The 14 Best LA Restaurants For A Birthday Dinner - Los Angeles - The Infatuation (2024)

In theory, birthdays should be fun and easy. You’ve done the hard work of staying sane and likable for another trip around the sun, and in turn, your friends and family are supposed to treat you like the angel that you are. So why does finagling your birthday dinner always end up feeling stressful? We're here to help.

These are places with enough space to accommodate a group, enough ambiance to feel like a party, and enough drinks to make you forget about the inexorable march of time. So rifle through your closet, grab your crown, and pat yourself on the back for being a formidable event planner—here is our updated guide to the best birthday dinners in Los Angeles.

THE SPOTS

For a marathon birthday night— one where dinner leads to drinks which leads to more drinks—Ktown is the place to be. And Jilli should be your jumping-off point. The all-purpose Korean bar and restaurant serves interesting takes on traditional Korean bar food like rigatoni alla kimchi vodka and kimchi bruschetta, plus there’s natural wine, soju, and craft beer. The room is fairly small (there’s bar seating and a handful of tables along the wall), so keep your group under five for optimal leg room or make a reservation beforehand. After, head to Ddong Ggo, Star Night, or Normandie Club—all within walking distance.

The biggest argument for hosting your birthday dinner at Si! Mon is the space: This upscale Panamanian restaurant in Venice looks like the grounds of a Spanish ranch in Malibu, complete with a tropical patio and an interior filled with seashell chandeliers and plush green booths. The seafood-leaning menu is even more impressive, but some dishes do run small and get pricey if you’re ordering several for a big group of people. Our advice: Try to keep your party between two to four people here and you’re in for a meal as special as you are.

Sushi can be tricky for a birthday dinner, because everybody wants something different. Purist friends show up expecting an omakase, one cousin loves handrolls, and your old roommate still only eats tempura. Uchi can make everyone happy. The upscale Japanese restaurant in West Hollywood has a sprawling menu showcasing daily nigiri, tempura rolls, three different tasting menus, and various hot and cold plates—many of which don’t involve raw fish. Plus, the setting is a sleek, upscale space that’s large enough for any group.

You haven’t even gotten to your inner circle yet, and your birthday invite list is already ten people deep. Sounds like it’s going to be a Carousel birthday this year. This iconic Armenian restaurant in Glendale is set up more like a wedding reception than a restaurant, with tables packed r in uniform rows and a menu specifically designed to feed large groups of people. Go for the “Carousel Feast,” a $46 per person set menu that comes with nearly 20 different meze plates, plus entrees like chicken kebabs and kafta. And who knows, you might spot a belly dancer or two.

West Hollywood has no shortage of sceney, over-the-top spots where you can show up in a daring outfit and feel like the birthday celebrity that you are. The top place to do just that right now is Đi Đi. The clubby Vietnamese spot on La Cienega is a leaf-covered cathedral for people who want to listen to Drake, drink coconut-washed rum, and take smoldering selfies. The most surprising aspect, however, is that the food is quite decent. We suggest the shrimp toast on milk bread, the sticky fish sauce chicken wings, and the shrimp-packed spring rolls.

Despite being located in a new apartment complex in Virgil Village, Budonoki feels like it’s been around for years. And that’s a compliment. The casual izakaya is dimly lit with exposed piping and has a sort of sticky grunginess that suits a semi-riotous birthday dinner. You’ll eat tons of delicious, shareable plates like jidori chicken oyster skewers and bowls of wagyu yakisoba. Old-school Missy and Ja Rule blast over the speakers. Someone will absolutely do a sake bomb. And by that, we mean you. It is your birthday.

After several years of subdued birthdays, you’re in the mood to go big at a place like Loreto. This upscale Mexican seafood restaurant in Frogtown is a production in every sense. You'll sit in a massive warehouse-y space, drink boozy co*cktails, and order large-format platters that will feed every person who shows up to your party. Our favorite dish is the whole fish of the day, which comes with a spread of rice, beans, escabeche, three salsas, blue corn tortillas, and tiny quesadillas that, if you ask nicely, will be refilled by your server.

A dark, dinge-y dive bar in Studio City might seem like an odd pick for a birthday dinner, but here us out: The one-of-a-kind menu at Oy Bar can best be described as Jewish classics that studied abroad. Think matzo ball egg drop soup, sugar snapped peas seasoned with everything spice, and a cilantro-packed burger that’s among the best in town. For a birthday gathering that’s casual and unfussy—and still shows you know how to pick a cool spot—post up here on Saturday night, push together a few tables, and tell friends to swing by whenever it’s convenient.

Backyard barbecues always make for a great birthday. But considering last year you nearly set the house on fire, you might as well let Le Great Outdoor take the reins this time. A meal at this outdoor restaurant in a foliage-covered Santa Monica parking lot feels like an impromptu block party. Everybody hangs out on picnic tables, drinking chilled wine from Argentina, and eating platters of meat, seafood, and vegetables that just came off the grill.

Farmhouse Kitchen is a colorful, kitschy Thai restaurant in West Adams with neon pink lighting, a giant back patio, shareable entrees, and co*cktails that are served in foot-high plastic crowns. In other words, if you like your birthdays to be a bit over-the-top, take care of that reservation now. The yellow curry, Thai-style fried chicken, and the panang neua, a giant short rib shank slathered in panang curry, are all excellent.

We get it. Birthdays at breweries are played out. A person can only take so many rounds of cornhole and hazy IPA flights before blocking all emails with the subject line “Hoppy Birthday.” But then there’s Homage Brewing, an objectively cool place to hang out whether you drink beer or not. The Chinatown brewery does, in fact, have good beer, but they also offer natural wine, and if you get hungry, a food menu with scallop crudo with salsa macha and masa-battered chicken wings. Then, around 9pm, Homage turns into a sweaty dance party that goes deep into the night.

From the moment you pull up to Mun and hear Usher blasting from the speakers, it’ll be clear that this KBBQ spot delivers more than just nice cuts of meat. The room feels as much like a nightclub as it does a restaurant: there are flashy black marble tables outfitted with grills, and the drinks—like Japanese whisky, cognac, and lychee martinis—flow freely. The energy at Mun is perfect for when you want a premium barbecue experience without sacrificing a good old-fashioned party atmosphere. Balance high-end meats (the $200 variety combo includes flat-iron steak, honeycomb-cut pork belly, pork jowl, and short ribs) with fun a la carte items for the table.

With locations in Noho and Lake Balboa, Salsa & Beer is one of the more popular birthday restaurants in The Valley. The massive Mexican-American menu has something for even the pickiest eater in your group, there’s a free chips, salsa, and bean dip bar, and if your birthday happens to fall on a weekday, you can still show up knowing the place will be full-tilt thanks to some very strong margaritas. They don’t accept reservations—usually a birthday dinner no-no—but both locations are legitimate labyrinths, so even if you roll up six people deep, you’re waiting no more than 15 minutes for a table.

We’ve been fans of this Filipino spot since it was a BYOB pop-up in 2017 called Lasa. While the interior, the management, and the menu have all changed over the years, many of the same bright and spicy flavors (the electric orange salsita is a non-negotiable order) and friendly faces are still there in its current iteration to welcome you for a fun, family-style meal. For birthday dinners—especially if it's going to be 8-10 people—our move is to do the "Pamilya Style" Set Menu for the group. You'll get table snacks, veggie sides, a whole chicken inasal and pork lechon, pancit, chicken fat rice, ice cream, and tons of different sides for dipping.