17 LA Spots To Order From On Caviar For Date Night
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Caviar
The annual holiday of love is rapidly approaching, and there’s no need to stress out about a last-minute reservation. Just light that “special occasion” candle, bust out some real plates, and bring a nice restaurant to your living room. No matter what you and your Valentine are in the mood for this year, Caviar will bring it right to our doorstep.
The Spots
In terms of the menu, Night + Market’s Silver Lake location is nearly identical to the original in West Hollywood, meaning the Thai food is still among the best you’ll find in LA. We love the crispy rice salad, chicken wings, khao soi, jungle curry, and just about everything else on the menu. If this is a new relationship, at least the spice will give you something to talk about.
Son of a Gun is the old reliable of the Animal/Jon & Vinny’s empire. No one really talks about it too much, but it’s always there when you need it, especially for Valentine’s Day. Order from every seafood section of the menu, and also get at least one fried chicken sandwich per person on the order.
LA’s outpost of the famous Brooklyn pizza spot, Roberta’s is an ideal way to celebrate getting through a year with almost no personal space between you and your significant other. This Culver City spot serves tremendous wood-fired pizzas - the iconic Bee Sting (with soppressata, basil, chile, and honey) is excellent, as is the Cheesus Christ (mozzarella, taleggio, parm, black pepper, and cream).
Nothing says love more than giant enchilada combo platters and the strongest margaritas in town, which is why El Compadre is an excellent choice for Valentine’s Day. Whatever you do though, be sure to order a large side of chips and salsa as well.
This East Hollywood institution has been a takeout machine for years, but is now doing delivery as well. That means a Valentine’s Day meal with taepo curry, morning glory salad, and the off-menu Jazz Burger.
Majordomo is a high-end Korean restaurant in Chinatown with a menu filled with items like kimchi fried rice, pork shoulder ssam, and bing. It’s a great option for a Valentine’s Day and another other day for that matter.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Ichijiku is an affordable neighborhood sushi bar in Highland Park. We recommend concentrating mostly on nigiri (the branzino and salmon are both standouts), but don’t shy away from the vegan offerings, either. From a beet roll with creamy tofu to roasted red pepper with lotus root, these rolls are as inventive as they are delicious.
Downtown Pasadena is no stranger to upscale restaurants, but Bone Kettle stands out from the crowd with one of the most interesting menus in the neighborhood. It leans Southeast Asian, and with dishes that range from nasi goreng to oxtail dumplings to pork belly sisig, it certainly covers a lot of ground. We also recommend getting involved with their excellent to-go cocktails as well.
Ronan is a fun Weho pizza spot with innovative pies to match, and those pies translate just as well to your living room (especially if you add in a couple bottles of wine and your one true love). The Sweet Cheeks is our favorite - this guanciale and ricotta-topped pie is sweet, spicy, and perfect. But that doesn’t mean the simple margherita isn’t also great - the red sauce, mozzarella, and basil are perfectly ratioed on every bite.
This spot is Permanently Closed.
Wood Spoon in Downtown LA has some of the best Brazilian food in town. That means seafood stew in a coconut sauce, almondegas with creamy polenta, and our favorite chicken pot pie in the entire world. And if your special someone deserves anything, it’s special chicken pot pie.
This upscale Southeast Asian spot checks all the boxes for a winter takeout meal - they’ve got comforting spicy soups, large plates of roasted meats, and some tremendous curries. Start with the spicy wontons stuffed with cod, shrimp, and country ham, then get the curried beef rendang, and finish it off with some laksa - a Peranakan coconut seafood stew that you’re going to require on every special occasion moving forward.
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Cardamom is one of the most underrated Indian restaurants in central LA, with an excellent menu that focuses primarily on dishes from the southwestern state of Kerala. Think madras curry, tandoori, and bhindi bhajee (spiced okra), but the biryani is not to be missed. It’s also important to note that, no matter what variety you order, spicy means spicy at Cardamom. Plan accordingly, and be prepared for your lips to still be sizzling well into the night, and well - at least something will be happening well into the night.
Guelaguetza is a standby Oaxacan restaurant in Koreatown, and if you’re missing their tremendous mole as much as we are, there’s good news: you can I love you with a quart of mole negro. If that doesn’t remind your person why they’re still with you, throw in a tlayuda, and some molotes de papa con chorizo - fried dough stuffed with potatoes and chorizo that you can dip (lovingly) into the mole.
You’re trying to plan a date and all you know is that oysters are aphrodisiacs and also they’ll make you look fancy. Order L&E Oyster, our favorite date spot in Silver Lake. They’re shucking oysters from both coasts, and you can get good drinks and any of their seafood dishes (or their burger) along with your dozen.
An upscale spot in Old Town Pasadena, Maestro serves excellent Mexican food. Some of our favorite dishes made it onto the delivery menu, like the tetela (stuffed blue born masa), marinated skirt steak, and scallop tacos. Plus, there’s cocktails to-go, as well as discounted bottles of wine and mezcal.
Orsa and Winston is an Italian-Japanese spot in DTLA that has only gotten better with age. They pull off the extremely rare trick of catering to both the casual crowd as well as the special occasion one, so you can really choose your own adventure when ordering your Valentine’s Day dinner here. They’re doing a special Valentine’s Dinner for two, which includes a five-course meal of Dungeness crab, chicory salad, artichoke soup, raviolo, and dessert. The regular menu will also be available, but it’s worth going big if you’re willing to splurge?
Milo + Olive’s menu is full of great things (oh hi, irresistible garlic knot). But if you’re going all-in on pizzas, you’ll be thrilled. They’re all around $22, and you’ll want to get the pork belly sausage and kale - you’ll never be so happy to be eating kale on pizza. If you’re on the Westside, this is the ideal Valentine’s Day go-to if you don’t want to make too big of a deal.