Michelin adds 3 L.A. restaurants to its 2025 California guide, reveals announcement date
On Wednesday Michelin, the company behind the influential global dining guide, teased 13 new restaurants that will appear in the 2025 California Guide to the state's top restaurants, with three of them in the L.A. area. According to a representative for the company, the full list will be unveiled June 25.
Each year teams of anonymous Michelin inspectors scour tasting menu restaurants, food stalls, neighborhood spots, wine bars and beyond for its compendium that can rate restaurants from one to three stars: accolades widely recognized as one of the highest achievements in the restaurant industry. But every guide also includes its picks of bib gourmand awards, which denote 'good food at a moderate price,' as well as acknowledgment for environmental practices, while some inclusions are marked new and notable.
The restaurants announced today could garner any of these designations in the 2025 guide.
One new addition is one of the most exciting new restaurants to debut in L.A. last year.
Chef-founder Fátima Juárez and her husband, Conrado Rivera, operate artisanal molino and restaurant Komal from within Mercado la Paloma in Historic South-Central. The team behind the casual walk-up stand nixtamalizes heirloom corn and turns it into some of the city's top tortillas, which results in some of L.A.'s favorite new tacos.
Tlacoyos, quesadillas, chuchitos, tacos and more all showcase the fresh masa made with painstaking care. This is the first year that Komal could be included in the Michelin Guide.
For another L.A. restaurant, Wednesday's announcement signals a return.
At its former location, Somni, the lauded and playful fine-dining restaurant from chefs José Andrés and Aitor Zabala, previously held two Michelin stars. The Beverly Grove restaurant known for its modern, Spanish-tinged cuisine and whimsical presentations closed in 2020 amid the pandemic and a lawsuit with the SLS Hotel, where it was located. In 2022 Zabala announced his intention to reprise the acclaimed tasting menu, sans Andrés. In late 2024 it reopened with a new format in West Hollywood.
Now Zabala serves between 26 and 35 courses as part of a progressive dining experience that begins on the new patio and culminates in the warmly lit 14-seat dining room.
'We are happy about it,' Zabala said of Michelin's nod. 'It's been five years that we are sleeping. We don't know what will be happening, but we'll see. It's a tricky and a magic thing, you know? We never know.'
Zabala says the inclusion is important to him because it gives his team pride. It's hard work running a restaurant, he notes, especially now, when businesses all seem to be vying for customers.
Though the intimate setting puts Zabala and his team face-to-face with their guests — sometimes assembling dishes right in the dining room — the chef-owner told The Times that he was unaware the Michelin inspectors were ever there. 'It's always a nice joke to try to find [one], like catching the cat to the mouse,' he said.
Zabala notes that seemingly everyone has opinions on Michelin, even on the guide's relevancy, but inclusion denotes a stamp of approval that can bring in new guests whether that business is a street vendor or a fine-dining restaurant. In his first months of reopening Somni, which means 'dream' in Catalan, the chef saw primarily local guests from L.A., Pasadena and Orange County. Lately he's seen an increase in diners traveling from other countries or planning a meal that coincides with a work trip in L.A., and many travelers, he said, use the Michelin Guide in planning their dining destinations.
In the next month or so, Zabala hopes to add a second seating at Somni, which will debut a tasting menu of abbreviated courses that is also more affordable.
'I think Michelin is adding a value standard to your restaurant,' he said, 'and it doesn't matter if this is fine dining with a $500 bill, or a $20 bill.'
Two alumni from the original Somni also saw recognition on Wednesday.
Chefs Kevin De Los Santos and Katya Shastova run one of the South Bay's most highly praised new restaurants, where modern bistro dishes, paired with a diverse wine list, spotlight seasonal produce. Hermosa Beach's Vin Folk opened in November and marks the first restaurant of their own for the chef-partners, who also operate the business with director of operations Christina Montoya.
The chef duo also worked at Vespertine and the now-shuttered Maude — both of which garnered Michelin stars — and in their own restaurant are serving a rotation of cross-cultural dishes that might see local chicories with winter berries and pine; chicken with black-eyed-pea cassoulet and eggplant jus; chile crab with egg and arborio rice; dorade with Turkish salad; and the signature mussels tart, which fills puff pastry with leek cream and escabeche.
South of Los Angeles, a handful of San Diego County restaurants received recognition. Oceanside's Tanner's Prime Burgers earned inclusion, with chef-owner Brandon Rodgers' USDA prime burgers and the vanilla tallow ice cream sandwich receiving a shout. Contemporary Chinese restaurant 24 Suns, also in Oceanside — and from chef-owners Nic Webber and Jacob Jordan — will appear in the guide too.
In Carlsbad, Lilo, a new tasting-menu venture from chef-owner Eric Bost (previously of L.A.'s Auburn), is a new entrant. And Encinitas restaurant Atelier Manna, a global-meets-Californian restaurant from husband-and-wife team Andrew and Larah Bachelier is also in the guide.
Bay Area restaurants were also added to the state compendium: San Francisco Korean gukbap specialist Sungho, which simmers its broth for 24 hours; Menlo Park modern Indian restaurant Eylan, from chef Srijith Gopinathan; and Palo Alto's Ethel's Fancy, home to inventive California cuisine from Scott Nishiyama. Three Sacramento restaurants will also be found in the 2025 guide: Kin Thai from sisters Napis Lindley and Napak Kongsitthanakor; casual Vietnamese-cuisine destination Pho Momma; and husband-and-wife duo Alex Sherry and Chutharat Sae Tong's pizza-centric Italian restaurant, Majka.
The full Michelin California Guide will be revealed June 25, at a location yet to be announced.
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