Slippery Shrimp & Loose Plans | Yang Chow

Good morning, Los Angeles. You’re reading Obsessed LA, your insider guide to what’s actually worth being obsessed with in the city. Each week, we highlight the restaurants, events, and hidden gems that capture LA’s best energy.

New Year’s really snuck up on us this year. First comes a Chinatown shrimp dish that ruins your expectations. Then a “quick” coffee stop that absolutely isn’t quick. After that, the rest writes itself.

This week isn’t about big resets. It’s about letting good places lead the way and seeing where the night (or day) lands. Consider this permission to keep it simple and trust your taste going forward.

Here are the last obsessions for 2025.

You’re planning where you want to eat. Someone says Chinatown. Someone else says “Yang Chow?” And that’s it. The decision has been made. You’ve probably been here before. If you haven’t been here, think huge tables, shared plates, and genuinely bomb food.

You’re getting the Slippery Shrimp. Trust me. It’s sweet, garlicky, slightly crispy, and it disappears immediately. Every table has it. Every table should have it. The rest of the menu is deep and dependable. The noodles, stir-fries and classics show up hot and taste the way you expect them to.

The room is loud, busy, and full of big tables. Families, regulars and people clearly doing the same Chinatown routine you are. Food comes fast. You eat, you share, you leave full. And somehow this ends up being the place you come back to again, even when you swear you’re “trying somewhere new.”

Yang Chow isn’t trying to impress you. It doesn’t need to. It’s just always there, and it always works. And that’s the whole appeal.

If you sit down at Jurassic Magic, you’re committing to at least an hour. The records, the plants, the mismatched furniture, the soft light coming through the windows. It’s just… cozy. Whatever you were rushing to can probably wait.

You can grab a quick espresso and go, but you probably won’t. If you’re like me, you will sit down “for a minute” and suddenly you’ve been there for an hour. People are reading, working, talking quietly, or doing absolutely nothing.

The aesthetics are eclectic, which feels super refreshing. Records stacked and plants that look like they’ve been cared for. Furniture that doesn’t match and clearly wasn’t bought together, but somehow works anyway. The light comes through the windows and stays that way all day. It looks like a space that became itself over time, not something designed to be finished. And that’s what makes it so easy to settle in.

Jurassic Magic is simply just a really good room to be in. And sometimes that’s all you need.

A tiny, incredibly thoughtful bookstore that feels like it was made for people who are naturally curious people. I don’t think anyone has ever stumbled in here accidentally. I personally wandered in slowly. I lowered my voice without realizing it and within about 90 seconds, I was holding a book I didn’t know existed but now feel weirdly connected to.

Arcana isn’t a bookstore for “what should I read next?” vibes. It’s a bookstore for trusting your curiosity. Art, photography, design, architecture, fashion, film, music. Literally everything bleeds into everything else.

Arcana trusts you to be curious. That’s the whole thing.

And the staff are awesome. I asked a few questions, and they were so quick to gently redirect me. “If you like this, you might want to look at that.” Dangerous words. Suddenly I was three sections deep and rethinking how empty my coffee table looks at home.

DTLA
The city’s official New Year’s Eve, but still feels surprisingly human. DJs, projections, food trucks, and a countdown that feels communal instead of clubby. Free, walkable, and very “LA actually showing up.”
Tickets →

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Hollywood
A local art market featuring painters, photographers, designers, and makers selling directly. Easy to wander, good people-watching, and a solid daytime move if you want something creative without committing to a museum.
Details →

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Pasadena
A very LA way to reset: wake up, move your body, feel vaguely virtuous. You don’t have to be a runner, half the crowd is just there for the sunshine, the stadium loop, and starting the year doing something.
Details →

Shuffleboard. Pool table. Karaoke happening somewhere in the back. It’s loud enough to feel alive, but not so loud that you’re yelling your life story into someone’s ear. That’s basically the whole pitch.

Tiny’s Hi-Dive is a place where you don’t need to warm up to the room. You grab a drink, find a spot, and the rest just kind of happens. You end up talking to people you didn’t come with. You play a game you haven’t played in years. Someone absolutely butchers a karaoke song and somehow the room rallies around them anyway. It’s casual and social, but not exhausting.

On the Westside especially, this kind of simplicity feels rare. Everything else is either trying too hard or barely trying at all. Tiny’s sits right in the middle. Confident. Comfortable. Unbothered.

You don’t leave thinking, wow, that was insane.
You leave thinking, yeah… that was exactly right.

And honestly, those are the nights that stick.

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