Maestro Pasadena

On our lists of the best romantic restaurants, live music venues and special-occasion restaurants in Los Angeles.

Most of the cocktails at this Union Street restaurant in Old Pasadena are built on mezcal or tequila, including a tamarind margarita with guajillo and a mezcal negroni, and the bar rotates its flights weekly. Dinner is modern Mexican: bone marrow esquite, tacos ahogados in broth, seared scallops on huitlacoche rice, a braised lamb shank with nixtamal tortillas. Three childhood friends whose families come from Los Altos de Jalisco opened it in January 2017, in a long room with exposed brick and a high ceiling, and there are tables outside too.