Hollywood Restaurants

Cuban food and cocktails. During the week they have jam sessions featuring some the the best salsa music in town. One of the only Hollywood restaurants we know that offers dance lessons; on Saturdays, the serious salseros roll in, so we recommend reservations. Plenty of typical Cuban food, plus Spanish dishes like Paella and Zarzuela de Mariscos, a spicy baked casserole of everything that swims. Versailles may be a better bet for the food, but for music, it's El Floridita. Take a salsa lesson so you don't have to just sit there sipping your mojito, consumed by rhythm envy. www.elfloridita.com

Raw seafood bar, exotic cocktails, Hollywood ambience. Focused on oysters, clams, mussels, lobster, crab legs and caviar, Hungry Cat caters to the seafood lover who likes it raw, marinated, fresh and chilled. For the unfishy eater, their Pup Burger gets amazing reviews. Fresh house cocktails to wash it all down, plus they serve until midnight Thursday-Saturday, which makes them a relative night owl among Hollywood restaurants. www.thehungrycat.com

Tasty South American treats, without having to climb to Machu Picchu. Not all Hollywood restaurants survived the recent redevelopment, but Los Balcones de Peru emerged with a face-lift and a new menu. Los Balcones menu highlights include ceviche, sea bass, aji de gallina (shredded chicken in spicy green chili sauce) and lomo saltado, a sirloin strip steak dish seasoned with a dash of Asia and a pinch of South America.

One of the more creative Mexican restaurants in the city. They say it's Mexico City-inspired cooking, served in an urban, bustling atmosphere on Hollywood Blvd. A cool bar, too. Sip a mango mojito and try the 12 taco sampler, surrounded by blowups of Mexican loteria cards. www.loteriagrill.com

The elder, meat and potatoes spokesman of Hollywood restaurants, Musso and Frank pours the best martinis in L.A. Raymond Chandler, William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald used to soak them up by the pitcher as they labored in the dream factory. You'd drink too, if you worked for Louis B. Mayer. Red- vested waiters who've been there for decades, steaks and chops and Depression-era menu items like welsh rarebit and broiled lamb kidneys, make Musso's a near-perfect dining time capsule (except for the prices). www.mussoandfrankgrill.com

Authentic Thai food, plus the authentic Thai Elvis, who entertains on the weekends. Palms Thai serves our favorite Thai food in Los Angeles, maintaining a consistency that is almost supernatural given the volume of meals the kitchen produces each night. Must be all those Buddhas presiding over the diners happily downing plates of chicken larb, crab curry and more exotic dishes like wild boar with curry sauce. www.palmsthai.com

Chicken and waffles, served separately or together since that year of maximum funk, 1975. The soul food boss of Hollywood restaurants also dishes up down home savories like grits n' gravy, greens and candy yams. In the immortal words of Ludacris, "let's roll to Roscoe's and grab something to eat." www.roscoeschickenandwaffles.com

Spicy Balkan cooking. Huge portions. Outrageously low prices, as in $6 for a savory bowl of goulash that'll stick with you all day. Stuffed cabbage, chicken with dumplings, various fried pork delicacies and real life, Eastern European food. No actor/waiters, no credit cards, no white linen, just one of our favorite value-priced Hollywood restaurants.