📍 Pasadena, Los Angeles

The Pasadena build of the Chinatown cult — bigger dining room, easier parking, same four-heat-levels Nashville hot chicken that has kept the Chinatown flagship sold out for a decad...

Chef Peter Lai runs one of LA's sharper Cantonese kitchens out of a quiet Pasadena dining room. Jumbo har gow with actual shrimp inside, traditional xiao long bao with the right pl...

A cheesemonger-run Pasadena restaurant in a historic building — 120+ cheese selections, wood-fired flatbreads, and a dining room that runs from casual date-night dinner to full pri...

Chef Erwin Tjahyadi's 24-hour-simmered bone-broth ramen is one of LA's most specific bowls — Indonesian and Vietnamese ideas layered into a broth that earns the day of work. Also s...

Opened 2024 and became Pasadena's current most-booked coastal-seafood room within a season. Daily catches treated with restraint, a pasta program that runs alongside the fish, and ...

Rodney Jenkins and a smoker-on-wheels on a Pasadena corner, turning out ribs and brisket that belong in the LA-barbecue conversation. No restaurant, no frills, just a line and the ...

The refined Japanese-cooking reference in Old Town — sushi for the quiet counter seats, shabu-shabu for the family table. Osawa runs both traditions with the kind of attention that...

Operating since 1963 and still the Pasadena diner equation — a wax-paper-wrapped cheeseburger with a Thousand-Island-style spread and a slice of fresh-baked pie from the case. Coco...

A Thai cafeteria-style room in Pasadena running the homestyle menu that transplants write home about. Mama hot pot (noodles with meat and an egg-cracked broth) is the name to know;...

The Pasadena location of the cult Historic Filipinotown Chinese spot — Shanghainese and Cantonese homestyle cooking, chewy hand-pulled noodles, fried rice the way the family actual...