Dragonfly is decorated something like an opium den—sitting inside the crimson dining room, beneath light fixtures draped with fabric, you might just find yourself addicted to the Latin-Asian creations on your plate. The Dragon Punch, a potent mix of cranberry, lime, passion-fruit juice, and Bacardi Limón—will start you off with a bang. It's a good prelude to the inventive dishes, such as Peking duck nachos with wasabi sour cream, or Szechuan-pepper tuna with five-spice sauce. The only downer? The no-reservations policy. It can be a drag when the staff corrals you behind a velvet rope to wait for a table. But such is the price of getting your fix.

Open daily from 5:30 pm.

Like the Numero Uno Guest House, the hotel in which it's housed, Pamela's is both surprisingly high-end and reasonably affordable. In posh Ocean Park—one of the city's older residential districts—the restaurant dishes up creative Nuevo-Latino fare. Among the standout dishes are filet mignon teriyaki rolls; crab cakes served with lemon-lime aïoli; grilled prawns served with coconut curry sauce; and spicy pork loin served with pineapple sweet-and-sour sauce. Reserve a table at sunset and ask to sit as close to the waves as possible. They're open all day, but serve only a limited tapas menu between 3 pm and 6 pm.

Open daily from noon to 10 pm.