The New LA Restaurants the Critics Actually Agree On

Eater, The Infatuation, and Resy all landed on the same handful of rooms within five weeks — and the consensus wave looks nothing like the year's splashy imports.

Read enough LA food coverage and you learn the tell: it's never one rave, it's the overlap. In July, per Eater LA's Heatmap, the venerable what's-hot map added San Damián, Pizzeria Sei, Brick Lane, Frank & Frank's, and Tacos Royale. That same month, per The Infatuation's Hit List (updated July 23), Tacos Royale joined alongside Pasadena Thai spots Thaim and Dalah. Then on August 1, per Resy's Hit List, Brick Lane showed up again, next to ABL Hollywood and Sushi Takeda. Three scorekeepers, five weeks, the same names — that's not buzz, that's a wave.

The consensus picks reward the trip. San Damián is elegant mariscos on Abbot Kinney — rockfish ceviche in an olive oil-lime emulsion, per Resy; uni-topped ceviche and yuzu margaritas, per The Infatuation. Brick Lane is chef Sanjay Rawat's contemporary Indian in a revamped 1920s Arts District warehouse, where cold-smoked butter chicken meets low-intervention wine, per Resy — an opening LAmag also flagged. Pizzeria Sei's new Palms room arrives with credentials: the original was ranked No. 2 on 50 Top Pizza USA's 2026 list, the only LA pizzeria included, per LAmag. And Tacos Royale grills Sonoran-style asada on a two-tiered asadero in Silver Lake, per The Infatuation.

Note what the wave isn't: the imports collecting press releases. Bad Roman, the flashy NYC Italian, is taking over the old Palm space in Beverly Hills, and Bay Area burger diner Gott's is landing twice, per The Infatuation's openings tracker (the tracker itself has since been taken down); LAmag's tally of the year's 22 biggest openings runs from Vandell and Little Fish Melrose Hill to the Hermon chophouse Hermon's. But what's actually sticking on the hit lists skews small, chef-owned, and specific: Dalah, the walk-in Pasadena Thai room run by two sisters, per The Infatuation, or ABL Hollywood, a 35-seat mother-daughter Jamaican-Chinese spot serving jerk-seasoned oysters on Cahuenga, per Resy. In 2026 LA, specificity is outdrawing spectacle — the $320 omakase counters can wait their turn.