At the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival and L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade, and in Los Angeles I asked 10 top California chefs, “What is your favorite California eating city other than your own, and why?” Their responses might surprise you.
Neal Fraser (BLD, Fritzi Dog, ICDC, Redbird + The Strand House)
My favorite eating city? That’s a hard question. I haven’t spent enough time outside of L.A. to say that. I really like La Super-Rica. I try to eat there every time I go to Santa Barbara, but there are not a lot of other restaurants I know in Santa Barbara. We went to San Francisco not that long ago and had some really good meals, but I wouldn’t say it was my favorite eating city.
Duff Goldman (Charm City Cakes + Duff’s Cakemix)
Northridge, and it’s because of one place. I’ve never eaten anywhere in Northridge but this one restaurant. Inside King’s Burgers, there’s a sushi bar, Got Sushi?, and it’s the greatest sushi I’ve ever seen in my life, outside of Morimoto’s. It’s in a reclaimed Long John Silver’s, I believe. It’s amazing. It will blow your mind. It’s not a gimmick at all. This guy made me like uni.
Mourad Lahlou Aziza
Of course there’s always Yountville. The staples there with Ad Hoc, Redd, I like Bouchon, but I think right now, if I were to pick one city in California, it would be L.A. I like what’s going on there with Jeremy Fox. He became an executive chef at Rustic Canyon, which is really cool. I like Gjelina. I like Son of a Gun. I like Animal. There’s a taqueria that just opened with Carlos Delgado, Taco Maria, and I’m excited to go. I haven’t tried a lot of those places, because they’re brand new, but the people behind them are solid, I respect them tremendously, and I’m excited about L.A. right now.
I don’t know how to answer that…I love L.A. I love learning all about it. I love Koreatown. I love the Thai restaurants here. I love all the ethnic restaurants. I love Connie and Ted’s. That’s my new favorite restaurant. That’s why I’m here. I want to be a part of it.
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