In Los Angeles’ increasingly eye-watering dining scene, apparently $150 a head now passes for “affordable.”
The Infatuation has rolled out its newly updated guide to the city’s best affordable tasting menus, rounding up multi-course meals that hover around $150 or less — a sign of just how dramatically the price of a fancy night out has soared.
While the site stops short of calling it a bargain basement, billing the spots as “relatively” affordable, the figure underscores the new reality that “cheap” is in the eye of the beholder.
As recently as 2024, Time Out Los Angeles published its own roundup of “tasting menus under $100” that won’t “break the bank,” noting even then that restaurant prices had been creeping upward — while acknowledging that spending $100 per person on dinner was out of reach for many Angelenos.
But with inflation, the rising cost of ingredients, commercial rents soaring, and service fees, yesterday’s special occasion indulgence has become today’s baseline. With most omakase bars and Michelin-starred temples pushing north of $400, anything below $150 can sometimes look like a rare value proposition.
At the pricier end is Arts District Korean restaurant Baroo, where seven courses will run diners $140. Its ferment focused menu can include items like wagyu strip loin with fermented black bean sauce.
The relatively modest Holbox, a counter in a South Los Angeles market hall, also led the charge, where an 8-course tasting menu will run you $130 per guest — not including tax and an 18% service charge.
Holbox has long been an insider darling, as evidenced by its one Michelin star and numerous national accolades. The eatery is known for its razor-sharp Mexican coastal-style seafood — think uni tostadas, pristine ceviches and smoky grilled fish, ideally enjoyed at a string of hard-to-snag seats facing the hard-working open kitchen.
Not every so-called affordable splurge flirts with the $150 ceiling, though.
Beverly Hills steakhouse Matu offers several tasting menu options ranging from $64 to $115, centered around grass-fed wagyu. And over in Santa Monica, seafood spot Crudo e Nudo is proof that tasting menus don’t have to be fancy, offering a five-course “Neptune’s Flight” for $95.
At Nancy Silverton’s Michelin-starred Osteria Mozza, insiders know to head straight to Amaro Bar for its weeknight Pasta Tasting, where you can try four different pastas and get a dessert for $80.
In Mar Vista, Electric Bleu’s French culinary chops offers a five-course tasting menu for $79, where diners can experience steak au poivre and pâté en croûte (a pate that is baked in a pastry crust) without the usual fine-dining sticker shock.
Over in Koreatown, Chef Gary Menes’ intimate 10-seat counter at Hotel Normandie turns local farming into high art.
Clocking in at $95 for six courses, the vegetable-centric menu is constantly in rotation and “challenges the white tablecloth notion of fine dining in favor of an intimate, up-close-and-personal experience.”
Chef Anthony Wang’s sleek Chinatown spot, Firstborn, really gets you your bang for your buck. Offering an inventive four-course prix fixe menu for just $68, the menu delivers the likes of lamb neck terrine and dry-aged duck breast at roughly $17 a dish. Which in today’s LA, is almost like getting a free meal.
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