Dulan's on Crenshaw

Where Crenshaw's Soul Food Tradition Lives

The Crenshaw corridor has anchored Black Los Angeles for decades, and the stretch of storefronts along Crenshaw Boulevard carries a cultural weight that no amount of Westside restaurant buzz has displaced. Walking into Dulan's, you pass through a neighborhood that has held its identity through cycles of disinvestment and revival. The dining room, recently remodeled with a larger kitchen footprint, now carries a photograph of Greg Dulan's grandparents, Zady and Silas, blown up and mounted where patrons can see it from their seats. The image frames the meal before it begins.

The Lineage Behind the Plate

Soul food in Los Angeles has never enjoyed the same institutional density as it does in the South or in Chicago, which makes the Dulan family's forty-year run across multiple locations a more significant story about urban food culture than any single restaurant ranking can convey. The family's first restaurant, Aunt Kizzy's Back Porch, opened in Marina del Rey in 1985, founded by Adolf and Mary Dulan. From that foundation, the family expanded into Inglewood, Gramercy Park, and Crenshaw, building a network of restaurants that collectively kept Southern cooking traditions intact for a community that migrated west but kept its culinary memory. Greg Dulan, who runs the Crenshaw location, inherited both the recipes and the responsibility.

The cooking method at the center of Dulan's reputation is the fried chicken, prepared using a brown paper bag and a cast-iron skillet, a technique Adolf passed down to Greg. The paper-bag method, in which seasoned flour and chicken are shaken together before hitting the skillet, produces a crust that clings tightly rather than puffing away from the meat. The result is a dense, well-seasoned exterior and meat that releases juice when broken. This is not a modernized or reinterpreted version of Southern fried chicken. The absence of reinvention is the point.

The Dishes That Define the Case for Soul Food in Los Angeles

The LA Times named Dulan's on Crenshaw number 63 on its 2024 list of the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles, a ranking that places it alongside tasting menus, multi-Michelin operations, and genre-defining new arrivals. That positioning matters. Soul food restaurants rarely appear on lists that run concurrently with entries like Providence, Kato, or Hayato. The recognition reflects a shift in how critics are mapping Los Angeles's dining scene, one that acknowledges the city's African American food traditions as a peer category rather than a footnote.

Beyond the fried chicken, the macaroni and cheese is the dish the LA Times reviewer singled out as among the leading in the city. The noodles are described as completely engulfed in cheese, which is the appropriate description for a preparation that prioritizes coverage over restraint. The collard greens follow the same philosophy: cooked long enough to produce pot likker, the braising liquid left behind when greens have surrendered everything. The pot likker is worth the attention it gets, carrying concentrated mineral, smoky depth from the cooking process. These are not garnish portions. The plates are assembled to feed.

How Dulan's Sits Within Los Angeles's Broader Dining Picture

Los Angeles's restaurant scene in 2024 operates across several distinct registers. The Michelin-starred tier includes venues like Somni and two-starred Hayato, which run limited-seat tasting menus in the high hundreds per head. The mid-luxury tier includes Osteria Mozza and comparable Italian-American standards. Dulan's operates outside both of those categories in format and price, but the LA Times ranking places it on the same critical map. That breadth of audience is itself evidence of how deeply the restaurant is embedded in its community.

For context on how Los Angeles's dining culture is mapped across neighborhoods, price points, and traditions, see our full Los Angeles restaurants guide. For planning a broader stay that takes in the city's hotels, bars, and experiences, our Los Angeles hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the key decisions. Those looking at wine should also consult our Los Angeles wineries guide.

For readers mapping American soul food institutions against counterparts in other cities, Emeril's in New Orleans occupies a different register of Southern-influenced cooking. Those benchmarking the LA Times list against national prestige tiers might also reference Le Bernardin in New York City, Alinea in Chicago, or The French Laundry in Napa as anchors for comparison. Other cities' scenes represented on EP Club include Lazy Bear in San Francisco, Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, Atomix in New York City, and internationally, 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Hong Kong.

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