Where Beverly Hills goes to dinner: The best celebrity chef restaurants in the city

Beverly Hills is home to some of LA’s most memorable chef-driven restaurants.

Celebrity chef restaurants can be hit or miss in other cities. In Beverly Hills, they’re the real deal. These are kitchens where craft actually matters and where the name above the door is backed by the food and the vision. Whether you’re a local who’s called Beverly Hills home for years or a first-time visitor looking to experience the city the way insiders do, these are the tables worth booking—sometimes weeks in advance.

CELEBRITY CHEF RESTAURANTS IN BEVERLY HILLS

1. Spago Beverly Hills (Wolfgang Puck)

   Canon Drive, Beverly Hills

   If there’s one restaurant that defines Beverly Hills dining, it’s Spago. Wolfgang Puck first opened it on the Sunset Strip back in 1982 and what he brought to the table—smoked salmon pizza, wood-fired cooking, an open kitchen, fine dining without the stuffiness—essentially helped write the playbook for California cuisine.

   In 1997, he moved the concept to its current home on Canon Drive, and it’s been the crown jewel of the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group ever since. These days, Executive Chef Areg Avanessian keeps the kitchen grounded in the same market-driven philosophy, with seasonal à la carte options and a multi-course California Tasting Menu that feels both current and deeply considered.

   The accolades speak for themselves: early James Beard recognition, two Michelin stars, a legacy that’s anything but coasting.

2. CUT Beverly Hills (Wolfgang Puck)

   Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills

   

   CUT by Wolfgang Puck puts a modern Beverly Hills spin on the classic grilled steak.

   If Spago is Wolfgang Puck’s heart, CUT is his edge. Opened in 2006 inside the Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, it was his answer to a question Beverly Hills didn’t know it was asking: what does a steakhouse look like when you strip away the dark wood and the old-boys-club energy and build something modern in its place?

   The answer turned out to be pretty compelling. The space was designed by Richard Meier and hung with John Baldessari art and Martin Schoeller photography. As for the food, CUT keeps the focus on steak but gives the classic steakhouse format a sharper and more contemporary feel. Executive Chef Drew Rosenberg leads a menu that includes global beef cuts, shellfish, and seafood.

   Michelin has taken notice more than once, with stars in 2019 and 2021. Wolfgang Puck is also known to stop by tables and Selena Gomez filmed the first episode of Selena + Restaurant at CUT, where he coached her through a spicy seafood dish.

3. 88 Club (Mei Lin)

   Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills

   88 Club is one of Beverly Hills’ newer entries, but it already feels built for the city’s dinner circuit. The restaurant opened in April 2025 on South Santa Monica Boulevard as a collaboration between Top Chef winner Mei Lin and restaurateur Francis Miranda, following their earlier work together on Nightshade and Daybird.

   Lin’s original vision was an upscale take on Chinese dining, shaped by the food she grew up around and presented with the refinement Beverly Hills diners expect. Early menus highlighted dishes like sesame prawn toast, kung pao scallops, nam yu roasted chicken, prawn and bamboo shoot wontons, and sweet-and-sour squirrel fish.

   While Lin recently announced that she had left both Daybird and 88 Club, the restaurant remains open under Francis Miranda.

4. Monsieur Dior (Dominique Crenn)

   Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills

   Some restaurants have a concept. Monsieur Dior has a world. Set inside the House of Dior on Rodeo Drive, it’s the most literal meeting point between Beverly Hills’ fashion and dining scenes. This celebrity restaurant in Beverly Hills is led by Dominique Crenn, the celebrated French chef behind Atelier Crenn in San Francisco. Crenn made history in 2018 as the first female chef in the United States to earn three Michelin stars.

   The menu reflects Crenn’s French background, with dishes such as caviar service, ruby beet salad, dry-aged tuna tartare, black truffle agnolotti, and crab with caviar.

5. Funke (Evan Funke)

   Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills

   Chef Evan Funke, also known for Felix and Mother Wolf, opened his namesake restaurant in 2023 inside a three-story 1930s Art Deco building on South Santa Monica Boulevard. The restaurant is built around his obsession with handmade pasta, with a glass-fronted pasta laboratorio where guests can watch the craft unfold in real time.

   Funke has spent years immersing himself in regional Italian pasta traditions. At his Beverly Hills restaurant, that experience shows up through handmade pasta shapes, Sicilian influences, and a menu that treats pasta as the main event. It also has the celebrity heat to match its setting. The restaurant has welcomed names such as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, David Geffen, Kris Jenner, and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

6. Crustacean Beverly Hills (Helene An)

   Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills

   

   Crustacean Beverly Hills’ famous garlic noodles remain one of the restaurant’s signature dishes.

   Crustacean Beverly Hills is more than one of the top-rated restaurants in Beverly Hills. It is part of the An family’s larger story, one that helped bring Vietnamese flavors into the world of American fine dining.

   Chef Helene An, often called the “Mother of Fusion Cuisine,” fled Saigon with her family in 1975 and eventually built the House of AN restaurant group around Vietnamese flavors interpreted through French, Chinese, and California influences. The family opened Crustacean San Francisco in 1991, then expanded to Crustacean Beverly Hills in 1995.

   The restaurant is known for its modern Vietnamese cuisine, Helene An’s Secret Kitchen™, and AN’s Famous Garlic Noodles™, a dish that has become one of the restaurant’s signatures. Helene An’s impact has also earned major recognition, including a Smithsonian Pioneer Award in Culinary Arts and induction into the California Hall of Fame in 2024.

7. Matsuhisa Beverly Hills (Nobu Matsuhisa)

   La Cienega Boulevard, Beverly Hills

   Before Nobu was a global brand with locations on five continents, there was a small restaurant on North La Cienega Boulevard that started it all. Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa opened Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills in 1987, long before Nobu became a global restaurant name.

   Nobu’s cooking was shaped by his years in Peru, where he adapted Japanese techniques to local ingredients and developed the fusion style that later became globally recognizable. It was also at the Matsuhisa restaurant that Nobu’s connection with Robert De Niro eventually grew into the partnership that launched Nobu New York in 1994.

8. Nozawa Bar (Tom Nozawa)

   Canon Drive, Beverly Hills

   

   Nozawa Bar serves an intimate omakase experience at its 10-seat sushi counter.

   Tucked behind SUGARFISH, this celebrity restaurant in Beverly Hills opened in 2013 as a 10-seat omakase counter created by Kazunori Nozawa, Tom Nozawa, Lele Massimini, and Jerry Greenberg. The idea was inspired by Nozawa’s wish to create a more private sushi experience, centered on a multi-course omakase of sashimi, nigiri, and hand rolls.

   In 2025, Chef Jay Sada—personally selected by the Nozawa team—took over as executive chef. The restaurant remains reservation-only, with dinner seatings Monday through Saturday and a $225-per-person omakase listed on its official site. Michelin also awarded Nozawa Bar one star in its 2025 guide.

9. Il Pastaio (Giacomino Drago)

   Canon Drive, Beverly Hills

   There’s a reason Il Pastaio has stayed packed for nearly three decades. Chef Giacomino Drago, the youngest of eight children from Galati Mamertino in Sicily, helped shape the restaurant as part of the Drago family’s larger Los Angeles dining legacy.

   Set in the heart of Beverly Hills on North Canon Drive, Il Pastaio is known for its unfussy Italian cooking, seasonal ingredients, and the kind of pastas and risottos people keep coming back for. The menu focuses on handmade dishes, with favorites such as pumpkin ravioli, squid ink risotto, and arrabbiata.

   But part of the appeal is the scene itself. With its lively patio, steady stream of regulars, and reputation as a favorite for celebrity sightings, Il Pastaio is often mentioned among the best restaurants in Beverly Hills to see celebrities. And it feels like one of those Beverly Hills restaurants where lunch can easily turn into an afternoon.

NOTABLE MENTIONS NEAR BEVERLY HILLS

Beverly Hills may be the center of the story, but some of the most exciting chef-driven restaurants sit just beyond its borders. From the Sunset Strip to Melrose Avenue, nearby neighborhoods add even more depth to the city’s dining scene.

• Merois (Wolfgang Puck)

  Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood

  Opened in 2021, Merois marked one of Wolfgang Puck’s first new Los Angeles restaurants in more than a decade. Today, it is part of The Sun Rose West Hollywood, with Nicole Abisror as executive chef. The rooftop restaurant looks out over the city and serves a wide-ranging menu that pulls from Japanese, Southeast Asian, French, and California cooking. Dishes like hamachi tostada, dim sum, Singaporean baby back ribs, and crab fried rice make the menu broad, flavorful, and easy to share with the table.

• Ardor (John Fraser)

  Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood

  Ardor is the signature restaurant at The West Hollywood EDITION, led by chef John Fraser, who is known for putting vegetables at the center of the plate without making the restaurant feel strictly vegetarian. Its menu features California cuisine built around seasonal produce and flavors that pull from different parts of the world.

• Somni (Aitor Zabala)

  Nemo Street, West Hollywood

  Somni is one of the best restaurants near Beverly Hills for fine dining. Chef-owner Aitor Zabala, a Barcelona-born chef who worked with El Bulli and ThinkFoodGroup, first opened the restaurant at the SLS Beverly Hills in 2018. After that version closed in 2020, he brought Somni back to West Hollywood in November 2024.

  The new version is small, focused, and built around a tasting menu that blends Spanish cooking with California produce. In 2025, Michelin gave Somni three stars, making it among the first Los Angeles restaurants to earn the guide’s highest rating.

• Osteria Mozza (Nancy Silverton)

  Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles

  Osteria Mozza is one of LA’s best-known Italian restaurants and sits close enough to Beverly Hills to belong in a nearby dining guide. Part of Nancy Silverton’s Mozza restaurant group, Osteria Mozza is known for its handmade pastas, seasonal Italian cooking, and its famous Mozzarella Bar.

  Silverton, a James Beard Award winner, is one of the chefs who helped shape modern LA dining. At Osteria Mozza, her influence comes through in its high-quality ingredients, especially at the Mozzarella Bar, where dishes feature mozzarella, ricotta, burrata, and other Italian cheeses.

• Providence (Michael Cimarusti)

  Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles

  One of the most respected celebrity restaurants close to Beverly Hills, Providence opened in 2005 under chef Michael Cimarusti and business partner Donato Poto. The restaurant is known for its seafood-focused tasting menu that highlights carefully sourced seafood and precise, seasonal cooking. Providence won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2006 and earned three Michelin stars in 2025, joining Somni as one of only two Los Angeles restaurants with that honor.

BEVERLY HILLS AS A CULINARY DESTINATION

Beverly Hills has always understood the power of a great arrival. The palm-lined streets, polished storefronts, storied hotel lobbies, and quiet residential enclaves all create a setting where dining feels like part of a larger lifestyle experience.

In Beverly Hills, dinner is rarely just about the food. It’s also about the room, the atmosphere, the service, and the feeling of being somewhere special. Chef-driven dining fits naturally into that world. The city attracts luxury travelers, longtime locals, entertainment figures, business leaders, and food lovers who know what a great restaurant should feel like.

Why fame is only the starting point

A well-known chef may help create the first wave of interest, but the restaurants that last are the ones with a clear culinary identity and a reason for diners to return. That’s why the best names in the city still feel relevant.

Wolfgang Puck’s restaurants are tied to decades of California dining history. Matsuhisa continues to matter because Nobu Matsuhisa’s Japanese-Peruvian style helped reshape the way many diners think about sushi and fine dining. Crustacean reflects the An family’s lasting influence on modern Vietnamese cuisine in America. Funke draws attention not just because it’s glamorous, but because Evan Funke’s commitment to handmade pasta gives the restaurant its foundation.

BEVERLY HILLS, ONE RESERVATION AT A TIME

Whether it’s Matsuhisa on La Cienega, Monsieur Dior inside the House of Dior, or Funke with its pasta team working behind glass, there’s craft behind every one of these tables. Beverly Hills has always attracted people who appreciate that kind of intention—and the dining scene is just one expression of it. The neighborhoods, the architecture, and the pace of daily life here all carry that same quality.

If you’re thinking about making Beverly Hills more than a destination, that’s where I come in. As one of the most trusted names in Beverly Hills real estate, I have spent decades helping clients find not just a house, but a life in this city. See what Beverly Hills has to offer by giving me, Joyce Rey, a call at 310.291.6646. You can also send me an email here.