There’s no one way to express the essence of dining in Los Angeles — to grasp our food culture’s mix of transience and tenacity, to fully fathom its greatness. Still, it is our job to give readers some guidance. Between us we’ve logged more than 1,000 restaurant meals in the last year, including the visits that inform our weekly reviews. This list is our current working definition of where and how to eat in L.A.

Our freshly compiled roster includes familiar names and brand-new entrants: a Thai Town institution and, a block away, a 12-seat upstart serving intricate stews and fiery salads from Chiang Rai. A Rat Pack hangout, invigorated by new ownership, will see the end of its era when its lease expires in spring 2021; one futuristic restaurant bends notions of the time continuum altogether.

Our living portrait of L.A.’s culinary preeminence caps a decade in which the city received national and international attention it deserves. Everyone knows our tacos are superior; our tasting menus probably are as well. Who knows what delicious revelations the next year will bring?