What makes a restaurant the highest rated in LA? You could dine at this family-run Thai spot in Sherman Oaks a hundred times and have a completely different—and incredible—experience each time. Come on Tuesdays for dry-aged fish tacos and collaborations with guest chefs, farmers, and foragers. Show up on just about any other night to drink wine that’s been sourced from a Slovenian commune and eat Southern Thai fried chicken you will be thinking about for the rest of your life.

Holbox is our second highest-rated restaurant in the city, and for good reason: this colorful stall at Mercado La Palma in South LA serves Mexican seafood that’s simply sublime, always fresh, and so innovative, it’ll make you question all other seafood in the world. Scallop aguachiles arrive in a tongue-searing green sauce that you can smell a mile away, thanks to the cilantro, jalapeno, and lime. Tacos are topped with tempura rockfish, diver scallops, and our favorite, jet-black pulpo.

This high-end SGV restaurant looks plucked from a Qing Dynasty period drama with its opulent red dining room, expert service, and ornate food that is as stunning to eat as it is to behold. We daydream about the stir-fried angus beef with green peppercorns, glistening peking duck, and braised cod smothered in chili oil as often as we do winning the lottery (which, coincidently, is what it might require to eat here daily).

Anyone who likes meaty prawns and plump oysters, and eating those meaty prawns and plump oysters under a disco ball will care for Found Oyster like a family member. That is to say, after one visit, you’ll continue to check in on this undeniably sexy East Hollywood seafood spot with the devotion of a lioness for her cub. We like coming to this walk-in only spot with a group for a shellfish tower or scallop tostada, but it's also ideal for a glass of Gamay and a wedge salad at the bar.

Gjelina in Venice is the house that kale salad built. Even if kale is rarely on the menu now, there are always vegetables all dolled up with acid, some cheese, and something crispy-crunchy to take the edge off. Whether you build an order around green stuff, or pepper in a pizza and duck confit, a meal here is sure to feel “very LA,” complete with table neighbors who wear large-brimmed hats after dark and say “LOL” out loud unironically.

Everything about Luv2Eat looks and feels like any other LA strip mall restaurant, but the ultra spicy regional specialties and the warm service make it an extreme challenge to drive by without popping in. You’ll find many of the highlights in the Chef’s Special section of the menu, a mixed bag of dishes that showcases the two chefs’ family recipes from Phuket. The Phuket-style crab curry, for instance, takes sweet, salty, and sour to euphoric levels.

If the Ghost of Christmas Present—the jolly one with a robe and a wreath in his hair—opened a restaurant, it would probably look like Dunsmoor. Meals at this refined Southern-leaning spot in Glassell Park have the warm energy of a celebratory feast, even if you’re popping in for albacore crudo and a glass of wine. The menu is filled with incredible ember-cooked dishes that Bear Grylls would fantasize about while wandering the brush.

If you need an Italian restaurant in LA, you can find pretty much anything on the dining spectrum, from red sauce landmarks and new school pasta bars to tourist traps with temperature-controlled rooms. Then there’s Antico Nuovo, a Ktown strip mall spot that doesn’t fall into any established category. Antico makes the best pasta in LA, and yet, the pasta might not even be the best thing on the menu. That award could go to the towering focaccia, juicy pork ribs, or pistachio ice cream.

Bavel is the middle child restaurant from the people behind Bestia and Saffy’s, two of the most famous—and famously crowded—restaurants in the city. Having such well-regarded siblings might seem like a tough gig, but Bavell is our favorite of the family. This upscale Middle Eastern restaurant in the Arts District is a model of consistency, serving deeply personal food that tastes incredible, with reliably great service and a stunning, blockbuster space.

The 19-course, $230 omakase at Sushi Sonagi could only exist in LA, or maybe only at this particular sushi spot in a Gardena strip mall. With help from his parents, wife, and sister, Sonagi’s chef splices together beautiful, meticulous nigiri with thoughtful nods to his Korean-American heritage, some of which are subtle and others that are big and showy, like chawanmushi seasoned with gamtae seaweed, or cut rolls filled with soy-cured crab.