Patricia Kelly Yeo

Time might be a flat circle, but it's almost time to say goodbye to 2023. As you get prepared to celebrate Christmas and the busy season of holiday parties and family gatherings, New Year's Eve is just around the corner—and for a more food-centric holiday celebration, these L.A. restaurants and bars are offering prix-fixe menus and other festivities to help you celebrate the start of a new year.  Whether you're looking for more of a party atmosphere with a live DJ and sparklers, a classy but more relaxed New Year’s Eve dinner or a pulling out all the stops caviar-and-champagne kind of deal, here's where to have dinner on New Year's Eve.Editor's note: Check back in early December for more New Year's Eve dinner options as restaurants announce their holiday plans. RECOMMENDED: Our guide to New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles

The most socially acceptable way to drink before noon, bottomless brunch wasn’t invented in L.A., but we’ve certainly perfected the sport of pairing our bacon and eggs with a side of sugary, great-tasting booze. For the weekends when you’re not headed to the hiking trails or getting away from the city, these restaurants are ready to fill your cup with sparkling white wine and orange juice, plus Aperol Spritzes, Bloody Marys, margaritas, sangria and rosé. They may not all offer the best brunch (we’ve got a separate list for that) or brunch with a side of drag, but these eateries faithfully serve the best drink deals for those hoping to day drink on special occasions—even if the occasion is just the weekend. Find yourself a designated driver, remember to stay hydrated and party on at these weekend brunch spots from the Westside to the Valley.

As an ocean-adjacent city with plenty of beach access, L.A. is full of restaurants with great seafood—and if you disagree, you’re frankly just not looking all that hard. In every neighborhood, whether you’re close to the Pacific or not, the city is rich in seafood options from all over the globe, from great sushi to a decent lobster roll. Some of the best seafood restaurants might be otherwise classified as Korean, Mexican, Chinese and soul food restaurants, but their flavorful dishes incorporating les fruits de mer beg to differ when it comes to serving the ocean’s freshest catch, so we’ve thought to include them here for the next time you’re craving freshly cooked, high-quality seafood. From special occasion fine dining to everyday takeout, here are the best seafood restaurants in L.A. RECOMMENDED: Guide to the best restaurants in Los Angeles

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and plenty of L.A. restaurants (especially those in hotels) have risen to the task of helping Angelenos and visitors celebrate Turkey Day. If you'd rather not stay at home this year, enjoy a gourmet holiday feast at one of these cozy restaurants—no dishes or kitchen clean up required. (For those who’d rather snuggle up at home, plenty of restaurants have continued their takeout Thanksgiving offerings from last year).  Editor's note: We will continue to update this page as more hotels and restaurants announce their Thanksgiving plans. For more budget-friendly picks, check back here throughout the first half of November.RECOMMENDED: See our full guide to Thanksgiving in Los Angeles

In West Hollywood, restaurants are typically better known for celebrity sightings and outrageous menu prices than truly amazing food, and upscale nightlife-oriented eateries are a dime a dozen within the tiny city.After all, WeHo has Boystown—the largest queer nightlife corridor across all of Los Angeles—and newer influencer favorites like Saddle Ranch and BOA Steakhouse, where the party doesn’t stop even if the food is terrible. For hardcore fans of Vanderpump Rules, SUR, PUMP and TomTom are all within city limits, the restaurants featured in the E! show and its subsequent spin-offs. The area also boasts L.A.'s most centrally located Norm's, a regional 24-hour diner stalwart housed in one of the finest examples of Southern California's Googie architecture. It's also worth noting international sushi chain Nobu and over-the-top Miami export Barton G call the neighborhood home as well, while icons like Craig's and Cecconi's (whose reputations surpass their culinary chops) cater to Hollywood power brokers, stars both wannabe and actual and the wayward tourists and paparazzi who trail in their wake. Even more people who prefer to be seen (and drink, rather than eat their calories) flock toward the Tower Bar—a West Hollywood institution with five-star service, old Hollywood style and the blandest salmon poké bowl this side of the Mississippi.  In short, West Hollywood is a little bit of a clusterfuck, and while this makes parking terrible, especially on weekends, this dense locale

After a long sleep, L.A.’s best chintzy holiday bars (and their expertly made drinks) are back, baby. Unwind after a busy day of shopping for Christmas gifts and mentally preparing to interact with your family in person again with a seasonal cocktail from one of these drinking spots spreading Yuletide cheer and festive vibes—maybe after a trip to see some Christmas lights. Note: Most of these holiday pop-ups will run from now through the end of December, so we suggest booking a visit ASAP to secure a table at your preferred date and time.

Pasadena’s drinking culture is evolving. Once known as a place heavy on gastropubs, sports bars and music-thumping lounges, Old Town and beyond is building its reputation as a solid drinking hub. There are beer bars pouring quality pints and a growing wine bar scene, and more than a few cocktail bars to frequent. (Plus, you know, there are great coffee shops for the morning after.) Don’t believe us? Check out these Pasadena bars and thank us later. RECOMMENDED: More things to do in Pasadena

If you're spending this December checking out holiday lights, decorating your tree and shopping for gifts, you might not exactly have the mental bandwidth to plan, shop and cook for a big Christmas gathering at home. That's where some of L.A.’s best restaurants come in. Whether you're hoping to dine in this year or don't celebrate Christmas at all (the best Chinese restaurants, anyone?), we've gathered the best restaurants open for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2022. Take advantage of your ability to leave the house this year, support L.A.'s small businesses and enjoy a hassle-free Christmas gathering with loved ones at these amazing restaurants offering both á la carte and multi-course prix-fixe Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals—no dishwashing by you required. Make sure to book ahead and then just relax! Christmas dinner’s ready.RECOMMENDED: Check out our entire guide to Christmas in Los Angeles

The Original Farmers Market is nearly a century old, but it can sometimes feel like an afterthought for younger Angelenos due to the busier, newer shopping mall next door. In the last two decades, the 89-year-old market has become synonymous with the Grove, and all the traffic and parking headaches that come with it. In fact, many people aren’t even aware that the two are separate entities; the grocery and dining destination is still owned by descendants of the late-19th-century entrepreneur Arthur Gilmore, whose acres of dairy-farm-turned-oil-field are now home to Television City, the Original Farmers Market and Rick Caruso’s artificial, soullessly commercial “town square.” Whenever I’m waxing nostalgic about old-school L.A. landmarks with amazing food, I’ll be honest: the Original Farmers Market isn’t anywhere close to my radar. These days, the Farmers Market has morphed into a tourist attraction whose narrow passageways become frustrating to navigate on foot on weekends, when heavy crowds wander over from the Grove (a place with downright mediocre dining options). It’s not a place I’d typically recommend Time Out readers visit merely off the food. And if you’re mostly looking to bask in the glorious mix of sights, sounds and smells of a food hall, I’d rather direct you to Downtown’s Grand Central Market, where the eclectic, high-quality mix of newer, chef-driven eateries and affordable lunch spots manage to cancel out the lack of free parking and equally hectic weekend atm

Over the last few years, plenty of Angelenos have discovered the beauty of ordering a premade, restaurant quality Thanksgiving meal at home. Between the cleanup, the potential for dry turkey and the possibility of forgotten ingredients, there’s plenty of stress that comes with cooking your own turkey at home, so why not leave it all to the pros? For those who’d rather leave the house this year, some of the best restaurants in Los Angeles are taking all the hassle out of Turkey Day with out-of-the-house Thanksgiving feasts, but for those who'll be at home with family and friends, several L.A. restaurants are offering an entire Thanksgiving dinner to-go—complete with all the fixins. If you’re looking to avoid the stress of cooking for (and entertaining) your relatives, hang up your apron and order one of these premade Thanksgiving meals. Oh, and just make sure to put in an order for a pie, too.RECOMMENDED: See our full guide to Thanksgiving in Los Angeles

Whether you’re bringing one to a summer picnic or skirting dessert duty at Thanksgiving, there’s nothing more comforting than a pie. Lucky for us, L.A. has some excellent pies, cobblers and crumbles. Not only can you find creamy lemon meringues and classic apple pies in old-school diners, but a handful of restaurants around town have produced more creative variations—and then there are the city's top pastry chefs, who produce drool-worthy pies wherever they go, from farmers' markets to weekend festivals. Check out our guide to L.A.’s best pies—ice cream optional.  Editor's note: In light of Thanksgiving, we have opted to add holiday pie pre-orders from some of L.A.'s best bakeries who do not specialize in pies year-round. All Thanksgiving-specific specials are denoted with an asterisk, and will be removed after the holiday.

In Los Angeles, there seem to be as many good-to-great taco spots as there are stars in the sky, but how can one even begin to decide where to start? After all, you can easily find chef-driven tacos in the $10 to $20 range made with the finest ingredients—though we'll have little to none of that on this list—as you can find $2 street tacos, ready to be popped straight into your mouth while you're standing on the sidewalk. Our non-exhaustive best tacos list serves as a carefully curated selection of what we think are the city's finest tacos (some of which have even landed on our best restaurants list), along with a few more practical considerations like more regular operating hours and consistency in quality and service. (In our eyes, a "best" taco only the most dedicated, patient fans can get after waiting several hours isn't really a best taco at all.) Whether you’re a visitor or a local, read on for an excellent guide for anyone hoping to become a well-rounded taco connossieur. RECOMMENDED: The best Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles

Drawn by the sight of glistening trompos, we’ve sampled al pastor all over town, hoping for a taste of sweet, porky nirvana—and now we’ve found it. While Leo’s continues to offer delicious, highly accessible al pastor (the kind that’ll never fail in your time of need), this South L.A. taco cart parked off the 110 freeway offers the absolute best taco al pastor ($2.75) in the city. Only available after 5pm (though the cart opens in the morning), Tacos Los Güichos serves the beautifully charred, slightly smoky meat sans the pineapple and avocado salsa other taqueros rely on to compensate for not-so-great al pastor. During the day, you’ll still find great cuts of offal like lengua and tripas, but the trompo is the true star here. Arrive in the evening and anoint your taco with their delicious salsa verde, or perhaps the subtly fiery salsa roja, and you won’t find a better taco al pastor in Los Angeles.

This Compton carne asada specialist relocated to Long Beach a couple of years ago, bringing Sinaloa-style chorreados (a type of carne asada) to the LBC. At Tacos La Carreta, each corn tortilla gets slathered with lard, then topped with asada and a hearty cabbage-thickened salsa. Add cheese to make it a vampiro—just be sure to get the grilled onions and hot peppers, too. It’s a delicious taco, and towards the center, where the meat juices and cheese have pooled and the tortilla is softer, it’s also a little like a delicious cheeseburger. You can also swap your tortilla for a baked potato, if you’d like to switch things up. Wash everything down with agua de cebada, which uses barley instead of rice for a creamy, horchata-like drink.

The wait can be killer, but this eye-catching deep blue lonchera with two locations—Silver Lake’s Sunset Triangle Plaza and a roving location near Sawtelle—serves some of the most creative mariscos in town, including a unique fish al pastor ($4.50). Drawing upon culinary school training, Francisco Aguilar serves a seasonally driven menu of tacos, tostadas, ceviches and aguachiles that pack acid, flavor and heat all into one delicious, beautiful package. If available, be sure to get the soft-shell crab taco ($5.50), but you also can’t go wrong with the fish al pastor and enchilada suiza ($4.50)—a mouthwatering mix of grilled shrimp, melted cheese, habanero lime crema, avocado slices and salsa verde. Best of all, Simón offers a selection of colorful, ultra-fiery salsas that add even more zhuzh to your meal.

This beloved Orange County taqueria has finally expanded to Huntington Park, putting amazing mesquite-grilled meats within a short driving distance for much of Los Angeles. Open until midnight most days of the week (and 1am on Fridays and Saturdays), Tacos Los Cholos serves some of the best street meats on tortillas we’ve ever had. Yes, we mean ever. Three price tiers—regular ($2.35), premium ($3.50), prime ($7.50)—offer a wealth of flavors, from the chewy, perfectly grilled panela cheese to the ultra-tender rib eye. Our suggestion for first-timers? Go for mid-tier options like the costilla de res (pork ribs) and arrachera (skirt steak), which strike the balance between affordability and quality. Tacos Los Cholos’ self-serve topping station includes a creamy chipotle mayo, cucumbers and several varieties of salsa, ranging from mild to heart-stopping.

It’s all in the name at Inglewood’s Carnitas El Artista, where Gustavo Chavez’s tender, slow-cooked Michoacan-style cuts of pork and offal will have you second-guessing the definition of carnitas. Best mixed with ribs, lengua and cabeza (though you can also order pure carnitas), the carnitas here offers a craveworthy mix of textures, from crispy to soft and buttery, plus a seriously aromatic mix of garlic, lime and spices. Order it inside tacos ($4.35), tucked into a burrito, heaped onto a platter of rice and beans or paired with chilaquiles for breakfast—the vehicle matters less than the meat itself, which is among the best carnitas in the city. The squeeze of lime and trio of housemade salsas simply gild the lily.

Can we be honest? We’ve never understood the hype around Sonoratown—whose flour tortillas often turn gluey and somewhat hard by the time we receive our tacos. Now that we’ve visited Tacos La Rueda, however, we completely understand the fervor over smoky meats, flour tortillas and sinus-clearing red salsas. This Bellflower strip mall joint offers the best Sonoran-style taco experience in L.A., with buttery, pliant flour tortillas that travel well, but taste even better eaten right on the spot. The carne asada, al pastor and crispy, crackly beef tripas are all winners here, as is the tender beef cabeza (available as a daily special), whether adorning a simple taco ($3.50 to $4) or piled into a decadent caramelo—which adds pinto beans, Monterey Jack cheese, guacamole and grilled Anaheim chiles into the mix. Stop by on the weekends for a soul-warming menudo.

For old-school mariscos fans, there’s nothing more satisfying than a simple mixed seafood coctel served with a couple tostadas. If you’d prefer to experience a newer, zanier side of Mexican seafood, head to this Arts District lunchtime seafood truck, where new-school creations like octopus con papas ($6), smoked marlin tacos dorados with Oaxaca cheese ($2.50) and some seriously great shrimp aguachile ($7.50) await. While you’ll find the classics here, we’d rather steer you towards the new-school stuff, like the Peruvian-inspired ceviche blanco and the excellent aguachile rojo. Be sure to check ahead on Instagram before going to see if Mar-Es is open—the truck closes for catering gigs from time to time and occasionally decamps to Alhambra.

Run by the same family behind longtime Lebanese restaurant Skaf’s, this fried chicken sandwich spot in Glendale serves seven different fried chicken sandwiches that bring varying levels of heat and flavor to the game. The one constant, however, is the juicy breaded chicken breast at the basis of each sando, which plays beautifully with sweet chili glaze (the Wok), habanero buffalo sauce (the Nitro) and a Nashville-esque house spice rub (the Heater). No matter which one you order, you can’t go wrong with the high-quality ingredients and quick turnaround time.

Inside a cramped West 8th Street strip mall, this new-school Korean fried chicken joint serves one of the best fried chicken sandwiches in town. While you can take or leave the regular chicken (and honestly, given the number of amazing Korean fried chicken joints, we’d leave it), Chimmelier offers a surprisingly delicious, Korean-inflected take on the humble fried chicken sandwich. A crispy chicken breast gets topped with a spicy pickled red cabbage slaw, dashi mayo, perilla leaf and lacto-fermented pickles. It’s massive and crunchy, and all those pickled goods give each bite a refreshing edge. There’s more than fried chicken, too, with sides such as chapsal cheese balls, cauliflower nuggets, and kimchi fried rice packed into a Shin Ramyun cup. You can also catch Chimmelier every Sunday at Smorgasburg in the Arts District.

Holy hot chicken! Howlin’ Ray’s Johnny Zone spent his early career working with the likes of Thomas Keller and Gordon Ramsay, but he’s more famous these days for being the chef who started L.A.’s Nashville hot chicken craze. Fried up and served by a dedicated, high-energy crew that keeps morale high when lines get long (and boy, do they get long), Howlin’s hot chicken is just as great as when we first waited hours to get our hands on it years ago. A newer Pasadena location offers more ample seating, plus beer and wine for on-site diners, but the Far East Plaza original still accepts walk-in orders and even offers local delivery. Choose between white or dark meat, or maybe a sandwich in whatever level of heat you can handle, from Country to Howlin’.

This popular New York City chain on Fairfax offers fried chicken in any style you could possibly want: on a waffle, inside a biscuit, with fries and of course, between two halves of a bun. While we wouldn’t come here for the regular fried chicken, and actively warn against ordering Sweet Chick’s “Nashville” chicken sandwich (a shadow of the bright red chicken breasts you’ll find elsewhere), the OG fried chicken sandwich tastes like a higher quality version of the one offered at Popeyes. A healthy slather of herbed mayo and bread and butter pickles are all that’s needed to augment this straightforwardly delicious sando, and best of all, you can even get it via third-party delivery.

Originally from a small town in Tennessee, this national chain with outposts in Mid-City and Burbank has served its signature hot, spicy fried chicken for over 70 years. Note that Gus’s breading runs on the thinner side, and the spice level is nowhere close to Nashville-style hot chicken, so if you’re looking for an over-the-top, craggy fried chicken experience, this ain’t it. The fried chicken’s homey quality and top-secret spice blend, however, still have us hooked, especially once you throw in a slice or two of the homemade pies—sweet potato, chocolate chess and good old-fashioned pecan.

“Very Niche, But Where Can I Find” is a new recurring column where Food & Drink Editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will track down, and in some cases try, hard-to-find food and drink items across Los Angeles. Have an elusive dish or drink you’d like to know where to find? Email p.kelly.yeo@timeout.com. “What is that, exactly?”  “I’m sorry, but we don’t have any passion fruit liqueur.” “I think we’re out of Passoã.” This summer, after an evening of scrolling through online menus, a half-dozen Instagram inquiries, unsuccessful phone calls and a failed attempt to walk in and blindly order at the Roger Room, I finally located a bar near me capable of making a porn star martini. Though popular in London (the drink’s birthplace) and across the UK, the passion-fruit-based cocktail remains fairly unknown in the United States, where the mere mention of the drink’s name sends people into fits of laughter, leaves many bartenders scratching their heads and activates Google’s SafeSearch function. As a result, it’s also extremely difficult to find in Los Angeles—though not impossible.  The orange-hued drink’s original recipe comes from the late London bar owner Douglas Ankrah, who first served the cocktail in 2002 at his now-closed bar, Townhouse. According to a 2017 interview, Ankrah wanted to make a drink that personified the attributes of “bold, sexy and playful.” It consists of vanilla vodka, passion fruit purée, lime juice, simple syrup and Passoã liqueur, a Brazilian spirit. After shaking, th

Two and half hours after opening to the public, nearly every spot is taken in the underground parking lot of 99 Ranch Market in Westwood. Located across the street from beloved Persian ice cream shop Saffron & Rose, the store is technically in soft-open mode until November 29. Still, a mix of nearby students in UCLA sweatshirts and mostly Asian locals are already eagerly perusing, pulling small red shopping baskets behind them as they stock up on rice paper, frozen dumplings, imported chips and cookies, instant noodles and other foodstuffs. While many items are geared toward Chinese and Taiwanese home cooking, you can also find ingredients for Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Thai cuisine. For most Asian Americans living on the Westside, sourcing these ingredients has long required a trip on the currently partially closed 10 freeway to the San Gabriel Valley, which offers four 99 Ranch locations plus plenty of other independent Chinese- and Taiwanese-oriented grocery stores. With the opening of this Asian supermarket giant, that’s completely changed—the brand brings an array of ingredients that are difficult to find in American grocery stores to a large swath of Los Angeles. (Note: There are Japanese supermarkets like Marukai, Nijiya and Mitsuwa available on the Westside, plus H Mart and other Korean grocery stores in Koreatown, but they typically lack many products for traditional Chinese and Taiwanese cooking.)  Photograph: Patricia Kelly Yeo for Time Out While the upstai

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly (re)visited Market Chicken Rotisserie. The nights have finally gotten chilly and the Christmas decorations are up at the Original Farmers Market, where I visited this past Tuesday around 8pm for a quick snack before a nearby sushi dinner on West 3rd. On my return to Nonna’s Empanadas (est. 2017), I find most of the pastry case empty, presenting me with a common conundrum for those who arrive at restaurants on the later side of things: What’s left to order that’s still good? On my visit, the stall is out of all Argentine-style beef pastries, nearly all chicken varieties (except with jalapeño) and most sweet empanadas. Some of the ones that remain look misshapen and unappetizing, and I start to wonder if I should just try to come back the next morning for the best pick of the bunch.  After a few minutes (and revisiting my jam-packed eating schedule for the next few days), I decide to try picking through the stragglers for the most appetizing ones. Priced at $5.25 apiece, I order the chicken and jalapeño as well as the carnitas. Within seconds, they’re in my hands in a cardboard box. Taking a seat at the counter, I alternate bites of each still-warm empanada, finding that even the less de

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly visited Michelina Artisan Boulanger. Nine months and 36 different types of fried chicken later, I’ve finally published a guide to the best fried chicken in L.A. In the last two weeks, I’ve tried about a dozen fried chicken dishes across the city, and while I’m still turned off by the idea deep-fried chicken skin, I still have a solid appetite for chicken meat itself. Returning to the Farmers Market on Wednesday, I know exactly where I’m headed for the second time: Market Chicken Rotisserie (est. 2022). The stall is run by the people behind Pampas Grill and Phil’s Deli, and if their chicken plates are any indication, their sandwiches, salads, wraps and grain bowls will be just as delicious. On the way there, I stop by the newest grocery vendor, Mediterranean Market, which opened three weeks ago. The stall is run by Sam and Jasmine Chatallian, who are related to the owners of nearby Moishe’s. I don’t need anything at the moment, but it’s fun to peruse the boxes of Turkish delight, imported olive oils and other products, including an extensive collection of Middle Eastern bottled fruit juices and other bottled beverages. The cold case is full of labne and other yogurt-based products, plus

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly visited Patsy D’Amore’s. I’ll be honest: There are just a handful of places for me to revisit before 2023 is over, and I’m desperately looking for different, service-worthy ways to keep this column going until the end of the year as I juggle revisiting places for Time Out’s annual Best New Restaurants list and work diligently towards putting together a definitive guide to the best fried chicken in L.A. As always, I’m also ensuring our best restaurant guide remains relevant and up to date. Naturally, all of these things require money, so I’ve also been cutting back on my expenditures for Table at Third & Fairfax. This week, I revisited Michelina Artisan Boulanger for a quick, relatively inexpensive sandwich lunch, even though I found their eclairs lacking when I bought a couple in July.  When I grab a stool at the counter on Wednesday morning, the glass counter is full of pastries, loaves of bread and other confections. As appealing as they look, I know they’re expensive (and, based on their eclairs, not necessarily good), so I bypass the thought of a croissant in favor of Michelina’s breakfast and lunch menu, which includes omelettes, salads, tartines, sandwiches and eggs Benedict. I t

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly visited Thicc Burger for breakfast. This week, I get to the market via rideshare, saddled with a yoga mat and a bright orange bag of swag from a pilates class sponsored by a Korean skincare brand. Hungry, sweaty and greatly in need of a place to sit, I take a seat in the shaded patio area close to Bob’s Coffee and Doughnuts and Patsy D’Amore’s Pizza (est. 1946), which I’ll be revisiting today. Having already tried their pizza, it’s their pasta I’m after today. They serve ravioli, lasagna and meatball sandwiches, but I decide to keep it simple with a plate of spaghetti and meatballs ($14.95).  The employee behind the counter adds just one large meatball to my plate, but the generous dollop of meat sauce seems to make up for the overall lack of meatball action. Topped with a shower of powdered parmesan cheese, Patsy’s spaghetti bears little to no resemblance to the housemade pasta at Pasta Corner. Then again, it isn’t trying to: This is unabashedly Italian American cuisine, ladled from steaming silver vats. The meatball is well-seasoned, though it doesn’t hold a candle to the excellent meatballs I’ve had recently from Donna’s in Echo Park and to a lesser extent, La Dolce Vita in Beverly

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly visited Phil’s Deli.  Arriving at the Farmers Market on a late Wednesday morning, I’m ready to tuck into breakfast from Thicc Burger (est. 2023), which the Los Angeles Times recently named one of its favorite burgers in L.A. Now, while I was impressed with the two burgers I tried a few weeks ago, I didn’t think Thicc Burger was an obvious shoo-in for Time Out’s best burger guide, given the formidable number of competitors across town. What did pique my interest, however, was the morning-only menu, which consists of a breakfast sammie ($12), an English muffin-based riff on a McGriddle ($12), “hot” avocado toast ($12) and a breakfast burrito ($13). The day I arrive, they’re out of the Thicc Griddle and the avocado toast, so I order the breakfast sammie with bacon and the breakfast burrito with sausage. As a sign near the register says, all food is made to order, so I’m already anticipating a short wait as I place my order. In the end, it takes about 10 minutes or so for my order, though I’m the first customer of the day so I can’t say this would be your experience later in the morning. The first thing I notice about the sausage breakfast burrito is its size: It’s on the smaller side, tho

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly visited Gone Bananas Bread. It’s nearly the busy season here at Time Out, when Thanksgiving, Christmas and end-of-year lists conspire to make us work overtime before the entire country tunes out the last two weeks of the year. As a result, I’m relishing the last handful of visits for Table at Third & Fairfax, now that I’ve tried basically every place in the market, with plans to revisit most places twice. This week, I decided to have a leisurely late breakfast at Phil’s Deli & Grill (1934), where a handful of people are already noshing on French toast, eggs and other dishes associated with morning. Following their lead, I order the Deli Special ($13.95), which consists of two eggs, two pancakes (or French toast) and sausage (or bacon). I take a seat at the counter and order my eggs scrambled. Over the next half hour, I end up having an extended conversation with the nonbinary OnlyFans content creator sitting next to me who is in the middle of moving away from the area. The food arrives quickly, and is generously portioned: My order comes with four breakfast sausages and some orange slices on the side. The paper container of melted butter is a little confusing, but the pancakes taste gr

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly visited Pasta Corner.  Taking over the old Waffleshot stall is Gone Bananas Bread (est. 2023), a new Farmers Market vendor dedicated to all things banana bread, as well as a handful of bottled and canned drinks. In addition to six varieties of banana bread, the stall sells banana bread pudding and “bananyays,” tiny heart-shaped pieces of banana bread that are deep-fried and coated in a sugar glaze. You can order banana bread by the slice or pick up whole loaves. Oddly enough, per GBB’s Instagram stories, the company held a “grand opening” pop-up at another stall in the Farmers Market almost a year ago, but I can personally attest to the fact that it didn’t actually open as a full-fledged market vendor until quite recently.  On my 40th weekly visit to the market, I’m fresh off another scouting meal in Gardena, so I made my way quickly from the parking lot to the Gone Bananas Bread stall. A pink and yellow neon sign, as well as a large hand-painted graphic with a few banana peels, mark a sharp visual departure from the old Waffleshot. The branding is admittedly quite cute, and there's a stack of greeting cards for sale by the register that read “I find you appealing,” with illustrations

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly visited Friends and Family Pizza Co. Early on Monday afternoon, I’m back at the Original Farmers Market for a second visit to Pasta Bar (est. 2022). On my walk over to the West Patio, I notice more vendors than usual are closed, possibly due to Yom Kippur. A large Noodle Art tarp covers the former Peking Kitchen stall and promises that handmade noodles are “coming soon.” I’m on my second lunch of the day, so I’d like to make this quick: Navigating through the thinned out crowds of tourists, I place an order for spaghetti bolognese ($24). I also wanted to order tiramisu, but they’re unfortunately out of the espresso-based dessert. The cashier says it’ll take a solid 10 to 15 minutes before my order is ready, and unlike last time, all the seats at the counter are taken. I idle at a nearby table, scrolling through emails on my phone. “Ellie!” she calls, having misheard my name. I walk over to the to-go area, where she’s dropped my plate of standard-issue spaghetti bolognese. Like the spicy vodka lumache I tried on my last Pasta Corner visit, the dish is made with housemade noodles, which are displayed in the counter out front (and are available for purchase to make at home). This time, I’

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly visited Thicc Burger. It’s probably just Stockholm syndrome, but I’ve managed to develop some level of appreciation for pizza after trying (and retrying, in some cases) 33 different options across Los Angeles in the last year. I like pizza, but I don't really crave it, and I certainly wouldn't go out of the way on my own to try dozens of different versions of it. Most days of the week, what I end up consuming is dictated by what other people like to eat, and if the ever-increasing number of pizzerias are any indication, Angelenos love nothing more than wood-fired dough, cheese and tomato sauce of various thickness. This past Monday evening, I actually found myself looking forward to meeting my friend for a few slices of pizza at Friends and Family Pizza Co. (est. 2023), where we tried four slices: potato-taleggio ($7), pesto-roasted tomato ($7), fresh mozzarella and basil ($7) and rapini-sausage ($7). Since my visit in late March, I’ve managed to try a few similar joints across town, including El Sereno’s Secret Pizza, which I thought was solid but nothing particularly remarkable. I can honestly say now that I think FFPC is better. It’s true that Secret Pizza’s triangles don’t fold—a s

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly visited Marmalade Cafe. I've never eaten at Hawkins House of Burgers, but I can see the resemblance in the thick, 4-ounce burger patties at Thicc Burger (est. 2023), the newest tenant at the Original Farmers Market and the winner of the New Original contest earlier this year. From the moment I take my first bite, it's clear that chef-owner Jean "Jay" Wolfe has crafted a winning combination with a housemade "thicc" sauce, caramelized onions, American cheese, lettuce, tomato slices and pickles. In truth, at least visually, I can tell it's quite similar to the famous Watts burger stand, which Wolfe drew direct inspiration from when they first opened Thicc Burgers as a pop-up back in 2020.  The new eatery, which has taken over the Rick's Produce stall, also offers a few breakfast items (Thicc Burger opens at 9am), a turkey burger and a portobello mushroom option for vegetarians. Six days after the restaurant's grand opening on September 7, I order an OG Thicc Burger combo, which includes a side of garlic fries and a drink ($20.50). I also decide to grab the Jive Turkey ($14), the restaurant's turkey option. It's only after I order that I realize that Thicc Burger also offers shakes, so I h