This year our team tried something new and decided to put together a monthly guide of the best things we ate across Southern California. As 2024 comes to an end, we decided to look back at the year and compile a list of the best things we ate from January through December. This year brought new restaurants, seasonal items from theme parks, pop-ups and more goodies that our reporters not only tried, but raved about.
Here’s a look at the best things we ate throughout Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire in 2024.
Related: See the best things we ate in Southern California in November.
Kimchi butter katsu chicken plate — Shootz, San Juan Capistrano, Stanton, Long Beach, Ontario
What joy to have found a South County Shootz at the tail end of 2024. Located inside the enclosed Rodeo River Street food hall at San Juan Capistrano’s new River Street Marketplace, Shootz, an eatery that combines Hawaiian- and Asian-inspired fare with California cuisine, is a choice pit stop due, in part, to its kimchi butter katsu chicken plate. The deceptively simple dish hits the tongue like an umami bomb, featuring a generous helping of the kimchi-laced katsu chicken glazed with butter and topped with green onion and furikake, Spam brûlée musubi and mac salad with tuna. Shootz (Hawaiian slang for “OK” or “yeah”) is one of a handful of kiosk stations at the new food hall, a stone’s throw away from the train station platform. Locations can also be found in Stanton, Ontario and Long Beach.
—Brock Keeling, Restaurant Reporter
Related: River Street Marketplace restaurants officially open, offering something for everyone
Roast beef and cheddar sandwich — Simple Simon’s Bakery & Bistro, Riverside
One of my last meals in 2024 was one of my best. I visited one of my favorite sandwich spots, Simple Simon’s Bakery & Bistro in Riverside, and had a half roast beef sandwich with cheddar on terrific sourdough bread. They weren’t serving their signature gazpacho, but I got the last Nut Bomb in the display case for dessert. The total bill was $18.98.
— Fielding Buck, Restaurant Reporter
Juárez-style burritos — Los de Juárez Burritos, Anaheim
Omar De la Vega and Juan Del Rio’s Los de Juárez Burritos pare down the behemoth known as the California-style burrito to its essential parts, all of which maximize complexity and flavor. Measuring a quarter the size of the regular ones, the Juárez-style burritos are tightly wrapped with a few ingredients (guisado, some beans, a bit of cheese) inside from-scratch tortillas made with lard and butter, before getting seared a light golden brown on the plancha. The result is an exceptionally juicy burrito. Los de Juárez Burritos opened in May, with another location specializing in breakfast burritos, christened Los de Juárez Burritos Desayunos, which opened in November. Both places can be found in Anaheim. Word to the wise: Arrive early. Lines of hungry patrons often snake out the door.
— Brock Keeling, Restaurant Reporter
Related: Smaller, tighter Juárez-style burritos come to Anaheim
Garlic Cream Cheese Bread — Disney California Adventure, Anaheim
When Disneyland drops its foodie guide for various seasons and festivals, I comb through it and make note of which goodies I want to try the next time I’m at the Anaheim theme park. When the Halloween seasonal items were announced, this snack immediately caught my eye. Called the “Garlic Cream Cheese Bread” you can only find it at a few snack carts throughout Disney California Adventure, one near Paradise Gardens and the other near the Incredicoaster. The item is described as “sweet bread with cream cheese garlic spread topped with a hot honey.” The dish must have been a fan favorite because after the Halloween season was over, the item returned for the winter holiday menu.It is easily one of the best things I’ve had at Disneyland. It’s so good in fact that I’ve made my own version to bring to holiday parties, where its been a hit numerous times. The snack is easy enough to make at home and works great as an appetizer.
Ingredients-wise, all you need are Hawaiian rolls, cream cheese, Boursin garlic & fine herbs cheese, butter, parsley flakes, garlic powder and hot honey. First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. You’ll then want to cut a diagonal line in each of the Hawaiian rolls. From there you mix together the cream cheese and garlic and herb cheese and pipe a generous amount into each roll. Melt some butter and mix in the garlic powder, parsley flakes and any other seasoning of your choice and brush this on top of each roll. Finally drizzle some hot honey on top and put the dish in the oven for 10 minutes, give or take.
— Carolyn Burt, Audience Engagement Producer
@by.carolyn Here’s some of the new seasonal food I tried at Disneyland & Disney California Adventure as part of Halloween 2024 at the parks. My top pick is the Garlic Cream Cheese Bread. Let me know what I should try next! #disneyland #disneyeats #halloween #californiaadventure #disneycaliforniaadventure #foodguide #disneylandfood
Legumes de saison (“seasonal vegetables”) — Knife Pleat, Costa Mesa
Chef Tony Esnault introduced his “flora” menu this year, the lauded chef’s ode to vegan fare at his one-star Michelin-ranked restaurant at South Coast Plaza. Among the litany of vegan bites, which changes depending on the day’s harvest (Esnault hand picks produce from organic markets on a regular basis), my favorite was his legumes de saison (“seasonal vegetables”). His signature dish offers a composition of 15 different vegetables all prepared separately. From sous vide and roasting to thinly sliced and braised, the pomp of tastes and textures on one plate highlight vegetables in both their purest and eccentric forms. Such joyous maximalism, such taste. One of the best dishes I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting. Heightening the experience was the setting, inside one of Orange County’s most swank spots. In an era where big-name chefs and their restaurants seem hellbent on appearing down to earth, it’s refreshing to go somewhere to feel top-drawer every now and again.
— Brock Keeling, Restaurant Reporter
Related: Knife Pleat introduces Flora, a plant-based tasting menu
Cherry tomato — Bavel, Los Angeles
How something simply listed on the menu as “Cherry Tomato” can be one of the most complex, delicious things I’ve ever tasted is beyond me. This dish is so much more than tomatoes (and might even surprise tomato haters) — gaviota strawberries, whipped feta, burnt harissa, sprouting cilantro all combine to make this savory, sweet and, above all, fresh appetizer. HIGHLY recommend.
— Dorothy Elder, Audience Engagement Producer
Roasted cabbage — Darkroom, Santa Ana
Zach Scherer’s Darkroom proved one of my favorite openings this year. Of the many menu items I enjoyed, including a beef rib with aleppo peppers and a hand-held caesar salad, the roasted cabbage with charred end was one of the highlights of the year. I keep coming back to this dish when I think of cruciferous creativity. Vegetables, like dessert, can be an afterthought at many fine restaurants with chefs gunning to show you their own take on a slab of beef. Scherer does wonders with vegetables (David Pratt’s Finca in San Juan Capistrano also gets wildly creative with veggies, with awesome results), which you can see his take on cabbage, which comes with buckwheat and aged beef hollandaise. Darkroom also goes heavy on the atmosphere, with dark interior (hence the name), soaring ceilings and a cocktail-hour energy that doesn’t veers into party-down territory.
— Brock Keeling, Restaurant Reporter
Related: Darkroom, Orange County’s most ambitious restaurant this year, opens in Santa Ana
Berry and Cream Churro — Hello Kitty and Friends Cafe, Universal City
I tried this churro for the first time back in October and made sure to include it in our monthly round up, and I am still talking about this churro to anyone that will listen. The other day a coworker brought pastries into the newsroom from Paris Baguette, one of which was a strawberry mochi donut and do you know what I informed everyone? “This is so good it’s like the churro I got at the Hello Kitty and Friends Cafe at CityWalk, have I told you about it?” and then went on a rant (again) about said churro. It is a classic churro stuffed with a berry jam and cream cheese frosting, topped with pink frosting and a chocolate version of Hello Kitty’s iconic bow. It is like a toaster strudel in churro form. I have since been back to have said churro, and can confirm it still holds up.
— Carolyn Burt, Audience Engagement Producer
Pork and prawn dumpling — Heritage Barbecue, San Juan Capistrano
Heritage Barbecue, the Orange County titan of Central Texas-style smoke, celebrated its fourth anniversary this summer with a special dinner celebrating the culinary breadth of its chefs. Among the highlights was a pork and prawn dumpling wading in a prawn consommé and chili crisp oil. A surprising departure from the expected, this dish, the brainchild of Chef Eric Linares, has stayed in my mind ever since that late-summer night. While the filling was complex and succulent, it was the exceptionally thick, yielding wrapper that stole the show, providing the most satisfying chew I’ve experienced all year. Hopefully, this one-off foray is a sign of things to come; Heritage plans on expanding its San Juan Capistrano location in 2025, promising increased seating and a bigger menu.
— Brock Keeling, Restaurant Reporter
See more of our monthly round-ups of the best things we ate in Southern California
The best things we ate at Southern California restaurants in November
The best things we ate at Southern California restaurants this October
The best thing we ate at Southern California restaurants in September
The best thing we ate at Southern California restaurants in August
