The best way to experience Sunnin’s Lebanese tastes is by gathering up a number of appetizers. There are all the foregone conclusions like hummus (a creamy chick pea dream spritzed with just enough lemon) and babaganouj (roasted eggplant elevated with an exacting amount of garlic), but to stick only to those standards would be to [...]

Most of the ingredients are at Ikko are familiarly Japanese (save for the foie gras), but there’s still an air of mystery around these meals—some of Ikko’s dishes eat like art, pulled right out of Chef Kobayashi’s dreams and put straight to the plate. Here, curls of crispy shrimp take on dollops of sour plum [...]

Silk Thai does have all the well-tread Thai tastes on its menu, but it’s under those dishes that the restaurant keeps some more neglected flavors. Miang kum, for example, is an appetizer far out-eaten by spring rolls and satays. But Silk Thai resuscitates the dish—lettuce wraps that come with a culinary color wheel of dried [...]

Charlie Palmer’s Tasmanian salmon is terrific, marked first and foremost by the crisp layer of panko seared to its skin. The fish is cooked perfectly—you’ll be given a knife, but the salmon doesn’t require such pointed cutlery. Among heavier entrées, the liberty duck breast is a standout. Charlie Palmer’s menu absorbs a number of international [...]

The specialty of the house is the birria, which is prepared in a way that seems to break with the basic component of the dish—it is not made of goat. But Lola goes out of her way to point out that the recipe actually adheres to a family tradition. “Abuelita wasn’t fond of goat,” she [...]

Although the salads at Veggie Grill are plenty big for any appetite, the sandwiches are the culinary cornerstones of the restaurant. And easily the best meal between a bun is the Santa Fe crispy chickin’ sandwich. The sandwich takes the restaurant’s presumably patented chillin’ chickin’ and cuts it into a fat patty, then fries it [...]

Entrées aren’t many at Michael’s, but that provides a fine focus that the restaurant usually puts to good use. A clear example is the branzino con zucchine al vino bianco (sautéed Mediterranean sea bass with zucchini, fingerling potatoes, cherry tomatoes, Gaeta olives and white wine). The fish is cooked perfectly, completely tender to even the [...]

The black rice at Slowfish isn’t just a gimmick–it’s an essential component of the restaurant’s subscription to the Slow Food movement. More important, though, is the black rice’s taste, which conceals a few nutty notes that pair perfectly with the restaurant’s sushi bar. Among Slowfish’s so-called big plates, the beef ribs easily eat best. The [...]

Like the Japanese-Peruvian cuisine at Lomita’s Kotosh, El Rocoto’s dishes pull from Peru’s immigrant past, drawing on the recipes and techniques that traveled with the Chan family from China to Peru and, later, to the kitchen of the first El Rocoto in Gardena. But you still get all the staples, like jalea, a fish fry [...]

Beyond the familiar fare, it’s the overlooked options that are best at El Toro Bravo, like barbacoa (barbeque beef) and birria (stewed goat). There’s also cueritos (fried pork rinds) and buche (pork stomach) to round out the pig-oriented options. But whatever you choose, know that the tacos are huge, pushing the usual one-handed, two-bite meal [...]