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Lisa’s Bon Appetit: Best Caterer
Founder, Lisa Eriksen opened the first location in Torrance off of Vista Montana and Pacific Coast Highway. It was here that a legacy of amazing recipes, including the popular Chinese chicken salad, all started. What started as a quaint little café and catering company has blossomed into what is now a busy and thriving catering […]
The Source Cafe: Best Specialty Salad
The Source Cafe is a unique, fresh healthy cafe that specializes in bringing handcrafted salads, smoothies, juices and other delicious fare to our health conscious local South Bay community. Each of our menu items is made in house, with what they call the Art of Nourishment. Chef Amber Caudle spent her early culinary years studying […]
Handel’s: Best ice cream
Handel’s bare-bones walk-up stand isn’t fancy, but there are nearly always people standing outside eating because they couldn’t even wait to get to nearby benches.
Jimmy Erickson: Best Server (male)
Think of a server who can handle bartending an engagement party of over 20 rowdy guests while managing checks, taking drink orders, and serving tables, while also tending to guests outside of the engagement party — all the while with a smile on his face. Meet Jimmy Erickson.
Natalie at Old Venice: Best Server (female)
I almost choked on my iced tea when I asked Natalie at Old Venice Restaurant in Manhattan Beach how long she had worked there and she said 15 years. She looks about 20.
Simon at Oki Doki Sushi: Best Sushi Chef
Simon has been behind the sushi bar at Oki Doki for 10 years. The location is unassuming – it’s in a strip mall on PCH – but the sushi is top rate, and chefs like Simon make the dining experience a pleasure. His knife skills are impressive and he’ll make you laugh while you watch […]
The Spot: Best vegetarian
This is one of the only local restaurants that can use the words “World Famous” in their advertising and have a credible claim to the distinction. The Spot has been a place of pilgrimage since 1977 and is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in greater Los Angeles.
Thai Dishes: Best Thai
Thai Dishes building with the steeply peaked roof by the post office on PCH is one of the more arresting pieces of architecture on the highway. It’s as close an approximation to a Thai home as local building codes will allow.
Benihana: Best teppanyaki
The award for teppanyaki goes to the restaurant that brought it to America. Teppanyaki – literally, food cooked on an iron grill – was invented in the 1940’s but wasn’t very popular among Japanese.
Mediterraneo: Best tapas
The restaurant that pioneered Spanish tapas in the South Bay is still serving them, both in their traditional form and modern variants. Any resident of Madrid would immediately recognize much of what is served here.
Bull Pen: Best steak under $30
If a film producer was looking for a local place that looks like a classic steakhouse, the Bull Pen would be their first choice. This is the kind of establishment others try to mimic, one that looks a lot like their original location, which opened in the 1940’s.
Flemings Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar: Best Steak over $30
When a chain operation in an office building is the overwhelming favorite steak option in an area with many competitors it means they’re doing something extraordinarily well.