Critics’ choice: The tastes of downtown L.A.’s revival

Lazy Ox Canteen

Los Angeles’s “long-blighted” downtown is alive again, thanks mainly to its huge sports and entertainment complex, said Chris Colin in The New York Times. But “imaginative restaurants” have been a big part of the area’s comeback, too, and the types of Angelenos who enjoy walkable neighborhoods love to insist that this “tucked-away gastropub” is “the city’s best.” Grab a seat at “the handsome wooden bar” inside the Lazy Ox, and “a warm, fun feeling” will overcome you as soon as you order “one of the many great rosés on offer by the glass,” said Jennifer Steinhauer, also in the Times. The staff are “extremely knowledgeable about the finer points of each goody coming from the kitchen,” so lend them an ear. Chef Josef Centeno’s eclectic fare includes ravioli stuffed with braised beef tongue, toasted pine nuts, spiced lebni (a tangy yogurt), and dried chiles—an “almost unbearably seductive” combination. And the same could be said of his ricotta fritters with saffron honey. The youngish crowd here is “appropriately hairy of the face” but not too hip to enjoy the dessert menu’s blueberry and blackberry crumble. We sure did. 241 S. San Pedro St., (213) 626-5299

The Spice Table

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“It’s always a good sign when you walk into a restaurant and catch the good scents of food cooking over a wood fire,” said S. Irene Virbila in the Los Angeles Times. A block away from Lazy Ox Canteen, chef Bryant Ng is “creating a contemporary take on the cuisines of Vietnam and Singapore,” using top-notch ingredients and exhibiting no fear about “cranking up the sambal heat.” The almond-wood fire is used for satays—skewered meats that pair wonderfully with the bar’s “well-edited array of craft beers.” But Ng also uses the grill for a rib-eye steak and a “brilliant” bone marrow that’s halved and then brushed with shrimp sambal. “This is a kitchen that knows how to fry,” so any meal can begin well with an order of lightly crisped cauliflower florets and their fiery dipping sauce. Among the main dishes, don’t overlook the “intricately spiced” beef rendang. Ng has trained in some of America’s top kitchens, and at this “relaxed and festive” Little Tokyo newcomer, the Singapore native “gets just about everything right.” 114 S. Central Ave., (213) 620-1840

Rivera

This sleek temple of contemporary Latin cuisine near the Staples Center recently staged a “fascinating” flashback to the 1980s, said Jonathan Gold in LA Weekly. Resurrecting the groundbreaking menu that he created some 30 years ago at Saint Estèphe in Manhattan Beach, chef John Sedlar dusted off his famous chile relleno with goat cheese and a selection of other inventive, artistically presented dishes that put modern Southwestern cuisine on the map. There’s a through-line of innovation that ties Sedlar’s past to his present, but sweetbreads with chile con queso and seared scallop nachos with Roquefort are, in 2011, “less revolutionary than plain good.” By the same token, those flavors strongly evoke “an important moment in Los Angeles culinary history.” Forgive me: I almost “want to listen to Wham records again.” 1050 S. Flower St., (213) 749-1460