The Best Restaurants In Beverly Hills

The reopened La Dolce Vita is a maximalist Old Hollywood fever dream set in a tiny, windowless room that feels like a winners-only Oscars’ afterparty. Studio execs crowd the gold-tinted bar sipping tequila gimlets and the best-made martinis our livers have ever processed. Other people with disposable incomes crowd into big leather booths surrounded by tableside caesars and plates of juicy bone-in veal parm. There’s leopard print carpet, illuminated horse busts, and lilac-hued brick walls that are straight out of 1966—the year this classic spot first opened. If you’re looking for a glamorous dinner in Beverly Hills filled with old-school red-sauce escapism, this is the place to be. 

Beverly Hills has plenty of high-end sushi spots, but Sushi Note Omakase is making the best nigiri in the neighborhood. (Think classic cuts like dry-aged amberjack and scallop with sea salt.) This place is located inside an old hair salon in the Rodeo Collection’s parking garage, and it's not totally unlike one of those secret sushi bars in Tokyo that people make Youtube vlogs about. There are only four counter seats and a handful of quiet tables where you’ll eat a 20-course parade of simple, elegant sushi. A meal here will cost you $190 (excluding the optional $100 wine pairing). The price point feels earned from the second you drive down the parking ramp. 

There is no denying that Lawry’s Prime Rib is a chain. But this 70-year-old steak house is a Beverly Hills original and eating a dinner here is a major rite-of-passage in this town. Though the menu has expanded over the years, you should still focus on the prime rib and that famous spinning salad (yes, they actually spin it while they make it). If your parents are in town and you want to show them how far you’ve come in life, Lawry’s is your move.

Lunch rush in downtown Beverly Hills is harrowing. Despondent talent agents sob in Teslas while hedge fund managers get drunk at Wally’s for the 100th time this month. Bypass the chaos and go to Lorenzo California, an Italian sandwich counter serving our favorite quick lunch in the area. You're here to eat focaccia lined with prosciutto parma, truffle cream, olive paté, and white onion agrodolce. Sure, most sandwiches hover in the $16-$20 range, but they’re giant. You could eat yours in the tiny sidewalk area out front. We like walking a few blocks over to Beverly Gardens Park and having a 15-minute picnic.

The Beverly Hills dining scene has a singular center of gravity. And no, it’s not Funke, Spago, or whatever splashy hotel restaurant just opened. It’s South Beverly Grill. On weekend nights, the front sidewalk swells with people undeterred by the two-hour wait they were just quoted for a table (or trying their luck at Honor Bar next door). Ladies in beehives with diamond-encrusted purses splitting spinach-artichoke dip and french dips share space with executives in silk Alexander McQueen scarves sipping merlot and eating barbecue ribs that pull apart effortlessly. There’s a grandness to South Beverly Grill (both in actual size and how servers escort you to the door) that makes a meal feel ritzier than other Hillstone spots. It’s why coming here for a splashy, over-the-top dinner isn’t just a good idea, it’s the best way to use this place.

If you’re not sure what to do in Beverly Hills after you’ve taken a dozen pictures in front of the famous sign, head to this 50-something-year-old fromagerie. It’s practically a historic landmark, except with walls of wine bottles and free nibbles of French butter. Once you’ve finished chatting with the friendly cheesemongers, order a few of the shop’s seven deli sandwiches, which are some of the best in the city. These ciabatta subs are a little pricey ($16-19), but the fillings are as luxe as everything else in the 90210. We suggest the lemony La Zucca with fried zucchini and ricotta or the Dom with jammy sundried tomatoes and aged prosciutto. Afterward, take your haul to the park across the street for an impromptu picnic.

Just like most parts of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills has a Sugarfish. But because this is Beverly Hills, this Sugarfish one-ups the rest with Nozawa Bar out the back of the restaurant. Once you’ve walked past everyone eating their Trust Me’s, you’ll find a separate omakase-only spot with only two ten-person seatings a night, where you’ll be served 22 courses of sushi (they run the gamut from expected to adventurous). Don’t be late or ask for any changes to the menu.

Some people go to Sweetgreen twice a week, and others go to Dr. Sandwich twice a week. We’re in the latter camp. This kosher Mediterranean spot has two locations in the same vicinity, and while the newer one is more spacious and even a little glitzy, the original counter-service spot in a strip mall on Olympic is where you’ll find us on many a lunch hour. Choose between shawarma, kebab, schnitzel, sabich, or falafel, and retrofit it however you please on a pita, laffa, baguette, or as a plate. We mix it up, but the best deal is the plate—for under $20 you’ll have enough food for three full meals.

After surviving a quick brush with closing in March 2020, Nate N Al remains an all-out classic and one of the few authentic-feeling places in this part of town. Is this the best deli in LA? No. But come here a little hungover on a Saturday morning, order the bagel and lox and stuffed cabbage, gaze upon the most eclectic crowd in the neighborhood, and you’ll want to camp out here for the day.

Heard of Nobu? Well this plain-looking building in the middle of La Cienega’s Restaurant Row is where the whole yellowtail with jalapeño thing began. The menu at Matsuhisa is huge, with everything from tempura to sushi to all those signature Nobu dishes. But, here, it’s all served sans Malibu scene or pretension. If you’re feeling splurgy, do the omakase (which includes hot dishes as well as sushi) for a greatest hits parade.

If you’ve eaten at Mother Wolf or Felix, you know the schtick at those places is perfectly executed, al dente pasta. Funke comes from the same restaurant family. And although this Italian spot reminds us of a Vegas hotel lobby from the early 2000s, they do serve reliably excellent pasta. We suggest going heavy on the flour-and-egg stuff (much of which you can watch being formed in a workshop at the center of the restaurant). As for cocktails, the silky-smooth tomato martini is fantastic. Just plan on booking a table well in advance—reservations are few and far between. Or come and snag a seat at the rooftop bar. 

This steakhouse specializes in prix-fixe menus consisting of various wagyu dishes. It's an indulgence of the highest variety, and yet, the experience inside is remarkably sensible. The five-course menu is $87 per person. Sure, that’s a lot of money and no one should mistake Matū for a Tuesday night dinner spot, but to be eating five courses of premium beef on S. Beverly Blvd. for under $100 is a good value. You’ll sip clear, earthy beef broth, eat thin-sliced pieces of NY strip steak, and finish with a wood-fired ribeye and perfectly cooked broccolini. Matū is the kind of place where celebrating something feels grand—whether it’s a promotion, anniversary, or simply surviving the previous month—without having to constantly check prices. 

So much about Spago should make you hate it: it feels like a hotel restaurant, is insanely expensive, and has a crowd that’s a mix of visiting businessmen, important Hollywood people, and people who’ve lived in Beverly Hills since the ’50s. And yet, even now, going to Spago is still one of the ultimate LA eating experiences. The menu has Italian and Asian influences, but the two dishes you’re really here for are the smoked salmon pizza and the spicy tuna cones. The service also makes you feel like the king of the world. You might just have to be in order to pick up the check.

Perhaps one day the people of Beverly Hills will get tired of going to fancy Italian restaurants, but until then, full steam ahead. Marea’s gigantic, multi-room space on Camden fills nightly with corporate card-wielding executives and ladies in beehives bemoaning bike lanes. Beyond the people-watching, the seafood-focused menu  is consistently good and occasionally great. Start with the lobster and burrata appetizer, then go all-in on pasta,, including silky pappardelle and an octopus and bone marrow fusilli your server will insist is the best dish from the New York location. It’s the best one in LA, too.

​​This upscale soba shop likes to call itself the “pinnacle of noodle.” And, honestly? We’re not opposed to this description. At $30 a pop, these are certainly not the most affordable bowl of noodles in town, but then again, you’re in Beverly Hills, baby. Our favorite is the #1, filled with chewy, house-made noodles, chashu pork, wontons, and a clear, umami-rich broth made with truffle and soy-based sauce that we’d happily drink out of a pint glass any day of the week.

If you’re stuck in back-to-back meetings all day and don’t have time to drive over to the San Gabriel Valley, then Capital Seafood is the next best thing. This place is fancy without being stuffy, plus the service is super quick and you’ll find every dim sum classic under the sun. Load up your lazy Susan with glistening har gow, turnip cakes, and steamed BBQ pork buns wrapped in foam-like rice flour.

This neighborhood Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills is certainly a scene, but not in the way you’d expect from a restaurant on N. Canon Drive. Generations of families gather around the same bowls of pasta they’ve been eating for decades, and large groups of friends who are all back in town for the holidays chug wine so they can actually fall asleep in their childhood beds. Being in Il Pastaio’s string-lit dining room is like being in that hometown restaurant where no matter when you look, you’ll see someone you know.

Located in a particularly glitzy part of Beverly Hills (right across the street from the Chanel store on Robertson), Sushi Tama serves high-quality sushi at somewhat reasonable prices, with nigiri hovering just under the $4 mark. Sadly, their chic, minimalist dining room is closed for the time being but, on the plus side, their patio has plenty of room for you to scarf down oyster shooters and accidentally spill soy sauce on yourself. Our go-to order here is the omakase sashimi - on our latest visit, that included buttery cuts of otoro, bright-orange ikura, and uni so creamy, we thought we might need to bust out a Lactaid.

Getting brunch on Rodeo Drive usually means you’re in for an expensive (and pretty mediocre) dining experience, but Nua knows how to do it right. The Israeli spot inside the Crescent Hotel looks very, well, Beverly Hills: pop art portraits, plenty of chandeliers, and some gaudy wallpaper you’d find on a Real Housewives spin-off. Nothing about this place is subtle, but the simple, delicious shakshuka is why we come here. The tomato sauce is garlicky and not too spicy, the egg yolks are runny, and it comes with a chewy Jerusalem bagel for tearing and dipping. Nua also serves as a safe haven from the tourist hordes with a quiet outdoor patio and solid espresso martinis. 

It’s surprising to us that Si Laa is still relatively unknown outside of the local crowd, because this small family-run spot on S. Robertson is one of the better Thai restaurants in Los Angeles. The atmosphere inside is calm and somewhat romantic—your late-night throwdown spot this is not. But if you’re looking for excellent Thai food in a slightly upscale environment, Si Laa is your spot.