In Esquire’s just-released list of the best new restaurants of 2025, nine selections were from California, making it the top state represented on the list of 33 picks — including one in the very top slot. This year’s title of Restaurant of the Year went to a decidedly Los Angeles eatery helmed by a chef who helped to put the city’s dining on the map.

RVR in Venice nabbed Esquire’s ultimate honor for 2025. The Japanese-California izakaya is led by Travis Lett, who was the founding chef of the seminal nearby Abbot Kinney restaurant Gjelina for years, a spot that (17 years after its opening) is still considered to be one of the best restaurants in LA.

Of the anointment of RVR in the top spot, Esquire’s Jeff Gordinier writes, “What lures me back is an inexplicable pixie dust that occasionally turns a restaurant into a happening. I come back to RVR for the things that stay put on the menu, such as the house pickles and the Santa Barbara uni hand........

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