New Restaurant Openings in Los Angeles, August 2026

Blue Ribbon Sushi came back on August 15 with a bigger patio and something it never had: a 14-seat omakase counter hidden behind a shibori curtain, separate from the main room. Ten seats at a hinoki bar, two booths for two, and sushi chef Lee San at the board, working through about an hour and 45 minutes of seasonal fish, robata and Japanese wagyu.

It's named for Toshi Ueki, the master chef who co-founded the original Blue Ribbon Sushi in SoHo in 1995. The price wasn't published when we checked. For a counter this size, plan on the high side.

Kim Kedeshian has baked in the Palisades since 2011. The January 2025 fire took her home, both K Bakery storefronts and her restaurant Armav in one night. She reopened on August 15 at 1061 Swarthmore, in the old Jemma Pizzeria space, with an open kitchen, a patio and a menu trimmed back to what built the business.

That means English muffins, croissants, pretzels, cinnamon buns, sourdough and cranberry-pecan loaves, chicken pot pie, and the rum and limoncello Bundt cakes she started with. Open daily from 7am, until 6pm Sunday to Thursday and 7pm Friday and Saturday. Of everything on this page, this is the one to spend money at first.

Peter Garland opened the first Porta Via in a 900-square-foot Beverly Hills café in 1994. His Palisades room came with the Village in 2018, went through 14 months of reconstruction after the fire, and reopened August 15 with more daylight, a refreshed bar and a bigger patio. His son Liam, 24, now runs it with him.

It's the neighborhood's default lunch: the lobster roll, the burger, Grand Marnier French toast at brunch, and a wine list that has run past 150 bottles. Lunch and dinner daily, 11am to 9pm, on Resy with walk-ins taken.

The Sunday market on Swarthmore was a Palisades ritual for years. It came back on Wednesday, August 19, after 19 months away, and the day change is the detail that matters. It now runs Wednesdays from 1:30 to 5:30pm through December 30, because Sunday is the busiest day for its farmers at other markets. Raw Inspiration, which runs it, calls the schedule temporary.

Twelve-plus vendors on day one, including Pedro's Organic Avocado Ranch, Lily's Eggs, Funghi Valley mushrooms and Frecker Farms produce. Alphabet Bar & Grill sources from it.

The original Lucky's opened in a 1926 Montecito bungalow in 2000, a project of Gene Montesano, co-founder of Lucky Brand Jeans. The Arts District room at 726 Mateo Street has checkered floors, a mahogany bar, 120 seats and a patio. Montesano says he wants it to feel like walking into a friend's home. A friend who charges $93 for a filet.

The menu is the classic canon, priced as such: giant shrimp cocktail $36, the Lucky's Salad with shrimp, bacon and Roquefort $29, 10-ounce filet $93, 20-ounce bone-in ribeye $150, a 28-ounce sliced porterhouse at $175, creamed spinach $16. The house dirty martini is $24 and The Infatuation says it pours strong.

Not new, and that's the point. Mistral opened on Ventura Boulevard in 1988. Jonah Freedman and Josh Migdal of Greekman's took it over last fall, closed it for a renovation, and reopened it this summer with the red leather booths intact, a French sommelier (Julia Djaoui) on the list, and Migdal as culinary director. Freedman's line to regulars: nothing is different and everything is different.

Order the French onion soup, which arrives capped with a comté grilled cheese, the mussels in fennel broth with sungold tomatoes, and steak frites in any of four cuts. The Jaguar cocktail is Suerte blanco, Amaro Montenegro and green Chartreuse.

Twelve numbered pad thais, and that's the whole idea. BOBO Thai comes from the Taiwanese group behind Very Thai in Century City, making its first US stop at 3705 W Sunset Boulevard with cocktails and a patio.

Start at #1, The 1938, with pork belly ($16), then the Two Kings tom yum pad thai ($19) or the green-curry-chicken Easy Lover ($18). Green curry chicken wings are $15. The Infatuation gave it a 7.6: solid, fairly priced for the neighborhood, and a rare Thai patio on this stretch of Sunset.

A petite raw bar and self-described SoCal bistro at 12222 Venice Boulevard from the former chef of Dudley Market in Venice. Oyster platters, seared local fish, market salads, a Parisian gnocchi in sage butter, a French-leaning wine list and records on the turntable.

The room is small enough that weekend dinner (roughly 5 to 9pm Friday and Saturday) fills on its own, and Sunday runs a daytime service from 11am to 5pm with its own specials. Menu prices weren't posted online when we checked.

The Rosemead original, from the Ji Rong Peking Duck team, is the San Gabriel Valley's current soup-dumpling obsession: Kaifeng-style guan tang bao, bigger and thicker-skinned than xiao long bao, with waits past an hour and weekend sellouts. The Infatuation scored it 8.3 in July. The Arcadia expansion at 56 E Duarte Road opened at the start of August and takes some of that pressure off.

Order the kurobuta pork soup dumplings, the cumin lamb roujiamo, scallion oil noodles, and the pumpkin sweet dumplings to finish. Go with four to six people so you can cover the menu.

The New York döner chain with the black-and-yellow logo that once drew a cease-and-desist from Pornhub opened its first West Coast shop on August 10 at 5857 S Central Avenue, near Slauson. That's South Los Angeles, not the South Park blocks of downtown, whatever the listings say. LA native Sebastian Martinez is the operator, and the brand has 20 locations committed for LA and Orange County.

Spit-roasted halal chicken and beef, no fillers, in a sandwich ($13.50), a wrap ($12.50) or a box ($14.50), with a garlic sauce that does most of the talking. The LA-only Döner Burrito is $11.50 for a limited run. Haus fries are $4.50.

Seven years of farmers markets, then a door of its own. Siblings Mercedes Rojas (the cook) and Zeus Ferrini (the operations) soft-opened The Arepa Stand at 12906 Venice Boulevard the week of August 17. The arepas carry LA neighborhood names.

The Notti's is a fried egg, plantains, avocado and queso de mano. The Inglewood is braised barbecue pork with chile de árbol salsa and avocado. Add tequeños and an agua fresca. It's a few doors from Chez Mar, so Mar Vista got two openings on one block this month.

Chef Eduardo Ruiz put Chicas Tacos on the back patio of The Deck, the former Poop Deck, at 1272 The Strand. Hand-pressed corn tortillas and slow-braised meats, 11:30am to 8pm daily, steps from the sand.

Carne asada, the beer-battered fish taco, churro bites. The Deck is a bar, so the patio is 21 and over. The other LA Chicas is inside All Season Brewing on La Brea.

Nan Yimcharoen's Kinkan started as a 2019 dinner series in Virgil Village, became the pandemic's cult chirashi box, and closed its restaurant this year ahead of a move to West Edge in West LA. In the meantime she opened a Japanese mini-mart in Hermosa Beach at 1200 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 105, where you pre-order online and pick up.

The Kinkan bara chirashi and the Japanese egg sando are the reasons to order. Hokkaido snow crab and sweet shrimp come through in season, and a la carte items run $10 to $15. Pickup runs Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 7pm.

The Miami wellness café with the lines in Malibu and Beverly Hills opened its fourth California location on August 20 at 2nd & PCH, in the old Noble Rotisserie space on the Marina Drive side. Omer and Jennifer Horev's formula: all-day breakfast, smoothies, bowls, wraps and cold-pressed juice in a room designed for the camera.

It's the highest-profile chain landing Long Beach has had this year, and the 2nd & PCH crowd will keep it busy on weekends. Go weekday mornings.

A daytime coffee residency inside Bar Bandini at 2150 Sunset, where the baristas build drinks the way the night crew builds cocktails. It soft-opened in July and held its grand opening on August 8. The Bloody Matcha Fizz is the calling card; the peach-papaya tea with espresso, yuzu and milk-clarified peaches is the one to photograph.

Because it's a residency rather than a lease, the days move. Check @onulcoffee before you go. Seating is the wine bar's, so it's stools and a counter.

A small, yellow Southeast Asian café at 9420 Valley Boulevard that celebrated its grand opening August 1 and stacked up dozens of reviews within three weeks. The drink to know is the tjendol latte: espresso, coconut milk, palm sugar and the green rice-flour jelly strands from the dessert. Nobody else in LA is pouring it.

Also on the board: an ube latte and a coconut-water matcha. Daily 8am to 6pm.

The name is the method. Milk Brew steeps its beans overnight in milk instead of water, then pours the result over ice, in lavender and strawberry versions alongside the original. It opened at 263 E Colorado Boulevard, across from the Paseo, with a grand-opening weekend on August 1 and 2, and there's corn milk and banana milk for whoever isn't drinking coffee.

Coffee2Me opened August 1 at 1032 S Crenshaw Boulevard, Unit E, on the Koreatown and Mid-City line, and spent its first two weekends handing out free drinks and tote bags. The matcha comes from Kagoshima. Order the London Fog with a cream top, built on sous-vide-brewed Earl Grey, or the double strawberry matcha, and a caprese sandwich if you're staying.