This sunny little restaurant serves up huge, healthy Northern California-style brunches with just a dash of Southern California attitude.

Though the seemingly trendier Alcove Caf is just across the street, the Mustard Seed attracts a sizeable crowd looking for delicious food with a side of celeb spotting. The waitrons are incredibly attractive struggling actors who will ignore your table if someone more famous is sitting next to you (and that someone is likely to be Giovanni Ribisi), but the food is usually worth the wait. The made-to-order scrambles and rich breakfast sandwiches are popular; for lunch, the turkey burgers are the best in town. One unlikely item—the quesadilla with spinach, goat cheese and barbecued chicken—is so fantastic we've dreamt about it. The enormous, colorful salads with big chunks of veggies like beets and zucchini beckon herbivores drawn to a place with flower pots as flatware containers and lots of light shining through the huge windows. —Katherine Spiers