Los Angeles is up to its hips in ingénue chefs, and Josiah Citrin is one of the tops. Melisse is his flagship restaurant and if you’re looking for an ultra swank French experience, this is your place. More traditional French than California-French, this is a foodie experience for those with sophisticated palettes attuned to sauces, marinades, and complimentary flavors. Generously spaced tables in a large dining room with attention to plating, stemware, and presentation, Melisse is designed to be one of the best dining experiences you can find.

(310) 395-0881, 1104 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica

The lure of Matsuhisa is supposed to be the star power of its chef, Nobuyuki Matsuhisa. Nobu is the Mac Daddy of international Japanese chefs, having mastered sushi by age twenty, moved to Peru and incorporated South American seafood styles into his Kung Fu skills. Frankly, I was pretty unimpressed – especially given the price tag at the end of the meal. Four of us ate for $600. That was dinner for four, with only two drinkers. $600! And we were still hungry afterwards! Nobu’s sushi was fine, but I’ve had fresher at the locals-only sushi bars downtown for a fraction of the price. At its core the secret of sushi is the freshness and quality of the fish. Some days it’s perfect, some days you need a lot of lemon juice. I’ve been exceedingly harsh in verbal reviews of Matsuhisa to friends, because I’m one of those people who likes a good story with dramatic beats, but now that I’m committing it to searchable digital ink I suppose I should admit that the worst thing about the meal was that it was wholly forgettable – other than the sticker shock. I’m in debt to my parents for taking me out to a meal that was as much as the rent on my studio apartment at the time, God knows these places are out of my reach. But at those prices Matsuhisa is catering to a crowd most of us can’t even afford to park next to. I don’t even want to think about the price of a door ding repair on a $250,000 Bentley GT. Come to think of it, I don’t have to. An appetizer should just about cover it.

(310) 659-9639, 129 N La Cienega Blvd, Beverly Hills

Perhaps one of my favorite dishes on earth is the bastilla, a peasant pie made of layers of filo dough, quail, egg, cinnamon, and sugar. I swoon at the combination of sweet and savory, and my one attempt at making the dish failed spectacularly. I should add that I tried to make it for vegetarians, replacing quail with tofu, I was baking in Lake Tahoe at 5,000 feet elevation, and I’d never worked with filo dough before. Perhaps I should try again on more familiar turf. But why? Marrakesh does a spectacular bastilla, a gargantuan plate served family style. In fact, the best way to enjoy Marrakesh is with a large group, for the menu is set with three price options. The whole table agrees upon the price/course quantity they wish to pay, as well as a few choices of meats, and then the plates just start coming. I’ve had a few birthday parties here, as well as celebratory dinners. They’ve always done a fantastic job, attentive to our party, and gregarious in their welcome. A word of warning: Marrakesh has belly dancers who may lure you into joining them. Like airport valets, beggars in Rome, and strippers, stuffing a few dollars at them will make them go away.

13003 Ventura Blvd. Studio City

Mandarette is an outstanding, reliable, somewhat upscale Chinese restaurant that serves delicious traditional Chinese dishes with superb flavors. While the menu has your favorite delivery items, Mandarette is hands above anything you can get sent to your door. When I’m in a pinch to take a friend out to dinner I can rely on Mandarette to offer a bounty of options as well as a laid-back atmosphere where everyone from celebrities to neighborhood locals can get a great dinner. Entrees tend to run between $8 and $14 depending on meat vs. seafood, and soups are shared for two at $7. Two will eat for about $50.

(323) 655-6115, 8386 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles

With chicken diseases sweeping all over California, it’s more important that ever to know where your meat is coming from and who is preparing it. I mean, when Uganda stops accepting poultry from you, it’s time to take notice. To that end, you usually can’t go wrong with traditions that go back five thousand years. A strict kosher restaurant is supervised by rabbis to ensure that all meat is thoroughly cleaned, killed quickly and efficiently with a single slash to the throat, dried and drained of blood, and kept far away from bacteria. You will get a lot more salt from kosher meats, as they are packed in salt to pull the blood out of the carcass. But it’s better than eating congealed muck cooked into your food, that’s for sure. Magic Carpet serves traditional Yemeni cuisine, which looks a lot like most Mediterranean restaurants, but is done with a different ratio of spices. In fact, what separates most middle eastern regions from another is not what spices and ingredients they use, but which ones they favor. When you’re all drawing from the fertile crescent, it’s how much you use of your bountiful crop source that counts. Magic Carpet is like eating over at a friend’s kitchen than a regular restaurant. A vast menu of grilled and roasted beef, lamb, and chicken, soups, stews, and more. Two people can eat for thirty bucks.

(310) 652-8507, 8566 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles

I’m in love! Brazilian barbecue, a.k.a. meat-a-go-go is pretty much my favorite thing on earth after eating at M Grill. For $28 you get the hot and cold buffet of fried bananas, yucca mashed potatoes, pork stews, salads, vegetables, and more. But the real action are the discs you’re given, green on one side and red on the other. These are indicators to the bronze Brazilian men with gleaming white teeth to bring whatever meat they have on their skewer over to your table and carve you off a hunk. There were at least six different kinds of meats being served on rotation including pork sausage, smoked pork, tri-tip, sirloin, and a limited supply of an amazing brisket. This is all you can eat meat, and M Grill does an amazing job. As my dining companion said as he flipped his disc to green, “it’s go time”.

(213) 389-2770, 3832 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles (enter from parking lot behind building)