By 
A decade ago, less than a year after I moved to LA, I couldn’t get enough of Venice. The still-standing Cafe Gratitude and its delicious protein bowls, the coconut açai bowls from Amazebowls, the wood-fired pizzas at Rose Cafe, and how could I forget my amazing meditations and sound baths at Ceremony Meditation? Sadly, with the exception of Cafe Gratitude, all of these spots have closed since then.
Whenever my family visited, Gjelina was — and still is — a safe bet. Its seasonal, farm-to-table menu helped put Californian cuisine on the map, and its founder, chef Travis Lett, remains a prominent fixture in the Venice dining scene. Gjelina opened in 2008 and to this day, it’s still a globally recognized food destination.
In addition to Gjelina, chef Travis opened MTN, a California-leaning izakaya that operated from 2018 to 2020. The year MTN opened, the late LA Times critic Jonathan Gold referred to it as “peak Venice.”
After a five-year hiatus, chef Travis opened RVR in 2024. The restaurant takes pride in its seasonal menu, blending Japanese izakaya with his vegetable-forward approach, using California’s fresh, local produce. Guests who visited MTN instantly drew parallels between the two. However, not a restaurant on Abbot Kinney has caused so much buzz the way RVR has in the past couple years.
Last year, Interview Magazine asked The Bear’s actor Jeremy Allen White his favorite restaurant in LA. He replied: “I’ve only eaten there once, but it was my favorite meal of last year. It’s a place called RVR on Abbott Kinney in Venice. The best meal I’ve had all year long.”
In 2025, RVR was featured on the New York Times’ “50 Best Restaurants in America” list. This year, they were a semifinalist for the 2026 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant.
Located in the former MTN space — a minimalist nondescript building — RVR’s interior is dimly lit with dark wooden accents, embodying the laid-back Venice atmosphere that is so deeply ingrained in Gjelina: a communal table and counter seats facing Abbot Kinney.
At the far end, opposite the open kitchen, a record console stacked with vintage records juts out from the wall. I sat at the bar, where I got a great panoramic view of the full-fledged operation at RVR: cooks manning the grill in a fervent manner, and a legion of servers waiting for their orders. Chef Travis was casually leaning on the record console talking to someone.
Something to note is that RVR is not the most comfortable restaurant. As soon as I sat down, the tall wooden bar stool was incredibly wobbly. I flagged someone down and they told me it was due to the uneven floor and that there wasn’t much they could do other than repositioning it. I moved it forward a few inches and that did the job! But when I turned back to thank him, he had completely vanished.
Menu
The menu is divided into six categories: small plates, vegetables, ramen, gyoza, hand rolls and grilled meats. With that in mind, I studied it by compiling reviews from various publications, including Bill Addison’s review for the Los Angeles Times.
After some extensive research, these were some of the items I kept coming across again and again.
Pork gyoza
“What makes your gyoza different?” I asked my server. “Well… we make them in-house,” she said. “But the real standout is the green jalapeno paste. That’s what makes them special.”
The gyoza skirt came with soy and the thick green paste made of sea salt, jalapeno and lemon.
The best thing was the paste. The kick of the jalapeños and the zesty lemon provided just the right amount of heat. It was so good I ate all of it. However, paste with a gyoza feels incongruent. A dipping sauce would have been better-suited to ensure all the crevices are coated. I enjoyed the textural contrast of the gyoza, with its silky texture and shattering golden lattice. Inside, the fresh cabbage helped balance the richness of the juicy pork, but nothing about it made my eyes roll back in amazement.
Beef Tongue Skewer
“Here’s our beef tongue skewer. It’s the best thing on the menu,” said the server. Buttery pieces of beef tongue topped with torpedo onion salsa and toasted sesame oil. The torpedo onion salsa was the star, its pleasant acidity cutting through the richness of the beef and its delicious char. You can’t miss it.
Duck meatballs
If there’s something that is absolutely worth going back for, it’s their duck meatball tsukune with a dollop of hot mustard. Crisp and smoky on the outside and incredibly rich and succulent on the inside. Despite the burning sensation on my nose from the mustard, I relished every single bite. A must-order.
Miso Cod Tongue
With the exception of a few bones left in the cod, the biggest standout was the fatty char of the cod, which was cooked excellently. I wasn’t a fan of the pool of miso sauce underneath – which was delightful and added great depth of umami to the fish – but a simpler glaze on the cod would have sufficed. Eating the Swiss chard muddled in sauce wasn’t the most pleasant experience.
Hand Rolls
After seeing how wildly popular this $16 kanpachi hand roll was, per Bill Addison’s recommendation, I ordered it. If the intent was to showcase the freshness of the fish, the cucumber and the fattiness of the avocado distracted from it — especially since kanpachi is so mild in flavor.
Before I left, I had to eat another one to see if I liked it better.
“What’s your most popular handroll?” I asked my server. “The tuna is our most requested hand roll. It’s so good!”
Just like the kanpachi handroll, this handroll checked all the boxes: crispy nori, well-seasoned vinegared rice and buttery cuts of fish. I was expecting some groundbreaking twist, but it was nothing more than a hand roll with well-sourced tuna and chives. If you go there exclusively for the hand rolls, you might as well go to a high-end Japanese restaurant.
Buckwheat carrot cake with miso caramel ice cream
This type of cake is already very rich and nutty, so I wasn’t a fan of what seemed to be dried cranberries, which made it overly tart. The ice cream was just ok. I would have preferred going to Salt & Straw down the street.
Overall thoughts
After I had the cod, my stomach was mildly upset from the mix of sauces and proteins.
My total came to $150, including tip. I left two of the gyozas, but if you go with someone and you want to be satisfied without breaking the bank, then I suggest stopping at In-N-Out on the way home. The tiny dishes add up very quickly.
With 43 items on the dinner menu, RVR leans too hard into the “Japan-meets-California” concept, resulting in some hit-or-miss dishes and an unfocused menu — unlike Gjelina.
I would much rather have an easier menu to navigate, with a few standout dishes than a menu that spreads itself too thin. A good example is the Michelin Bib Gourmand izakaya Tsubaki in Echo Park. Their menu is diverse yet cohesive, with yakitori as the main specialty.
Except for the green jalapeno paste, the pork gyoza was nothing you couldn’t find at a dim sum restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley. I’ve already expressed my disappointment with the hand rolls. I don’t typically rely on Infatuation for reviews, but I was surprised when they shared the same sentiment as me. “RVR’s hand rolls are the most underwhelming part on its menu, with the exception of the one stuffed with cod tempura,” wrote Sylvio Martins.
The ramen section slightly piqued my interest, but other than the locally sourced vegetables, is there anything in particular that makes it noteworthy?
In the 2025 Time Out article, “This inconsistent California izakaya in Venice isn’t an izakaya at all—but at least the veggies are good,” contributor Patricia Kelly Yeo had some words: “At all costs, avoid the ramen section, where the watery vegetable miso will make you miss the far better vegetarian options at Tonchin, Jinya, or even, dare I say it, Tatsu.”
Since its opening, RVR has garnered mixed reviews. On Yelp, one reviewer called it “a Japanese restaurant for white people,” while others extol the virtues of chef Travis’ vegetable-forward approach.
All in all, RVR is a place I’d bring someone who wants to experience the hip and modern vibe of Venice: beautiful people, a bustling open kitchen, and a large menu that showcases California’s bounty of seasonal produce. A gorgeous plate of luscious peeled tomatoes from their summer menu caught my eye for a potential future visit, as well as chef Travis’ signature pickled vegetable plate, but ultimately, it’s not a place that will keep me coming back.
If you decide to go, the meat plates I had — albeit small in portion — are guaranteed to be showstoppers.
Walk-ins are welcome but you may have to wait for a while. I was lucky enough to be seated right away. RVR also offers lunch with a more limited menu.
Book your reservation on Resy.
