The Westside Just Landed on the Michelin Guide — 5 Restaurants to Know Before June 24
Michelin’s anonymous inspectors have been doing what they do best: eating quietly in the dark. In May 2026, the Michelin Guide California added five Westside restaurants to its 2026 selection — a designation that doesn’t come with stars yet, but means the inspectors visited, ate, and decided the food was worth telling the world about. The official star ceremony is June 24. Which means right now, these tables are still bookable. Book them.
The Sawtelle Duo: Kojima and The Mulberry
Kojima. If you’ve been sleeping on Sawtelle’s restaurant row, this is your wake-up call. Tucked on the second floor of a strip mall at 2130 Sawtelle Blvd., Suite 211, Kojima seats eight people at an L-shaped counter and delivers one of the most personal dining experiences in all of Los Angeles. Chef Hayato Kojima — who trained under the now-closed Michelin-recognized Nishi-Ogikubo Hayato in Tokyo — runs the entire kitchen alone. There is no printed menu. The $200 kaiseki unfolds across a dozen-plus hyper-seasonal courses: tempura firefly squid with bamboo shoots, charcoal-grilled chicken hearts, wagyu over coals. When we say hyper-seasonal, we mean whatever arrived at the market that morning. It’s the kind of restaurant that makes you understand why people book flights to Japan.
The Mulberry. One block south, at 1800 Sawtelle Blvd., The Mulberry is playing a different game entirely. Owners David Lee and Jennifer Chon — both veterans of New York’s fine dining circuit — opened this Korean-American bistro in late 2025 with chef Curtis Park (formerly of Benu, Commis, and Daniel) behind the stoves. The interior is moody and beautiful: dark cherry wood, leather banquettes, marble tabletops. The menu navigates between comfort and technique — pork-and-chive dumplings, soy-garlic chicken wings you will dream about, a fiery silken-tofu stew with wagyu, a Caesar salad finished with puffed rice that sounds strange until it arrives. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 5:30pm to 2am. Yes, 2am. On Sawtelle.
“Two Michelin selections on the same block of Sawtelle. The neighborhood that built its reputation on $14 ramen just became one of the most serious dining destinations in West LA.”
The Hardest Reservation on the Westside: Lielle
Chef Marcus Jernmark has created the most talked-about tasting menu room on the Westside at 9575 W. Pico Blvd. — and he did it inside a barrel-vaulted, windowless dining room that feels like dining inside a very elegant cave. Lielle doesn’t do casual. The concise Californian tasting menu is ingredient-obsessed: aged California squab grilled over pine needles arrives with a black truffle jus; the salad is dressed in a vinaigrette made from the restaurant’s own leftover house-baked bread. The optional agnolotti del plin stuffed with Gruyère custard is mandatory. If you can get a reservation, treat it like a golden ticket. Lielle has quickly become one of those places where LA’s food world goes when it wants to eat well and not think about the bill until later.
The California French: Electric Bleu
Chef and owner Craig Hopson built Electric Bleu in Mar Vista to be the neighborhood bistro the Westside never quite had. The California-influenced French cooking is precise without being stiff — you can order à la carte or commit to the prix fixe, and both paths lead somewhere worth taking. The kitchen is fully open, which means you can watch Hopson work, and the room has been packed since day one. Mar Vista doesn’t get enough credit as a dining neighborhood, which is exactly why we love this pick. It’s the kind of Michelin addition that feels like finding out a restaurant you’ve been going to quietly for months just got famous. Hopson has been building something careful and sincere here, and the Guide finally noticed. Also see our list of the best restaurants on the Westside for more of the neighborhood’s top tables.
The Rodeo Drive Omakase: Miura
The most dramatically located of the five: Miura occupies a second-floor perch within the pedestrian-only Two Rodeo Drive shopping galleria at 218 N. Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. American chef Derek Wilcox trained extensively in Japan before bringing his stark, detail-obsessed omakase to this serene room anchored by a satin-smooth wood counter. The 18-course dinner covers serious ground: snow crab grilled over charcoal, rice-straw-smoked wild bluefin tuna that arrives tasting of something ancient and perfect. It’s one of the most technically rigorous sushi experiences in the city, and the June 24 ceremony feels like a formality. If you’re planning a proper date night in West LA, this is the kind of reservation worth planning a month around.
