Long Beach Food Scene Week 2024 is upon us come Aug. 9 through Aug. 18—and with it, brings over 55 restaurants together in the name of special menus, deals, and celebrating our food culture.

I understand that’s a lotta restaurants—more than double last year’s inaugural Food Scene Week—and only the most ambitious will try to hit the majority, let alone all of them. Here are some personal favorites that I want to highlight as we support one our largest economic and cultural drivers in a time when business is often slow.

To explore all the menus and offerings for Long Beach Food Scene Week 2024, click here.

NOTE: Some of the pictures aren’t of the dishes or will look different than the pictures shown—and that’s because I was given samples while they spent time figuring out plating, or I’ve had the dish before, but they altered plating since I last photographed it. However, as I experience the final dishes throughout the week, I will update them as needed.

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Brunch fried rice with matcha colada from Noble Rotisserie ($18)

6460 E. Pacific Coast Hwy. #125

Before we begin, they also have a kids menu—$15 for a stacked waffle and drink. Which is just awesome.

For those in the loop, Noble Rotisserie (formerly Noble Bird Rotisserie) inside the 2nd + PCH retail complex in Alamitos Bay is a rare gem—and not just for Long Beach, but for the entire West Coast: Through its meticulously crafted and managed kitchen and its equally meticulously created menu, it is one of the few restaurants not just in the region but in the entire country where those with severe allergies-be it one or many, be dairy and eggs or tree nuts and shellfish—can eat with peace.

But beyond that, Noble Rotisserie is one of the few places focusing on brunch for LBFSW. In fact, outside of The Breakfast Bar, the only one to do so. And their fried rice with an egg on top is simply delicious.

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Nước mắm glazed fried chicken bánh mì from Pickle Banh Mi ($10)

1171 E. Anaheim St.

The world of Pickle Banh Mi is a special one—and easily offers the best version of bánh mìs in Long Beach. And givenPickle Banh Mi is a story of Vietnamese women (and their family members) owning both their food and their entrepreneurial power, I can’t tell you how honored I was to hear that owner My Nguyen was debuting a brand new bánh mì for LBFSW.

This fish sauce-glazed fried chicken sounds fantastic—and at $10 for a bánh mì or $12 for a plate, it is one of the most valuable things you can score during Long Beach Food Scene Week 2024.

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Free tomahawk steak giveaway from Battambong BBQ (yes, free)

1136 E Willow St. in Signal Hill at Ten Mile Brewing

My love for Chef Chad Phuong of Battambong BBQ runs deep. His talent as a pitmaster. His eloquence in describing his life expereince. The way in which he uplifts not just the Cambodian community but the entirety of Long Beach. His food and spirit are gems for our city—and of course, his open heart would be audacious enough to give away four free tomahawk steaks to kick off Long Beach Food Scene Week 2024.

This will happen on Friday, Aug. 9.

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Mole rosa from Lola’s Mexican Cuisine

2130 E. 4th St. | 4140 Atlantic Ave.

Last year, Chef Luis Navarro had one of the most popular dishes for the inaugural Long Beach Food Scene Week. He shipped Chef Susana Trilling’s mole Oaxaqueño from Oaxaca. This year, he returns the focus to his own creation. And it is arguably the best dish Chef Luis has ever served. It was first put on display at a mezcal dinner he hosted last year at Lola’s in 2022.

A stunning pink mole, a red rose-hued sauce dotted with Mexican squash and pine nuts, swirls around a mound of rice before being capped with a hefty hangar steak.

The result is a gorgeous ode to the mighty moles of Oaxaca, but in this one, a swirl of heat, tart, and nuttiness meld into one of the most intriguing moles on this side of the border. Habanero and chile güero punch up the spice, cloves, and other spices to add hints of sweetness, cranberries for tartness and color, various nuts for earthiness…

It’s fantastic—and I am ecstatic to see it return.

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Prix fixe menu from Ammatolí ($65/person)

285 E. 3rd St.

There have been some rather hilarious conspiracy theories about my attachment to Ammatolí since I first began to write about them. They have swirled from me being a silent investment partner to Chef Dima Habibeh secretly paying me to write about her. Neither of which is true, of course. But Chef Dima is a dear friend—I’ve even had the honor of cooking for her at her home—and, in a sense, Ammatolí is a second home of sorts to me as we’ve grown across the past five-plus years. And if I am being honest, yes, I get treated well whenever I step in; I wouldn’t have it another way. Having Chef Dima simply take care of you without thinking about much is an experience I wish everyone could experience.

And her stellar prix fixe for Long Beach Food Scene Week 2024 is one of the closest ways you can achieve that, especially if you’re dining with another person. A mini-array of her menu is a solid sample of her seemingly endless talent in the kitchen.

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Kamayan plate from Gemmae Bake Shop ($24)

1356 W. Willow St.

Gemmae Bake Shop co-owner Catherine Tolentino featured a Kamayan plate for last year’s inaugural Long Beach Food Scene Week. So to say it is an honor to watch it become LBFSW tradition is an understatement.

Honoring the tradition of Kamayan food spreads—translating into “hands” in Tagalog, where foods that are intended to be eaten by hand are laid out across a table lined with banana leaves—Catherine has created a $24 plate with short rib Caldeteta (a rich Filipino beef’n’tomato stew), calamansi chicken wings, the shop’s famed lumpia Shanghai, steamed rice and Sapin-Sapin (a steamed, glutinous rice that is as sweet as it is delicious).

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Media Noche Cuban sandwich from The Social List ($18)

2105 E. 4th St.

I have found that a chef has few moments of relishing in their work than through the power of taking it away. It can be something as simple as a special running its short course, never to be seen again. Or just simply remove an item from a menu because, creatively, they need to move on.
Either way, the return of The Social List’s Media Noche Cuban sandwich will surely be welcomed by its legions of dedicated patrons.

One of the best versions of the plate to hit Long Beach, the sandwich is a reminder of the space’s decade-long dedication to comfort food and comfort spaces. The Social List has almost always avoided pretense, even as it became the first 4th Street bar to regularly carry quality beers (like Houblon Chouffe when it first opened, a rarity) and whiskeys (like Blanton’s, unheard of in the early 2010s in Long Beach), now the regular among any full bar establishment. 

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Bulgogi pizza collaboration between The 4th Horseman and Sura Korean BBQ ($26)

121 W. 4th St.

The world of Long Beach pizza is vast and fiercely competitive. Amid the stretching and proofing and topping, The 4th Horseman has managed to stand out as a horrorcore swan song to the mightily humble pie. And with its new expansion? Firmly cements the pizzeria as one of the coolest, one of the most consistent, and one of the most cadaverous.

This expansion has also translated into expanded offerings—including this stellar collaboration between the horrorcore staple and Sura Korean BBQ. The latter’s locally famous bulgogi meets the pizzeria’s much-loved sourdough crust, kimchi, green onion, gochuchange paste, and dwenjang aioli.

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Pork belly kaw from Chinitos Tacos

11130 Del Amo Blvd.

It is safe to say that Chinitos Tacos—the Cambodian-American-owned taco shop headed by Chef Beeline Krouch—is about as Long Beach as it gets. And in all frankness, there has been a continual frustration on my end, as both a writer and steward for the food community, by the lack of love Chinitos gets (even after multiple inclusions from me on my underrated restaurants lists and a glowing feature in the Los Angeles Times by the much-missed Patricia Escárcega all the way back in 2019).

And while fusing Cambodian and Mexican flavors.

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Tasting menu from Michael’s on Naples ($65)

5620 E. 2nd St.

As I have always said, Chef Eric Samaniego’s tasting menus are the way to go in the white-cloth space. This, paired with General Manager Massimo Arrone’s blissfully astute and unpretentious approach to Italian wine and hospitality, makes the evening one of the most consistently stellar in the Long Beach food scene. 

This particular menu for Long Beach Food Scene Week 2024, I am ecstatic that Chef Eric is returning to his use of wild boar. His boar Milanese? It was so good it was featured on the essential dishes of 2023. His garganelli with a boar ragú,on another tasting menu? Decadent, meaty, wondrous. So, I am quite happy to see him use his hand-rolled spaghetti with a traditional boar tomato sauce as one of the features of his menu for LBFSW. And looking forward to having it this weekend because, yes, I already made a reservation. And so should you.

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Lemongrass smash burger from MealsDotKom

456 Elm Ave. (inside Partake Collective)

MealsDotKom—a play on co-owner Rasmey Kom’s last name—might have started as a meal-prep business in Huntington Beach but is thoroughly Long Beach. Ramsey—a proud Cambodian-American born’n’raised in Long Beach—started the business with his wife, Filipina-American boss Crystal Millar. The success in Huntington allowed them to park up at Partake Collective, the locally owned and operated ghost kitchen at 5th Street and Elm Avenue.

Since then, the success of MealsDotKom has allowed the pair to look toward the future: Unlike many ghost kitchen businesses, they are intent on creating a brick-and-mortar concept—they just need to find the right space. Until then, their bread’n’butter that is meal prep will help build even further capital for their eventual build-out.

For Long Beach Food Scene Week, they are featuring a fan favorite: their stellar lemongrass burger. Layered with papaya salad, cilantro, jalapeño, and cheese, this is one of the best fusion burgers you can have in the city.

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Sweet corn spaetzl with prawns from Panxa Cocina

3937 E. Broadway

Okay, so the schnitzel and branzino specials are definitively where it’s at but there’s a bit of nostalgia to my choice of the spaetzle.

Chef Arthur Gonzalez, when he opened Panxa, was not only a culinary song to New Mexico—the southwestern state with which he connected via his wife, Vanessa Auclair, having grew up there—but to his own blend of heritages: half German, half Oaxacan. This was unquestionably best exemplified in his wonder of a dish, albondingas con spaetzle.

To honor that memory, the Panxa crew have come with a new version. It takes many forms Germany: spätzli, spatzen, and knöpfle. But the base is relatively the same: a handmade egg pasta that is boiled and then tossed in browned butter, which creates a creaminess to the dish that is both simple and wondrous. Some add other things on top of this—cheese, sauces, gravies—while some don’t.

For this verison for LBFSW, the pasta is layered with sweet corn, hatch chiles, asparagus, spinach, and cotija.

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Dreamcatcher Carbonara Ddukbokki from Sura Korean BBQ ($20)

621 Atlantic Ave.

Sura Korean BBQ has long been the steward of Korean cuisine in Long Beach. It is largely responsible for not only introducing residents and visitors alike to the vast depth of Korean food but also finding ways to connect with the community via that very food. Its tabletop grills, installed on the patio tables earlier this year, are the result of a long-held dream from its owners, Claire Kim and Brandon Sugano.

And while I have extolled on my love for their other rice cake dish—their creamy rose tteokbokki is beyond addicting—the Italian side of my heritage is screaming happily at this beautifully Korean take on the Italian classic. A parmesan cream sauce used as a bath for rice cakes and bacon, topped with blended kimchi white sauce that the space has dubbed “apocalyptic.” Yes and more yes. 

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Three-course tasting menu from Vino e Cucina ($45)

4501 E. Carson St.

Speaking of Italian… Eating at Vino e Cucina in East Long Beach, butting edges with the boundary of the city of Lakewood, there are two unavoidable sensations. The first is a sense of removal: The small strip of businesses that cut through the northeast corner of Carson and Lakewood feel eons away from the nearby, traffic-ridden, suburban-meets-commercial vibe of the area, particularly when inside the warm space.

But perhaps most unavoidable is the restaurant’s affable, loquacious, charming owner, Milan native and Long Beach resident Lorenzo Mottola. To eat a meal with Lorenzo is to experience Italian hospitality on a level that can only be found at Michael’s on Naples. Sticking to the Roman mother pastas for his Long Beach Food Scene Week 2024 tasting—which features his cacio e pepe, arguably the best in the city—I deeply encourage folks from all over the city to visit this hidden East Long Beach gem.

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Kentucky BBQ lamb from The Ordinarie ($30)

210 The Promenade N.

The backbone of The Ordinarie’s origin story is nearly impossible to dismiss when writing about it because the concept behind it is one of Long Beach’s most vital in terms of what it wants to be and what it harkens back toward: American hospitality, in all its complexities—and therefore, American cuisine, in all its complexities. This is what affable and lovable owner Christy Caldwell has long tried to achieve. And that is what Chef Nick DiEugenio has consistently achieved since being brought on in 2023.

“American regional food is so beautiful for me because it is defined by immigrants and the Black community that has built the country,” said Chef Nick, brought on earlier this year to take over one of DTLB’s best spaces. “Each city you visit in the States, their food is entirely defined by its history and the immigrants who moved there. Every city you visit has its dominant immigrant population, which affords American cuisine a lot of creativity that is often dismissed.”

For Long Beach Food Scene Week 2024, DiEugenio sticks to those roots by using one of the best cuts of nearly every land protein—the neck—as a base for his dish. He smokes lamb neck, slathering it with a mulberry barbecue sauce and serving it with pickles. 

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The $25 four-course tasting menu from Broken Spirits Distillery (yes, $25)

300 The Promenade N.

After announcing their plans back in October of 2023, the group behind Orange County’s wildly popular Smoke & Fire and Villains Brewing concepts are ready to unveil their distilling space, Broken Spirits Distillery. Taking over the former Portuguese Bend space in Downtown Long Beach, Broken Spirits opened in May of 2024.

And since, it has truly attempted to be an anchor in the community—including being bluntly aware of the decreased wallet sizes of patrons. It has a two-for-one cocktail special during happy hour. Plenty of affordable offerings. And for Long Beach Food Scene Week 2024, it is offering a four-course dinner for $25. It starts with sweet Thai chile wings. Goes onto smoked brisket tacos. And then you get a choice of protein—brisket, tri-tip, lamb chops—with a side. And then a churro’n’cajeta dessert.

Yes, for $25.

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“Oxblood” chicken wings from Shlap Muan (starting at $6)

2050 E. South St. #105

Husband-and-wife team Hawk and Sophia Tea’s heritage—a mixture of Cambodian, Chinese, and American cultures swirled into one beautiful familial pot—lead the way for what I would call, no questions asked, the best wings in the city. Surely, Shlap Muan (which means “chicken wing” in Khmer) offers some stellar takes on Cambodian classics—kuyteav, lok lak, garlic noodles upon garlic noodles—but it is their dedication to the humble but mighty chicken wing that is cause for celebration.

Using a secret seasoning, pre-game trick on the poultry before taking them to the frier station, Hawk’s ability to fry fowl—a method he learned from his father, Chhay—brings out his equal mastery in seasoning and saucing them.

And for LBFSW, he has an entirely new flavor to debut: Oxblood. Taking his Water Buffalo flavoring as a base, he is layering the inspiration behind prohok, the ubiquitous, fish sauce-heavy Cambodian dipping sauce found at every backyard Cambodian cookout. Can. Not. Wait.

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A La Carte menu at Bar Becky ($16-$30)

3860 Worsham Ave.

Chef Johnathan Benvenuti initially used the space he is at as a popup under the brand Bar Becky—and with its fruitful showing, formally took over and permanently rebranded the space from Remix to Bar Becky in April of 2024. His food is directly informed by nostalgia, harkening to a genuinely authentic memory that doesn’t read either contrived or cheap—and it makes it one of the best new restaurants around. Even better, his talent with vegetables should never be underrated.

And typically, Chef Johnathan goes prix fixe for every menu—but instead, is offering five different plates a la carte for LBFSW: a radicchio salad; hamachi crudo; semolina pasta with a ham red sauce; seared diver scallops; and a blueberry corncake.

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Yellowfin tuna crudo from Liv’s on 2nd ($19)

5327 E 2nd St

Liv’s on 2nd, the oyster bar-meets-full-on seafood restaurant in the Shore, has brought something to Long Beach that has long been needed. Sexy oysters. Good wine. Solid seafood. But it is oh so much more than that.

Chef Kristine Schneider—joined by owner and chef Rob White, who also just opened Hartland’s at 1900 Ocean—is no stranger to the food scene. Earning her stripes at Michael on Naples under Chef Eric Samaniego, Kristine has a profound sense of Californian-ness attached to her food. After all, she was literally attached to the farmlands of our state up in Visalia, a place she returns to as often as she can to connect to her roots and the very roots of food itself.

And Chef Kristine’s various crudos? Certainly some of the best in the city—and she does not miss for her special for LBFSW, layering yellowfin tuna from Fiji with cilantro, corn, scallions, and ginger.

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Three-course tasting menu from Marlena ($55)

5854 E. Naples Plaza

Marlena—one of Long Beach’s newest restaurants from newly minted restaurateur Robert Smith, Chef Michael Ryan, hospitality maestro Debra Zelenka, and cocktail connoisseur David Castillo—has quickly garnered a loyal legion of patrons.

And rightfully so: Its blistered pizzas, handmade pastas, and Josper Grill-ed proteins are among some of the best in the city, with its service and cocktails sitting right on par. With their fairly new brunch menu, that alignment with quality and dare I say pure yumminess continues. Diners will find a seamless indoor-outdoor vibe at Marlena. Ryan’s culinary point of view reflects a local, seasonal, and globally-influenced approach synonymous with California bistros like République and Alta Adams.

This no exception with his tasting menu for LBFSW, which features his tagliatelle bolognese, quite possibly the best version in the city.