Obsidian Mirror at Vespertine. Credit: Vespertine

From Santa Ynez to San Diego, SoCal Fine Dining Finds Its Voice

20 Minute read

30 Apr 2025

Hillary Eaton

Journalist

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A new generation of chefs is redefining fine dining in Southern California—melding ambition, diversity, and a distinctly relaxed sensibility.

Unlike its northern counterpart—or fine dining cultures in cities like New York and Chicago—Southern California (and its largest city, Los Angeles) has not historically been strongly associated with a robust fine dining scene. Sceney celebu-haunts and strip malls riddled with mind-blowing regional cuisine from Asia and Mexico? Absolutely. Tasting menus? Not so much.

That finally seems to be changing. From the Santa Ynez Valley to San Diego, Southern California is experiencing a slow but steady expansion of fine dining, evolving the region’s spirit and style along the way.

Local Chefs Lean Into Regional Identity

“I’ve been back in California since 2016, and one of the biggest differences I’ve noticed is the increase of attention on fine dining in Southern California,” Chef Eric Bost says. “This culture has always been here (Providence, Citrin, Mélisse), but there is certainly a greater quantity and creative interpretations of fine dining in the past decade. It feels like it’s gaining momentum and the speed at which fine dining is evolving here is increasing so it is exciting to see the expansiveness of the moment from diversity, culture and even structural systems.”

Bost, chef of Michelin-starred Jeune et Jolie, is leaning into that momentum himself with his newest project, Lilo, in Carlsbad. Recently opened, the restaurant features an immersive chef’s counter offering a coastal-inspired tasting menu where Japanese and French techniques shape dishes like chilled spot prawn with searing sea buckthorn, serrano, and ice plant, or blackened banana with miso and Koshihikari rice.

“The experience and food feels like it could only happen here, uniquely ours, but makes sense in the greater landscape of Southern California,” Bost says.

The broader Southern California landscape has long been blessed by its rich multicultural food history—but today, those influences are flourishing and shaping the fine dining scene more visibly than ever. From Mexican to Japanese to Korean traditions, diverse culinary voices are pushing fine dining into new territory.

“There is a distinct openness—especially among fine dining restaurants—embracing a worldview in their personality and voice,” Bost notes. “You’re seeing this new wave of chefs opening their own places who worked at the iconic bastions of high-end dining here, but are incorporating their point of view, culture, and life experience.”

Restaurants like the Baja-California-inspired Valle in Oceanside and Los Angeles’ Baroo, Kato, and Ki exemplify the region’s desire to move beyond traditional Eurocentric fine dining and toward a style that reflects the people and places that make up its unique tapestry.

New Voices Redefine What Elegance Means

“A city earns its status as a global food destination when it provides exceptional representations of diverse cuisines across all tiers of dining,” says Marcus Jernmark. “I believe Los Angeles is in the exciting process of defining its unique voice in fine dining. Having been a part of the gastronomic Nordic movement that took the world by storm, I can see the culinary landscape is shifting. I am confident we in Los Angeles are on a path and certainly worthy of consideration as a world-class culinary destination.”

Previously of Swedish fine dining institution Frantzén, Jernmark has spent the past five years drilling into the Southern Californian culinary spirit in preparation for his Los Angeles debut, Lielle. One of the most anticipated openings of 2025, Lielle will balance Jernmark’s Nordic roots—values of simplicity, quality, and a strong connection to nature and seasonal ingredients—with what he has grown to love about the diverse landscape of Southern California.

“While many exceptional establishments exist—some inspired by traditional fine dining and others by a more progressive approach—there’s a tremendous opportunity to draw from the vibrant, casual dining scene,” says Jernmark. “By infusing elements of this relaxed attitude into fine dining, we can create an approachable atmosphere that reflects the restaurant’s ambition. At Lielle, I aim to bridge this gap, ensuring our culinary offerings are innovative, rooted in local culture, and invite guests to enjoy a genuine dining experience.”

Southern California’s Relaxed but Refined Sensibility

Historically, there hasn’t been the same demand for traditional fine dining experiences in Southern California as in other major American cities. For William Bradley, chef of Southern California’s only three-Michelin-starred restaurant, Addison, the Michelin Guide’s return has played a major role in boosting both supply and demand for fine dining in the region—and in motivating chefs to push their craft as far as possible.

“I believe the Michelin Guide coming back to California has been impactful in garnering attention for Southern California’s fine dining landscape on a global scale,” Bradley says. “Since the Guide came back in 2019, I think this has also inspired new chef talent to open in the area, especially in regions like San Diego. Since then I’ve embraced the need to evolve and stay relevant. I also strive to remain authentic by being aware of 'trends' but choosing to stay away from them.”

Beyond Michelin, many chefs point to a more knowledgeable dining public and a growing pool of premium chef talent as driving forces behind the rise of fine dining in Southern California.

“The goal isn’t to impress for the sake of it but to create something meaningful. California has a unique energy, and I want to channel that into an approach that feels both refined and personal," says Aitor Zabala of Somni.

“With any dining scene, two things are required: great chefs and great diners,” says Dave Beran. “The clientele has to want a genre of restaurant and has to support it. You saw this in the early 2000s in Chicago [when fine dining was growing]. People talk about how the dining scene exploded but what they don’t talk about is how great the diners were and how supportive they were of the scene. I think the recent explosion of better restaurants is a direct correlation to the fact that the diners are better and supporting better restaurants.”

One such restaurant is Beran’s own: the newly opened Seline in Santa Monica. Following the (now-shuttered) Dialogue and the success of Pasjoli, Seline marks the Alinea alum’s return to the tasting menu format. The fine dining-focused offering spans 14 to 17 courses, transforming California’s best seasonal ingredients into dishes like a marine-colored mussel preparation inspired by tide pools or a perfectly pink sliver of dry-aged squab breast, followed by a peppercorn and burnt strawberry custard topped with its roasted heart.

Despite the level of execution, Beran is mindful of shaping the experience to reflect Southern California diners’ expectations. Whimsy appears in the form of a savory-sweet ice cream midway through the meal, while the dark-toned dining room is designed to feel formal yet approachable.

“Seline is fine dining but casual in delivery,” he says. “I think the comforting approach takes the pretentious aspect out of the experience, something that Angelenos tend to be sensitive to. Los Angeles definitely has its own style of fine dining.”

It’s a style Beran describes as leaning into the relaxed. The internal experience is an exercise in elevation, rather than an expectation placed on the guest. The caliber of dining comes from the quality of ingredients, the execution of the experience, and the attention to detail—not from the tropes of rigid, traditional fine dining.

“It isn’t uncommon to see diners spending well over one thousand dollars per person while wearing a T-shirt and sneakers,” he illustrates.

From Casual Luxury to Conceptual Art

A special kind of casualness is woven throughout Southern California’s fine dining scene. Take Daisy and Greg Ryan’s Bell’s in Los Alamos, which has consistently earned a Michelin star since 2021 for a menu filled with casual luxuries: the unmistakable velvet of a perfect egg salad sandwich alongside potato chips crowned with caviar.

The couple have almost single-handedly turned the Santa Ynez Valley into a culinary destination for approachable fine dining, bringing the Midas touch of New York fine dining pedigree (Daisy Ryan cut her teeth at institutions like Brooklyn Fare and Per Se).

While Southern California dining is famously casual, when we go big, we go big. In recent years, a style of more dramatic, theatrical fine dining has begun carving out a place of its own.

Housed inside the towering undulations of red steel that form The Waffle Building, Vespertine by chef Jordan Kahn offers one of the most unique and dramatic dining experiences in the country.

Dishes range from an edible, inky black pool inspired by Los Angeles’ historic tar pits to a wild onion and almond milk custard, painted across the inside of a tall bowl and painstakingly covered in flowers to evoke the feeling of staring into the eye of spring.

Kahn’s approach reflects his deeply artistic nature, reaching far beyond the traditional confines of fine dining.

The evolution of Southern California’s fine dining scene is perhaps best illustrated by juxtaposing the iconic dishes of its pioneers—Josiah Citrin’s lobster and truffle bolognese, Michael Cimarusti’s salt-baked spot prawn, Wolfgang Puck’s smoked salmon pizza—with Jordan Kahn’s approach at Vespertine.

“The cuisine of Vespertine exists in the feeling space,” Kahn says. “The breadth of the menu resembles more an album than a compilation, with each composition interconnected to one another, taking guests on an inward journey of sensations and emotions. Pragmatically, the dishes are simply raw materials juxtaposed and presented together in a unique form language. Within the context of the experience, however, these ingredients can evoke deeper emotions, allowing guests to move beyond analytical eating and connect with their feelings and inner selves, which exalts the dining experience to new heights.”

“The experience and food feels like it could only happen here, uniquely ours, but makes sense in the greater landscape of Southern California,” Chef Eric Bost of Lilo says.

Somni and the Pursuit of Deeper Meaning

Other examples of new heights include the newly opened—and highly anticipated—Somni by chef Aitor Zabala, a purposeful temple to the ancient human joy of beauty expressed through precision.

Guests begin their experience in a stunning garden lounge before moving on to a 14-seat chef’s counter. There, a troupe of young chefs assembles what is arguably the most technically impressive menu in the state, dramatized like players performing under the spotlight of a stage.

Feathers cast in parmesan fly out as light as their avian counterparts, while a reimagined caviar service appears as a tiny, fish-shaped cloud of dashi meringue heaped with gleaming scales of caviar. It’s a steady barrage of culinary intricacy—thirty courses over three hours.

“I don’t think about fine dining in terms of spectacle or drama—I think about it in terms of experience,” Zabala says. “The goal isn’t to impress for the sake of it but to create something meaningful. California has a unique energy, and I want to channel that into an approach that feels both refined and personal. It’s about pushing boundaries while still respecting what makes food deeply satisfying. If that means creating something immersive, it’s because the experience demands it, not because it’s expected.”

The immersive experience at Somni blends Zabala’s Spanish heritage and culinary training (honed at restaurants like elBulli) with the region’s unparalleled produce and suppliers, as California remains the leading agricultural state in the country.

“Fine dining here isn’t just trying to replicate European traditions; it’s evolving into its own thing, shaped by the environment, the people, and the products we have access to,” Zabala explains. “I don’t really think about legacy—I focus on the work. If anything, I’d like to be remembered as someone who pushed fine dining forward here, not by making it more complicated but by making it more meaningful. It’s about creating something that resonates, that makes people think differently about food and about what fine dining can be.”

Fine dining in Southern California no longer needs to chase old models. It is forging a new identity—one shaped by its people, its landscapes, and its boundless imagination.

30 Apr 2025

1 Michelin Star Restaurants

2 Michelin Star Restaurants