Every since they opened last year, Fraîche in Culver City is popular. Some people think it's even one of those "it" spots, winning over the unlikely types who have hardcore Eastside pride or are apt to opt out on spending their paycheck for mid to high priced food experiences. Yet, everyone seems to be going to check it out at least once. And when you do, make sure to check out their excellent cocktails and......

Maybe it's the absence of any background in this photo that makes this vegan burrito from Flore Vegan on Sunset in Silver Lake look so dang sexy. Or, if you're so inclined, maybe it's the absolute lack of any animal product or by-product that is sexy. Maybe it's just lunch time and you forgot your brown bag at home and would rather eat your own arm than eat at Carl's Jr. Our LAist Featured......

LAist Featured Photos pool contributor kristi.nicole shares with us a shot from a recent six course tasting menu meal at K-Zo in Culver City. Over on Yelp, K-Zo scores high with fans of high-end sushi, with one Yelper promising that if you hand yourself over to their Mr. Keizo for an omakase meal (where the sushi chef serves you what he wishes based on what's best on hand) "the master will take you on......

Some of us at LAist were among the first to take a bite (and a sip or two!) at the new Father's Office II in the Helms Bakery building. LAist Featured Photos pool contributor ">pink_fish13 also couldn't resist, but opted for this tasty looking twist on a steak salad instead of one of the Office's legendary burgers. Thoughts on the dish: "It was spicy and delicious!" Father's Office II 3229 Helms Avenue, Los Angeles......

We can't all be vegans, right? Some of us still appreciate meat. That's why this shot of some tempting ribs by neonspecs from our LAist Featured Photos Pool makes the perfect bite for our Eye Nosh series. Our foodie photographer explains where this plate came from: oh man. so good. but the best part was the little salad on the side. At Chinois on Main as part of the DineLA Restaurant Week(s), we ordered......

One of Los Angeles' best, and perhaps the most inventive, vegan restaurants is Pure Luck. Located in the unofficial Bicycle District, also casually known as Hel-Mel (for its Melrose and Heliotrope location), the restaurant, simply put, serves up pub food and micro beer. Above, LAist Featured Photos contributor sadjeans shares these jackfruit tacos, which LAist can confirm as delicious. Instead of tofu, jackfruit is a staple ingredient at Pure Luck and also makes an......

On this evening's earlier story about the fire at Off Vine, a reader posted their experience in the comments section: I was eating here with my family and friends for the first time after attending the play Wicked. The waiter had cleared our plates and we heard commotion on in the kitchen. I asked what was happening and was told there was a fire upstairs. We were seated in the table closest to the kitchen......

A fire reported at the address of Off Vine Restaurant on Leland Ave. in Hollywood has left the building with heavy fire damage after a 34 minute aggressive firefight, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey. At 5:20 p.m., a cell phone call prompted 86 firefighters to respond to the blaze, which was originally reported to be at a single family home, but later corrected as a home converted-to-restaurant....

LAist Featured Photos pool contributor pink_fish13 ordered up the Farmer's Market Salad from Milk. With all those tantalizing ice cream concoctions on their menu it's tough to remember that not only do they serve meals there, but they have fresh, light fare, like this salad which is dotted with a delicious kind of milk product: "yummy goat cheese!" says our photog. Milk 7290 Beverly Boulevard (323) 939-6455 LAist will be featuring more of these,......

The block on Vineland between Otsego and Hesby is turning into a nice eclectic group of storefronts, even if there are only three. Starting to the north, there is a random Pirate store. Next to that, a fairly new hookah lounge. And then there is Lotus Vegan, which opened last week with a chef from Vegan Express who decided to go on her own. You'll recognize the menu as it is similar too all those......

With Father's Office branching out to Culver City with a second location this week, an inspection of the Santa Monica original seemed in order. I'll confess, it was my first trip to the Office, but I'd be happy to spend more than a few 9-5s there. To call the gastropub a burger bar seems inadequate – the Father's Office burger shares about as much in common with its local competitors as a BMW does......

Hey, there, beer fans! The word is out on the street, Father's Office II in Culver City finally opens its doors tonight! You heard me. Rumors say 5pm. Our coverage of the preview party probably left you wanting more but starting tonight you get to see it for yourself, taste the gastropub fare goodness for yourself, choose from what looks to be a gazillion beers on tap and guzzle, I mean, savor, for yourself.......

Tranquility Base, downtown's newest restaurant/bar, celebrated its grand opening with a "first annual" springtime cocktail party last night. There were some passed hors d'oeuvres, a cocktail tasting to choose the restaurant's featured cocktail and lots of dressed-up 30-something revelers enjoying the warm evening by the outdoor firepit.......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Soul Vegetarian opened up last summer in the nightclub space, but quickly closed a couple months ago. Not to fear, however, Jewel, who owns the building, continued the short lived soul food vegan restaurant near the corner of Pico and Crenshaw. "I've been a vegan for twenty-some years," she said, "and it was a dream of mine to open up a vegan restaurant." Soul Vegetarian (not to be confused with......

Brunchtime is one of life's great ironies. You want to go out, relax, enjoy the company of other people, eat enough to fill you up two meals' worth, sip your beverage slowly, and take your time. And because you are not alone in this pursuit, you tend to go where lots of people go, because they want the same thing. But all those people means all that waiting. But what happens when you find a......

This post was written by Lindsay William-Ross and Elise Thompson. Here at LAist, we consider our restaurant reviews to be recommendations, not critiques. We only slam a place when our hand is forced. There are just some people who should not go into any industry where dealing with the public is a chief priority. It truly pains us to do this. We so wanted to love Krust. We so wanted to write a glowing review......

Eating L.A. caught a Craigslist post touting that Sante La Brea did up a new menu, compliments of Chef Gordon Ramsay. In a phone conversation with the health conscious restaurant, who LAist visited last May to try vegan pizza, they said an episode of Kitchen Nightmares will feature them around next October. Their website points towards their new name, Sante Cuisine, with a new menu to be posted "soon" (whatever that means). For now, to......

...Or at least most of it is! Finally, a first look at the inside of the second Father's Office. My husband, one of the most ardent FO groupies I've ever met, drives past the new location at the Helms Bakery in Culver City everyday, in the hungry hope of catching the plywood coming down, or (gasp!), the "open" sign beaming beer & burger hope into the night sky. Today, at least part of his prayers......

An ancient cuisine is hoping to attract new fans in downtown Los Angeles: Shojin, an organic Japanese restaurant whose menu is inspired by Buddhist vegetarian principles, has opened in Little Tokyo. Traditional "shojin" cuisine is a plant-based, essentially vegan diet, which Buddhists adhere to as a form of spiritual discipline. So, of course, what better theme for a trendy new Downtown restaurant? I kid, I kid: but the menu is bound to appeal to......

Van Hunt plays the Temple Bar tonight, the third and last in a series of LA shows | Photo via his MySpace page The Guide to March Rock Music Residencies has been updated with a few more listings -- it seems as if residencies are catching on, which is a good thing. Meanwhile, Howlin Rain plays their last LA concert before a tour promoting their new album, Magnificent Fiend, that was released yesterday. Nicole......

The Hackensaw Boys | Photo via their MySpace Our brain is going to explode with all the great choices tonight. From friggin' amazing jazz (see, we're not swearing) at UCLA to folk-punk sensibilities of The Hackensaw Boys at Tangier in Los Feliz (video after the jump), tonight is a bounty of gold. Also, Jim Bianco will be at Amoeba and it's the first night for Wednesday night March residencies. Howlin' Rain @ Spaceland Jim......

A Zen Day at LACMA, Flipped | Photo by pink_fish13 from LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Monday Markus Flanagan presents One Less Bitter Actor 7pm @ Book Soup Dee Dee Myers presents Why Women Should Rule the World 7pm @ Vroman's John Richardson signs A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years 7pm @ LACMA Tuesday Tony D'Souza presents The Konkans 7pm @ Book Soup Tom Cathcart & Daniel Klein present Aristotle & an......

Photos by Zach Behrens/LAist It's a sad day week for those who frequent Fairfax Village, for those who need a late-night nosh alternative to Canter's Deli, or for those who love some vegan pizza -- Nova Express Cafe announced (letter below) that they are closing their doors this Wednesday at 2 a.m. (not be too confusing, that would officially be Thursday, 3 hours in). According to Cary Long, the owner of the Sci-Fi 15-year-old......

"hey, i wanna check out this new place daily candy wrote about today. the waffle. i checked out their menu and it sounds cool and they're open til 4am on fri/sat nites." My friend Shelley IM'd me this last week. I gave their menu a look-see, Googled them and found that not only Daily Candy wrote about them but LAist, LA Times' The Guide and Eater LA. "I can't believe I found out about......

Fallout from the massive Westland/Hallmark meat recall scandal continues to affect Southland restaurants, stretching from San Diego to Ventura County. The California Department of Public Health has released a document listing every food purveyor which has purchased the recalled beef -- and at 59+ pages, it's a doozy. Chances are very good you have purchased or ingested some of Westland/Hallmark's product at some point, since markets and restaurants across the city are represented. My......

Use Last.Fm? Thanks to LAist reader, thecoloured, you can join our new LAist Last.Fm group! If you're staying Westside tonight, check out the hybrid jazz-alt-folk band, 1921a, at McCabe's Guitar Shop. They'll be there with Matt Taylor and his Laurels. Cat Power and the Dirty Delta Blues @ The Wiltern MSTRKRFT With DJ Z-Trip, La Riots and Diabetic @ Henry Fonda Spindrift, Spirit Army, Moonrats, Restaurant @ Spaceland......

Photo by Beth Kopley in her LAist review of Square One Dining That's at least according to Details magazine's March issue which hits stands this week. In a list of top breakfast spots in large cities around the country, they give major kudos to Square One Dining, which also happens to be a favorite of LAist's.This spare storefront with apricot-colored walls is where Robert Lee and Hayden Ramsey, both alums of top-notch kitchens, lavish......

View Larger Map The call went out at 3:52 p.m., 55 firefighters arrived on the scene and the fire was out by 4:06 p.m. at the California Roll Factory, a sushi restaurant at 11629 Santa Monica Blvd. across from one of our favorite bistros in Los Angeles -- Nook. In other sushi restaurant destruction news, a SUV accelerated into TokyoIce on Ventura Blvd. in Encino, leaving a path of destruction and hurting one on Saturday.......

I fell in love with Porto's Bakery long before I ever actually visited one of their Glendale or Burbank bakeries -- they've always been our go-to place for catered meals at work. It only took one bite of one of their famous potato balls to convince me that this was a place I HAD to visit. But even though I drive by the Burbank location almost every weekend on my way to Costco or......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist *Update 5:00 p.m.* A beige Lexus SUV attempting to enter into the neighboring commercial building couldn't complete the turn, and mistakenly hit the accelerator rather than the brake. The motion sent the driver on a diagonal path through the awning of Barry's Tickets, then through the patio and front of Tokyo Ice, a sushi restaurant at 16161 Ventura Blvd. The business was preparing for its 5 o'clock opening and was......