OTOTO

This James Beard award-winning sake bar is the boozier sibling of Echo Park’s Tsubaki and Camélia in the Arts District. Run by chef Charles Namba and sommelier Courtney Kaplan, OTOTO offers one of the best burgers in the city, albeit only from 5 to 7pm each night, plus one of the best sake programs in Los Angeles and an array of mostly deep-fried Japanese drinking foods. My main gripe with OTOTO is that it isn’t open late enough for me to consider it a bar, and the food menu is too limited and snacky to truly make it a full-blown restaurant. Neverthless, Namba’s excellent cooking and the ever-changing sake list keeps me coming back for more—and if you are looking for a delicious sake-centric meal, I still recommend making the trek here.