Downtown is the dining destination of the moment. Many new restaurants have opened there recently, joining old favorites. Here are 10 standouts, from L.A. Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila.

By S. IRENE VIRBILA, Restaurant Critic (LA Times)

Downtown? Until very recently, if you asked someone to meet you for dinner there, it was roughly the equivalent of asking them to join you on the moon. I’ve met people who have never been within shouting distance of the area, even though they’ve lived in L.A. practically all their lives. Time to get over it, because downtown L.A. has blossomed into a bona fide destination with a growing roster of intriguing dining possibilities.

So much, in fact, is happening downtown, restaurant-wise, that it’s difficult for a hardworking critic to keep up. For the first time in decades, the city’s center offers a full array of places to eat at all price levels, with more opening all the time.

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Expectations for the high-end entertainment complex have been high since work began three years ago, but the downturn is putting more pressure on it to be a success.

By Cara Mia DiMassa (LA Times)

When L.A. Live, the $2.5-billion entertainment district across from Staples Center, first broke ground in September 2005, downtown Los Angeles was riding high, and the sky seemed the limit.

Block by block, decades of grime were being replaced by trendy eateries, loft dwellers and their dogs. Thirty-two skyscrapers were in the planning phases. And L.A. Live, with clubs, restaurants, convention-center hotels and a 30,000-square-foot Grammy museum, was being called Times Square West.

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Restaurants can be great places to explore vintages, thanks to proprietors’ expertise, passion and respect for customers’ budgets.

By S. IRENE VIRBILA, Restaurant Critic (LA Times)

For those of us who love wine, Los Angeles is a wonderful city for all things vinous. We have some of the best wine shops in the country, so competitive with one another that the selection of wines and favorable pricing trump those of most retailers in other parts of the country.

Not only that: L.A. boasts a good number of wine-friendly restaurants where you can nourish a deepening interest in the grape. Not to mention the restaurateurs and wine waiters who offer engaging advice on wine with undisguised passion for pet appellations or finds.

For true wine lovers, it’s not about which restaurant has the deepest cellar or the deepest pockets. It’s about which has the most beguiling wine list. And it’s not even just about the wine, it’s also very much about a wine culture where the sommeliers and servers celebrate wine and, without intimidating anybody, however green, make the subject fun to explore.

It’s easy to propose that $300 bottle of cult Cabernet or name Burgundy, or the wines that have just topped the charts in the Wine Advocate or Wine Spectator. But coming up with a little-known wine or up-and-coming young producer — that takes research and ingenuity. It means tasting and tasting to find the good bottles, not just reading up online.

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It was October 2007, on a 10-day trade mission trip to China as an associate of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. Joined by my esteemed colleague Olu Davis, he put me onto the adult beverage that is now my beer of choice:

Stella Artois.

Brewed by InBev, and Latin for star, I still can’t quite put my finger on why this particular lager has become my favorite, but trust me, it is.

Upon introduction, in our travels throughout China, Stella seemed the be the most available and common beer; for some reason that intrigued me. Upon returning to home to the States, I have come to realize that it is certainly a popular beer here as well. And now, it has become a lot more available and visible due InBev’s recent acquisition of Anheuser-Busch.

Enjoy the beverage as I have…I look forward to a toast to a nice good cold Stella.

Cheers!

If you know me, you know I love Inglewood (CA) and I love tacos. Period.

Read Review by Candice Williams @ L.A., etc. »