SORA Craft Kitchen

"• Esquire’s Best Restaurant of the Year 2025 The phrase “labor of love” only scratches the surface of what Okay Inak brings to Los Angeles. He’s usually the sole employee at Sora Craft Kitchen, so when you pass through the front door from a seemingly unpopulated strip of East Twelfth Street, you’ll find him in the kitchen at the other end of the room preparing bowls of Turkish fermented-cabbage soup and fat, juicy spiced-beef dumplings known as içli köfte. He’ll wave you in and show you how to order stuff by tapping a digital kiosk. He’ll bring you dishes you’ve probably never seen before, dishes that showcase centuries of maternal wisdom from Turkey. He’s pouring every last dollar and every waking minute into telling a story about Turkish culinary heritage, but he’s doing it with such unflappable finesse that you feel like you’re part of a secret downtown dinner party"