Somni

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Tot Comença Amb Un Somni — Everything Starts with a Dream

The name says it all. Somni is the Catalan word for dream, and the restaurant built around that word has already lived several lives. Chef Aitor Zabala opened the original Somni in 2018 in Beverly Hills, earning two Michelin stars within a year with a single table for ten diners. The pandemic forced a pause, but what followed was three years of deliberate reinvention — research, creative experimentation, and a rethinking of what the project could become.

The result is Somni 2.0: a 14-seat communal Chef's Counter in a small, meticulously designed space at the edge of West Hollywood, where Californian and Spanish cuisine meet on terms entirely their own.

Chef Aitor Zabala

Barcelona-born Zabala brings more than 27 years of experience to every service. His creative awakening traces back to 1997 and the book El Bulli: El Sabor del Mediterráneo — Ferran Adrià's vision of cooking as art form set the direction for everything that followed. From El Bulli to Think Food Group to the original Somni, and now to this renewed chapter, Zabala's cooking is rooted in Basque and Catalan tradition while fully alive to the energy of Los Angeles.

The Space

The room does not announce itself. Instead, it draws you in gradually. Noble materials — wood, stone — sit alongside references to Eduardo Chillida's sculpture and the panot tiles of Barcelona's streets. A patio-terrace extends the interior outward toward nature. Art is present throughout, not as decoration but as intention. The atmosphere is warm and domestic, far from clamor, designed to make guests feel at ease before the meal has even begun.

The experience is deliberately porous: cooks serve, servers cook, and the boundary between kitchen and dining room dissolves. Guests begin with a few bites on the patio before moving inside, and the evening is structured as a single seating at 7:30 pm.

Two Ways to Experience Somni

The Chef's Counter seats up to 14 guests at a communal wooden counter with a direct view of the kitchen and its team. For those seeking more privacy, the Private Cellar Experience takes place in a separate dining room adjacent to Somni's wine cellar, beginning at 5:30 pm with the same menu in an exclusive setting.

Wine Director Caroline Costarella — an Advanced Sommelier with a background at Lazy Bear in San Francisco — oversees a program that earned Somni the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence in 2025, recognition that reflects the seriousness and depth of the list.

What Somni Stands For

Zabala describes the new Somni as "an interpretation of culinary freedom in a way that only Los Angeles could inspire, while not losing a sense of where we came from." The Californian and Spanish influences are not a fusion exercise — they are the natural expression of a Spaniard who has made a life in America, bringing the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean with him. The finest products, handled with skill, each carrying its own story.

Benvingut, ongi etorria, welcome.