Every June, a few dozen California chefs spend an afternoon pretending not to check their phones. This year the news was good for Los Angeles. When the MICHELIN Guide revealed its 2026 California selection on June 24, the city collected five first stars and one promotion, the most interesting crop of new Michelin star restaurants in Los Angeles in years. Statewide, the guide now lists 83 starred restaurants, and roughly 25 of them are in and around LA.

The new names share very little. One is a Taiwanese tasting menu in a downtown development, another a Swedish chef’s room in Pico-Robertson, three are counters with a dozen seats or fewer. What they have in common is that each is now considerably harder to book than it was in May. Here is what each does best, and how to get a seat.

Kato: now two stars

Chef Jon Yao earned Kato its first star in 2019. This year it moved up to two, joining Hayato, Vespertine and Mélisse at that level, with Providence and Somni holding the city’s only three-star rating. Michelin’s inspectors singled out the way Yao’s cooking draws on the Taiwanese diaspora culture of the San Gabriel Valley, and the restaurant’s nonalcoholic pairing, built on house ferments, deserves as much attention as the food.

Kato sits at ROW DTLA, and the seasonal tasting menu was listed at $325 per person at the time of writing. Of the new stars, it is the one to choose for a celebration that should feel distinctly Los Angeles.

Lielle: a star in four months

Most restaurants wait years for Michelin’s attention. Lielle, in Pico-Robertson, opened in February 2026 and had its first star by June. Swedish chef Marcus Jernmark cooks a tasting menu that sits somewhere between Nordic restraint and California abundance, and the speed of the recognition suggests the inspectors saw something fully formed from the start. Book it now, before the rest of the city catches up.

Seline: the garden room in Santa Monica

Dave Beran spent a decade with Chicago’s Alinea group before moving west, and Seline, on Main Street in Santa Monica, is his most personal restaurant. You reach the dining room through black doors and a small garden, and the 14 to 17 course menu is full of quiet surprises. Michelin’s inspectors noted ice cream arriving in the middle of the savory courses, and a finale of golden osetra caviar over hazelnuts with coffee anglaise. Within the same week in June, Seline received its first star and Beran won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: California.

The tasting menu was listed at $295 per person at the time of writing, with a prepaid deposit at booking. Drinks are additional.

Three counters worth the effort

The remaining new stars are counters, and they reward guests who plan ahead and travel light, ideally in pairs.

Miura, Beverly Hills. Chef Derek Wilcox, who trained at Kikunoi in Kyoto, serves Edomae-style sushi at a small counter above the galleria at Two Rodeo Drive. The restaurant works only with wild seafood flown in from Japan and uses no farmed fish. The omakase runs to around 18 courses.

Kojima, Sawtelle. Eight seats on the second floor of a Sawtelle Japantown building, led by chef Hayato Kojima, who arrived from Tokyo. Kojima opened in August 2025 and has drawn comparisons to Hayato at a fraction of the price, which tells you how quickly its reservations disappear.

Corridor 109, Melrose Hill. Chef Brian Baik grew up in the kitchen of Kobawoo House, the Koreatown restaurant his parents founded in 1983, then cooked at Eleven Madison Park, Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare and Sushi Noz in New York. His dining room is reached through a door inside Bar 109 on Western Avenue, and the 11-course tasting menu is built around seafood sourced largely from Japan. It is emphatically not omakase, and it is one of the most personal meals in the city. The menu was listed at $360 per person at the time of writing.

How to actually get a seat

Reservations for most of these restaurants are released online through Tock, OpenTable or Resy, often a month at a time, and the best dates go within minutes. A few habits help:

• Know the release schedule. Each restaurant publishes when the next month opens. Set a reminder for that moment rather than checking casually.
• Book small. Counters with eight to a dozen seats are far easier for two guests than for four.
• Consider a weeknight. Tuesday and Wednesday seatings open up more often than Fridays.
• Expect prepaid deposits and firm cancellation policies. Share allergies when you book, not at the table.
• Join every waitlist. Cancellations at small counters are common, and they are released quickly.

The short list

• For an anniversary: Seline.
• For sushi purists: Miura.
• For the city’s most personal cooking: Corridor 109.
• For something unmistakably Los Angeles: Kato.
• To say you went early: Lielle.
• For the best value at this level: Kojima.

If you would rather not spend the first of the month refreshing booking pages, our concierge team can watch for reservations and arrange the car, the timing and everything around the evening.