Eleven Los Angeles restaurants have been recognized with prestigious Michelin Guide awards, once again putting the city’s food scene on the map.
In an awards ceremony hosted in the Bay Area Monday, chefs from all over California gathered to hear the results of years of culinary work. The Michelin Guide awards are considered the most prestigious in the business.
In total, 13 Californian restaurants left the event donning new Michelin Stars, while a handful more were decorated with Bib Gourmands.
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Michelin Star Awardees: Holbox
Holbox, a Mexican seafood restaurant, which features coastal classics, is known and loved for its experimental ceviche.
Though its traditional menu is served in a casual, easy atmosphere, seats at Holbox’s tasting menu dinners are coveted. The eight-course menu, served on Thursdays and Fridays, features chef’s choice seafood and off-menu dishes.
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Their new Michelin Star is not the first Michelin Guide recognition awarded to the restaurant, which received Bib Gourmands in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
Michelin Star Awardees: Meteora
Meteora is known by critics as more of an experience than a restaurant. With live-fire cooking, guests watch as their dishes are made, and the restaurant’s “living architecture” design brings the outside in. The restaurant specializes in avant-garde cuisine with sustainable ingredients.
Meteora offers two dining options — lounge and tasting. Lounge offers an a-la carte menu with shareable dishes and drink pairings, while the tasting menu is meant for larger groups.
Michelin Star Awardees: Verspetine
Vespertine received its second Star Monday and regained its first. The restaurant closed in early 2020, forcing it to lose its original star, and recently reopened.
Vespertine seeks to “disrupt the course of the modern restaurant.” It has been celebrated for its use of unique ingredient combinations.
Vespertine was also awarded a Green Star for their ethically-sourced ingredients and sustainable restaurant operations.
Michelin Star Awardees: Uka
UKA displays the kaiseki japanese culinary tradition of multi-course, intricate dinners, while serving modern plates. The restaurant offers three Omakase menu options each season. The cheapest of the menus offers six courses, while the others offer nine courses.
Bib Gourmands: Pollo a la Brasa
The Peruvian-style chicken restaurant is reminiscent of a home cooking atmosphere, visited by dozens daily for its rotisserie chicken. With a glass wall that allows diners to observe the chickens roasting and the chefs cooking, the experience is immersive.
The menu is simple and limited, offering various fractions of a whole chicken and a handful of sides. The chicken is wood-fired.
Bib Gourmands: Grà
Grà was the first of two pizza restaurants awarded Bib Gourmands on Monday. Its menu focuses on sourdough pizza topped with seasonal vegetables. Their emphasis on fermentation carries through into their drinks as well.
Their pizzas have been revered for a perfect combination of sweet and salty ingredients. Their appetizers and desserts also include unique flavor combinations to perfectly complement the pies.
The open-concept restaurant allows for an immersive food preparation experience, allowing the wood firing of the pizza pies to serve as decoration of the dining area.
Bib Gourmands: Quarter Sheets
Quarter Sheets offers a customizable experience for all kinds of pizza eaters, including whole to-go pies and grab-and-go slices. Their square pizza and friendly service have marked Echo Park.
Bib Gourmands: Little Fish
What started up as a pop-up seafood stand run by experienced Los Angeles chefs is now one of the most celebrated seafood restaurants in Los Angeles. Little Fish’s now permanent home in Echo Park serves breakfast and lunch.
Their star dish, the Fried Fish sandwich, is a beloved grab-and-go option for patrons in the area.
Bib Gourmands: Manohar’s Delhi Palace
Manohar’s Delhi Palace considers itself “the most ambitious Indian restaurant” in its area. With Punjabi-style dishes, it is one of the only Indian restaurants in Los Angeles that focuses on retaining traditional cooking techniques.
The restaurant employs Northern Indian and Mughal cooking methods. Its chefs pride themselves in the mildness of their dishes, which allows all diners to enjoy their flavorful masalas.
Bib Gourmands: Liu’s Cafe
Liu’s Cafe is the second restaurant from the team behind Tokki, a Korean bar that closed earlier this week. The cafe is a Chinese-American diner, bakery and cafe. Described by one diner as having a “Hong Kong-style menu with a distinct Taiwanese flair,” its selection of comfort eats has made noise around Koreatown.
Bib Gourmands: Mae Malai Thai House of Noodles
Mae Malai Thai House of Noodles is a warm, inviting spot in a strip mall on Hollywood Boulevard. They specialize in boat noodles — noodles with a thick broth and pork or beef. Their stir-fried dishes are also popular, and small enough that they can be paired with noodle bowls.
What are the Michelin Awards?
Michelin releases an annual guide featuring restaurants all over the world they deem the best. If restaurants on the Guide particularly excel, they can receive various degrees of awards. These awards must be kept up with every year and can be revoked at any time.
Michelin Stars are awarded to restaurants “offering outstanding cooking,” according to the Michelin Guide. The annual awards are determined by anonymous inspectors, who make decisions as a team based on five criteria — quality of ingredients, flavor harmony, technique mastery, how the chef expresses their personality through the cuisine and consistency across the menu and over time.
Restaurants can receive up to three Michelin Stars. One Star is the lowest rating, signifying a high standard of achievement, and three stars emphasizes artful cuisine that is “destined to become classic.” Stars are awarded to fine dining establishments.
Bib Gourmands, on the other hand, are awarded for both high achievement and affordability. Their newest award, the Green Star, is awarded to restaurants that operate sustainably.
Two of the restaurants in Los Angeles awarded Bib Gourmands — Grà and Mae Malai Thai House of Noodles — were added to the Michelin Guide in June. This feat is particularly impressive, as it usually takes longer for a restaurant to catch the Michelin critics’ eyes enough to receive an award. The other restaurants on the list had been on the Michelin Guide since before it was updated earlier this summer.
