How to Find Los Angeles Restaurants Online

Los Angeles, where dreams come to life, is a hugely popular tourist destination. Star spotting, outdoor eating, celebrity-owned restaurants and regional Mexican cuisine are some of the reasons why food aficionados flock to Los Angeles. Whether you are visiting or living in Los Angeles, it's a good idea to be aware of new and notable restaurants, and the Internet is one of the best places to start your cullinary adventure.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Go online and pull out the home page of your favorite search engine, such as Google or Yahoo.

2. Search using keywords such as ‘Los Angeles restaurants’ and note that a long list of results will come up. View some of the Web sites and see if any catch your fancy.

3. Visit popular dining and restaurant-oriented Web sites (see below).

4. Get a handy map of Lost Angeles from www.mapquest.com, www.lonelyplanet.com, maps.google.com and so on. Understand the areas and neighborhoods of LA. Generally, the city is divided into the following areas: Downtown L.A., East L.A., South Los Angeles, the South Bay, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Harbor area, Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire (or Mid City), Westside, and San Fernando Valley. Locate your hotel, areas of interest, attractions and so on on the map.

5. Narrow down your search by using names of well-known communities of Los Angeles as keywords in your restaurant search. Some popular communities are Venice Beach, the Downtown financial district, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Hancock Park, Koreatown and the extremely affluent areas of Bel-Air, Hollywood Hills, Pacific Palisades, Holmby Hills and Brentwood.

6. Search for restaurants by specifying the area, attraction or neighborhood. Use the name of the location or a landmark as the keywords along with ‘restaurants’ in the search box.

7. Search by type of cuisine. For example, American, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Lebanese, Latin, Ethiopian or any other type of cuisine that you want to explore.

8. Search by name of the restaurant. If you know the name of the restaurant, use that name in the search box and specify Los Angeles or any LA neighborhood along with it.

9. Search restaurants by price range. Use keywords such as cheap, inexpensive, budget, moderate, expensive, fancy, etc. to refine your search.

10. Search by features you are looking for in the restaurant. Use keywords such as bar, pub, 24 hours, coffeeshop, celeb spotting, take away, celebrity owned restaurants, breakfast/brunch, live music, kid friendly, Prix-Fixe, romantic, outdoor dining, good for groups and so on.

11. Search by regional and local specialties. LA has produced some universally acclaimed fast food joints such as Original Tommys, Pink’s hot dogs, In-n-Out Burger and FatBurger. Consider eating at these uniquely LA restaurants.

Tips & Warnings

• Read reviews of several restaurants online, visit their Web sites and view their online menus to make an informed decision about restaurants.

[dianesteinbach]

on 1/15/2009 There is a website called survivethecity.com that has local restaurant reviews for LA. Good local resource to find yummy restaurants. http://www.survivethecity.com/