Somni – LA

It’s impossible to fully understand the current incarnation of Somni – a modernist tasting menu restaurant in West Hollywood – without knowing its heritage. Back in 2009, Spanish chef Aitor Zabala debuted SAAM as a private tasting menu room inside The Bazaar by José Andrés, creating an even more exclusive el Bulli-style dining experience for guests who knew to ask about it. In 2018, SAAM was transformed into Somni (Catalan for “dream”), a West Coast version of Minibar by José Andrés that rapidly won accolades from the fine dining community, including two Michelin stars. When the pandemic forced The Bazaar to close, Somni lost its space, leaving Zabala and his team with two options: give up or reopen elsewhere. Zabala acquired the rights from José Andrés Group, kept as much of his team intact as possible, and began the hard work necessary to keep his dream alive.

After four years and immeasurable labor, Somni is back and better than ever. Now fully bespoke in every conceivable detail, Somni 2.0 includes a dual-layered smoking grill custom-designed for the small kitchen, and individually numbered keepsake menus made from the same wood as the service counters. Befitting its continued Michelin ambitions, the restaurant imports key ingredients weekly from Japan, service is Andrés-caliber superb, and Zabala – now almost professorial in his demeanor – is conspicuously involved in plating and serving every course.

The new Somni experience begins in an outdoor courtyard with sparkling mandarin “welcome” drinks and a collection of delicate snacks as guests choose beverage pairings, then moves into a bright, Minibar-style dining room where two communal counters seat 14 total guests. There’s currently one seating per evening, four days a week, but the plan is to double the seatings and expand those days over time. (A private dining room adjacent to Somni’s 1,000-bottle wine “cellar” can accommodate an additional six people for a separate seating.)

Somni promises an over 20-course experience, and on our visit, delivered at least two dozen items, depending on how you count them, with a roughly 9:1 ratio of hits to misses. An ever-changing array of dual spoons are presented for many courses to encourage finishing every last morsel, which here consistently feels worthwhile rather than irritating. Our non-alcoholic beverage pairing included eight beverages – almost all hand-crafted by the culinary team, with a similar hit ratio – in addition to the aforementioned mandarin welcome drink, typically arriving before every third item.