The editors at Eater Los Angeles dine out several times a week, if not per day, which means we’re always encountering standout dishes that deserve time in the limelight. Here’s the very best of everything the team has eaten this week.
Pork chop cutlet with curry sauce from Hong Kong Cafe in Walnut
I find cha chaan
teng restaurants so comforting because there’s something for everyone in them. Want breakfast? Have pineapple bun sandwiches. Craving something more American? Here’s a baked Bolognese smothered with broiled cheese. My favorite dish on a recent visit to Hong Kong Cafe in Walnut, California, was a panko-crusted fatty pork cutlet reminiscent of Japanese katsu served alongside a warming curry sauce. I often find curry dishes at cha chaan tengs to taste a bit watery and seldom order them, but that was not the case here; the curry dip had a kick and was viscous enough to cut each bite of pork I dunked into it. I completed the meal with an iced Hong Kong milk tea, a mandatory order for all visits to cha chaan tengs. Hong Kong Cafe also has outposts in Monterey Park and Rowland Heights. 20747 Amar Road, Walnut, CA 91789. — Kat Thompson, audience editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest
Traditional tea at the Rose Garden Tea Room in San Marino
After a multi-year closure and renovation, the Huntington’s famed Rose Garden Tea Room reopened in 2023 with an extensive facelift and updated tea service. By the time the Tea Room closed in 2020, it had already long transitioned away from the open-air buffet setup it once offered in favor of a more formal tea service served on a tiered silver platter. In the post-renovation iteration, the restaurant leans further into a more formal but no less charming tea service. With the $65 tea service, finger sandwiches filled with tarragon chicken salad and a summer special BLT get delicately stacked on the silver trays, paired with slivers of tart lemon tarts and salty cheddar-bacon scones. My personal favorite remains the simple open-faced cucumber sandwich, smeared with dill cream, paired with many pots of floral Jasmine tea. Reservations tend to fill up early, though once in a while you’re able to score something last minute like I did this weekend — for a special afternoon, it can’t hurt to look. 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108. — Rebecca Roland, deputy editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest
Mariscos paella at Picala in West Adams
The new SimCity-esque development at the corner of La Cienega and Jefferson Boulevards in West Adams, with its shiny Whole Foods market and pricey apartments, opened its first full-service restaurant in Picala. Hailing from Santa Barbara’s well-regarded Acme Hospitality, whose Spanish spot Loquita remains one of the coastal city’s best restaurants, Picala, helmed by chef Luis Sierra, arrived to high expectations. The airy space reminded me of similar real estate projects in Midtown Manhattan, where ground-level retail must try to fill in 30-foot ceilings and a sprawling layout. What Picala lacks in Loquita’s charm it can make up for with polished tapas and paellas; the wine-friendly dishes will be respectable if pricey (a warm, almost runny tortilla Española is a highlight). You’ll invariably still be hungry once the paella comes out, and it delivers on the portion front. Its golden surface features three head-on Argentine red shrimp, sliced squid, and cherry tomatoes, plus enough rice for four people. There’s a proper amount of aromatic socorrat — toasted rice grains — you’ll need to scrap from the bottom and the carabinero-like shrimp are pristine. I did wish for maybe some clams or mussels to complete the picture, but this is certainly one of the better paellas you can get in Los Angeles right now. 3337 S. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90016. — Matthew Kang, correspondent, Eater
Hybrid tacostada from the collab at Casa Vega in Sherman Oaks
There exist many reasons to visit Casa Vega on a weekend. The Sherman Oaks restaurant and James Beard Foundation Classics winner has a new patio; this past weekend owner Christy Vega invited her cousin, Javier Plascencia, who happens to be a superstar chef of multiple restaurants in Baja California, to prepare a multi-course meal there. The room hummed, margaritas flowed, and dishes got delivered in waves. Though there were multiple standouts from the collaboration, I felt most taken by Plascencia’s hybrid tacostada: a mini shrimp and potato taquito with miso, salmon, and avocado attached to a yellowtail tostada wing. One hopes Casa Vegas might repeat this international family reunion so more Angelenos can experience it. 13301 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. — Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest
