Where do L.A.’s best chefs eat on their nights off? We caught up with a few at L.A. Times Food Bowl — including the famed Nancy Silverton, Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson of Kismet, “Stacked” cookbook author Owen Han and others — to ask about the local restaurants that continue to impress them. Their answers are as diverse as the city itself, spanning long-standing taquerias, fine-dining establishments and mom-and-pop spots from Chatsworth to Garden Grove. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of the restaurants they mention also appear in the 2023 101 Best Restaurants guide.

As we count down the days to the 2024 101 Best Restaurants reveal party at the Hollywood Palladium on Dec. 3, we’re also revisiting the restaurants that stand out to our local culinary community, including a vibrant Caribbean restaurant in East Hollywood, a California-inflected izakaya that sits next door to a sibling sake bar, and a modern chophouse.