The latest restaurant openings across the Southland
Los Angeles is no stranger to restaurant openings, whether debuts in iconic buildings helmed by big-name chefs, humble neighborhood haunts, or pop-ups leaping into permanent spaces. The city’s dining scene continues to grow even as operators face stunning challenges related to ongoing impacts from the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, the 2023 Hollywood labor strikes, the 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires, and systemic slowdowns affecting the entire global food supply. This roundup features a running list of all the latest openings you should know about across the Southland. For Eater editors’ curation of the best new restaurants in Los Angeles, check out the heatmap, and for a guide to the best restaurants in the city, look to the Eater 38.
Wa-Iro, a new Japanese bakery, has taken over the former I Like Pie space in Pasadena’s Old Town with plush breads and black sesame lattes. Pastries made with Hokkaido flour include cinnamon rolls, honey butter, and a yakisoba-filled panini. A simple salt and butter roll will satisfy most first-timers, along with curry pan and a s’mores Danish. Drinks span cold brew, pour overs, a banana cream matcha latte, and a sea salt matcha cold brew.
Nana’s Green Tea, a Japan-based teahouse chain specializing in matcha, expanded to California for the first time with a flagship location in Pasadena. At the cafe, find classic matcha lattes alongside versions with brown sugar, mochi, or red bean. Simply prepared teas, served hot or cold, include sencha, hojicha, and genmaicha (only available hot), while matcha can also be prepared as a blended frappe with chocolate crunch, soft serve, or black sesame. Intricately layered parfaits span combinations such as matcha mochi, black sesame mochi, and hojicha mochi. Soft serve options include matcha with mochi and red bean, hojicha with chocolate crunch, and vanilla. On the savory side, Nana’s will offer chicken soboro don, salmon sashimi don, pork katsu curry, and chicken nanban, among other dishes.
, a pop-up built on Mexican American comfort cooking, finally has a permanent home in Lincoln Heights. Partners in business and life Raquel Rodriguez and Nikko Cruz opened the restaurant in a pint-sized space along North Broadway with a menu that draws on the memories of what they grew up eating in Southern California. In Lincoln Heights, Seedy serves a tight menu of dishes that includes papa tostadas topped with pepita crema, cabbage slaw, salsa verde, and salsa macha, as well as a tahini chickpea salad sandwich on thick slices of sourdough bread. Pozole, which Rodriguez grew up eating for Christmas, arrives with tender hominy and massaged greens swimming in a verdant broth, while a salsa macha chicken bowl nods to the now-defunct Spikes and pickled-vegetable-and-chicken plates from Zankou Chicken. The menu rounds out with classic morning fare and pastries such as coconut French toast crowned with fresh fruit, bay leaf coffee cake, and a double-chocolate sesame cookie, plus coffee, tea, and shrubs.
Everywhere, a brewery from a team of beer industry veterans who previously worked at the Bruery, now has an outpost at the former Fred Harvey space at Union Station. The taproom serves a lineup of beers on tap, including a Mexican lager and a West Coast IPA, alongside slushies and seltzers. Bites include smaller snacks like chicharrones and Tater Tots, along with burgers, a grilled chicken Caesar wrap, and a fried chicken sandwich. Soon, Everywhere will also open the Streamliner, a cocktail bar set inside the taproom.
Acclaimed chef Sanjay Rawat, formerly of Kahani at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, is behind the Arts District’s new modern Indian destination Brick Lane. Named after East London’s iconic street, the restaurant blends California influence with classic Indian flavors in dishes such as kulcha flatbread with soft brie and gooseberry chutney and smoked butter chicken. Celeriac chapli kebabs emerge from the live fire alongside a flank steak kebab paired with mint hummus and pickled onions. Diners can complement meals with one of Rawat’s breads like sourdough naan or tandoori roti. Drinks include a jaggery Old Fashioned, along with a wine list curated by Rustic Canyon Family’s wine director, Kathryn Coker.
Silver Lake hot spot Cafe Stella is back after suddenly closing in 2024. The menu still leans into bistro classics such as slow-simmered French onion soup, steak frites, and a tomato confit-topped burger. Although it has been a few years since it served Los Angeles diners, much remains the same: A higher density of Saint Laurent boots than anywhere else in Silver Lake, predictably long waits on some nights, and a buzzing energy that’s hard to replicate (except, maybe, in Paris)…