Cardinale du Vin

On our list of the best romantic restaurants in Los Angeles.

A single chandelier lights the long shared table that runs along the window at this Pico-Robertson wine bar, a room small enough to take in at a glance from the doorway. A chef from Bangkok runs the kitchen, folding Thai flavors into the format: a coconut-rich green curry with oyster mushrooms and a side of roti, oysters in a fish sauce mignonette, cornbread under chili butter. By day the same room turns into a coffee bar, and the wine list sticks to small, low-intervention producers instead of the expected French labels.