Critic’s Choice restaurants

Across the Table: The trend toward flying plates as diners engage in the ‘foodie pass’ at restaurants takes away the pleasure of ordering your own choice and not having to share.

Critic’s Choice: Smoke is a versatile tool for the savvy chef. Three Los Angeles-area restaurants that use it well: Hinoki & the Bird, Barney Greengrass and Horse Thief BBQ.

Critic’s Choice: Pancakes are an American comfort food favorite. Three L.A. eateries offer terrific examples: Cooks County, Valerie and Axe.

Critic’s Choice: Spago, Lucques and Bar Bouchon excel at bar food

Across the Table: Bonny Doon’s Randall Grahm bites into the cider trend, with a French twist.

Critic’s Choice: For those who love corn, creative dishes at Tar & Roses, Gjelina and Cliff’s Edge let you savor a summer flavor.

Across the Table: Bottarga, a taste once acquired, used to be worth smuggling back from Italy. Now that it’s more available, it’s worth seeking out, especially for spaghetti alla bottarga.

Critic’s Choice: Il Grano and Lucques in L.A. and Marché Moderne in Costa Mesa are among area restaurants that can indulge a fresh tomato craving.

Three Los Angeles area restaurants, Jar, Hinoki & the Bird and Chinois on Main, offer lobster dinners that are almost as good as being oceanside in Maine.

No mistaking when you meet Semsa Denizsel.

Once I had dinner at my friend Christine’s house in Paris. Three women and a big bowl of raw clams.

On summer nights, who doesn’t love a beer garden?

Not everybody appreciates sea urchin, but Fishing With Dynamite, Providence and Il Grano come through for those who do. Prepare for some intense sea funk.

Ask anybody about their favorite Italian restaurants and the list can be long. Spanish?

Osteria Mozza, Obika and RivaBella are among the Los Angeles restaurants taking advantage of the varieties of the milky white cheese.

On these beautiful, lazy mornings of late spring, brunch beckons like the promised land.

Roasted, wood-roasted or jidori style, these delicious dishes come with diverse flavors and are served in different settings.

Three restaurants around L.A. that serve fantastic flatbreads.

Remember when you couldn’t go to a restaurant without coming across yet another flourless chocolate cake?

Is ceviche poised to become as popular as sushi or sashimi in L.A.? It could happen.

According to my “Grande Enciclopedia Illustrata della Gastronomia,” carpaccio is the “celebrated preparation based on raw beef sliced as finely as prosciutto di Parma and variously garnished,” and was invented by Giuseppe Cipriani at Harry’s Bar in Venice.

Little Fork, Marché Moderne and M.B Post serve tasty mussel dishes.

Some 30 years after Wolfgang Puck introduced a wood-burning oven and his sophisticated pizza at the original Spago, we’re enjoying a pizza renaissance.

OK, we’ve all had our holiday fun and feasting.

Craving a giant iced platter of raw oysters? Try Cliff’s Edge, where they’re a bargain on Thursday nights; L&E Oyster Bar and its ‘daily dozen’; or Church & State downtown.

I’m always receiving emails or texts from friends needing to know (right away!)

It’s late November, and only in last few days has the weather cooperated to give us a taste of fall, and with it, a hankering for hearty cold-weather foods.

When Ben Ford introduced his Ford’s Filling Station in 2006, the fledgling gastropub was mobbed.

Brentwood’s Farmshop, Eva on Beverly and Santa Monica’s Huckleberry are dishing up homey and hearty three-course menus served family style.

With the economy still not entirely recovered, restaurants — and very good ones at that — are betting on happy hour deals to get customers in the door.

Whenever Italian friends come to stay, I’ve noticed they can go at most three, maybe four days before they can’t stand it anymore: They have to have some pasta.

How does your garden grow?

Summer prix-fixe market menus can be filled with surprises, such as pumpernickel-crusted fried green tomatoes at Josie, duck breast with potato confit at Papilles, and bittersweet chocolate torta at A.O.C.

Tavern, Bouchon and Clementine will give you a hand with gourmet options.

Proof Bakery in Atwater Village, Sycamore Kitchen on La Brea Avenue and Sweet Butter in Sherman Oaks are destinations unto themselves.

The idea is catching on with restaurants. Here are three to sample: lobster Mondays at Jar, salumi bar Thursdays at Mozza Scuola and focaccia Thursdays at A.O.C.

Pétrossian, Spago and Huckleberry are among the best spots in the L.A. area. But for Spago’s smoked salmon pizza, better go soon.

Who wants to eat lunch inside on these perfect early summer days?

Three restaurants are sure bets for outstanding duck dishes.

Reviewed: Valentino, Providence, Tierra Sur

Myself, I hate to eat dinner before it’s dark.

These days, small luxuries are what count. A leisurely bath.

Gish Bac, Feng Mao and Buenos Aires Grill are good, lesser-known barbecue spots in Los Angeles.

If it’s Friday, it’s stinco (roasted veal shank) at Angelini Osteria, short-rib mole tacos at BLD or whole roasted fish at Comme Ça.

The sheer variety available locally, with myriad fillings, textures and ethnic origins, boggle the mind and tempt the taste buds. Here are some favorites.

Fresh ideas for lunch include Café Livre, Cooks County, Milo & Olive, the Playground and Maison Giraud.

Southern California’s one big bowl of noodles for anyone who loves Southeast Asia’s many incarnations.

Reviewed: Ammo, A.O.C., Mezze, Marché Moderne, Tierra Sur

Thai, Korean, Chinese and Indian delicacies in L.A., Northridge, San Gabriel, Canoga Park and Inglewood.

The wealth of Southern California’s restaurant scene doesn’t lie just in big-name, fine-dining places.

The fellow I met at a holiday party had just one question for me: Where do you find a great steak in this part of the country?

For a lot of Angelenos, the holidays bring a craving for tamales — fat, corn-husk-wrapped packets of tender steamed masa filled with gooey melted cheese or shredded fall-apart pork or chocolatey chicken mole.

Here are several local eateries where the cheese course isn’t an afterthought, it’s a priority.

Crab stew, udon or hot pots.

Brunches for the holiday season: Playa, A.O.C., Eva Restaurant, Tasting Kitchen, Pétrossian, Palihouse Courtyard Brasserie and Short Order.

Stamp your breakfast passport at Little La Lune, Huge Tree Pastry, Flavors of Belize, Uyen Thy, Eatalian Café, Mama Fina, Rollie’s Bakery Café, Puro Sabor.

Hatfield’s, Mélisse, Patina, Providence, the Royce at the Langham Huntington, Saam at the Bazaar by José Andres and WP24 by Wolfgang Puck for special occasions.

Bruxie, Toni’s Soul Burger, Sattdown, Red Chili Express and King’s Burgers/Got Sushi? are unexpected places for unusual fare.

Hearty dishes and full-bodied wines are on the menu as autumn descends on Southern California, and these eateries make the most of it.

Specialty restaurants to explore beyond Korean barbecue.

Tapas destinations include the Bazaar by José Andrés, La Cachette Bistro, Bar Pintxo, Tasca Wine Bar and L’Epicerie Market.

Yamadaya, Mottainai, Shin-Sen-Gumi and Ikemen are among the best places for Japanese noodles.

Here’s a list of some of the Southland’s top spots.

Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles.