly when Dear John’s will serve its final ice-cold martini and oysters Rockefeller so it’s best to visit this classic dining room as often as possible until then. Seasoned chefs Hans Röckenwagner and Josiah Citrin teamed up to re-open the Rat Pack-era restaurant in 2019 and continue to turn out memorable takes on American steakhouse classics like shrimp cocktail, chicken Parmesan, and beef cuts of all stripes.
— Cathy Chaplin, senior editor Also featured in: The 14 Best Steakhouses in Los Angeles 15 Excellent Dinner Deals for DineLA Restaurant Week, Fall 2023 Sign up for our newsletter. Check your inbox for a welcome email. Oops.
Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again. Mayura Indian Restaurant Long a favorite of the late restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, this strip mall gem features cuisine from Kerala, India, which melds a thousand years of influence from its numerous trading partners.
The menu features towering masala dosas, pitch-perfect chutneys, and fluffy biriyani plates. Bring a group to share the Southern Indian feast. — Matthew Kang, lead editor Also featured in: The 21 Best Indian and South Asian Restaurants in Los Angeles 15 Worthwhile Lunch Deals for dineLA Restaurant Week, Fall 2021 Kismet Rotisserie Culver City The casual rotisserie chicken offshoot of Los Feliz’s Kismet restaurant offers a high-quality take on a format first introduced to Los Angeles by the likes of Zankou.
Diners can build lunches or dinners with juicy roast chicken, plush pita bread, hummus, fennel tzatziki, and peanut muhammara, and don’t skimp on the chile oil and garlic sauce. S & W Country Diner While the surrounding Downtown Culver City area has waxed and waned over the years with celebrity-owned restaurants, fast-casual concepts, and sports bars, S & W Country Diner has remained a constant, serving affordable breakfast plates since its debut in 1997. Expect typical diner fare like eggs, pancakes, patty melts, club sandwiches, and cheeseburgers, with some specialties like a pork chop served with mashed potatoes, corn, and a biscuit.
The perpetually busy diner only serves from 8 a.m. to 2 p.
m. and is cash only. Also featured in: The 22 Best Breakfast Restaurants in Los Angeles 13 Rib-Sticking, Down-Home Southern Comfort Breakfasts in Los Angeles Citizen Public Market There are many ways to explore Citizen Public Market, one of LA’s best food halls .
Swing in during morning hours and settle in for remote work in the market’s many nooks and quiet corners. Or better yet, snag a seat for lunch at Uoichiba for a flight of hand rolls made with dry-aged fish or Shaanxi-style noodles at Bang Bang Noodles. The post-work crowd will do well with fried chicken wings from Go Go Bird and a strong drink at Bar Bohemian located on the welcoming rooftop.
— Cathy Chaplin, senior editor Also featured in: The 22 Best Sushi Restaurants in Los Angeles Afuri Ramen + Dumpling Afuri Ramen arrived in Culver City in 2024, bringing with it bowls of its signature yuzu-spiked ramen, tonkotsu tantan ramen, tsukemen, starters like gyoza threaded with a crispy lace that crackles under the lightest chopstick pressure, and an uncommon — but irresistible — Basque cheesecake for dessert. The restaurant is amply family-friendly, too, with kid-sized bowls, crayons, high chairs, and sippy cups on offer. Also featured in: 18 Kid-Friendly Restaurants in Los Angeles Father's Office Sang Yoon’s enduring gastropub is known for its fantastic burger, which uses dry-aged beef, arugula, Maytag blue cheese, and caramelized onion for something recalling French onion soup.
But the menu offers compelling options beyond the burger, including daily specials like seasonal fried softshell crab and Spanish tapas-inspired dishes. Father’s Office remains one of the most reliable, flavor-packed places to enjoy hearty food and solid drinks (especially the craft beer selection), but the experience comes with some rules. First, it’s a true bar, so it’s 21 and over only, and second, they don’t serve ketchup.
— Matthew Kang, lead editor Also featured in: The 20 Best Burgers in Los Angeles 10 French Fries That Are Actually Good in Los Angeles Destroyer Once heralded as the most “Instagrammable restaurant in the known universe,” Destroyer, opened by chef Jordan Kahn in 2016, continues to lure in diners who want to try its somewhat more cerebral takes on all-day fare, like persimmon French toast with toasted birch leaf syrup, smoked fish with savory onion granola, and sweet corn porridge with a poached egg and delicately crisped chicken skin. A sandwich and salad here are not just a sandwich and salad, so keep your phones poised as the more unexpected elements of a dish reveal themselves. A cup of coffee and a pastry to-go are fine moves, too.
Monroe Place It’s not easy to find a truly standout sandwich spot, but Monroe Place manages to pull it off with top-notch bread and thoughtful filling combinations, like the pear-gorgonzola, tuna salad on ciabatta, and the Italian Spainard that fuses jamon serrano with mortadella and soppressata for a fresh take on the Italian deli sandwich. Order ahead online to avoid any waits during lunch. — Matthew Kang, lead editor.
