Best thing I ate: Restaurants never get risotto right, but this new spot in Laguna Beach does

Anyone who cooks risotto knows it can’t be rushed. More than any other rice dish, it requires patience and diligence. The rice needs to be stirred and stirred until the grains accept the ladles of broth poured in little by little. Just as...

The most obscurely located new restaurant in town? It may be Officine Brera, tucked into the rear of a parking lot at the end of 6th Street at the end of what seems like the world’s largest no-parking zone and located near a gun club a few steps...

If you were going to design a restaurant representing the new Venice Beach, the one where postmodern mansions crowd next to crumbling apartment blocks, and the narrow alleys sometimes resemble the streets near the Rialto, you might well come up...

I had not a single shred of doubt that the third and newest Cucina Alessa was going to be as good as the others. Even before it opened, I likened Alessandro Pirozzi to the James Cameron of OC Italian food—the rare auteur who can top his first...

Photo by Edwin Goei Is there anything better than a properly done steak? The answer to that is: Yes, when it’s paired with perfectly crisp potatoes. I had such a meal at the new Cambalache in Fountain Valley. It was utterly transcendent—one of the...