Start your day off on the right foot with a walk or jog under the palm tress along Venice Beach followed by a cult egg and bacon roll from Egg Slut (1611 Pacific Ave), which also has locations in Grand Central Market and Beverly Hills.

Salt’s Cure (1155 Highland Ave) is the spot for an indulgent weekend brunch. All their ingredients are sourced from Californian growers and everything is made in-house, from the ketchup to the bacon. The best dish isn’t even on the menu. When your waiter has delivered your Bloody Mary, ask them, with as much local swagger as you can muster, for the All-Star Breakfast of two eggs, two slices of bacon, two round pork sausages, oatmeal griddle cakes with cinnamon butter, a Southern-style biscuit with fresh jam and a slice of orange for good measure.

For your daily caffeine fix, head to Australian-run Paramount Coffee Project (456 N Fairfax Ave) – sister to the cafe of the same name in Sydney’s Surry Hills, Commissary in a leafy greenhouse setting at The Line hotel (3515 Wilshire Blvd) in Koreatown, and G&B Coffee at Grand Central Market in Downtown LA (317 S Broadway).

Aussie chef Louis Tikaram, who cut his teeth at Tetsuya’s in Sydney, is the man behind uber-cool Weho restaurant and rooftop bar E.P. & L.P. (603 N La Cienega Blvd, West Hollywood). “LA is hot and dry, which is perfect for zesty, spicy food. It surprised me that Southeast Asian cuisine, with its fresh herbs, chillies and tropical fruits, was not more common, but people are responding to my food really well,” says Tikaram, whose fun menu mashes up North American and Asian food traditions – who knew mezcal was the perfect partner for a zingy plate of yuba (tofu skins) with Chinese pickles and five-spice peanuts?

Before it gets too hot, head to the Hollywood Hills to walk off breakfast and to catch a a birds-eye view of the city from the slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains. The sandy track that starts at the Griffith Observatory, where there is free parking, winds through greenery and behind the famous Hollywood sign, and is a welcome respite from the traffic-heavy streets of the City of Angels below.

Much more than a cafe, this Venice icon is the place to see and be seen, whether you’re doing brunch SoCal-style, enjoying an heirloom tomato and ricotta tartine or a breakfast burrito, or sipping on a cocktail of rye whiskey, pineapple shrub, caramelised pineapple and dry vermouth before dinner. The sprawling space at Rose Cafe includes indoor and outdoor dining with a beer garden, a market, pizzeria and bakery, Verve Coffee bar, and a huge cocktail bar strung with hanging macramé plants.

MTN (pronounced ‘mountain’) is a popular new izakaya from Travis Lett of Gjelina and Gjusta fame, located on the trendy Abbot Kinney eat street in Venice. It’s dark, moody, sexy and minimalist and you better have a booking because this place is always pumping. There’s a large, daily changing menu, but you can expect elegant, produce-driven Japanese-influenced share plates, spanking fresh sushi, natural wine and mod cocktails with refreshing Japanese flavours such as nashi pear and yuzu.

Felix Trattoria, also on Venice’s hot eat street Abbot Kinney, is only open for dinner does excellent renditions of regional Italian favourites using Californian produce supported with an exciting line-up of Italian wines. A generous selection of pasta is made in-house, and listed on the menu depending on what part of Italy it’s from –¬ the north, middle, the south, the islands. The 60-day dry-aged steak is a stand out, best served with a side of roasted broccoli topped with pecorino and a glass of Etna Rosso, with popping notes of the volcanic landscape where it is produced in Sicily.

Tucked away in Century City is Hinoki & the Bird (10 Century Drive), a mod-American restaurant with a serene Japanese bent. The clean lines and smooth wooden surfaces, together with the delicate plating and Pan-Asian menu, create a zen environment to graze on shared plates, such as wild boar ribs with Szechuan pepper and kaffir lime, green curry lobster rolls, Brussels sprouts with furikake, and a signature duck fat fried rice.

Welcome to LA, the home of clean eating, organic and plant-based. Get with the program and feed your green juice habit at Kreation Organic where goodness comes via oral syringe shots of high-octane superfood combinations, cold-pressed juices, smoothies and the most virtuous of breakfast bowls and salads.

Casa Vega (13301 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks) has attracted night owls ever since Marlon Brando and Cary Grant popularised the kitschy-cool Mexican throw-back restaurant in the 1950s. Go the famed lobster enchiladas.