The reopened—and completely revitalized—La Dolce Vita is a maximalist Old Hollywood fever dream set in a tiny, windowless room that feels like a winners-only Oscars’ afterparty. Studio execs crowd the gold-tinted bar sipping tequila gimlets and the best-made martinis our livers have ever processed. Other people with disposable incomes crowd into big leather booths surrounded by tableside caesars and plates of juicy bone-in veal parm.

After surviving a quick brush with closing in March 2020, Nate N Al remains an all-out classic and one of the few places in this part of town that actually feels authentic. Is this the best deli in LA? No. But come here a little hungover on a Saturday morning, order the bagel and lox and stuffed cabbage, gaze upon the most eclectic crowd in the neighborhood, and you’ll want to camp out here for the day.

There is no denying that Lawry’s Prime Rib is a chain. But this 70-year-old steak house is a Beverly Hills original and eating a dinner here is a major right-of-passage in this town. Though the menu has expanded over the years, the move is still the standing prime rib and that famous spinning salad (yes, they actually spin it while they make it). If your parents are in town and you want to show them how far you’ve come in life, Lawry’s is your move. Save room for the Yorkshire pudding.

Lunch rush in downtown Beverly Hills is harrowing. Despondent talent agents sob in Teslas while hedge fund managers get drunk at Wally’s for the 100th time this month. Bypass the chaos and go to Lorenzo California, an Italian sandwich counter serving our favorite quick lunch in the area. You're here to eat focaccia lined with prosciutto parma, truffle cream, olive paté, and white onion agrodolce. Sure, most sandwiches hover in the $16-$20 range, but they’re giant.

Beverly Hills has plenty of high-end sushi spots, but Sushi Note Omakase is making the best nigiri in the neighborhood. (Think classic cuts like dry-aged amberjack and scallop with sea salt.) This place is located inside an old hair salon in the Rodeo Collection’s parking garage, and it's not totally unlike one of those secret sushi bars in Tokyo that people make Youtube vlogs about. A meal here will cost you $190 (excluding the optional $100 wine pairing).

If you’ve eaten at Mother Wolf or Felix, you know the schtick at those places is perfectly executed, al dente pasta. Funke comes from the same restaurant group family. And although this Italian spot reminds us of a Vegas hotel lobby from the early 2000s, they do serve reliably excellent pasta. We suggest going heavy on the flour-and-egg stuff (much of which you can watch being formed in a workshop at the center of the restaurant).

Sur Le Vert is a casual wine bar on Canon that provides downtown Beverly Hills with something it sorely lacks—a cool pre-dinner hang out spot. Reservations are available, but we like using this sleek, green-hued bar from the Tabula Rasa people as a place to kill time before heading somewhere else in the area. The wine list is vast and filled with mostly natural wines and if you get hungry, there’s a full food menu with solid snacky dishes like smoked tuna crudo and curated cheese boards.

​​This upscale soba shop likes to call itself the “pinnacle of noodle”—which, to be quite honest, we’re not really opposed to. At $30 a pop, they’re certainly not the cheapest bowl of noodles in town, but then again, you’re in Beverly Hills, baby. Our favorite is the #1, filled with chewy, house-made noodles, chashu pork, wontons, and a clear, umami-rich broth made with truffle and soy-based sauce that we’d happily drink out of a pint glass any day of the week.

Heard of Nobu? In a plain-looking building in the middle of La Cienega’s Restaurant Row, Matsuhisa is where the whole yellowtail with jalapeño empire began. The menu is huge, with everything from a big tempura section, to sushi, to all those signature Nobu dishes, but it’s all served in a setting that has none of the scene or pretension that you often find in Malibu. If you’re feeling rich, do the sushi or dinner (which includes hot dishes as well as sushi) omakase for a greatest hits parade.

This dimly lit steakhouse specializes in prix-fixe menus consisting of various wagyu dishes. It's an indulgence of the highest variety, and yet, the actual experience inside is remarkably sensible. The five-course menu is $85 per person. Sure, that’s a lot of money and no one should mistake Matū for a Tuesday night dinner spot, but to be eating five courses of premium beef on S. Beverly Blvd. for under $100 is a good value.

This kosher Mediterranean spot has two locations in the same vicinity, and while the newer one is more spacious and even a little glitzy, the original counter-service spot in a strip mall on Olympic is where you’ll find us on many a lunch hour. Choose between shawarma, kebab, schnitzel, sabich, or falafel, and retrofit it however you please on a pita, laffa, baguette, or as a plate. We mix it up, but the best deal is the plate—for under $20 you’ll have enough food for three full meals.

So much about Spago should make you hate it: it feels like a hotel restaurant, is insanely expensive, and has a crowd that’s a mix of visiting businessmen, important Hollywood people, and people who’ve lived in Beverly Hills since the ’50s. And yet, even in 2021, going to Spago is still one of the ultimate LA eating experiences. The menu manages to be half-Italian, half-Asian fusion, but what you’re really here for are the smoked salmon pizza and the spicy tuna hand rolls.

If you’re stuck in back-to-back meetings all day and don’t have time to drive over to the San Gabriel Valley, then Capital Seafood is the next best thing. This place is fancy without being stuffy, plus the service is super quick - and you’ll find every dim sum classic under the sun. Load up your lazy Susan with glistening shrimp har gow, turnip cakes, and steamed BBQ pork buns wrapped in a foam-like rice flour.

Crustacean is one of those old, legacy restaurants that would be easy to write off, if the food weren’t so good. Their website is packed with photos of celebrities like Viola Davis and Margot Robbie, the dining room feels like a Las Vegas nightclub, and half of the menu is trademarked. However, they have a surprisingly killer lunch special, a three-course set meal for just $35 that includes truffle Wagyu burgers, turmeric glass noodles, and a heavenly coconut cake.

This neighborhood Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills is certainly a scene, but not in the way you’d expect from a restaurant on N. Canon Drive. Generations of families gather around the same bowls of pasta they’ve been eating for decades, and large groups of friends who are all back in town for the holidays chug wine so they can actually fall asleep in their childhood beds.

Getting brunch on Rodeo Drive usually means you’re in for an expensive (and pretty mediocre) dining experience, but Nua actually knows how to do it right. The Israeli spot inside the Crescent Hotel looks very, well, Beverly Hills: pop art portraits, plenty of chandeliers, and some gaudy wallpaper you’d find on a Real Housewives spin-off. Nothing about this place is subtle, but the simple, delicious shakshuka is why we come here. The tomato sauce is garlicky and not too spicy, the egg yolks are r

Located in a particularly glitzy part of Beverly Hills (right across the street from the Chanel store on Robertson), Sushi Tama serves high-quality sushi at somewhat reasonable prices, with nigiri hovering just under the $4 mark. Sadly, their chic, minimalist dining room is closed for the time being but, on the plus side, their patio has plenty of room for you to scarf down oyster shooters and accidentally spill soy sauce on yourself.

Just like most parts of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills has a Sugarfish. But because this is Beverly Hills, this Sugarfish one-ups the rest with Nozawa Bar out the back of the restaurant. Once you’ve walked past everyone eating their Trust Me’s, you’ll find a separate omakase-only spot with only two ten-person seatings a night, where you’ll be served 22 courses of sushi (they run the gamut from expected to adventurous). Don’t be late or ask for any changes to the menu.

It’s slightly wild that Si Laa is still relatively unknown outside of the local crowd, because this small family-run spot on S. Robertson is one of the better Thai restaurants in Los Angeles. The atmosphere inside is calm and somewhat romantic—your late night pad thai throwdown spot this is not. But if you’re looking for excellent (and authentic) Thai food in a slightly upscale environment, Si Laa is your spot.

We used to hesitate whenever a friend would suggest a Hillstone restaurant, because, well, there are multiple locations across 14 states, and all of them are kind of the same. But Honor Bar feels a bit different. Attached to South Beverly Grill (another Hillstone restaurant), this dimly lit bar was cleverly built out to serve to-go sandwiches to all the normal people who can’t spend two hours at lunch. Snag a perfectly made martini at the bar, then order the chicken sandwich or classic burger.

Mulberry is an under-the-radar Beverly Hills classic. If you grew up in LA, you definitely came here with your soccer team after you won the championship to order a whole bunch of garlic knots and NY-style pizzas that were four times the size of your head. When you’re over the high-end restaurants that will cost you half a paycheck, Mulberry is a good bet for a solo slice at the bar, or spread out at a table for the soccer team reunion.