L.A. Times Drops Restaurant Review Stars March 9, 2012, 12:43 pm Asserting that a star grading system was a bad fit for the Southern California dining scene, The Los Angeles Times announced on Thursday it would stop running stars with restaurant reviews. The paper said reviewers could not use stars to appropriately judge broad differences in dining choices, such as "a food truck, a neighborhood ethnic restaurant, a one-time-only pop-up run by a famous chef, and a palace of fine dining."