The Best Restaurant Openings in Los Angeles - April 2026

Badmaash’s Venice debut on Abbot Kinney marks the Mahendro family’s first Westside location. Arriving just three days before the April cutoff, it earns a pass as one of the season’s most anticipated openings. The menu builds on what made the original downtown restaurant so influential: Indian flavors filtered through a distinctly Los Angeles lens, from chicken tikka poutine and Punjabi chickpeas to newer additions shaped by the neighborhood. Venice-specific dishes like Indian-style steak frites with masala au poivre and saffron tres leches are already developing a following of their own. The room, a moody, brutalist-leaning space by Preen Inc., signals a more mature evolution of the brand. More than an expansion, the Venice opening reflects how fully Badmaash has embedded itself into the city’s dining landscape, moving from a singular downtown concept into a defining voice in contemporary Los Angeles Indian cuisine.

Part fish market and part restaurant, Joint Seafood’s new Little Tokyo/Arts District outpost brings founder Liwei Liao’s operation to the next level. The 4,000-square-foot space, officially the world’s largest dry-aging hub, combines a seafood market, café, and Uoichiba, a 34-seat, walk-in-only temaki bar. At the counter, hand rolls and chirashi are built around the dry-aged fish program, with tuna, kanpachi, and other seasonal species handled to highlight the texture and depth that comes from aging over fresh. Known as the “Dry-Aged Fish Guy,” Liao has built a following among chefs, supplying to some of Los Angeles’ top restaurants, including Kato, Restaurant Ki, Damian, and Yang’s Kitchen. The market extends that access to home cooks, offering dry-aged Ora King salmon, standout branzino, miso-marinated black cod, caviar, and dry-aged Wagyu. Stop in for lunch at the counter, then pick up something to cook at home and make a day of it.

Baldi marks chef Edoardo Baldi’s latest expression of a family legacy that spans celebrity-studded Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica and e.Baldi in Beverly Hills. Housed inside the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, Baldi brings a Tuscan take on the American steakhouse, centering on prime Wagyu cuts cooked over an olive wood-fired grill, alongside a rotation of housemade pastas. Plates like sweet corn tortellini with truffle butter, fettuccine with porcini, and beef polpettine in tomato sauce sit alongside grilled Dover sole and simply dressed salads, all designed to let the ingredients carry the weight. The bar program leans classic, with Italian-leaning cocktails, including spritzes and Negronis, alongside a wine list anchored in Tuscany and Piedmont. Designed by Ezequiel Farca Studio, the 180-seat space is rich in terracotta tones, wood, and stone, creating something warm but polished. More than a hotel restaurant, Baldi is a continuation of one of Los Angeles’s most enduring Italian dining families, now scaled to one of its most formal settings.

If there was ever a time for basking in some good old-fashioned early-2000s nostalgia, it’s now. Enter Sushi Samba, the new multistory outpost known for blending Japanese, Peruvian, and Brazilian flavors into a luxe, raw-fish-forward offering best understood as a rival to Nobu. With its giant rooftop patio overlooking West Hollywood and DJs playing into the evening, it’s the sort of see-and-be-seen scene that Los Angeles loves, or loves to hate, depending on who you are. The cocktails are lychee-infused or washed with Kobe beef fat, while crispy rice is topped with spicy tuna and ceviches are brightened with aji amarillo. While the food may not be the focus of a night out here, dishes like the Brazilian moqueca, a chimichurri-infused rice in a soupy coconut mixture of clams, shrimp, squid, and mussels, prove that Sushi Samba can be more than just a pretty face.

In Altadena, Bar Betsy extends Tyler Wells’s Betsy into a more flexible, all-day affair. The room shifts easily from morning to night, beginning with coffee, pastries, and a daytime menu that includes hearth-fired pecan cinnamon buns and heirloom-grain grits with bacon and eggs. By evening, it settles into a wine bar where cheeses, charcuterie, and crudos are designed to pair with an extensive by-the-glass list. Leading the kitchen is chef Avanthi Dev, who brings experience from Vespertine and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, adding an elevated touch to the approachable. More than a companion piece, Bar Betsy reflects the city’s growing interest in spaces that can hold multiple roles without losing clarity, particularly in a neighborhood still reestablishing its rhythm after the 2025 Los Angeles fires.

Bar di Bello, the newest addition to Silver Lake’s Sunset Row development, is already winning hearts. Helmed by Michael Kassar (Wexler’s Deli) and Alex Wilmot (Gigi’s), the menu draws from Northern Italian references but moves with Los Angeles seasonality. Trofie with basil pesto, green beans, and potato, or orecchiette with a rich veal ragù, represent pastas designed for sharing, while smaller plates like fried olives and Sicilian anchovy toasts make for perfect companions to a drink at the bar. The beverage program leans into Italian wines and cocktails inspired by the aperitivo hour, with spritzes, amari, and lower-proof drinks. The room alone is reason for a visit. Designed by 22RE, the space brings a new level of posh to Silver Lake, with warm wood tones and lush velvet curtains that feel like the love child of New York’s The Grill and a favorite European café.