L.A. Times Food Bowl 2026 Lands at Barker Hangar October 23 and 24 with the 101 Best Restaurants Countdown Live
The L.A. Times Food Bowl has moved. The 2026 edition runs Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24 at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, and for the first time in the festival's history the Times is revealing its 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. countdown live, on stage, in front of the room. More than 40 restaurants are booked across the two nights, along with award-winning chefs, chef demonstrations, cookbook signings and live entertainment.
Tickets and lineup announcements go up at lafoodbowl.com, and the festival is also listed on the L.A. Times events page.
The 101 Best Restaurants countdown goes live
The headline change for 2026 is that the Food Bowl now carries the 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. Guests eat their way through the city alongside the chefs and restaurateurs who made the list while the ranking is read out.
That is a different proposition from a walk-around tasting. The 101 Best Restaurants list has functioned for years as the closest thing Los Angeles dining has to an annual scorecard, and it has always arrived as a published list you read on your phone. Putting the reveal on a stage, in a room full of the people being ranked, turns a piece of service journalism into a live event. We covered the 2025 101 Best Restaurants celebration, and the energy in that room was already considerable before anyone thought to read the numbers out loud.
The participating restaurant lineup for the countdown night has not been published. Food Bowl has said only that it is coming soon.
The second night is a straight-up party
The other evening is built as a celebration of the Southern California food and beverage scene, and the format is generous: unlimited bites and sips from more than 40 top restaurants, chef demonstrations and cookbook signings, with live entertainment running through the night. A DJ who built his reputation in Miami before landing in Los Angeles is handling music, and the festival is promising high-energy, dance-floor sets rather than background ambience.
As with the countdown night, the restaurant roster is still to be announced.
A new home at Barker Hangar
Barker Hangar sits at 3021 Airport Ave., Suite 203, Santa Monica, CA 90405, on the edge of Santa Monica Airport. It is the room Los Angeles reaches for when it needs scale with some polish, and it has hosted award shows, runway shows and a long run of the city's larger nights. For a walk-around tasting festival the appeal is obvious: one wide, uninterrupted floor, high ceilings, and enough square footage that 40-plus restaurant stations do not have to fight each other for air.
The move also puts the Food Bowl on the Westside for the first time in years. In 2025 the festival ran downtown at City Market Social House, and before that it spent several years on the Paramount Pictures Studios Backlot in Hollywood. Anyone coming from the Valley or the South Bay should plan the drive accordingly. Anyone in Santa Monica, Venice, Mar Vista or Culver City just got a very short one.
Tickets, VIP and the two-night pass
Three ticket paths are open for 2026:
General admission covers the unlimited food and drink, the DJ set and the live entertainment.
VIP adds early entry ahead of the general crowd, access to an exclusive VIP lounge and VIP-only experiences, and discounted parking.
Two-night pass covers both evenings at a saving over buying separately, and is available in either general admission or VIP.
Ticket prices for 2026 had not been posted in the materials we reviewed at the time of writing, and neither had session start times. We will update this page as the festival releases them.
How the Food Bowl got here
The Food Bowl started in 2017 as something much broader than a weekend. The Los Angeles Times built it as a month-long, citywide celebration of the city's food, with collaborations, dinners, panels and screenings scattered across neighborhoods, anchored by a Night Market at Grand Park that drew more than 50 vendors and food trucks over five nights.
It later consolidated onto the Paramount Pictures Studios Backlot, where the Night Market ran as themed sessions across a weekend, including a Latin American night, a global-cuisine Saturday and an all-ages backlot brunch. In 2025 the festival moved downtown to City Market Social House for a two-night Food Bowl Night Market on October 10 and 11, presented by Square, with more than 25 restaurants per evening and the L.A. Regional Food Bank as charity partner. Our full look at that edition is here: Los Angeles Times Food Bowl Night Market 2025.
The 2026 version reads like a deliberate tightening: fewer nights, a bigger room, and the paper's marquee editorial franchise attached to the whole thing.
What we have our eye on
We have not eaten at this year's Food Bowl yet, so we are not going to tell you what to order. What we are watching for:
Which restaurants land on the 101 Best list, and how many of them are actually pouring and plating in the room when the countdown is read.
How Barker Hangar handles flow. A single big floor is a gift for a tasting festival if the stations are spaced well and a problem if they are not.
Neighborhood spread. Food Bowl lineups in recent years have leaned on Thai Town, Koreatown, the Eastside and the South Bay as heavily as the Westside, and we want to see whether a Santa Monica venue shifts that balance.
Non-alcoholic options. All-inclusive festivals live or die on whether the people not drinking are looked after too.
Food Journal Magazine will be there
We are covering the 2026 L.A. Times Food Bowl on the ground. Food Bowl runs a media credential process for the event and we plan on going through it for both nights, which means still photography and vertical video from the floor, a look at the stations as they are actually running, and a full recap once the 101 Best Restaurants countdown has been read.
If you are going, come find us. If you are not, we will bring the room to you. Subscribe to our newsletter, The Friday Table, for the recap when it lands, and follow @lafoodbowl on Instagram for lineup announcements between now and October.
If you go
What: L.A. Times Food Bowl 2026, now featuring the 101 Best Restaurants in L.A.
When: Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, 2026
Where: Barker Hangar, 3021 Airport Ave., Ste. 203, Santa Monica, CA 90405
Format: All-you-can-eat and drink from 40-plus restaurants, chef demos, cookbook signings, live entertainment and a headlining DJ set
Tickets: General admission, VIP with early entry and lounge access, and a discounted two-night pass
Info: lafoodbowl.com
Frequently asked questions
When and where is the L.A. Times Food Bowl 2026?
Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, 2026, at Barker Hangar, 3021 Airport Ave., Ste. 203, Santa Monica, CA 90405.
What is new about the 2026 Food Bowl?
Two things. The festival has moved to Barker Hangar in Santa Monica after running downtown at City Market Social House in 2025, and the L.A. Times 101 Best Restaurants countdown is being revealed live at the festival for the first time in Food Bowl history.
Has the restaurant lineup been announced?
Not yet. More than 40 restaurants are confirmed to participate across the two nights, but the names have not been released for either evening. Food Bowl has said the lineups are coming soon.
What is included with a ticket?
General admission covers unlimited food and drink from the participating restaurants plus the DJ set and live entertainment. VIP adds early entry, an exclusive VIP lounge and VIP-only experiences, and discounted parking. A two-night pass covers both evenings at a discount and is sold in general admission or VIP.
How much do tickets cost?
Pricing for 2026 had not been posted at the time of writing. Current prices and on-sale information are at lafoodbowl.com.
Will Food Journal Magazine be covering it?
Yes. We plan to be on the floor both nights with photography and video, and we will publish a full recap after the 101 Best Restaurants countdown is read.
We will see you there!!
Matthew Tropp | FJM
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