New Additions to MICHELIN Guide California July 2024

Healdsburg

Molti Amici
Cuisine: Italian

Wine country certainly has no shortage of this sort of casual Italian eatery, with a menu featuring the expected wood-fired pizzas and house-made pastas—but few of them manage to hit their mark quite so dead on as they do here. They may not be reinventing the wheel, but those pizzas are ideally blistered and feature simple but compelling toppings like squash blossom with fontina and balsamic, and the pastas, like a satisfying take on bucatini amatriciana topped with crunchy breadcrumbs, offer an ideally al dente chew. On one of Healdsburg’s not-infrequent balmy days, the enclosed patio, complete with bocce court, is indeed an excellent spot to gather with “many friends,” as suggested by the name.

La Jolla

Ambrogio by Acquerello
Cuisine: Italian

This friendly, cozy La Jolla offshoot of a celebrated restaurant outside of Milan has a vibe somewhere between humble and sophisticated, for a comfortable experience that’s none too precious. The style that chefs Choi Cheolhyeok and Silvio Salmoiraghi shaped at the original is a contemporary, minimalist approach to Italian that incorporates elements of Chef Choi’s Korean background. Guests can choose between an extended or abbreviated tasting, with both vegetarian or omnivorous options, featuring the likes of green tagliolini with spring onion, mushroom, and nori, or crisp fried squab breast with a charred radicchio and red wine sauce. A list of Italian wines, as well as sakes, will make fine pairings.

Los Angeles

Barra Santos
Cuisine: Portuguese

Snag a seat outside or in at this small, no reservations restaurant in Cypress Park. Inside, the best seats are at the bar with a view into the kitchen. The focused menu is Portuguese and even features some family recipes. Plenty of items are designed for sharing, including their crispy and tender bacalhau fritters with salt cod, potato, and caramelized onion, or charred cabbage over a bed of white beans studded with Iberico pork and garlic butter sauce. Their whole branzino with a flavorful green sauce made with pumpkin seeds, roasted serranos, and tomatillos is an absolute must. Finally, spiced almond cake with whipped crème fraîche is a nice ending.

Danbi
Cuisine: Korean

Danbi sports a sleek, modern dining room with an industrial feel (think concrete floors, hanging plants, and dark wood tables) as well as a large bar for bites and sips like their "kimchi mule."

Chef Lareine Ko's streamlined menu pops with large, shareable plates. The hit list includes  mushroom bibimbap with fresh vegetables, as well as a crispy scallop pancake accompanied by a creamy mentaiko sauce. Wagyu Zabuton, cooked over charcoal and served on a hot cast iron skillet over a bed of grilled onions, is a solid winner. End the meal with one of Chef Isabell Manibusan's pastries—perhaps the almost-nostalgic banana milk cloud with brûléed meringue and banana milk crème anglaise, or the Mont Halla, a Korean twist on a Mont Blanc.

Grá
Cuisine: Pizza

There's a welcoming vibe at this hip spot where the focus is on natural fermentation with sourdough pizza, seasonal pickled vegetables, and fermented drinks such as tepache. Grá has indoor and covered patio seating, but all eyes will be on the cooks preparing pizzas in their wood-fired oven. It's all about the thin and crispy sourdough crust with high quality toppings. Classics like pepperoni will always rule, but hard hitters like stracciatella and prosciutto with basil and a drizzle of coffee-infused honey are worth noting. While pizza is certainly the scene stealer, don't ignore their salads or appetizers, including grilled maitake with pickled green peppercorn and agretti in a flavor-packed broth. For dessert, go for the soy-sauce caramel sundae or chocolate tart. 

Leopardo
Cuisine: Californian

Chef Joshua Skenes is back on the scene with Leopardo, a likeable spot with a laidback feel where the menu leans on seafood with a few pizzas thrown in for good measure. Come with a group to sample a variety, beginning with crispy red flint waffles with bordier butter and maple syrup, and splurge by adding Ossetra caviar aged for six months with country bacon salt. Then, tuck into a raw bar offering, perhaps the live prawn crudo with a kumquat and habanero sauce. A classic margherita pizza is never a bad idea or opt for their Hello Satan pizza with wild honey, chili, salumi, and herbs. End on a sweet note with tiramisu or a wild blackberry hand pie, made even better by adding soft serve. 

Cocktails like "Rhubarb like a Negroni" or a "Barbeque Old Fashioned" are impressive.

Mae Malai Thai House of Noodles
Cuisine: Thai

Just a short walk from their original food stall, this restaurant's strip mall digs are simple but it's a comfortable, welcoming spot with a tempting menu to boot. As the name suggests, their specialty is noodles, particularly boat noodles with a thick, intense broth and your choice of pork or beef, noodle type, and spice level. Fret not if you can't decide, as the bowls are small and ordering two or more varieties might just be the perfect compromise. Don't skip out on their stir-fried dishes, such as the boldly spiced chili holy basil with ground pork, bell peppers, and green beans. For dessert, choose from coconut ice cream or kanom tuay, a two-layer custard featuring a green layer infused with fresh pandan leaf, and a white layer with coconut.

Stella
Cuisine: Italian

Italian food with local California products is the promise at Stella, where a two-story dining room has an Art Deco flair, and the chef's counter offers a mesmerizing look at live-fire cooking.

Don't miss the lardo di Colonanta, a dish of thinly sliced and meltingly soft lardo paired with strawberries, razor-thin caciocavello cheese, and a balsamic amaro. Su Filindeu is an impressive pasta dish with hand-stretched noodles cooked in bone broth accompanied by braised lamb neck and pecorino dolce. Other sure bets include Iberico pork pluma with porchetta spices, saba lacquer, and hens yolk cooked over the live fire, or opt for a hand-made pizza. Finally, cassata Sicilliana is a delicious dessert to cap off the meal. 

San Francisco

Azalina’s
Cuisine: Malaysian

Chef Azalina Eusope continues to make her mark as an ambassador for Malaysian cuisine in this cleverly designed space that calls to mind a tropical hideaway ensconced in the rough-and-tumble Tenderloin.

The menu is a frequently changing seasonal prix fixe with dishes that offer her own interpretation of flavors she grew up with— think California meets Penang. Quality ingredients and creativity are hallmarks, seen in a dish of "economy noodles" with fermented chili paste, topped with barbecued quail and toasted hazelnuts, or steelhead trout baked in banana leaves. Her pastry training is evident in a complex dessert of pandan custard with water chestnut and coconut granita, served with a take on kuih kasturi, a mung bean fritter filled with jackfruit and sweet red bean.

Hed 11
Cuisine: Thai

Perched in a swanky space at the corner of the Kimpton Hotel Enso, this ambitious Thai project from Chef Piriya "Saint" Boonprasan and owner Naruephon "Billie" Wannajaro gives a hint to its concept right in the name: an 11-course menu that celebrates regional Thai flavors with a contemporary style. The price point doesn’t lend itself to dining on a budget, but despite its variety, the meal won’t over-tax your schedule, with most of the courses arriving together as a sort of miniature banquet for the main. Sweet and savory are blended throughout the menu, whether in bites like a coconut pancake with lime and caviar, a take on khanom jeen sao nam with seared scallop paired with chilled rice noodles, tangy pineapple, and garlic, or even a Thai-style cheesecake with crispy fried onions and passionfruit syrup.

Tiya
Cuisine: Indian

Brothers Sujan and Pujan Sarkar combine their talents as co-chefs at this boutique space at the edge of Cow Hollow. Their cooking deploys seasonal produce like squash blossoms, artichokes, and ramps to lend a Californian edge to an intriguing contemporary take on Indian cuisine. Both a la carte and tasting options give equal billing to vegetarian dishes and feature lively textures, whether it’s tender, keema-style jackfruit with crunchy potato, or an eggless take on a bhurji roll, made with paneer and crispy kataifi. The elegant room adds an additional layer of sophistication, down to a well-appointed bar, which offers unique cocktails named in honor of San Francisco neighborhoods.

Santa Barbara

Silvers Omakase
Cuisine: Japanese/Sushi

With just a handful of seats and a small staff, this omakase from Chef Lennon Silvers Lee is ever-changing. Some things change daily, while others change weekly, but one thing you can always expect is well-executed dishes made with rice from Japan that is milled in house, and fish that is sourced both locally and from Japan and then dry aged.

Arrive early and enjoy a glass of sparkling wine before being called in, as all guests are seated and served at the same time. Enjoy one or two small dishes before a parade of nigiri, which may include hamachi, shima aji, as well as bluefin tuna. Their uni rice is deliciously mixed with wasabi and topped with masago arare for a bit of crunch, marking the end of the savory dishes before a dessert of sorbet made in house. 

Oakland

Burdell
Cuisine: American

Chef Geoff Davis named this nostalgic, homy Temescal spot after his grandmother, whose cooking informs his own fresh personal take on soul food. The small menu is a blend of staples like collard greens and fried chicken (though these are tweaked with the addition of berbere and pickle brine, respectively), novelties like an appetizer of chicken liver mousse with cornmeal waffle, and more broadly contemporary, Southern-inflected fare like a halibut crudo with buttermilk and grapefruit, or dry-aged duck with cherry "drippings" and dirty rice. Desserts follow a similar style, like strawberry shortcake with strawberry rhubarb jam and sorghum whipped cream. A particularly thoughtful wine list offers a wealth of options for afficionados, and who doesn’t love fried chicken with champagne?

May's Newest Additions

Cedro Italian Restaurant
Cuisine: Italian

Three Italian friends banded together to open this welcoming spot, named for their grandparents' love for cedro, or citron, plants. Don't let the strip mall location fool you—this place is especially inviting, and the food is authentic Italian in both technique and flavor. Skillfully made by hand, pasta dishes rank high. Tagliatelle topped with a ragu sauce, grated parmesan and a drizzle of high-quality olive oil is proof positive that good ingredients and extra care always deliver the best results. Ossobuco served over a bed of saffron risotto is wonderfully tender and flavorful, and sized for sharing. End on a sweet note with their tiramisu or panna cotta—neither will disappoint.

Elf Cafe
Cuisine: Mediterranean

There are no elves running the show at this intimate spot but with just three people staffing the kitchen throughout service, they're certainly working like Santa's helpers. It's a wine bar, so expect a nice selection of bottles, but there's also cider and beer, as well as non-alcoholic offerings. Originally fully vegetarian, Elf Cafe has tweaked its Mediterranean-minded menu to now include animal proteins. Case in point? The lamb skewers, marinated and seared to a crisp crust. Paired with a refreshing yogurt sauce and onions hit with sumac, it's skillfull and satisfying. For a vegetable-focused plate, consider the maitake, grilled over a wood fire, topped with chimichurri, and served over a smashed potato with a ramekin of ají verde for dipping. Craving something sweet? Warm date cake with rich caramel sauce and pomegranate seeds does the trick.

Lola Gaspar
Cuisine: Mexican

This gastropub in downtown Santa Ana isn't new but a post-pandemic reset and a trip to Mexico changed Chef Luis Perez's mindset—and menu. It's all about quality over quantity here, so expect a tightly edited menu featuring tacos, quekas, and churros, but it's all very good. Happy hour discounts make sampling it all a tempting proposition. Tacos are made with handmade flour tortillas topped with a grilled tomato and dried chili salsa and filled with everything from sauteed shrimp to pork shank carnitas and suadero. Quekas feature hand-pressed masa and are served with a habanero salsa. While the vegan mushroom queka is worth ordering by itself with nicely sauteed mushrooms, confit potatoes, and guacamole, you can also opt to add cheese for a wonderful addition.

Lustig
Cuisine: Austrian

Clean and modern with pops of bright red to keep things playful, this spot from Chef Bernhard Mairinger is Austrian centric but draws influences from around the globe. The dishes are shareable and the wine list is as interesting as the menu, with selections skipping across central Europe. Order as a flight to pair with creative dishes such as steak tartare "paprikash," a riff on the traditional starter mixing in smoked paprika and topping with grilled asparagus, a raw quail egg and a kaiser roll. Perfectly thin and crispy wiener schnitzel is then ramped up with blistered shishito peppers and smashed roasted potatoes, while a lingonberry and yuzu chutney adds a nice hint of sweetness to round out the dish.

Manohar’s Delhi Palace
Cuisine: Indian

Manohar's Delhi Palace is a mainstay thanks to their delicious Punjabi cuisine, and there's a welcoming vibe about this place, where the waitstaff is especially friendly and attentive. Indicative of its north Indian focus, the food here leans on the milder side, so don't expect an onslaught of spices. Order à la carte or go all in on the tandoori dinner but be sure to get an order of the samosas, fried to a perfect crisp with that comforting filling of potatoes and peas. Chicken tikka masala features a generous amount of tender and juicy chicken that's skewered and seared before being added to the vibrant sauce. For dessert, the gulab jamun is a clear winner.

Hero image: Naruephon Wannajaro / Hed 11
Thumb image: Neetu Laddha / Tiya