Father's Day tribute honors LA critic Elmer Dills
Elmer Dills, the KABC restaurant critic who shaped Southern California dining for decades, is remembered in a Father's Day tribute. Read the full story.
Prajakta Sanjay Warwadkar 
PASADENA, Calif., June 18, 2026 — Elmer Dills, the KABC restaurant and travel critic who covered Southern California dining for nearly three decades, is being remembered by his son this Father's Day. Peter Dills, who hosts the "Dining with Dills" radio show and podcast, published a tribute on June 18 reflecting on what his father taught him about food and people.
Elmer Dills was one of the region's best-known broadcast food critics before his death in 2008. The tribute revisits his approach to reviewing, which favored honest reaction over showmanship.
His influence still shapes how his son works, a reminder of how much broadcast critics once steered where Southern Californians chose to eat.
Elmer Dills built a career reviewing SoCal restaurants
Dills wrote restaurant reviews for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner in the early 1970s. In 1975 he began hosting a dining and travel talk show on KABC radio, then became a regular on KABC-TV's "Eyewitness News," reporting on area restaurants.
He focused much of his coverage on small, inexpensive places where value mattered, and many restaurants built their reputations on his reviews. He produced travel features with the late Fred Anderson and later partnered with ABC7's Ric Romero, who called their travel segments "some of the most fun" he had had in the business.
From the CIA to the dinner table
Before broadcasting, Dills served in the Central Intelligence Agency and the diplomatic service for more than 20 years, developing his knowledge of food and wine. He entertained heads of state and other officials during that career.
A longtime Pasadena resident, Dills died in September 2008 at Huntington Memorial Hospital. He was 82.
A son carries on the family name
Peter Dills named his food and travel program "Dining with Dills" after his father and hosts it on KRLA AM 870 and as a podcast. In his Father's Day tribute, he recalls a multi-generation dinner with his father and daughter and the lesson that restaurants are, at heart, about people.
Listeners can find Peter Dills's work through his AM 870 show page and the Dining with Dills podcast.
Source: Hospitalitycareerprofile.com
