The cafe craze

For a good time, get raffish.

Millie’s

In one incarnation or another, this cramped little lunch counter has been a Silver Lake favorite since 1926, when it opened as the Devil’s Mess. It serves breakfast and lunch all morning and afternoon, and the food is better than you might think to judge from the casual way it’s tossed on the plate. Take the dish named the devil’s mess: scrambled eggs with cheese, Cajun sausage, avocado, salsa and sour cream.

* The devil’s mess, $9.25. 3524 Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake, (323) 664-0404.

The Kitchen

The former Lunch to Latenite Kitchen -- now open for lunch only on weekends -- has the air of a gritty artist’s loft: rugged brick walls, funky murals of urban disorder. The eclectic menu is mostly pumped-up American favorites (meatloaf with demi-glaze, a prime beef burger with sharp Cheddar and sauteed onions) and a scattering of ethnic dishes.

* Meatloaf, $12. 4348 Fountain Ave., L.A., (323) 664-FOOD (3663).

Luna Park

With its roaring bar and wry, cartoonish wall art, this is a place for the young, restless and thirsty. The menu ranges all over the map; pork satay beside French-style steamed mussels. And for dessert, you can make your own s’mores.

* Pork satay, $6.95. S’mores, $6.95. 672 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 934-2110.

Rutt’s Hawaiian Cafe

Rutt’s is the rumpled sort of place that sometimes turns into a home away from home; behind its counter it keeps 10 albums of customer photos from over the years. The food is the usual Island fusion of Japanese, Korean, Hawaiian, Portuguese and ... Spam (the canned pork product, that is). Rutt’s long-cooked kalua pork is famous.

* Kalua pork plate, $6.35. 12114 Washington Blvd., Culver City, (310) 398-6326.

Amuse Cafe

Here’s where bohemian Venice meets the well-heeled side of the Westside -- in a cozy, creaky old house where everybody’s waiting to choose from the menu of small plates, “bigger plates” and sandwiches put together by Brooke Williamson, who used to run Zax in Brentwood. The rib-eye burger with blue cheese is memorable.

* Rib-eye burger, $12. 796 Main St., Venice; (310) 450-1956.