Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica provides the fodder for this week's restaurant review. We highly recommend reading the full review, but if you're strapped for time check out the condensed version below, which also includes a few extra tidbits.
Anne Fishbein Grilled Zuckerman's asparagus, bone marrow gravy, sunny egg, brioche at Rustic Canyon
Corazon y Miel is the subject of this week's restaurant review. You can read the full review over in the food section, or turn the page for the condensed version.
Anne Fishbein Ceviche at Corazon y Miel
This week, the restaurant review considers Hinoki and the Bird, the new Century City restaurant from David Myers. We urge you to read the full review, but you can read the vital-stats-only version below:
Anne Fishbein The bar at Hinoki and The Bird
Remember Liam, the 3rd grader who wrote a fantastic essay about his visit to ink. a few months back? Well, he's at it again, this time putting his efforts towards a review of Hart and the Hunter. 
Anne Fishbein The Hart and the Hunter
This week, we turn our reviewing pen to LYFE Kitchen, the new health-conscious would-be chain in Culver City. We urge you to read the full review here, or look after the jump for a condensed version, plus some extras.
Anne Fishbein Beets and farro salad at LYFE Kitchen.
This week, our restaurant review considers Allumette in Echo Park, the new spot from young chef Miles Thompson. To get the full rundown on this somewhat astonishing restaurant you should read the full review. Or turn the page for a synopsis. 
Anne Fishbein Pork coulotte steak, creamed mustards, shell bean, fried green tomato and pecan at Allumette.
This week, the restaurant review focuses on Bar Ama, Josef Centeno's new downtown Tex-Mex spot. Head over to the food section to read the full review, or take a peek below for the condensed version. 
Anne Fishbein Amberjack ceviche, tomatillo, red onion, chile, mango at Bar Ama
Food: Bar Ama is ostensibly a Tex-Mex restaurant, but it's also a Josef Centeno restaurant. That means there's a lot of riffing going on here. Yes, there's queso dip and gooey enchiladas, but there's also really quite stunning vegetable dishes, as well as some fantastic meaty mashups. Desserts are a high point.
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This week's restaurant review considers Alma. Read the entire review here, or, if you're in a hurry, see the condensed version below. 
Anne Fishbein Winter salad at Alma
Food: Chef Ari Taymor presents beautiful, meticulously plated plates of food that are intensely seasonal. It's the type of food you'd expect to find perhaps on high-end tasting menus, minus the luxury ingredients, plus a dash of youthful arrogance. Salads are often breathtaking in their precision and beauty, and there's a huge amount of creativity on display in dishes like sunchoke soup, which comes poured over an egg yolk and a paste of smoked dates.
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Forbes Travel Guide has released its annual hotel, restaurant and spa ratings, and Mélisse has received the highest rating, five stars. 
Melisse.com Mélisse chef Josiah Citrin (left) in his kitchen
Josiah Citrin's Santa Monica restaurant is one of only 28 restaurants nationally to receive the highest ranking, and one of four in California. What does the five-star rating mean? According to the website's star-rating explanation, "These top-of-the-line hotels, restaurants and spas are the best in the world." Of Mélisse, the anonymous inspectors had to say this:
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In this week's restaurant review, I consider the Hart and the Hunter, the restaurant in the Palihotel that sprang from the loins of a Venice pop-up. You can read the full review here, or check out the condensed version below. 
Anne Fishbein Fried chicken livers at the Hart and the Hunter
Food: Chefs Kris Tominaga and Brian Dunsmoor are serving up what they call "country food," though the country they're presenting has a very Southern twang. Biscuits, pimento cheese, and shrimp and grits share the menu with nods to other simple European country cooking like steak tartar and venison carpaccio. They're following in the tradition of the kitchens Dunsmoor came up in, namely the new Southern of Georgia and Charleston S.C., where Dunsmoor grew up and went to culinary school. Where much Southern food outside of the South takes on an uncomfortable cartoonishness, The Hart and the Hunter is presenting fresh, creative food underpinned by technique and soul.
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