Michelin Guide 2025: 15 CA Restaurants Added

California, known for its rich multiculturalism and agricultural bounty, boasts a high number of world-class dining establishments. The prestigious MICHELIN Guide recently added new restaurants across the state in 2025.

California's latest culinary additions are scattered across the state, stretching from Los Angeles and Carmel to San Francisco and the Napa Valley. These new restaurants offer a global gastronomic journey, spanning cuisines from Japan, South Korea, China and France, while also celebrating the best of California's own food scene.

MICHELIN Restaurants Added

Carmel-by-the-Sea: Stationæry
A local favorite for brunch, this bright restaurant offers a California twist on classic American dishes. The menu features creative combinations such as potato pancakes served with Korean-braised kimchi, or avocado toast incorporating radishes and local seaweed. Dinner, offered three nights weekly, elevates the experience with haute cuisine selections. Highlights include a duck egg raviolo with crispy garlic and brown butter, and grilled swordfish steak accompanied by romesco and Meyer lemon.

Los Angeles, Melrose Hill: Bar Etoile
Chef Travis Hayden's "product-driven cooking" philosophy emphasizes simplicity, allowing the ingredients to be the focus and shine in every dish. The Larchmont restaurant complements this with an excellent wine list and a menu that truly "offers something for everyone." Standout dishes include the "perfectly moist striped bass with a crispy skin and topped with salsa macha over caramelized sunchoke," and for dessert, the chocolate tart with passion fruit chantilly.

Culver City: Kusano
This tiny spot vastly exceeds expectations. The chef, who also handles waiting and bartending duties, still manages to create magnificent sushi, including a Hokkaido uni preparation veiled with a delicate squid slice, and a refreshing yuku granita for dessert.

Los Angeles, Sawtelle: Mori Nozomi
Mori Nozomi, a diminutive yet highly sought-after LA sushi restaurant, mandates reservations due to the exceptional quality of its offerings. The menu features impeccably fresh fish flown in directly from Japan, expertly combined with local, seasonal ingredients. To enhance the dining experience, the meal is accompanied by a five-course tea pairing and concludes with matcha-served mochi ice cream.

Los Angeles, Rampart Village: Rasarumah
Chef Jonny Lee's Chinese-Malaysian restaurant transports diners to the Malaysian jungle with its array of impeccably prepared dishes. Noteworthy selections include ulama bendi with charred okra, and steamed eggplant served with sambal and dried shrimp. Judges particularly praised the beef rendang in curry, accompanied by buttery roti. For dessert, the cendol sundae provides a sweet finale, featuring coconut and pandan ice cream, pandan jelly noodles, red bean, gula melaka syrup, and toasted buckwheat.

Los Angeles, Downtown: Restaurant Ki
Located in the heart of Downtown LA, this Korean contemporary restaurant delivers an exciting, fresh take on a globally popular cuisine. Diners can anticipate luxurious entrees, such as barbecue roasted squab with foie gras sauce, and 45-day dry-aged dairy cow served with golden beet jus and Korean bone broth. These savory dishes are perfectly balanced by delectable desserts, including a mushroom ice cream sandwich.

Santa Monica: Seline
Chef Dave Beran offers an ambitious tasting menu that expertly balances sweet and savory flavors, creating a dramatic dining experience. The creative dishes include compelling concoctions such as roasted leeks served with a foamy eucalyptus sauce and banana leaf puree. Other notable items are dry-aged beef tartare accompanied by celery root and a savory granola, and squab presented in two parts: a roasted breast alongside a leg stuffed with fennel sausage. The meal concludes with a decadent combination of smoked chocolate and a squab liver truffle, complemented by strawberry sauce.

Los Angeles, Westchester: Tomat
This restaurant offers a unique take on seasonal, farm-fresh California cuisine. The atmosphere is inviting, with red-orange leather seating contrasting a pale-green wall. Diners can savor vibrant dishes like barbari bread served with butter dusted in roasted tomato powder, or charred seasonal vegetables atop a creamy ajo blanco. Critics particularly praised the duck, noting it was "deftly cooked with crispy skin" and "enhanced with a pomegranate and walnut mole."

Oakland: Sun Moon Studio
This hole-in-the-wall Oakland spot merges California ingredients with an innovative take of Chinese cuisine. The “pared down and technically precise” menu includes gems like Dungeness crab with yuzu kosho butter, perched over silken tofu, savory egg tarts with salmon roe, and steamed brioche buns enclosing Taiwanese sausage.

Petaluma: Table Culture Provisions
Known as the "toast of downtown Petaluma," this establishment is praised for its seasonal menu, featuring four to seven-course meals that expertly blend California and French culinary styles. Judges were particularly impressed with dishes such as a "beautifully flaky pithivier filled with squab and kohlrabi, matched with buttery Robuchon-style potatoes," and desserts like a "dressed up chestnut Mont Blanc with almond sable and blackberry sorbet."

San Francisco: Four Kings
This Chinatown spot is a certified hit, drawing major crowds with its breezy, contemporary spin on Cantonese cuisine. Judges praised the restaurant, noting, "The cooking taps into traditional flavors while offering a fresh perspective, a formula that seems to have struck gold." Diners lucky enough to get a reservation can enjoy popular dishes like savory "fish fragrant eggplant" and claypot rice with Chinese sausage and bacon.

San Francisco: Prelude
Chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones pays tribute to his Alabama grandmothers with a menu of Southern-inspired cuisine. These down-home dishes, such as lacy fried chicken wings (partially boned and stuffed with andouille dirty rice) or pimento cheese featuring triple cream cheese and trout roe, offer "hearty flavors tempered by an edge of refinement."

San Francisco: The Wild
This expansive restaurant centers around a hearth where chefs prepare vegetables, seafood, and meat over coals, creating a spectacle for diners. The resulting Californian-Japanese fusion cuisine is delicious, featuring dishes such as yellowtail crudo brightened with spruce and ponzu, or noodles swimming in a rich uni-lobster broth with chayote squash and black garlic.

San Francisco: Verjus
Located near the Transamerica Pyramid, this bistro offers an exquisite menu of seasonal French dishes. Diners can savor fine selections such as duck pâté en croûte, featuring vibrant green pistachios, sweet razor clams served with celery brunoise and Meyer lemon, or a decadent caramelized brioche pain perdu.

Sonoma: Enclos
Located within an old winery house, a restaurant offers an "opulent" tasting menu crafted by Chef Brian Limoges, drawing inspiration from his New England heritage. Despite the wine country setting, the menu evokes the seaside with dishes such as a lobster roll canapé and clam chawanmushi. The meal concludes with inventive desserts, like sorrel ice cream accented with makrut lime and pomegranate-flavored leaves.

The MICHELIN Guide California 2025 announced two new Three-Star recipients: Providence and Somni. Providence, celebrating its 20th anniversary and previously a Two-Star restaurant, contrasts with Somni, a brand-new addition to the list.

California's culinary scene earned major distinctions this year. Sonoma's Enclos and San Francisco's Kiln both received two new Two Stars. Five establishments earned new One Stars. With new Green Stars for Enclos and Sons & Daughters, the state now holds 17 total, making it the largest holder in North America.

See the complete list of all Starred restaurants below and discover what makes each new Star shine.

MICHELIN Stars Added

New Three Stars:

Hollywood: Providence

Chef Michael Cimarusti's California cuisine at Providence has been acclaimed since 2005 for its purity and precision. His masterful tasting menu blends classic techniques with modern, global sensibilities, focusing on the freshest, most sustainable, wild-caught American seafood. Dishes like the lobster mousse and box crab tart in beurre blanc, or roasted monkfish with cauliflower and black truffles, showcase impeccable quality. Signature indulgences include the soft-poached egg with uni and breadcrumbs or salt-roasted Santa Barbara spot prawns.

West Hollywood: Somni

Chef Aitor Zabala has reawakened Somni, Catalan for "dream," offering a unique and personal Spanish-inflected dining experience off Santa Monica Avenue. The dining room features a creamy palette, light wood, glass, and the original colorful bull's head. The meal is an endlessly creative procession of meticulously arranged small bites, served in lockstep by the kitchen and service teams. These arresting dishes offer abundant rich flavors and textural interplay, with highlights like mussel escabeche, gazpacho, and the iconic shiso tartare tempura.

New Two Stars:

Sonoma: Enclos

This glittering culinary workshop, tucked in an 1880 Victorian near Sonoma Plaza, offers an extraordinary dining experience. The lavish tasting menu celebrates global flavors, sophisticated technique, and superb ingredients, including local produce from affiliated Stone Edge Farm. Chef Brian Limoges subtly nods to his New England roots with dishes like a clever "lobster roll" croustade and a clam chawanmushi that echoes chowder. The sensational meal concludes with a remarkable sorrel ice cream garnished with makrut lime and pomegranate flavored edible leaves. The effortlessly charming staff enhances the truly memorable visit.

San Francisco: Kiln

Kiln, under the guidance of Chef John Wesley and GM Julianna Yang, provides an impressive dining experience within a converted warehouse, featuring a warm atmosphere and attentive service that perfectly complement the kitchen's artful creations. The predominantly Nordic tasting menu uses sophisticated preservation techniques like curing, drying, and fermentation to create seemingly simple dishes defined by intricate execution and compelling flavors, ranging from creative, ethos-capturing snacks like a crispy, puffed beef tendon to classical refinements such as squab breast lacquered with burnt honey and served with a truffled jus.

New One Stars:

Carlsbad: Lilo

Lilo offers a charming, multi-stage culinary experience starting on the heated patio for small bites before moving to the intimate dining room. Chef Eric Bost and his team showcase refined dishes with exceptional care. Noteworthy savory plates include dry-aged Japanese kinmedai with geoduck ragout and bone marrow, and 40-day dry-aged beef ribeye with preserved gurumelo mushrooms, seaweed, and bordelaise. A unique shift occurs halfway through: the menu transitions from savory to sweet with a one-off orgeat ice cream topped with celery root bushi and Ossetra caviar. The meal concludes with a variety of desserts, such as sweet cream gelato with hoja santa and finger lime.

Los Angeles: Mori Nozomi

Chef Nozomi Mori oversees the elegant, minimalist eight-seat counter, where the soft-spoken service and unassuming space provide a perfect backdrop for an omakase focused on purity and refinement. The artfully prepared meal avoids superfluous embellishment, highlighting exceptional seafood flown in several times a week from Japan and accented by seasonal produce from the Santa Monica farmer’s market. Attention to detail elevates the meal, beginning with a perfectly silky chawanmushi and evident in the exquisite, intricate knifework and finely tuned shari (rice) of the squid nigiri, culminating in Chef Mori's graceful final flourish of skillfully prepared matcha.

Los Angeles: Restaurant Ki

To dine at Chef Ki Kim's intimate, ten-seat restaurant, the initial difficulty in locating the entrance is quickly forgotten once inside, where a contemporary Korean tasting menu with global influences awaits. The meal features imaginative small bites like shirako gimbap and crispy octopus, and creative dishes such as charred sugar snap peas with steelhead trout roe, and creamy perilla seed pasta with winter truffle. Impressive main courses include barbecue roasted squab with foie gras sauce and 45-day dry-aged dairy cow with golden beet jus and Korean bone broth, all concluding perfectly with a mushroom ice cream sandwich.

Santa Barbara: Silvers Omakase

Chef Lennon Silvers Lee offers an exclusive, ever-evolving omakase experience for a limited number of guests, featuring meticulously crafted dishes with rice milled in-house from Japan and locally and Japanese-sourced dry-aged fish. Guests are seated and served simultaneously, with a complimentary glass of sparkling wine offered before the meal begins. The dining experience typically starts with small dishes, progresses to a selection of nigiri, and concludes the savory portion with their signature uni rice topped with masago arare, followed by a house-made sorbet for dessert.

Oakland: Sun Moon Studio

This small, once-secret restaurant is now highly sought after for its limited seating. Chefs Alan Hsu and Sarah Cooper, trained in acclaimed kitchens, offer a constantly evolving, seasonal tasting menu highlighting Californian ingredients (squab, rockfish, wild mushrooms, citrus). Their cooking is technically precise and refined, letting the high-quality ingredients shine with distinctive touches, such as Dungeness crab with yuzu kosho butter over tofu. Baked items are also standout, including savory egg tarts with salmon roe and steamed brioche buns with Taiwanese sausage.

New Green Stars:

Sonoma: Enclos

Tucked away in an 1880 Victorian home near Sonoma Plaza, this exceptional dining destination offers an opulent tasting menu, distinguished by its marriage of global flavors, sophisticated technique, and the use of ultra-local produce sourced from the affiliated Stone Edge Farm. Chef Brian Limoges subtly infuses the experience with elements of his New England heritage, reinterpreting classics like the "lobster roll" as a spiny lobster tartare and echoing chowder in a delicate clam chawanmushi. The culinary artistry culminates in desserts like the stunning sorrel ice cream, all delivered with effortlessly charming service that elevates the entire dining experience.

San Francisco: Sons & Daughters

Helmed by Chef Harrison Cheney, this intimate Nob Hill establishment is a quietly impressive jewel box that exudes charm and polish. The menu showcases a clean, new Nordic approach, driven by a passion for preservation techniques like pickling, fermenting, curing, and smoking, resulting in a skillful interplay of aged meats, flawless seafood, and preserved produce enhanced by superb sauces. Dishes are astutely flavored and beautifully composed—signature offerings include the scallop with house-smoked pork belly and turnip cream, and the rutabaga creatively transformed into thin noodles with a smoked pork fat sauce. The dining experience is completed by service that achieves a perfect balance of relaxed attention.

The Complete List of MICHELIN Stars for California 2025

Three Stars

Addison, San Diego
Atelier Crenn, San Francisco
Benu, San Francisco
Providence, Hollywood
Quince, San Francisco
SingleThread, Healdsburg
Somni, West Hollywood
The French Laundry, Yountville

Two Stars

Acquerello, San Francisco
Aubergine, Carmel-by-the-Sea
Birdsong, San Francisco
Californios, San Francisco
Commis, Oakland
Enclos, Sonoma
Harbor House, Elk
Hayato, Los Angeles
Kiln, San Francisco
Lazy Bear, San Francisco
Mélisse, Santa Monica
Saison, San Francisco
Sons & Daughters, San Francisco
Vespertine, Culver City

One Stars

7 Adams, San Francisco
715, Los Angeles
Angler SF, San Francisco
Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford
Auro, Calistoga
Bell's, Los Alamos
Camphor, Los Angeles
Caruso's, Montecito
Chez Noir, Carmel-by-the-Sea
Citrin, Santa Monica
Cyrus, Geyserville
Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura, Beverly Hills
Gwen, Los Angeles
Heritage, Long Beach
Hilda and Jesse, San Francisco
Holbox, Los Angeles
Jeune et Jolie, Carlsbad
Kali, Hollywood
Kato, Los Angeles
Kenzo, Napa
Kin Khao, San Francisco
Knife Pleat, Costa Mesa
Le Comptoir at Bar Crenn, San Francisco
Lilo, Carlsbad
Localis, Sacramento
Madcap, San Anselmo
Meteora, Los Angeles
Mister Jiu’s, San Francisco
Mori Nozomi, Los Angeles
Morihiro, Los Angeles
n/naka, Los Angeles
Nari, San Francisco
Niku Steakhouse, San Francisco
Nisei, San Francisco
Nozawa Bar, Beverly Hills
O' by Claude Le Tohic, San Francisco
Orsa & Winston, Los Angeles
Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles
Pasta|Bar, Encino
Plumed Horse, Saratoga
Press, Saint Helena
Protégé, Palo Alto
R|O-Rebel Omakase, Laguna Beach
Restaurant Ki, Los Angeles
San Ho Won, San Francisco
Selby's, Atherton
Shibumi, Los Angeles
Shin Sushi, Encino
Silvers Omakase, Santa Barbara
Six Test Kitchen, Paso Robles
Soichi, San Diego
Sorrel, San Francisco
Ssal, San Francisco
State Bird Provisions, San Francisco
Sun Moon Studio, Oakland
Sushi Inaba, Torrance
Sushi Kaneyoshi, Los Angeles
The Kitchen, Sacramento
The Progress, San Francisco
The Restaurant at JUSTIN, Paso Robles
The Shota, San Francisco *temporarily closed
The Village Pub, Woodside
Uka, Los Angeles
Valle, Oceanside
Wakuriya, San Mateo

Green Stars

Atelier Crenn, San Francisco
Caruso's, Montecito
Chez Panisse, Berkeley
Chi Spacca, Los Angeles
Enclos, Sonoma
Harbor House, Elk
Heritage, Long Beach
Le Comptoir at Bar Crenn, San Francisco
Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles
Pomet, Oakland
Providence, Hollywood
Quince, San Francisco
SingleThread, Healdsburg
Sons & Daughters, San Francisco
The French Laundry, Yountville
The Restaurant at JUSTIN, Paso Robles
Vespertine, Culver City