Bar Restaurant (CLOSED)

Sleek and elegant but approachable, the aptly named Bar Restaurant—split down the middle as half bar, half restaurant—is the contemporary bistro Silver Lake never knew it needed. Chef Douglas Rankin's cooking is restrained but untamed: French technique lends itself well to sauces like tomato bordelaise, which smothers a luscious dry-aged New York strip, while his creativity runs free on dishes like the moules frites where the potatoes get the curly-fries treatment. European classics get the California treatment here, but more to the point, they get the Rankin treatment, which makes Bar Restaurant even more of a gem.