Phnom Penh is one of the best Cambodian restaurants in Long Beach, and one of our favorite spots in the whole city. Open Tuesday through Sunday from 7am-3pm, this tiny place specializes mostly in breakfast dishes like rice porridge and meat pies, but it’s their house special noodle soup with pork bone broth that we’ll brave even the foggiest of mornings to eat. You can choose between rice or egg noodles, but we prefer doing a mix of both.

The Bake N Broil is a Long Beach institution. They’ve been open in Bixby Knolls since 1965, serving diner food and incredible pies and cakes. Although there will probably be a wait when you arrive, you can grab a seat at the counter when one opens up. The menu is huge, but you the smart ones go straight for the chicken pot pie. It’s comes with your choice of soup or salad, and though it might seem counterintuitive to get soup with a chicken pot pie, definitely get the French Onion.

A&J is a tiny to-go window in a small strip mall parking lot about a mile away from Phnom Penh Noodle Shack, which happens to be run by the same family. As much as we like that spot for noodle soup, this place is our go-to for all things seafood: salt & pepper shrimp, grilled oysters, and fresh spring rolls. You’ll technically be sitting outside on the wraparound patio facing a huge intersection, but you'll feel like you're steps from the sea. Our top pick is the crispy salmon.

Selva is an excellent, slightly upscale Colombian restaurant near the Traffic Circle that’s ideal for group meals where you want to share as many small plates as possible. We love their family-style dishes like the market fish, which varies each day but always comes seared and crispy and served with a bright onion-tomato sofrito. It's the appetizers and sides, however, that should be covering your whole table.

Long Beach's Cambodia Town is loaded with tremendous places to eat, but if you’re looking for the best entry point, make Sophy’s your first stop. The family-run restaurant has been in the neighborhood for 20+ years, and has a big menu filled with Cambodian staples. There are always at least a few groups seated in the big leather booths sharing Cambodian Khmer noodles and scooping hot and sour soup from a cauldron.

Little Coyote is our go-to pizza spot in Long Beach, and one of the top pizzerias around LA. They've got two locations in Long Beach, but we prefer the one on the Eastside for its casual dining room and massive outdoor patio set-up. Their pies are an ode to the classic New York-style slice, but with a more flavorful crust and a variety of topping combos. But the pizza we'd gladly travel across town for is the light and airy white pie.

Heritage is a relatively casual tasting menu restaurant inside of a converted house that offers a seven-course meal for $110. There’s typically no wait for a table for two here, though you probably should book ahead if you plan on coming with a group. The rotating menu typically involves things like aged duck, perfectly charred octopus, and a creamy fruit-topped pavlova.

Speak Cheezy is our favorite pizza place in Long Beach that isn’t named Little Coyote. Their crust is a gorgeous cross between sourdough and New York-style, with a brittle crispness along the bottom and those leopard-spotted ends we know and love. The greatest pie in the house is the LBC, a classic cheese pizza topped with fennel sausage, pepperoni cups, and cute little dollops of ricotta for a bit of creaminess.

The Latin cafe in Bixby Knolls has a soft neon-lit glow that feels romantic, friends playing Yahtzee under a spinning disco ball, and rotating DJs spinning soul music next to a wall of natural wine. Drop by during the daytime for a coffee date or go the dinner route with small plates like burrata, marinated olives, and tuna aguachile. This place doesn’t take reservations, but you’ll likely never have to wait more than a few minutes for a seat.

When it comes to old-school Mexican restaurants in Long Beach, people might point you to sports bar-ish Los Compadres, late-night hang El Sauz, or fusion-y Enrique’s near the Marina. But our money is on Rivera’s, a homey, family-run place on East 7th that has been open since the ‘90s. We love the retro wood-paneled dining room, glowing string lights on the ceiling, and the odes to Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo covering the walls.

Ammatoli is an attractive outdoor/indoor downtown spot with big windows, tiled walls, and a long leather banquette that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Parisian cafe. The casual Mediterranean menu is an all-day affair, specializing in mezze platters, kebab plates, and more dishes from Levant. Whether you're stopping by for spicy tomato shakshouka at brunch or a shawarma and hummus platter at dinner, everything here is beautifully plated and well-seasoned.

You’ll probably have to wait for a table at this buzzy Peruvian-Japanese spot in Bixby Knolls. It’s tiny, with just a few seats at the bar and a couple of dining room tables. But when you finally sit and the staff starts bringing bright yellow bowls of Peruvian ceviche and lemon-coated parmesan scallops, you understand what all of the hype is about. Their menu is split between classic sashimi platters, tiraditos, and Nikkei-style sushi options like crispy tuna tacos and maki rolls.

An amazing Peruvian restaurant in a former KFC with a fully functional drive-thru is about as Long Beach as it gets if you ask us. When it comes to juicy wood-roasted pollos a la brasa and wok-seared lomo saltado, El Pollo Imperial in North Long Beach is unmatched. The place is a local institution known for its affordable plates and long list of Peruvian specialties, which includes everything from tangy ceviche with sweet potato and corn kernels to shrimp fried rice.

Second & Saint is a classy two-story American restaurant that looks like a ski chalet and stays calm without feeling boring. Mornings generally attract locals from the nearby yacht club, but at night the place fills up with families sharing plates of short rib and rolls. If you go for dinner, get the bacon burger, some crispy fish and chips, and a juicy pork chop. There’s also a separate bar area on the top floor that’s great for a casual outdoor drink.

One drink turned into two drinks turned into you crawling down 4th St. last night, and now you’re paying the price. Get yourself to The Attic. This converted bungalow has been open for a decade and is still the most popular brunch spot in Long Beach. Everyone’s here for three things: A great side patio, massive Bloody Marys, and Long Beach’s unofficial/maybe official food icon, the Mac N’ Cheetos—a giant bowl of mac and cheese covered in hot Cheetos.

We first stumbled upon Gusto Bread after noticing its long line one weekend, and our lives have been different ever since. This counter-service bakery and cafe specializes in indigenous and Mexican-inspired baked goods made with heirloom blue corn masa and sourdough starter. Their standard menu often sells out by noon, and includes everything from spelt loaves and sesame-crusted flatbread to buttery biscuits and chocolate conchas (plus many other kinds of excellent pan dulce).

Long Beach has tons of great Thai spots, from the bare-bones Tasty Food to Go to the more upscale Thai District, but none of them are quite like Chiang Rai, a neon-hued Eastside restaurant that specializes in less commonly seen Northern Thai dishes. Make a beeline for anything in the “Chiang Rai Local Food” section of the menu, including fragrant sai oua sausage with a fiery green chile dip, dry-style khao soi noodles, and a vivid sweet-salty yellow curry.

If you think you’ve tried every great taco in LA, make sure you’ve paid a visit to Tacos La Carreta before you pop off. This street-cart-turned-food-truck—which relocated from Compton to an industrial stretch of North Long Beach a couple of years ago—specializes in Sinaloa-style chorreadas, a toasted corn tortilla that’s slicked with pork fat, then topped with a mound of chopped grilled steak and a rough salsa thickened with chopped cabbage.

Sesame Dinette, a tiny cafe just off PCH with a big menu of Vietnamese dishes, is perfect for a daytime snack. The white-walled space looks like a chic coffee shop that doubles as an art gallery, and there are several wooden picnic tables inside where you can eat things like pork banh mi, vegan duck noodle soup, and chicken cabbage salad. In addition to housemade pastries, and pantry staples from AAPI-run small businesses, they offer a sesame-studded banh mi sandwich that's one of our favorites.

Ellie’s is pretty special. Located in a quiet neighborhood not too far from downtown, with a big front patio and a small dining room, they serve some very tasty Southern Italian food. The seasonal vegetables dishes and handmade pastas are fantastic—especially the shrimp and ’nduja tagliatelle—but the best thing here might be the grilled bread and pork butter. This place is a great choice for an intimate dinner, but be warned: parking in the area is near-impossible at night.

When you walk into La Parolaccia Osteria, you might feel the urge to say things like “ciao bella” and take pictures in front of some Roman pottery. That’s because this restaurant looks like a villa in Tuscany where servers greet their regular customers with consensual cheek kisses. Most people come here to feast with a group of friends, but there are also a couple of candlelit two-top tables that work well for a lively date night.

Long Beach’s most exciting oyster bar has a little something for everyone. From a platter of sweet and briny mollusks on ice and a fried oyster caesar to a mountain of fries covered in creamy seafood chowder, Liv’s in Belmont Shore isn’t afraid to let shellfish be the stars of the menu. Its sidewalk patio has so many string lights, you’ll feel like you’re eating under an old-school theater marquee. But if you’d rather sit inside, Liv’s long marble bar is the perfect place to bring a date.

El Barrio Cantina is a self-described modern Mexican restaurant on Retro Row that reimagines traditional dishes without getting too carried away. There’s a fantastic carne asada-style ribeye with roasted tomato salsa (ask for a side of the homemade Sonoran flour tortillas), fresh Peruvian scallops on the half shell in spicy aguachile, and crunchy fried potato tacos doused with crema and salsa verde that are simple and straight up delicious.