Last Day of L.A. Restaurant Week, Where $15 Still Buys Lunch

More than 400 restaurants across Los Angeles are serving discounted prix fixe menus through Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, and the cheapest of them start at $15. The count, the 86-neighborhood spread and the run dates come from Los Angeles magazine's guide to Dine LA, the city's biannual restaurant week. Neither that guide nor the official listing says how many of those kitchens still have tables for the final day.

My take, with the last day on the clock: the question is no longer which dining room is best. It is which price tier does the most work on short notice. Dine LA runs twice a year, so the next round is months out.

The $15 end, which is the part worth chasing

Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles is running Dine LA menus starting at $15, with Broad Street Oyster Co., Olio Wood Fired Pizzeria, Sticky Rice, Moon Rabbit and Maple Block among the stalls taking part, per the magazine's guide. Listed offerings include a chopped lobster Caesar wrap, a Thai grilled chicken rice bowl with cold-brew jasmine tea, and a barbecue platter of smoked brisket, pulled pork, tri-tip and baby back ribs. No reservation math required, which on a Friday is most of the value.

Confections by Kirari West, a gluten-free bakery in Redondo Beach, is doing $15 breakfast and lunch combos for walk-in customers. Breakfast runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and lunch runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, the guide says. Breakfast is pancakes, two eggs, two strips of bacon and a drink; lunch is gluten-free pizza with shortbread, or a chicken burger with potatoes or salad.

The middle, $25 to $45

• Planta, on the Marina del Rey waterfront: three vegan courses at $25 for lunch, $35 at dinner. The listed dishes include crispy rice with spicy ahi watermelon, mushroom quesabirria and matcha cheesecake.
• Dune, the Middle Eastern counter-service spot in Atwater Village: $35 per person for its organic green herb falafel sandwich with an appetizer and dessert. It opened roughly a decade ago and is participating for the first time this year.
• Bacari, across its Los Angeles locations: $45 per person for a salad, two entrées and a dessert at lunch or dinner, and a $35 weekend brunch of two entrées and dessert.

Where the per-course arithmetic gets strange

We compared the posted prices in the guide. Omaniku, a steakhouse inside the Sheraton in San Gabriel, is charging $78 for a 10-course menu — about $7.80 a course. Sky Room, atop the Fairmont Breakers in Long Beach, is charging $85 for three, or roughly $28 a course. Per-course price is a crude measure and a tasting course is not an entrée, but a first-year participant undercutting a hotel fine-dining room by that margin is the sort of thing restaurant week exists to surface, per the magazine's list.

The $65 sit-downs

Los Angeles magazine previously named Ladyhawk to its Best New Restaurants list, and among the full-service options at $65 for three courses I would start there. The West Hollywood restaurant sits inside the Kimpton La Peer and is led by chef Charbel Hayek, winner of Top Chef Middle East. Josephine, a 1950s bungalow in Silver Lake opened by Anthony Dragotto and chef Marco Gagliardi, is making its Dine LA debut at the same $65 for French-Italian courses. Manuela in downtown Los Angeles is also running a $65 three-course menu.

The full participant list is posted on the official Dine LA page. Prices above are as published; call before you drive.

Source: lamag.com, retrieved August 28, 2026.