So you’re in Los Angeles for a few days and looking to get some good eats. You want to make sure you enjoy every meal during your short stay and you don’t know anyone in L.A. to give you recommendations. You’ve noticed that no restaurants in the sprawling metropolis has even one Michelin star — that’s because the well-known French guide doesn’t provide a guide to the City of Stars. So without it, how are you going to ensure you don’t have disappointing meals?
One way is crowd-sourcing and that’s to look at the most-reviewed restaurants on Yelp (and then looking at their reviews/star rating). We know that this isn’t the perfect solution, but without Michelin guiding you (not even a Bib Gourmand!), the following list of approximately 20 Los Angeles restaurants that have been most-yelped will help you make that final decision on where to go to dinner.
| Rank | Restaurant | Reviews | Stars | Cuisine | Neighborhood |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bottega Louie | 14326 | 4 | Italian | DTLA |
| 2 | Wurstküche | 7569 | 4 | German | Arts District |
| 3 | Daikokuya Little Tokyo | 7339 | 4 | Japanese | Little Tokyo |
| 4 | Porto’s Bakery & Cafe | 7096 | 4.5 | Bakeries | Burbank |
| 5 | Porto’s Bakery & Cafe | 7032 | 4.5 | Bakeries | Glendale |
| 6 | Pink’s Hot Dogs | 6446 | 3.5 | Hot Dogs | Fairfax |
| 7 | Father’s Office | 5699 | 3.5 | American | Mid-City |
| 8 | Porto’s Bakery & Cafe | 5596 | 4.5 | Bakeries | Los Angeles |
| 9 | Philippe the Original | 5345 | 4 | Sandwiches | Chinatown |
| 10 | Perch | 5334 | 4 | French | Downtown |
| 11 | The Griddle Café | 5000 | 4 | Breakfast | West Hollywood |
| 12 | Eggslut | 4756 | 4 | Breakfast | Downtown |
| 13 | Urth Caffé | 4542 | 4 | Coffee & Tea | Arts District |
| 14 | Bestia | 4531 | 4.5 | Italian | Downtown |
| 15 | Tito’s Tacos | 4256 | 3.5 | Tacos | Culver City |
| 16 | Blu Jam Café | 4108 | 4 | American | Fairfax |
| 17 | Gjelina | 4077 | 3.5 | American | Venice |
| 18 | Bay Cities Italian Deli | 4073 | 4 | Sandwiches | Santa Monica |
| 19 | Hae Jang Chon Korean BBQ Restaurant | 3945 | 4 | Korean | Koreatown |
| 20 | Pizzeria Mozza | 3771 | 4 | Pizza | Hancock Park |
| 21 | Alcove Café & Bakery | 3761 | 4 | Bakery | Los Feliz |
| 22 | Masa of Echo Park | 3503 | 4 | American | Echo Park |
| 23 | Kang Ho-dong Baekjeong | 3502 | 4.5 | Korean | Koreatown |
| 24 | The Bazaar by José Andrés | 3464 | 4 | spanish | Beverly Grove |
| 25 | République | 3443 | 4 | French | Hancock Park |
*We only included the restaurants and food places with more than 3400 reviews when we were looking at the data.
Bottega Louie is the most-reviewed restaurant in LA and has more reviews than any restaurant in New York City — and it’s not even close beating out the most-reviewed NYC restaurant by over 4000 reviews. I don’t have any research into this, but it probably is the most-reviewed “place” on Yelp in the entire world.
Porto’s, the famous Cuban bakery, has done quite well on this list with three of their four storefronts having garnered enough reviews to take up 1/8th of the most-reviewed locations in all of Los Angeles. In fact, Porto’s Burbank and Glendale locations have enough reviews that they’re in the top five. And each Porto, even the new Buena Park location, has a impressive 4.5 star rating overall.
If we’re just looking at Yelp for your food recommendations then DTLA (Downtown Los Angeles) seems to be a growing “foodie” paradise so if you’re short on time, head downtown, which includes Koreatown, and you’ll be surrounded by a third of the “best” restaurants on this list. Happy dining!