10 Best American Restaurants in Los Angeles (Best LA Spots Right Now)

Here’s the thing about “American” food in Los Angeles: it is not a real category. It is a vibe. It’s a mood board. It’s like pulling on that vintage Team USA Olympics gear: you’re not pledging allegiance, you’re chasing a feeling. “American” here isn’t patriotism—it’s nostalgia you can chew.

“American” here means: Jewish deli moments eaten by people in linen pants who look like they moisturize their feelings. Diner breakfasts with cult followings and the kind of pancakes that make you briefly believe in God. Burgers through little windows like communion—except the sacrament is fries, and the temptation is the green sauce situation, which I will treat like a community resource. Seafood-and-wine situations that begin as “quick bite” and end with you whispering, “I could live in Venice,” even though Venice smells like wet dog and broken dreams, and you would absolutely never find parking or inner peace ever again.

This is our native-ish cuisine: casual but intentional, nostalgic but sharp, comfort food with ambition, all wrapped in the most Los Angeles thing of all—vibes, baby. Vibes so strong they could make you say, “We should do this more,” and actually mean it.

So no, this isn’t a generic “best restaurants” list where I pretend I’m a neutral food robot who can enjoy things “objectively.” This is a list of places that feel like LA, that feed you like you actually live here, like you have opinions about oat milk, like you’ve cried in traffic and then immediately eaten something that healed you for thirteen minutes.

Yes, go hungry. And yes, go emotionally available, because some of these meals get inside you like a good di—p: messy, addictive, and suddenly you want more.

1. Gjusta
Venice — Deli-California, Loud in the Best Way
Gjusta is that friend who says, “I’m just grabbing a coffee,” and then somehow you’re three hours deep, holding a smoked fish sandwich like a newborn baby, and you’ve spent $47 without blinking. It’s part Jewish deli, part bakery temple, part “why am I turned on by a pastry case?” The energy is chaotic. The food is perfect. You will forgive the price because you are weak and the bread is strong.
Get: the fatty smoked salmon belly, plus whatever bread thing is flirting with you from the front case.
Vibe: linen shirt, sunglasses indoors, pretending you’re “just browsing” like you didn’t come here to black out on pickles.

2. The Benjamin Hollywood
Hollywood — American Comfort With Main-Character Lighting
You step into The Benjamin and sit up straight on instinct—like you’re being sized up by someone attractive, not graded. It’s Hollywood without the clown energy: warm, polished, adult. The menu is American in the best way: steakhouse-ish comfort, cocktails that know what they’re doing, and service that makes you feel like you belong there, even if you arrived with wet hair and trauma.
Get: whatever feels “classic,” plus a martini that lowers the volume on your problems.
Vibe: soft power dinner, even if the only thing you’re powerful in is your group chat and avoiding eye contact.

3. Max & Helen’s
Westside energy, Eastside attitude — American Diner That Everyone Swears They Found First
Max & Helen’s lives in that rare middle zone LA is always chasing: relaxed but elevated, welcoming but still kind of hot. The regulars act like they pay rent (complement). The newcomers act like they discovered it. Everyone looks like they have at least one therapist, at least one good story, and have found a slice of home in the four walls.
Get: the thing that sounds too simple to be special. It will be special. That will humble you.
Vibe: second-date energy: relaxed, promising, and you’re already plotting the next time.

4. Breakfast by Salt’s Cure
West Hollywood — Diner Breakfast, Cult Edition
This place understands a sacred truth: breakfast is either fuel or fantasy. Salt’s Cure is fantasy. The griddle cakes have the “how is this legal” texture. The whole meal feels like a warm hug from someone who can bench press your sadness.
Get: the griddle cakes. Do not argue. Do not negotiate.
Vibe: sunlight, coffee, healing. Also: butter. Also: you will consider forgiving someone you shouldn’t.

5. Le Great Outdoors
LA — All-American, Slightly Unhinged, Very Addictive
This is where you remember “American” can mean playful and scrappy and a little chaotic in a way that makes you feel alive. It’s like someone took summer camp food, made it actually taste good, and then let it keep its joy. No pretension, no lecture—just deliciousness and maybe a mild dare.
Get: whatever sounds like a risk. Let the food bully you a little.
Vibe: you’re laughing, you’re eating with your hands, you’re alive, you’re briefly the person who says, “We should do this more.”

6. Joan’s on Third
Mid-City — The Original “LA Lunch,” Still Undefeated
Joan’s is a rite of passage. You haven’t truly lived in LA until you’ve eaten something perfect while standing, holding a little tray, surrounded by people buying cookbooks they won’t read. It’s grocery-store cafe as lifestyle statement: salads, sandwiches, pastries, and a subtle sense that you should probably “clean up your act” even though you’re doing fine.
Get: Chinese chicken salad, a sandwich too big for your dignity, and a cookie you “share.”
Vibe: errands but make it sensual. Like you’re adulting, but in a cute outfit.

7. The Window
Silver Lake — Burger Simplicity With Zero Shame
The Window is what happens when someone respects a burger enough to not turn it into a TED Talk. It’s fast, satisfying, and deeply LA: minimal, confident, and best eaten while leaning against your car like it’s your dining room and the curb is fully booked.
Get: burger + fries. Keep it holy.
Vibe: the emergency contact of meals.

8. Cofax
Fairfax — Coffee Shop Breakfast That Hits Like a Playlist
Cofax is proof a breakfast burrito can be a personality trait. It’s a coffee shop with snack energy that turns into a full meal if you let it. Everything is portable, delicious, and made for people who are always “on the way to something” (even if that something is just spiraling privately).
Get: breakfast burrito + a coffee that repairs your brain chemistry.
Vibe: morning momentum. Sunglasses. A little swagger. Like you definitely didn’t wake up at 3 a.m. thinking about death.

9. Dudley Market
Venice — Seafood, Natural Wine, and the LA Fantasy Done Well
Dudley is coastal American in its most seductive form: seafood that tastes like vacation, wine that tastes like someone’s nepo-baby art-school era, and a room that sings like everyone is having the same good night at once. It’s intimate, a little loud, and weirdly hard to leave, like you got trapped in a good decision.
Get: oysters, crudo, something grilled, and another glass. Then shut up and accept joy.
Vibe: you came for one drink. You are now planning your entire summer around this feeling.

10. The Tower Bar
West Hollywood — American Glamour, Dark Arts Edition
Tower Bar is LA history with perfect posture. It’s dim, expensive, and slightly mean in a way that makes you want to behave—or misbehave on purpose. The menu is American classics with old-Hollywood confidence: deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail, martinis that could ruin your life (compliment, again).
Get: deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail, a martini that makes you honest.
Vibe: you’re not just eating. You’re participating in a scandal. Your pores are learning things.

The Point (Because There’s Always a Point)
“Best American restaurants” sounds like something a chain restaurant would put on a billboard next to a picture of a sad burger. But in LA, American food is personal. It’s bakeries and burger windows, power dinners and breakfast rituals, casual excellence and high-drama glamour.

These places aren’t just good. They’re repeat cravings. They’re where you take people when you want to show them who you are in this city—what you love, what you crave, how you spend a Sunday, how you recover from a Friday, how you celebrate, how you cope.

Eat with intention. Tip like you mean it. And if a place makes you feel something?
Go back. Tell people. Make it part of your life.