The Best Breads Eater Editors Ate This Week: September 21

The editors at Eater Los Angeles dine out several times a week, if not per day, which means we’re always encountering standout dishes that deserve time in the limelight. Here’s the very best of everything the team has eaten this week.

Sourdough bread from Lielle in Pico-Robertson

As someone who got too into making sourdough bread at the peak of COVID-19 quarantine, I know that pulling off consistent superlative loaves can be easier said than done. That’s why Lielle’s sourdough bread, served with a towering pile of deep yellow butter, feels even more impressive. The small domed loaf arrives as part of the restaurant’s prix fixe with a firm crust that gives way to a slightly warm, tender interior. After a recent visit, my favorite strategy to enjoy the bread involves slathering it in butter at the beginning of the meal and reserving another section to sop up any sauces served with latter courses, especially if you add on the lobster agnolotti. 9575 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90035. — Rebecca Roland, deputy editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Chipa with tomato butter from Alto in Studio City

Lately, our team cannot stop talking about Studio City’s Alto, a Uruguayan-Argentine dinnertime restaurant tucked into a more corporate stretch of Ventura Boulevard that generally caters to fast-casual power lunches. The restaurant’s reimagined steakhouse dinner menu features four breads (order one of each if you come with a group of four or more), my favorite being the chipa, which happens to be gluten-free. This cheesy bread roll, an easy morning or afternoon snack that can be found in baskets on the street or in bakeries in Argentina, here manifests as a yuca orb of feathery goodness that has a crisp, flaky exterior and subtle tang. Owners and chefs Juana Castellanos Lagemann and Esteban Klenzi have dreamed up the perfect accompaniment: a hazelnut-studded tomato compound butter that delivers earthy, nutty roundness to the bread strips as you eat. 12969 Ventura Boulevard, Studio City, CA 91604. — Nicole Fellah, Eater editorial manager

Corn creme salt bread from Out of the Ordi in Koreatown

This past weekend, Eater took over the Tam O’Shanter in Atwater Village for Eater Off Menu, an event bringing our breadth of trends reporting to life in one delicious setting. There was a massive stargazy pie from British pub Dean’s in New York City, a sheet cake that snaked around the room from Quarter Sheets, and a tower of tiny martinis brought to us by Night on Earth and Thunderbolt. One of my favorite bites was the corn creme–stuffed salt bread from Koreatown’s Out of Ordi. The roll had a buttery, crispy exterior and overflowed with a velvety, whipped corn cream center that tasted like summer. I now understand why salt bread is so hot right now, and I’m really happy I didn’t have to wait in line for it (although, for Out of Ordi, I would). 3524 West 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90005. — Kat Thompson, audience editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest

Passionfruit vanilla schmear bagel from Mustards in Culver City

Culver City bagel shop Mustard’s partnered with fish purveyor Seremoni for a smoked salmon bagel topped with garlic chips, pickled ginger, and fresh parsley that upended my notion of what a salmon bagel could be. It would’ve been the best thing I tried if it weren’t for the astonishingly delicious vanilla-schmeared bagel dressed with fresh passionfruit and Thai basil that rewired my brain a little bit. Mustard’s complex, sourdough bagels should’ve been overpowering to the sweet, almost dessert-like toppings, but instead that tang really complemented the tartness of the passionfruit. In between, a sweet vanilla bean-tinted soft cream cheese brought it all together, with pops of freshness coming from the basil. Mustard’s is doing something very special with its 72-hour fermented sourdough, and for me, it doesn’t get better than this seasonal creation. 10850 Washington Boulevard, Culver City. — Matthew Kang, correspondent, Eater