Favorite is such a personal thing...
 

Lots of favorites for lots of different reasons:

* Water Grill downtown - and I'm allergic to seafood! But they do a great steak, good salad, fab wine list, super cheese plate for dessert & service is wonderful.

* Reed's Restaurant - Manhattan Beach - fab food, great service, great prices. As some of the LA folk know, this is a must for me & I take everyone there & then they're converted.

Ok, there are more but time for a glass of wine, some other stuff & then fireworks.

Yesterday I was in my favorite "restaurant" in all of LA-The Farmers Market at Fairfax and third!
No I know it is not fancy,and it is not even a "real"restaurant per se.But they have a some GREAT food stalls in that place.
Lotteria Grill-incredible mexican"street food"
Banana leaf-one of the few Malaysian restaurants in LA
Kokomos-wonderful breakfast and comfort food
Brazzilian rodiziio restaurant buffet-great sides and rotesiried meat
Gumbo pot-po'boys and other southern dishes
Oyster bar and fish place-I had a wonderful fried fish platter here.
and on and on and on.
Amuch better choice for dining than the very mediocre restaurants in the Grove-I love the Pacific theatre,and the shopping,but the restos that I have been to here are pretty weak.
As to a nice "sit down"placeAlto Palato on La Cienega,Mistral on Beverly,Empress Pavillion in Chinatown(great dim sum-much better than Ocean IMO)
None of these are really expensive-the only top$$$$ worth the money in LA is Valentino-and then you can get away for under $50 a person if you are careful and don't order crazy$$$$wine.

The Smokehouse in Burbank is a favorite for it's "old school" steakhouse feel (dark wood paneling, red booths and AWESOME garlic bread,).

Encounter at the LAX Theme Building, moreso for it's atmosphere and futuristic theme. It's actually best to go to the bar, order an appetizer and a cocktail and enjoy the view.

Salt Creek Grille in Valencia. Good food, awesome bar and decent prices.

here are my picks:

matsuhisa (la cieniga/beverly)

house of pies (los feliz)

firehouse (santa monica venice border)

versailles (venice and motor or la cieniga and pico)

monsoon (3rd street promenade)

cheese and olive (venice beach)

the bangalow (melrose)

luna (melrose)


as for newport/hb/laguna/irvine:

bandera (pch)

gulfstream (fashion island)

villa nova (pch; newport)

javier's (pch; laguna)

kitayama(sp?) (jamboree @ bristol; newport)

Downtown LA: Water Grill
 

LA is a pretty large area so it really depends where you'll be - silly to drive an hour if there is a great restaurant right by you.
Downtown LA: Water Grill is top quality
Mabilu: Joffrey's
Pasadena: Arroyo Steak House, Sushi Roku
Studio City: a whole choice of fantastic sushi places, Firefly

-A

Sona is pretty freakin good.

Never did much fine dining in LA, but one memory really stands out. The best burger I have ever had was at a place called "Mr. PG Burger" on Venice Bl. in Mar Vista/Culver City. Basically a big old cheeseburger with everything on it, some kind of sauce that's different, and shaved pastrami. It was still there a year ago, and still just as good.

Now that they've got Pollo Campero in LA as well, it's becoming my favorite fast-food destination.