FOUND's restaurant issue
Baby Bistro, Cosetta, Cento Raw Bar, Firstborn, Rao's, Tomat, Beethoven Market, best omakase, Yess, MORE
ABOUT FOUND • Restaurants
Where should you eat right now
At FOUND, we capture the restaurant scene via three primary lenses — short narrative pieces relaying our experiences dining in the field (First Person), distilled lists of recommendations (The Nines), and interviews with the city’s movers, shakers, and industry insiders of taste (Routines).
FOUND is fascinated with what’s new, reporting regularly on just-opened spots before the rush. Just as interesting to us: those places that haven’t received their just acclaim, and old favorites that reward return visits. And while we will spend $500 per person for an extraordinary experience, we are equally at home at an exemplary neighborhood bistro.
Across the breadth of our coverage, we’re as focused on the room and the vibe — the way the restaurant makes you feel — as we are the food. We’re also obsessed with the movements and trends shaping the dining scene, from the evolving reservations game (and challenges of getting a table) to the shifting parameters of what constitutes a power lunch. And finally, our coverage reaches beyond the city, into the suburbs and weekend getaway markets (i.e., “surrounds”).
Here now, a sampler of FOUND pieces from the year in restaurants for your late-August enjoyment.
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Restaurants of the Summer
Nine freshly opened places that capture the spirit of the season — not unlike a song of the summer. For the full Nines archives, click here.
Baby Bistro (Chinatown, above), thoughtful farm-to-table cooking w/ short menu in century-old Victorian bungalow, intel
Cosetta (Santa Monica), Alimento vet Zach Pollack cooking his take on Cal-Italian, intel
Cento Raw Bar (West Adams), shimmering vibey seafood spot from Cento Pasta Bar team, intel
Firstborn (Chinatown), chef Anthony Wang cooking Chinese-American in former Pok Pok space, intel
Café 2001 (Arts District), Yess team’s creative all-day affair in same building, walk-ins only, intel
Beethoven Market (Mar Vista), neighborhood-y Cal-Italian from a Felix alum, intel
Lucia (Fairfax), upscale Afro-Caribbean in high design space on busy stretch of Fairfax, intel
Doto (Virgil Village), breezy and intimate all-day Cali-izakaya, intel
Cannonball (South Pasadena), charming unfussy bi-level neighborhood spot from Hippo chef Matt Molina
–07/17/25
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Driver, to Rao’s
In this car town, the most intriguing sets of wheels on the roads right now belong to Waymo, Google’s self-driving car project.
This week, we fused new and old by ordering a ride on the Waymo app to old-school restaurant Rao’s in the heart of Hollywood's working studio district, south of the big Boulevards — Sunset and Hollywood. Our Waymo “driver" masterfully navigated the tricky side streets east from WeHo. While often disoriented, I’ve never felt safer in a driverless car.
Quiet lighting and soft music in the purring Waymo car create an aura of the surreal and futuristic. The sensation that nobody’s listening to you takes on an entirely new texture. As we rolled up to Rao’s, the car respectfully didn't move up to the two valet spots. We got out, and entered the Old World of the restaurant.
Opened in 2013, Rao’s Hollywood is larger than the New York original, a Harlem icon since 1896. In New York, there are no printed menus, but in Los Angeles, young actors/waiters are trusted to remember movie script lines but not a kitchen’s offerings.
Still, we didn’t need a menu to order the veal chop Milanese, the most popular dish at all three Rao’s locations (the Miami outpost opened in 2023). Served on an oversized dinner plate, the in-bone chop sprawls across the plate under a pile of arugula. As in New York, the Hollywood decor is red luxe from another era, with year-round Christmas decorations and photos of celebrities adorning the walls.
The food is more than good enough, the service is on the mark, and the LA vibe is unmistakable — happier, friendlier, younger. After two bottles of wine, we safely rode home with another Waymo faceless automated driver. But not nameless — this one we called Gloria Swanson. –Brad Inman
→ Rao's (Hollywood) • 1006 Seward St • Sun-Thu 5-9p, Fri-Sat 5p-10p • Reserve.
→ Ride: Waymo (Santa Monica to Downtown).
–04/17/25
WORK • Thursday Routine
Fish tales
AVNER LEVI • chef/owner • CENTO / CENTO Raw Bar
Neighborhood you live in: West Hollywood
It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Buzzing. These last few months have been all grind at our newest concept, Raw Bar, with contractors, designers, and inspectors flowing through nonstop prior to our opening earlier this month. Meanwhile, our prep crew is busy in the back, making sure everything’s set for service. Family meal is at 4p every day — it’s always something different, whether a dish from someone’s hometown or something seasonal. We take pride in these pre-shift meals at CENTO; they’re an important ritual where we eat well and share a laugh. I believe we do that better than anyone else, which explains why most of our team has been with us for years.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Tasting oysters of the day — my favorite. We get fresh seafood delivered daily, and that’s how we craft our specials. I’m meticulous about sampling all of our prep — something I picked up from my time in kitchens with Ori Menashe and Steve Samson. For Raw Bar, we’re offering a flowing list of specials based on what’s swimming — like Dungeness crab sliders or Santa Barbara sea urchin. Myself, my best friend and business partner Adrien D’Attellis, and our creative director Brandon, will bat around ideas in our new office above the restaurant (yes, it has an over-the-door basketball hoop).
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Since it’s just Adrien and I running the show, you’ll likely find us in West Adams, but if I wasn’t in the midst of opening a restaurant, I’d definitely be at one. I love Lawry’s for happy hour. Great vibe, not too busy, and service is always strong. I’ve also been loving Tomat, a new restaurant in Westchester for a familiar infusion of Persian and Jewish flavors. For a longer dinner, Baekjeong in Ktown is great. I love smelling like grilled beef when I get home. Also, Damn, I Miss Paris opened up nearby in West Adams and should be on your hit list.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I’ve been doing Jiu Jitsu for years at 10th Planet. It's my favorite form of exercise and one of the best ways to decompress and come back into my body. That, and a quick trip to the barber shop makes me feel like a new man. Family keeps me busy during downtime — whether dominating my nephews in a game of basketball, or barbecuing at my sister’s house.
Any weekend getaways?
I’ll be honest, I used to be that guy – I'm not that guy anymore. When I was younger, I would spend every dime I made traveling from city to city, trying the best restaurants they had to offer, from Le Mirazur in France to Quintonil in Mexico City. (If you want some specific recommendations, dm me @glutton_ish.) Nowadays, I eat kabobs from Shekarchi, Thai from Pa Ord noodle, and steak from Lawry's. But of course, for something special, I like to go to The Peninsula with my lady, sit by the pool and check out.
What was your last great vacation?
My last great vacation was taking my parents to Europe. We stayed at the most beautiful hotel in Rome called Hotel Eden which had stunning breakfasts every day on the rooftop. I'd highly recommend it to anyone traveling there. Hit Roscioli Salumeria for the best carbonara and cacio e pepe in Rome. I’ll be headed back to Italy this summer for wine tastings at Randi winery in Emilia-Romagna. It’s a family-owned vineyard led by the talented Massimo Randi, who we are working with to create our line of CENTO natural wines.
I also just went on a much needed, last-minute vacation to Cabo last week. When I can get away, I always want a tropical vacation — get on a beach, relax, and drink a piña colada, an extremely undervalued cocktail.
–05/22/25
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Market high
With quiet, tree-lined streets and its central-ish Westside location, Mar Vista is a great place to live, but it hasn’t exactly been a neighborhood known for splashy restaurant debuts. Jeremy Adler is changing that with Beethoven Market, which opened Saturday at the intersection of Beethoven and Palms.
Adler, also a co-owner of Cobi’s in Santa Monica, has created what might be the ideal neighborhood restaurant (in an ideal neighborhood setting). The big, airy space — which used to be an actual market — has a huge, inviting central bar and a compact, greenery-lined patio. Cozy booths and banquettes line the walls.
In the kitchen, Felix alum Michael Leonard is turning out Cal-Italian standards like house-made pastas sauced in carbonara or amatriciana. There’s a dead-simple tuna carpaccio with capers and olive oil, prawns bathed in salsa verde, a chicory Caesar with “what my mother thinks is too much dressing” (it’s not), and a handful of wood-fired pizzas, including an excellent red-sauced sausage and pepper pie.
Everything about the place feels easy-breezy, from the affordable wines by the glass to cocktails like a Vesper with olive oil-infused vodka. Speaking of affordable, those pastas are priced in the teens, as with the $14 cacio e pepe; at nearby Felix, the tonnarelli version is $26.
It’s clear that Adler wants Beethoven Market to be a place people come to repeatedly, maybe even multiple times a week. Given its distance from my place — a 10-minute walk — I’ll likely do just that. –Karen Palmer
→ Beethoven Market (Mar Vista) • 12904 Palms Blvd • Sun-Mon & Wed 5-9p; Thu-Sat 5-10p • Reserve.
–03/17/25
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Omakase
Morihiro (Atwater), helmed by rice-obsessed chef who makes his own ceramics, $250-$400 per, reserve
Mori Nozomi (Sawtelle), all-female team serving 25-course omakase, $250 per, intel
Bar Sawa (Little Tokyo, above), from the Kaneyoshi team, $185 per w/ optional cocktail pairing $45 per, intel
Sushi Sonagi (Gardena, above), nontraditional, incorporating dry-aged fish and Korean influences, $250 per, reserve
Echigo (West LA), Westside mainstay that put blue crab hand rolls on the map, MP (but usually less than $100 per), intel
Sushi Note (Sherman Oaks & Beverly Hills), sashimi and nigiri paired with fine wine, $220 per, intel
Matsuomoto (Beverly Grove), strip mall spot offering tsumami and sushi, or straight-up nigiri, $150-$280 per, $80 per lunch special, reserve
Sushi Takeda (Little Tokyo), traditional, serene, well-priced, $150-$300 per, plus lunch specials, reserve
Shin Sushi (Encino), sushi chef hails from a family of experts, $180 per, call 818-616-4148 to reserve
–06/12/25
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Yess, and…
Yess in the Arts District — the modern Japanese restaurant with a seasonal, seafood-driven menu of creative and beautifully presented dishes — is easily one of LA’s most distinct, rewarding dining experiences. And in a long-awaited move (and a roundabout way back to its original food truck roots), Yess recently added lunch service.
The lunch menu is more sushi-focused than dinner, with a broad selection of impeccable temaki. Options include tender unagi with crunchy local cucumber, smoked trout with wasabi sour cream, seared yellowtail with a gochujang sauce, spicy tuna with a soy-pickled fresno, and the astounding vegan temaki with plum, pickled eggplant, and ume plum miso. You can order each individually, or do three for $35, or five for $55. The portions are generous, but order as much as you can. The temaki come out as they’re ready, wave after spectacular wave.
Certain dishes carry over from the lunch menu, like the silken tofu, topped with a tower of salsa macha, and the Monk’s Chirashi bowl, with its unreal selection of seasonal vegetables. But the lunch menu also has new dishes like a sashimi salad and new chirashi bowls that would work for a more expeditious lunch. Lunch mains come with pickles and a sublime miso soup (which, in and of itself, is probably worth dropping in).
Housed in a landmark former bank building from the 1920s, the cathedral-like dining room at Yess has this minimalist, brutalist, and almost monastic feel, but during the day, the space absolutely glows from the huge walls of glass block windows. The relaxed, chill vibe, alongside the at-times sluggish service, almost encourages you to linger and order at least one of the kakigoris for dessert, stretching what might’ve been a quick lunch all the way into the early afternoon. –Raphael Brion
→ Yess (Arts District) • 2001 E 7th St • Wed-Sun 12-230p & 6-9p • Reserve.
–08/14/25