18 Aug Find the Best Eats at Black-Owned Restaurants in Los Angeles
Los Angeles is the largest city in California — and one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world.
Roughly 700,000 Black people migrated to Los Angeles from the 1940s to the 1970s, seeking jobs and lives away from the South’s racial violence. Black restaurants in Los Angeles reflect this massive migration, mixing Creole and Southern flavors with inspirations from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Today, Black-owned businesses aim to nourish visitors’ bodies, minds, and souls. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite places serving soul food and more in the City of Angels, where a food lover’s dreams take flight year-round.
Black-Owned Soul Food in LA: Post & Beam
Website | Instagram | Facebook | (323) 299-5599
Less than a mile from Leimert Park Plaza, Post & Beam serves soul food comfort with California seasonality and bistro style in Baldwin Hills. Dinner features intros such as homemade cornbread with whipped honey butter and fried catfish nuggets, a braised oxtail grilled cheese with smoked mozzarella and onion chutney, hand-stretched pizzas, shrimp grits with beef bacon, cast-iron natural chicken, and Jerk catfish with dirty rice. Bring your appetite to all-day brunch on Sundays featuring Bellini cocktails with Napa Valley peaches, braised oxtail hash with country potatoes, pecan pie French toast, and a fried chicken thigh with buttermilk waffle, whipped honey butter, and maple syrup.
Best Southern Comfort Food in LA: Poppy + Rose
Website | Instagram | Facebook | (213) 995-7799
In the heart of the Los Angeles Flower District blooms a quirky blend of comfort and soul food at Poppy + Rose, right across the street from the Original Los Angeles Flower Market established in 1921. Look for its cheery striped awning and street-side graffiti of steaming chicken wings. Serving only breakfast and lunch, Poppy + Rose offers buttermilk fried chicken and waffles, a shrimp po’ boy, and other staples, plus creative cocktails such as a Lavender Limeade and the “Fried Chicken Mary,” a Bloody Mary crowned with lots of olives, celery, and a crispy chicken wing.
Best Jazz Club in LA: Pips on La Brea
Website | Instagram | Facebook | (323) 954-7477
From about the 1910s and 1920s, South Central Avenue nightclubs such as Jack’s Basket Room and The Brown Bomber helped develop West Coast Jazz. About a mile and a half from the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, Pips on La Brea keeps up that musical tradition with a packed live music calendar and old-school recorded classics on Soul Down Sundays. Soak in the tunes while indulging your appetite with a family-friendly menu made for sharing. Look for the BBQ chicken pizza, Chef Luis’s Signature Empanadas, or Pips’ Signature Dish Creole Fettuccine, which combines sauteed jumbo shrimp, sauteed onions, spicy sausage, sweet red and green bell peppers, and minced garlic with Alfredo parmesan sauce and spicy red sauce.
Website | Instagram | Facebook | (626) 993-9898
Lȇberry Bakery and Donut proudly won DonutFest LA in 2020, and one look at their flaky concoctions makes it easy to see why. They’re located in Pasadena but ship across the United States. The founders have a sweet vision to offer 100% plant-based vegan and gluten-free foods to health-conscious diners, and they deliver with yeast and cake donuts, cakes, pies, and pastries. Try the Plant-Based Strawberry Yeast Donut filled with strawberry or blueberry jelly, the Plant-Based Espresso Yeast Donut covered in caramel glaze and topped with chocolate or the Plant-Based Blueberry Cake Donut with a signature blueberry glaze.
Best Cheesecake in LA: Harriet's Cheesecakes Unlimited
Website | Instagram | Facebook | (310) 419-2259
Since 1983, Ms. Harriet’s family-owned bakery has specialized in cheesecakes, making its home in Inglewood’s Ladera Heights area, about three miles from Morningside Park. The menu boasts fresh ingredients, hand-mixed perfection — and more than 60 gourmet flavors! Ms. Harriet (may she rest in peace) adjusted her recipes so that her son, who has diabetes, could enjoy some sweet treats from time to time. Her family who have carried on her baking tradition is currently developing a much-requested vegan cheesecake. In the meantime, check out favorite flavors sold by the slice or the cake, including Sweet Potato Cheesecake, Apple N Spice, Banana Pudding, and Mango Lime. Seasonal flavors include Peaches N Cream, Strawberry Rhubarb, White Chocolate Cranberry, and White Chocolate Raspberry.
Best Caribbean Food in LA: Simply Wholesome
Website | Instagram | Facebook | (323) 294-2144
Established in the 1980s, Simply Wholesome is part restaurant, part health food store, and all delicious. About half a mile from Ladera Park in Ladera Heights, Simply Wholesome serves Caribbean favorites all day, such as Masala’s Spice with grilled shrimp, chicken, or veggies, plus rice or pasta and plantains; blackened tofu, fish, or chicken; and spicy Cajun tacos. Open daily, it also offers Caribbean hot wings and the patties on the “Small Bites” menu, including Jerk chicken, curry chicken, shrimp and crab, tilapia, spinach, and cabbage. Check out its breakfast items, including salmon croquettes; its generous burritos, burgers, tacos, and sandwiches; and its vegetarian menu featuring Nubian Tacos with black-eyed peas, purple cabbage, onions, and cucumbers.
Best Fried Chicken in LA: Honey's Kettle Fried Chicken
Website | Instagram | Facebook | (310) 202-5453
Honey’s Kettle Fresh Fried Chicken started in 2000 when Vincent “Chef Vinny” Williams tested out ancestors’ recipes from the Colonial days. He soon added ice shaker lemonade and coleslaw to the fried chicken and buttery biscuits that neighbors devoured. The unique cooking process makes the chicken juicy and flavorful on the inside but crackly, crunchy, and crispy on the outside. Choose a classic meal with kettle-fried chicken and fries, sweet ‘n’ tangy pickles, and a buttermilk biscuit, or pick up melt-in-your-mouth hotcakes to go with your order and sides such as mac n’ cheese and maple-glazed yams. Leave room for baked goods such as Honey’s fresh blueberry biscuits, skillet cornbread, and sweet potato or pecan pie.
Best Hot Chicken in LA: Hotville Chicken
Website | Instagram | Facebook | (323) 792-4835
Yearning for authentic Nashville Hot Chicken? Nashville chef Kim Prince, whose family started the hot chicken tradition there in the 1930s, first brought her “fiery fowl brined to burn” to LA through pop-ups. Now in a brick-and-mortar site a stone’s throw from the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw mall, Hotville Chicken earned a 2020 “Best of L.A.” award from Los Angeles Magazine and mouthwatering reviews for its spicy chicken, fried fish, and signature sides, including a BBQ baked bean trio, mac & smokin’ cheese, potato salad, kale slaw, seasoned fries, and cobbed corn. Select your heat — Nashville Hot, Music City Medium, Cali Mild, or West Coast Plain — and top it off with a Southern fruit tea, lemon sour cream pound cake, or “bananas in my pudding.”
Best Tacos in LA: Sky's Gourmet Tacos
Website | Instagram | Facebook | (323) 932-6253
Foodies can enjoy casual dining, curbside pickup, and delivery at Sky’s Gourmet Tacos. The tacos on six-inch corn tortillas include cilantro, Sky’s Sassy Sauce, and other fixings along with a choice of meats. Of course, there’s beef, chicken, turkey, carnitas (pork), and steak but also shrimp, shiitake mushroom, potato and cheese, filet mignon, crawfish, lobster, salmon, or tilapia. Sky’s also serves gourmet burritos, stacked gourmet nachos, salads, quesadillas, and burgers (including veggie burgers), plus a sweet array of desserts, including Sky’s award-winning cheesecake.
Best Gourmet Burgers in LA: Oh My Burger
Website | Instagram | Facebook | (310) 756-6522
Since 2011, Oh My Burger’s piled-high options and loaded fries have won fans throughout Los Angeles. The OG favorite is “The Homie,” a signature brisket patty (or two) with cheddar, bacon, onion, tomato, spring mix, and OMB sauce. Oh My Burger also offers an “Epic Grilled Cheese,” sandwich that has a brisket patty between two grilled cheese sandwiches, a savory turkey burger, and a vegan Impossible patty with vegan aioli on a vegan brioche bun. The fries, especially the Alfredo and Chili Cheese versions, are made to share, and the soft-serve milkshakes in flavors such as Oh My Oreo and Peachy Cobbler are a savory way to chill out when the temperatures rise.
Author: Black Restaurant Week
Content Team
Roslyn Hopkins
Posted at 13:35h, 20 AugustWhere can I get a list of Black owned restaurants in Los Angeles. My e-mail address : royhop@att.net
Black Restaurant Week
Posted at 15:50h, 25 AugustPlease visit: https://blackrestaurantweeks.com/los-angeles-directory/
Ola Walker
Posted at 14:01h, 21 AugustThanks for posting these; will check them out!
Angel Golden
Posted at 13:53h, 27 AugustPoppy and Rose is delicious but beware if you are eating on their rooftop patio. The restroom that’s used is in the parking structure and it is horrible. Another restroom wasn’t even offered to me