Horses — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Horses on Sunset is one of those rare places that consistently delivers the kind of night out you hope for in Los Angeles but almost never get—unpretentious but stylish, effortlessly cool without trying too hard, and above all, solid. The front bar area is fun, approachable and great people-watching—like dining inside a curated Instagram account of “hot LA with a literary past.” Loud, alive, and always entertaining. If you’re more in the mood for a low-key dinner, the main dining room offers a more comfortable, quieter energy, and the outdoor patio has just enough twinkle to make it feel like a proper date spot.

The menu? Small. Purposefully so. And that’s part of the brilliance—no Cheesecake Factory novel of options here. Just a few dishes done extremely well. The butcher’s steak is a textbook example of why less is more, the hamburger and fries are classic in the best sense (like, if you had friends visiting from France and wanted to show them what an LA burger should taste like), and the Caesar salad is oddly genius—its own thing entirely. Last night I tried the rockfish for the first time, and I say this as someone who tends to approach restaurant fish like a trust fall—it was one of the best meals I’ve had in months. Perfectly cooked, full of flavor, light and rich at the same time.

Cocktails are strong, both literally and creatively, and the service is on point. The waitstaff is always well-versed in the menu, never upsell-y, and Amanda at the host stand is basically the unofficial mayor of the place. She makes the chaos look effortless, and somehow everyone gets seated, taken care of, and seen.

And yes, there’s a not-so-secret off-menu pasta—Herman’s Pasta—that comes out in a metal pan with crispy, caramelized edges and a perfect al dente center. You’ll want to ask for it every time once you know.

Lastly, the sheep’s milk cheese cake + poached plums; one of the best deserts…full stop!

Five stars, no hesitation. Horses is a modern LA classic that’s managed to stay relevant without becoming a caricature of itself—and that’s...

This is a difficult review to write (this review is for The Garden at Horses but applies to the main restaurant, I'm sure). Horses was recommended by a restaurant owner/chef so we were excited to visit. The reviews are polarized but I feel the 2-3 star reviews have more credibility as I definitely see what they mean. There wasn't anything "bad" but there was nothing "great" which is where our expectations were set and what made this an incredibly poor value. Every restaurant has dishes that simply disappoint because not enough effort/creativity/love went into them - dishes you know you could have made better yourself. This was not one of those places. Every dish was good, well put together and flavored, but not a single dish was "great,"which was severely disappointing. There was a lot of potential but they just checked the box instead of going beyond and crafting something impressive. This was/is extremely frustrating even as I write this a month later. The service was good but their priority was clearly to turn over the table as quickly as possible. When we're spending over $300 for two people, I don't want to be in and out in an hour. The cocktail recommendations from the server were poor (for some reason this is a mezcal place so you better line mezcal) and the cocktails came out after we had most of our appetizers (come on!). For some reason the restaurant feels the need to have a heavy aroma of smoke in the air even though very few foods are grilled (steaks) and very few were ordered, but it's pretty stinky nonetheless. We did get food poisoning, probably from the sashimi (you can tell when certain fish flavors are being covered up) but could have been the beef carpaccio. That was slightly regretful. We were very much looking forward to try Horses for a follow-up visit but there's absolutely no need. Overall,...

Genuinely one of the best meals I've had in a long while. Horses is phenomenal and if you love a place that has great atmosphere, I recommend and DEMAND you go at least once to experience it. Order any crudo they have going on, the brown butter amber jack is life changing. Definitely order their signature endive caeser AND the burger. If the sungold pizza is in season GET IT. THE SWEETBREADS ARE A MUST (they are a little salty so fair warning). Honestly food would have been 5 stars, but unfortunately whatever abomination happened with the steak tartare made them go down to a 4 for that. IT WAS ABYSMAL, genuinely almost ruined my night. It's not your average tartare, the meat is not finely diced, but almost ground and gives off raw burger meat vibes. There was no acid, barely any salt and it genuinely made me feel sick. Thankfully we all only had a bite of it and moved on to better things, but holy wow... i don't think I'll be having a tartare for a while until that abomination of a dish leaves my memory forever. Service was okay, honestly our server had an easy section as we were outside and not in the busy area inside. They were pretty average, polite enough, but not welcoming and honestly didn't perk up until it was time to tip. We didn't even send the tartare back because it felt like they didn't care and seeing the full plate didn't even phase them. The host was great, super welcoming and just positive energy overall.

I genuinely love horses. It's a great spot and worth it for any and all occasions! JUST DON'T GET...