Anne Fishbein

Barbrix in Silver Lake

Ah, Silver Lake. Home of hipsters, celebrities and -- not very many good restaurants. Or, more accurately, a whole lot of pretty bad restaurants. But while Silver Lake hasn't had the food boom you might expect, given the price of housing in the neighborhood (seriously, a tiny Spanish bungalow with a million dollar mortgage ought to get you 10 great restaurants within walking distance), there are actually quite a few great places to eat. Although we could fill this list with vaguely decent, hippy-tinged eateries from up and down Sunset, we've tried to make it a bit more eclectic, both in terms of cuisine type and geography. Turn the page for the 10 terrific places in Silver Lake that are helping to ease the pain of all that rent money, and all those hipsters.

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E. Dwass

Karlos and Kokes' Oaxacan Eggs Benedict

The phrase "breakfast in the west San Fernando Valley" may not have quite the same ring to it as, say, "springtime in Paris." But if you're bleary-eyed, hung-over or just plain hungry, the suburbs can provide some great meals to start your day. Whether it's a classic dish like eggs and hash browns, or something more exotic, such as spicy shakshuka, the SFV offers an array of praise-worthy breakfast choices. Coffee and a little something sweet? A plate with a meal to keep you fueled all day? We started at the far west end of Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills and worked our way east into Tarzana, taking a detour to check out some places off the main drag. Turn the page.

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Chris Jolly

Third Street at night

In a city where nobody walks, here's a street that imminently walkable. While our low stucco architecture bears no resemblance to the brownstones of New York City, Third Street -- between La Cienega and Fairfax -- has become a Manhattan-esque mish-mash of bars, restaurants, cafes, dry cleaners, boutiques, and exercise studios.

This one-mile stretch has places for people who want to be seen (weekend brunch at Toast) and for people who want to hide (St. Nicks on a Tuesday); for families pushing strollers (Magnolia Bakery on Sunday morning) and girls dressed in their Vegas best (The Churchill on Saturday night). The street has had a lot of turnover the past year, and more to come, but here are some of the current best bets on the block.

Street parking can be hard to find unless you happen to live in the neighborhood, but there's valet up and down the street, and parking structures at either end: in the Beverly Center and The Farmers Market/Grove. Want to make it a real New York night? Take a cab, and create your own pub-and-grub crawl.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Xiao Long Bao, Dean Sin World

The first U.S. city with an Asian population majority, Monterey Park has been referred to as "the Chinese Beverly Hills" and "the first suburban Chinatown." When it comes to doing a food crawl, it will obviously skew heavily to Chinese cuisine. Indeed, a top 10 could consist solely of Chinese restaurants, but that would be missing excellent representatives of other Asian cuisines, and so much more.

Eateries dot the city thoroughfares of Atlantic, Garfield and Garvey. While the clusters around the intersections with Garvey are easily walkable, you'll probably want to take a car for outposts further east on Garvey or over the hill on Atlantic. Portions are large and prices low. Because of this, you'll probably want to bring friends and get a bit more walking in. For that, the Atlantic Times Square provides a strollable city centerpiece with additional dining options, shops and a place to see first-run Chinese movies. From dim sum palaces to late night Hong Kong cafés to tiny dumpling houses and everything in-between, you can find it in Monterey Park. Here are our picks for Top 10 eats. Turn the page.

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LA Weekly Flickr photo pool / R. E. ~

neon sushi sign in Little Tokyo

L.A.'s Little Tokyo is home to at least 100 eateries -- Japanese and non-Japanese, old and new, traditional and innovative. And it is just about 0.13 square miles in size -- dense, compact, and easily explored on foot. (Roughly bounded between 4th, Alameda, Temple, and Los Angeles streets.) That means just one thing: It is the ideal setting for our ultimate grub crawl fantasy. Imagine the chance to explore a colorful, historic neighborhood bite by bite, from early morning to late at night. We've devised a potential walking tour featuring ten of our favorite foodie spots. (Plus a few extra. The trick is to graze!) What about the other 90-something restaurants? Well, now you have at least that many reasons to come back.

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Barbara Hansen

Jet Tila at Ruen Pair

Want to fantasize that you're Anthony Bourdain, slurping up the same boat noodles that he did when No Reservations explored Hollywood's Thai Town?

Now you can, because the same guide who took Bourdain around will take you, too. L.A. chef Jet Tila, long the go-to person for visiting chefs wanting to do Thai, has just started Thai Town excursions for everybody, in conjunction with Melting Pot Food Tours.

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Clarissa Wei

Fatty pork over rice at Tofu King

Some call it the "new Chinese Beverly Hills." For others, it's just the city where Din Tai Fung and the Los Angeles County Arboretum are located. But look closely and you'll see a lively food community in an otherwise very suburban neighborhood.

Arcadia is the home of the recently relocated 626 Night Market and with a high concentration of eateries alongside Baldwin Avenue and Duarte Street, the city houses some of the finest Asian restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley. Prices are cheap, interiors are cleaner than most SGV eateries and service isn't all that bad.

Mirroring the population demographics, a good majority of the food in Arcadia is Taiwanese-inspired. Think stinky tofu platters, freshly-cooked Taiwanese sausages, saucy oyster pancakes and great offal selections. If Formosa specialties aren't your thing, there are standouts like the Korean Young Dong Tofu and the cornmeal crust pizzeria Zelo.

Because of the city's suburban layout, walking isn't exactly the preferred means of transportation. Sure, it's possible, but it's better to bring a loaded SUV with a good few of your buddies for this neighborhood grub crawl because most of the food is family-style. You may not be able to hit up all these places in one visit, but make sure to make room for a final stop at one of the city's teahouses for dessert: AU79 Teahouse, if you're all about tea and boba quality, or Honey Boba, if you crave sugary sweetness.

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G. Snyder

Som Tam at Krua Siri

Some call it East Hollywood, but many more know it as Thai Town, a glowing, neon causeway of great late-night restaurants, karaoke bars and slingers of Chang beer towers. It's an area of town that not only welcomes after-hours consumption but glorifies it --- filled with brimming bowls of pungent noodle soup, plump fried shrimp balls and spicy salads made with a laundry list of exotic ingredients. Here's a rundown of our favorite places to eat in Thai Town.

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Anne Fishbein

ramen at Jinya

Just north of the intersection of Sawtelle and Olympic, in the neighborhood known as Little Osaka, there's a quadrant of Los Angeles with so much outstanding food crammed into a relatively small space that it makes you wonder why these neighborhood planners can't have a crack at other parts of town. Little Osaka has always been a terrific food neighborhood, but with the recent popularity of ramen, both here and in Japan, ramen shops have been popping up like, well, pop-ups. And many of them feel like that -- tiny, informal, created seemingly overnight from vats of steaming pork broth and the twisted yarn of floured noodles, kanji-decorated banners suddenly fluttering above open doorways like the nautical flags of newly-arrived ships.

Yes, this is an actual Los Angeles walking neighborhood, where you can get superior sushi, oden, okonomiyaki, tsukemen and ramen without having to repark -- or do more than cross the street. Sure, it would be more fun to food crawl in Roppongi or Shinagawa, but it's good to know you don't have to shell out for a ticket. Now if only somebody would install those noodle shop payment machines.

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View Westwood Sandwich Walk in a larger map

Who says L.A. isn't a walking town? I mean, sure, we might not be known for our crowded sidewalks, but it's worth mentioning we ended up on the higher rungs of Walk Score's 2011 list of walkable cities in America. (We're number 13! Take that Jacksonville!) With that in mind, we compiled some food-centric walkabouts that will allow you park, ride, or walk to a certain neighborhood and hit up several of our favorite food stops at once. Just make sure to bring a friend or two so you can finish the crawl without being wheeled out on a gurney.

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