Best of 2013: The 55 best things we ate and drank this year

The idea behind Salt’s Cure is a noble one: every meal is made from ingredients grown and raised in California, all of which are carefully butchered and crafted in-house. And it's not just a tagline here; it's a way of life for the young chef/owners. The challenge of being so noble and sticking to their guns is that the menu ends up being extremely limited. But for the most part, that's a glass half full because the restaurant is so tiny. Really, it's just a kitchen closet with a few tables and chairs gathered around the grill. You can always count on a great burger. And there's almost always a good steak of some sort. Black kale, mashed potatoes, grilled corn...you almost expect to see an old red farm truck parked out front. It's best to get there early because the dish you really want will surely sell out before the night is over.

Simply put, Crossroads is a high-end vegan restaurant for carnivores. Plant-based chef to the stars Tal Ronnen—he counts Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres as clients—is reinventing meat-free meals with flavorful and imaginative dishes that are reasonably priced and served in a cozy, white-tablecloth Melrose Avenue dining room that have been drawing in a surprisingly older, suit-clad crowd. Grab one of the comfy round booths and start with one of the signature small plates: Artichoke oysters ($8) layer five artichoke leaves with pureed artichoke, a fried oyster mushroom, kelp caviar and a drizzle of yellow Bearnaise, and crumbly rounds of "crab cakes" ($10) are packed with diced hearts of palm, apples and beets. Do they taste like the real thing? Not exactly, but the dishes are fun, flavorful and pair well with the seasonal list of well-made libations mixed with ingredients such as Sriracha bitters and passion fruit. Both the thinly shredded sweet and tangy kale salad flecked with currants and pine nuts ($6) and the Farinatta ($10), an arugula salad dressed with a sun-dried tomato pesto over a thin earthy and umami-rich pancake made from chickpea flour and roasted wild mushrooms, are standout plates. For a more substantial dish, try the lasagna ($14) made with layers of slightly overcooked noodles, creamy almond ricotta cheese, and a faux tomato marinara doctored with wheat protein that could have benefitted from an extra pinch of salt.   Vitals What to eat: Chef Ronnen explai

When you first step into Goldie's, you can’t help but love the space: A raised garage door separates a lovely patio from the pretty interior dining room, and, as is for farm-to-table restaurants these days, there’s lots of wood. Both inside and out, you’ll find wood panels, wood shelves, wood tables, even neat stacks of logs shelved in a back wall, as if you were in the middle of Iowa preparing for the winter rather than the middle of LA perusing a distinctly Californian-style menu. The fare here is both expected and not: There's the almost obligatory kale salad ($12), but also burrata with cubes of watermelon grilled just enough and toasted milk powder that lends a welcome crunch ($14). Some flavors, though, like the roasted carrots with buttermilk and spiced pistachio ($10), don’t quite come together; still, you appreciate the effort. The bigger downside, really, is the price: While plates can be comfortably shared by two, you'll have to order at least four to feel sated. And that can add up. Vitals Eat this: The menu is separated into four sections, Raw, Veg, Small Plates and Large Plates, and you’ll do well to order one from each section. The sea bass ($24) and other seafood choices are strong, and grilled dishes take advantage of the kitchen’s wood and coal-burning oven. Drink this: Goldie’s has a very well-stocked bar with excellent cocktails, several of which follow the season as faithfully as the food fare. Try the Battery Park ($14), a sort-of Old Fashioned made with

DTLA's newest culinary concept is a family affair with father-son team chef Pawan and Nakul Mahendro' mash up of old and new, traditional and modern, East and West at this Indian gastropub. A welcome change to Downtown and the growing intersection of 2nd and Main streets, traditional and updated Indian street foods and favorites are served in a design-forward space. White tiles and black chalkboard walls meet color block banquettes and a central art piece inspired by the colors, while vintage Bollywood posters and aluminum tumblers straight from the motherland add authentic flair. Sit at the bar, upstairs or along the sidewalk and take in the Bollywood movies projected on the wall as small plates arrive at the table. Start with street cart classics such as addictive 2-Bite Fish Fry ($9); crunchy papri chaat chips($7) served with masala-flavored potato and chickpeas, yogurt and tamarind and mint chutneys; or fried samosas—choose traditional potato and peas and not-so-traditonal short rib and pineapple. Beef eaters can fill up on the Badmaash Burger ($11) gussied up with mango jam and spiced mayo on a brioche bun and Holy Cow! Keema Pow ($10) of beef, pea, tomato stew served with mini brioche buns, while old schoolers can opt for butter chicken ($12), good ol' saag paneer ($11) and tandoori oven faves like naan ($3) and Badass Chicken Tikka ($12). Thirsty? New World wines by the glass and bottle and a limited, yet impressive, selection of CA-local beers by the bottle and can. T

Review When the "artisan taquería" Tinga opened in a tiny space on La Brea in 2010, it was an interesting distraction from the street tacos reigning supreme at that moment: Tinga’s tacos were unabashedly more refined, upscale and cheesier than almost anything off the most popular trucks, with the prices to match. Three years later, Tinga's expression of the taco has not only persisted, but it also has just expanded westward. Tinga's Santa Monica outpost is a sprawling, multi-room funhouse: There's a bar everywhere you turn (three in total), all of which flank a beautiful courtyard that makes for great patio dining. As for the food, the tinga here ($7.75 for two) doesn't quite match the intensely flavorful version at Guisados, and the tacos al pastor de Jerry ($8.75 for two)—named after chef Jerry Baker, pineapple-marinated pork is topped with pineapple-lime salsa and Scotch bonnet peppers—won’t replace your love of Leo's. But that's almost all besides the point: When the atmosphere of a parking lot won't do, Tinga fills in nicely, especially on a side of town that could use more great taquerias, artisan or otherwise.   Vitals Eat this: In addition to tacos, try the Elote Especial ($5.25), a take on the classic Mexican-style corn, with grilled sweet corn off the cob, a kick of lime, crema, chili and poblano purée. Drink this: With three well-stocked bars, there’s everything here from frozen margaritas—try the Dirty Hor-chata, spiked with espresso and rum ($10)—to creative cock

Karen Hatfield follows up her fine dining Hatfield's with a casual bakery and cafe that serves the breakfast and lunch crowd with morning pastries and sandwiches all on housemade bread. Order at the register and take a seat at the lofty outdoor patio. Late afternoon sweet seekers—the sticky bun is a must—are rewarded with pastries that are half off at 4:30pm.

Alma is small restaurant next to a big strip club, down the street from the future location of the Ace Hotel and, with it, the continuation of the so-called revitalization of the Broadway Corridor. And that, in a nutshell, is Alma: On the cusp of today and tomorrow, it's not so much the restaurant of the moment as it is likely a restaurant of the near future when farm-to-table will be less a concept and more a reflex, the response to 2012's excesses—fried bacon, fried Brussels sprouts, et al.—will be thoughtful restraint and diners will be equally wowed by smoked duck breast as by crisp pears and sprouted peanuts that accompany it. Chef Ari Taymor combines hyper-seasonality with almost confounding modernism that may look odd on paper but works startlingly well in execution: That duck, for example, is finished with a small cupful of coffee, poured over the dish at the table. You might look on skeptically as coffee and duck fat swirl together, but you'll give it a go and take a bite. Time will stop as you try to decipher exactly what astounding flavors you're tasting. You'll figure it out: It tastes like 2013. Vitals Eat This: Alma's short menu is extremely dependent on the season and what obscure ingredients the restaurant may unearth, so the kohlrabi that accompanies tonight's hanger steak ($26) may be replaced by another vegetable from the cabbage family next week. That said, start with the airy chicken liver mousse ($9), served with toasts slathered with a subtly sweet date

The Boyle Heights taco institution, Guisados, launches into the new year with a second taqueria in Echo Park. Handmade tortillas are made to-order and filled with the house signature (hence, its namesake) braised goodness. Snag a table on the outdoor patio or sit inside to watch the kitchen in action as you dig into the mouthwatering tacos ($2.50)—we like the moist tinga de pollo, rich and juicy mole poblano and flavorful cochinita pibil topped with spicy red onions—washed down with refreshingly tart jamaica aqua fresca or creamy, spiced horchata. Can’t decide what to order? The six-taco sampler ($6.99) offers two-bite tastes, while spice fanatics can’t miss the chiles torreados—it’s muy caliente.

Very few restaurants aim for, little less achieve, the level of grace exhibited nightly at Providence. While this hushed, white-tablecloth restaurant is based around seafood, it’s really much more than a fish palace. It’s one of the finest restaurants on the West Coast. Fish just happens to be its primary muse—from farm-raised sustainable caviar to Dungeness crab, Maine lobster, abalone, geoduck clams, Spanish octopus, Santa Barbara spot prawns and wild, line-caught Atlantic striped bass. The lobsters are strictly females weighing in at precisely one and a half pounds, because chef Michael Cimarusti is just that sort of perfectionist. There’s always a prime rib-eye steak or an incredible milk-fed veal thrown into the mix as well. Bonus: Providence serves lunch only on Fridays, and it’s one of those Champagne lunches you’ll be reminiscing about for the rest of the year.

Don’t try to walk into Bestia without a reservation. As the most talked about (and as a result, packed) restaurant at the moment, securing a table at least a week in advance is a good idea. And even then, you might have to wait for a table.  The up side: The bar is a happening place to be not only for dinner but also for drinks with mixologist Julian Cox behind the seasonal libations. It seems like most everything that restaurateur Bill Chait touches turns to gold—places like Sotto, Picca and Short Order, and, now, Bestia, another white-hot hit. Ori Menashe, a longtime Angelini Osteria chef, is the brains behind Bestia’s thoughtful, ingredient-driven Italian menu that doesn’t shy too far away from California. Menashe’s house-cured salumi is superb, especially atop a puffy pizza with ricotta, charred Brussels sprout leaves and chili oil. Housemade spaghetti tangled together in a sea urchin tomato sauce was both creamy and balanced and a stew of braised pork sausage and veal ribs was comforting enough to evoke nonna's. Perhaps one of the Bestia’s best kept secrets is wine steward Maxwell Leer—he joins the restaurant by way of the Tasting Kitchen and the Bazaar—whose strength is selecting obscure wines from boutique producers around the world that you’ve likely never heard of. Don’t be surprised if he tries to pour you an orange wine or a dry Sherry with dinner. Go with it. To describe Bestia as a brick bunker isn’t intended to insult. The wide open restaurant, defined by walls